**Remove** ALTER Mandatory Minimum for Stud Service | BIG POST UPDATE

^{Hear me out-}

^{Instead of making the minimum mandatory, have it as a recommendation. I see SO MANY people in the Sales chat advertising refunds, I myself have done it but to be frank its annoying as all hell. When I first started studding, because of how the notifications work for stud services, I couldnt refund a few people bc I didnt know the messages dont save once the request is fulfilled so I lost a couple account numbers and couldnt give out the refund I advertised.}

^{I feel like removing the mandatory minimum and instead making it a suggestion could really streamline things.}

UPDATE 12.13.20

My original post (above) was not clear and for that Im so sorry- I was not saying to allow people to stud for free 😂 this seems to be a recurring point people are mentioning lately and I should have elaborated better! I was trying hard to not bring up Lioden, but in LD there is a minimum price that all lions have to be for studding- I cant remember what it is, but it was definitely reasonable. A minimum of even 50SC (to ensure players receive some monetary benefit from their hard work) and then allowing people to decide from there is better than the astronomical prices WD forces on us right now. My biggest gripe tbf is the '10sc per marking' price hike. It REALLY drives the price! HOPEFULLY Im a little clearer now on my stance!

I feel like ALTERING the mandatory price to DISCLUDE MARKINGS and LOWER THE BASE PRICE would be beneficial, as it would allow players to price their stud as they see fit and remove much of the risk refunds pose to the enjoyment of the game.  If devs truly wish to include the marking price scheme then it should be as a RECOMMENDATION, not forced on us!

Additional Reasons for removing:

The big argument people are bringing forward is that keeping the minimum keeps players from undercutting other prices. I understand this point, but prices are being undercut regardless VIA 'refunds'

On the topic of refunds- it is so easy to scam people with them. Its a trust-based system and people are going to get burned by it by those dishonest folk out there. Imo, removing the minimum removes this risk entirely.

Unfortunately, not all studs are created equal! Start-up wolves with common bases and common markings, are priced the same as rare bases - no hate on those start ups, they can be quite pretty but I do not think they are always of equal studding value. Some people would be much more comfortable charging 50 or 75sc for their starting stud/low marked stud, while others are happy sticking around what WD enforces for their more 'complex' stud.

I've decided to update this post to keep up with some suggestions given in the comments!

Last Update: 11.06.20

Ironytempest #13152, Lunar Lords #6914,  Keycatt #1226; all support lowering the price

KalikaRoo31 #2874; Suggests making the pricing system more dynamic to better reflect the quality of stud you are paying for. Suggested prices:
Tier 1 - base price starts at 50sc
Tier 2 - base price starts at 75sc
etc.
Common Markings - 5sc per
Rare markings - 10sc

Yes. pLeAsE  ; - ; 

Support! It doesn't make sense to have a site-set value for how much a marking is worth, especially when people are going around it all the time with refunded breedings (which sound like a giant pain and it'd be nice not to have to do them, yeah).  A recommendation makes perfect sense, but it shouldn't be binding.

No.  I'm pretty sure the minimum exists to try and prevent people undercutting studs to nothing.  The stud market is going to be unbalanced no matter what dev's do, but I think there should be a minimum.  I haven't got a wolf set as a breeder yet so I don't know what the minimum is here.  With how much harder it is to get currency here maybe the minimum should be lower than what it is, but someone would have to tell me what it is.

Well, even if they didn't completely remove the minimum, they could cut it down. I don't see how it's reasonable my tier I, 3 marking breeding male should have a studding fee that's 130sc (currently 2-3 gc). I understand the market is bound to change later, but for right now this is going to pose a h u g e issue for clean breeders because they won't be able to pay for the studs they need to keep the bloodlines clean. I would say maybe make the minimum 30-40sc start an +10 for each marking. This seems more reasonable to me.

@Lunar Lords

The base price is 100sc for an unmarked stud. Every marking after that is worth 10sc. So my t2, 9 marked stud has a forced minimum of 190 sc. I dont want to charge 190 atm, however. I want to see what pups he can throw and decide based on that. There is no maximum so any instability with stupid high stud prices will still be there, undercutting w cheaper prices is still there bc people will offer refunds.

Additionally, someones t1 10 marked stud has a forced price higher than my t2- something more common is being forced to be more expensive (nothing against the t1s btws!). The issue I see there is people not wanting to pay 200sc for a common marked, common based wolf and the owner of said stud has no way to lower the price aside from the hectic and very trust-based system of agreeing to refund. Idk if people have been intentionally scammed but as I mentioned in my OP with how the stud system works Ive lost an account number or 2 and not been able to give back the advertised refund bc of it (Im MUCH more careful now and this happened back when I was getting used to the studding system) so theres also the added complication of yea...I could stud to this person/wolf and they said theyll give back 100sc of the 200sc minimum but theres no guarantee thatll happen. Its a gamble

Big support, it's not the easiest to acquire SC so if you've got a heavily marked stud the minimum will be more than most players would feel comfortable paying, and while probably mostly fair maybe the owner of the stud doesn't think it should cost that much anyway.

I support this but once the pups are born they show up in your family and if you remember to refund then you can at that time

I support, my guy is up for stud right now but is definitely not worth the minimum price set for him. I'd much rather charge like 50-75 SC rather than 150sc for him at the moment, but I also don't want to worry about dealing with refunds.

Support! My current guy is way overpriced for a wolf with no markings. I like the idea of him having the potential to be bred to someone if they like him for a base, but I don't feel comfortable with the price. I like to undercharge things. x.x