I wanted to open up a discussion about adding a new feature since we are removing associations from the game! It doesn't need to be an association equivalent, and we may choose to just not add something new and improve upon what we have.

But since we are removing something, I want to have a discussion about adding something in it's place!

Umm - Sorry to sound like a dummy, but do you mean any ideas in particular instead of Associations or ideas about helping the Clubs since they're struggling as much?  I have ideas, but I'm not quite sure what you guys are looking for..:/

All I got right now is maybe have more clubs or a way players could purchase like.. a week or a month, 6 months, ect of "special shows" they would still be public, but maybe at a higher price? maybe that wouldn't work... lol.. i will keep thinking!

Equ - Well, either would be good, honestly!

I'd just like to see a couple more clubs added back in. What ones I don't know. Driving randomly popped in my head since I think that's the last discipline base to be covered, maybe some kind of working horse whatever.

I definitely thing dog clubs need expanded to include the AKC groups (toy, working, hound, etc).

Link Tree

I'm thinking clubs should have a presidency, vice president thing going on...maybe with two people running it there would be more brainstorming, more money and effort being put into contests or just more ideas to get people involved. I think that idea was said once, but I do believe it is a good idea to have more people working together to throw in ideas and get people into it..more people means more advertising and maybe bigger contests as well

I like the vice presidency idea very much!! 

I like adding more dog clubs.. though it sort of saddens me, because the pit bull is not an AKC breed. so i may or may not be rooting for a bully club of some sort. :P

I wouldn't mind a VP, it's just a matter of "how does."

Adria brought up longer presidencies too, and I think a 3 month presidency could be something to consider. Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall type deal. It's a struggle to get people interested in contests on a good day, so maybe having a little more time would help. Also for training contests, 4 week training contests aren't really much fun. 

Link Tree

I want a club to do with the high performance animals. because I loved those association. 

Other than that, that's all I can think of. 

I thought one of the pibbies was? 

Regardless, I think it could be opened up for discussion. Like one for bullies. One for Pariah dogs maybe? Some kinda champion thingy like Concourse said...

Link Tree

Lile Con said, I think it would be cool to clubs in horses in dogs like the blue ribbon society, and high pointed  breeds...it would give people something to strive for to get their animals into, but it would also give us more clubs as well..

My other debate is saying add more clubs but not too many. We don't want an over populated list of clubs because then you have too much going on which can also overwhelm the players. Maybe? Idk xD just writing as I'm thinking lol

I never have had any real solid ideas on getting the clubs active. I have entered a few mascot contests and that's about it. So I am guilty of not being interested. I like the idea of a longer presidency as said above. Especially the seasonal ones...they could base things around holidays and have themes and such. I also wonder if making the shows more appealing would help people join clubs more often. Like the club shows offer a significant amount more points to win. 

Also, when I used to be on Anatheria, whatever club you joined had its own forum and it would be more of a club. Right now the clubs have little chat boxes and that's not really a place where anyone hangs out. Giving each club its own forum would probably be a lot of programming work though.

Maybe paying the Presidents? That way there is more incentive to become one and run a club. A weekly allowance and such. That's all I've really got! 

I'm terrible with trying to give good, coherent thoughts when I'm nervous but these are some of the ideas I have {have no idea if they're even doable}, but as ideas pop into my brain, I will edit & post them:

o An HP Studbook - This is something that you can find on almost any real life Association and since we're removing said Assocs I feel that this would be a proper thing to add into its place. I can NOT emphasize how difficult it is to find a breedable horse on the game without going through pages & pages on Search {and if you have a rare breed? Its even harder!}. 

How would it work? 

Competition is an important name of this game! {especially points} So certain guidelines would have to be taken into account - I believe though, that this would not only be an amazing achievement and good reputation for the breeder but also good for the breeding community! Why? Because you would have quality animals available and if you have a rare breed, you would have a way of making it known.

I. Registration - To get on the studbook you would have to register! {gotta in real life too} Have them fill in information about the stallion of choice; in precaution to showing and health, you could make it so that you would have to have your breeding male up-to-date with the care provided on the animal's page. 

II. Points - I think that it would be reasonable, and competitive, to have a horse be listed starting at 5 years or a bit older with at least 1 million points. This would in turn also help the economy {you gotta get tixs/shows to hit that mark!} and then set them for stud on the list. 

III. Prodigy & Pedigree - This would be excellent for 3 gen lines of any animals! If your horse/dog comes out of a well-known line, it should be listed on the short description as well as links to prodigies. This would allow buyers to see what exactly the average foal/pup points round about for quality livestock. 

IV. How to purchase - Perhaps bidding like in graphic auctions. Just make your highest bid and the date of interest and just like the auction, it could give an automatic message that a bid has been placed on their listed male of choice. This would allow them to examine the broodmares of choice and ensure quality. 

Along side what equ said, I remember reading the forum about animal auction (: it would be so much easier having a more updated list of animals for bid and some could have an auto buy set to them as well. You will have competing along side getting the animal with really good points & it will always be up to date (because some animals in the searches belong to players no longer active or whom do not wish to actually sell the animal but are rather moving them to a spare) 

In the animal auction you can have a view horse breeds or dog breeds and like the graphics auction you can have a sell dog breed or sell horse breed links to let you sell the right animal to view in dog or horse breed lists 

Ok, I have quite a few ideas and I'll just keep adding new ones to this post as I think of them

As much as I want more clubs, I think we should hold off to see if removing associations helps with activity. There's no point in removing associations only to have the club page flooded with clubs. If new clubs are added, I think that a formal application should be mandatory and a public vote on whether or not the club should be made official (maybe in the news feed).

I like extended president terms, that would make the acheivements more challenging which I enjoy. This could be an oppurtunity to have some really fun campaigns. People who sell votes would be hurt though, that's a downside.

Going with nytmare's idea, there could be club activity acheivements similar to the forum acheivements. Here are a few ideas:

     - chat posts

     - donation

     - contests? not sure how this one could be done but there could be like "x number of mascots", "most contests won", "most entered"

     - vice prez terms along with the prez term ones we already have

     - club meeting attendance

Right now since the clubs lists are so small, prizes for contests/activity could be higher value things rather than money. Points, upgrades, HPP, pointed pairs of a players breed would definitely increase participation. BUT how could the clubs pay for these things? Maybe each club could have a "spending budget" each term.

     For example, every term (I'm going off the idea that terms are atleast 3 months) Agility club could give away 1 upgrade and 4 5,000 point rewards without it costing the club any money. These would be awarded by Sam or another mod in the way that bingo winnings and offical HP events are awarded. OR there could be a new club feature designed only for prezzis; in a similar way that only upgrades can use upgrade chat (aka not accessible to non-presidents).

The main downside I see to losing associations is the training aspect--having your aniamls in less flooded shows where they get more points. So maybe if there were more clubs that could help with the point thing. I like the idea of seasonal presidency in the clubs...it'd be easier to get more participants in contests. Right now I'm having a layout contest in my association (obviously will be ending that haha), and in over a month I've had 3 entries with a $400mil prize...but I think if contests can run longer we'll get more activity.

I agree with Famous Shamus, in that to me, losing the association shows is a huge loss to those of us who want to train quality animals, but not pay a fortune for tickets or private shows. Not only do the association shows typically run unflooded and award more points, for the most part, they are free to anyone who is willing to put the time in to combing through the shows and pick them by hand, versus simply clicking "enter all". 

To counteract, you could add more clubs to make up for losing associations, so that the same amount of pointed shows are available... or else make clubs able to make 2-3 shows per week instead of one? Personally, I'm not a fan of buying tickets, and I would much rather be able to find unflooded shows to point-train my animals versus buying their points through tickets and private show spots.... Allowing clubs to make multiple shows a week is the best solution I can come up with to counteract this problem.

Another possible scenario is to simply downsize the associations, versus deleting them completely. Do not add any more associations, and simply delete any that do not meet activity requirements (versus putting them up for grabs).

So i think there should be a "Leave Club" button. Simply because i've changed breeds a lot, i register those animals with clubs, but then i get bored, change breeds and those breeds dont fit into the requirements anymore. i still get mail from them and kinda pointless lol so this isnt necessarily gonna make them more active but just a thought! 

CLUB IDEAS
One thing that I have noticed with clubs is that the same people are running them month after month. I don’t just mean the exact same club every month I mean different clubs but it tends to be people that have run previously run again.  For example this month in horse clubs, We have 11 clubs, there are only 9 different presidents. For next month 2 clubs have no one running yet, 6 clubs have 1 person running and we have presidents running for another term (may be in a different club) 8 times. This is NOTHING at all against the guys that are running the clubs you are doing a great job – but it seems to be a job that no one really wants!

So I think the participation in clubs isn’t just restricted by the members participation in club contests, but everyone participation in clubs. We need to do something to encourage players to run clubs as well as people to participate.

From what I have seen everyone seems to like the achievement badges. (Panorama has touched on this) Maybe we get some of those for Won a Mascot Contest, Run as President of a Club. Maybe hard code the Mascot Contest in so it’s like voting for the President.  Horses that win the Mascot contest get an Achievement on their page and the players get 10 Mill? That screams an elite horse! But obviously then this can be rigged by purchasing votes for there is some down side to that. Maybe for each term the Club is supplied some funds for the contests? Set amount over all the clubs that must got to club activities and not in the presidents pocket.  I saw someone mentioned getting a Salary for Running as President I also like this idea as an incentive.

Longer terms and Vice Presidency. I Like and dislike both these ideas. Longer seasonal terms sound exciting and fun! But that’s a lot of work for a president – what if you need to go away on holidays during, or some other real life emergency comes up. As such I think if the longer terms became a thing then there needs to be a Vice President. Of course there is always the possibility of added drama with varying views between a President and Vice, So maybe some general rules need to be set in place, ie. The President is the boss.

Club Forums. LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea. It would need to be a really small forum though. Animals for sale, Breeders adverts. General discussions. I have No idea how much coding will need to go into this though.

I would also personally like to be able to unsubscribe from all club mail.

HP STUDBOOK
I really like this idea of Equ’s. It would really give players something to strive for. Mind you 1mill points at 5 There is no way I’ll be making the cut as I don’t spend money on tickets hahah

ANIMAL AUCTIONS
Mem touched on this above and I saw it somewhere else on the forums myself. This is generally a very good idea. This makes it very easy to find animals for sale. Also would be good if you had the opportunity to sell them in Batch Lots (Breeding Pair Etc.) Working it similar to the graphic Auctions would work but there needs to be some way that the horse is transferred over. I thought about a escrow account but this wouldn’t work as the horse would need to be trained. Maybe an added feature on our page where the animal can be trained but nothing else.

MERGING ACCOUNTS
You guys must get this every time you ask for suggestions. I would Love an easy way to switch between my 30 accounts. Hahahh

LOSS OF ASSOCIATION SHOWS
I know you have mentioned in the news that you will review the show points issue separately. So this is just a very quick suggestion. Adding a Second Public show for every player. Adding the option of Run in 1 Day. I Make my shows at midnight on a Sunday and I have noticed that there is a remarkable lower number of shows on a Monday in comparison to other days in the week. As I go through all my accounts on a Sunday I do not have an option to make some shows on a Monday unless I go through the accounts on a different day (Like Monday this week). This obviously could be abused. Make shows to run in 1 day late at night. Enter all your animals in the shows and you have a very unflooded almost private public.

That’s all that I have for now. If I think of anything else Ill let you all know.

maybe adding a breed specialty (think equintium)
clubs like all horses usually accept everything, but to even out flooding let them make certain disciplen shows (jumping/western/driving/all around*this would possibly add less points since its not specific* this would be done all at the same time so no certain one gets left out) it would make breeders focus on certain aspects verse entering shows. they could award normal points extra specific points that would add say maybe 1k or so to a foal later produced. would make people focus more on certain breeds (since there are a ton and a few with no breeders and possibly add breeders also)