|
Copyright © 2012-2020: Flying For Home & Red Zephyr Studios. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Statement | Staff & Credits | Terms Of Service Use of this site signifies your understanding of and agreement to the Terms of Service. |
Services
Sales Arena
Auction House
Horse Trader
Veterinarian
Workshop
Tack Shop
Feed Mill
User Shops
Previewer
Pro Shop
Sales Arena
Auction House
Horse Trader
Veterinarian
Workshop
Tack Shop
Feed Mill
User Shops
Previewer
Pro Shop
 |
Points Changes + Cog Shop |
| Issa (#1) | |
| 03/02/20 7:10 pm | |
| Good evening FFians! It’s the second day of January and I know many of you have already been blessed with beautiful bundles of joy. Foaling season is the absolute best so please continue sharing all your pretties as they arrive! It seems there was a little confusion about a bulletin board post yesterday which I’d like to address tonight. As stated on the bulletin board, races will now only award points if there are at least 5 entries with the exception of Standardbred, 2yo ONLY, and 3yo ONLY races which must have at least 3 entries. In cases where races do not have enough entries to qualify for normal points, the winner will still receive 1 point. This change was prompted by many things and will also contribute to FFH’s longevity in many ways. First, but not necessarily foremost, points and related awards (PM and PD) should be meaningful. Earning these with your horses should feel like an achievement! When they become a dime a dozen and the majority of horses are retiring with them, they lose value and meaning. That is not what we want to see and is something we’ve made subtle changes to address in the past. Along with the prestige of the points and awards themselves, points have a direct impact on breeding. Everyone loves knowing their foals are going to get a little boost to their stats and puts in effort to get points to earn that. But that same boost becomes meaningless when the vast majority of foals are born with the boost. All it does is inflate AFP without actually creating any variability. This is not something we want to remove. We also do not want to make drastic changes to other areas of breeding like producer quality, blood type crosses, or even start tacking a penalty for ‘Good’ Conformation genes. Ensuring that less horses will retire with 50, 100, or 250 points is the best way to maintain the integrity of the points system and ensure we’re doing everything we can to maintain balance for another 40 game years! This change will ensure that horses are rewarded for entering the best races for them rather than filling into empty races. This may actually boost your horse’s PRs a little or at least make it feel like there’s more strategy than just entering whichever race has the least entries. As points become a little harder to come by, you’ll know that when you see a PM or PD on a horse, it was actually an exceptional racer and not just a 10 potential who entered empty races every week. Newbies who have mostly Horse Trader horses and lack the skill to earn extra points often struggle to get 50 or 100 points on mares. This will remove some of the unspoken decisions in breeding that might cause these mares’ breeding requests to get denied only because they’re the one mare out of six that didn’t have a PM. Likewise, if you want to enter a mare in allowance throughout her career to earn Apples, that’s awesome! You shouldn’t feel like that’s a bad decision which may negatively impact your breeding opportunities down the road. Despite all these benefits - the changes we see will be subtle. If your horse is a G1 or G2 caliber horse entering G1 or G2 races, they’re not going to struggle to get their PM or PD any more than they do currently. G3 horses may not earn these awards as often - but they shouldn’t. The majority of horses that will be impacted by this change are those who shouldn’t have been earning excessive amounts of points in the first place, namely allowance horses. If you’re still unconvinced, just ask yourself one question. What reason do you have to celebrate your 50 potential horse earning their PM, a mark of a supremely talented racer, if the 10 potential in the stall next to them just earned the exact same award? Race changes aside, there’s another important thing to announce! The Fundraising Festival Cog Shop will be closing up its doors at the end of March. The Mystery Aesthetic and Mystery Marking items will also be refunded (soon) and removed from the shop. While we still have plans to introduce some new things for these items, new breed art is a tedious process with a timeline that stretches on through at least a good portion of this year. I don’t feel comfortable closing the shop while leaving unusable items in your inventories, so they’ll be refunded to allow you to purchase other items you might want to use sooner. All other items will be tentatively retired - a few perhaps brought back for special events if that’s what people would like to see. |
| Replies |
|---|
 |
Luna (#2980) |
| 03/02/20 7:13 pm | |
| Thank you for the updates! :D |
| AtticaRose (#717) | |
| 03/02/20 7:20 pm | |
| Thanks for the more detailed explanation. Its appreciated. |
| endless (#2304) | |
| 03/02/20 7:21 pm | |
| I don't mind the update one bit - I think it makes perfect sense! Not gonna lie, I am a bit nervous for my steeplechase horses. There simply aren't as many racers in that category, so suppose time will tell if they can still have exceptional SC careers when they are running successfully at higher levels. |
| Light Shock (#2785) | |
| 03/02/20 7:30 pm | |
| I’m not a huge fan of this update, I have some nice TB G1 racers in certain categories that regularly only get 3-4 entries, but I do understand why it was put into place. Hopefully this will work as intended and balance the site. Thanks for the update! |
| Erin B (#6174) | |
| 03/02/20 7:51 pm | |
| Thanks for the updates! |
| Charlie (#6108) | |
| 03/02/20 9:11 pm | |
| Thanks for the updates! |
 |
Spok (#2751) |
| 03/02/20 9:29 pm | |
| I'm happy to hear there will be more value and a true sense of accomplishment put on getting point awards like PMs and PDs. While I am a little bummed that it will be harder to get points, I recognize that it will be more rewarding and create a better balance. I was so proud of my first PMs but you're right in the fact that they've lost a lot of their "prestige" as it's become relatively easy to get them. You have my support! |
| Alexa Evans (#6226) | |
| 03/02/20 9:30 pm | |
| Thank you for all your hard work to make this game that much more fun!!! |
| Felicity (#3891) | |
| 03/02/20 10:27 pm | |
| I hope the quick match upgrade will stick around! It’s nice to have! |
| Isabella (#1563) | |
| 03/02/20 10:35 pm | |
| I have to say i'm a huge fan of the points system. I race every caliber of horses and would love to see more horses entered into level appropriate races rather than as a filler. folks that still need filler races(myself included) will still be able to earn the extra cash but the points will aucutally being going to the horses earn them. |
| Lady Revna (#2458) | |
| 03/02/20 10:36 pm | |
| I'm a little sad about the decrease in points for races, but I understand its necessity. Thank you for the updates! |
| Jack Colton (#4064) | |
| 03/03/20 1:36 am | |
| Thanks for the update. I’ll need to choose my colts a little more carefully. |
 |
Wyvern (#1439) |
| 03/03/20 2:32 am | |
| Thank you for the updates! |
| Kitty (#3367) | |
| 03/03/20 7:25 am | |
| Although I don’t really favor the new points system, I understand why it’s necessary to implement and to make PMs more valued. Thanks for the update |
| Joanie (#4115) | |
| 03/03/20 7:46 am | |
| I get the reason for the change, it’s valid. But it will probably cause me to start entering races later, I won’t want to run my better horses in races that don’t fill. |
| Anna (#6333) | |
| 03/03/20 8:03 am | |
| This sounds great |
| KayleighB (#757) | |
| 03/03/20 8:59 am | |
| I understand the changes in the point system. It will definitely make the system more valuable, kind of like it was back in the day. |
| Ursula (#6380) | |
| 03/03/20 9:03 am | |
| Thank you for the updates! I appreciate the more in-depth explaination. :) |
| Melkap (#6542) | |
| 03/03/20 11:15 am | |
| good to know |
 |
Maylutka (#859) |
| 03/03/20 12:53 pm | |
| Thanks for the updates! I'll have to peek around the cog shop before it closes! |
| A. (#1380) | |
| 03/03/20 1:05 pm | |
| Hmmm, clearly I need to stock up on Cupid's Arrows before the month ends! (BEST. ITEM.) |
| Keiser (#6346) | |
| 03/03/20 2:45 pm | |
| Loving all the updates |
| PollyPony (#1004) | |
| 03/03/20 6:07 pm | |
| Thanks for the updates! Race changes sound good |
| Anna (#6333) | |
| 03/06/20 9:31 am | |
| That would make it easier. Thanks |
| Dyana (#4623) | |
| 03/22/20 7:03 am | |
| I understand why the point system was changed, but after the first two meets of this racing season I can say that I have plenty of horses that are really struggling to get points now because there seem to be a lot of G1 races with just 1 or 2 entries, especially the F/M and GB exclusive races. Races are so spread out with 4 different breeds, tons of distances, two surfaces and gender that it will be really difficult to have enough players entering for each category... And in other cases, I feel like I have to decide between earning extra money and getting points for my horse. |
 |
Irish Acres (#4257) |
| 03/23/20 3:27 pm | |
| Thanks for the info. Going to have to reread this one to have it sink in |
| Fitzgerald (#2419) | |
| 3/28/2020 11:48 AM | |
| I'm also a little concerned with the change in points system. I have noticed over the last two meets that a number of races aren't meeting the 5 horse minimum. That leaves me with some challenging decisions, primarily whether to enter my strong horses in grades lower than they should be racing in order to earn more points, or enter them in a higher, more appropriate race class, and only have a chance to get one point. I can understand why this change was made, but it seems to hurt a lot of horses that are in smaller distance groups. I wonder if there are other ways to reduce the number of PM's being granted - perhaps raising the number of points required to earn one? Or setting a minimum historical PR to enter certain race levels? These may not be great options either, just throwing out the first ideas that have come to mind. |
| (#7551) | |
| 09/02/20 3:19 pm | |
| Type your reply here |
HORSE WON
FFH Time
Monday, 07:53am
December
Year 56
Open Series
World Championship Festival
International Stock Horse Championship
Zodiac Zenith
Initiate’s Quest
Series Entries Close
Wednesday @ 12:00pm
Meet Rollover Begins
Thursday @ 1:00am
FFH Time
Monday, 07:53am
December
Year 56
Open Series
World Championship Festival
International Stock Horse Championship
Zodiac Zenith
Initiate’s Quest
Series Entries Close
Meet Rollover Begins
Thursday @ 1:00am
Making Magic