Hi there

I'm back after a few month where I couldn't play because we have been moving. Now everything is slowly getting back to normal and I started playing again, realizing that a new online league is just around the corner. I've been waiting for this ever since I started with Startes Orders 5 (when I bought the game, the last league was in progress already).

But as much as I had wanted to join the league I think my horses are still a long way from league-worthy. Though I've been playing for quite some time now, it seems I'm just stuck at some point breeding-wise and not getting anywhere near suitable horses to compete with other players.
The problem is... I don't really understand why. The stats look pretty okay to me, not really different from the stats of some monster horses that are being posted here. They all have full potential, at least 90% speed rating and full finish appl. and consistency bars. But in the races they're still far from being monsters.
I did have a good filly lately that started with a 120 rating in her maiden race, but she couldn't really improve herself like I would have thought she would. She's 4 years old now and struggling to keep her 130+ rating (133 is the highest she has managed to reach). And this is though she does win most of the times (she's got 18 Group 1 wins by now).

I also tried the CK to find out which horses would have potential and realized, that the horses who are really good ingame against gamebreds are not inevitably good in the CK and vice versa. Meaning I tried to only breed the horses that are showing the best results in CK, but I had to acknowledge that the best in CK are mostly not that good in the game itself. And that's where I'm really struggling. So how do I tell if I have a good horse a not? What is more important? The performance ingame or the CK performance? Am I missing something regarding my breeding or why does it feel like I'm stuck at a point with no further improvement?
I'd be really happy about some hints what I might be missing here, so that I can maybe join the next league

Thanks for reading

I think you should just join the league that is about to start. There are quite a few first time players to the league so don't feel like you will be out of your depth.
I also think you and all of us first time players will learn more being involved in the league than not.

With the breeding tips, I'll leave them up to more experienced players.
Cheers

Doug

Hi Illyria,im a first time league player,although played the orig,im just giving it a go,dont think ill break any pots but its good to know there is novices in the game to make us somewhat competitive,good luck Illyriaa.

I would try to see where I'm standing at all, but I really missed a lot in the last month, there have been quite some updates and I don't even know how to upload a horse. Is it the new button in the CK? The blue one saying "Export as a single horse file"?
I just registered with the SOPL, but what do I do now?

Ok I will send you a e-mail with a new password you will need Jockey Silks 40x40 Pixels in .png you should name your jockey silks with no spaces and less than 40 Characters until you got Jockey Silks you won't be able to see your stable when you upload a horse.

Check this You Tube Video it will show all you need to know and do to export your horse to TOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKFSxSw74QY

Gray

Thanks!
I have seen that the league is starting soon, so how long is it possible to upload horses for the league? Maybe I can manage to get some better racers the next days

Hi Illyria,

click here viewtopic.php?f=16&t=11929


Matt

Thanks, I must have been blind. I read that thread, but only found the deadline for deleting files and didn't see the line below regarding uploads

My best horses got ruined in the trials, they are far from league worthy but I'll be running them anyway. Going to have fun even though my breeding plans have been far delayed by real life issues... would have been nice to be competitive, but overall just enjoying seeing my best run anyway.

Hope you join us!

I have already signed up and uploaded some of my best horses though I'm sure they're eons from being competitive at all. Guess they will cross the finish line somewhat 30 lenghts behind
I haven't played in month, because we have been moving and before that I had a bad game crash and lost most of my best horses. So I started more or less from scratch again.
Anyway, I'm not sure that the "crash horses" would have been any better. I've had some reaching a 140 rating which I'm still not able to do at the moment, but possibly it just got harder to achieve with the new patches. At least it feels like it, because the horses I'm breeding right now have much better stats than ever before. They just don't seem to run as good as the older ones.

By the way...
I'm forever trying to reach the full realized potential bar with a 3 year old, but the best I can get is about 97%. The bar is full once they turn 4 YO, but never at 3 YO (I'm in season 32 now). Is it even possible to improve the horses through generations, so they reach the full potential sooner or would I have to find a gamebred to bring in the genes for that?

Dont get obsessed by the stat bars they are just a rough guide yes it is possible for a 3yo to reach full potential bar and some have had
full bars at 2 but in my experience this is more than rare.

The more generations you get through in breeding the more chance you will find that full bar 3yo i really do think it means little though

So if it's not that stats, what are you then looking for in a horse?
At the moment I'm only keeping the horses with really good stats, every 2 YO with less than 90% potential will not make it to the races nor my breeding barn. Is this the wrong way to go?

From my experience so far - some horses really pick up the bit as 3yo's - I've also had plenty of 2yo's win a couple of G1's and go on and do nothing.
I've also had horses that look like world beaters at the end of their 3yo season and then struggle to win at 4, 5 and 6
How you do your breeding selection could be a good way to do things....I'm not sure there is a right or wrong way to do it.
I guess competing in the league will give all of us first time league players a good indication of where we're at.

Just thinking about this - I don't think I pay much attention to the potential bar any more (that could be that most of my horses have healthy potential and I've stopped looking?)
I tend to pay more attention to the bars underneath and am now starting to pay more attention to the small vertical graph that says 'start' and 'stamina' etc. and how they combine.

BTW - have you got your silks registered for your stable in TOM?

Breeding for the league is a bit different than breeding for the game. If you don't have much time like me you have to use other techniques to get some group horse contenders in a short space of time. I do this by trialing every season and breeding with whats good in trials and not in game. Below is an example. The horse was pretty average in game but in the trials is my best miler. So far his offspring are 2 of my best juveniles. I have now upped his mare count as clearly he his producing the goods at stud. If they don't produce at stud they get binned. Being ruthless I can improve rapidly to the point that my horses are very competitive in the league. I concentrate on NH so my best horses go there but my flat horses are ok and normally win some group 1's

Thanks for your postings, I'm glad about every little bit of insight here, maybe one day I'll get the hang of it
My time is a bit limited at the moment, there's still so much work to do after the move and I'm also working full time from Mon-Fri, so I took every second of spare time this week to sit down and improve my stable. Yesterday I have managed to get a 140 rated stallion once more (the first one after my game crashed about 9 month ago). He wasn't anything special at 2 YO, nor at the beginning of his 3 YO campaign, but midway into the season, he showed real quality.
The funny thing about this is: In his lineage is not one of the horses I considered being my best at the moment. He's solely the product of my trials to add some better stats. So his lineage consists of homebreds with solid stats and two gamebreds I found in the breeding shed.

But while he is my best horse in the game, he's still not a monster in the trials. When I run the trials he tends to win about 50% of the races, some with a good advantage, but in the other half of the races he finishes somewhere midfield. I would still consider him one of my better horses.

Up until now I've just looked for the stats while breeding, nothing else. I do trial them every season, but only the ones with good stats. I'm quite surprised that the stats don't seem that important.
I'm afraid without the stats I don't understand at all what makes a horse a great one and what is the reason that most of them are just mediocre.

This is the stallion I'm talking about.