Chocobo Dash III bug?

At this point, quite a few people who have achieved a rating of 300 on their racing chocobos, and are reporting an issue with how Chocobo Dash III is performing.

The primary issue is not the ability failing to work, but having a muted effect.

When the ability procs in a rating 280-299 race, Chocobo Dash III will cause the player to, for three seconds, exceed their maximum speed, and not consume stamina.

When the ability procs in a rating 300 race, Chocobo Dash III will cause the player to, for three seconds, effectively maintain their current speed, and not consume stamina.

This turns this highly sought-after ability into little more than a weak stamina pill, and is even more noticeable as you reach the 500 maximum speed cap. Especially when the NPC racer abilities are yet again exceeding a player's (even with max stats) individual expectations as a racer.

Due to the time/effort commitment to breed this ability and attain maximum stars and stats, the ability should continue to provide a relative potent burst of speed, without excluding the top rated birds.

Can some of the devs test this and confirm our findings, and fix them? This is frustrating many, the grumblings on reddit topics associated with chocobo racing practically discourages aiming for great goals like this ability.

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Originally Posted by Alwaysatodds

Awesome man. I'm glad you made that topic. It took a lot of effort to find and keep that ability at p9 only to have it be significantly worse as soon as you start racing at r300.

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Honestly, I think Choco Dash III is dumb broken in lower level races, so I'm not that sad that it's not game-breaking at top play. That said, it'd be nice if its performance were a bit more consistent across different levels - maybe make it worse at lower stat levels, but fix it such that it's still a speed boost on a maxed chocobo too.

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Originally Posted by Duuude007

When the ability procs in a rating 280-299 race, Chocobo Dash III will cause the player to, for three seconds, exceed their maximum speed, and not consume stamina.

When the ability procs in a rating 300 race, Chocobo Dash III will cause the player to, for three seconds, effectively maintain their current speed, and not consume stamina.

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That's how the ability works. It sets your speed instantly to max (500) for 3 seconds. If you have 500 speed and are already running at max speed, you won't see any increased speed. That's why it's completely overpowered in lower brackets and becomes less and less so as you move up. That's not broken nor bugged.


You mentioned that "quite a few people...are reporting an issue" and "this is frustrating many." This is appealing to the masses, and for all we know this is made up to reinforce your point. Choco Dash III isn't broken, and if you or others are unhappy that you chose it as your final ability for your g9, then I don't think the devs should interfere on account of your poor planning. It's not like you're locked in either, you can make another g9 bird and try again.

Now, if you don't like how Choco Dash works and want to see it reworked so that it has an effect at every speed level, then that's another issue altogether. I would imagine any adjustment would come with a severe nerf to its impact for lower levels, maybe set speed to +100 of current max speed for 3 seconds. This could or could not be applied to blue panels as well.

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Originally Posted by thendcomes

That's how the ability works. It sets your speed instantly to max (500) for 3 seconds. If you have 500 speed and are already running at max speed, you won't see any increased speed.

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Effect: Temporarily boosts speed without depleting stamina. Duration: 3s

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Based on the action notes, there should be a boost, by design, regardless of what your current stats are. Nothing indicates that it is "designed" to be potent at ratings 1-299, and yet inept at 300. That is more than likely an oversight and should be seriously considered.

No need to apologize. Now, it's just as easy, or easier, to conceive that the tooltip is the oversight and the skill is working as intended. So I don't think you get anywhere by inferring what the design intent originally was or wasn't.

Anyway, if you re-purpose your grievance to call for a re-balancing of Dash, I can definitely get behind that. It's not the only skill that gets weaker as your stats improve -- Choco Ease and Choco Calm also get relatively worse as Stamina increases -- but I personally don't think it's good design to have skills that scale inversely with your level.

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Originally Posted by thendcomes

No need to apologize.

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You are really trying to bait a fight, it seems.

Choco Dash III is merely the most obvious example of a max rating issue. If others are affected due to an accidentaly low stat ceiling for buffs I agree they should also be considered.

I am not calling for a top-to bottom change, just the correct proportional stat boosts to buffs, relative to the rank in which they are used.

easy solution, choco dash 4 - when used teleport your chicken to finish line. nuff said

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Originally Posted by Duuude007

Based on the action notes, there should be a boost, by design, regardless of what your current stats are. Sorry, but nothing indicates that it is "designed" to be potent at ratings 1-299, and yet inept at 300. That is more than likely an oversight and should be seriously considered.

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Technically that can still be argued as the case though, in that it does simply boost you to the 500 stat (or some other preset max for your rating/pedigree). Like anything that doesn't reveal all of its secrets, the coding or math behind something is up for debate without any real evidence. Obviously, the effectiveness of Dash is reduced dramatically at max stats, but that's not exactly surprising.

Dash does serve some purpose though, such as reducing some damage from debuffs, evading, or getting to your temporary max speed during the first 3/4 of the race in Sagolii (maybe the other tracks too?). It's especially useful if you run into the unfortunate case of bad luck and/or being ganged up on by NPCs, as it'll give you that boost you need when your stamina is depleted near the finish line. Maybe it could use some love, but given how some of the less used/liked abilities and traits see a boost in usefulness as you get better stats, so too would the opposite happen (better earlier, mediocre later). At least, that's the way I look at it.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Obviously, the effectiveness of Dash is reduced dramatically at max stats, but that's not exactly surprising.

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What's surprising is that without the boost that any of the dashes normally provide, at rating 300 you CANNOT outpace these aoe debuffs by hitting it. Even if it only set you one bird length ahead it could maybe help, but the difference is now so much that you continue to run ear to ear with the saboteur.

And those debuffs remain extremely potent at R-300, unlike some buffs.

If its really meant to be 'fair', then all debuffs, buffs, everything, would be proportionally docked. As that is clearly not the case, I refer back to the initial argument, that stat caps are rendering multiple 'buffs' ineffective, creating an unfair disadvantage.

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Originally Posted by Duuude007

Sorry

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Originally Posted by thendcomes

No need to apologize.

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Originally Posted by Duuude007

You are really trying to bait a fight, it seems.

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Damn, you got me? I helped you refocus your poorly formed grievance and supported your new idea. You're the antagonist here, not me.