Weird event results and wrong prize amounts

[SilverGem]

Hi. In the past couple of days I have been noticing problems with two of my horses (former eventing superstars that suddenly turned into duds). Please go here starting at the second to last post of the page to see the issue and my analysis.

Today the weird event results got even weirder. Now, not only are the results coming up strange, but also the events I have run today have the wrong prize amounts. Some of that is described as you follow the posts in the link above. Here are a few links to the specific events:

See first and fifth place prize amounts
See first and fifth place prize amounts
See second and fifth prize amounts
See first prize amount
See first and third prize amounts
See first prize amount

I am sure there are more, but this should give you the idea.

My concern is that there is a glitch when the events run (obviously).

Oh, these are the events also that I evaluated to compare my two horses to the ones that were beating them in competition. Like I said in the thread I refer you to above, I've had about 60 events run for each of the two horses in the last few days, so randomness does not account for why they suddenly turned into perpetual duds a few days ago. Based on tracking competition points, stats, natural stats, age, etc., they should still be beating their competition like they did from ages 5 to 6.

I mention that I changed player bonuses in the thread. I specifically removed Rest-Less, Grace and Glory, and Longevity. I replaced them with Proud and Proper, Speediest, and Better Breeder. When I refer to putting the bonuses back, I am specifically referring to removing Proud and Proper and adding back Grace and Glory. My understanding is that Rest-Less and Longevity do not have any influence on event scores.

The only possibility I can think of at this time is if Rest-Less causes horses to event at higher than 100% energy. When I had Rest-Less, my event trained horses would actually net gain energy each train. After 6 trainings, they'd be at what looked like 130% energy before I turned them and put them in the pasture for their events to run. Could Rest-Less have factored into this?

Oh, yes, I should admit that I have an engineering and statistics background. That's why I waited until so many events had run on the horses before submitting this (Law of Large Numbers - you need at least 30 data points - and preferably more - before you can even think something is a trend instead of randomness). Sorry I am such a geek!

[Wolfsbayne]

Arent there some bonuses that increase winnings? I cant think what they're called but could it be possible thats what is altering the prizes.

Money Grubber You recieve 1% more of the purse in competitions per each 5 levels

Placings I agree with you seem entirely random at the moment so I have no idea about that.

[Byatzine]

Like Wolfsbayne said- if the people who owned those horses had the Money Grubber bonus, they'll get more of the purse than someone without it would. When I had that bonus I ended up with winnings that looked like the ones you posted.

Grace and Glory is only supposed to benefit English show-type horses, so that may have been at least part of the reason they didn't do as well.

However, I've noticed also that the more you switch your bonuses when eventing the worse your horses do (or at least, it certainly seems that way. :S). But the purse thing is definitely not a glitch. It's part of the first money-grubber bonus thing.

[SilverGem]

Thanks for the responses!

Gotcha on the Money Grubber. That makes perfect sense

On the Grace and Glory, it shouldn't have mattered since these were all Endurance horses and events.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has noticed odd placings in events that aren't explained by age, stats, bonuses, etc. It's not just these two Endurance horses that I've had trouble with, it's just that these horses are the only ones where I consistently tracked and evaluated the problem.

Like a 10 year old above BC German Warmblood dressage horse with over 209 Intelligence and over 210 Strength (and everything else in line), who after 150+ events still only has $200,000 in winnings. I am used to my horses winning $15 to $20 million.

Do either of you know if anyone is looking into the odd placings?

At this point I have stopped eventing almost all of my horses, even the ones in train-offs. It's not worth it wasting the money or having them age without winning.

[Mythara]

Like Wolfsbayne said- if the people who owned those horses had the Money Grubber bonus, they'll get more of the purse than someone without it would. When I had that bonus I ended up with winnings that looked like the ones you posted.

Grace and Glory is only supposed to benefit English show-type horses, so that may have been at least part of the reason they didn't do as well.

However, I've noticed also that the more you switch your bonuses when eventing the worse your horses do (or at least, it certainly seems that way. :S). But the purse thing is definitely not a glitch. It's part of the first money-grubber bonus thing.

Grace and Glory actually affects movement and SF. Proud and Proper does English events.

[Mythara]

Thanks for the responses!

Gotcha on the Money Grubber. That makes perfect sense

On the Grace and Glory, it shouldn't have mattered since these were all Endurance horses and events.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has noticed odd placings in events that aren't explained by age, stats, bonuses, etc. It's not just these two Endurance horses that I've had trouble with, it's just that these horses are the only ones where I consistently tracked and evaluated the problem.

Like a 10 year old above BC German Warmblood dressage horse with over 209 Intelligence and over 210 Strength (and everything else in line), who after 150+ events still only has $200,000 in winnings. I am used to my horses winning $15 to $20 million.

Do either of you know if anyone is looking into the odd placings?

At this point I have stopped eventing almost all of my horses, even the ones in train-offs. It's not worth it wasting the money or having them age without winning.

Dressage horses won't place without Proud and Proper.

[Byatzine]

Oh- okay. Thanks Mythara- I think I've been getting quite a few of the bonuses backwards. :[

[Mythara]

Oh- okay. Thanks Mythara- I think I've been getting quite a few of the bonuses backwards. :[

No probs. I keep going back to the bonuses page and rechecking.

[SilverGem]

I did test the Endurance horses with and without Grace and Glory to see if that was driving the results. The effect, if any, was minimal (surefoot does affect 8% of the score for Endurance, but the horses didn't place any better when it was added back in).

On the Proud and Proper, yes I agree. I'm currently building up my 2nd sponsor to have the right bonuses for Dressage. The new bonus system really does force you to specialize. I enjoyed being good at everything, and now I'm not .

[Alabama]

Some of the horses in those events also have randomless randoms, meaning their placing in the events may be 20% higher than they should be. I'd have to go through each ranch's bonuses to see which ones might actually be affecting the outcomes, but that's the one that jumps out at me.

[Lemour]

I saw some stat maxxed confies getting first and second place. That put me off for awhile :/

[Alabama]

Bonuses don't seem to affect confy events at all. I've sent my confies to several different ranches and outside the odd randome event here and there, they all scored consistently the same.

[SilverGem]

Yeah, I thought about the randomless randoms one, too. It wasn't a factor for the competitors that did NOT have private ranches, but of course I couldn't check the private ranches...

In the events I listed earlier in this thread, typically the top three or so horses (with the lower stats, etc., than mine) were from private ranches, so I couldn't check the bonuses. However, since the same horses were consistently beating my used-to-be-superstars almost every single time (and not 20% of the time), I'm going to guess it's not the randomless randoms...

I do have to admit, I really wish I knew what the bonuses were on those private ranches. I mean, if they have discovered a better combination of bonuses that allows them to win extremely consistently against horses that used to beat them, I want to know how I can do that, too! But I think most of those ranches actually belong to ops. Do the ops get to have more bonuses, or other special perks, because of all the hard work and wonderful things that they do for us?

[SilverGem]

Alabama, good to know about the confies. I was worried that my confies wouldn't do as well with bonuses (anything that increases their score is bad ), so I moved mine to a novice account with no bonuses or anything. Of course now I can't breed them. Well, I am already up to my ears recreating my entire ranch structure, so I am too busy to do that right now, anyway

[Swar]

Well I have been leveling a few novice ranches and comparing results when I add each skill. The minimum skills you need to even have your horse place are cool comp and the corresponding 1% discipline skill. Like Proud and Proper for dressage. Without those two your horse won't be able to place no matter how well it is trained. There are exceptions, such as gymkhana, western trail, and I believe 3-day. Those events make no real difference if you have skills or not.

I am fairly certain Ops do not have any extra bonuses and most Ops I see eventing actually have public ranches. My ranch is private but I don't have Randomless randoms. My ranch is private because I am extremely specialized now, sadly to the point where I can only run one type of horse well, and since that is now my only means of income I don't want to hand out my formula to everyone

I don't believe horses are placing particularly oddly. I do believe that it is the specific skill set of the owners which are playing greatly into how they place. Some ranches, like mine, will be highly specialized, while some will be more versatile at the expense of consistent high placings. I did have to choose to do that with my skills and accept the fact I would not be able to event any other sort of horse without buying additional ranches.

It just takes a while, and sometimes a fair bit of cash *sighs* to get your bonuses doing what you want them to do. And keep in mind, to do one thing exceptionally, may mean that will be the only thing you can do.