General Discussion

I like horses. I like management games. I do not like any of the stable management games I've found. I know how to code. I want to make a horse game that isn't pay to win and doesn't suck. [center][b]>[url=https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1u_Ka0rgMhf8sz7dezp0NLEJOhHCwo2jE?usp=sharing]View my notes on the game here![/url]<[/center][/b] I've ridden horses for over a decade on-and-off, competed in shows, etc but never to anything [i]near[/i] an elite level. So while I have a fair bit of knowledge about stables and how they work, I do have a lot of gaps. That's where you come in. Regardless of if you're english or western, show or pleasure, tell me what you know about stables and stable management. Don't know anything about stable management? Just share an anecdote about horses, help me create more believable computer horses. Atm I'm not looking for any coders or art or anything, this is just gonna be a pet project I work on in my spare time. If you want to draw/code stuff for free, that would be rad and you'd get credit at the end. But I'm a broke college student and this is a pet project. I do not promise anything. [b]Current plans[/b]: [list][*]A legit horse breeding system, using mendellian genetics. Not bagging on flight rising's breeding system, but that's not how it works IRL. [*]Personalities. Some horses will make great lesson horses, being patient and obedient, but some will be better at racing and showing, being attentive and excited. [*]Stable workers with personalities. How likely is Janet to get bucked off a horse cause she lost her temper and kicked him? Does Martha always use spurs, even when she shouldn't? What are their skills and bad habits? [*]Studs. Want to go outside your stable and breed your mares with a famous stud? Want to sell your stallion's stud services? Go for it! People are willing to pay differing amounts depending on the success of both your stud, and his progeny. [*]Medical liability! The most fun part of owning any stable is navigating the legal aspects, right? Well, I may be biased; I love law. In this case, you would have to figure out what kind of waiver you're going to have your students/workers sign. What if Spots goes berserk and bites off someone's finger? How will you handle that? [*]Shows! Probably the most well-covered aspect of a stable management game, will you show your horses? Do you raise race-horses? Mediocre dressage horses, to be showed by high schoolers? Barrel racers? It's up to you. [*]Lineages, and penalties for inbreeding. Going along with the heavy emphasis I want to put on the breeding mechanic, you'll be able to view all the horses in your horse's lineage. Are they related to someone famous? Do you breed all your horses in-house? [*][s]Murder[/s] Aggressive stallions. There's a reason most horses are geldings, not stallions. While you may want to breed your horses to get that good cash money, stallions are [s][b]not[/b] nice horses[/s] more likely to be aggressive. They're more aggressive than either mares or geldings. [*]Different fields, so you can choose where horses get turned out to [list][*][quote=DraconisFilia]There should be an option to place certain horses in certain fields. Such as, if an aggressive horse was placed in a field with a not so aggressive horse, that non-aggressive horse would come out having injuries. But if all mellow horses were placed in a field together, the risk of injury would be lowered.[/quote][/list] [*][b]Breeds-wise:[/b] Probably gonna start with just one, very generic looking horse so that I can get the generated images working. Later on I may add more, but every new horse/new outline means I have to reconfigure the outline the engine sees when it tries to draw them. [/list] [b]Ambitious Plans:[/b] [list][*]Fantasy creatures. I'd ideally like to make the way horse genes are handled robust enough to handle additions like "wings" or "horns" or "thirst for human flesh". Same for the people working for your stable; want to hire a zombie, because that's the only worker Skittles the Death Horse won't eat? Go for it! [*]Expanding on that: modding support, so people can add their own genes and horses in. Both these two bullet points are based heavily on my time in HARPG on dA. [*]Drugs! Drug your horses! Make that actually lame horse look okay just long enough to swindle someone into buying it! Make your race horse run faster! Who cares about morals, you're gonna be rich! [*]Horse personalities being based on their surroundings. If you abuse a horse, it will become afraid of the device and people who abused it. If you're nice, it'll like you and be more willing to behave for you. Horses can also learn things and pick up tricks from their horse friends. [*]Fanclubs. Did you breed a famous race horse? Do you have a gorgeous barn? You may have tourists coming to visit, and people who want to have weddings/parties there. Your horses can have fangirls. [/list] [b]Planned limitations[/b] [list][*]Singleplayer only. In an effort to create a balanced economy, I'm keeping the game singleplayer only. If you want to buy something outside your stable, such as a stud, a horse, hay, etc it will come from a generated list that scales with you. [*]2D. Considering I'll probably be doing a lot of art for this, and I want to make it easy to mod and add in custom breeds and genes, I'll be keeping it 2D. [*]No in-game purchases, and no long waits. I want to balance the game around being fun to play, not generating money. [i]I want to play this game[/i], so I'm not gonna make it p2w against myself, that would be silly. [/list] [b]Specific questions:[/b] [list][*]In your experience, how much does the temper of the mom/dad influence the foals? What about their skills? We all know [url=https://www.sportingpost.co.za/2012/04/secretariat-great-sire-or-a-dud-at-stud/]Secretariat never produced famous kids[/url] but what is your experience? [*]What are the social aspects of owning a stable like? How much do you talk to other stable owners? How do you handle tyrant horse-owners, who demand their Honey has a padded stall and is always supervised during paddock time? While that may be an overreaction, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. [/list] [quote=Update Pinglist] @Lepidolite [/quote]

(I'm subbed btw so you don't need to ping me)

I have little experience with horses, but you asked for anecdotes, so:

Iwas once "given" a Norwegian Fjord Horse to look after who, the first time I went to groom him, immediately put his butt in a corner of the box when I was done with his front hooves. He'd sometimes try to bite me when I pulled him away from random roadside grass and never went above a trot unless the actual stable owner urged him to speed up. In my experience, this kind of stubbornness is standard for the breed. They're visually stunning horses with an otherwise excellent temper, and a rare strenght and surefootedness. You won't really win open races or dressage contests with one but they're Good(tm) and tend to be great with kids.

A friend of mine used to ride a horse who knew what a competition was and what a prize was and who'd get genuinely upset if they were the first across the goal line but did't get the first prize. My friend used to ride casual orientation/quiz contests with others at that farm and her handwritig was completely illegible because that horse would set off for the next post after something like three seconds and my friend would have to attempt to write on the back of an enthusiastically cantering horse. This meant thats he couldn't actually win, but the stable owner still had to give her the chocolate/first prize in front of the horse to avoid the horse sulking.

When I was a kid at summer camp I once tricked a horse into eating redcurrants by hiding a few of them in a handful of grass. These berries are absolutely edible, but super sour. They're great in cakes, with custard and sugar, as squash, or as jelly for eating with red meat. But not for eating on their own.
I have never before nor since seen a horse grimace. I wouldn't do it again, but man... I swear that horse would glare at me every time I came near after that.

@Lyel Those are lovely, and the sulky horse who always had to win made me laugh xD I'm amazed your friend could write anything from the back of a cantering horse, honestly lol. And that poor horse, you offended his delicate palate xD

id love to see something like this happen! im not the best artist out there but i definitely wouldnt mind helping with art for free and i'd definitely play! i dont know a whole lot about horses because i live in a place where you cant have them, at least not safely, but theyve always fascinated and inspired me and i love them. <3

id love to see some horse based games that arent built for children, most of them are just simple and educational horse games but i want to see one that has the more serious aspects and the challenges of working with horses! this one seems to have the outline of that so heck yeah! please ping me for updates c:

I'm probably not that knowledgeable about horses, but I do know how to code and what would make a nice horse game (I've played a whole bunch of horse games.) If you need any tips on that, I could tell you what I have.

"Stallions are not nice horses".

Neither are mares. I've met some incredibly foul mares who were aggressive and more than happy to bite/kick without a moment's notice. As far as stallions go, it depends entirely on the his training and breeding. Used to own a stud colt who didn't get gelded till he was two. Unless you looked at his butt, you would have assumed he'd been gelded.

As far as inbreeding goes, there's a saying in livestock breeding: It's line breeding when it goes right, and inbreeding when it doesn't. If you look at any famous horse (and some who aren't) pedigrees, you're going to find some degree of inbreeding. Frankly, I've bred livestock and had more issues with using unrelated animals whose background I didn't know than I did by breeding related animals whose backgrounds I did know. The key is not to do it willy nilly.

@Lepidolite That's my thought too! The stable management genre seems to be dominated by two types of games: [list][*]SPARKLE Unicorn goes on a trail ride!!! Brush SPARKLE Unicorn's mane and stars come out! Uwuwuwuwuw [*]Grind for 87 hours to have anything other than a bay gelding because the cool horses cost $15 each[/list] And about the art; I'm planning on having it be a super simple style, cause I want to make this game easily mod-able. Like 2D, something like this: [img]https://img00.deviantart.net/ee05/i/2011/092/1/c/horse_animation_by_boojeah-d3d2ekn.png[/img] or [img]https://previews.123rf.com/images/sudowoodo/sudowoodo1702/sudowoodo170200015/71507623-horse-silhouette-outline-simple-and-minimal-equine-vector-illustration-.jpg[/img] Cause I wanna make it easy for people to draw their own mutations (like wings and such) on over the horse base.

@VolatileMatter I've been riding for ten years now and have been through a lot in the horse world. I was a working student for a while and was trained jumper's and I'm now switching to dressage.

There should be an option to place certain horses in certain fields. Such as, if an aggressive horse was placed in a field with a not so aggressive horse, that non-aggressive horse would come out having injuries. But if all mellow horses were placed in a field together, the risk of injury would be lowered.

There also should be more details in the tack. Is it a jumping saddle? Dressage saddle? All-purpose? Is it leather or Wintec material?

And in general, horse games need to give more personality to each horse. Are they friendly? Are they mean? Are they willing? Are they lazy? Are they affectionate?

If you have any more questions you can PM me anytime :)

@Demonically I've ridden some fowl mares as well, but I've never actually been around stallions before, so all of my knowledge of them is strictly anecdote.

I was thinking, implementation-wise for the stallions, that they start with a higher agression stat (think +2 on a 10 point scale) for being a stallion, but if their disposition isn't aggressive (so they were like a 2/10 to begin with) they won't be overly aggressive in the end. It just makes them more likely to be aggressive? Or are stallions not as overall aggressive as I think they are?

So does inbreeding not matter much as long as you're careful not to breed two parents who could create a sick foal (like lethal white syndrome)?