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Let's talk about balancing the limited leaderboards -closed
  • The first thing I wanted to point out is the change to how breeder clubs are organized. I wanted to be sure we could all talk about this using a shared vocabulary. On the club page, eras are now listed in 3 categories.


    Click Here

    - Limited Eras are any era created in the past year. They have not reached the breeding ability cap, they have not been the primary era yet, and they are subject to restrictions to promote more equal competition.
    -The primary era was created between 1 year and 18 months ago. It is right around or has reached the breeding ability cap. It earns bigger prizes than any other leaderboard. There should be only 1 primary era at a time. There are currently two but this is only temporary while we adjust the time window the primary era falls on.
    - Older eras have already had their shot to be the primary era and are now mostly dominated by boosted horses.


    How do you “win” an era?
    In order to understand why changes are happening it’s important to understand how players dominate the limited eras. When a new era is created they create their foundation mare and stallion. 10 foals are produced from that pair via breeding, cloning, or a mix to qualify the mare and stallion for the best producer leaderboard. Of those 10, one colt and one filly are maxed so their abilities are perfect. The perfect foals from that generation are used to create 10 foals, two of which are maxed for the next generation. Rinse and repeat until you hit cap.

    There is also an even more powerful discount version of this. You start with a mare and a stallion that have no fancy genes (only 1 IV to clone). They produce a single foal. You max out that foal to make it perfect and then you clone it 9 times. You only pay for one maxing (if you have to pay at all), the cloning only costs 562,500 hbs and you kick ass on the leaderboard because your stallion has 10 perfect foals.

    When maxing is free
    Maxing costs 5 gmt tokens. Members who win prizes on the leaderboard win GMTs. Some members win dozens or even over a hundred gmts a month from the leaderboard. They can use those GMTs for all sorts of edits to their herd. That is intentional. The reward for the leaderboard is being able to play around with colors, change genders, edit consistency etc.

    The problem is that a member with 500 to 1000 or so show horses who wants to get a shot at a new limited era has to pay over 1 million hbs per generation to have a shot at the lb. Larger lb competitive stables get to do all their maxing for free. That squeezes smaller barns out of the limited board completely. That doesn’t seem very fair or very fun to me.

    Limiting new eras
    I had proposed making it so all maxing cost IVs instead of gmts. (No more free maxing) After a discussion, the community decided that they wanted to preserve access to free maxing for those accounts and to only limit maxing in new eras. The goal was to keep one or two players from totally taking over the primary and both limited eras. One player kicking ass in one era is fine, but you should not be able to totally squeeze smaller barns out just because you get your maxing for free.

    The total number of maxes needed to be pretty small to have an impact because as you can see you only need 1 or 2 to totally take over an era. We settled on a limit of 4 max outs a season spread over all the newest eras. (The number of eras with limitations has already shrunk and continues to shrink.)

    What about boosts?
    Boosting has no impact on limited and primary-era competition. It’s not strong enough to beat a fully maxed-out line. It is only useful in era competition once a line hits breeding cap. At that time they become huge in the strategy but until then the era penalty is too strong to overcome with a boost. There is zero point in limiting boosts to protect the primary and limited eras. The era penalty already does a flawless job at that.


    Is the change working?
    I don't think we nailed this one on the first try. I think now we have a system that incentives making the plainest lines possible, and doing tons of cloning and inbreeding. I want that to be an option for members who are more cash-strapped but I want flamboyant colors and big fancy lines of hundreds of horses to be viable too.

    I am not interested in banning maxing, cloning or boosting from any eras. The goal is not to make the most perfectly balanced leaderboard. I could give awards at random if I didn't want know-how and accumulated resources to have any impact. Even if I did those things, the barns with the biggest pastures and most time for testing would still just win. That’s different but I don’t think it’s nessasarily any better.

    My suggestion
    I think I was right originally that free maxing was the real problem with limited boards. Everyone needs to pay the same price. At the same time lots of people use maxing in ways that have nothing to do with the leaderboard and using your hard-won gmts to max a cool foal is fun and I want people to have that.

    I don't think limiting the amount of maxing on the newer eras is making the leaderboards more egalitarian or the game more fun. I think we need a hybrid system. Maxing out should cost GMTs for most eras so that people can win free max outs and have fun with them. However, for limited eras I think all maxing should cost IVs. No limit on the number you can do. If you have a big old barn and can fund 500 IVs worth of maxing a season you should be able to.

    The thing with paying IVs for those limited eras is the person who pays for 1 single max-out and then clones, has the same shot at winning as the person who paid for 10 max-outs, but no one is forced to do it one way or the other. And most importantly no one gets it for free.

    To me that sounds straightforward, easy to understand, and most of all fair.



    I want to hear from you if:
    1) You want to compete on the limited-era LBs but find the competition too difficult/intimidating
    2) You are already a competitive player on the limited-era boards and have insights to share
    3) You don’t compete in the limited eras but have been negatively impacted by the changes.

    Please let me know how the change has impacted your play and if you have any feedback or suggestions on how we can improve things.
    Need to contact me? Read this first. Only send me a PM for PayPal issues or if I ask you to. Otherwise, make a forum post. You will get a better faster answer by making a post.

    I sometimes get busy and miss things. If your private message, question, etc. gets missed please ping me so I can follow up with you. I am also always happy to explain or clarify. (HAJ does not have a customer service email, please send me a forum message! )


    she/her
  • I'm probably number 3 there. I'm really only semi competitive in Era 2 and 3. I don't plan to ever compete in any other eras, I'm not even intentionally competitive in the eras I am. I max any natural born chimera for my chimera line, any colts I am moving in to be herd sires and occasionally some really good (color genetics wise) Mares that I really like. Being limited in the newer eras has made me put off maxing some horses that I would have preferred to use straight away. It's not a huge negative, but I've been somewhat frustrated by the limit of maxing on some of my horses. It's not a huge deal, not anything I get mad or upset about, just a minor inconvenience for my plans. I would gladly pay IVs for maxing, or even HBs. I make more than enough HBs that I'd be able to do what I want, when I want.
    #28036
    Thanked by 1Ammit
  • Hi,
    I compete on mostly color boards but also era 12 and 5.
    I see what you’re trying to do, but I’m not sure it will actually work in a way that will positively impact the game. Forgive me for sharing my opinion on this, I probably will end up in a minority.

    The benefit of the maxing limit right now in the newer eras is that larger barns can not dominate them. There is space for smaller barns because we can’t and for a lot of us the effort isn’t worth it when we are already winning other boards- and I personally feel that’s invaluable. I am someone who could use IVs to max in the way you’re proposing, should I choose to- but I’m really against this change. Large barns can easily compete in any of the non primary eras, and we already win a huge section of the awards. With the primary eras having the most prizes, it doesn’t feel right and definitely feels unbalanced to then open the door back up for large barns to dominate them again. And to be honest, large barns will.

    I think making the primary eras still limited but changing those eras to IVs only would be a better move, as it does both of preventing large barns sweeping them and also makes it so we can not use our own GMTs toward them.

    As a highly competitive player, I can’t stress enough how much I am for letting smaller barns be competitive on the newer eras. Not long ago at all I was a new player, and it is very difficult to break into the game as far as leaderboards go. Larger barns simply don’t need to compete on the newer eras, and they certainly don’t need to be given an easier time doing it- which is, unfortunately, what this would do. I say this as a decently sized barn, of course, so I’m speaking specifically about the players at my level and above. I think we need to prioritize the ability for smaller barns to start doing well, and I think keeping the limit where it is, is not a bad idea.

    I absolutely love new players and I love to welcome them to the game. Seeing fresh faces and helping folks get their barns up and running is one of the most fun things in the game, in my opinion. Of course barns that work hard should be winning awards, but these smaller barns are working as hard if not harder than us at the top. I’m sure my opinion will step on a lot of my fellow larger barn’s toes, because I know how competitive we love to be- myself included in this, I love to compete. But knocking these smaller barns out of newer eras isn’t fun at all- it’s actually kind of messed up feeling. I think even with the desire for competition, we can look out for each other and our smaller and newer players. Allowing newer and smaller players the space and better chance to win primary era awards means we will end up with more diverse lines, as they use their won GMTs to develop them. This is a long term win in that sense too, for all players.
    Continuing my reign as the most annoying player on the forums and hgg’s favorite butch lesbian cowboy

    One Flesh, One End


    They/them
  • I fall in the first category, I think. I was super excited to create an era 13 line! And Era 13 is already on generation 6-8 if you want to show up on the boards but I'm breeding Generation 3 right now.

    I thought "okay so I won't be in the primary era awards running, that's no trouble, I'll get to a leaderboard position eventually once my horses get closer to cap and it's no longer a primary era."

    But with what was said above, it looks like my horses will never reach the board, because after an era isn't primary, only boosted lines stand a chance.

    That's super discouraging to me. These were going to be my Big Successful Horses that would get All The Awards. And that's apparently impossible because I'm not maxing every generation and breeding from eggs at age 3. I'm pasture breeding only. So I'll never make it onto a board.

    I thought the era separation was to make it fair for smaller or slower barns by letting people work at their own pace in an era.

    I know "there's no wrong way to play the game", "leaderboards aren't everything", and so on. Please don't reply with just those. I thought I was finally going to make a name for my new breeds and I'm disappointed because that's essentially impossible to do with the way I play.
    Thanked by 1FollysFantasies
  • As another player who focuses more on color boards and who has tended to use most of my maxing for fun, I 100% agree with Ven. I’m willing to sacrifice my unlimited maxing for fun to ensure that small barns and new players will have a shot at the era boards if they want to compete.
    Thanked by 1FollysFantasies
  • I'm curious about the idea of no maxing at all in the primary and younger eras...I realize that becomes its own kind of numbers game, and I was not at all competitive on the era boards before the introduction of the Max.
  • I only try to get on the phantom board, and mostly stopped registering for normal genes to not clutter things with my over flow. The thing is I do like to fancy up my gifts during GE. It made me very aware of the limit this season. I kinda like it. I can very easily see limited eras making the switch to IVs so all roads of access cost something.

    I had honestly never even considered cloning my way to the top.
    45120
  • I sort of fall into category 1, but with pulling eggs at 3 seeming pretty much required, I decided that it wasn't the time to try to get into era boards (so the maxing part isn't really a relevant factor & I don't really have a dog in this fight).
    That said, I think VG really nailed it... back when the conversation about limiting maxing first happened, someone (on bluegrass I think?) pointed out how a small barn was just as penalized by changing to IVs as by the current system. However, if folks can just max one & make clones, that really thwarts the whole purpose of limiting maxes.

    Would it be possible to either make maxed horses not-cloneable or make clones have the original not-maxed stats of the starting horse? I have no idea if that's programatically feasible, but seem like they'd help get the limit on maxing back to its intended purpose...
    ID 49815
  • The other thing is, if we are bringing up cloning and pulling eggs and making embryos, those are all premium upgrade features. Sure, I’m sure most of the people actively participating in leaderboard competing are premium upgrade members so not a big deal, but I’m sure there are a great deal of smaller barns that would like to participate that aren’t premium upgrade members, making it a moot point for them because they can’t compete.

    If we are going to be trying to make it fair for everyone, then we need to look at the whole picture. Basic upgrade members will never be able to compete because they can only either pull straws to use on mares, or they have to wait until day 5 or 7 when pastures open versus premium members who can breed day two with their eggs and have their foals maxed and ready before basic members even get a shot, putting them behind because they enter their foals later.

    And maybe this is where we have to draw the line and say that competing in the leaderboards is a premium member “perk”, but that feels rather exclusionary for people who may have been premium members and fell on hard times and had to pull their membership for a bit. Or members who just can’t afford it for whatever reason or members who aren’t adults yet.

    Plus let’s say we swap back to the original IVs method for maxing instead of GMTs. It’s only 5 GMTs to max, 50 IVs. If a smaller barn can’t afford the GMTs, how many IVs would we be looking at making maxing? At some point the larger barns will always have the advantage just because they have the daily bonus coming in to throw at their horses, whether they earn it through their daily bonus or they earn it through the leaderboard winnings.
  • @VenemousGiant - "The benefit of the maxing limit right now in the newer eras is that larger barns can not dominate them." I outlined in my post how beating the era works and why how things are set up now is not preventing larger barns from dominating them.

    " but I’m really against this change."
    "I think making the primary eras still limited but changing those eras to IVs only would be a better move,"

    I don't understand your post. You saying you are really against my suggestion but just below that advocating for the exact same change I am proposing. I think you may have misread the original post. :)


    @whywishesarehorses I explained in my post why I won't be doing that. :)


    @FallenShadows714 Maxing has always cost GMTs it has never cost IVs before. It was a changed I proposed but it was never implemented. But yes you will always have to be a barn of some size to be lb competitive. My goal is to make sure barns with 1000 show horses and barns with 10000 show horses both have a shot at a new era. I think it's possible if we use IVs for the limited eras.
    Need to contact me? Read this first. Only send me a PM for PayPal issues or if I ask you to. Otherwise, make a forum post. You will get a better faster answer by making a post.

    I sometimes get busy and miss things. If your private message, question, etc. gets missed please ping me so I can follow up with you. I am also always happy to explain or clarify. (HAJ does not have a customer service email, please send me a forum message! )


    she/her
  • First of all, guilty as charged. We all know I like to manipulate all the systems. It's part of the fun for me. I'm firmly in category 2, even though the newer changes placed me out of this current primary era grouping. ^_^ so close, and yet so far. I supposed if I really wanted to gun for it I could start spending 1200+ gmts to clone all of those fancy lines...but that's even a litle too pricey for my taste.

    When it comes to cloning, I love the rng of it. I think that people forget because they only see the pt horses that the number goes up on, that they forget the numbers just as often go down. I currently have 29 horses (i am not counting my boosted foundie boy) that I have double boosted on this account. Of those 29 horses that are currently living, only 2 of those got the +3 for 15.3, 2 of them got the +2, and 2 of them got a +1 from cloning. Now, when we get into the lower gens, it is possible to get +5 and +4, but they are super rare. (these are all 0.5 etc to pt) So if I wanted to really attempt to take over a leaderboard with cloning, I would need to clone probably at least 30-50 horses to get that nice +.5, if I was lucky. And cloning doubles every time it is used. Honestly this system is super wonky, and not really practical when it comes for hunting for leaderboards. It's an extra "well, I have the money....why not?" But extremely impractical in the long run.

    is cloning great for walking around the max limit? Yes, of course. But who really planned for those lines to be cloned? I think all of mine take around 150-200 ivs for the first clone. Me and my expensive tastes.


    As far as maxing goes: I would be okay with it in ivs, with it in gmts, or with it being completely taken out of the newer eras. My strategy is not a permanent thing, but something that fluctuates based on the state of the game. I am happy with whatever gets put into place. Half of my fun is figuring out the little pieces that can push our little pixle ponies to their limit. (see end note)

    My opinion? I think all of the changes lately to the game have been wonderful. The fact that you have aged up horses that are able to be bred, have had all of us mixing up our strategies. Now I can't just leave my mares/foals in a pasture to sit until they start earning awards. It is now incentivized to breed in the labs. I, personally, used to just log into the game a couple times a month to put my money way, do some boosting/cloning and enter leaderboards. I now find myself playing much more actively and actually wanting to participate. I think the new age-up has created a lot of enjoyment for myself, personally. I know I had gotten pretty content with the old format. But the new age-ups have been a blast and have me participating in a lot more things. To everybody else's woe, I'm sure. ^_^ That being said there are a lot of eras that I've let slip that I need to dig back into.


    I think that people forget the era clubs are not for beginner barns. They were to help those of us that felt absolutely distraught after we hit the breeding cap of the game and found that everything we had been gunning for had been demolished. All of our lines hit the breeding cap. Then we hit the pt cap. And after everything....there wasn't a competition left for us. I know a lot of the players of the game were not here during that time. SO it must seem insane that so many of us were so majorly impacted by hitting a brick wall in the middle of a competition. Just imagine: you are racing for the highest pt. You have invested years of your horses lines into the race. There is no maxing. Double boosting hadn't yet been invented. Every season you gling t the hope that your foal will be just .1% better than everybody else. When finally the winner? nobody. it's limited. the race is over. we can all go home now. I know I almost quit the game after hitting the pt cap. I know a lot of the racers did. So the eras started giving awards. And it has, truly, brought back a little bit of competitive fire to the game. Not as much as I would like, but a little.

    If you want to have a random dose of luck of getting awards, that's literally what the stallion futurities are for. I haven't really looked into them, because the rng of it annoyed me personally. But as far as I can tell, it's an easy way for newer barns to make gmts. The foal payouts are fabulous, and I believe it is really spreading the wealth around the game. A good majority of the players of the game are willing to help out with stallion futurities. So much so that any new player should be able to access them. I think this part of this game was exceptionally well done, even if it's not something that I myself participate in. Any award I won in it was 100% accidental. Which just proves the point that it can be done.


    The problem that I foresee with the maxing issue, comes more from players that don't want to participate in the era leaderboards. Are you going to have a system where people can opt out of it? I wonder how many people, during this gift exchange, couldn't max a horse they really wanted to give to somebody? How many people, who have nothing to do with eras and in no way want to compete, couldn't max their personal projects. It's a hard balance to hit, between limiting people who are participating and allowing everybody who isn't to enjoy the game. I do not envy you at all, this decision. No matter what you do, somebody will not be happy. At least with the ivs and no limit the people who don't want to participate can still enjoy their personal projects.
    Thanked by 1Ammit
  • @Ammit, let me clarify, as I may have confused you by being long winded.

    “ I don't think limiting the amount of maxing on the newer eras is making the leaderboards more egalitarian or the game more fun. I think we need a hybrid system. Maxing out should cost GMTs for most eras so that people can win free max outs and have fun with them. However, for limited eras I think all maxing should cost IVs. No limit on the number you can do. If you have a big old barn and can fund 500 IVs worth of maxing a season you should be able to.”

    This is what I am referring to. I am against changing the current set up to allow as many maxes as desired because that will only penalize smaller barns and open the door back up for large barns to do exactly what was happening before. The limit, in my opinion, is completely necessary. I think changing limited eras to IVs is a good idea, so we can’t use our earned GMTs on them. But removing the limit will do nothing beneficial to the bulk of the players, it removes any possibility of barns to compete with those of us who are typically higher up on the boards due to large barns. What I am against is removing the limitation. If I misread what you wrote and you aren’t proposing to remove the limits, please let me know.
    No, we can’t completely remove the possibility of large barns to compete with smaller barns- they always will try. But we can give limitations so smaller barns could have a shot, versus not at all.
    Continuing my reign as the most annoying player on the forums and hgg’s favorite butch lesbian cowboy

    One Flesh, One End


    They/them
  • Thanks for the clarification

    As I said in my original post, you can compete just as well with a single max as you can by using 10 maxes. So how small do you make the limit to keep people from taking over 3 eras at the same time?
    Need to contact me? Read this first. Only send me a PM for PayPal issues or if I ask you to. Otherwise, make a forum post. You will get a better faster answer by making a post.

    I sometimes get busy and miss things. If your private message, question, etc. gets missed please ping me so I can follow up with you. I am also always happy to explain or clarify. (HAJ does not have a customer service email, please send me a forum message! )


    she/her
  • My opinion? Potentially limit newer era cloning as well. Though I have found most folks like to build pretty lines when competing even with newer eras, you’re correct that someone could max one horse and clone it a bunch and use that loophole instead. Limiting clones the same way you’ve currently limited maxing on primary and newer eras wouldn’t be a bad idea. This would bypass that issue.
    I know we’ve had a couple of conversations in the past about how the era boards are meant to give more players more shots at winning, while the color boards are for players at my level and above. I don’t think that is currently working as intended, and I think limiting cloning as well so large barns with more hb flow no longer have that advantage will even it out much better. Then we have a more doable competition field for the not yet at the breeding cap boards
    Continuing my reign as the most annoying player on the forums and hgg’s favorite butch lesbian cowboy

    One Flesh, One End


    They/them
  • You realize that, in the event that you ban all maxs, cloning, etc. the only limit on leaderboards would be money for creating more horses/space for foals, correct? No matter how you limit the eras, larger barns will have more advantage on the eras just by pure numbers. Even with everything banned, it’s a numbers game. There’s no way to make it “fair,” those who have built their show herds will always have the advantage.
  • I think I feel better about reducing the amount of restrictions instead of increasing it. I already have frustrated players getting caught in the crossfire who aren't even trying for the leaderboard. I have to find the balance between making space for mid-size barns in the new eras and still allowing those not competing to have a fun game. The max once and clone a bunch is also the cheapest way to compete so it's a really good strategy for smaller accounts and benefits them the most. I like that it gives multiple paths to still be competitive.

    Given we have the futurities I am ok with the primary eras being midsize and up barns. I just want to make sure big barns aren't getting there wins for free while the midsize barns have to pay for it.
    Need to contact me? Read this first. Only send me a PM for PayPal issues or if I ask you to. Otherwise, make a forum post. You will get a better faster answer by making a post.

    I sometimes get busy and miss things. If your private message, question, etc. gets missed please ping me so I can follow up with you. I am also always happy to explain or clarify. (HAJ does not have a customer service email, please send me a forum message! )


    she/her
  • One of the problems for smaller barns, or barns my size, is the cost. It's hard to get started and earning hbs. Learning that you need to take a year or so to build up your show herd is a learning curve in itself.

    I honestly gave up on leaderboards a long time ago.

    I agree with Fallen and others that maybe it's something that needs to be separate? Or there needs to be a separate board for smaller barns or those of us that prefer to breed as if in the wild. I'd love to have a board where the cloning, boosts, and maxing doesn't exist, but I know that's not part of the competitive part of the game, but it is how horses breed in the wild and on some stud farms. Just takes us longer to hit the max.

    I do believe a better explanation for new and current players on breeding could be a large benefit so they know what will keep them competitive if they are going for leaderboard. Yes, there is a ton of information on breeding on the site and wiki, but it is a bit hard to get through and find things when starting out (I still have problems sometimes -which definitely could just be me.)

    I love this game and everything you've done for it and continue to do. You all work so hard to make it amazing. Thank you.
    Thanked by 1Xceptional
  • @mamamiastables, oo, good idea, like a junior varsity league?
    where barns under xxx size can compete for prizes!!!
    She/her my user # is 59035
  • It has been suggested before but it is simply unreasonable to ask us to rebuild the entire lb from scratch and take 200+ hours of work right now.
    Need to contact me? Read this first. Only send me a PM for PayPal issues or if I ask you to. Otherwise, make a forum post. You will get a better faster answer by making a post.

    I sometimes get busy and miss things. If your private message, question, etc. gets missed please ping me so I can follow up with you. I am also always happy to explain or clarify. (HAJ does not have a customer service email, please send me a forum message! )


    she/her
  • I understand that it's too much work to take on, but if it was realistic in future, I'd love a "varsity" league, haha. Personally for me, maxing feels like it defeats the purpose of the game. I want to breed the best possible, not alter my foals to make them the best.

    *There is absolutely nothing wrong with maxing, and I have done it. It just feels uncomfy for the way I play, and the way I enjoy playing. It's also just not where I want to spend my money consistently, considering I'm not a large barn with unlimited funds.

    I enjoy the leaderboards, so at some point I'll probably pick one or two line(s) that will be my leaderboard line that I do allow maxing within, because that's the only way I'll stay competitive it seems... But it definitely takes some of the fun out of it for me.

    @MamaMiaStables @Minute I wonder if in the meantime that's something a group of us could run via the forums on a smaller scale? It'd be kind of adhoc, and there'd likely need to be some limitations placed on it to keep it manageable, but.... It's an idea? Lol.

    Sorry I don't have any feedback to offer regarding the limits - I'm learning a lot from other people's contributions though! Thanks for including the community in these decisions, Ammit!

    #56151
    I make stable headers: here.

    Mimicry: minis and ponies, open and closed, eras | Evergreen: All the ices | Phantasia: fantasy kitchen sink

    pleasedontfeedthehorses.blogspot.com
    Thanked by 2Ammit Xceptional
  • Jumping in one more time to say, as a competitive barn, any player is welcome in my inbox to learn how to get where I am. I am extremely glad to share the information! I have nothing else to add to this conversation but I did want to throw that out there because what @MamaMiaStables said is correct, and the wiki doesn’t have all the info. It’s hard to figure out on your own. Please come learn from me! I want y’all to succeed!
    Continuing my reign as the most annoying player on the forums and hgg’s favorite butch lesbian cowboy

    One Flesh, One End


    They/them
    Thanked by 2Lallyhop Vella
  • I feel like it or not there is no way to give every single player an equal shot at being at the top of a leaderboard. Larger and more experienced accounts will always have an advantage, unless handicapped to the point where most would likely just leave or have a smaller side accounts to compete with. It's like having twelve year olds running a race against Olympic level runners, there is no way a 12 year old will win unless given such a large advantage that it makes the race meaningless.

    I think educating new members on how to play "the game" is a good option. If someone plays smart and is willing to learn they can get there. I know when I first joined I had no idea about how anything worked and there is a definite learning curve to breeding. I want to see new and smaller barns be successful and I think educating those who are interested in how the leaderboards work, would be a big step in helping them be successful. I think it would also be more meaningful than simply making it easier for them to get on the boards and more difficult for larger accounts.

    I also think someone can have a perfectly great time playing the game without ever chasing after leaderboard spots.
  • To add to @VenemousGiant and @HighstormFarm I think one of the things that is valuable about the leaderboards being accessible to all players is the mentorship that creates, and maybe increasing educational resources is part of that.

    I think that, should it be just accepted that the Era boards are only for premium players (or whatever) as some comments here have alluded to, then some of those connections and learning opportunities are also limited, which I just think would be a shame.

    My favorite part of building my lines has been creating more "friendships" as a result of my increased curiosity and experimenting, and my desire to give back some of the generosity I've received. If I had no shot at all at the leaderboards, it's unlikely I'd have made all the connections I have. (I realize that's not true for everyone, I personally enjoy competition and so being able to do so is a driving factor for me to participate.)

    #56151
    I make stable headers: here.

    Mimicry: minis and ponies, open and closed, eras | Evergreen: All the ices | Phantasia: fantasy kitchen sink

    pleasedontfeedthehorses.blogspot.com
  • Based on feedback from all 3 servers I have decided I am going to make limited eras cost IVs and everything else be GMTs with no restrictions. There was lots of interesting conversation about leaderboards in general but very little about the specific thing I cared about (maxing being free in the eras where maxing matters.)

    I think what it comes down to is this is a super nuanced topic that very few players have had to engage with before. Most players simply don't understand how the LBs work, which is something as a community I would love to see us improve on. It sounds like people have broader ideas about the lb than this specific corner of it that I am looking to address. So most of the feedback I was getting was broadly about the leaderboards not really about this specific change.

    Because of that I am going to go with the change that I think after over 18 months of testing, and knowing how the code works, is the best move. We can always reevaluate later.
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    I sometimes get busy and miss things. If your private message, question, etc. gets missed please ping me so I can follow up with you. I am also always happy to explain or clarify. (HAJ does not have a customer service email, please send me a forum message! )


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  • Thank you Ammit, I appreciate everything you and your team dose to improve haj and make it enjoyable for all of us ❤
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  • This is just an additional thought: Would it be valuable to limit awards players can win in PT categories?

    For instance, sometimes in the PT categories all 10 spots are filled by the same breeder. Would it be useful to limit that to 2 awards per breeder per board or something, so that there's more diversity in that category? Otherwise they just end up dominated by whoever was able to breed their horses the earliest each month.

    It would allow new names to pop up and more breeders to be recognized.

    #56151
    I make stable headers: here.

    Mimicry: minis and ponies, open and closed, eras | Evergreen: All the ices | Phantasia: fantasy kitchen sink

    pleasedontfeedthehorses.blogspot.com
    Thanked by 1Xceptional

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