Has private breeding slowed down the game?

@ Magnolia:

Anything to get the money and credit back to the horse community would be helpful, IMO. I don't mind giveaways and freebies but I usually don't encourage them since too much of it can mess up the economy even further. We need the money flowing in a proper way. We need to exchange money/credit for something instead of getting them for free. We already get free money from daily interest, wishing well, games, and more.

1) HOSTING SHOWS
Hosting Shows are a huge help. I've noticed a considerable improvement in shows being properly stocked lately and that more non-active players start to host shows again even if they don't really play the horse side.
HOWEVER. We still have the issue of not having enough entries. We often risk losing money and stats boost if we don't have 5+ entries. If it happens often enough, we often lose motivation in showing our horses because it ends up being a money-sink activity. If non-active players can help with increasing the entries somehow, that's would be helpful. 

2) DO NOT BUY CREDITS AT HIGH PRICE
That's the biggest mistake of wealthier players. In the middle of inflation, the wealthier players often can afford the crazy inflation price and sometime would buy them. However, that encourages the seller to increase the price higher because the seller is trying to get the maximum profit they can get out of credit. I've seen a few wealthier players who refuse to buy credits for more than $150k - $200k on the forum, but we need more players like that. Even $150k - 200k is pretty high if you compare other players who are looking for credits. We need more players who will stand firm at 100k or less to allow more active players to have a chance to afford the credits. We especially need the silent buyers who secretly buy crazy-priced credits at credit sales to stop doing that. If everyone stops doing that, the sellers will naturally lower the credit price to a reasonable one because nobody is buying them.

3) BUY HORSES AND CULL THEM
If you don't have time to play with horses. That's fine, you can buy them and show them via auto show (to help fill the show) for nine days. On the 9th day, they will die from neglect. 
1) Seller gets the money from the horse they sold.
2) The show slots will be filled with 5+ entries.
3) Horses that die by neglect will have their records preserved for the sake of unbroken lines, unlike the horses that got completely deleted in Rescue.
4) Helps with an oversaturated market.

To me... it's kinda a win situation, IMO. That's better than keeping them locked. If you don't want to cull, get Auto-care and have the auto-care keep them alive. No breeding, selling, pairing, sorting, etc. Just click on auto-care and auto-show. That's it. If the auto-show is getting too long, then stop buying until the horses die/retire and replace them. Do what you can do with your time. 

4) GO ON A SHOPPING TRIP
Explore the item market and marketplace. Buy stuff from other players at a reasonable price. I have two 5/5 endurance tacks sitting on the item market for months and they are listed under what they actually valued at. I am unable to sell it at its face value so all I want is to at least get some money back from it even if it's not full value. General Store's Trade-In is too low. If you buy stuff, it can help a lot of smaller players to get some of their money back. It also will get things off their hands too. You can either leave those stuff sitting in your inventory or sell them back to General Store to help reduce the supply surplus issues we have in some areas. It also doesn't involve you taking care of horses so it's a good method for those who truly have zero time for the third tip. It may can help bring back some value to some items by getting rid of all $1 items and making the items less common.
TIP: Avoid deleting the surplus stuff (esp plushies), tho. Those ended up in the Junkyard and often ended up in the Marketplace again. Use your judgment on what to delete, what to sell back to the general store, and what to leave in the inventory to collect the dust.

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Honestly, there are not a lot of things non-active players can do without actually playing. Too much of giveaways can be harmful so I just want non-active players to be cautious when they do the giveaways especially if it's currency related. Another thing to consider is to try to avoid favoritism. I've seen many giveaways that clearly designed for their own friends and it's not helping. I understand that friends like to help friends, etc, etc. However, It's just creating other wealthy players in their friend circle instead of spreading currency among multiple players evenly. Currency giveaways should be small amounts, not million-dollar prizes.

Last edited on 2022-12-04 at 12:22:40 by 𝕷𝖚𝖈𝖎𝖆

To be honest, you don't usually get that much "free money" from the game. Abbey is against free handouts, so to speak as it would stop real-life money from being generated for the game, something which the game needs in order to survive. The majority of players collect their daily interest which for me at the moment is around 200k, and once you hit over 50 million you no longer collect interest. So if anything the bank interest should be adjusted to reflect the in-game issues with inflation, which I know wouldn't be a popular opinion. 

The wishing well only gives out $25,000 at the maximum, and usually only gives out between $1,000 to $5,000 which isn't a lot but enough to help support players that are struggling to make money. The games are a gamble so yet again the money isn't always guaranteed. As for the daily bonus, that's not a lot for me at the moment, it's just over $200, but yet again is enough for those that are struggling. The game forces you to be mindful of money, and I do know that buying and selling credits is the best form of guaranteed income. Hence why some of the newer players put 1 EVC up for nearly 1 million dollars. The majority of us will never spend that amount of money and will only do so if desperate. Like I said in another post, I only put mine up for a maximum of 150k and will usually help people out if they ask. 

In terms of people keeping their horses locked. Players have a real life that takes priority over the game, I am known for taking sudden absences from the game, sometimes for a few months at a time, I always return but people cannot be forced to play when they don't feel like it or when life gets busy. I know for me, if I'm away it's usually because of my mental health. I like to log in and keep updated with news, and the forum but will usually have my horses locked for a period of time. People have the option to use the locked feature and it works well. Other players have 1000+ horses, and you cannot expect people to care for over a thousand horses every day, it's too much. Yet players are attached to their breeds/bloodlines or for other reasons and therefore keep them locked until they feel like unlocking them and playing with them. Also, I often keep one or two foal divisions locked until all my foals are at the same age. So it is a useful feature that pretty much everyone has used because some people have had the same bloodlines for 5+ years and do not want them to simply die. I've had my gypsy vanner lines for 3 years. 

Players are allowed to play the game however they wish, those that keep their horses locked but are still active on the forum and make shows are still contributing but you cannot force people to play the game day in and day out 365 days a year. It's too much to ask for. 

Private Breeding
Now back to the actual topic at hand, I do think that private breeding may have contributed to the decline in the market, in some way. But like others have said it is very hard to find exactly what you are looking for in the sales which aren't overbred, have high NSS, or are essentially finished. I'm breeding a few breeds from foundations, my most notable breeds being racing Trakehners, racing Shetlands, and a few others. To put that in perspective no one else, or very few active players have those breeds in the specialties that I am after. If they are for sale they are the dreaded "stat monsters" with high NSS and usually not trained in the discipline that is most suited to their stats. 

So therefore I am forced to keep all lines private, which is more out of necessity rather than choice. To be honest, who would want any of my racing shetlands or Trakehners? I think also by keeping lines private, players have a sense of accomplishment that comes with breeding horses from scratch from foundations. The horse-brag chat in discord is littered with accomplishments that players have had with their own lines - which is amazing to see. Like others have said, and I agree with, players are more than willing to lend horses out for breeding, such as private studs or broods if asked. Something which I don't mind doing myself, and I will usually accept any person that asks for a stud. 

Honestly, the game makes it surprisingly easy to start your own lines, and I'm able to find almost exactly what I need from the Equine Center with a bit of luck, or from the rescue. People also give each other notice if they are doing a heap of pulls from the EC on discord which is another example of players helping each other out. 

I don't personally think private breeding is a bad thing, I mean the majority of us players have all done it at one time or another. And to be honest, the game allows it to be done in a very easy and simple way that doesn't disrupt the game mechanics very much. So while it may seem like players are "hoarding" their horses, the reality is most of us are more than willing to help each other out, and it's extremely hard to find what you are looking for in the sale. Also, there is a degree of success and feeling of accomplishment that comes from doing the work 100% yourself. 
 

Last edited on 2022-12-04 at 11:18:40 by Laureal

I don't see a problem with private breeding. There was another game I was on a while back that made it difficult to keep your lines private and clean. To breed at all, you had to mark them as able to breed and it'd post as public. So you had to quickly mark it, breed, then unmark it before other people could all overbreed to your horse. I prefer having control over how many times a horse gets bred, or what lines get continued and what doesn't. I don't think that necessarily slows down the game. Honestly, I'd rather not breed out my horses (unless someone with similar goals asks) and just found new mates as I go along. Sure, that may slow my personal progress, but it shouldn't affect anyone else.