Eventing Change

Pride21 · May 2011

Lately I have been noticing that the majority of the dogs winning in events are the ones with high adaptability and high courage. I think this takes a lot of the fun out of the game. Wouldn’t it be better to see people win by actually breeding their dogs and trying to improve the stats, rather than just seeing who can leave their dogs in a boarding kennel the longest? JustI thought that breeding your dogs to be better, and in the end, do better in events was the purpost of the game. Just take a look at what the VirtualPups homepage says. "Breed the Perfect Puppy" and that is what we should be doing, and not see who can let their dogs rot in a boarding kennel the longest. I’m not suggesting that adapt. and courage should be taken fully out of the "judging" for the events, but should most definitely be reduced a bit. You can tell this is getting on everyone's nerves because I see people creating community events where they restrict the max of these stats so that they can make the competition more equal, and see who has actually bred the best dogs. This is why I think that myself, and many others would like to see a change in how the eventing is judged. Just go and look at the eventing scoring in the help section on the help page, or over in the tips and tricks section and see what I’m talking about if you haven’t been eventing your dogs at all. I would like to see people’s opinions below. I don't care if you agree or disagree, just post your thoughts. Thanks, Pride

GiftyLover · June 2011

I totally agree with you Pride. There is nothing worse than working hard as a breeder, putting in an awesome dog, and coming in 7th because all the dogs in front of you have sat in a boarding kennel for 6 months.

Pride21 · June 2011

^^ Agreed

GiftyLover · June 2011

I mean, I have nothing against Boarding Kennels, but I have been beaten by dogs that have had little or no training but A/C in the 600's beat me. Watching a pup walk away with a big cash prize is the most irritating thing in the world to me.

HuntersGATHERING · June 2011

I Agree also. Now I have quite a few dogs that have high A/C but the max I will enter is two because others need to win also.And winning all the time is no fun and I like to see someones dogs beat mine at an event. The events I currently like is racing and Mushing because they don't rely on A/C and it is really about breeding the best racing dogs and mushing dogs. And then I have newborn pups and see there stats and be like this dog can win that event easily. But then you realize a dog with 600 A/C entered that event and you already know your going to lose. I like when the community events restrict A/C because then its really about breeding the best dog to see who will win.

Finster2 · June 2011

I really like this idea, but I have one concern: Boarding kennels. There would be a lot less interest. Many just board for the Adaptability and Courage increase, and what's the point if it doesn't even matter for events? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for this idea, just bringing up a problem that may come with this. I really hate it as well to have a dog I spent a lot of money on and put a lot of time into fail in the events I bred it for just because someone left their dog in a boarding kennel for a year or so. With this, that would pretty much disappear.

MadDingo · June 2011

I agree with Pride but I know what Finny is saying. Although I personally only put my dogs in boarding to keep them from aging. I just hate it when A/C is the only thing that gets the win...

HuntersGATHERING · June 2011

I know I put mine in boarding when I am training. Its just easier. But then there are some cases where a regular dog with basic A/C that beats a Very high A/C dog. It seems that to only place in a event is to have high A/C dogs which more people are selling and buying.

Frostbight8 · June 2011

Totally agree with this. I've actually led myself to believe that getting 5th is basically getting 1st because of the crazy A/C dogs. Finny is right though, but I don't think the demand would decrease that much, people will still need to get their dogs out of they way so they can train, breed, event, etc.

Simm · June 2011

Heh. Sorry guys.

I feel bad that I seem to be part of taking the fun out of eventing for you all. I really want the adaptability and courage CAPS to come in soon so people who still have dogs that are rotting away after 2 years don't matter that much anymore. I've noticed events like Racing or Strength (or Confo/Show) don't care about A/C as much as the others. *shrugs*

Alabama · June 2011

This is something that's been talked about a LOT amongst the Ops and with admin1 and Nate. There are some future plans to overhaul eventing, as it really does need it. Plans include making the related stats for individual events weigh more in judging those events.. So for something like pulling, strength, as well as size, may be the most important when teamed with a pulling breed while adaptability, speed would count for nothing. In something like Search and Rescue, courage and adaptability might play a very important part. Right now, the events do this somewhat, but the coding is off/glitched or something, so it's probably another of those things that will have to be taken back to bare bones and recoded. A cap on these two stats is possible, but I believe the question keeps coming back to "Where" should they be capped at.

Celia_1234321 · June 2011

I think they should be capped around 600 just like Loyalty also i think if a dog is left to "rott" in a boarding kennel loyalty should gradually lose points?

Aziu · June 2011

If a cap is placed on C/A (which I agree should be done) I don't think dogs that sit in boarding kennels should experience any decrease in loyalty. I, for one, have a majority of my dogs boarded just to get them out of the way...I would not be happy if every so often I had to pull thousands of dogs and reboard them, just to reset the timeframe so loyalty doesn't drop.

Celia_1234321 · June 2011

Aziu wrote:

I, for one, have a majority of my dogs boarded just to get them out of the way...I would not be happy if every so often I had to pull thousands of dogs and reboard them, just to reset the timeframe so loyalty doesn't drop.

I agree somewhat. I would be after they sat for a long time, (6months-1year?) that loyalty would drop, just a suggestion

HuntersGATHERING · June 2011

I get what your saying but I don't think loyalty should go down. Because there are people who board there dogs so they don't get in the way with training. A A/C cap sounds good 600 sounds like a reasonable number.

Troglin · June 2011

Just a point, if the cap was 600 it would still require several weeks, if not months to rot a dog to that level. It's still not truly going to help the show field. You'll have rotted dogs beating the dogs who were specifically bred to excel in a specific sport, just as you do now. Eventing should be about who bred the best dog, not who can store their dogs away for months/years and just wing it. Even if you groom a dog til 12-13 A/C can get to 230 or so, so why not make the cap something around 250 or 300? This sounds ridiculously low compared to the 1k kings you have now, but if you bred a dog worthy of winning you shouldn't have a problem. Racing/conformation/weight pulling determine on the dog's actual stats and value for the show world. The rest of the events should reflect real winners. I also use boarding just to get my dogs out of the way when I train and such. I'd be upset if they lost loyalty or any other stat. One of the benefits of being in boarding is that they're supposed to make your dog happy. I don't see how a happy dog would lose loyalty.

Aziu · June 2011

Anastasia wrote:

Even if you groom a dog til 12-13 A/C can get to 230 or so, so why not make the cap something around 250 or 300?

I agree that the cap should be closer to what you can get by grooming for long periods. Aggro is capped at 250, why not cap C/A there as well? That would limit the effect it has on eventing still further, as those stats would not be potentially 400 pts higher than the base stats.

GiftyLover · June 2011

250 sounds like an extremely reasonable number. Breeding would play a much bigger role that way, as well as training.

Simm · June 2011

250 cap sounds great!

Finster2 · June 2011

I completely support A&C capping at 250.

HuntersGATHERING · June 2011

I agree also 250 is much better cap stat.

Frostbight8 · June 2011

I agree with a cap at 250 but.. Will it anger others? This is huge, it will change eventing.

Aziu · June 2011

Every change implemented, unfortunately, cannot make everyone happy. I have a 1k+ C/A dog which is currently the bane of certain events - she's an import with insane C/A and crushes every other dog. All the same, I am 100% for a cap on C/A. Eventing needs an overhaul to make it more exciting and, hopefully, breathe some life into the game.

Frostbight8 · June 2011

Oh, yes. That dog, I've seen him. You are right, Az, and everyone else, a cap is the way to go..

FlyTM · June 2011

I am half and half on the idea, but I would say yes to a cap.

BabyBean13 · June 2011

I personally have a friend who I've recently heard stories from about the issue with loyalty (or was it aggro) capping. To this day, thinking of that day upsets her. See now it wasn't fair for everybody who could train there dogs to 20, 40, 60 years of age because their PB was granted that lifespan. But she bred her dogs to gain loyalty/aggro, you can't gain that letting them rot in a boarding kennel. But why was it capped? Because people were complaining that dogs with higher loyalty/aggro were doing better than their dogs in eventing. Her only complaint was those with PBs. Even today PBs can have the advantage since they live longer. PBs made with made with huge builds could potentially beat other natural weight pullers just cuz they were given an unfair advantage. So then what? Discontinue the making of PBs? Give a limitation/cap to everything about them too? Look, no game makes absolutely everyone who plays it happy. I don't like the idea of the capping. Why not make events for 250+ A/C dogs and let the others have their separate events? Let the high A/Cs battle it out and let the averages battle their own. Same types of events available with all, but just give limitations to the two separate ratings by A/C. This will cause a huge riot amongst the communuty if More limitations were made. Wanna make realistic limitations? How about only real existing dogs can be made on this game? How about only realistic colors can be created? How about you make the time go by like real life and a whole week isn't taken by just one click of a button? I'd like to see how that goes over. I like this game because it's the Least realistic, you can be as Creative as you wish to be, there Were few limitations aside from rules and regulations. Contemplate the idea a bit further, guys. Not everyone's gonna be happy, there will be advantages and disadvantages to certain aspects of this game, and not everyone can have their way.

Simm · June 2011

I still think Adaptability and Courage should be capped at 250. Just like Aggro is capped at 250 and Loyalty is capped at 600. Breed for higher intelligence, strength, speed, endurance, hyper or friendly.

BabyBean13 · June 2011

Yeah, but again, that can all be solved and made more fair if just the events were split. Could've been solved and added onto instead capping those others as well. Age isn't capped. Number of events you can enter each day isn't limited. Females are always in heat whenever put in a breeding kennel, how realistic is that?

Alabama · June 2011

I have added a poll to help better judge what overall feelings might be. This is the problem we've had as ops, trying to decide if it was worth changing it or what it could be changed to with the least upset. BabyBean is right, you can't please everyone, however, this issue has been brought up by players in the past year who aren't happy with how things are, so maybe it's time something was actually done about it. We would rather try to please a majority than have a majority not happy. Having separate eventing really isn't feasible.

Simm · June 2011

BabyBean13 wrote:

Yeah, but again, that can all be solved and made more fair if just the events were split. Could've been solved and added onto instead capping those others as well. Age isn't capped. Number of events you can enter each day isn't limited. Females are always in heat whenever put in a breeding kennel, how realistic is that?

Age shouldn't need to be capped, all dog breeds are different with their life expectancy in RL. Eventing would be plain boring if there was a capped amount a dog could enter each day. & besides better statted pups while using a breeding kennel, females being always in heat is a benefit for breeding kennels.. I know that equine vets in Australia (not sure about overseas) always have broodmares (yes I know horses and dogs are different) in heat for AI collection.

BabyBean13 · June 2011

I just see this as a snowball effect. First aggro and loyalty, now adapt and courage. Not much else goes past it's 200-250 limitations. Just wait for the day people whine and complain someone's dog has too high of intellect or another of the few remaining. When those are all capped, what's left to improve? You can't achieve better than 10x4, you can't go past 600 loyalty or 250 aggro and now A/C being debated on (most likely with the side of not capping, losing). I'm not trying to be difficult or be the one who says something different to stand out. What I'm trying to do is look for alternatives. Rather than cap this, limit that. Take too much away and it eventually sucks the fun out, trust me. Sim, I'm not saying I want those limitations. I'm using them as examples. Know the saying be careful what you wish for? Caps are wanted and saying they're more "realistic"? Take those other ideas into consideration if people were wanting those to be more "realistic". And yes, I know all dog breeds have different life expectancies. I'm talking the PBs who live to be 40-70. Someone could have bred an Amazing eventer and not get the chance to find another meanwhile someone with a PB who has the advantage in weight pulling can royally kick but for another 40 years.

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Eventing Change

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