*A Conformation Update

Please bear with me as this will be a multi-faceted suggestion and there are several things involved. I know it would constitute a "major" update but I really do think it would be beneficial to the current gameplay.

As it is, conformation means nothing and does nothing. It's currently only something on the side to try to breed for but breeding for it is horrendously difficult and borderline impossible up to a certain point. As an example, I bred this foal recently. Her leg score is 90.15 which is an excellent score however in this category her sire has 95.00 and the dam has 100.00. For her to end up with a 90.15 is frustrating. I could understand a 94.xx or something as of course it won't always be within then two parents' scores, but a 90 seems way too low for what the sire and dam have. Anyway, moving on.

Creating In-Hand Conformation Shows for Foals

I would love to see something where conformation plays a part and so my first suggestion would be "in-hand" shows for foals. These would be divided by age (only 1 year olds can compete against other 1 year olds) and then further divided into tiers based on average conformation scores, so the same 90+ confo foal can't dominate every 55+ foal. 

(edit) As far as judging for these, we could potentially have 6 different "judges" each with their own preferences as for what they value more in conformation (i.e. one likes horses with higher shoulder and leg score, another likes horses with higher head and back score, etc.) and they either each host a class every day or they're selected randomly to "judge" a class after you enter. Just a thought.

There would be monetary winnings, of course, and a foal could only compete in one in-hand show per day. There could potentially be the addition of training your foal (within the current foal training system) to stand better, etc. that would help their results in in-hand showing. The other thing I think could be implemented with this is a conformation boost. More on this in the next section. 

Conformation Boost

After a foal has achieved either x amount of winnings or y amount of wins, or a combination thereof, they will be awarded an achievement ribbons and a conformation boost. The boost will be tiered based on the horse's conformation tier. The lower a horse's average conformation the higher the boost will be. The boost DOES NOT APPLY TO THE FOAL but gives their OFFSPRING a chance to have a higher conformation. Also, if both parents have a conformation boost there's a higher chance for the resulting foal to have better conformation. As an example, consider that you have a stallion with 65.00 average conformation and a mare with 55 average conformation. The stallion achieved a conformation boost as a foal and the mare did as well. The stallion's conformation boost offers a chance for the foal's individual scores to be +.75-+1.00 in each section and the mare's conformation boost offers a chance for the foal's individual scores to be +1.00-+1.25. What the percentage of this chance should be is something I haven't figured out yet. Perhaps it should depend on current health and happiness of the parents, etc. 

Miscellaneous

I would also personally love it if horses who achieved a conformation boost as a foal also got maybe +5 pts or a chance for higher luck score or something on their show score as adults so that there was an additional incentive for people to try breeding better conformed horses but I know that's likely to be more contentious with other players. 

Anyway, please let me know what y'all think and if you have anything to add. I really would love to see another facet to gameplay especially in regards to conformation. I hope I explained myself well but if you have any questions before supporting or declining to support I'll do my best to answer them! This would doubtless be a large addition to the game so I totally understand that people will be cautious in their approach to it.


Last edited on 2019-05-23 at 14:58:55 by River

I support this. It would greatly increase the importance of conformation and the amount of people breeding for that. Even though I already strive for high conformation, it would be very motivational and just a fun feature.

I'd like to see the conformation shows we used to have come back - adding the in-hand shows for foals is an adorable idea too, also it would be interesting to see some competitive element like that for horses under three.

I don't think I was around for the old conformation shows, could you elaborate a little on what they were like?

It's been a long time and I have a very bad memory, so I'm sure someone else can explain in better detail, but it worked similar to normal showing. There was a list of shows and if I remember right you could only enter a horse in one per day. I wish I could recall better but it wasn't terribly complex.

Exactly like you say: we could only enter each horse into one show a day and as far as I remember the results were quite random. I seem to recall people complaining that horses with 5 perfects (out of 6 possible) were not winning while horses with one or two perfects would get the podium.

I like the idea of foals being used for something more than just sitting around. However I am not a fan of the conformation boost, I know this game isnt perfectly realistic, but the whole point in conformation is to breed the best to try and get the best in real life it is impossible to change the conformation a horse is born with.

I like the idea of having inhand shows to utilise the conformation stats but not the boost for conformation stats/ratings. It's pretty random in the real world. Foals can inherit from grandparents and great grandparents. 

The only reason I suggest some form of boost for the RESULTING foals is because right now the random factor that goes into conformation breeding is insanely unforgiving. There are players several generations (4-5 now) deep with postcode, foundation-based breeding that are simply unable to get past 62-63 conformation without going to lines of precode horses. That's, imo, very harsh and there needs to be some balance to be able to bring up conformation. This way, it's not item based or limited to those who can get credits. It's just an idea, but I'd like to have the ability to breed for better conformation and actually see at least semi-predictable results. Right now I can breed the same mare and stallion twice and have two foals with a difference of 10 points in average conformation. That's a little too varied, imo. Since nobody has been able to pin down an exact formula for conformation results, there must be a rather large luck variable of some kind that is, frankly, screwing us over as breeders.

i've made it 7 generations in and still haven't been able to break into the 70s in any conformation category from post-recode lines, so i'd definitely love to see some way to increase that. I like the idea of conformation shows too and think i'd be fun.

Last edited on 2019-06-18 at 19:51:29 by kahzie

I, as a high confo breeder, do not support the idea of confo boosts because its the lazy/impatient persons way of getting high confo horses fast (imo). I have realized that people want to go from confo in the 80's to confo in the 90's in like 10 gens. All the 99+ confo horses I have probably have around 40+ gens each. I have worked hard for the past 3 years to be where I am right now. If that where to change and horses had a +- confo boost everyone would have high confo horses in no time which is not fair to me and any other confo breeders who have been working to perfect their lines for the past many years. It's also not realistic, which I know this game isn't 100% realistic but still. If you breed 2 horses with "good" confo in real life who's to say the foal won't have bad confo of course the chances of that are low. Vise versa if you have two "bad" confo horses who's to say the resulting foal won't have good confo. 

I breed for conformation as well as other traits so would welcome some shows where the horse's conformation had some use.

I really like this because I've been wondering if confirmation is ever going to come back into being a part of the game. 

Conformation stats have to be worked at, over time and generations. Not all horses will inherit better conformation than their parents but many do inherit the same or better stats, it's usually and average of both parents. I've noticed that some horses produce consistently better conformation stats than themselves and others not. Picking foundation horses with good conformation helps to get started. This horse's pedigree shows the improvement in conformation over several generations. Constantly selecting the best averages, i.e selective breeding will inevitably produce better conformation over time. But has to be worked on.

Dahban (69.35) Pedigree

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Last edited on 2022-12-26 at 10:04:03 by 𝕷𝖚𝖈𝖎𝖆