Hello, I'm new to the game

By the look of things, this is the game I've been waiting for all my life (although it looks like it's been about for years!)
I had a version of a game called Stable Masters2 many years ago that I enjoyed but the opportunity for an online version that is up to date seems grand.

Just so I don't get myself confused; I take there is a way to train fictitious horses then race them against other people's fictitious horses in fictitious races for pride and prestige?? Or is it a series of challenges and submissions of 'screen shots' to indicate success?? Apologies if this is all blatantly clear and I've missed something. I've always been enthralled at how people seem to be able to play against opponents online in the 'Medal of Honour' type of game but, at my age (34...knocking on!) I've always assumed it to be a younger man's/student thing but to be able to take a horseracing format and compete online is far more my cup of tea.

Also, I was about to fork out the £19.99 for SO4 when I realised that SO5 is due out in less than a month so wouldn't I be silly not to wait or is there an update or something... (I work in schools so I'm currently on a fortnight's holiday so getting it straight away will brighten my week even more so!) - is there a beginner's 'sticky' on how to get started? I've seen a 'sticky' on how to 'export' horses which sounds very exciting(!) which I assume will be very helpful but these type of forums seem to have everybody knowing exactly what they are doing and are a bit intimidating to the not-very-computer-savvy-when-it-comes-to-all-that-jargon-stuff about gbs, rams,roms,rims,rums,rhinos etc... so any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks in anticipation (if, as I assume it will be, this post is in the incorrect section or I have committed some kind of 'technological genocide' by a rather unconventional approach then I apologise profusely.

Welcome to the forum, I would wait for Starters Orders 5(SO5). I still play SO3 and have a lot of fun playing it. SO5 will be out in 3 weeks time and will be the "Best Ever"

Not sure what you mean...

The league is just an extension of the game. What happens is that as you play the game you will eventually get these super horses in your stable. These are what people are posting.

The league is put together to race these champion horses. What you do is play the game and when your stable acquires a monster horse you then export this horse. Which is a file which are then uploaded to TOM (website database). From there you enter your horse to whatever race you wish and race against other trainers with their own super horses. Someone can probably explain it better but to give you an idea, here are some races that I have recorded over the past seasons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkP97iH21ho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-eDvKRx5eE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzCDpIAU7Lw


I guess people posting their pics of horses is just to say how proud they are of their horse and there is nothing wrong with that. The only way to really test them is to run them in the league which a lot of us do.

Welcome!

I would wait for SO5 and in your case download the SO4 demo to get an impression how this game works because many parts of SO5 will be similar to SO4 without meaning this negative.
In this forum you can ask every question, many friendly users and you will always get an answer.

Like every game you need some time to learn all options but it seems you are not new to horse racing so you will learn fast and in the end you can find many tips in this forum.

Until the next league season starts (maybe August/September) you will surely know everything about the game.

Good luck and have fun!

how are you enjoying the league do you like it

Although only reaching 4 5th places it's real fun! Didn't thought that it's so exciting to watch these races even though I know when I'm leading with a front runner that he will get caught!
But now after 5 weeks there will be some better results when the better horses going for group races and the not so good horses having fun together in the handicaps.

glad you are enjoying it Moliets_Surfer

next season will be even better we all start from scratch

thanks folks, that's helped alot... I'll wait til SO5 comes out and have a practise on the demo (although it states that no training options are available on the demo version?) - loved the recordings by the way, commentary was great! Can't wait to get involved now, can see it being cited on divorce papers for unreasonable behaviour!..
Cheers

Just wondering, who does the commentary, how many races do you upload and are the league races always run with so3 graphics?

I believe that was my annoying Birmingham accent calling the first race.