Chocobo Racing and Weather Effects

Now I've seen a lot of speculation on weather effects, affecting chocobos. Rain destorying fair weather ones and so on. But I'm looking for some solid info that bad weather chocobos are better than fair.

From all of the testing I've done with a friend of mine, I don't see a real differance between the 2. Fair chocobos like Clear/Sunshine/Heatwaves, Foul like Clouds/Rain/Thunderstorms. All of my findings have nothing to do with speed boosts or who wins or who doesn't win, I only looked at speed coming out of the gate. Before you say "Well thats silly because ... " both of our chocobo's have headstart so we generally come out of the gate at the same time.

With all of this in mind, without using chocodash or any other skill we would race to the first chest in Sagoli. When the weather Was clear, which is the minor fair weather chocobo buff, I would pull in front, but beat him by only a small margin to the chest. When sunshine was out, I would beat him by almost a chocobo length and a half. If Heatwave was out, I'd just blaze away as I'd assume his stats would hit rock bottom it seemed. He would burn through more stamina and it seemed like his bird ran sluggish. Which could be the same for me. Whenever it was cloudy, we'd be fairly even to the chest, but he would usually be in the lead. When it rained, I'd really feel the pain, and my speed and stamina would hurt pretty bad if it rained for a prolonged period of time.

so for the skeptics saying foul weather is better? Hard to say to me. I feel like it depends on the track you play on for the most part. If you have a fair weather, stay on Sagoli or Costa. If you have a foul, stay to Tranquil or costa, Costa being in the middle I think. RNG will be RNG, but honestly its just chocobo kart, try to have fun.

P.S: If anybody has any actual information to back up what I said here feel free to post it, because this is just from what I see, and notice while trying out different things. Thanks :cool:

I had a Foul weather bird once, but I accidentally went through with releasing it when I tried to see what would happen if you tried to retire early lol. I can't really comment on the actual performance advantages between weather because of that. I can, however, comment on how frequent the weather benefits are for Foul vs Fair. The grand majority of my races are done with Sagolii (or whatever it's called), but the rain is ridiculously common. Heatwave is ridiculously rare by comparison. I might as well attempt to get 30 Terra cards before I ever expect to see Heatwave throughout an entire race, or even the majority of a race, unlike its counterpart (rain). In that regard, Foul weather birds certainly do have a noticeable advantage over Fair ones.

It really just comes down to frequency of the extreme weathers and their effects. Heatwave is definitely noticeable compared to rain for a Fair bird. I'm assuming it's the opposite for Foul birds with Rain being their best performance, and Heatwave being the worst.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

I can, however, comment on how frequent the weather benefits are for Foul vs Fair. The grand majority of my races are done with Sagolii (or whatever it's called), but the rain is ridiculously common.

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I'll agree with that, and maybe that needs tweaking in an upcoming patch. For as arid and desert-like Sagoli is, it does rain quite often. Technically you should have an advantage there with your fair bird, but the weather patterns are kind of all over the place.

From Pedigree 2 to Pedigree 6 all of my Chocobos were Foul-weathered and I was skeptical about it myself. Pedigree 7 and 8 were fair weathered ones and when it rained it was very bad. i.e. During raining when I'm sprinting, I smack a Heavy on a competitor Chocobo, my sprinting speed and his Heavied Chocobo are running at the same speed.

Trust us, we have raced A LOT of races and it's very obvious when you're racing at high speeds (high ratings). Our Japanese friends are complaining the same thing as well. Different language, hardly any communication between us yet they came up with the same conclusions:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...6%9C%9B/page23
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...81%84%E3%81%A6

Heatwave hitting my Foul-weathered bird - Slight decrease in speed/stats
Rain hitting my Fair-weathered bird - Inflicted with Heavy

No we aren't exaggerating or trying to leverage our way for ninja buffs on Fair-weather Chocos. We just want balance.

Also add to the fact that when you race with a friend, both of you are placed into the Open category where your stats are reduced to almost basal levels. You would hardly notice a 30% reduction in stats at such low speeds just based solely on how fast you come out of the gate. When your stats are in the 200s and that stat reduction hits you, you really feel it.

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Originally Posted by Aphel

No we aren't exaggerating or trying to leverage our way for ninja buffs on Fair-weather Chocos. We just want balance.

Also add to the fact that when you race with a friend, both of you are placed into the Open category

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No I agree. I'm on pedigree 2, and me and my friend have been racing at Rank 41-80, and I can feel the things you say, obviously not to the extent your saying, but I notice when I'm not going the speed I know I should be going.

There was a video posted in one of the other threads that shows the differences quite cleary along with multiple other threads discussing how bad this is.

However as Aphel pointed out, fair birds in rain = perma heavy until the rain lifts. It does make a huge difference and is totally out of balance right now. Get up to the higher stats/pedigrees and race with a fair bird and you will see the issues. R40-80 are pretty much the starter races for any higher pedigree bird and so you won't notice how bad it gets.

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Originally Posted by Lilianne

There was a video posted in one of the other threads that shows the differences quite cleary along with multiple other threads discussing how bad this is..

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Probably this one

tl;dw - Sunny weather run gets no speed boosts, but finishes course in 109 seconds. Wet weather it rains for 3/4 of the course, gets a hero potion AND sprint shoes, finishes in 123 seconds.

The most telling moment for me, is how once the weather clears up in the wet weather race, the rider gets heavied, but is still moving faster than when it was raining.

Yes, thank you again Ryuujin, and I totally agree with you. It is so sad to me to see that and I wonder just how something so obvious got by.

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Originally Posted by Aphel

Heatwave hitting my Foul-weathered bird - Slight decrease in speed/stats
Rain hitting my Fair-weathered bird - Inflicted with Heavy

No we aren't exaggerating or trying to leverage our way for ninja buffs on Fair-weather Chocos. We just want balance.

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The problem with the common speculation is that it compares random good/bad weather with each other, instead of what the OP did: compare each seperate bad/good weather.
Considering that I've noticed slow downs (on a foul weather chocobo) during rain, implies that it's not as clear cut either.

I very specifically remember the theory of ''foul weather prefer isnt effected by anything'', well that seems to be wrong then, based on the OPs observations as well.


Lots and lots of speculation. If someone actually compares all courses, using all different builds, and comparing all 6 of the weathers: fair game. I'll be the first to agree that foul weather should be nerfed. But with a lot of theorizing still missing I dont see the point in making hasty assumptions.

One major offender in the theories thus far, in my opinion: everyone (OP aside) seems to compare total time the race took.
Why? That adds so many more variables you need to calculate in: buffs/debuffs/weather changes/time lost due to opponents chocobos moving against/in front of you/ time lost due to changing lanes/turning, etc.

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Originally Posted by Aeyis

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Did you even read what I wrote? The effects are so blindingly obvious that you don't even need to consider the total time.

Step 1: Get a high pedigree foul-weathered Chocobo and race in Heatwave/Sunshine and observe.
Step 2: Get a high pedigree fair-weathered Chocobo and race in Rain/Thunder and observe.

In neutral weather there's no boost whatsoever.

Only then will you understand what we are talking about. I have 1579 races under my belt (Pedigree 8 and gone through both types of Chocobo) and other players have way more than me. Our judgement isn't hasty, it's mind-numbingly staggeringly obvious and I do not understand why other people fail to see this glaring fact. What a facepalm moment.

We aren't talking about nerfing foul-weather chocobos, we just want all Chocobos to have the same degree of sub-optimal performance in unfavorable weather. Why? Put both types of Chocos together in the same race.

During sunshine/heatwave: Fair-weathered Choco gets little boost (+10%), foul-weathered Choco gets little penalty (-10%). Difference between them = ~20%
During rain: Fair-weathered Choco gets heavy penalty (-30%), foul-weathered Choco gets little boost (+10%). Difference between them = 40%

The people not aware of this fact are those who have not raced enough on both types of Chocobos to understand. What you are doing is theorizing. What I (and many other people) am doing is speaking from experience arising from countless races.

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Originally Posted by Aeyis

Lots and lots of speculation. If someone actually compares all courses, using all different builds, and comparing all 6 of the weathers: fair game. I'll be the first to agree that foul weather should be nerfed. But with a lot of theorizing still missing I dont see the point in making hasty assumptions.

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While anecdotal evidence is not the most sound method scientifically - chocobo racing is inherently packed full of RNG and variables you cannot readily control, which means you'll probably never get the precise figures you demand.

You're quite right there appears to be a gradient, as OP says and seems true in my experiences too - the farther you push towards warm/wet, the better/worse performance becomes. But the experiences of dozens of people, with tens thousands of races between them and dozens of different birds all say the same thing: That fair weather chocobos are unduly punished in wet weather - whether that be simple rain, or a full on thunderstorm, compared to foul birds in the warm.

Nitpicking the methodology does not change the facts on the ground.

Try doing this with a fair chocobo under rain weather:

http://i.imgur.com/fe9ZQEP.jpg?1

I did this with a foul chocobo under fair weather.


I wish you some nasty luck trying to win these guys with a fair chocobo. I was lucky in this one there wasn't Teioh and an NPC called Star Breaker which I calculate have a maximum speed of around 500...just so that you make a slight idea of what that is, they can permanently sprint at roughly the same speed as any chocobo under choco dash. R300 is a nightmare even with an R285 chocobo with 460 max speed and 500 stamina. I dread to imagine what it would be like with a permaheavy every time it rains. I'm not gonna be the one to find out, you can give it a wild try though if you want.

I've on G5 and it's my 1st fair weather chocobo. And as someone mentioned before, I've been on the receiving end of a heavy whilst on a foul chocobo during rain. It only slowed me down to their pace, and as we were going the same speed, I stayed ahead. This was one of the later birds, so I assumed it was the results of breeding (better stats, high max speed, etc), or being a higher level. Either way, regardless of weather, I could sprint the entire length of sagolii/costa and I'd rank high unless I got badly screwed over during the race. Rain seemed to be a rarity (anecdotal).

Now though, as I've said, I'm on my first fair weather, and I've noticed what a huge difference the weather can, and does make to these birds. Also, anecdotaly, it seems to have brief showers in nearly every race at the mo.

On a side note, does anyone know if prefering foul weather is hereditary? Because if that's the case, then I'll just breed my foul weather chocobos with each other.

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Originally Posted by Natsuno

On a side note, does anyone know if prefering foul weather is hereditary? Because if that's the case, then I'll just breed my foul weather chocobos with each other.

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I can't confirm, but I think yes. This is however, horrendously annoying to test, given how SE decided not to share weather info on the chocobo registration cards, which means you have no possible living way to test this if you decide to breed with Gold Saucer chocobos (which is what everyone does until P9). Also, given how you can only have 1 registered chocobo at once, you don't know if your fledging's preferred weather is fair or foul until you retire your current racing chocobo. SE really needs to fix a lot of things up.

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Originally Posted by Aeyis

One major offender in the theories thus far, in my opinion: everyone (OP aside) seems to compare total time the race took.

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Thanks, and I agree with this. Only way to get an accurate reading on how it affects your chocobo is to have it rain the whole race. This is why I think it better to test running to the first chest. Its hard to track time wise except for maybe the clock on the side.

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Originally Posted by RyuujinZERO

The most telling moment for me, is how once the weather clears up in the wet weather race, the rider gets heavied, but is still moving faster than when it was raining.

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The one thing I noticed in the video at right about 4:05 and 4:06 you can see that the 2 birds she passed weren't sprinting. She was already running at a high speed so once the weather cleared up, her acceleration most likely drove her to max speed faster than the 2 npc's who weren't sprinting and trying to conserve stamina. As for the heavy, the NPc that was behind her, passed those other 2 with ease, but if you noticed, hit the red pad, and also took the turn far to the outside, kind of why she stayed in the lead.

I will continue to watch, just hit pedigree 3, so got a ways to go yet. I like all the feedback in the thread, if anybody has anything else to add, I'm all ears, and I'm sure others want to hear as well.

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Originally Posted by Gallus

Try doing this with a fair chocobo under rain weather:

http://i.imgur.com/fe9ZQEP.jpg?1

I did this with a foul chocobo under fair weather.


I wish you some nasty luck trying to win these guys with a fair chocobo. I was lucky in this one there wasn't Teioh and an NPC called Star Breaker which I calculate have a maximum speed of around 500...just so that you make a slight idea of what that is, they can permanently sprint at roughly the same speed as any chocobo under choco dash. R300 is a nightmare even with an R285 chocobo with 460 max speed and 500 stamina. I dread to imagine what it would be like with a permaheavy every time it rains. I'm not gonna be the one to find out, you can give it a wild try though if you want.

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Was that while enduring a large portion of the race with Heatwave weather though? Rain is just way too common and is the extreme for the foul weather conditions, whereas heatwave, as uncommon by comparison as it is, would be for fair. I mean the fair weather birds aren't anywhere near as bad in cloudy/foggy weather, as long as it's not rain. Foul weather in general seems to be way more frequent than fair, and I don't think bias has too much of an effect, since people will generally always be looking for beneficial weather and happy to get it lol.

On a side note though, I really don't think the NPCs are bound to weather conditions. It really seems like they're just following a set AI difficulty (making stupid mistakes, slowing down to give an advantage, etc) and doing these things reliably as though they were at the max stat levels for the given R-bracket. I can't speak for anything above 200, but below that it seems to be the case.

I don't remember if there was heatwave, but I recall getting heatwave a lot of times, and the stamina drain seems completely normal, if heatwave really drains more stamina from foul chocobos, I can guarantee it's almost negligible. I'm at 460 max speed, 500 stamina and 460 endurance. I can sprint just fine the entire race with the passives Increased Stamina III and Head Start regardless of the weather. I'm always left with around 5% stamina left, and my average seems to be around 82 seconds in sagolii (if nothing bad happens like choco meteors, which sadly, happen very often...). I've never experienced a type of weather where I was forced to stop sprinting because my chocobo's stamina couldn't keep up, all the weathers have absolutely the same effect to my foul chocobo (or very similar at least). The only things that drain my stamina abnormally are the occasional bachus wine, caltrops and choco meteors.

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Originally Posted by Gallus

I don't remember if there was heatwave, but I recall getting heatwave a lot of times, and the stamina drain seems completely normal, if heatwave really drains more stamina from foul chocobos, I can guarantee it's almost negligible. I'm at 460 max speed, 500 stamina and 460 endurance. I can sprint just fine the entire race with the passives Increased Stamina III and Head Start regardless of the weather. I'm always left with around 5% stamina left, and my average seems to be around 82 seconds in sagolii (if nothing bad happens like choco meteors, which sadly, happen very often...). I've never experienced a type of weather where I was forced to stop sprinting because my chocobo's stamina couldn't keep up, all the weathers have absolutely the same effect to my foul chocobo (or very similar at least). The only things that drain my stamina abnormally are the occasional bachus wine, caltrops and choco meteors.

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Hmm, but you don't notice a speed drop equivalent to heavy when you get hit with heatwave weather? Honestly, I don't notice much of a stamina depletion increase (not to the extent that Bachu's do anyway) as a fair weather bird in rain. I can see how it's easy for people to associate that though, if that's the case, given the slower run and the stamina it takes to get a short distance because of that.

IMO for now, the only guaranteed benefit that anyone can really "prove" is the frequency of foul weather compared to fair weather. For example, it can rain for the entire duration of a race but out of hundreds of races I've done so far, not one has ever had heatwave for the entire duration... or even for the majority of it. And I say that because there's so many variables at play that it makes it hard to really prove something without being able to do a controlled test. Items, weather shifts, brackets, stats, etc can all truly manipulate data collected to be one-sided unfortunately.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

I mean the fair weather birds aren't anywhere near as bad in cloudy/foggy weather, as long as it's not rain. Foul weather in general seems to be way more frequent than fair, and I don't think bias has too much of an effect, since people will generally always be looking for beneficial weather and happy to get it lol.

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Cloud/Foggy is neutral weather and has no effect at all for both chocobo types.

i never noticed the other two foul weathers, only rain so far. are they only in high rating classes?

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Originally Posted by Alexiell

i never noticed the other two foul weathers, only rain so far. are they only in high rating classes?

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In sagolii there's just rain, I've never encountered thunderstorms or showers (pretty sure it was always rain, never showers). I can confirm however, thunderstorms on the third circuit (tranquil paths) and shower in 2nd circuit (costa del sol). I don't know know how bad fair chocobos are affected by those 2 weathers though, as I rarely race in the 2nd and 3rd circuit, though it would be pretty reasonable to think that they both destroy fair chocobos as bad as rain.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Hmm, but you don't notice a speed drop equivalent to heavy when you get hit with heatwave weather?

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No, it runs just fine, nothing abnormal. Why don't you just try it and see it for yourself? Honestly, those who are skeptical about what has been repeatedly said, if you think this is all bs, just keep racing. I have more than 3500 races over my shoulders, I certainly do not need 3500 more races to notice brutally obvious effects of certain weathers on certain chocobos. I started noticing how my fair bird was badly stroke by rain weather like 2-3 weeks ago, and it pissed me off dearly, I even made a thread comparing it with a snail...then, on P4-P5 I think it was, I got a foul chocobo, and weather did not have absolutely any effect over it, and if it had, it was almost impossible to even notice, I was extremely surprised, if you think it's my own paranoia or my own personal neurosis, just ignore everybody who has experienced the same thing so far (as well as myself) and breed your chocobos without worrying about their preferred weather.

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Originally Posted by Gallus

In sagolii there's just rain, I've never encountered thunderstorms or showers (pretty sure it was always rain, never showers). I can confirm however, thunderstorms on the third circuit (tranquil paths) and shower in 2nd circuit (costa del sol). I don't know know how bad fair chocobos are affected by those 2 weathers though, as I rarely race in the 2nd and 3rd circuit, though it would be pretty reasonable to think that they both destroy fair chocobos as bad as rain.

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i see, but if there is only 1 type of foul weather per map (at least in sagolii) then maybe foul weather is less common than fair weather. so it would make sense that rain has a stronger negative impact on fair weather chocobos, than fair weather has on other chocobos.

Edit: ok.. since i wrote this i got ALOT of rain in sagolii lol, so maybe its not less common

I seem to only get rain when I use a Fair one at Sagolii so its all RNG I guess. But I do notice the speed difference, hopefully it is something they will fix with the upcoming adjustments in 2.55.
On a side note, anyone that is currently at the R300 races can tell me how much stamina you are normally left with if you get no stamina related items at all for a full race, and if weather is in your favour?
I managed to get a 4 4 4 1 4, so it's stamina would cap at 380, you think maxing endurance to 500 with G3 food would help to compensate the stamina drain vs the low cap?

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Originally Posted by YakushiHinata

I managed to get a 4 4 4 1 4, so it's stamina would cap at 380, you think maxing endurance to 500 with G3 food would help to compensate the stamina drain vs the low cap?

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380 stamina 500 max speed... don't think that will take you anywhere, even with 500 endurance and 500 acceleration, I'm pretty convinced you'll have big problems. But I can't confirm it 100%. The only thing I can confirm is that I have one with 460 max speed, 500 stamina and around 400 endurance, and even with the increased stamina III trait, I can sprint the entire race but I'm left with almost 0 stamina.

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Originally Posted by YakushiHinata

I seem to only get rain when I use a Fair one at Sagolii so its all RNG I guess. But I do notice the speed difference, hopefully it is something they will fix with the upcoming adjustments in 2.55.
On a side note, anyone that is currently at the R300 races can tell me how much stamina you are normally left with if you get no stamina related items at all for a full race, and if weather is in your favour?
I managed to get a 4 4 4 1 4, so it's stamina would cap at 380, you think maxing endurance to 500 with G3 food would help to compensate the stamina drain vs the low cap?

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Ouch, 1 in stamina is brutal. 120 max stamina less and that also effects food...

Ok. I can confirm weather is NOT necessarily hereditary, yay more RNG involved. After like my number one million breed, I managed a 4 star stamina and 4 star max speed chocobo out of 2 own foul chocobos... but hey, it is a fair one.
Lovely.

Got lucky this morning and ended up with something better, its 4 4 4 3 4 , but it ended up with preferred Fair weather, which is a small price tbh to have these stats. One parent had Foul and the other Fair so I can't say if it's hereditary or not.
So now begins the grind to rank 50 using only grade 3 food~

http://i.imgur.com/dM7fwY4.png

That's actually an ok chocobo:

The way I see it (I could be wrong though). The perfect choco would be:

1 - 4 stars in Stamina, 4 stars in Max Speed (the other stats don't really matter much). Traits - 2 of these: Head Start/Increased Stamina III/Choco Cure III/Choco Dash III/Choco Ease III. Preferably 2 active skills or 1 active and 1 passive, not 2 passive skills (Increased Stamina III + Head Start will render choco aethers useless).

or if you manage 4 stars in acceleration you can do fine without head start. In any case, 4 stars in stamina, 4 stars in max speed and foul weather are imperative, with the bird you have now I'm sure you'll manage some wins in R300, but you'll be far from winning every race, and you'll suffer hell against Teioh and Star Breaker under wet weather.

It seems to me that I get fair weather way more than foul during races. Is it possible that fair birds get dubuffed worse since their preferred weather occurs more often?

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Originally Posted by LandricFrey

It seems to me that I get fair weather way more than foul during races. Is it possible that fair birds get dubuffed worse since their preferred weather occurs more often?

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thats what i thought, but lately im getting a lot of rain ^^