Hi,
Ive been experimenting with increasing the game pool size in my game schedule.
Have increased it to 14000 without any obvious problems.
Clearly this gives you far more horses in the game at any one time but are there any negative effects that anybody has noticed by doing this?

I don't know the answer to your question but i'm curious about something...

Has increasing the game pool meant the AI trainers have more horses and therefore accumulate more prize money? The lack of challenge from the AI trainers is an issue so I'm wondering if this is a potential workaround until (or if) Mark improves the AI.

Yes,it greatly increases the number of horses that the AI trainers have.
Certainly makes the trainers championship much more challenging !

Ooh, great

How many seasons have you ran through with the increased pool size?

Hopefully others will be able to say whether it might cause any undesired side-effects but having a more competitive trainers championship is exactly what I'm looking for.

Just fast trialled 5 seasons without a problem.Just experimenting with the schedule at the moment.

Please keep us posted on how it goes

How do you even increase the game pool? I wouldn't know where to start.

I usually play with a horsepool of 15-20000.
20000 is the max, but i think the colts/fillies name files defines the potential number of horses.


A bigger Gamepool improves the game in my opinion, but not necessarily the difficulty unfortunately.
Winning races and trainer championship ist still unbelievable easy.
Also, you have to pay attention to the optimal foreign horses pool size(1-6).

It is a good idea to fix fieldsizes of handicap races via the showcase file. (F14 e.g.)
This way horses oversubscribe for races and the worst ones get kicked out.
Unfortunately this doesnt apply for group races

Yes please ,any help on this you wise guys and gals ?
dotsy

To increase the pool size you need to go into your Program Files/Starters Orders 6/data. Open the relevant folder eg 1 for UK, 2 for USA and 3 for Aust, etc. Then open the sched folder. The first line specifies the pool size. Change this to alter number of horses. Then save. Will need to restart game.

Thank you again Alfamann,you are a great help to us doughnuts.
dotsy

Forgive me for my English if something is not clear to you, ask and i will explain
Those you think you know everything about altering the game pool just read all the post, to understand that you don't....

I will go step by step so everybody can understand and play the game according to your needs.

Lets go.

You can alter the game size pool up to about 20.000. I would suggest if you like more horses a number between 15-18.000.

To do this you go Program Files ==>
Starters Orders 6 ==>
data ==>
and then you choose a number between 1-4 depending where you want the main schedule to be played 1=UK 2=US 3=Australia 4=Ireland. Example: Lets say that i like the uk schedule so i press 1
1 for UK==>
Depending if you like to alter the game pool in flat - jumps or flat and jumps game you choose one of _sched_j (for jumps) _sched_f (for flat) _sched_fj(for the combination) - Example: Let's say that i want changes in flat so i press the notebook _sched_f
_sched_f for flat==>
Go to the first line and change [pool] (with the number you like, i suggest no more than 18.000, i use 16500)

Till now nothing most of you haven't noticed. But lets see what kind horses you add to the game and who will train them.

Interesting?

This according to my experience is determined by the second line (most of you already know that) natSpread

This line has after natSpread 11 numbers. From start to finish every number suggests how many horses the game generates to 1=UK - 2=US 3=Australia 4=Ireland 5=France etc.
Example let's say i choose english flat and after the first line says
natSpread:0,2,1,5,5,2,3,1,1,0,2 - The first number decides how many horses the game will generate in uk, the second in us, the third in Australia etc .

SOS 1

Now keep in mind that the number for the country where is the main schedule if is 0 or x doesn't matter - The exact number will be all the other horses that will not be foreign based - Seems now difficult but i will explain latter

SOS 2

Till now everybody in this forum suggested that the numbers you allocate to a country must be between 0 - 5 (zero no horses 5 for the most horses you can have)
This is wrong the number you can allocate horses is between 0 - 9 (zero no horses 9 is the biggest number a foreign country can have and is about 5,65% of the tottal pool..

Example this is how i play the game

[pool]16500
natSpread:x,9,9,9,9,7,9,9,4,4,4

Horses from US - Australia -Ireland - France -Dubai -Germany have 935 horses each - number that woould have been about 500 if i would have allocate to them a 5 according to what is known till now

SOS 3

The game calculates the number of the foreign races and multiplicate about X 0,63.

Example US has been allocated with a 9 - So we have 9 X 0,63 = 5,67% of the tottal pool (16500) = 935
Same happens in all foreign races. The number that remains is the number of the local based horses and cannot be less than 43,3% of the total pool.

SOS 4

All of the foreign - generated horses even the 2yearolds have ratings 80+. No foreign based horse has less than 80 rating.
Practically this means a win in a foreign race is more difficult.

Horses are split about the same size to all available trainners, Example if your game is based in England, has a pool 9 allocated to Us (935 horses) and 30 trainners, then when you start all 30 trainners will have 20 - 40 horses each.


SOS 5

More horses means again more difficulty to win a group race in your country, and also you will find no more races with 4 horses or even walkovers at selling, claimings and small hcps


IN CONCLUSION

It is nice to change the game pool for a ... change and do so to the natSpread.

It is wonderful if this happens with a world wide schedule with hcp - listed - group races in all countries like real life.
We will talk about this soon....

The right is :


SOS 3

The game calculates the number of the allocated horses to foreign countries and multiplicate about X 0,63.

Example US has been allocated with a 9 - So we have 9 X 0,63 = 5,67% of the tottal pool (16500) = 935
Same happens in all foreign races. The number that remains is the number of the local based horses and cannot be less than 43,3% of the total pool.

For some reason the maximum I seem to be able to use is 15000.
If I go higher than this the game locks up when trying to simulate a season.
Any ideas?

Just a reminder folks, when you adjust pool size you will need to re-adjust it again after an update. Not able to end season otherwise.
Made same mistake myself.
ARAPHO

Update ! Last patch corrects this ! it says.
ARAPHO