I need some guidance :)

Hi guys. I've been playing this game for around 2 months now and to be honest not everything is clear for me yet. I need someone who will explain me few things :)

First: So called "quality lines".
Can you guys explain me what does it mean exactly? I saw this term like hundred times, but I can't really understand what makes one line better than the others.

Second: Clubs.
I know there are many, I know they have their rules etc. But what are the exact benefits of joining them?

Third: Overbreeding.
To be honest I totally don't understand this. In real life no one cares, unless it's about mare's health. Stallions have hundreds of offsprings, mares sometimes give birth every year since they reach 3yo til retire. And everyone are actually happy ^^ why breeding a lot with one mare or stallion is so stigmatized here?

Fourth: Inbred.
Close inbred is not allowed in this game. However, many players are against breeding any horses with common ancestors. Why? What is wrong with it here?

I would appreciate some simple explanations :) and if you want to use shortcut, please, write what does it mean, I saw many shortcuts here and I couldn't figure out what they meant as well xD

Hey! 

Before I start off I would like to throw out there that I've played this game since like 2012 so if you ever need any additional help you can always message me (: 

Anywho, firstly, the phrase "quality lines" kind of depends on the breeder and what they look for. Lines in general mean a player's group of horses, for example, I have a "line" of Friesians (which is my group of 16 Friesian horses), I also have a line of Trakehners (which is my group of 30 Trakhener horses). What makes a line of horses quality to one person may differ from another person. Most people consider a quality line of horses a group of horses with low non speciality stats and high specialty stats in whatever specialty they're trained in and for how old they are. After the introduction of conformation and the announcement that conformation would have an affect on a horse's performance later on in the game, a lot of people also began to breed for perfect conformation (usually 90+), so a group of horses with high conformation is also considered quality. So those two main things combined are what most people consider a quality line of horses.

Secondly, there are no real member/horse benefits to being in a club, most clubs are just for fun, aside from the official breed clubs. Still, there are no real benefits to being in those clubs, but many have horse registries with requirements that must be met by a horse in order for them to qualify for registry, which some members breed to meet, but even by a horse being registered, there is no real benefit to my knowledge.

Thirdly, overbreeding is frowned upon by many breeders because it makes a horse's offspring less valuable. Foals from a stallion who only has 1 or 2 offspring are more valuable than foals from a stallion with 10 or 15 offspring. It is easier to get your hands on one of those 10-15 foals than it is the 1-2 foals. It also makes a stallion more valuable when he does not have many offspring floating around because less people have the chance to have a foal by him, whereas the stallion with many offspring is not as valuable because many people already have his foals. This is the same thing with mares.

Lastly, inbreeding used to not be restricted in the game, so it was highly frowned upon back then to have a horse who's grandfather is also its father. That is not really desirable anywhere for any living thing in itself. Even though close inbreeding is now blocked in the game, it is still undesirable to have a horse who's great great great grandfather is also its father (im not sure how specific the block gets, thats just an example). 

Heya. So Wey basically answered the first two, but I’ll say my input for the last two. 

Overbreeding: I really don’t care how many foals a horse has. If a horse throws good foals I’ll breed them multiple times (and you’ll find some studs in my herd who have had many many foals). As you said, it’s a very lifelike thing, and I personally don’t have any problems with it. 

Inbreeding
It will block it up to the grandparents of a horse from my knowledge. From my knowledge I haven’t I breezed any, bit as long as it ain’t like a father with its daughter or somethin like that I don’t see much problems with this. 

Yah, those are just my thoughts. But maybe it’ll help ya a bit, lol. 

Also for my input of inbreeding/overbreeding. I am always adding to my lines with foundations and other lines because sometimes, it’ll get to the point where the highest statted horses in a breed are all related and/or siblings. Then there’s really no way to go from there because there’s not really a way to breed them and raising more foundations to that level will take a really long time. 

Yeah a lot of my inherited Trakes from a player that quit have all got the exact same bloodlines as the rest of the high stat Trakes on EV which makes it hard to find breeding partners. To be honest they have been locked for ages because of this. Im trying to wait until my own non related lines are up to a similar standard so I Can start pairing them up because as cazoo says it takes a LONG time!

re clubs - it can be a good place to meet like minded breeders for the future. For example swapping studs/broodmare breedings (depending on how active the club is) It Can also be a place to get some easy free money in the contests which is handy when you are new to the game & don't have much cash to start with. 

Last edited on 2018-07-05 at 16:13:02 by Fabelhaft [WBs/Friesians]

@ wey, thanks, I'll write if I will need some answers :)

Thank you all for replying, it lighten up everything :D

I'd like to fill in a little on the topics lines, inbreeding and overbreeding. :)

A line is a group of related individuals. Most often we think direct lineage, - parents, grandparents, great grandparents etc., but also siblings, siblings offspring and farther relatives to each generation (parents, grandparents etc) is counted as part of the line. I’m into dog breeding IRL and this is how we define it.

Then there’s what’s considered quality, and there is no simple answer. One thing is the stats and conformation aspect, but I myself consider pedigree too a part of the quality. Particularly is it important to me that all horses in direct lineage specialize in the same discipline, as there are some bonuses with it (correct me if it's been changed).

A few years a go there were a particular culture favoring what we considered “clean lines”. Clean lines was basically a line of horses with no inbreeding/linebreeding, no more than tops 3 foals and no deleted horses in the pedigree. These principles can still be found in today’s breeding culture, tough some players have eased up a little, allowing more foals for example.

So, why is it this way? 1. wey explains one aspect well, lines producing few offspring are more valuable as it’s more difficult to get them. 2. If you don’t want to inbreed, a lot of related horses floating around the site isn’t beneficial to you when you are to buy new stock. 3. There’s a greater challenge in breeding generations of unrelated horses. 4. Our current breeding culture means it’s very difficult to sell overbred and inbred horses to other serious breeders.