*Valuation system in clubs

Many real life horse registries have valuation system, when horses, judging on their conformation, sport results, and quality of progeny, assigned to Elite, 1st, 2nd, and so on classes. I think that renovated clubs could have this feature. It would give new meaning and incentive to breeding horses.

Last edited on 2017-08-10 at 11:18:31 by River

I've said this before but I am very hesitant to give an "official" fixed value to horses in the game.  It stagnates the market, doesn't allow for anyone to try and sell above that price, and generally doesn't account for game economy growth.  Horses a year ago would not be worth the same as today because there is a lot more money floating around now.

Ah, it seems I worded my suggestion a bit wrong. I mean that this valuation system could possible replace simple list of current clubs stud books. Current stud books look a bit... amorphous? And the valuation and class system, for breed clubs at least, can give it some structure and challenge. Only price that this feature should affect is stud fee.

Ah so just another form of grading but based on something other than stats?

In your mind, would this be automatic or awarded by the club's owner?

How would each level (Elite, etc) be determined?

It could be based on stats or on conformation or on number of wins (or all these together), just like stud books requirements in current breed clubs. Club presidents write down those requirements and then approve horses according to them manually. I was thinking, if there is going to be auto registration of horses in clubs basing on settings specified by club owners (at least I'm under impression that such feature is planned for future clubs XP), then stud books too could have such feature. Club owner could set minimal stats or confo in the settings of the club and horses would be accepted in stud book automatically in case of matching those requirements.

Now, about classes. Horses approved for stud book are going to be different. Some have more stats, better confo, more successful show career and their offsprings are also better than other horses'. It would be interesting to have this stud book feature automatically assign certain class to approved horses. Again, what stats or confo or number of wins corresponds with Elite, 1st, etc levels should be determined by the club owner who specify it in the club settings. Such division into classes could be optional, if the owner don't want it, they could just make the stud book like it is currently.

I think it would add challenge and new aspects to the clubs.

Just throwing some ideas around:

Minimum total showing points.

Conditions based on specialty stats instead of total stats. (Ex. western club could specify minimum of 500 in combined in speed and intelligence.)

Conformation requirements could include no single score below value. (Ex: average conformation of at least 60, no single score below 50.)

I really like the idea because I feel EV needs more in the way of achievements for players to work towards.

Ah, I understand now. This idea is actually a little bit similar to a suggestion I proposed a while ago regarding multiple registries within a club. Essentially a horse could be placed in different 'divisions' within a registry based on whether it met the conformation requirement, or a discipline requirement, etc.

In your suggestion I think you're essentially proposing clubs can add labels or tags to accepted horses based on their own definitions of those tags. If the club can decide the name of their own tags, then I would prefer this solution over mine. That would mean you could make tags like Elite Conformation, Colourful, Gold Class Driving, Silver Class Driving, etc, and the president would decide what tag(s) a horse received, if any.

Yes, the name of classes would be completely up to clubs and could be changeable. I just used for example names that are employed in Russian system of valuation of purebred horses.

So sort of like how 'grading' works for Connemara's/Irish Draughts?

as in your Class 1 is the Connemara that meets all of the 5 criteria the association has laid out

Class 2 are Connemara's that meet 3 criteria in the association, and one additional criteria.

Class 3 is then any purebred Connemara pony.

So the horses would still be registered, but they would be given a different 'class' within the clubs depending on if they meet all the 'standards'/'requirement' for the club, or if they meet 2/3 or if they meet less than that.

If clubs are able to set the required stats/conformation/colour, then I think it could be possible to implement a similar system where admin/owners can set 'class 1' requirements and 'class 2' requirements as well as 'class 3' requirements (class 3 could be as simple as a minimum stat requirement/minimum conformation requirement) whilst class 2 and class 1 have more requirements.

If it was set to something like a drop down box, it could appear like 'Class 3 - Minimum Stat/Minimum Conformation' (for example, there may be more options) and you choose one from a drop down and can enter the value and set it. For Class 2, you have two drop down boxes and can choose for 2, and for class 3 you have 3 drop down boxes. 

I'm not sure how you'd be able to code selection on colour though, because there are so many genes around and horses who don't meet the required genes may be excluded. It could be an added perk that you can buy more classes/options to add to classes later on too.

^ It might be easier if you didn't hard-code in the definitions of tags, so the club owner just stated on their club page what the requirements for 'class 1' were, then would themselves check each horse to see if they met that definition, then assign tags accordingly.

My idea was that once requirements for stud book classes are specified in club setting page, horses are accepted automatically when entered for registration in stud book. My suggestion is to remove manual checking of each horse; it would make club managing easier.

My idea was sort of following on to Rook's idea of auto registration rather than manual.

It may be easier to code if members had to choose to register their horse as Class 1/Class 2/Class 3 and if the horse didn't meet the requirements they got a 'your horse couldn't be registered as they don't meet the requirements for this class' notification type thing. So if someone had a horse that met 2 out of 3 requirements for Class 1, and tried to enter it in Class 1, they'd get a notification to say they couldn't be registered as Class 1, and then when they try and enter in Class 2 they are accepted as a Class 2.

This would work as primarily a club thing - if you're allowed to enter a horse in more than one club (say you could choose to accept horses of a certain breed as a basic requirement for some clubs, but for others you can choose to register by stats/colour/conformation as a basic requirement) then some horses may be Class 1 in one club, but Class 2 or Class 3 in another club. It wouldn't impact on horse value, as there would be no 'standard' across clubs as to what makes a horse 'elite' or not

I wholeheartedly support this. I've always thought that we should have more stricter registry for clubs because it can help push players to meet the goals.

However, I am quite curious what do you plan to do with foundation horses? Obviously, they will have lower conformation, stats, etc since they are foundations. However, there are better quality of foundation horses. Conformation can be anywhere between 40's to 60's (highest I've seen is 65.25). 

Do you plan to have separate classes for foundation horses or rate them in lowest class just because their conformations are lower than lined horses? 

Second thing I am curious about, will horses' class be able to upgrade to higher level or downgrade to lower level? Or will it be permanent? If we do rate based on showings, it is still ongoing thing so will their class get upgraded if the horses start to perform much better in later life. Downgraded if players stopped showing their horses?

- Romy

In my opinion, foundation horses should not have assess to the higher classes of stud books. Elite class should be something players aim their breeding programs to. I think store horses as general could be accepted to the lowest level of stud book classifications; there are bound to be exceptions, of course, as a player always can feed their horses tons of special treats.

And this valuation should be flexible, with chance for a horse to improve its standing in its club stud book or discipline association if the horse shows good results in shows. I would really love if the quality of foals affecting their parents' standing in the stud book would be implemented in this system. As well as horses loosing their standing in case of neglect or bad quality of their foals.

I'm going to have to disagree with Rook on the foundation thing.

I think foundations should be able to get into the high classes if they fit the criteria. Wouldn't if be unfair if the foundation horse has over 1000+ stats, and a 65+ confo, but couldn't be put in a class with the other horses in its category, strictly because it was a foundation? 
I would get it if the club has high standards, but I disagree with the idea of ALL foundations being put in the lower class.