That took me back to the days of reprograming Jet Set Willy and further on to playing Stable Master on my old beloved and never to forgotten Amiga not forgetting Football Masters (So many wasted weeks and fond memories). Wonderful, thanks.

But back to the point.
Personally I hardly ever look at the stat bars I find them too misleading and the same goes with jockey comments which btw have changed through the patches since release of this version. Although it`s always interesting to read others opinions of the stat bars just in case anyone ever actually works them out.

"So many wasted weeks and fond memories"

Do you remember that machine code noise that the cassette would sing when loading a game? Hardly ever hear it now, but it still sends a thrill of anticipation through me when I do.

"I have to use a bit of intelligence to place my horses"

Hmmm....maybe that's what I lack My apparently promising 2yr olds are currently getting smashed up all over the place, (late summer). Sigh.

Must say the Schedule Editor is the aspect of this game that has given me most pleasure; much more satisfying creating your own programme rather that just inserting somebody elses. It does mean that I now have four games on the go though - I'm using the earlier ones to feed their best horses into my current game.

Here is a screenshot to illustrate what I'm going on about. This filly has wanted 7f since the end of July; it was taken just before the Rockfell in mid October. It clearly shows an animal that wants 5/6f. If its meant to be like that then why? Only to deliberately mislead?

By the way, I'm glad I did this as I've noticed that she's not fit. Withdrawn - veterinary certificate.

[img]

Oh bugger!

I just learnt how to do screeenshots. Its sitting there on my desktop. How do I post it here?

http://www.startersorders.com/phpBB2/vi ... php?t=3804

All the details are in here. You need to upload to an image hosting website.

ok, let's see if this works:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Yaroop!!!

This is a different horse - the other one has gone to stud. I have posted this one because a) he's the best of my squadrons of 7f horses, b) it shows the programme available to such horses through creative use of the sched. editor, (note the healthy field sizes), but mainly c) because of his start bar, which is awful as you can see. Nevertheless he has only missed the break four times in his career and won two of those anyway.

The stats bars do need sorting. The fitness and condition bars are useful and the JUMP bar should also be a good indicator but the other four are probably of little use other than vague and general (and sometimes unreliable) indicator.

This goes back a long way (probably to Starters Orders 1 or Pro). I personally never liked the idea of including stats bars for horses as it could take a lot of the fun away of trying to get to know the individual horses. It is also unrealistic. On the other hand I know many people like stats so as a quick compromise I added some basic stats bars and they have stayed that way ever since. The problem is that the way each horse performs is the result of complex calculations that use many (hundreds) of different horse parameters. The stats bars would be a good indicator if each horse just had SPEED, ACCELERATION and STAMINA parameters but it's much more complicated than that.

For future releases the options are to either get rid of some of the stats bars or include many more stats so a more accurate picture emerges (for those willing to put in the time). At the moment I prefer getting rid of the bars above. Maybe providing better stable lad feedback but right now I'm not sure what I will do.

I'm for more stat bars to get a better picture of the horses or the current stats bars actually bearing some sort of idea what the horse is about. I have a jumps horse with a low jumps bar who is an excellent jumper. Defo needs some attention come SO5.

I second MORE stat bars.

I like the idea of having more stat bars so you can really get to know a horse an better plan it's campaign. Saying that though I also like the idea of having the challenge of having no stat bars but having a more realistic stable structure. So that the use of gallops for the horses actually has more of a purpose, e.g. gallop a group of horses and each lad riding comes back with his view of how the horse went; wants further, too far, more pace, likes passing horses, sat too far back etc etc. Also more head lad feedback from horses general training and from gallops. But this would mean another overhaul of the jockey (and lad) comments (in my opinion) because getting a comment like 'Ridden Handy' when you've just galloped your best miler and it's been tailed off and run really poorly would be computer through the window kind of frustration!

I for one would really like to see better head lad comments. This tied with hidden stats would provide a nice challenge and interesting way of playing the game and deciding which horse is your best. Generally agree with everything SuperCat has said about comments and they would need to be informative rather than just "Ridden Handy". I'd like to see some general info on horse potential also to see what 'someone else' considers to be your stable stars, eg. a 2yo might have "loads of pace at the moment, should develop into top miler"

More stats would not be essential for me as I don't look at them much now anyway, just go on results. But, I think alot of people would really like them. So I think it would be a good addition but allow them to be turned off so you can play with hidden stats if you like.

I would like getting rid of the stat bars. It's not championship manager!

Plus, there are so many variables that trying to quantify that is so hard.

Stamina & fitness are the only stat bars that I really use. Stamina bar almost essential for me in trying to work out to optimum distance for my 2 & 3 yr olds. Fitness bar utterly necessary. I'd be happy to see the rest go!

I would like to see just the basic stat bars for condtion, speed, stamina and maybe acceleration.
It would be nice to have knowledge about all the hidden stats and what they are based upon though without actually seeing the bars for them. At least this would give us something to think about for each individual horse in our stables.