Tips for Better Animals and Being Better Players

[keema]

Bear with me, I've never done a post like this before

There always seems to be a little confusion on how to do things best. Everyone has there own way or theories it seems. What has been proven and what hasn't? I'm going to make a few lists of tips on how Ive worked up to having some of the best show animals, so much cash, and well such a large farm (it even surprises me, where did all these animals come from? lol) Now by no means am I saying I have the best of everything, after all there are still those out there can trump me


Training

• Train all your animals. Even the ones that don't seem special because it helps your entire farm in the end! Plus when you go to breed replacements the next generation will be better. And if I have the choice between two O/O studs I'm going to pick the one that is trained even if it costs more. You may save a little money if your don't train but its not all that much when it comes down to it.
  
• Train all the way, in order. I train Agility (faster training), Speed (better eventing), Stamina (better recovery), Intelligence and Strength. I train each till it is up to No Wai before moving onto the next and then starting the rotation over again until each is at least 129.99.
  
• Keep track of your training. When I'm going through I make sure to add notes into the box. When an animal reaches 129.99 I make a note of it, that way I know what I have trained all the way and what I haven't and am less likely to waste exams.

Eventing/Shows

• Enter Events! Even if your animals looses it gains points which ups its score. As there score gets higher they will do better the next time. Plus as your animals scores go up the better your farm is reflected in exams and therefore more cash there. So event!
  
• Run events! Everyone can create events and you can tailor them to your animals or to target animals like yours. I used to run Beginner events, these were targeted for animals that had low scores, hadn't won anything and didn't have to be high rarity. These are great types of events to get your animals on the right eventing foot because it eliminated the higher competition.
  
• Don't be to strict! Be careful though when limit the field for events, you don't want to make it so narrow no one else has animals that qualify.
  
• Run down on events: ~Run for a Species or Building? Building is the broader choice and may be the better option if narrowing the field in other places.
  ~Max Color/Variation Rarity? This is where you need to be careful. Pruning down to far can result in events that no one enters. I'd suggest keeping this high, even if not the highest because it allows more to enter and you can change how rarity impacts later. Remember, more animals in events is better!
  ~Min/Max Score? Now if you want to prune down to animals that are new at events make the Max score low. Less then 50 usually. However keep the min at 0. It you want to target experienced eventing animals up the min score to something like 100 and leave the max as it is. There aren't many animals on the board with extremely high scores and most are past retirement age. The highest scored animal is a horse with a score of 2488 and it took that horse 225 events to get there.
  ~Now, the Low/Med/High.. This is where you can choose to make the judging harder or easier on certain aspects of the event. Color/Variation, this is simple, if you have a high rarity animal up this so that variation and color mean more in there score. If you don't then make these low and it will give lower rarity animals a better chance.
  ~Food/Fun/Groom/Health/Loyalty, least all have to do with how well taken care of the animal is. I usually put these high because I like to think it encourages people to make sure they take care of there animals. An animal that isn't taken care of or is freshly bought/born wont do well if you set these high.
  ~Score, this has to do with how they have done in evens previously. Set this high and the higher the score the better the animal will do. Set it low and it wont be a big factor. I generally set this low if running a beginner event.
  ~Secret, this has to do with animals secret value. Its secret. I usually set this as low unless running an event for high stakes big winners.
  

Breeding/Studding

• A very hot topic on SBF. When to breed? If to breed? Public stud? Very tough questions to answer. Most will tell you price accordingly, check the market for like rarity studs. Take into account there event history and training level when putting a price on them. And don't purposely under bid another stud and lower the value of all the studs. If all the VR studs on the market are going for around 100,000, don't place yours at 1,000. This is rude and makes a person look ignorant because they just devalued the entire variation. You may get more people choosing your stud but you wont make that much more then you would have if setting the price fairly and within the next generation all the studs on the market can be related to your stock and therefore unusable to you.
  
• Careful offering public studs for End/AE animals that aren't your creation. Many people take offense to this. And though a bit of angry words might not bother you showing disregard can hurt you more because others may be less inclined to share with you. By respecting everyone's creations you prove yourself reliable and trust worthy. Once you have this reputation, trust me, doors will open and you will have a lot more fun and easier time collecting what you want and playing the game.
  
• Picking studs/broods for your animals. When breeding animals if you want to get the best offspring possible you wait till the animal is completely trained and well evented. You'll also want to pick a stud/brood that has been well trained and evented as well. Just before they are due to go to Florida are when they are at there peak, you will get a better offspring if you wait. And just because an animal isn't offered for public stud or there price is out of your range doesn't mean you can't jump up and ask. Many people will often negotiate on prices and services. Is there a pretty female animal that keeps beating out your male in events? Why not pm and ask the owner if they might consider letting you use them as brood for a replacement of your own? We can't offer female animals up for public breeding like we can offer studs. But we can send them on contracts, people just have to ask. There are lots of good brood possibilities out there to improve your stock.
  
• Unwanted offspring? Tough choice there. Many people want to get more cash and tokens on the board so they opt to sell unwanted offspring and end up flooding the market and devaluing there animals and everyone elses. You only get a measly 100 for releasing an animal but that 100 may mean you get a few million more later on because your variation is rarer on the board. Patience has its rewards and cash/tokens isn't everything. There are other faster and neater ways to get what you want without flooding the market.

Aaaand that is it for now. Let me know if I missed anything or what not.. my eyes are blurring now lol.

[Cowgirls Rule]

Great list! Don't forget to add common curtsy, and over breeding no nos.

[.Savy.]

Awesome! I love having the training, 'Rules'