Top 3 finish MGP rewards too low? Is it even worth it to feed your chocobo?

Considering how low the MGP rewards are for finishing 1st in a chocobo race, why would anyone spend a lot of time/effort maxing the stats on your chocobo (much less a whole successive line of them)? The rewards for getting dead last are around 2/3 that of placing 1st (for MGP), so it doesn't seem particularly worthwhile to try very hard (you can easily just afk and do something else while your choco auto runs to last place).

It's especially crazy to think of someone spending MGP for choco feed, esp. the grade 3 mgp-only feed. Instead of racing another 30-50 times to break even for the feed, why not... not do that? And just play Triple Triad for MGP instead?

It would make more sense if the reward for top 3 was significantly increased, and the reward for last place was minimal. It's already odd that you make a crazy profit just by entering (unlike TT where it's possible to lose MGP), and even more odd that it's easier to win TT (not to mention faster) yet the reward for TT is significantly higher.

I don't feed mine(on third generation now),you don't need to feed them at all if you're ultimately going for the grade9 breed.

If you're planning on keeping whatever chocobo you have and want to get it into highest possible race then ok,feeding it is wise,but like i said,don't feed if you're just breeding,so you're only paying 5k mgp or thereabouts to breed after you get it to rank 40.(i forget,but it's something like 10k mgp you will have earned i THINK when getting to rank40 to breed with a gold saucer chocobo grade9)

I agree,triple triad is the far better money maker,it takes less time and effort,and i think it's bs.Just hope that the highest rank races give out quite a bit more mgp.

By the time I'd run enough races to earn the MGP for even a single low-grade feed, my chocobo had leveled up about a dozen times. It would be completely impossible to train your chocobo at each level up unless you're just phenomenal at Triple Triad and using all your winnings from there to fund your chocobo. (And this leaves off the fact that it's all while trying to save most of your winnings for the Gold Saucer's actual prizes. There's quite a bit of that cosmetic gear I want, and none of it is cheap.)

Unless they drop a couple decimal places off of the feed prices, I'm not even going to consider them. Which is a shame, 'cause I'd feel I was able to get into this more if I could actually train and customize my chocobo. It's frustrating seeing that that ability was designed into the system but then put at a price point where it's impossible to access.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

By the time I'd run enough races to earn the MGP for even a single low-grade feed, my chocobo had leveled up about a dozen times.

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An NPC in Bentbranch sells Grade 1 feed for 1500 gil apiece.

If you're only looking at things from the MGP standpoint, Chocobo racing is not for you. I'm assuming you are primarily doing that simply because that's the only thing you mention. Chocobo Racing is a two-fold system and aimed at players who seek that for the competitive racing standpoint. It has a leveling system, so the reward is NOT just MGP, but experience. As a result, the rewards have to balance themselves out. Not to mention, racing has a limited instance creation to it, so if it were the best at MGP yield, you'd run into this problem even more (probably not of much concern though).

It's hard to say if the MGP cost of g3 and 2 food is too expensive. The only point of the food is to get an edge to win, and the only real reason to do that is to gain faster experience (besides the fun of winning). Maybe it's just me, but given the point of having Chocobo Racing, it makes sense. And just to be clear, Chocobo Racing is NOT intended to be the end-all, be-all MGP source. How and why you would even think that is beyond me. Furthermore, Chocobo Racing in general is easy to abuse to obtain 1st place. Invite people to party under some level of agreement, always win. Rigged races? GG.

However, I do agree that the AFK abuse can be problematic, given the reward amount. At the same time, it's not exactly that big of a deal for legitimate players. In fact, it actually has some degree of benefit since it basically means that's at least one position better that you'll come out on (besides 1st). Unlike AFK abuse in games like WoW and its PvP, people that do it don't affect a potential hit to your personal time and reward. It also doesn't hold much weight in affecting your personal goal, which in many cases might be MGP accumulation. Unlike botting for items to sell, AFK racing isn't going to destroy an economy. Not advocating it, and definitely would not look badly upon some sort of action to prevent it (unless it affected legit player rewards noticeably), but just stating that it's not as dire as you might think... at least for now.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

And just to be clear, Chocobo Racing is NOT intended to be the end-all, be-all MGP source. How and why you would even think that is beyond me.

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Because that's what it's supposed to be? Fun is something that will come from whatever you want, but the point of PLAYING AT THE GOLD SAUCER, is to gain MGP to buy things. The system that has the most thought-out design for a ramping reward system, doesn't pay out properly. There is a large problem when people are absolutely fine with being in last place every race, because the difference is negligible.

I have tons of Fun racing chocobo's Ive spent 40k mpg at least on them and not even blink xD I buy Grade 3 feed and grade 2 feed all the time but i also suplement with grade 1, I raced at 121-160 waiting for all the casuals to catch up is no fun. So i breed some of my lower Grades with each other and race them there its a blast I always loved the Chocobo races on ff7 and the choco breeding on ffX-2 to each there won :) i liked the cards in FF8 but my passion was always Chocobo races :) but if they added Blitzball you wouldnt see me come outa the water for a long time xD

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Originally Posted by KariArisu

Because that's what it's supposed to be? Fun is something that will come from whatever you want, but the point of PLAYING AT THE GOLD SAUCER, is to gain MGP to buy things. The system that has the most thought-out design for a ramping reward system, doesn't pay out properly. There is a large problem when people are absolutely fine with being in last place every race, because the difference is negligible.

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That still doesn't explain why you think it should be, without a doubt, the single best MGP source in the game. As in TT matches can't even compare (which is quite arguable, due to certain farmable NPCs). They're both good, and one probably does hold a better reliability aspect to it for slightly better MGP/hr yield, but it still doesn't explain why you think it's literally intended by design to be Racing and nothing else.

Just because it's a well designed and complex system, doesn't mean it's supposed to make you a million MGP in a day or two lol. It's disappointing that given how long I'm guessing you've played this game, you still haven't realized the devs philosophy of player outlook and balance for rewards obtainable by players for what they like or choose to do (for the most part anyway).

Mind you, the rewarded MGP is definitely arguable to be too low. What isn't is your claim that racing is the best MGP source (and you're not providing any reliable information besides "it just is"). That being said, if rewards from racing are too low for 1st-3rd place, then one of two things would have to happen. 1) ALL MGP rewards from ALL sources would have to go up, or 2) rewards for lower place finishers would have to go down... I guess there could be a 3rd one, where top 3 get slightly better MGP yields (as in maybe 10 more).

If you're someone who spends a massive amount of time on levelling a grade5+ chocobo to race with along with all those associated costs of feeding and breeding up in the highest rank of races,yeah,i believe that should be paying out more than a card game with all the complexity of a brick and where within one day or two of play you can gain a deck that's nigh on unbeatable and where it has rules that can allow the lowest of cards to beat the hardest of npc opponents.

Even with a good chocobo there are a variety of factors that can conspire against you to make you lose the race.

I don't mind the low rank races not paying out,but the high ranks should be paying more,and it would encourage more players to stick with levelling a chocobo longer to participate in those races so it wouldn't always be 1 pc against a bunch of npcs.

Or something they could do to make it a little fairer is to give a chance for grade 1 feed to drop at the end of race for top 3 finishers,just as with triad where they get card drops sometimes.

As others have stated,i'm big into chocobos too so this issue isn't going to stop me racing,but it is irritating anytime i start to think about it.

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Originally Posted by Honourlessichi

If you're someone who spends a massive amount of time on levelling a grade5+ chocobo to race with along with all those associated costs of feeding and breeding up in the highest rank of races,yeah,i believe that should be paying out more than a card game with all the complexity of a brick and where within one day or two of play you can gain a deck that's nigh on unbeatable and where it has rules that can allow the lowest of cards to beat the hardest of npc opponents.

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Fair enough about the time investment. I still have to ask though, what gave you (and some others) the impression that it would be that way? Well, besides your own personal feelings on the matter. Were there any sort of previous in-game clues to this? Perhaps something Yoshi-P said? I mean, isn't the primary reason you want to do it to make the best Chocobo you can and win? Or does it HAVE to always be hand in hand with being all or nothing (winning and riches beyond anything other options can have)?

We're playing an MMORPG here, not everyone is going to be interested in racing, just as not everyone is going to be interested in TT. Balance must be there to some degree. Having one be more efficient than the other by a little is fair enough though, given the time investment... although again, one could argue that case for TT, and trying to get the cards you need to get access to better decks. Is racing the equivalent of endgame raid reward? Do you have proof of this?

I don't think it's quite fair to make the claim of ease when it comes to ease of TT versus ease of racing. Someone with aroun 95 max speed (which I have encountered) is going to faceroll their way to victory in most matches, exception being the highest/higher tier brackets. Not exactly the most lengthy and stressful of processes to undertake lol.

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Even with a good chocobo there are a variety of factors that can conspire against you to make you lose the race.

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Very true, but the same can be said about TT. I mean, even the NPCs you can cheese can throw curveballs from time to time. Playing equally matched players isn't exactly a walk in the park neither, especially while under certain rule types lol. There's a lot more mental thought involved with that game when played competitively.

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I don't mind the low rank races not paying out,but the high ranks should be paying more,and it would encourage more players to stick with levelling a chocobo longer to participate in those races so it wouldn't always be 1 pc against a bunch of npcs.

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Care to give an example of reward amounts to be distributed? Keep in mind that for 99% of your playtime racing, experience points are also a reward in and of itself.

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Or something they could do to make it a little fairer is to give a chance for grade 1 feed to drop at the end of race for top 3 finishers,just as with triad where they get card drops sometimes.

As others have stated,i'm big into chocobos too so this issue isn't going to stop me racing,but it is irritating anytime i start to think about it.

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G1 feed is simple enough to get, just buy from the NPC in Central Shroud for 1500 gil each. Potential rewards should be G2 feed, but even that might be a little... mmm... tough to agree with. There's normally a particular reason why someone is in first for most games, that being that they tend to have better stats than the rest. Essentially, another perspective of "the rich get richer" sort of thing. I mean, if that's what they should do, then by all means. I just don't see too much of a fair-play point to it lol. Something vanity, however, sure, why not lol.

The MGP for winning and such is fine. There is really no reason to lower the MGP winnings from people not ending in the top 3 of the race. Top 1-3 could be a bit increased though, as an incentive to get people to breed there choco's.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Fair enough about the time investment. I still have to ask though, what gave you (and some others) the impression that it would be that way? Well, besides your own personal feelings on the matter. Were there any sort of previous in-game clues to this? Perhaps something Yoshi-P said? I mean, isn't the primary reason you want to do it to make the best Chocobo you can and win?.

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although it may not be explicit in this game as of yet, in general when you go up tiers in games the rewards get bigger,

I didn't play 11 so cant comment on that but in ff7 the rewards def got better for winning higher ranked races, so the precedence is there for it to be that way in this game even if not explicitly said.

I don't think anyone is asking for a hand out but just a little balance is all. of course we have to concede that racing was only just added and things will get better when time goes on, with more ways to get rewards.

MGP rewards certainly should be higher. Chocobo Racing should be more lucrative than Triple Triad or botting Cuff-A-Cur in regards to MGP, primarily because the success of Chocobo Racing depends on it.

People respond to incentives, and if these incentives aren't balanced then players are going to choose the option that most favors them. Right now they're choosing Triple Triad. A day of collecting Triple Triad cards will put you in a position to earn 80+ MGP per minute. But when racing R160 you're earning only 50 MGP per minute, at best, assuming you're finishing in first every race. You also need to factor in the costs of investment for Chocobo Racing in regards to time and feed/breeding/lethe water, which are costs that Triple Triad simply does compare to.

As such, you're going to find significantly more players playing cards around the Indolent Imperial in Mor Dhona right now than in front of the Chocobo Racing desk. Those that have chosen to prioritize the racing option will continue to face more and more situations where they're forced to play against 7 NPCs per race. This will likely lead to significant fatigue and the eventual departure of players from the racing scene because unlike Triple Triad, Chocobo Racing is more dependent on having player-versus-player competition in order to keep the gameplay fresh and interesting.