🧬 Horse Stats & Inheritance System

This page explains how Equestricraft's horses statistics (stats) function, what each stat controls in terms of riding and competing your horse and how these stats are inherited through breeding.

Overview

There are two types of statistics you can see on your horses stats page. These are labelled as "Stats" and "Indicators". This page is dedicated to the "Stats" portion of the horses stats page. "Stats" are genetic values which are inherited from the foal's parents. Each stat has a maximum value determined from birth. Foals will display a lower "Current Value" and "Base Value" when they are born, this can be trained up to the genetic "Maximum Value".

For every stat, each horse has two hidden numerical alleles. The average of these alleles determines the horses visible "Base value", and therefore the function. I.e speed, for each horse. These values are passed down genetically through breeding, and players are only able to infer the alleles of each parent by observing foals and their stats.

Stat Genetics & Alleles

As mentioned in the overview:

• Each stat has 2 alleles (e.g. Speed Allele A and Speed Allele B).
• Alleles are hidden and cannot be directly viewed.
• The visible "Base value" for each attribute is calculated as the average of both alleles.

Example

(These numerical values do not represent what values will look like in game, and are only used as an example)

If a horse has:

• Speed Allele A: 60
• Speed Allele B: 80
• The visible speed "Base Value" will be: 70. This results from the calculation (Allele A+Allele B)/2 so in this case (60+80)/2

The only way to potentially infer what alleles your horse might have is through breeding results.

Inheritance Mechanics

When breeding two horses:

• Each parent of the foal has a 50% chance to pass down one of their two alleles per stat.
• Per stat, the foal receives one allele from each parent.
• The foals "Base Value" for each stat is calculated from the average of those two inherited alleles.

This means:

• If you breed a mare and stallion with high stats, it does not guarantee foals with high stats
• Two horses with average stats may produce foals that have a lot higher stats.

Example

(These numerical values do not represent what values will look like in game, and are only used as an example)

If one mare has the following speed alleles:

• Allele A: 20
• Allele B: 90
• The average, and therefore their "Base Value" for speed will be 55

And one stallion has the following speed alleles:

• Allele A: 88
• Allele B: 40
• The average, and therefore their "Base Value" for speed will be 64

If you bred these two horses together, these are the possible stat combinations the foal could have for their "Base Value" for speed:

In this case, you can see that if the foal inherits Mare Allele A x Stallion Allele A or Mare Allele A x Stallion Allele B; the result is a foal with a lower "Base Value" than either parent. However if the foal inherits Stallion Allele A x Mare Allele B or Stallion Allele B x Mare Allele B, the result is a foal with a higher "Base Value" than either parent.

There is a 25% chance of each combination of Alleles, so all results are equally as likely. So if you breed two horses together multiple times, it is possible to see foals with drastically different stats.

Maximum Value

A horses "Maximum Value" Can sort of be considered its training potential. It is the highest stat level a horse can reach through training, on top of its base stats. This value is genetic and set at birth. The maximum value is calculated using a hidden "Maximum Value Factor", which works just the same as the calculation for base stats. It is determined by averaging two genetic alleles. This factor cannot be seen by players.

The "Current Value" Is essentially just the current stat you have trained your horse to, out of the maximum stat. Using this you can determine how much you have left to train your horse, alongside looking at the training bar.

Training your horse up to this maximum value does not change a horse’s base stats or the base stat alleles it passes on. It only affects how much a stat can be improved through training. Since the "Maximum Value Factor" is genetic, some horses will be able to train higher than others, and the alleles for "Maximum Value Factor" is passed down to foals. So its theoretically possible to breed a horse that has a very high "Maximum Value" even if it is born with poor speed base stats.

The calculation for the horses "Maximum Value" is as follows. (You do not need to worry about this part at all if you don't understand, you cannot ever see the Maximum Factor Value so it is not important to understand, I have just included it for those that are interested about the calculations behind the scenes)

1. Add 1 to the Maximum Value Factor

2. Multiply the result by the horse’s base stat

Example:
If a horse has a Speed stat of 0.9 and a "Maximum Value Factor" of 0.3:

0.3+1=1.3  1.3x0.9=1.17

This means the horse’s Speed can be trained up to 1.17.

Mutations

After a foal’s genetics are calculated, there is a small chance for mutations to occur. These mutations are rare and unpredictable, representing natural genetic variation rather than inherited traits from the parents. Mutations may result in subtle changes to the foals stats, but never anything extreme.