What is "Stud Racing"?

I've been trying to find good studs and every now and then I'll see someone's rules state that they don't want people to "stud race." It seems to refer to people refunding their breeding request and the stud owners tend to threaten a permanent block on people who refund, which seems insanely d-baggy to me. 

I'm not sure what the big deal is with refunding requests. Is it just stud owners getting whiney about not getting money or is it something else? Like are people somehow abusing refunds? How is that possible? 

I have a wolf I'm considering making a stud and I would like to know if there are gonna be things I need to look out for before I do so.

hi 

stud racing refers to users sending out a stud request to multiple studs to see who can get the female pregnant first. 

unfortunately who ever gets the female  pregnant first gets paid. 

for those who don't get the female pregnant don't get anything. 

i hope this helps to explain why a lot of people don't stud race.  

i'm not sure what the big deal about refunding requests either. hopeful some one can explain that to you. 

Ohhh, okay that makes sense. Thank you for the explanation! <3

you are very welcome. 

i'm glad that i could explain it to you that easy for you to understand

The game forces you to have a minimum stud fee based on how many markings your wolf has. For example, if your stud has 5 markings, you can't set you studding fee lower than 150 SC (100 sc + 10 SC for each marking).

But some stud owners found that minumum fee too high (because maybe their stud is not that good looking or has low stats) and want for their stud to have lower prices. That's why they refund part of the studding fee to players that send stud requests, so that other players pay less for studding to their male.

It has nothing to do with stud racing. Stud owners sometimes blacklist stud racers, but I never heard about them blocking users that they voluntarily give back SC to. It wouldn't make sense. Refunds are a positive things, as opposed to stud racing.

If you want to set your male as a public stud, I think the main things you have to decide on in terms of rules are:

*Do you want to make other players pay less then the minimum studding fee? If yes, then write it on your studding page with how many SC you refund. Of course you have to remember to do that when you get a request or it might be considered scamming. Offering a total or partial refund can help with getting more requests (people are always happy to spend less) but will also mean less SC for you.

*Do you mind about stud racing? If you don't mind about wasting your energy on breeding that might not give you SC in return, then you can accept stud racing. I have never seen that many stud race here on WD, but if you are not okay with it you might want to point that out.

* Fertility: wolves with very low fertility might take a lot of your stud energy to get pregnant. If your stud is also your lead or has a role, that might mean you woldn't be able to do certain things because you spent all of your energy on studding. So some players prefer to limit their requests and block requests from wolves with a fertility lower than a certain number. It's up to you to decide to allow all fertility or limit some.

* Inbreeding: this is trickier, since you have to check females' lineage to check if they are inbred or risk giving birth to inbred pups. Most studs don't mind, some avoid breeding to their own pups. But there are some who cares and may reject requests if the female has a certain lineage. Once again, this is up to you to decide if it bothers you or not.

*Pups: I have seen stud owners asking for a pick in the litter for the females they bred to. Personally I avoid that type of studs since I already pay you for studding, so it's only fair I keep the pups. Unless you make them breed for free (so you ask a pup in return) or you have some special deal with the female's owner because of a breeding project, I don't reccommend that type of demand. But you can ask to be notify if an interesting pup is born from your male (like a T3 or a mutie), just to know it exist.

But these are just suggestions. You can just set your stud up without rules and see what happens. That's what most people do!

Happy studding!

In regards to refunding, I was referring to people who made a request but cancelled it before the stud owner accepted. I frequently see stud owners say in their rules that they will permanently block stud racers and sometimes next to that they will talk about people cancelling or "refunding." I always assumed that's who they were referring to when they mentioned stud racers, but now that I know the definition I'm just more confused, lol.

Thank you for the tips on setting up stud rules! I will definitely keep all of that in mind :)

"sometimes next to that they will talk about people cancelling or "refunding.""

I believe this likely refers to people who send stud requests & then cancel them after no time at all.

you end up with a notification each time somebody sends & cancels a stud request. some people may decide to spam a studs over over & over again, cancelling & resending the request. which imho is pretty childish, and many will block said person if this happens. its frustrating & annoying

the above also probably refers to people sending a stud request out and cancelling it within a seriously short amount of time, thinking of 5 - 10 minutes or so. as above, it gives a notification, & while this is no big deal, simply put: its incredibly impatient. a lot of stud owners dislike this mentality hence why the threaten to block if it happens.

most stud owners are reasonable and can understand if you sent a request, its close to RO and you want your female bred that day, or if its been a couple of hours with no response. but some people will genuinely send a request, and cancel because you didn't get to it in a matter of mere minutes.

@lucky the buffy

So, I recently figured out that you can no longer stud race. 

I had 2 females in heat. I sent a stud request for one and when I was doing the second I accidentally clicked on the first wolf and it told me "this female already has a stud request" [not those exact words but pretty much] and would not let me request to  a second stud

Also part of the reason people hated stud racing is because: 

Let's say you requested my stud and another stud. I see the request and use up all of my energy trying to breed her, then when I'm waiting someone else comes along and the request is gone, now my stid has used his energy, and my time for nothing. Not the end of the world but definitely not very considerate