Horse Populations and Herd Size

[Skraythrax]

This is the first game of this type I have played, so I have a somewhat limited perspective on the matter. So far I have found that I play the game a lot "slower" than most other members and as such have not went far into developing new breeds yet. I have noticed however that based purely on numbers it is highly difficult to produce breeds and maintain them without either:

A) going through and developing an entire new line from scratch all over again
B) resorting to persistent inbreeding
C) having at least a few other members working on the same breed/intermediates

At the same time, the whole idea of having to start with ancient breeds and work your way towards the modern breeds is something that I find not only challenging but educational and fun. I don't feel like a new player should be able to walk in and adopt any breed they want because it deprives them of what to me is an integral part of this game.

With that said, I would find it highly frustrating to put a lot of work into a less popular breed only to be boxed in by the three scenarios listed above; we only have so much horse space and time to devote to the game if there are no other breeders. So after picking my brain for another option to put on the table, I have come up with this: Only ancient breeds are available to new players from the adoption center. After this point, further breeds only become adoptable once the player has successfully bred the breed on their own. This way, someone who has put the time into a breed that no one else is working on will have an easier way to add new blood to their lines or breed separate lines. One con I see from this is that breeders who have reached certain breeding milestones will be able to adopt a horse and flood the market with these to make easy cash. Maybe the adoptable non-ancient breeds could be made unable to sell? Maybe it would regulate itself since most people use all of their available horse space for their breeding project and don't have room for dead weight. I have limited computer coding experience so I do not know how feasible this would be.

My second idea is that certain breeds become available in the adoption center based on a player's level. For reasons outlined above, I feel like this should also be kept highly challenging.

[Argent II]

No need to apologize, and you were justified in getting defensive. I'm a cranky typist.

As I remember, there were plans for the PT cost for adoption to increase as the number of generations required to create a breed increased. Larissa's rough number was [generations] x 25, so for example, my end breed (Lipizzan) would cost 650 PT each. I think the drastically higher price would be encouragement enough for players to breed their own horses or at least not adopt their end breed right off.

I've been very particular about hoarding my breeding progress, so I empathize with not wanting newbies to get all of the end breeds right off. I've gotten rather annoyed with people who insinuated that because I'd managed to get to Breed X after weeks or months, I was just going to share it with everyone who didn't put in any work That being said, if a breed becomes very populous, it should be available to everyone, because feasibly, irl, it would be accessible.

I like the idea of only allowing players to adopt breeds they've bred themselves, but perhaps allow everyone access at the higher costs described above, and for those who have bred X number of horses in that breed, allow them to adopt at the base 25 PT cost or something. To prevent breeders from flooding the market, maybe require a certain (lower) number of horses to exist in-game before anyone can adopt them, so if only one or a dozen horses of breed X have ever existed, they don't start cropping up all over, which would be unrealistic. Another option would be limiting the number of horses someone can adopt from non-ancient breeds, which I find a bit touchy because if you want to import horses of your end-breed, you're limited. But maybe there can be an option to declare a focus breed and then you can adopt however many horses you want of that breed for 25PT (and you have to have bred like 25 100% purebred horses of that breed in order to declare it as a focus, and/or must be upgraded, and/or must pay for it like an account bonus). To keep people from cheating, I would say that focus breeds should only be changeable every 30 days, or for a $5 fee or something.

[sableantelope]

I would like not to see breeds added to the adoption centre beyond the foundation breeds. If some breeds go extinct as time goes by that gives new players who join later the fun of getting to recreate them. It's a wonderful fun part of the game to have the satisfaction of getting a breed from crossing, and it'd be nice if players who join down the road would get a chance to enjoy that same fun as we did joining right at the start.
So I'm for laissez-faire on this one, let breeds come and go naturally as player base chooses to breed them or not.

[Fox13]

I too, like the idea of being able to adopt already bred horses from the center; it's a great chance to inject new blood without mixing in somebody else's bloodline (I am another who is jealous of their bloodlines). Perhaps there would be a way to connect it to the player learning. The more difficult the breed is to acquire, the higher level the player learning must be. But it doesn't limit being able to breed whatever you want, it only limits if you can adopt them from the center.
However, I don't know how difficult this would be to program.