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This explanation might be a little long - I want to really outline the way I think an item like this would work.

I think it would be hugely beneficial to have some sort of item that would allow you to basically "re-roll" what genetics a bred foal has. These genes would still *only* be ones they could naturally get from their parents - it would just net you a new combination.

It would not change the foal's stats - it would still be the same foal (with stats set by the time it was originally bred from the parents), so this wouldn't give it more stats based on any new gains the parents may have made.

I also don't think it should be able to "re-roll" conformation - if that's a function people want, it could be suggested as a separate item, but for this, I'm just suggesting it alters the genotype.

This would have different functionality than a color randomizer or an applicator, as it only selects from genotypes that the foal *could* have naturally been born with. That both works to keep the foal from being an impossible creation (a smoky cream dun with two chestnut parents or the like), and bypasses the limitations (no flax, silver, sooty, pangare) that those items have.

I do think this should be limited to use only on foals, or horses in the 0-2 range (so that they themselves could not yet have been bred). It also would make sense to limit it to only bred horses, rather than foundations. (Maybe that's not a necessary limitation; it would just be a waste to use an item like this on getting new EC genes.)

I don't personally see why it would need to be a one-time use item or anything (much like a randomizer, I don't see why you couldn't use it as many times as you wanted to, until you get what you're looking for. (ETA: By which I mean using multiple items on the same horse, not the same item being used multiple times.)
I can see a criticism of this removing some of the challenge from breeding for color, but I think that with the randomizers and applicators, people can already choose to put (almost) any color they choose on a horse. This is just an option to make it a little more realistic when it comes to lined horses.

One other criticism I can see is that someone could sell a horse at a price based on its genes, and a buyer could then use this item to alter it (potentially getting "nicer" genes than they paid for.) Again, currently, a player could use one of the existing color-altering items to do essentially the same thing, so I don't think this offers up any new risk.

For pricing, I would think it should be around 3 credits; that's the same price as a coat randomizer + a pattern randomizer, and this item would actually in some ways be more limited than those two. (But it's also a more complex item, functionality-wise.)
This is certainly an item I would spend credits on, and that's of benefit to the game as a whole.

I really would love an item like this, because I think a lot of us have probably had disappointing outcomes from breedings before. Sometimes you have a lot of potentially interesting genes in play, and a foal just has lousy luck and gets none of them. And by the time a foal is born, it's possible the parents have retired, meaning you can't easily try again. I've on occasion bred the same pair several times, because I really want a rare gene to get passed down, and none of the foals wind up with it, which means I've lost that gene entirely from that particular line, which can be extremely frustrating.

And while I realize it's personal preference, I don't like to use color randomizers on lined horses. (This was recently discussed in a discussion thread; I prefer my horses to have been genetically possible from their parents, and other people expressed the same preference.) Even using an applicator to select your desired color isn't a guarantee that the genotype will wind up being one that was "naturally" possible, once you factor in non-expressing genes (like agouti on a chestnut base) or hetero- vs homozygous genes.

Last edited on 2016-10-23 at 15:48:55 by «» Only the Wind

I could support this, but it SHOULD be one-time use. Randomizers are one time and if you still don't like what you get, you have to pay again--why would this be any different?

EDIT: I guess I actually don't know entirely how I feel about it. I think it would deter people from breeding even farther because they could breed once and if they don't care about stats or confo, just use this four or five times until they get the foal they actually wanted. I'm torn.

Last edited on 2016-10-23 at 14:42:49 by Sonoma

@Sonoma:
I'm pretty sure by "not one-time use", UB means that you could use more than one on a horse. Unlike the rewind age thing. Not that you don't have to pay for two uses.
I support :)

Ah, yes. If that's the case, I think that makes more sense.

Yes, that's what I meant! You'd have to pay for a new item each time, but you could purchase and use as many items as you liked per horse.

I understand the feeling regarding people using this so that they'd only have to breed one foal, but breeding multiple times is still going to be far cheaper than using an item. I would personally still aim to breed the combo I wanted, but if after three or four foals I haven't gotten what I wanted, I'd likely use an item like this.

It's possible that some breeders might use this to avoid having to ever breed multiple foals, but I think that would be fairly uncommon. 3 credits isn't prohibitively expensive for a single item, but it would add up pretty quickly if you were counting on that for every single breeding pair (and potentially multiple times per foal.)
(Like I tend to breed my horses in batches of ten or so pairings, so that'd be dropping 30 credits per group if I used it once per foal!)
I'm not sure there'd be all that many players who could both afford to do so and want to do so.