Community Forum

Horses: Housing and Head Count

Join us today and Sunday for a questions and answers weekend. Anyone can submit a question and we'll answer quickly.
Locked
Argent
Visit My Farm

Horses: Housing and Head Count

Post by Argent »

It seems that certain skills influence how many horses players can own -- is there a maximum number of broodmares, stallions, and other horses that players can own?

I see images and hear talk of pastures only. Will there be no stables?
larissar
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2420
Joined: March 18th, 2013, 8:46 pm
Visit My Farm

Re: Horses: Housing and Head Count

Post by larissar »

Currently the maximum number of horses a player can own is 211. This can be expanded upon if we find players reaching this limit and wanting more.

There are limits on the number of stallions a player can offer for breeding, and mares they can have pregnant, but these maximums are not yet determined.

I haven't talked about the barns much yet, but there absolutely will be barns added. There are different advantages and disadvantages to keeping a horse in a barn or pasture and it's up to the player and their particular goals to determine which is better for each horse. I have some artwork started for barns but I don't have anything ready to show just yet, which is why I've been focusing mostly on pastures right now.
User avatar
Argent
Alpha Tester
Alpha Tester
Posts: 1479
Joined: March 23rd, 2014, 2:30 pm
Visit My Farm

Re: Horses: Housing and Head Count

Post by Argent »

Would this be expanded by adding Horse Ownership levels, or by buying extra spaces with USD/PT?

You mentioned elsewhere that players would possibly start out with 10PT. Assuming horses cost 2PT, that would be 5 horses a new player could buy, so maybe increase the starting horse count to 5 instead of 1, for a max of 215? If only because 211 feels awkward X_X
Image
larissar
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2420
Joined: March 18th, 2013, 8:46 pm
Visit My Farm

Re: Horses: Housing and Head Count

Post by larissar »

The max number of horses a player can own is determined by the sum of the horse ownership skill levels multiplied by the number of horses each skill level rewards a player. Plus 1 for the starting horse. I don't know if I would want to increase the starting base skill to 5, but I will think about it.

One reason why I don't want to increase the horse count too much is because every time you advance the day it does a lot of processing on each horse. So until I can properly profile the game when under stress I won't know how much the system can handle. That sort of thing we can start figuring out during beta testing.
User avatar
Argent
Alpha Tester
Alpha Tester
Posts: 1479
Joined: March 23rd, 2014, 2:30 pm
Visit My Farm

Re: Horses: Housing and Head Count

Post by Argent »

It wouldn't be an icrease of the base skill, as far as I understand it, it would just be an increase of the starting horse number. You'd still be at skill level 1 starting out, but skill level 1 would allow you 5 horses, and you'd add more from there based on skill increases.
Image
larissar
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2420
Joined: March 18th, 2013, 8:46 pm
Visit My Farm

Re: Horses: Housing and Head Count

Post by larissar »

My issue with doing this is that it unbalances some of the beginning Horse Management courses. Which only give you 1 new horse per level. I'm not totally against increasing the starting quantity of horses, but I would need a better reason aside from just wanting a nice round number as the maximum numbers of horses possible to own.

There are other things to spend PT on in the beginning beside horses, not yet mind you but there will be shortly.
Locked
Become a Patron!