Flaxen: Your Thoughts!

Hi Everyone!

I returned to Equiverse about 2 months ago and have been playing around with different breeds and credit items since I've returned. I had a few thoughts about the flaxen gene since it seems to be very rare, which was intentional I'm sure. Although I understand the importance of keeping certain genes rare to drive revenue for the game both virtually and realistically, with this system even a "flaxen herd" cannot remain flaxen unless one continues to buy custom horses with the homozygous flaxen gene (OR you buy so many custom horses in your foundation herd that over time you have enough pairs to continue the flaxen gene). I've purchased two stallions that are both homozygous flaxen to incorporate into my breeding program and have also bred a few of my foundation mares to homozygous flaxen stallions to add to those flaxen genes. I personally haven't been around long enough to make decisions about breeding horses together that may have related ancestors, so I am not sure if it's applicable. I've always thought of it as if they are distant (like grandsire/dam of grandsire/dam) it doesn't really matter, but with the flaxen gene it must be reintroduced to stay since it's not available through store horses. I guess my point is, is it sustainable without inbreeding, or does this need to change/be added with store horses in the growth of the game? What is your strategy with custom/flaxen horses?

Additionally, I've been able to get sooty and silver from equine store horses but never flaxen. So if I was breeding for those genes, it would be fine if I had a few custom horses with the genes I wanted because I would be able to get those heterozygous traits from store horses to try to keep it in the herd. I would love to hear some other thoughts on this as I don't feel like I've been around long enough (or know enough about horses or breeding horses in general) to really post a suggestion but it's something I would love to hear about from other members and their experiences with this.

This is a struggle for me, personally, because I love flax, and want to breed for it in any of my breeds that carry it (Vanners, Welshies, Minis, Morgans, and TWHs, for me.)
For some breeds, like the Welshies and Minis, I had been breeding for flax on the previous version of the game, where it was one of the rarer genes, but still possible to get from the store (or by using a wand specifically to give the flaxen genes), so I have a pretty good population of flaxen horses/flaxen carriers.

Now it does appear to be available *only* through creating a fully custom horse; I've never gotten it through a coat randomizer, and it is not available via coat applicator, either. Silver is also not available this way, nor is sooty. However, at least for some breeds, those colors do seem to pop up rarely in equine center horses, and they're dominant genes, so they're far easier to keep prominent. One person said they once got silver via a *marking* randomizer, but neither silver nor flax (nor sooty) are available options on a marking applicator, I'm not certain if that's true or if they were mistaken.

I think if you build up enough of a base, it will eventually be at least fairly sustainable within a herd, particularly if you keep an eye out for horses for sale or stud that have flfl or Flfl genes that might be worth adding to your herd. There is an inbreeding block in this version of the game which keeps close relatives from being bred, but my personal rule has always been that I will avoid having any common ancestors on the first pedigree page of a foal. (So no common ancestors going back to the great-grandparents.) Farther back than that, I don't care, and certainly wouldn't consider a horse with common ancestors four+ generations back to be "inbred". Some people are more strict, some people are less so. As far as what that means for a recessive trait like flax, you may have to keep trying to get horses to inherit single copies for several generations before having distantly-related enough horses to breed them back to each other to try for a homozygous flaxen foal, which does make it hard to have a high number of flaxen horses at any given time, or to even have it be prominent with every generation.

Personally, I would really like to see flax/silver/sooty added to the options in the color randomizer and applicators. OR I'd like there to be a separate customization tool that would give these genes, like the wands provided in "old EV", which were specific to single genes. Even if these were fairly pricey items, I would like there to be a way to get these genes without having to purchase a fully custom horse. 5 credits is the price for an applicator, which allows you the opportunity to get any base color (including cream, dun, and champagne dilutions), so something that maybe cost an additional 3-4 credits would keep the genes rare, while still making them attainable.

Aaah.... I have been very specifically hunting fo flaxen for a while, but this explains the complete lack of success...! I bought some credits to sell, only to fund my hunt for flaxen. In this hunt, I did uncover several amazing results, including two silver mares, so I am not unhappy with spending so much trying to find it, but... I certainly wish there was clear information on flaxen NOT being available through randomly generated horses. I do also agree wands for these genes would certainly be a nice thing, even If they where pricey in the end...! Especially down the line, when you probably do not want to drag down the conformation of your foals by eventually pairing them to a custom generated horse with flaxen that might very well end up with scores as low as in the 40 range....!

Thank you for your response! I think that a flax/silver/sooty option in color randomizers or applicators would be a great addition to the current credit items, in a separate item or added to the current ones. I would be fine if this was a more "expensive" credit item to keep it rare just so I can add it to my current herd rather than creating a custom horse. As far as having to "inbreed" goes, i'm learning that that is less of a concern as I play more and more. The horse sim I played before coming to equiverse had a culture against any kind of line crossing and I am seeing now that it isn't as big of a deal as I thought (and definitely happens in RL!).

Does anyone else have any feelings on this?

It very much depends who you talk to, even here! Personally, I don't really care, I pretty much fall in line with the "first page pedigree" idea. Mostly because I think It's looks neater that way, i love family trees, and looking at how names evolved from generation from generation! At least for players having a naming like me where I try to relate the foal to the parents, or at least one, in one way or another, so you always see some convoluted association growing forth! xD

I've purchased literally thousands of horses from the EC, and have never seen this gene on a store horse.. I love it on Arabs.

I love Flaxen's so much. ♥ On my Gypsy's, Arabians, and Morgans. It's just so pretty and I want more of it!!! :D

I totally love Only The Wind's idea of wands to get this gene into your horses.

Even if there was a chance to get it using the coat randomizer would be awesome imo.

I posted a suggestion on the suggestion board regarding adding flax, silver, and sooty to existing color modifying items, or adding them as a separate item.
Feel free to share any of your thoughts on that thread as well, if you have anything to add to that suggestion. :)

I do worry that as the game currently stands, it will eventually be difficult to get long-lined flax horses, simply because you have to rely on such a rare gene being passed down each generation; all it takes is one horse epically failing to pass it on, and you're out of luck. (It's happened to me a couple times!)

Getting a custom to breed into a current line is an option, if an expensive one, should your flax genes be in danger of disappearing. But it will always come with a stat hit compared to a long-lined horse (and possibly a conformation hit as well) and will make for a lopsided pedigree, for players who care about that sort of thing. (Customs always seem to come with a conformation score of at least 60, so it's not quite as dangerous as a possible 40, but even so.)