HGG Community Forums

Does this mean the show system will get a little more aggressive with who it picks up?

I honestly do not remember much on how the system works, but I remember I was so confused by it, I gave up. I have the auto shower, but even that will pick horses that will lose, and when I tried to set up barns with only 'winners', it took a lot to be on top of moving losers and I did not have the time every week to make it work. I would win some, but never as much as I knew I could have had I spent hours to figure out each horses potential. I would love it if there was an additional feature or something that would allow the auto shower to pick horses that will win. Maybe a 'Barn Boy' or 'Trainer's Assistant' that would work in tandem with the auto shower?

I would rather not discuss the auto enter here. It needs work as well but that will be something I have to work out what to do with on my own.

Just off the top of my head, some of the things I had issues with as a new player using the showing system were:

1. Understanding what level my horse was.
The level and grade are on the horse's page, but the level is spelled out where it's a number pretty much everywhere else, so I had - and still have - a hard time relating the text and number for the level. (Grade is much easier.)

Suggestion: List the grade and level the same way it's listed in the barns and in the show results, somewhere prominent on the horse's page. (Maybe move all the show stuff to its own tab on the horse's page? Although that may be more work than you were intending.)

2. Figuring out what range of score showed in each level.
I know that can change at any time, but having it spelled out somewhere would have made it a little easier. I finally found someone who had figured it out on the forums and used their estimates.

Suggestion: List a rough point range for each grade/level on the Manage Your Entries page.

3. Understanding when and why my horse leveled.
I... have to confess I still have no idea. I can usually figure out roughly how and why things happen on HAJ, and why my horse leveled is just... magic... to me; sometimes it has looked like my horse competed at one level and then the next time it showed that week, it was a different level... but the score didn't change. The surprise factor on this sucks, because unlike inconsistency, it can be the difference between being on top of a cheaper class and at the bottom of a much more expensive one.

Suggestion: Give some warning when a horse is about to level - maybe a "% chance horse will level at next show" line?

4. Figuring out when to show my horse at all.
I ended up with this huge spreadsheet to keep track of my horses' last show, average point gain, and an estimate of what their current point total might be and whether it was worthwhile to show them. I had to hand-maintain that, even with a level 5 upgrade, because if the horse hadn't shown in long enough, the last show didn't show up in the stable export any more. After a while, even with the spreadsheet, it went from vaguely fun and interesting to a part-time job I didn't want, so I stopped and basically just let autoshow run on select barns now.

Suggestions:
- Update the stable export to always show the last show value, even if it's old.
- Maybe a "% chance to win money" line based on the horse's current score versus the range of points for their level?
- Alternatively, a "estimated current score" line that would show an estimate of the horse's score, although not necessarily their actual current score, so you know if it's even worth it to try entering them based on the score range.

5. Foals.
Foals can be great to get a tiny bit of extra income, but it's such a 50/50 chance that you're going to make money that it just doesn't seem worth it unless you're looking for a baseline score for the horse. This seems like an untapped opportunity.

Suggestion: Slightly bigger foal class sizes.

Ya it would make it much cheaper to show and much less punishing if you lost. Since your horse would make money based on points it accumulated your income would be much more stable and dependable as well.

I like that idea Ammit, not too drastic our end but should end up benefiting more people and make it simpler too. The hardest thing probably with the present showing system is knowing where your horse is re score. To do it manually you have to constantly enter horses and lose money to see where they score. Thus why auto show with large numbers of horses works best for me! What your saying means I think we wouldn't have to track scores so much?

I can't add much more than what has already been stated. But I do like the new concept!

No mater what I do, if I make changes it is going to mean some people will make more every week and some people will make less so I want to asses how these changes will effect people before I make them. What I did was write a script that calculated last weeks profit for every member in the game. Then compared it to different variations of point based payouts. What I found is that if I took away all profits from winning shows and instead gave every member 60% of there total lifetime points as Hbs every week that we would have a almost identical income as now just spread out more reliably.


What I found when I did this is that on average users in the game would see weekly income increase by 300 dollars a week compared to show payouts we have now. The vast majority of users would see no noticeable changes in yearly income at all except for the fact that it occurred much more stably and spread out through the year. Some users on extreme ends of profit or loss for this past week would have seen a major difference in payouts. One user would have earned 700,000 hbs less this week while another user would have earned 700,000 more then they did. These two opposite extreme ends of the scale are near perfectly balanced with it slightly favoring increased profit.

Here is a graph of the data I collected.



The middle of the graph looks blank not because there was no data but because the change in income for those users was so small it did not even render them. You can see how the curves are pretty much equal on both ends with it slightly favoring more profit then less.

Would love to hear what you guys think about this solution which should be very quick to implement and change nothing about showing (just the cost and payments for it)

I respect any changes you make to the game. I don't think there is anything you could do @ this point for me to leave the game (other then physically kicking me out of the game, lol). But I'd like to try to understand this better. So if my overall points are sitting @ 30,000 for example, I would earn 18K? And gradually each week it would increase due to shown horses bringing in extra points? I have to admit, it's changes to the game (whether they benefit myself or not), that keep me glued to the game. And I love the fact that you won't be changing anything about how a horse shows.

Yes. Someone who had 30,000 total points would make 18k a week and that number would increase a little bit every time that persons total points went up. Remember this is based on horses you own. So once a horse dies or leaves you barn you no longer get that income. That helps keep things fair.

Just showing

Would this mean I will need to pull all my mares out of the pastures I just bought, so they can earn me more points?

If I am not mistaken, this sounds like the show system in WHG. I liked that system very much. It seemed a bit frustrating at first, as the horses did not have a very high income per each just showing. However, it was fun to see the weekly payday increase as the quality\quantity of my barns went up.

Look at it this way, those mares already weren't earning money by showing in the pasture. It would be no different with this change.

You won't need to worry about showing your breeding stock so much when this change goes in.

I have nearly everything on autoshow anyway so if profits are comparable then lets do it!!

HJ2 is the one I would do first hence why I made the post over there about it.

I think that I would be more inclined to make sure that I showed a lot more horses with the idea that you are proposing. I like the idea of them gaining worth as they age

Is that for all of us? I don't see it but even so, hey just make it happen! It will all work out ok!!
Edit, ok found it! Looks good to me!!

The number I used was a bit incorrect. I have fixed it and included how many points in total your account is holding.

None of this effects pasts earnings.

Dragonfly- will you hire me as your professional evaluator? ;) When I have free time & have my barns all in order, I would love to be able to help others out in their barns.

Would this points payment be on top of your normal weekly payment given based on upgrade level?

BlackMagic, I was actually think about another NPC whose services are available through the game (Charlie, Lucas, Doris) that would pass their well seasoned judgement upon each horse I send to them.

Eveleen watches your horse closely as it is put through it's paces. She puts her hand to her mouth and chokes back a sniggering sound and says to you "I would highly suggest you pay someone handsomely to take this horse off your hands. And quick!".

Eveleen watches your horse closely as it is put through it's paces. She puts her hand to her mouth and gasps, muttering a breathy 'wow ". Without taking her eyes of your horse she says to you "They say there's something good about the outside of a horse the inside of a man. This one's going to be very good for the inside of your wallet too!".

I'm all for the new system. My question is: will only points a horse earned while we owned it count towards our points, or would buying an older horse with lots of points count, too?

If this is any indication of what I would get: You earn a 7596 hb's weekly bonus from showing.

Compared to what I do get: This week you earned a net profit of -5,145hb's.

I am in favor of the new system!