Has private breeding slowed down the game?

I am just curious as to what other people's opinions are on the matter of "private breeding" in the game. By this I mean having a line that is totally private and not offering stud/brood services, sales, or add in horses from another player to your lines. 

EV activity seems to have really slowed down. I'm wondering if the increasing number of private breeders has contributed to this or if it is something else. I know there have been a lot of concern with the show system but I'm not sure if that would be enough to have the game become so much less busy than it used to be. 

I have absolutely nothing against private lines in the game as I believe everyone has the right to play this game the way they choose to. 

Another thing I wonder is if the stigma of "overbreeding" has contributed to the game slowing down. I usually don't breed my horses more than 1 or 2x. I know many other players who do similar. Has this had a bad affect on the game itself? 

Feel free to share opinions and thoughts but please present them in a civilized and respectful manner so this topic doesn't have to be shut down. 

I think the problem mainly stems from the fact that there aren’t enough horses that fit the requirements that many people search for in studs and sales. As for other reasons for privatized breeding methods, I think (at least for me) it has to do with 2 things: A sense of accomplishment that comes from completing a goal by yourself, and the uncertainty that there will be enough mates at the correct time to produce the next generation of one’s version of a “quality” horse, whatever that may be to an individual. 

I don’t personally care about overbreeding and I think it can contribute positively to the sale and stud market of EV. If i breed more foals from my pair, those are more options for people to choose from to buy from me. If they don’t want any of the foals then I simply retire them or I raise them for stud/brood in the future.

Edit: to add to this, I have actively been making some “collab” herds where I try to only buy and breed from other users. I think it’s been going well so far and I highly recommend this to other players since I feel accomplished in this herd as well. 

Last edited on 2022-10-25 at 14:32:26 by Saditome

I agree with Saditome. 

I think I can call myself a sort of a private breeder, because I'm not relying on other players' horses for my herds. Edited to add: I mean, I work with all of my horses myself for even-lined horses, but most of the time I buy many horses from other, reliable breeders for extending my herd. I just don't wait for others for offering their horses up for stud.
On the other hand, I'm always open to offer my horses for breedings if anyone requests it. I also try to put them up for open breeding from time to time, but always forget to put them up again after I un-lock the divisions.

I also offer some extra foals for sale from time to time, although sometimes they just don't sell.

Nowadays I'm not too worried about overbreeding my horses - since there're only a few players who breed to outside studs/mares.

I also think that the main problems are the showing system and the inheritence of conformation, private breeding is just a consequence of poor player retention. If there were more dedicated players with similar playing method, there would be lower need for private lines - but it's only my hypothesis.

Last edited on 2022-10-26 at 04:59:43 by Olivia

I am constantly looking for outside lines from reliable breeders. I do set foal limits and keep clean lines (no line breeding) for my own horses, that allows me to be a little less particular when I do bred to outside horses. With that said it can still be hard to find horses that meet what I'm looking for sometimes; low NSS, clean lines, and decent conformation. Over breeding isn't a big concern for me when looking at outside lines, especially if I am looking for color/pattern or conformation.

I don't currently have anything up for stud or brood, I tend to wait till they are older and have gained as many stats as possible. I'll breed once or twice for myself and then offer a couple public breedings if the interest is there. I am always happy to work something out if someone wants a breeding from me, likewise if a horse I like isn't up for stud or brood I will message other players.

With so many different breeding goals and playing methods, private lines really have become necessary for a lot of players. I've almost completely stopped breeding for sales since it can be hard to sell foals.

Last edited on 2022-10-26 at 08:43:10 by Pagan

it feels more like a chain reaction or a loop to me? private breeding always has appeal because it's nice to challenge yourself to breed a unique line of horses all on your own. but i think there are some other things causing people to turn to it when they normally wouldn't, in turn making it harder to buy horses, which then encourages more private breeding, and so on.

like for me, i'm fine putting my horses up for stud and all, but the biggest thing pushing me to stop buying and breeding horses from others is that i keep trying to gather horses with a particular length of pedigree in mind, only for one of the ancestors to be deleted in the rc and causing the pedigree to lose some generations and history on one side. i totally get why the rc functions like that, lots of horses getting deleted are mass-produced EC horses that really don't need to be preserved in game. but regardless it's the main thing pressuring me towards a private style of breeding.

i think overbreeding issues are just dependent on the current playerbase and not inherently a problem. more people are now breeding a lot of foals from the same pair hoping to get lucky with nss drop or confo points, this might turn away players who don't like it. so in that sense it could be adding to the problem? but if there were more people playing would overbreeding be an issue? if there's many breeders it wouldn't matter if my horse had 10 or so full siblings, i'd have no problem finding fresh lines in the future. right now it's harder finding horses that aren't closely related to my own. i remember a while back i spent several weeks trying to find a clyde unrelated to mine, but every one was descended from the same 2-3 stallions and a good amount of them wouldn't even get past the inbreeding block. and i keep coming across my own lines when searching for low nss studs these days.
also a horse having many foals isn't itself a problem, sometimes most of their foals were retired immediately and they only have a few continuing their line. but some people might just see a huge foal count and back away lol.

i agree with pretty much everything said above as well^ confo and showing are probably also contributing to it, frustration in those areas could make people turn to other breeding goals like color or stats, or just quit.

Hmmmmm... never actually thought of that before. Been quietly working with my horses for the past 2+ years as there haven't been too many horses that I actively want to bring into my herds; WAY to high of NSS (especially in Mustangs and Lipizzaners). I'm getting to where I feel comfortable to offering my horses back up for stud and brood and sell them to active breeders. :)

I work hard to provide EV with excellent show prospects: high conformation, low non-specialty stats, and excellent pedigrees. If a horse has been bred by Feathered Gold; it's of high quality!

So I definitely understand the appeal of private breeding.  I myself have practiced it as well for one reason or another. Most were mentioned in the above responses. I just wasn't sure if it was part of the reason the economy has gotten so bad within the game and horse sales have become difficult for many members or not. I just want to figure out ways to help improve game activity levels. 

So, as someone new to the game, the amount of private breeding is intimidating. It feels like it is really hard to get a foot in the door, I guess? I'm stubborn enough to keep plugging away, but Vanners in particular seem...challenging.

I'm not sure to be honest, private breeding/breeding to outside studs in general has been a complaint since the recode (judging by all the comments on newsposts and previous discussions). I'm not necessarily private, I sell foals from each generation and buy in where I can. I don't mind if they take a bit to sell as they will sell, but there is a severe lack of equally compatible horses for sale in return I feel, which is starting to leave me in a bit of a bottleneck for some breeds. 

I can agree with it being difficult to breed with others players without having to explicitly ask, and I think it's a lot harder for less established players to ask as well. I think as well more established players who are willing to stud/brood horses just cannot be bothered to relist all their horses if they happen to lock them. 

Then there's the cheap stat monsters in certain breeds that I feel have cultivated a lot of market problems. It's not a case of being restricted by cubing/nss to me for these but by being so cheap, the "best" is easily attainable and anything below it becomes unsellable/unwanted. If that doesn't happen, then people tend to go hard in the other direction and go straight into foundations/not buying anything at all.   

Honestly, I just don't like breeding those breeds anymore when a bug was exploited for years, unnoticed, to get to that point, of which it would take further years to reach that point with my own lines and horses if I didn't want to bring those specific horses in.

So in a way I like private breeding, it means there's more variation in pedigree, the downside is having to wait long enough for people to sell those new lines, if they will at all. It has it's place, and I agree it's more of a chain reaction/loop consequence, but it's definitely  not the only factor. 

I will start by saying I used to be a 100% private breeder. I still don’t really do studs and broods, but I do sell foals and will buy foals if I ever find ones that match the generation and goals I currently have. What stops me from being an avid buyer, is the fact I can’t find anything that isn’t long lined and what feels like “finished” to me. I don’t want a horse with 99% confo and high stats all at once, because my own lines aren’t there yet. I want what I buy to match up with what I have, so that I feel like I’ve earned it, I guess? The joy of this game for me is the journey, not the destination, so I started everything from foundation levels.

And that is sort of the “problem” for me. I actually think it’s a seller’s market these days, IF you’re selling low gen horses. I still always have a couple I struggle to sell, but I can sell 80% of a foal crop in a couple days usually, and for a decent price.  I contribute that to being probably one of a few people that’s selling lower generation horses, that are unrelated to other lines, at a given time. However, when I go looking for low gen horses, even in a discipline popular for a breed, there’s none to really be found. So, then I either have to start from scratch and make what I need myself, or hope one day someone has what I’m looking for. I don’t start any group these days without essentially planning to do 100% of the work myself, because there’s just nothing for sale that isn’t many many generations long, not inbred, and not just miles ahead of what my current horses are. I don’t mind buying and having “help” with my lines, but like I mentioned earlier, I don’t like to get something that’s essentially “done” and skipping the work with my own horses. So finding anything that fits my goals is always sort of a pipe dream.

So, I kinda say yes, 100% private breeding is a problem in the sense that it makes it harder when you need additions to a herd and don’t want to start another group from scratch. But I get it too, because being private means you get to do things however you want without worry if you’ll find horses you like, or if others will buy your horses if they don’t fit the goals of the masses. I will say I wish there was more people selling 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gen horses in all breeds and disciplines. I have tons of breeds and disciplines these days, and hope to provide many foals in the future. But I can only manage so many at a time, so it’s a very slow process.

Last edited on 2022-10-31 at 12:38:41 by ηεⲃυℓα

Nebula has put my thoughts a lot more succinctly about the market and the problems for me, wholly agree. 

I agree with Nebula too, I think it has slowed down ev, I always have trouble buying a horse that fits my needs, and in the end, I either don't buy it or settle for something that's not what I hoped for.
but if you do need horses to breed to, all of my horses of 3+ years old are up for breeding for 20 for the stallions, 50 for the mares regardless of stats/confo. Some of them have pretty low nss if you wanna go check 'em out :3 Shameless advertisement I guess, I just don't want their breeding years to go to waste and keep the horse market of ev alive :)

I do think Private breeding does slow down EV in some ways. However, I don't blame the private breeders for choosing this path. I am a private breeder myself and I preferred this to public breeding for many reasons. I am not against public breeding and did try to go that path several times but failed. Recently, I did try to participate group project but had to back out due to my inconstant life schedule. 

The biggest issue is that the current community is too small. There are not enough active players with the same interests and goals. It is hard to find readily available outside lines that are decent and not overly saturated when they need one. I often see public breeders having to lock their horses and wait until they find the right horse. They also will have to pay a lot of money to buy that horse as well. 

With private breeding, I can control my lines easily. I monitored my herd closely and keep my herd well-stocked all the time. If I noticed that my 1st gen population is low, I will repopulate with fresh stock from Equine Center. This will ensure that I will constantly have a good number of 2nd+ gen foals flowing. I also can disappear for a week and come back without any worry. If I work with others, it will complicate things since it will be challenging to work around my unpredictable schedule and their schedule.

- - -

Honestly, I think EV needs another major recode. The game's appearance needs to be updated in order to be streamlined and modernized better to attract new players. A major change in the showing, training, and breeding system needs to be made as well. The Economy needs to be reset as well. At this point, I won't object if we just wipe the slate clean. I honestly feel like the horses are holding us back. We are trying to find ways to keep them so we aren't willing to make any drastic but necessary changes because of the risks of the changes messing up the existing horses. I am okay with losing all of my horses if I get some credits or some free custom horses in exchange for what I lost lol. If we must, we can keep their records for nostalgic people who want to visit them but just make them all unbreedable.

If we ever do that and the game functions better, I think I will be more willing to breed publically especially if we have sperm/egg bank features.

We can learn from this version and take action to prevent similar mistakes from happening again in the next version. For example, a lot of players acknowledged that the arts have a large role in the huge economic gap. In the next version, maybe we should implement stricter policies on selling/buying art to ensure that this doesn't happen again. No offense to the art community, but this is a horse game, not an art trading/market site. Another idea is to introduce a new form of currency that can buy decorations-related stuff only. Players can only sell/buy art with that currency instead of the main currency.
Another thing we learned is that the horses reached the international level too fast. We need to adjust the showing, training, and breeding system and really slow down so that it will take a long time before the horses reach the international level.

Last edited on 2022-11-22 at 08:06:55 by 𝕷𝖚𝖈𝖎𝖆

I remember on another sim that the sperm/egg banks and branding horses were really helpful. Especially since I recall there being the ability to sell or trade those items? I think that could be a helpful addition here.

Last edited on 2022-11-22 at 22:03:18 by Nen

Yes! I would love to have something like that. It would be nice to be able to just store the egg/sperm of an unpaired horse and let that horse retire instead of keeping that horse locked. Just keep it simple, please lol. No expiration date, no risk of a failed attempt, etc. I would love to be able to sell and trade eggs/sperm as well. 

Last edited on 2022-11-22 at 14:58:59 by 𝕷𝖚𝖈𝖎𝖆