Breeding to a popular stud…

[Nick Gilmore]

How do you protect your stallion from the odd player that feels the need to monopolize a popular stallion book? Everybody wants a foal or two, or even three, but they keep getting booked up more rapidly than you can sneak a mare or two in.

In real life, they have the ’by appointment only’. Is this what we’ve come to? Do we need to keep our stallions private until someone requests a slot? Granted not all studs are worthy of this service, but what do you do when you get one that is? Many breeders wait until year end to breed and many popular studs are already booked.

I will not extend slots, in my book, that cheapens the market.

Is there another answer? I would appreciate constructive feed back and not just smart assed comments.

[Sara Julin]

I do believe we have reached that point when the owner of the stud need to be able to limit breeders to a certain amount of slots to a stallion.
Let's say 5 slots is the maximum slots to any stallion, and you can't exclude any breeder (anyone is allowed to breed). Everyone gets 5 slots. Once those slots are filled, you can't breed anymore to that stallion until next year. Of course the owner of the stud decides if they want to limit the breeding slots and how big the limit will be.

I have never had a stallion getting flooded with mares, but I can still understand the frustration if you open up a stallion and one or two breeders send everything they got to that particular stud the minute (or at least hours) it opens. It can be very frustrating to some stud owners, I can imagine.

(And thank you Nick, for allowing me 3 private slots to one of your studs, I really appreciate it.)

[Kent Saunders]

Reserve alot of the bookings. Then release them gradually throughout the season. Plus at the very bottom of the stud settings is how many to reserve to start next season. I always max that out until gallops are mostly done and I can decide what to do with the stud fee. Change or remain the same before breedings can begin on that stud.

[Lucas Davenport]

I do not understand why any horse, in this game, needs to be private or not have breeding slots extended. The only exception would be late in the breeding season your horse gets full and you don't want to add more slots for the last 24 hours. If someone wants to breed 100 horses to Impacts, I'll be happy to take their money and add more slots.

[Andrew Chillin]

I believe we should have the ability to breed 100 mares to a single stud. Reserving slots and actively adjust the price. Other players should be adjusting their own game to get their slots, you have 18 weeks to breed mares.

[Cleo Patra]

I do not understand why any horse, in this game, needs to be private or not have breeding slots extended. The only exception would be late in the breeding season your horse gets full and you don't want to add more slots for the last 24 hours. If someone wants to breed 100 horses to Impacts, I'll be happy to take their money and add more slots.

This is also my approach. At the very worst, you’d pay $250,000 in the exchange to get the GPs to extend by 30 slots. For a 50k stallion that’s a 5 foal hit you take financially, or increase the stud fee by 10-15k and costs will be covered before he hits his limit again.

I prefer not to punish the overall sim population for players using a legal, if frustrating to some, method of playing. Actual bad actors are pretty rare. The only time I’ve ever wanted to make a stallion private was many years ago (gallops were new) when one player deliberately sent a bunch of terrible mares to all the other studs in the same freshman class in an attempt to make their studs numbers look more impressive. It didn’t really work though because random slide exists

[Xander Zone]

I agree with Lucas you want to use my stud 200 times thanks for your money !!
I think its stupid to worry about someone using your stud alot !

that being said if any players out there dont want me using your stud plz send me a message i will gladly never ever use any of your studs

[Rochelle Bos]

Could always make it so the stud fee for an individual player increases after each foal they breed. So after every 5 foals the stud fee goes up $10k or whatever the stud owner sets it too

[Autumn Blackmill]

Could always make it so the stud fee for an individual player increases after each foal they breed. So after every 5 foals the stud fee goes up $10k or whatever the stud owner sets it too

I like this idea. Also thought of limiting breedings per day, so say no more than 5 mares/day to give others a chance.

[Craig Mcgee]

Why punish the stud owner by limiting how many mares one trainer can send them? If you feel your stud is over used reserve spots and release as needed or go up on the stud fee. I for one will take anyone's money if they want to breed to my studs, and if needed I will add more slots as needed.

[Nicole Marie]

Other players should be adjusting their own game to get their slots, you have 18 weeks to breed mares.

I agree. I know that many players choose to wait to breed even their already retired horses until the end of the year, but they do so already knowing that certain studs can and likely will get booked up. That's the give and take - you minimize your risk of random injury and have more time to plan, but the negative to that is that you might not have access to the stud you want. That's just how it goes imo.

[Jon Xett]

From Two Small Things 7 months ago:
My Two Small Things request for this forum topic is:

"My request is for an option for a stallion owner to be able to opt-in to a set maximum limit of breedings allowed to a stallion by all other players.

On the Horse Owner page in the Stud Fee & Options section for example: the default stallion settings would be 120 slots.
My opt in request for Maximum Limit Per Player could be set to Unlimited and changed at any time by the owner to 5, 10, 20 and would apply across the board to every SIM player other than the owner.

You would still be able to set your personal Reserve Bookings number as is currently available.
The stallion owner will sell be able to Reserve Bookings for Specific Players.

Thank you, Jon Xett"
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I feel that the implementation of this new opt in toggle would be "good for the game" because it would help to maintain a popular stud's accessibility balance for a wider variety of owners including the "rich big fish" down to the the "less rich smaller fish". Just set a reasonable stud fee and your per player foal limit that you are comfortable with and forget it.
*No need to keep opening and closing stallion slots.
*No need to hassle with GP Stallion slots on a closed book.
*No need to worry about a "run on the bank" type of mass breeding.
*No need to keep upping the stud fee which shuts out most less financially well off players.

A frequently stated sentiment among breeders is: "if the stud is closed, booked full or too expensive, I just move on to the next nice stud". The same sentiment would apply when you reached your Maximum Limit Per Player.

If breeders want to "work around" the Maximum Limit Per Player by "collaborating" with other players (emails, shipping off mares to another player, swapping mares and foals then fine. At least the hassle would be on those breeders and not on the owner of the stud owner.

For example: in my current stallion barn:
I would set the high hypoing Stallion #1 at a Maximum Limit Per Player at #5 and keep the stud fee reasonable.
For newly retired Stallion #2 with high earnings and significant wins, I would set the Maximum Limit Per Player at #10 at the end of the year then re-evaluate after gallops.
For all other studs that never fill up and that no-one really seems interested in, I would continue to not set a Maximum Limit Per Player.

For the good of the game, jX

[Nick Gilmore]

Always the voice of reason, thank you Mr Xett.

[Brandon Schultz]

It's weird to me that anyone would want to limit the studbook of one of their studs and lose money. I can't understand the why of someone would do that other than to just bully players they don't like or create unnecessary drama just for the fun of it.

If someone wants to explain a reason please do.

[Nick Gilmore]

Brandon, when in real life would any single sire have 1000 foals in a single crop? It’s unrealistic.

Also, I don’t get how you think this is bullying. I’m trying to spread the foals around to more players as opposed to a select few. Further, I find this a calm, sensible thread, a drama free zone. Could you explain, please?