Chocobo Lottery aka "Weather"

[RobinRethiel]

The point is so that you don't win every single race. Consider it a way to give the underdog a leg up.

Ah, okay, the underdog. Those mysterious Chocobos with no weather modification? Bad stat chocobos will lose anyway, weather will not change this.

Weather is just a random kick in the teeth, which will let those standard ultra chocobos win (those guys who are kind of like "Joe" from FF7), because you suddenly need 20% more time for the course. And hell, it's not like it is about winning, but XP. You have to do 140+ races to breed a new chocobo and have to do this 8 times. Some wins or not out of those over 1100 races, who cares...

It would be okay, if it would be some kind of gameplay element, but it's just some -20% on all stats because the game randomly hates you.

And it's really nice, when you do 20 races and in every single one of them you got bad weather most of the time. Hooray.

[RobinRethiel]

My bird likes Fair weather, but all I saw last night was Foul weather. Besides, the weather impact isn't THAT huge, it really isn't. Just means you might need to manage stamina a BIT more. I've won lots of times in unfavorable weather.

Without rain and alike, I beat the Sagoli Desert race in around 105s.
When it rains half of the match I need 130s+ for it, even with stamina items and such.

So the impact is terrible.

[BLaCKnBLu3B3RRY]

the weather really has a very minimal impact on the race outcome. my chocobo likes Fair weather. however, when even racing under clear skies, he still gets lathered quickly. i have won races during the rain as well. and have even had my chocobo become lathered less frequently on tracks that didn't have Fair weather.

while i can agree that it would be nice to have ways to help condition your chocobo while under unfavorable weather conditions, i can't say that the weather has any actual significance to the outcome of a race.

[Stevewambold]

Ok, for starters, weather definitely effects your chocobo if you cant see this then your missing something or its not such a horrible problem for low grade birds.

im g-7 i have had both kinds of weather for my bird every other time and this is how it works and why its complete crap.

rain/storms/thunder- you are going to run at the same speed the whole course no matter what weather, u dont get a boost from these weather and you dont slow down for the other weather.

sunny/clear/heatwave- this is where the crap comes in (especially in sagoli cause somehow theres always a monsoon there when ur in the 120/220 races. Yes this weather gives you a boost when its actually that weather and you slow down 40% when it rains and normal during fog/clouds.

now for why this is bad, every race has the rain and 2 races (i think costa has it) has the thunder so there not to bad but sagoli is the shortest track best to race on and ofc the only track to take advantage of the heatwave/clear/sun weather but the thing is its constantly raining i go so many races where it rains the whole freaking time and never see a weather change, not once have i gotten a heat wave the whole race etc so on this track when you have rain as your favored weather this track will never slow you down there is no down side cause your chocobo is doing what its supposed to do, run the way its built, but when its sun as your favorite weather and you never see it cause rain is the favorite your screwed.

The benefits of having the boost on the sun weathers are not even worth anything cause the negative effects far out weigh the positive where the rain weathers are completly dominant cause the bird u worked so hard on to get it where its at is doing what its supposed to do with no rng weather garbage

if the rain favored chocobos actually slowed down during sun/clear/thunder then this thread probably wouldnt even exist because there wouldnt be 2 clear differences between the bird making one worse than the other. hope this makes sense to ppl gl racing.

[Aeyis]

I cant confirm it yet, but it seemed to me like I was running out of stamina faster on bad weather, even tho my chocobo has foul weather preference. Could it be that bad weather already reduces stats, regardless of preferences? Just less so for the chocobos that prefer that type of weather?

[RobinRethiel]

the weather really has a very minimal impact on the race outcome. my chocobo likes Fair weather. however, when even racing under clear skies, he still gets lathered quickly. i have won races during the rain as well. and have even had my chocobo become lathered less frequently on tracks that didn't have Fair weather.

while i can agree that it would be nice to have ways to help condition your chocobo while under unfavorable weather conditions, i can't say that the weather has any actual significance to the outcome of a race.

Of course you can win such races. There is a lot of other RNG. Sprint/Stamina Items, Stamina drain, luck with the opponents and so on and of course simply having a chocobo which is too strong for that race rank.

But as said:
Neutral or good weather: ~105s
Bad weather: 130+s

This is not a "minimal impact" by far.

And of course it is also bad for the other, non fair chocobos, when you got a sunshine race and the fair chocobos stomp you by weather.

What about something like this:
Rain weather = puddles on the ground and fair chocobos got probs with this, a little slow.
Fair weather = sunray/dust clouds and foul weather chocobos are blinded for a second.

Something like that, just not a simple +/-20% on stats.

[Gallus]

Wrong.

Fair chocobos - I'd say around 10% more speedy under clear/fair/heatwave. Around 30/40% less speedy under rain.

Foul chocobos - Always run the same regardless the weather. No +10% bonus under rain but no -40% negative impact under fair/clear/heatwave either. Honestly guys, just freaking test it yourselves before making any judgment -.-.

And yes...this is why anyone with half a brain concludes that foul chocobos are...in fact...superior.

Reason is simple, no matter which circuit you choose, rain appears fairly often. When that happens, you are not going to win any race against any sort of half competent real player if you are racing with a fair chocobo.

[Shiroifushicho]

My bird likes Fair weather, but all I saw last night was Foul weather. Besides, the weather impact isn't THAT huge, it really isn't. Just means you might need to manage stamina a BIT more. I've won lots of times in unfavorable weather.

Nijan, let's say it straight :

I am choco grade 6, rank 38, 3-5stars on stats, running on cat 180-200, 1500+ runs at my exp (no afk)
stats : 238/171/193/248/150

Are okay with the fact i can't even reach a pnj which is 0% stamina in a long final straight line because it's rainy ? are you really ok with that fact knowing it's even not the very end game content ? that we will tweak our last chocobo to the very tiny details and this won't matter?

[Shiroifushicho]

i add my personnal times from this morning on sagolli(1st track) CAT180

Mostly good weather : 8 times / 50 ; best time : 95,7 sec
Weather Balanced between good and bad : 19 times / 50 ; best time : 104,6 sec
Mostly bad/rainy : 23 times / 50 ; best time : 112,9 sec (and i had 1 sprint & 1 tonic), second best time 118,9 sec

in all best time cases, no stamina run out, perfect dodging.

I really tried to be gentle while saying mostly bad/rainy, really, tried even more to play the antithesis of what i think.

[Cardare]

Mine is a foul weather chocobo and I'm still on my first generation chocobo (which still beats 2nd or higher gen chocobos) so I can't compare performance, but even in blistering I've still pulled off wins, and in foul weather I've still lost as low as forth place. If it makes any difference the training on my chocobo has countered it with training so I often hardly notice it, especially if I'm observant enough to notice when the bird in front is either regulating its acceleration for lowest stamina consumption or just not accelerating at all, I just do the same or take advantage of the situation. When the weather isn't on your side, you can counter it in other ways, just try not to push your chocobo too hard (lathered = stamina drops much faster, try to save around 10-15% for the final 100-200 yalms then push hard and stick to the middle; except for Sagolii, hard left or right at the final turn to avoid red pad) and make mental notes on when others slow down on the track. Good luck.