I think mark needs to programme the novice system completely different as to me at the momment it seems completely messed up. Whether or not its possible to patch something like that i dont know. I think the biggest problem is that most of the game horses seem to go hurdling at 3. This should not happen the majority should start at 4. I wouldnt have a clue how many horses are created at the start of the year but for every 10 created horses that are 3 there should be 20-30 that are 4.

So say at the start of the year there are 100 3 year old horses created. These would contest the juvenile hurdles throughout the season. This side of the new year would be the 3 y.o only hurldes and after would be the 4 y.o hurldes i.e the truimph.

Now there should be about 200 4 y.o horses created and say 100 or so 5 y.o + horses created. These would contest the normal novice races throughout the season so before the new year it would be 4 y.o up novice hurdles and after maybe you could change the novice hurdles to 5 y.o +. I know in real life they are all 4 y.o + but if you keep it to 5 + then the juveniles will have to stick to there own age races so the juvenile races will always be competitive.

So if this was how it worked then hopefully we would a see a cheltenham festival with the best out of the 100 or so juveniles contesting the 4 y.o only truimph hurlde with the best of the other 300 or so competing in the 5 y.o + supreme novices, ballymore (or whatever it is now!!) hurdle and the albert bartlett novice hurdle.

Whats everyones thoughts on this?

Thanks

Don't we only get a bunch of 2yrolds created each year?

Ripvan, your idea is a good one and is probably how the game should work.

As I'm sure everyone will agree, Mark has produced yet another amazing game and works tirelessly to do so, and then produces fixes and patches very quickly to iron out problems.

The Novice issue is one of the very few areas requiring development and a source of frustration for the jumps enthusiasts here - e.g. one horse in my game has won the Triumph Hurdle three years running!

Mark has quite rightly not responded to any petty criticism on here but it would be nice if he could post a comment about the novice situation, even if it is just to confirm my suspicion that it will be very difficult to code the perfect solution.

Others here have suggested that he obtains help from experienced users/players with great racing knowledge - this maybe the way forward but he obviously has to do things the way he sees best.

In my opinion the novice issue is the only thing preventing me from calling the game perfect and if Mark can do something along the lines of your proposal for SO5 then I cant wait!!

I don't think the novice system would be difficult to code in a full development program. But it may be difficult to patch in its current state.

Yeh pst said a few things i shouls have in that i was no way having a go at Mark the game he produces is superb but as a national hunt man the novice system really bugs me as in real life the novice part of the season is almost as big as the older races.

Yeh mikey we do only get 2 y.o created horses which could be the problem as if the game trainers have got these horses at 2 then there running them at 3. Maybe in the pre season auction then it could be more like 10/15 or so 3. y.o that we could buy and the rest would be 4 and 5 y.o.

That is a bug and will be looked at.

Anyone know if this bug is in any of the downloaded schedules, like punkrabbit's ?

I played though it and havent witnessed it on punkrabbit's schedule mate, it a brilliant jump schedule must say like.

My mistake. The Triumph hurdle issue is not a bug but related to the classification of the race. There is a bug where some horses retain their novice status too long and that is the one I was thinking of that is currently being fixed.