Combined Events

[Nate]

What do people think of having combined events where every horse is tested in each individual component of that event and has their scores added together instead of making that combined event its own discipline and needing to take off some stats?

Take, for example, three day eventing. Horses need to be able to compete in show jumping, cross country, and dressage, but those three events use 7 out of the 8 stats. If Larissa were to make eventing its own discipline, it would need to be cut down to 4 stats and could lose a lot of what makes eventing so challenging.

Granted, cutting every event down to 4 stats makes it lose some of its value. Of course a smart horse is going to be a better cross country/endurance/driving/jumping/barrel racing/hunter/reining/dressage horse than one that's dumb as rocks, but it won't matter in the game. However, disciplines that are judged in individual stages like eventing or working equitation lend themselves to being truly combined events that are ultimately judged on more than 4 stats in game. Combining them into one event and cutting out the least important stats detracts from their real-world requirements.

My opinion would be different if eventing were a dressage test with a stadium jump and a puddle thrown in, or if it were jumping with some emphasis on movement and tempo in there, but that is fundamentally not eventing. It's trying to do dressage in a jumper barn's outdoor arena in November and hunters, respectively. In much the same way, working equitation isn't a dressage test with a cow or an obstacle course with some pirouettes. It, like eventing, is separate events that are judged separately, then combined for the final scores and winners.

And I'm pretty sure there's an eventing-type discipline for driving horses as well. So there's that as well.

[larissar]

Actually I had planned all along to have combined training events setup as a competition judged on all 3 events. Which is why you don't see Eventing as it's own event right now. Good thing for reminding me about this though, I'll add it to my To Do list for the competition update.

The game will be setup for any number of combined training events with 3 to start with:
3-Day Eventing
Combined Driving
Versatility Ranch Horse

[Nate]

Happy face.