Seems like some people are taking this game way too seriously! The last patch for SO3 was something like 1071, we are on 1016 and already making big strides towards a stable and thoroughly enjoyable game. By all means flag up obvious flaws, crashes etc. but all this "too easy/too hard, the games out to get me!" stuff seems a bit extreme.

The AI never get horses that can compete with your homebreads which make the game easy, can win every G1 every year with a big enough yard no problem.

I'd like to see AI be able to breed from your stallions and mares without consent, then we'd see a challenge.

It's so frustrating! I am finding that there are some races where they seem to be totally against the player like the Derby as you said I also find the Sussex and Falmouth hard to win.

I do agree totally about not understanding some results. There are some horses which are always dead certs no matter the condition of the horse or race. And other races where no matter how good your horse is or how good it turns out to be it will never win the race. I had a horse who wanted 1m2f who was beaten in her maiden by a horse who didn't win a race again until it was 4, that was a seller. I was really miffed, I ran and re ran the race and the result didn't change. My horse went on to win the Golden slipper on it's next race and won 25 G1's after. So I know what you mean.

It'd be interesting to know how the game really works. I'm sure it'd be way past my understanding though!! I hate differential calculus too, I've got a lovely exam on it on monday! Probably shouldn't be spending so much time on here...!

"Probably shouldn't be spending so much time on here...!"

No you shouldn't! Head down now & go out and get pissed after the exam.

Hope that helps!

I understand that it is a simulation and there needs to be a challenge, but that does not explain why, as Orlando Beetle has said, a horse can come out every three days and win all the grade one's, that is just cheating.

I even saw one that came out and started beating all my best hurdlers as well!!

It isn't about having all the best horses, that would be pointless, but the challenge should be about placing your horses in the right places. Horses, remember, that you don't get too much control over buying, because you cannot make a bid for any horse in the race, like you can in real life.

As for distances, etc, Michael Stoute doesn't go down to the local sales, looking for a St Leger prospect and come back and find that he has a National horse, maybe the head lad should be advising about what the traits of this horse are, rather than you having to guess. Buying an unraced middle distance horse can end you up with anything. I'm all for the game producing better horses than mine, but not horses that work 24/7 all year long and clean up in every big race going. The AI horses and jockeys should be suffering from the same limitations as the player stable, otherwise the challenge is somewhat false. At the moment, the game seems to decide when you can win and that is not as much of a simulation as, at first, it seems.

I'm all for other stables breeding from my horses, but there should be a fee involved! Particularly for fillies and mares.

Ultimately, to get the best out of any game, the player needs to understand how it works. If it is blind luck, fine, but there's no point thinking that we are making huge decisions only to find out that you are only going to get so many winners no matter what.

No one has complained about having a disappointing horse, despite often having so little to go on at the sales, we all know it can happen. But I doubt Goldolphin found they had a Gold Cup horse instead of the disappointing middle distance flat horse the bought. They went to buy a flat horse and they got a flat horse, albeit a poor one. They didn't find, once they got the horse to the stable, that jumping was the horses best trait.

And did JP Mcmanus ever put a bet on one of his horses without knowing it had already done a lap of honour before the race started? You go to put a bet on and then the jockey tells you that the horse was stressed or the horse bolted. There is a limit on bets, so i would assume that these bets are placed right before the off.

It isn't about having all the best horses or having all your horses breed well, it is about feeling that the AI horses and trainers are operating under the same conditions as your horses are.

Lukewilson wrote:

The AI never get horses that can compete with your homebreads which make the game easy, can win every G1 every year with a big enough yard no problem.

I'd like to see AI be able to breed from your stallions and mares without consent, then we'd see a challenge.

I try and let some of my good horses go to computer trainers to keep them in with better horses, anything you consider to be semi decent let the ai trainers have them, they will probably still be better then the animals they got and every now and then feed them some of the very good ones ( multiple group winners ). Its hard letting your multiple group 1 winners go but i do it every 4/5 seasons to give the computer something to play with! This sort of plays it out then like your idea of AI being able to breed!

Exactly what I do Hacket. Sell the all my homebreds that dont perform the race builder. This makes the game alot more competitive.

That's probably with 100 trainers in the game. With less trainers they have larger barns and it will be harder to be the number one trainer. That's why I like it with 50 in the game. The top trainer makes $14-$16mil almost every year. lol

JK do you find that playing with 50 trainers is better than playing with 100 trainers? Like do you get a trainer with multiple entries in races and more of a challenge for the top trainers table. Also, which trainers do you choose? Also when the latest patch comes out don't you find that you have to go through the all process again of picking the 50 trainers that you want to use?
Thanks.

I don't see why not. All jumps horses have come from a sire with a flat record. That's the way it has to be due to the gelding. Istabraq went from disappointing middle distance flat horse to 3 time Champion hurdler.

Anyway, I agree that winning 3 G1s in the space of a week or whatever is a bit extreme but we have to understand that due to database and computation limitations there has to be some compromise for the AI horses and how often they run.

Yes, I understand that the game has to limit the number of AI horses, but Istabraq did not win the Derby, The Eclipse and the Champion Hurdle in a couple of seasons. A great AI flat horse and a super Dawn Run type jumper is fine, but for them to be the same horse is pushing it a bit! I've had better horses that have won very few group races and others who have won loads and not been as good, that's fine, it happens in real life. But when the same horse is beating your best flat horses and jumpers, it makes the game a bit too unrealistic. Anyway, I am talking about SO3 mainly, as my copy of SO4 hasn't been played much, I'm waiting till the various issues that are being reported to reduce before I get started on that one. Hopefully, will get going very soon, will see what comes back from the latest patch.

Yeah. The most I have seen is 3 entries in a race for the same trainer. But that is good as when you get a large barn you are doing the same.
The top trainers had $14.5mil.,$10mil.,2 at $9mil. all the way down to $100k. That is US game so it might be more for UK. Top barns have 80+ runners and the least is 41 in my new game. I chose the top 50 trainers by current real-life earnings. I also chose the top 70 jockeys by earnings and 200+ wins. I also ranked the apprentices but have no photos for those. You only need to backup the edited names jockeys and trainers files. I copied them to the 2 folder and just copy them back to the edited names folder after patching. The latest patch didn't overwrite them.

I am still mostly testing the stability with a reduced number now. From what I have seen though is if you can autorun a full season without crashing then the game is as stable as default number. The trainers were stable all the way down to 35, but jockeys crashed at 62. But I think the UK game may need higher numbers. I had a trainer reach a 100 win season last year and one time a jockey got 70 wins. The top trainer had 13 G1 wins out of 36 total graded wins. So there is a much higher challenge now. You won't be top trainer after 5 years.

Cheers JK. I think I will try that. I will keep you posted of what happens even though I am slow at playing the game. Thanks again.