Breeding

Aiten · 1st June 2008, 19:32

I threw together idea for a breeding profession when the internet/telephone died this morning. The basic premise behind the idea is that the breeder, whilst primarily a non-combat profession, will be given activities and responsibilities that are fun, engaging as well as rewarding.

Throughout, I will use the horse as an example to refer to, specifically, since it will be in high demand as a mount, and in very high demand if the mount can be killed.

Complete Breeding Stages

Stage 1: Capturing/Buying breeding stock
The initial stage of breeding should be the capture phase. The breeder will have to scour the market and buy, or hire a scout/ranger/hunter to obtain a captured animal. The breeder will require both male and female genders of the same animal.

Stage 2: Taming the breeding stock
The next stage of breeding, is the training and taming of both original animals. Whilst this stage is optional, the off spring will be easier to train in return.

Stage 3: Breeding
Put the two animals together to breed. (I have no idea how this should be done from a gameplay sense, whether you just select ‘breed’ from a menu, or you have to buy specialised drugs that bring the mare into season etc)

Stage 4: Pregnancy
The Mare will eat far more, become bad tempered, and generally be more of a handful during this period.

Stage 5: Birth
The foul will be born. For a short period of time after, it is advised to leave the mother and baby alone (remembering to provide more food for two mouths)

Stage 6: New Born – Foul
During this stage, the animal is to weak to be ridden or learn tricks. During this time, the breeder should attempt to get the foul used to human contact, and can teach the animal a name to respond to.

Stage 7: New Born – Child horsey thing
During this stage, the animal is learning its future statistics. Trotting lots will increase its endurance, running lots will increase its speed. A good diet and care (grooming/cleaning) will increase both, as well as hit points.

Stage 8: New Born – Young Adult
This is the stage where the horse can be taught tricks and temperament. Examples would not to rear on its hind legs in fear when face with a humanoid opponent. This will have to be done with different types of animal.
The animal is also now ready to be taught how to be a mount. This requires a training saddle (more expensive, and smaller than normal saddles), and frequent riding (as the breeder, expect to be thrown off a few times).

Stage 9: New Born. – Adult
The horse is now fully trained. You make now enter the horse into breeding or sell the horse down the market for a pretty penny.
If using the horse for breeding, make sure you breed with another animal that is not related to the horse.

---------
Through out the process of breeding and raising an animal, you have to look after them.
This includes:

Food and water. (Daily)
Food and water is simply a case of (through drag/drop menu) providing food and water to the shelter.

Exercise. (Daily)
Exercise is provided by letting the horses roam an open field, or training which involves movement.

Clean the animal. (Every 3 days)
Cleaning the animal, a mini game, where by moving the cursor, your character then shampoos the horse with a sponge. This will be finished by hosing the horse down in a similar fashion. (Hey, its better than ticking a box)

Clean the shelter. (Every 3 days)
Cleaning the shelter, this is less of a mini-game. Simply replace the bedding (drag/drop box) and remove the waste by picking it up (if there is alchemy, perhaps that means growing plants, meaning breeders also have a fertiliser to sell)

Grooming. (Every 3 days)
Grooming is much like cleaning the animal, except you brush the hair, rather than cover in soap. In reality, this makes the horse’s hair appear shiny, giving the appearance of a well kept animal.

---------

When not under the breeder’s control, the animal no longer needs exercise, food and cleaning etc. The reason for this, is that the owner may just want to play the game to kill, where as a breeder will go into the profession wanting to breed and care for animals.
Keep it fun and busy for the breeder, but we don’t need to force it on the other players.

The idea needs a lot of fleshing out, but I think the initial idea is sound. It might sound a bit Sims to you fighters, but to someone wanting a non-combat profession that is more than drag/drop menus, it does provide a new style of gameplay that is equally engaging as swinging a sword, just a different type of engaging.

The biggest issue is where to do this. In the countryside? Run the risk of ruining it with stables popping up everywhere? In the city ... run the risk of only 1 or 2 people being able to breed per city, or instancing ... and I know most of you hate that word.
Also what about other animals to be used as mounts etc? How do you make different types of breeding stock fun, by changing the game slightly for variation? How long should each stage be? etc.

Landor · 1st June 2008, 19:46

Its a good idea, but by daily, do you mean every ingame day? Or every day in real life. And how long do you think this should take, from mating to new born to full adult? I'm thinking maybe 15-25 days, so the market doesn't flood. And so it doesn't take to long.

Aiten · 1st June 2008, 19:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Landor

Its a good idea, but by daily, do you mean every ingame day? Or every day in real life. And how long do you think this should take, from mating to new born to full adult? I'm thinking maybe 15-25 days, so the market doesn't flood. And so it doesn't take to long.

Real day. It should keep you busy, but not take up all your time.

(with the ability to go on Holiday in RL, so pause the need to care for/ therefore also pause growth and advancement, of the animals.

As for how long ... 15-25 days (RL days) sound fine. Nothing stopping you training more than one horse at a time, just how many fouls you get.
Taking that long would also keep them valuable, rather than throw away tools, like an iron sword for example.

KroqGar · 1st June 2008, 21:16

It has potential, but I don't think a lot of people would be interested in playing with baby horses in a game like Mortal. Especially judging by the personas I've seen on these forums. I'd say put this process to NPC's, with the ability to increase their operations depending on how many people buy from them.

By the way, it's foal not foul.

EDIT: Thinking more on it, if it was implemented as an NPC, it would be cool if guilds could purchase a horse master for their guild, to supply their members with horses. If it was implemented as a player crafting ability, then guilds should be able to supply their horse masters with things to help breed the best horses possible.

EDIT #2: Thinking about it even more, I'd implement some sort of a bloodline ability, where you can breed better and faster horses the longer you're established.

MasterMind · 1st June 2008, 21:23

The idea is good , but I don't want to breed a baby horse for 15-25 days. With that being said I would go with Kroq's idea and hire a NPC.

Landor · 1st June 2008, 21:32

It should be that you can hire a NPC if you want or just do it on your own. And hiring a NPC cost money, which could help keep the prices of the horses up. So the breeding could only bet 10-20 days then.

Aiten · 1st June 2008, 21:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by KroqGar

Especially judging by the personas I've seen on these forums.

Never judge a game by its forums, since it only represent the loud minority.

The bloodlines thing is a good idea. It would be nice to mix horses, eventually being able to have your own breed to compete with other horses from rival players.

BTW ... I am confused. Are you suggesting changing the system from a non-combat profession done by the player, to hiring an NPC to do it all?
If so, I would actually be really against that. Instead of providing a profession for people who don't want to fight all day, it ends up being a profession that is designed to remove all interaction, whilst you fight all day - ultimately defeating the point of it in the first place.
The important thing to remember is that no everyone playing will be a 22 year old guy. The test of whether MO is successful or not, is to attractive a variety of people, which means creating a variety of gameplay experiences, ranging from the traditional warrior clicking LMB, to the breeder who cares more about creation than destruction.

@ MasterMind.
If you removed Stage 1 (assuming you have done it a few times already, so have the breeding stock), and each step took 2 RL days, then you only have 4 days with a foal (Spelling noted

), and only 16 days in total, from mating to selling.

@ Landor
I can see the Chinese from here!

Landor · 1st June 2008, 22:01

Yea I forgot about the Gold farmers. Yea so maybe take out the NPC hiring.

MasterMind · 1st June 2008, 22:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aiten

@ MasterMind.
If you removed Stage 1 (assuming you have done it a few times already, so have the breeding stock), and each step took 2 RL days, then you only have 4 days with a foal (Spelling noted

), and only 16 days in total, from mating to selling.

@ Landor
I can see the Chinese from here!

Doesn't seem that bad now useing that one step closer explanation and I didn't even think about the Chinese.

KroqGar · 2nd June 2008, 01:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aiten

BTW ... I am confused. Are you suggesting changing the system from a non-combat profession done by the player, to hiring an NPC to do it all?

If so, I would actually be really against that. Instead of providing a profession for people who don't want to fight all day, it ends up being a profession that is designed to remove all interaction, whilst you fight all day - ultimately defeating the point of it in the first place.
The important thing to remember is that no everyone playing will be a 22 year old guy. The test of whether MO is successful or not, is to attractive a variety of people, which means creating a variety of gameplay experiences, ranging from the traditional warrior clicking LMB, to the breeder who cares more about creation than destruction.

Ok, this needs to be responded to in a couple of sections, so if you will indulge me:

1) Yes, I am suggesting taking out the player aspect, mostly because it seems very unnecessary in a video game. As I said before, very few people will want to spend all of their time playing with baby horses. It may be fun the first time, but feeding/grooming a horse every day would get very repetitive and, quite frankly, boring.

2) I understand that the key to a games success is diversity, but I don't feel that breeding animals is the way to go. It's a very tedious and long process in real life, so why would players want to do it in game? There's plenty of other outlets for players who want a system like this. Something like Neopets comes to mind. (Kidding.)

3) Where did I ever say that everyone would be a 22 year old college gamer who just wants to fight all day? I'm all for crafting professions, especially if they're intuitive and organic like WAR is making theirs. I just don't think that this is a viable crafting profession for a game like Mortal.

Aiten · 2nd June 2008, 02:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by KroqGar

so if you will indulge me

Absolutely. It would be boring if everyone thought like I did. I appreciate the different opinions. It looks like I'll respond backwards.

3. War? Making a good crafting system?
I saw the 13min crafting video, and honestly thought it was a genuine joke. The WAR perspective is everything that's wrong with crafting. Its a case of gathering, before drag/drop menus.
My favourite part of the video was getting rid of recipes ... for them to be put straight back in, except you have to search GameFAQs for them instead

2. From the sounds of it, your like me, enjoy the fighting, but likes to dabble in crafting. My reason for fighting mostly, is that there has never been a crafting system deep enough, with enough interaction, to equal combat. To answer your question with one myself. Yes, it would be a long process (I wont say tedious, things can be done to make it more engaging), but it is anymore tedious in this form, than swinging a pick at the same gold vein for a few hours, or buying ore, then dragging it in a menu to smelt into bars, 1,000 times a week? There is real diversity, mostly with the training I admit. Perhaps loosen the care requirements.
One of the reasons I added the caring aspect, was to give the role more things on its 'to do' list, and secondly, if someone did everything perfectly, their breed would be worth a lot more than someone who did the bare minimum - greater the effort, greater the reward.

1. In terms of unnecessary, I do understand where your coming from - from someone who enjoys a brawl. I have to ask, what makes breeding (which is only an option open to the player, same as being a blacksmith) any less necessary than say a blacksmith who drag/drops all day, or a miner that swings a pick over and over? All of them feature very repetitive commands.
To add, there are people here who want fishing, some who want to run services, including someone who has asked for cooking, none of which are particularly manly or exciting in the usual sense.
The system is merely a more interactive crafting menu - something I feel crafting needs.

As for someone not wanting to deal with baby horses all day ... breed those two horned woolly rhinos, or even a Drake (wingless dragon) as a mount? It doesn't have to be cute and cuddly.

I do think a deep breeding system would actually attract a different set of people for that role. In the same way, if a blacksmith was more than a drag and drop menu, for example creating individual components, then piecing them together on a transparent 3D blueprint to achieve the final item, would probably attract more people as well.

I guess what I am trying to get at it, more interaction, more engaging content, less drag/drop, and run away from the WAR crafting system!!!!

KroqGar · 2nd June 2008, 03:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aiten

3. War? Making a good crafting system?
I saw the 13min crafting video, and honestly thought it was a genuine joke. The WAR perspective is everything that's wrong with crafting. Its a case of gathering, before drag/drop menus.
My favourite part of the video was getting rid of recipes ... for them to be put straight back in, except you have to search GameFAQs for them instead

Trust me, in practice the WAR crafting system is more interesting than the video describes. In fact, the entire game is different from the videos. Regardless, the aspect of it that I meant was that people have to experiment with different combinations and concentrations to get more efficient things.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aiten

1. In terms of unnecessary, I do understand where your coming from - from someone who enjoys a brawl. I have to ask, what makes breeding (which is only an option open to the player, same as being a blacksmith) any less necessary than say a blacksmith who drag/drops all day, or a miner that swings a pick over and over? All of them feature very repetitive commands.
To add, there are people here who want fishing, some who want to run services, including someone who has asked for cooking, none of which are particularly manly or exciting in the usual sense.
The system is merely a more interactive crafting menu - something I feel crafting needs.

Well, the reason i think that breeding would get more repetitive is that you would have to ascribe to it every day, whereas a blacksmith only has to do it when he feels like it.

I'd post a more detailed response and counter-argument, but 'm late for a game with some friends on BF2. I may come back to this later tonight.

Traceur · 2nd June 2008, 12:34

we have deva's... you don't need to do everything with the same character.

i also like the idea of gold farmers working as caretakers for payment while you are gone

it's funny, gold farmers being useful for the game...

but NPCs might do as well.

i do like your general idea of breeding livestocks though.

Rhygar · 2nd June 2008, 13:43

maybe a little way out this idea...

An NPC handles all the day-to-day stuff. You as the horse breeder have the management task which would be to identify the different stages the OP mentioned and to "instruct" the NPC to start with it.

Now, as to the actual breeding bit before you have a foal. Take the emphasis away from the raising of the horse to the actual choice of gene pool. Different horses in-game should look reasonable similar, and they should not have stats that identifies which ones are fast/strong etc. You as the horse breeder should "test" them, i.e. run them around (whatever they do in real life) to ascertain which horses to be put to stud... which will them produce higher quality offspring.

The training the NPCs do, which you oversee, has more to do with those horses you wish to sell off to other players.

I think the "choosing your stud" system could make it very engaging as it would involve judgement instead of comparing numbers.

Types of feed should also affect the horses...

Aiten · 2nd June 2008, 14:08

I hate you all!
I will go back to fighting. Watching an NPC have all the fun sound like the equivalent of watching your wife have sex with a stranger and buying in condoms for her. Sure you can watch and not break out a sweat, but all the fun stuff is just happening in your head whilst you surf supplies websites trying to fill in spreadsheet fields with wholesale prices.

/me goes to an NPC horse vendor instead

Rhygar · 2nd June 2008, 14:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aiten

I hate you all!
I will go back to fighting. Watching an NPC have all the fun sound like the equivalent of watching your wife have sex with a stranger and buying in condoms for her. Sure you can watch and not break out a sweat, but all the fun stuff is just happening in your head whilst you surf supplies websites trying to fill in spreadsheet fields with wholesale prices.

/me goes to an NPC horse vendor instead

No, no, noooo! Was just trying to add to your idea. I agree the horsemaster should be involved.

Do you want to carry the bags of fodder and water buckets around? You can make the system flexible and make it optional to hire the NPC for menial work and thereby do everything yourself!

Aiten · 2nd June 2008, 14:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhygar

No, no, noooo! Was just trying to add to your idea. I agree the horsemaster should be involved.

Do you want to carry the bags of fodder and water buckets around?

I wasn't being serious about hating you all

(although, I think it was a good point about watching, rather than doing).

You may well be right on the whole 'care' aspect. I would enjoy it, as I like to see work equal reward (if something is to easy, I feel cheated). Even if I had 2 horses and 1 foal, the maximum it would take to 'care' for them would be 5 mins each day. Carry some water and hay in the inventory, select the food tray, drag & drop. The other things didn't have to be done daily - therefore 1 day on (still wouldn't take long), 2 days off.

I certainly would never want to see the training taken out of the hands of the player however. In the video, it mentioned player skill. NPCs cannot let player skill shine, instead, more wallet skill. The difference between a good breeder, and a bad breeder, should be down to player skill, not the size of wallet (which can be filled by our friends at IGE ... may they die). An NPC at most, will be related to character skill

I understand the care aspect, but the actual training ... I have to stick by my guns and say it must be manual. (or I would say something ridiculous, like hiring NPC miners/fighters, so that you don't have to left click all day)

Traceur · 2nd June 2008, 14:43

watching your wife with a stranger... some fetishes. anyway, back to topic:

i like your idea Aiten, just not the part where you don't have to feed the horses if you decide to go out fighting and doing other activities. I'd much rather have a cartaker for hire NPC/gold-farmer.

Aiten · 2nd June 2008, 14:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Traceur

watching your wife with a stranger... some fetishes. anyway, back to topic:

i like your idea Aiten, just not the part where you don't have to feed the horses if you decide to go out fighting and doing other activities. I'd much rather have a cartaker for hire NPC/gold-farmer.

A caretaker would have to be an NPC. A gold farmer would steal everything the moment control was handed over ... they are slimy little herpes infested rats.
I will never be a fan of NPC automation though ... its like instancing, but worse.

Rhygar · 2nd June 2008, 15:31

Well, maybe it is right that a horse breeder profession should only appeal to a few people. How many breeders do you want, right?

If you have too many the market will be flooded. Better to limit the number of breeders. Keep it a niche market.

Traceur · 2nd June 2008, 15:54

the numbers of the breeders would be limited anyway because of limited food & limited demand. but it's a complicated issue:

you do want it to be real time demand for food and caretaking supplies though, because otherwise the player is basically making more money not logging in to that character..

at the same time you don't want to punish the player because he's not logging in every day or because work sent him to 2 months in India, the player comes back and oops, everything worked for is dead...

so just like NPC guards for player-cities, i suggest NPC-caretakers for trainers. the cartaker won't do as good of a job as you, but he won't starve the animals either. your bills will include food supplies as well as his hiring.

Rhygar · 2nd June 2008, 16:03

So NPC caretakers as an optional extra then... for when you absolutely have to tend to RL...

OMGPIE · 10th June 2008, 23:21

Good idea but no NPC hiring I now realize why it should not be possible for anything otherwise the gold farmers will have a ball.

BloodofDragons · 14th July 2008, 19:25

well i think this could be a great idea and unique to high budget mmos.

i didn't read all the replies so sorry if i say something already said.

it could be made so the animal/creature only matures if tended to each real day that you log in. so if the account is not logged on for 2 weeks the animal will not mature or die. but if you log the account in say 3-5 days with out tending to the animal/creature then it could die/starve.

the pets/mounts could be given unique stats for trading just like crafted items. it could be a very unique profession to mmos. the stats (speed,strength,int,ect) would be based on how often and what kind of training and attention given to the pet/mount during preg and maturing stages. types of food, grade of items used in training could also be a factor. your breeding lvl would determine what you can breed plus bonus stats. so a lvl 50 breeder/animal trainer would would beable to produce a much better horse,bear,lion,dragon,griffon,ect then a lvl 10 animal trainer. this could be very fun and something to do with your time then grinding crafted items.

this could be a replacement for magicly summoned pets/mounts and could really help with the econemy of the game. the pets and mounts would perm die making these professions just as important as a blacksmith. also perm death would make having the pet and mount something special. it would also make the players look after their pets and mount more carfully, insted of just sending the pet headlong into battle with out a care. or riding your mount thru the most dangerous places in game with nothing to lose.

now that i think of it. if we go this far in having stats for animals they would almost have to lvl also. either thru combat or advanced training once the animal becomes actively used after training. so that is something to think about.

i reall think this is a great idea. i get so tired of people sitting in towns sitting on thier mounts showing off and thinking they are something special. in this case they would be special because they would be unique mounts/pets. it could even play a role in live and everyday events. stock/pet shows could be a way to show off your animal train skill aswell as give you a chance to trade with out an AH. races would be a great added event. arenas for pets to compete. arenas for pets and masters. all ways to make extra money and show off your animal training skills and most importantly something you could really get into beside just questing. the possibilities are really limitless.

this would make me play mortal much longer becuase personaly i get bored with questing and crafting very quick. and most important it's unique.

sorry for being so long but i love this idea.

1st June 2008, 19:32	#1 (permalink)
Aiten Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 334 Rep Power: 1	Breeding I threw together idea for a breeding profession when the internet/telephone died this morning. The basic premise behind the idea is that the breeder, whilst primarily a non-combat profession, will be given activities and responsibilities that are fun, engaging as well as rewarding. Throughout, I will use the horse as an example to refer to, specifically, since it will be in high demand as a mount, and in very high demand if the mount can be killed. Complete Breeding Stages Stage 1: Capturing/Buying breeding stock The initial stage of breeding should be the capture phase. The breeder will have to scour the market and buy, or hire a scout/ranger/hunter to obtain a captured animal. The breeder will require both male and female genders of the same animal. Stage 2: Taming the breeding stock The next stage of breeding, is the training and taming of both original animals. Whilst this stage is optional, the off spring will be easier to train in return. Stage 3: Breeding Put the two animals together to breed. (I have no idea how this should be done from a gameplay sense, whether you just select ‘breed’ from a menu, or you have to buy specialised drugs that bring the mare into season etc) Stage 4: Pregnancy The Mare will eat far more, become bad tempered, and generally be more of a handful during this period. Stage 5: Birth The foul will be born. For a short period of time after, it is advised to leave the mother and baby alone (remembering to provide more food for two mouths) Stage 6: New Born – Foul During this stage, the animal is to weak to be ridden or learn tricks. During this time, the breeder should attempt to get the foul used to human contact, and can teach the animal a name to respond to. Stage 7: New Born – Child horsey thing During this stage, the animal is learning its future statistics. Trotting lots will increase its endurance, running lots will increase its speed. A good diet and care (grooming/cleaning) will increase both, as well as hit points. Stage 8: New Born – Young Adult This is the stage where the horse can be taught tricks and temperament. Examples would not to rear on its hind legs in fear when face with a humanoid opponent. This will have to be done with different types of animal. The animal is also now ready to be taught how to be a mount. This requires a training saddle (more expensive, and smaller than normal saddles), and frequent riding (as the breeder, expect to be thrown off a few times). Stage 9: New Born. – Adult The horse is now fully trained. You make now enter the horse into breeding or sell the horse down the market for a pretty penny. If using the horse for breeding, make sure you breed with another animal that is not related to the horse. --------- Through out the process of breeding and raising an animal, you have to look after them. This includes: Food and water. (Daily) Food and water is simply a case of (through drag/drop menu) providing food and water to the shelter. Exercise. (Daily) Exercise is provided by letting the horses roam an open field, or training which involves movement. Clean the animal. (Every 3 days) Cleaning the animal, a mini game, where by moving the cursor, your character then shampoos the horse with a sponge. This will be finished by hosing the horse down in a similar fashion. (Hey, its better than ticking a box) Clean the shelter. (Every 3 days) Cleaning the shelter, this is less of a mini-game. Simply replace the bedding (drag/drop box) and remove the waste by picking it up (if there is alchemy, perhaps that means growing plants, meaning breeders also have a fertiliser to sell) Grooming. (Every 3 days) Grooming is much like cleaning the animal, except you brush the hair, rather than cover in soap. In reality, this makes the horse’s hair appear shiny, giving the appearance of a well kept animal. --------- When not under the breeder’s control, the animal no longer needs exercise, food and cleaning etc. The reason for this, is that the owner may just want to play the game to kill, where as a breeder will go into the profession wanting to breed and care for animals. Keep it fun and busy for the breeder, but we don’t need to force it on the other players. The idea needs a lot of fleshing out, but I think the initial idea is sound. It might sound a bit Sims to you fighters, but to someone wanting a non-combat profession that is more than drag/drop menus, it does provide a new style of gameplay that is equally engaging as swinging a sword, just a different type of engaging. The biggest issue is where to do this. In the countryside? Run the risk of ruining it with stables popping up everywhere? In the city ... run the risk of only 1 or 2 people being able to breed per city, or instancing ... and I know most of you hate that word. Also what about other animals to be used as mounts etc? How do you make different types of breeding stock fun, by changing the game slightly for variation? How long should each stage be? etc.

1st June 2008, 19:46	#2 (permalink)
Landor Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 591 Rep Power: 2	Its a good idea, but by daily, do you mean every ingame day? Or every day in real life. And how long do you think this should take, from mating to new born to full adult? I'm thinking maybe 15-25 days, so the market doesn't flood. And so it doesn't take to long. __________________ Official Recruiter of The King's Dragons PM me if you have any questions about joining the guild http://www.thekingsdragons.com/

1st June 2008, 21:16	#4 (permalink)
KroqGar Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Victoria, BC Posts: 246 Rep Power: 1	It has potential, but I don't think a lot of people would be interested in playing with baby horses in a game like Mortal. Especially judging by the personas I've seen on these forums. I'd say put this process to NPC's, with the ability to increase their operations depending on how many people buy from them. By the way, it's foal not foul. EDIT: Thinking more on it, if it was implemented as an NPC, it would be cool if guilds could purchase a horse master for their guild, to supply their members with horses. If it was implemented as a player crafting ability, then guilds should be able to supply their horse masters with things to help breed the best horses possible. EDIT #2: Thinking about it even more, I'd implement some sort of a bloodline ability, where you can breed better and faster horses the longer you're established. Last edited by KroqGar : 1st June 2008 at 21:26.

1st June 2008, 21:32	#6 (permalink)
Landor Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 591 Rep Power: 2	It should be that you can hire a NPC if you want or just do it on your own. And hiring a NPC cost money, which could help keep the prices of the horses up. So the breeding could only bet 10-20 days then. __________________ Official Recruiter of The King's Dragons PM me if you have any questions about joining the guild http://www.thekingsdragons.com/

1st June 2008, 22:01	#8 (permalink)
Landor Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 591 Rep Power: 2	Yea I forgot about the Gold farmers. Yea so maybe take out the NPC hiring. __________________ Official Recruiter of The King's Dragons PM me if you have any questions about joining the guild http://www.thekingsdragons.com/

1st June 2008, 21:23	#5 (permalink)
MasterMind Junior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Virginia, USA Age: 20 Posts: 92 Rep Power: 1	The idea is good , but I don't want to breed a baby horse for 15-25 days. With that being said I would go with Kroq's idea and hire a NPC.

2nd June 2008, 12:34	#13 (permalink)
Traceur Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2,587 Rep Power: 8	we have deva's... you don't need to do everything with the same character. i also like the idea of gold farmers working as caretakers for payment while you are gone it's funny, gold farmers being useful for the game... but NPCs might do as well. i do like your general idea of breeding livestocks though. __________________ stop looking at my post count!it's not a habit, it's cool, i feel alive.... welcome to the TBC!

2nd June 2008, 13:43	#14 (permalink)
Rhygar Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cape Town Age: 28 Posts: 428 Rep Power: 1	maybe a little way out this idea... An NPC handles all the day-to-day stuff. You as the horse breeder have the management task which would be to identify the different stages the OP mentioned and to "instruct" the NPC to start with it. Now, as to the actual breeding bit before you have a foal. Take the emphasis away from the raising of the horse to the actual choice of gene pool. Different horses in-game should look reasonable similar, and they should not have stats that identifies which ones are fast/strong etc. You as the horse breeder should "test" them, i.e. run them around (whatever they do in real life) to ascertain which horses to be put to stud... which will them produce higher quality offspring. The training the NPCs do, which you oversee, has more to do with those horses you wish to sell off to other players. I think the "choosing your stud" system could make it very engaging as it would involve judgement instead of comparing numbers. Types of feed should also affect the horses... __________________ "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." Denis Diderot - French philosopher and editor of L'Encyclopédie

2nd June 2008, 14:08	#15 (permalink)
Aiten Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 334 Rep Power: 1	I hate you all! I will go back to fighting. Watching an NPC have all the fun sound like the equivalent of watching your wife have sex with a stranger and buying in condoms for her. Sure you can watch and not break out a sweat, but all the fun stuff is just happening in your head whilst you surf supplies websites trying to fill in spreadsheet fields with wholesale prices. /me goes to an NPC horse vendor instead

2nd June 2008, 14:43	#18 (permalink)
Traceur Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2,587 Rep Power: 8	watching your wife with a stranger... some fetishes. anyway, back to topic: i like your idea Aiten, just not the part where you don't have to feed the horses if you decide to go out fighting and doing other activities. I'd much rather have a cartaker for hire NPC/gold-farmer. __________________ stop looking at my post count!it's not a habit, it's cool, i feel alive.... welcome to the TBC!

2nd June 2008, 15:31	#20 (permalink)
Rhygar Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cape Town Age: 28 Posts: 428 Rep Power: 1	Well, maybe it is right that a horse breeder profession should only appeal to a few people. How many breeders do you want, right? If you have too many the market will be flooded. Better to limit the number of breeders. Keep it a niche market. __________________ "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." Denis Diderot - French philosopher and editor of L'Encyclopédie

2nd June 2008, 15:54	#21 (permalink)
Traceur Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 2,587 Rep Power: 8	the numbers of the breeders would be limited anyway because of limited food & limited demand. but it's a complicated issue: you do want it to be real time demand for food and caretaking supplies though, because otherwise the player is basically making more money not logging in to that character.. at the same time you don't want to punish the player because he's not logging in every day or because work sent him to 2 months in India, the player comes back and oops, everything worked for is dead... so just like NPC guards for player-cities, i suggest NPC-caretakers for trainers. the cartaker won't do as good of a job as you, but he won't starve the animals either. your bills will include food supplies as well as his hiring. __________________ stop looking at my post count!it's not a habit, it's cool, i feel alive.... welcome to the TBC!

2nd June 2008, 16:03	#22 (permalink)
Rhygar Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cape Town Age: 28 Posts: 428 Rep Power: 1	So NPC caretakers as an optional extra then... for when you absolutely have to tend to RL... __________________ "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." Denis Diderot - French philosopher and editor of L'Encyclopédie

10th June 2008, 23:21	#23 (permalink)
OMGPIE Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Omnipresent Posts: 1,504 Rep Power: 4	Good idea but no NPC hiring I now realize why it should not be possible for anything otherwise the gold farmers will have a ball. __________________

14th July 2008, 19:25	#24 (permalink)
BloodofDragons Newbie Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 46 Rep Power: 1	well i think this could be a great idea and unique to high budget mmos. i didn't read all the replies so sorry if i say something already said. it could be made so the animal/creature only matures if tended to each real day that you log in. so if the account is not logged on for 2 weeks the animal will not mature or die. but if you log the account in say 3-5 days with out tending to the animal/creature then it could die/starve. the pets/mounts could be given unique stats for trading just like crafted items. it could be a very unique profession to mmos. the stats (speed,strength,int,ect) would be based on how often and what kind of training and attention given to the pet/mount during preg and maturing stages. types of food, grade of items used in training could also be a factor. your breeding lvl would determine what you can breed plus bonus stats. so a lvl 50 breeder/animal trainer would would beable to produce a much better horse,bear,lion,dragon,griffon,ect then a lvl 10 animal trainer. this could be very fun and something to do with your time then grinding crafted items. this could be a replacement for magicly summoned pets/mounts and could really help with the econemy of the game. the pets and mounts would perm die making these professions just as important as a blacksmith. also perm death would make having the pet and mount something special. it would also make the players look after their pets and mount more carfully, insted of just sending the pet headlong into battle with out a care. or riding your mount thru the most dangerous places in game with nothing to lose. now that i think of it. if we go this far in having stats for animals they would almost have to lvl also. either thru combat or advanced training once the animal becomes actively used after training. so that is something to think about. i reall think this is a great idea. i get so tired of people sitting in towns sitting on thier mounts showing off and thinking they are something special. in this case they would be special because they would be unique mounts/pets. it could even play a role in live and everyday events. stock/pet shows could be a way to show off your animal train skill aswell as give you a chance to trade with out an AH. races would be a great added event. arenas for pets to compete. arenas for pets and masters. all ways to make extra money and show off your animal training skills and most importantly something you could really get into beside just questing. the possibilities are really limitless. this would make me play mortal much longer becuase personaly i get bored with questing and crafting very quick. and most important it's unique. sorry for being so long but i love this idea.