HGG Community Forums

I can see the drama and issues coming with the rules people are adding to their stallion posts. I am going to double down on the no rules for publicly listed live covers and forum posts. Private deals must be done in private. However, I recognize that there is a need there for those seeking futurity listings. So I am adding a new feature Futurity Locking.

Futurity Locking

When you go to the control panel of a futurity-eligible foal you will see a new button option " Futurity Lock". If you futurity lock a horse it can not be sold directly back to the game until it hits six years of age. It can still be sold and auctioned. If you auction a Futurity Locked horse the auction bidder account will not bid and you will be the one to place the starting bid. There is no way to delete a futurity locked horse until it hits age six.

Again however only qualified horses can be locked. The horse must be sired by a stallion you have never owned.

Forum Rules Clarification

You can not extract any promises in your forum post or on your stallion's public notes. People try their best but mistakes happen, horses get sold, months go by. There is no way people are going to remember this stuff. You can not ask someone to promise they will not sell a foal or that they will futurity lock a foal. You can not require futurity locking publicly in any way.

If you have asked for any promises of keeping a foal in your posts please update them asap. Posts not updated in a timely manner will be locked.

What you can do:
You can absolutely bribe people to futurity lock. This is far less likely to cause hurt feelings. You can give people a replacement straw if they lock the foal. Or offer to send them a cash payout if they lock the foal. You can refund the breeding fee if they lock the foal. Go for bribes, not promises

Straw Swaps
Straw swaps are allowed on the forum only if there are no promises being made. You can of course sell straws with short expiration dates and other tactics to make sure they get used promptly. Straw swaps done privately over PM, in chat rooms, etc can have whatever rules you want to be attached to them, but I won't get involved if any drama results. Don't be an agent of drama.

Futurity Rule Changes

Looking into the future I can already see that getting enough stallions qualified every year was going to be difficult so I made a few tweaks. All offspring age 5 and below bred and owned by other players now count towards qualifying. To keep the emphasis on those studs who started 5 months ago though and to make the race more engaging, lifetime points of the best 10 foals create the stallion's final score. Before only points earned during the five-year-old year counted.

Additionally, I have preempted issues with stallion swapping that I could see coming by making it so the foals must be bred and owned by someone who has never owned the stallion at any point.


ETA: Before anyone asks I am not adding a bulk option for this at this time. It is not reversible and the very nature of the futurities means you will never have hundreds of these foals to mark at one time. Maybe in the future if I feel we need it but not just now.