[S] Multi pair ticket breedings

[Faithofthefallen]

Sidenote, I have no idea what you actually call these kinds of breedings so forgive me x'D

I would personally love to see our current breeding system move more towards the big ticket breedings we've had in the past, where everyone gets one ticket and X number of couples to put on that ticket. I LOVE these because then each owner has a chance to enter their couples without being stuck waiting for sometimes YEARS at times for the ability to try for a couple because they need to coordinate to have two open slots same time. I can try my __ number of pairs, and they can try their __ number and its not a big deal if pairs are posted multiple times or if an owner is involved in more than one pair. I think the LL system still stays fair too as you can only pick one couple involved to count towards LL.

I think the current system is very limiting, not neccessarily in a horrible way, but I have thought these multi pair tickets were a stroke of genius from the beginning! For example, I have amassed quite a few couples over the years and a LOT of couples are stuck on the backburner, some have been there for years and it sucks making people sit and twiddle their thumbs forever. When you plan a new couple with someone, its not as exciting because you're both kind of like, yes we can MCCL, but at the back of your mind is the knowledge that you're probably not going to be actively trying that couple for a year or more if you're lucky. I was trying one pair for three years, and thats not uncommon!! But what that also means is I had one slot full for three years that I couldn't offer to any of my other couples! I've had to turn down pairings or had people turn them down because they want to be able to start entering right away, and I don't blame them a bit!
I just love that you can enter a few more couples this way without altering the stakes that much n_n

Thanks for listening to my babble <3
Thoughts?

Edit:

Proposed update to solve the LL counter disagreement:

Each owner can still add to the LL counter of two of their pairs, but LL slots are ticketed as well.

That way it doesn't matter if someone manages to amass a ton of LL couples, they still only get one 'ticket' in the LL raffle, and they still will have had to follow at least one couple through 20 different unsuccessful breeding tries to qualify, which takes a long time. The LL pool would stay much smaller than the regular breedings, so pairs that reach LL would still have a better chance to win while keeping things reasonably fair between owners.

The only problem I could foresee is if one owner reached LL with like... 10 different couples, each with 10 different users and all of them reached LL at the same time and were entered on 10 different tickets... Then that one owner would have a better chance to have one of their couples win, but seriously, that would take a whole heck of a lot of coordination. I'm not sure its something that would happen enough to worry about... -shrugs-  

[Faithofthefallen]

Example of the kind of breedings I'm talking about for clarity's sake <3  

[Kaya Wolf Moon]

You have literally just stated my exact thoughts. There's not much I can add to it. It would be nice to see more of these, if for no other reason than to help get more LL couples entered (not that I personally have any LL couples yet but. Or even to just have the chance at entering pairs that might otherwise be overlooked for a long time, as stated in the OP.  

[Tara de Draiocht]

I kind of like this idea.. not as a norm type deal but more present in terms of getting pairs out there. I too feel stuck? / limited in terms of being stuck in that mode of a year+ waiting for a win.

But I also have a feeling that this too could get out of hand (especially those that have LL status or have pairs that are waiting on a plot and not just wanting baskets). If that makes sense? Like I have a feeling more people would create a breeding just for a sake of breeding WHICH is totally fine I'm just saying that.

I think it would just create more pairings with minimal slot breeding wins you know? All these pairings and 2-3 slot wins each time which in turn could create frustration for said 1 to 5 pairs trying per-person.

Plus if 5 pairings were to occur I would just suggest Every month or so a colourist RNG couples from MCCL or something like that ALONG with CC because what is the point of MCCL then other than form filler?

Sorry if I sound harsh >< that was not my intent I do like your idea it does have merit as I totally understand wanting to get other pairings out there. I also think this would work if there was more hiring / colorists available to get the back flow(?) going  

[Sabin Duvert]

Honestly, the current breeding system is the reason I almost never set up couples any more with people outside of my own herd or Kamiki's. Because it often takes years to snag one breeding, and then you have to have the serendipitous luck to both be open to having a new couple at the same time.

I feel bad tying up a soquili's options when I know I may very well never be able to try breeding that couple. Especially with the limitations now removed on the number of times a soquili can breed, I'd love to be able to open my teepee to other people who like a soquili or a family line, but that caveat of "but we'll probably not be able to try in raffles for who knows how many years" is always sucky.

So yes, I'm 110% for moving it towards a ticket system.  

[Faithofthefallen]

Kaya! I'm glad that I was able to put it into words for you, this has been brewing at the back of my mind for a while!

No, I get what you're saying, Tara! I think thats why I like it as more of a ticket option rather than rolling for individual couples. The entry would just be the user's name vs having 5 couples listed in a row. And if you think about it, since only one person can enter the pair each time and each person can only be involved in two couples, its basically just like each username is being tossed in to the breeding raffles 2 times, and since everyone gets two tickets then its the same likelihood as if everyone got one ticket. You know what I mean?

I do think more people would make couples for the sake of filling the __ number of slots on their ticket, but we see an upswing of that with each breeding raffle anyways, but I see what you're saying. The LL pool could potentially get bigger, but I think it would be less frustrating to be LL on a couple if it didn't mean that you weren't able to try any other pairs for the length of time that a pair has been LL you know? For me, a lot of the frustration of LL is that the 'line' of couples is getting longer while I wait for a bit of luck!

I don't have enough brain power to actually figure out the numbers, if someone wanted to do that, we could, but I think if its a ticket option, the liklihood of winning an official slot would stay basically the same, its just the chance of getting CC'd that would potentially go down. I agree that I would love to see more MCCL activity, but I don't think making this shift would affect that, thats just my opinion though! I don't think you sound harsh at all <3

And Sabin, thats exactly what I'm saying, there have been so many times I've seen an amazing soq that I would love to try to plot with or at least approach for a breeding, but if that owner only has a few soq I just won't, because I feel bad tying their soq up. Thats a great way to phrase it!  

[Tara de Draiocht]

Faithofthefallen

No, I get what you're saying, Tara! I think thats why I like it as more of a ticket option rather than rolling for individual couples. The entry would just be the user's name vs having 5 couples listed in a row. And if you think about it, since only one person can enter the pair each time and each person can only be involved in two couples, its basically just like each username is being tossed in to the breeding raffles 2 times, and since everyone gets two tickets then its the same likelihood as if everyone got one ticket. You know what I mean?
I do think more people would make couples for the sake of filling the __ number of slots on their ticket, but we see an upswing of that with each breeding raffle anyways, but I see what you're saying. The LL pool could potentially get bigger, but I think it would be less frustrating to be LL on a couple if it didn't mean that you weren't able to try any other pairs for the length of time that a pair has been LL you know? For me, a lot of the frustration of LL is that the 'line' of couples is getting longer while I wait for a bit of luck!
I don't have enough brain power to actually figure out the numbers, if someone wanted to do that, we could, but I think if its a ticket option, the liklihood of winning an official slot would stay basically the same, its just the chance of getting CC'd that would potentially go down. I agree that I would love to see more MCCL activity, but I don't think making this shift would affect that, thats just my opinion though! I don't think you sound harsh at all <3

Okay, I'm glad it wasnt offensive (: Yeah I guess but it always goes back to the problem of "too much demand" and the increase of that demand as months pass.
Either way it is an interesting suggestion that you have made and one to consider  

[Sabin Duvert]

As far as LL opportunities go, there's also the system they've done in the past with ticket breedings that either each person can only choose one couple in their post to count towards Low Luck, or even if you wanted to be more strict, only one couple period to count towards low luck *shrugs*

You could even reduce the number of potential wins to one per person per month if you wanted to - assuming that people have other couple options in their post if the owner of one of their pairs won with a different couple. That could be a limiting factor for people with a lot of set-up couples (or encourage people to have a self breeding somewhere in their post as a "Fallback" ).

And if someone has a couple they're REALLY gunning for, then they can just choose to shoot for that couple and not set up other breedings, or only have one couple in their post, it wouldn't reduce their number of tickets if they have one couple in their own post vs 5.  

[xo maho]

(Just saying ahead of time, all of the opinions below are based on personal experience and definitely won't apply to everyone posting.)

I'm kind of on both sides of this. I like the regular 2-pair breeding slots because of the limits of it - we know how they work. You get to enter two pairs, get two low luck tallies, it's how it has been forever.

I like the 5-pair breeding slots because we get to see more couples that otherwise might not get to come out for years, or give some love to ponies who are farther down the priority list. It gives the colorist some more options for pairs to CC - especially if they follow plots. Sometimes pairs can be in the works for years, and then not even make it to the breeding priority list for years after that. I agree that changing it from two pairs to one username probably doesn't mess with the probability of winning - however, if you have many many ponies and many many pairs with others outside of your own herd who can be entered, that might skew the chances in your favor. But I doubt that occurs often enough to be anything more than an outlier?

Anyway, the odds of being CC'd might go down because there are so many more pairs - but CCs are based on colorist preference and they're not something to be counted on, anyway. If we're going to talk about odds, it should be about the raffle as a whole, which, as has been noted, likely don't change a whole lot between 2-pair pony-based raffles and 5-pair username-based raffles.

My only issue with the 5-pair breeding slot is that you only get one low luck tally. As a person with almost THREE low luck pairs (one is at 19, one is at 20, and one is at 27), I need those tallies. Regular breedings give me those. It's also kind of my understanding that in 5-pair breedings, you're not supposed to put the LL tally header on your pairs that are already LL - but this could be wrong and I could not be reading the rules right. In any case, as the primary entrant for all of my pairs, I count on that second LL tally. In five-pair raffles, many of the people I have pairs with have other priorities, so my second priority couple, whoever they are, can't get that second LL tally.

If we have more of them, my suggestion for five-pair raffles would be that each user has a max of two LL tallies, just like regular 2-pair raffles. You would be able to have as many couples entered with as many other people as you can, but just like in the regular raffles, you'd have to coordinate which of your pairs is priority enough to get those tries under their belts.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Honestly, I like the mixture of slots. I don't like too many of either one. Sometimes it's nice to be able to enter more couples especially if there are going to be CC slots, but I do like to be able to focus LL on two pairs, so I do favor the ability that if 5 pair breedings became more common then we could still choose 2 pairs to have as LL (as in two pairs you're involved in peroid, no matter how many different posts you're in so you can't get more than 2 LL for any two pairs you're involved in, in a breeding).

Edit: to explain my perspective, I have 3 pairs that are either LL or close to LL. 37 for edited pair, 20 for unedited pair, and 16/17 for an edited pair. So I really don't want to relinquish the tallies I have worked so hard and consistently to get.  

[LydaLynn]

The thing I like most about the multi-ticket is that I can choose the couples I most want a breeding from to enter. And the people I have agreements with can choose the ones they like best. We don't have to worry about both having the same favorites or both having openings. We get to decide what is most important to us and enter for that. And if I really just have one couple I absolutely want a win with - I can enter just that couple. Or I can enter five and give them all a chance and the colorist a choice in which one they most feel inspired by.  

[Yumitoko II]

I also like this idea a lot.  

[LunaRei_SilverBlood]

I wouldn't mind seeing more, but I wouldn't want them to be the norm. Like many other people said, that LL tallie is super important. I had a pair in a small LL raffle with almost 40 tries and didn't get rolled and the colorist CCed the pair out of pity, like everyone thought it was a sure thing, they HAD to get rolled and it just didn't happen.

I would say the majority of my breedings come from LL raffles and I usually always have at least one pair constantly on LL. The LL lists are what give me hope. I enter breedings but I don't get invested into the slots until my pairs reach LL because I feel like (For me) that's where I have the best chance.

Loosing the 2nd LL tally would be rather discouraging.

That being said, I do like to get my other pairs out and about for the ticketed raffles when they occur.

Edit

And as I re-read this, should the other owner of the second pair for LL be active and entered, the LL stat could still be achieved through their posting if I use my LL header on another pair; if I've read the rules correctly. But if that owner isn't active enough to post the 2nd pair, then you'd loose out on that 2nd LL stat.