Hi All,
This is an open offer for players to put their name forward for one of the six leagues, shown below.
The new league should not be judged as a direct threat to the league already in operation, but as an alternative for players who want to play in a competition that uses the game itself.
Players will be expected to play within a game budget of £5m to buy from a preliminary sales ring of 100 horses, and build up their stable through shrewd financial and place judgement, breeding, and the ability to buy and sell.
The leagues will have set pre-defined schedules sent out in advance, a declarations form submitted through the league website, and the ability to interact with other player stables - this may be through the buying of horses within an established stable or by sending a mare to a stallion in another stable for breeding.
Depending on certain conditions you might also be able to take over a stable in a different country to the one you are based in, or build a partnership with another player by giving them a cash injection.
This is a league for players who play the game as it was meant to be played.
Either put your e-mail address in this thread, or send your details to Steve using his e-mail address below.
We realise this may cause some controversy, but ask that players respect this league for what it is.
It is hoped the first league (UK Flat) will be up and running on March 1st 2011. Other leagues will be added based on numbers.
Places are limited - first come first served.
A new league website is being built and will host the game information.
Races will be sent via a download link - and will be viewed via the construction kit.
The website will incorporate

A monthly newsletter for each league.
An individual trainers page with links to stable horses.
Ante-Post odds on all races.
Big race analysis, with full horse form.
A home gallops page.
Hall Of Fame
Breeding Page.

Players will be able to submit any thoughts or ideas to improve the league to a committee.

If you have any questions about the league feel free to post it here.

More details to follow.

this sounds brilliant, Sounds exactly like something a lot of people on here will be interested in.

How will races be run? will one day run a week of races? or a few days?,

Any financial layout to play?

how will it use the game among all the players together?

many thanks.
This sounds brilliant.

The races will be run through Steve's lap top. This will host the main games. The number of races per week will depend on the time available, some weeks will be heavy some light. It is hoped that at least 42 races will be run each week per league.
The beauty of this approach is, no files will be exchanged, all decisions will be made in game.
There will be no financial outlay, your stable will be set up with £5m which you will have to use for stable costs, breeding and purchases etc.
All finance will be dealt with by the game.
For example if you breed with another stable you will have to pay a set price negotiated between players, with a minimum reserve for the yearling this will include the price of the yearling plus breeding and goodwill costs.
There will be six players in each league, so we can eventually cater for 36 trainers all told.
Players will not be able to bet on their own horses so this will stop players abusing the handicap system - you would in effect be setting up gambles for other players, who would then gain a financial advantage.
A draft UK Flat fixture list has already been created and implemented, there are no game created races at all.
You will be able to transfer horses abroad, to other player stables if you set up a partnership agreement, if you takeover a second stable you will be able to transfer a limited number of horses that way, after season one.
Because all races have been created using the decrypter, races will have ante-post odds available one month in advance.
As SO5 is some way off the league will operate over a number of seasons.
Including the AI you will be competing against over 100 trainers.
On a level playing field.

This sounds interesting but it sounds like you want to play a 6 player over the internet. Can you tell me the difference?

If one person has the saved game running, how can the others see the horses stats? Does that mean the other 5 has to download the saved game everyday? How do I see the stats? How do I enter races?

Can you explain it more? Because it sounds like I'll be watching replays of a 6 player game which I have no control over. Whats the goal? Is it to win as many G1s? Because the trainer AI is included in the game?

One more thing, just as a warning, never post your email like that because of spambots that phish for email thru internet boards.

You should mask it like this speight921(at)btinternet.com or speight921 at btinternet.com or something like that.

All player horse stats will be done through the website. Just as it is in TOM.

There will be dedicated trainer pages, with links to the horses, breeding etc.

Players will be able to view each others stables, make bids via e-mail, which will then be shown on the sale/auction page.

Declarations will be through a form submitted on-line.

The form will contain the races for the following week.

Races will be sent to the export game replay folder and will be available for download each week. This will be put into the players game folder in SO4 and viewed from there.

There will be a great deal of player interaction and input.

The goal is: 'to be the number one ranked trainer' - it definitely won't be easy.

Sounds good, need a lot more information on how things are to be done,

So there is no exporting horses and uploading then?

All this information will be held on the site?

Hows it decided who gets what horses to start?

How would you make it so that i could breed with another players horse take it in the breeding barn in the game but how do you manage to get the two horses you want in there?

Guess im just lost with the scope of this idea it sounds to good to be true!
An actual league that is ran as you go so all are equal, WOW!
Choices you make on what horses you buy, who you breed with, how you spend your money, selecting the right races to put horses in are the only way to progress.

How many real trainers are you likely to be able to manage in this league ?

I have a few more questions.

Is there a way to replace players? I mean if someone leaves mid-season is there a way to replace that person?

Does the same players have to be in the same league year after year? I'd hate to abandon a good stable just to start a new one if people start to leave.

Is it limited to 6 players? Is there a way to bypass this? I'd really like more competition.

Hi Adam,

No exporting, no uploading.

All player stats will be held on site.

All races will be available for download whether players have involvement or not do you can get a feel for the races, horse and trainers.

There will be a mass sale/auction at the beginning of the season, these will be horses bought through three previous seasons 'play'. Players will be able to submit one bid onloy for a horse above the reserve price. These will be done through e-mail, the player with the highest bid will win the horse. All players will start with £5m.

More horse will be made available through the season.

For breeding, player A has a stallion retired to the breeding barn.

Player B sells their mare to Player A.

Player A puts the two together in the breeding barn.

Player B buys the yearling and includes the price of the mare bought by Player A + breeding fees.

The two players will have to agree to the deal.

These will be limited early in the competition as players funds might be low.

Should be more active as stables win prize money.

If players do not want to continue, their stable will either

be auctioned amongst existing trainers.
be given to a new player

Unfortunately there can only be six players in each league plus the AI trainers.

Competition comes directly from same league players and in-directly from other leagues.

If Mark released the construction kit, then an end of season 'world cup style event' could be introduced where players can export and run there horses.

But this would be the exception rather than the rule.

It would just be a fun competition and wouldn't affect game ratings etc.

I would imaging there would be quite a lot of stable buying.

Players could form groups to run one stable - so the stable has continuity.

It may be that a stable is run down, and therefore more difficult to build up, this would give the incoming player a harder test.

When all six leagues are up and running there should be enough places for 36 trainers.

We would like more players in each league, but Mark has stated that the work involved is too much.

We would like the transfer option to be expanded from ten for more interaction between leagues - don't know if this is possible.

How many real trainers? sorry added to the bottom.

Will all the breeding be done then by the person running this? i mean x and y trainers agree to a deal, send in relevant info and then president will action them to the breeding barn for pairing?

When buying your first horse is it one only or a number of horses up to 5 million in bids? Will there be any form lines on the horses then i take it to get or will all form be at nothing?

Real trainers six in each league.

Steve will make the breeding happen in game, through simple selling of the mare to the second stable.

Both players will need to e-mail the deal before it goes ahead.

You will be able to make bids on any number of horses up to your account balance. But players will need to retain some money for other things.

You will also be able to make inter stable bids, for any player trained horse at any time.

Most horses will have form, except for the new two year olds and quite few un-raced three year olds.

Players will be declared bankrupt if they cannot pay their debts to other stables or are unable to make declarations.
Stables will be put up for sale.

I think this is the main issue if it could be changed to a much higher total this would indeed be fantastic, the main issue being it takes what 5 seasons to start to really hammer the AI`s horses so in theory you would be up against the other 5 trainers only. Mark cant introduce slots of 20 plus trainers to be put in the game then i take it thats a shame!

Just how quickly will this league be going along regarding season to weeks ratio?

Undecided as yet, but weeks will not be uniform.
Some weeks will have more races than others.
Agreed it would be better with more player slots, but unfortunately Mark has said it is too much work, so we would have to work with what we have.
I think it would take more than five years to hammer the AI.
There are quite a lot of restrictions in place.

sounds like this game would overcome my one major problem with so4 - a horse winning 3 arcs in a row can be worse in ck than a horse who finishes 3rd in one arc! i have always wanted to see good game horses mean something - i hope in future games Mark can make this possible as it would result in the game not becoming so boring!

Therefore i think its great that you are coming up with an idea which makes use of the game itself. The current process of exporting and trialling so unpredictably is very tedious!! good luck with this guys it sounds like hard work but a great idea - altho i must admit i dont fully understand how everything is going to work. will keep reading on as more details are revealed