Far too much RNG in Chocobo racing

[Miste]

1 star stamina chocobo? No chance.
Fair weather chocobo? No chance.
Trash skills? No chance.

And then, the average naive answer is...

but...but...but...I place 1st in R60 with my fair 1 star stamina chocobo and my 2 skills are not that decent!

Seriously get real...

Uh huh...you do realize you are the only person in this thread who has mentioned R60 right? I know I didn't.

"1 star stamina chocobo? No chance." - No chance at what exactly? R300 first place?? No one in this thread has mentioned R300 except for you....I was talking about R100-R180 and my adorable 1 star stamina choco did fine in those ratings, would a 1 star stamina do fine in R300? I don't know yet, have not got there, but no where in my post did I say anything about R300.

Fair weather chocobo? No chance. - Really? Are you sure about this? Have you got like I don't know...proof that if you get a fair weather chocobo you are going to be in 8th place for every race permanently because they are at such a huge disadvantage?

Trash skills? No chance. - I did 5 bo's to rank 40 with trash skills for 4/5 of them because I gave up trying to get good abilities and just used whatever I got. No chance in R300? Not sure yet, have not got there, but hey remember I did not say anything about R300 in my post.

Seriously get real...

[RobinRethiel]

Just curious but what pedigree are you on?

I am about to covering to get my pedigree 6 chocobo and well...I do get races sometimes where I get bad luck but even with bad luck I am in the top 3 spots at the end of the race 90% of the time. I also did not get lucky with covering, I've had 3/5 of my chocobo's that I trained to rank 40 have 1 star in stamina, and then also one had a 1 star in max speed. I also used to lethe water trying to get a good ability but mostly gave up since I kept getting junk like heavy resistance and I end up just breeding later so the ability did not really matter and I did not want to waste MGP.

So...I am getting into top 3 positions with very less than perfect chocobos that I only feed the grade 1 feed to up lower stats and make sure my speed is adequate for the rating (Lower ratings doesn't matter as much but once you get to r100 you'll want to have around 90+ max speed and for r120+ you'll want over 100). Also one my my best chocobos was a fair weather one, I placed 1st very very often with her even though I did get rain 50% of races.

I currently have done 867 sanctioned races according to my achievement. I also currently have 427 1st place recorded in my Winningest Jockey achievement. If you calculate that I have a 49.25% first place rate. So it seems not to be too bad to me. The rest of my % was mostly 2nd, 3rd, some 4th, and the few outlier 5th/6th/7th/8th where I was not paying attention, or got like really unlucky and had 2-3 full duration briars hit me or like 3 bacchus water.

I admit NPCs have inhuman reaction times though and they maybe should be adjusted to be more human-like reaction times, but even with that I don't think the races are too bad so far. You just need to really learn the tracks (treasure box placement, danger areas etc), try to remember what npcs have what abilities so you can, for example, avoid the next treasure box that has a choco aether in it as the second item so the npc behind you doesn't get their sprint back or something. Or for example near the beginning of the race you notice next box has 3 brairs in it or something and all the racers are very close together...employ some strategy about hanging back just enough that people can't hit you with it, then speed up after the danger field is gone. This can apply to any box that you notice has brairs in it, plan to do something to avoid it. It can cause you to lose first place sometimes, but you'll likely still get in the top 3.

Meteor going off too many times is silly though, it should be adjusted that not that many meteors can spawn in a box.

Pedigree 6, almost 7. It's really all about time investment, since you get XP anyway.

The point is not, that you lose, the point is: why.

Those lower R-Rank race are not a big problem of course, since a higher pedigree chocobo outclasses them, even with bad stats (every pedigree level = 1 Star). To really see, if a chocobo is doing good, you have to reach the R-Ranks, which are close to what this chocobo may reach in total.

Skill wise, there is 0 problem in chocobo racing. There is not much too learn or do. Some little tricks here, some little tricks there, sure. You have to adjust to the odd delay, but it's not hard and then you can easily dodge all those monster and traps and get every chest, so it's pretty sure a lot harder, if you got lag yourself, in addition. Nothing of this helps of course, when the max speed of your chocobo is crushed by rain or they sprint away, while you get or ignore another pointless bachuss (since in higher R-Ranks you have to sprint anyway, the whole time, else the uber NPCs will win).

And then there is this massive RNG at buying breeding permissions and breeding them and registrating them. I too have raised chocobos with bad stats, 1 star in speed or stamina, fair weather with a bad heritage skill, because they were still better than anything else of this lottery. But well, you could only get MGP with the most annoying grind in game history or sheer luck again (what they will change, fortunately) and so there was no other choice.

Does this help Gold Saucer or Chocobo Racing? That the time people invest is thrown into trash? Of course not. There are people, who don't care about such things. But many do. And they will stop playing it. I don't see many people at Chocobo Square. A lot more are joking around in North Thanalan, while there is nothing to do.

Some say, Gold Saucer is only vanity. Indeed. That's why this massive RNG and grind makes even less sense. But as they already announced, they will make some changes. I hope it helps, I hope, it will somehow save Gold Saucer. It's getting pretty empty there. Most crowded place is the mini cactpot. Sure. People go there 1 time a day, buy their ticket and that's it. It's the most rewarding thing there. No time investment and the chance to earn big.

"1 star stamina chocobo? No chance." - No chance at what exactly? R300 first place?? No one in this thread has mentioned R300 except for you....I was talking about R100-R180 and my adorable 1 star stamina choco did fine in those ratings, would a 1 star stamina do fine in R300? I don't know yet, have not got there, but no where in my post did I say anything about R300.

Main reason, why it is almost easy to win R-120+ in desert is, that the NPC like to run into the stamina drain traps.

Was the 1 stamina chocobo also a fair weather chocobo? And what skills? 1 Star Stamina is doable, if the rest is halfway okay and you feed it well. Of course not in higher races and you will get a lot more problems on the longer courses. Desert is best for low stamina chocobos, especially when those stamina drain traps come into play, killing off most NPC chocobos.

[Gallus]

What's being discussed here though, isn't if you can potentially win or not, but rather how unbalanced and RNG like the whole thing is.

Fair chocobo preference: Yes, you can still win, but you are at a disadvantage. What decides if your chocobo is foul or fair? RNG.

Stars in chocobos: Yes, you can still win, even if your chocobo has 1 star in stamina, but you are at a disadvantage. What dedices the stars of your chocobos? RNG.

Skills in chocobos: Yes, you can still win, even if you have 2 trash skills, but you are at a disadvantage. What decides skills in chocobos? Mostly RNG unless you want to spend your entire life grinding MGP for lethe waters and your own breeding chocobos.

Choco Meteors and hero's tonic: Yes, you can win! If you get the hero's tonic and some npc casts meteor...but that's...well...pretty RNG like.

All these things become more relevant the higher the tier you are in and if you are matched with real players with half a brain.

[Aphel]

Instead of complaining and bickering, wouldn't it be more constructive if you guys give suggestions?

[Gallus]

Literally, the only 3 things you have control over are: deciding whether you are going to pick a coffer or not, using the appropriate skills at the right time and feeding your chocobo. Given however the astronomical price of grade 2 and grade 3 greens, your only realistic option is buying grade 1 greens until you get to P9.

These 3 things easily make the cut for the lower tier brackets but will not suffice once you start reaching the highest tiers, which is where I personally don't like how "Pokemon like" the whole chocobo endgame thing is. You have more odds of getting a shiny legendary pokemon than getting a foul, 17+ star chocobo with 2 non useless skills. The RNG is so overwhelming that I bet my monthly salary almost nobody's going to even bother making it to the real endgame of chocobo racing once they start figuring out how it is really like.

[Gallus]

Instead of complaining and bickering, wouldn't it be more constructive if you guys give suggestions?

Less RNG would be a good start. I don't mind some RNG, random skills in random coffers, but oh dear please less choco meteors and less hero's tonics, these things literally rain in most races and they almost triviallize the rest of the stuff, reminds me of backstabs in DKS. As for breeding chocobos, make it so that foul chocobos and fair chocobos have exactly the same advantages and disadvantages, and reduce slightly the impact on weather (please no freaking instaheavy during unfavourable weather the hell is that?) also, allow to buy tier III skills from the vendor, why do we even have I and II and why the hell do they cost 15k and 60k MGP? Wth??? It's a way of saying..."deal with the RNG" unless you want a subpar skill for only...60k MGP! Lol.

[Miste]

snip

Well for the why you lose I'm not sure if that matters though, I mean you can't expect to place 1st all the time, and if the npcs and the tracks had no RNG you'd always win 1st place no? I guess I would personally find that not fun cause there is no challenge involved. I loved those races I had where I somehow overcame meteor and got in first place still or getting a full duration briar and still pulling off a miraculous recovery.

But yeah I understand where you are coming from, some people I guess really don't like all aspects having RNG, I guess personally I just do not mind it much. I get sort of blah when I breed my choco and it gets a 1 star again, I usually have just been ranking them to 40 anyway to increase my pedigree, but just this morning my new P6 bo ended up with 1 star stamina again so I ditched it and I am trying a new covering.

Yeah they are making some changes they said likely for the better. I don't like wasting my MGP on the coverings either which is why I've ranked up quite a few low star choco's cause I would just take what I got, but once in awhile I buy an extra to rebreed to try to get something better since the goal is P9 and it's not like I'll get to keep that bird that I just use to breed in the end.

I just wanted to let you know the races I have done don't seem too bad, I've had a 1 star stamina bo in R100-R180 and I still managed to do well. As for higher Ratings well I don't know about those yet. So don't give up ^^

Was the 1 stamina chocobo also a fair weather chocobo? And what skills? 1 Star Stamina is doable, if the rest is halfway okay and you feed it well. Of course not in higher races and you will get a lot more problems on the longer courses. Desert is best for low stamina chocobos, especially when those stamina drain traps come into play, killing off most NPC chocobos.

my P5 that had 1 star stamina and 2 star max speed had chocosteal and chocoreflect III. I fed it grade 1 foods all mixed between speed and stamina cause my other stars were 2 or 3 and a 4 in cunning. It was a foul weather bird, the one I had before this one, P4 was fair. If it is true that fair/foul is very unequal though they probably should fix it. I just haven't noticed a problem so far, except that I find my foul birds when it is rain/showers/thunderstorms my stamina drains faster I guess because of the speed boost? I think I actually preferred my fair weather one cause of that.

What's being discussed here though, isn't if you can potentially win or not, but rather how unbalanced and RNG like the whole thing is.

Actually I was replying in my first post to people saying if you have a 1 star stat you have no chance, if you have trash abilities you have no chance, if you get a fair weather bo you have no chance....I mean it seems like very exaggerated since I did between R100-R180 with all those things and did not have a problem. So I was just sharing my personal experience with the races that I had these "disadvantages" but I still had fun and had a high % of placing 1st-3rd.

[RobinRethiel]

To write it again:

The point is not, that you lose, the point is: why.

I just wanted to let you know the races I have done don't seem too bad, I've had a 1 star stamina bo in R100-R180 and I still managed to do well. As for higher Ratings well I don't know about those yet.

Okay.

As for breeding chocobos, make it so that foul chocobos and fair chocobos have exactly the same advantages and disadvantages, and reduce slightly the impact on weather (please no freaking instaheavy during unfavourable weather the hell is that?)

Or something you could somehow handle. Maybe with chocobo gear, giving buffs or immunity to weather effects. Nothing big, just a little something. Or - as I wrote before somewhere else - implement things like dust clouds/flies (fair) and puddles (rain), which will work like traps for the specific chocobos. It's still a disadvantage, but something you could handle with a bit skill, by dodging them.

[Gallus]

Just to put an example of how silly and infuriating the RNG is. After breeding my 2 P9 chocobos for the 7th time (42 hours breeding, very bright idea the whole "wait 6 hours"), I got a chocobo I'd like to attempt to play at a serious level. Fine, its inherited skill is head start because both parents had head start ...now...let's try and get choco dash III...or...at worst...choco cure III. I'm at level 35 already with this chocobo, 25 lethe waters thrown into the bin, 800 MGP each lethe water, and I'm currently sitting with a worthless Heavy Resistance IV, the best thing that could remotely be considered good was a choco cure II I got, so what happens if...for instance, after spending 50 ridiculous hours getting "the perfect chocobo" (it's nowhere near perfect, just decent enough for me to stick with it), the 40 lethe waters give it crappy trash skills and I end up having to buy a subpar choco dash II for 60k MGP more (+800x40 MGP wasted from lethe waters).

[Gallus]

Hell, I can't even take this chocobo and reset it to level 1 to try gambling the second skill back until I get choco dash III/choco cure III, there's not even the damn option.
It's just so messed up it's not even funny.