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". "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" when they are born, this can be trained up to the genetic "maximum value" Indicators however, are not set at birth and instead are dynamic and change in relation to the horses health, care and mood which can be influenced by environmental factors.

For every stat, each horse has two hidden numerical alleles. The average of these alleles determines the horses visible "maximum 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 "maximum 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 "Maximum 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 "maximum 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 "maximum 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 "maximum 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 "maximum value" for speed:

Foal "Maximum Value" Outcomes	Mare Allele A	Mare Allele B
Stallion Allele A	54	89
Stallion Allele B	30	65

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 "maximum 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 "maximum 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.

Mutations

WIP.

Horse Stats & Inheritance System