Almighty Farms: Triple Crown Bound

[Franklinnoble]

I guess I could, but the game is so far from intuitive, I'd have no idea what to do with any of the horses after buying them.

I'm clueless about hiring staff, and I'm just building every improvement in sight to see what it does for me. This game is really frustrating.

[thealmighty]

...the game is so far from intuitive...

That is the understatement of this, or any, racing season.

[thealmighty]

6-05-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> 2 weeks until our club house is ready.

---> The 2 boxes we started a month ago are completed, giving Almighty Farms a total of 8.

---> In anticipation of the supposed ability to house other stock to make some money (finally) from the club house, we begin building 2 more boxes at a cost of $51,300.

---> Fame has skyrocketed to 20 , putting us at #123.

Still 6 months to go until we can begin training/racing our horses.

[thealmighty]

6-26-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> The club house is complete at level 2. To get to level 3, we need a grooming room (that we have), a straight line and a reining circle (I assume this is a circle of tether as a reining circle is not anywhere in the game I can find).

---> We go ahead with building the circle of tether (reining circle) at level 3 for $19,950. It will take 3 weeks to complete. A circle of tether moderately increases fame and helps with the taming of horses to aid in training.

---> We upgrade our grooming room to level 3 for $4,275 and only a 1 week delay before use.

---> We build a level 3 straight line at a cost of $114,000. It will take 5 weeks to complete. The straight line can be built with grass, sand or dirt. However, nothing anywhere gives you any idea of the benefits/detriments of doing one over the others. We decide to go with the sand surface on the hope, unfounded, that sand will be softer and give less injuries. The straight line is supposed to increase fame and increase the speed of horse training.

---> Fame has moved to 21, putting us tied at #121.

[thealmighty]

7-03-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> 2 more boxes are completed, bringing to 10 the number available.

---> With the ability to stable other stock, we keep adding boxes, building 2 more for a price of $51,300.

---> Grooming Room level 3 is completed, though the upgrade doesn't cut feed cost any more than the level 2 had.

---> We get an invitation to an auction and declare our intent to attend, though we don't know if any 1 year olds will be offered.

---> We get, finally, our first horse to board, a 4-year old male named Sly Heart. He will be staying at Almighty Farms for 48 weeks at a rate of $307 per week.

[thealmighty]

To all loyal readers:

I have not forsaken you, but rather have been involved a bit too much with my first ever mp draft in the eNFL. Our dynasty will continue shortly. Thank you and have a pleasant day and an even better tomorrow and, while we are on the subject, may your day after that be exellent, as well.

[thealmighty]

We are at the next auction which is full of 1 year olds. We have the following stock to choose from:

Horse	Sex	Colour	KM	Speed	Accel	Techni	Adapt	Discip	Resist	Form	Injure	Endur
America du Rond	F	Bay	1' 02"	81.7	78.5	5.2	2	86.2	73.5	93.6	9.5/70.9	78.3
Beautiful Ladonia	F	Chestnut	1' 00"	89.3	74.2	3.7	1.3	82.4	81	83.6	1.8/76.1	86.4
Clea Bar	F	Grey	1' 03"	70.9	73.8	2.8	6.4	11.7	72.5	93.6	1.2/69.5	74.1
Delta Lucky Lady	F	Black	1' 02"	72.9	74.9	7.6	7.6	81.3	78.6	82.7	1.0/75.0	73.1
Hawaii Blue	M	Black	1' 03"	73	73.4	1.8	6.9	17.4	40	82.9	1.0/36.4	69.7
High Modesement	M	Grey	1' 01"	85.7	86	0.9	8.8	14.8	44.3	83.2	8.2/40.5	81.8
Hold	M	Chestnut	1' 00"	84.1	89.3	9.4	1.8	10.9	76.2	88.1	1.2/72.9	81.3
Imperatrice	F	Chestnut	1' 00"	89.9	81.4	3.9	1	50	63	82.6	4.0/57.9	88.7
Indigo l'Omerta	M	Chestnut	1' 00"	88.6	87.6	6.4	7.2	49.5	40.6	81.9	1.7/35.9	81.6
Mere Pour l'Honneur	F	Black	1' 00"	80.1	86.8	3.4	6.2	10.6	54.3	88.3	5.9/52.2	81
Palac Groomy	F	Bay	1' 03"	74.5	70	0.3	6.3	45.8	83.4	94.4	3.1/79.3	70
Rebels	M	Grey	1' 03"	68.8	70.6	3.9	3.6	28.1	32.5	90.3	5.1/30.2	66.3
Urne	F	Black	1' 02"	71.1	77.5	3.1	1.3	71.1	62	94	4.8/58.9	72.4
Vive de l'Aerien	F	Chestnut	1' 03"	66.9	72.4	6.6	3.8	91.3	35.9	90.5	3.2/34.2	75.3

Given the fact we now have plenty of boxes in which to keep our purchases so we can take as many as we think are of high quality, which would you choose?

Our choices are in, and forthcoming.

[thealmighty]

In case you don't feel like looking for anything, here are some brief explanations.

1. KM- fastest time for 1 kilometre
2. Speed- maximum possible speed
3. Acceleration- acceleration speed
4. Technique- ability to overtake horses in a race
5. Adaptability- to the behavior of the jockey
6. Discipline- capacity to progress through training
7. Resistance- capacity to sustain injuries
8. Form- at this point, I don't really have a clue
9. Injure- shows how close to injury and how much an animal can take before it gets hurt
10. Endurance- ability to sustain in longer races

Remember, there are NO wrong choices, really, as I have no clue either, since I have not gotten to the training/racing stage yet myself. Your guess is as good as mine at this point.

[kingfc22]

I would say Beautiful Ladonia, Delta Lucky Lady, Hold and High Modesment. Why you ask? Have no clue, but they look good. I think.

[daedalus]

I'd go with a tandem like last time with Beautiful Ladonia and Indigo l'Omerta and leave the other boxes for other opportunities.

[klayman]

I'm thinking Hold and Imperatrice as the best of the bunch. Indigo l'Omerta isn't bad as well.

[MrBug708]

I like Hold myself

(wow that sounds wierd)

[QuikSand]

The people demand HOLD!

[thealmighty]

Thanks for checking in (and posting).

[thealmighty]

Now that we have more boxes we could take whichever horses we desired. We can now stable other stock, of course, but in the long term we hope to have the maximum number, which is 20, for our own horses and rely on race gains (game/horse slang for winnings) instead of leasing fees for our profit. With that in mind, we chose the following:

Male:

Hold: we chose Hold as our male this time, in large part, because his 9 'technique' score is excellent to start from what we have seen. His speed and acceleration are very good, as well, and with high resistance, he can undergo heavy training and, hopefully, not break down.

Female:

Imperatrice: with the highest score in both speed and endurance, she has a leg up on the other 1 year olds. She has good resistance, as well, and 80+ for acceleration. We almost passed on her due to the low adaptability, but we hope training and the proper racing choices (if we knew how to go about choosing properly, which we don't) will overcome that weakness.

Beautiful Ladonia: we felt that this was a 'no-brainer.' Just look at her numbers. 80+ in speed, acceleration, endurance, discipline and resistance. Wow!! Even not knowing anything, it seems with high scores like that we can focus more on technique and adaptability than with other horses and make, we pray, an international horse, or a breeding mare, out of her.

Note- we took 2 females to facilitate breeding later on. In the game, you can pay stud fees (don't yet know how high these fees will be though) or use your own males, to breed and get your own yearlings.

[damnMikeBrown]

I have high hopes for Beautiful Ladonia. I think she's got a little something to her. Good choice on Hold as well.

[thealmighty]

7-10-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> We begin upgrade of our riding alleys to level 3 for $11,400. This is expected to take 3 weeks.

---> Fame score is now at 27, placing Almighty Farms at #116 out of 151.

[thealmighty]

7-17-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> Our circle of tether is complete and ready for use. This improvement raises fame a teeny bit and helps with taming of horses.

---> Fame rose a point to 28, tying Almighty Farms for 115th place in the rankings.

[thealmighty]

7-24-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> We see an ad to purchase a mechanical walker at level 2 for $28,518. This will save us time and about $3,000. We make the purchase.

---> We get our second boarding horse, Prince. He will be staying with us for 42 weeks and paying $328 per week for the privilege.

---> Riding alleys have been upgraded to level 3 is completed. This raises fame a tad and will help with the fitness training of our horses.

---> Fame is now at 30. We are #112.

[MrBug708]

This game sounds like it takes forever til you start racing

[thealmighty]

Hey, Bug, thanks for dropping by.

You can actually start racing immediately if you buy an older, crappy horse.

I chose to buy 1-year old horses and you cannot enter any horse in a race until they are 2-year olds. My horsies will not be eligible to run until January, 2004 (5 more months).

[daedalus]

Out of curiosity, are the 1-year olds able to use your facilities at all? Like, are they able to train and what nots?

[thealmighty]

No, daed, you cannot train a horse until they are 2, either.

[thealmighty]

7-31-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> A note that breeding season is over is in our info box. It says the next season will begin in February. Not sure if we want to breed our females at such a young age. Have not seen nor read any horsie porn site about horse sex at 2 years old. Will need to do a bit of browsing to check.

---> The mechanical walker we bought from the ad is ready for use at level 2. It raises the efficiency of fitness exercises.

---> Straight line level 3 is also ready to go. This will raise fame a bit as well as increasing the effects of speed training.

---> Last 2 boxes we started are complete. We now have 12.

---> Begin work on the next 2 boxes at a cost of $51,300.

---> We begin construction of the mechanization improvement, level 3, for $36,100. This will improve the efficiency of the maintenance staff we are ready to hire soon as our costs for maintenance are near the cost we would spend on some help.

---> Fame is now at 34. This puts Almighty Farms tied in 105th place of 151.

[nfg22]

Was wondering whats the money down to? How much are the expendetures running with the new horses and equipment now?

[daedalus]

I don't think they start breeding at 2.

One interesting experiment may be to buy an inexpensive mare in auction with some particular quality you like and try out the breeding aspect to see how well they work out next season.

[Lokugh]

Originally Posted by thealmighty

7-31-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> A note that breeding season is over is in our info box. It says the next season will begin in February. Not sure if we want to breed our females at such a young age. Have not seen nor read any horsie porn site about horse sex at 2 years old. Will need to do a bit of browsing to check.

Most horses run as fillies (female horses that have never bred) as three year olds. They don't usually start breeding female race horses until age four or five. Physically, you can start breeding them as two year olds though, if you want (and this is often the case if the horse is not going to be raced). Just as with people, female horses have a shorter breeding life-span than male horses, so few female horses continue to race much past four or so, as it cuts into their breeding time. Not sure if the game reflects this or not, but that is real life.

Lokugh

[thealmighty]

nfg22, if you missed the first couple of posts in this dynasty, I mentioned that I could not manage to find a way to get past a year, much less win, with the starting money the game provides and have therefore 'cheated' to get some green.

By cheating, I mean taking all the $$ I had and betting on a race at the start of the game until I win, which I did. So, to answer your question, I have several plenty of money at this time, unless all my horses end up being as big of a bust as all my eNFL draftees were.

Budget shot to follow shortly, I hope.

[thealmighty]

Lokugh, thanks for the information. I guess I will race my girls as 2 year olds and see if it is worth keeping them racing, or better to breed them, i.e., are they winning Almighty Farms money and fame.

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by thealmighty

I have several plenty of money at this time, unless all my horses end up being as big of a bust as all my eNFL draftees were.

About how much is "several plenty"?

[thealmighty]

It's an Irish term, since this is (or was, at this point), St. Patricks' Day.

[thealmighty]

dola... (I know it's my dynasty, but the following post is related to the previous post, so dola etiquitte is being followed. )

...Was gonna say several million, and was gonna say plenty, and said some of both.

[thealmighty]

Here is the budget page for one of the past weeks when I didn't upgrade any infrastructure:

Income			Expenses
Boarding/Training	963		Horse Food	200
Race Gains	0		Salaries	0
Betting Gains	0		Building Maint.	779
Horse Sales	0		Interventions	0
			Horse Training	2375
Total Income	963		Purchases	0
			Races	0
Income	963		Outsourcing	1558
Expenses	-4912
Total	-3949		Total Expenses	4912

It would appear I am paying for the training of the horses that are boarding at Almighty Farms, but I'm not sure, since all our stock are 1-year old horses who cannot train yet. If so, I see even less way to do well at this game without doing the "big bet" gambit that I did to start the game.

[thealmighty]

8-07-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> We have begun the upgrade of our club house to level 3 at a cost of $11,400. It will take 2 weeks to complete. When done, we should get more money for the space we lease to other horse owners.

---> Another boarder, Cash Guard, has come to Almighty Farms. We will get $328 a week for the 31 weeks he will be here.

---> Fame is now at 35, which places Almighty Farms at 103rd out of 151.

[thealmighty]

8-21-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> The club house has been upgraded to level 3. More money for boarded horses, I hope, is the outcome.

---> We have started construction on a solarium at a cost of $38,000. This will be a level 3 improvement and will take 8 weeks to complete. This will 'significantly' raise fame and increase the efficiency of fitness training.

---> We are now down to 7 'dots' in our planning station, meaning I, as the owner of Almighty Farms, must chose where to spend my extra time to improve the stables. At this point, I am using these to cut the cost of maintenence. In the future I can use them to help with horse training or food allocation, which will improve their health.

---> Fame is now at 37. This puts us tied for 98th place in the rankings.

[thealmighty]

8-28-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> We have finished construction of 2 more boxes. We have 14 now, 5 of which contain our own stock.

---> We pick up another horse that wishes to board at Almighty Farms. Color Kate will be here for 39 weeks, paying $482 per to stay. You can see how raising the club house to level 3 has increased the rate others will pay to have their horse stay here, as the last one was for only $328 a week.

---> We continue to work toward getting the maximum number of boxes we can, which is 20, by starting construction of 2 more at a cost of $51,300. You might hope the cost of boxes would go down, since we should be pros at building them by now, but no such fiscal luck.

[thealmighty]

9-04-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> Two new boarding horses come to stay. Texas Blue will be at Almighty Farms for 41 weeks, paying at a rate of $474 per. Old Nelly will pay $501 for each of the 43 weeks of her visit.

---> Fame is now 38. We are tied for 96th place.

[thealmighty]

9-18-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> There is an ad on our information page to purchase a saddlery improvement, level 2, for $17,873. This is a $2,000 savings so we make the buy. Saddlery supposedly gives a moderate (whatever that means) fame jump and increases the efficiency of the staff.

---> We jump into a tie for 94th place with a fame score of 40.

[duckman]

Keep it up, thealmighty. I'm enjoying this very much.

[nfg22]

As far as I can see those horses are costing you way more than they are giving you. I wonder who made this game? Well Im following and I like it.

[thealmighty]

Thanks, duckman.

nfg22, that's what I said several posts above. I can't see, again, how to do well straightforwardly (new word?) at this game. That's why I had to do the betting gambit.

I assumed getting horses to board would see a player through til they had horses winning money in races, but as you say, they are, seemingly, costing more than they pay. Another conundrum, eh.

[thealmighty]

I have been looking for a 'set' of horses to post so we can see the differences in the competition levels the game gives for the horses, which are as best as I can tell so far, from least to best:

1. Listed
2. Level 3
3. Level 2
4. Level 1

Here is a look at a horse in each category taken from the ads I see for horses on sale. These may be lower end nags if they are for sale by advertisement, but I don't know. Just for the sake of something to compare.

	LISTED	GR. III	GR. II	GR. I
Race	Gallop	Gallop	Gallop	Gallop
Age	6	7	5	7
Sex	Male	Male	Female	Female
Silk	Black	Black	Bay	Black
Winnings- Year	6k	6k	20k	33k
Winnings- Career	39k	55k	131k	290k
Km Record	1' 09"	1' 08"	1' 05"	1' 00"
Total Races	43	29	46	44
Speed	40.2	43.4	66.4	77.3
Acceleration	31.8	46.9	56.9	74.2
Technique	54.2	26.9	0.3	66.5
Adaptation	2.9	29.7	9.1	4.8
Discipline	14.6	27.9	71.6	90.4
Resistance	83.4	58.2	63.9	44.4
Form	85.7	86.8	85.6	93.3
Injured	no	no	no	no
Injuries	7.0 / 71.0	6.6 / 46.9	8.8 / 52.2	6.2 / 30.3
Endurance	31.8 / 31.8	42.2 / 42.2	63.2 / 63.2	76.7 / 76.7
PRICE	$6,780	$16,000	$45,000	$542,000

The price is what I would have had to pay to purchase the horse from the ad.

[thealmighty]

What do you notice about these horses? A few things I see, some of which are obvious:

1. winnings are obviously more as purses go up with level, I assume, though the number of races is the same.

2. there is a big difference in km record to be a Level 1 horse and the others.
   
3. the big 3- speed, acceleration and endurance go up alot most of the time from one level to the next.
   
4. technique and adaptation are extremely variable.
   
5. discipline appears to be very important.
   
6. injury numbers go down, compared to resistance, about ten points. This is a reason not to buy a horse with a very low initial resistance number since, as reported before, the more you train the BIG-3, the lower your injury score will be, meaning a fragile animal.

[daedalus]

Interesting how little difference there are in speed between the claimer and the G3. Otherwise, I definitely agree with your assessment.

[thealmighty]

Here is a look at the horses I have purchased so far at auctions to compare to those posted above:

	Ursulo	Favorite	Hold	Imperatrice	Beautiful Ladonia
Race	Gallop	Gallop	Gallop	Gallop	Gallop
Category	Listed	Listed	Listed	Listed	Listed
Age	1	1	1	1	1
Sex	male	female	male	female	female
Silk	grey	black	chestnut	chestnut	chestnut
Winnings- Year	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Winnings- Career	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Km Record	1' 00"	1' 01"	1' 00"	1' 00"	1' 00"
Total Races	0	0	0	0	0
Speed	89.9	80.7	84.1	89.9	89.3
Acceleration	81.5	85.2	89.3	81.4	84.2
Technique	4.4	1.2	9.4	3.9	3.7
Adaptation	4.9	1.9	1.8	1	1.3
Discipline	17.8	66.5	10.9	50	82.4
Resistance	51.1	83.5	76.2	63	81
Form	91.4	80.8	88.1	82.6	83.6
Injured	no	no	no	no	no
Injuries	2.7 / 46.0	8.0 / 81.2	1.2 / 72.9	4.0 / 57.9	1.8 / 76.1
Endurance	88.5 / 88.5	80.7 / 80.7	81.3 / 81.3	88.7 / 88.7	86.4 / 86.4

When I finally get to train these suckers, it will be interesting choosing a program.

Any thoughts? Each horse can have a program tailored to it, but I have not seen exactly how it's going to work. 3 more months 'til that point.

[nfg22]

From what I see is technique. All of the things that matter to win a race, you beat the G.1 horse. Except technique. Maybe running with technique would get them below the 1 minute mark?The math in my head tells me that the correlation between the speed and the acceleration going up yet the numbers for total time going down is being held back because of technique.

[kingfc22]

Almighty Farms has all the speed in the world. That's for sure.

[thealmighty]

True, kingfc22. Unfortunately, I don't know what stat plays what, or what %, of a role in determining race outcomes. We'll see in a few gametime months.

[thealmighty]

9-25-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> The saddlery improvement we bought by advertisement is ready to go at level 2. This is supposed to boost fame and increase efficiency of the staff.

---> 2 more boxes have been completed. We now have 16 of the maximum 20 allowable.

---> As usual, we immediately start, for $51,300, the next group of 2 boxes to get to the max as fast as possible.

---> We get an invitation to the next auction and accept.

---> Nices Chemin is the next horse to come stay at Almighty Farms. The fee will be $512 a week for 37 weeks.

---> Fame is now at 41. We are tied for 90th place.

[thealmighty]

10-02-03 (mm-dd-yy)

---> The auction turned out to be mostly older stock. The few 1-year old horses available were not deemed of sufficient quality for us to bid on. Almighty Farms still has 5 horses.

---> We start construction of a paddock, level 3, for $19,950. This improvement should take 3 weeks to complete.

---> Fame is up a point to 42 and Almighty Farms is up a place, tied at 89th.