02-4-2014 at 9:51 PM

<br /> I trialed this way: 2 dogs on my main account, 2 on my side. The two on my main would be high-TP dogs. The set-aside “winners”. The two on my side were dogs that would fill slots, guaranteeing a win. And the fifth slot in the trials? Whoever entered, or was already entered, could either win or lose of their own accord! It was a daily ordeal, time consuming. I don’t know if it was fun, or business, but I did it anyway.<br /> <br /> I also don't like to set my 9,100 TP dog against a 1,500 TP dog. That's not quite fair, is it? There isn't a chance. So I made the terms myself, and entered largely empty trials. Sometimes I even put my low-TP dogs in random trials to give others the chance to win "Mad Cash".

08-18-2013 at 2:45 PM

lol! Sorry, can't resist here - as a competitive cyclist, I saw this thread and thought it was about the team time trial event in road bike racing. :)

03-30-2012 at 11:05 AM

And I just tried to enter a few lower level dogs over 1000 TP in trials and did not find one trial they could probably win in. :-(((

03-30-2012 at 9:29 AM

Yeah I'll largely stop. I did it for a day or two to see if it was viable but it really isn't. I need my time for other things and my family gets mad at me when I'm on Ala too long. <br /> <br /> Too bad, trialing was a fun part of Ala.

03-30-2012 at 8:54 AM

I usually ran my capped dogs in teams together to keep from stomping all over lower tp dogs and ran my 1k-6k TPs with everyone else, mostly because of the lack of trials that had been available.<br /> <br /> I enter only capped dogs in trials now, anything else is practically a waste of money. Not to mention it would take me ALL DAY to trial all my available dogs. I don't know about the rest of Ala but I work full-time and coming home after work to nit-pick through trials to find ones where my lower tp guys might at least get third takes up way too much time. Frankly trialling has become too cumbersome for my taste but eh, to each his own. There are other ways to make money I suppose.

03-30-2012 at 7:08 AM

Yeah, I'm in the process of retiring dogs one by one, just don't have enough time to do it quickly. Even the over 1k ones are now mostly useless ;-( <br /> <br /> Worse than that, where I usually took about 4-6 hrs entering trials (while at the same time doing other stuff) I now need about 6-8 hrs over the day entering them WITHOUT being able to multitask, as I can't just throw them in trials but need to wait for trials with dogs mine can win against to show up, means I have to check each and every dog that is entered. That's way too much time and makes me want to be on Ala a lot less. Stressy. <br /> <br />

03-26-2012 at 4:18 PM

I teamed for the money, the challenge, and mainly, for the training. I like to boost my customs to a certain level to get better quality G2 pups from them, and the same with foundies.... most of my non customs, outside lines were all to team with and support my customs at their various levels. <br /> <br /> With my style of play, all my under 1K Toto and higher dogs, are now worthless as trialers... very depressing to me.

03-16-2012 at 10:28 AM

Yeah Shroom I totally get it. Especially at the lower levels where the trials run out. It just so happens they go into teams because of the lack of trials. <br /> <br /> I understand what you mean Gracie. I just don't check because it is supposed to be a competition and I honestly can't be bothered. Most of the time I don't care if my dogs win or lose. I normally enter maybe 2 dogs in the same trials. Like I said, I don't mind if others play that way, its just not my choice is all ^^;. I also don't like when people get upset if their teams accidentally got messed up because other users entered the trial at the same time blocking part of the other person's team. <br /> <br /> =)

03-16-2012 at 10:24 AM

Yeah, the strategy...I don't quite know what I'll do without it, really. So much fun. <br /> <br /> How much money is too much money anyway? I just had my Otis trialers run another team round. Despite a 7k+ dog and a 5k+ dog (I think) the 5 of them made barely 18k. Not that much I think.

03-16-2012 at 8:59 AM

Honestly, I trial in teams for two main reasons. The foremost is that it's the easiest way to guarantee my dogs will win, which is partly about profit and partly about succeeding. The secondary reason is that I feel guilty when I beat newer players' low TP dogs. Underlying both of these is the feeling that I'd rather not trial my dogs at all than trial and lose the majority of the time. The money loss of entering and not placing isn't worth the TP gain to me because most of my trialers are done breeding, and all of them are already in my line. <br /> <br /> I'll address the guilt first. I know the trial system is about competing with others, but it just feels wrong to put my 3000, 4000, and 1800TP dogs into a trial with someone's foundation and custom. I don't feel guilty if my dogs are already in the trial and someone else enters with lower TP, though. It's about intentionally making someone lose; I just don't want to upset someone like that. And if there are dogs already in the trial, I'm going to peek at them before entering... which inevitably ends up with me not entering because the TPs are higher than my dogs or because the dogs are low TP and I don't want to cream them. There's a lovely Goldilocks margin that I'll be aiming for if/once teams are indeed outlawed.<br /> <br /> The other reason I trial in teams is because I like the strategy it takes. I feel proud that I've worked out a successful system to have fillers on every level and move dogs up to Otis. It takes quite a bit of work to get filler dogs to Marley, and then make sure the TP is low enough that they can be filler dogs there for my higher TP dogs. I felt clever when I developed a system on my side to have increments of 20TP for how trained filler dogs are so I could position them strategically in Dogbert, Scooby, Odie, etc. Sure, throwing together five of your own dogs will guarantee some award money, but actually fleshing out a team that will maximize profits is a game of strategy.<br /> <br /> I understand the criticism of teams, though. I do make too much money with them. I'll just miss the manipulating of filler dogs.

03-16-2012 at 8:15 AM

Not having enough trials available is one reason to trial my non-custom low TP dogs in random teams. There would never be enough trials for all my dogs during a day (unless I start living on Ala) if I could just put 2 of them in each trial (and would have to wait for other entries so I can make sure one of them wins something). Would also take ages.

03-16-2012 at 8:02 AM

I trial mainly for money when I need to buy an item to breed like the alarm clock or insta-pups. I have some dogs though that I trial for the bonuses it gives the stats but for the most part its the money. I don't like my dogs getting into high levels because those take longer to run and more fees. I don't really find a challenge at all in trialing.<br /> <br /> I said before that I don't necessarily agree with 'teams'. The only time I team is when I have tons of dogs to trial (my customs) and why do extra clicks to go find other trials so they're not all grouped together? I mainly mean the 'teaming' when people purposefully gather a certain 5 dogs and -always- trial them together and locking everyone out of those trials for the full winnings. I'm not going to really rag on them about it. They can do what they want since there isn't a rule on it. I just simply don't like that method is all.<br /> <br /> What grates on me is hearing about people complaining when a dog messes up their teams. Iunno about others but I don't look for teams in trials. I click and enter without looking at the other dogs or who owns them.

03-16-2012 at 8:01 AM

I do it for both! I want dogs with wins on the page as well as enough money to feed/care/train the little buggers.<br /> <br /> I will say that I actually dislike the idea of team trialing. I wish I could enter my dogs against similar level dogs (even if I lose here and there) like you would in a real trial. :/ That's another debate though.