Incentives for racing against other players

[Torvald]

I give credit to anyone who has taken the time to raise a great bird, I know you really did put the time and thought into it, but tbh if I was gonna lose every time for like 2 months...(which IS the way it would be) I wouldn't wanna race too many times against you either lol, the advantages of a perfect bird are simply too noticeable.

That's not competition, that's a guaranteed slaughter, which is not fun tbh.

I totally understand, but it's not quite like that. The rating system guarantees that you're not put against chocobos that are too far away in abilities. I race in the 300 rating bracket, and anyone who is in the race against me has already put a lot of time into their birds. When I race against someone, it's never a guaranteed win. And that is what makes it fun.

If you are starting out or leveling a bird, there is already an incentive to race against others, which is the experience point bonus. Unfortunately at max rank, the experience is useless, so it's no benefit. Also if you're only racing for the mgp (challenge log) at any level of bird, you're not interested in the experience either.

PS As a quick tip for anyone who isn't interested in breeding any further, but still wants to win more races, train a new chocobo using only grade 3 food into stamina, endurance, and speed. It will be an initial mgp investment, but you will win consistently in your rating bracket.

[UnaLihzeh]

snip

Yes this. Unless you consistently are racing in "Open", you're not going to be pitted against a bird insanely better than you. The game averages your stars and adds numbers to your rank based on that, and pedigree. If they didn't already account for that I would insist they did, because racing a beginner pedigree 1 versus a beginner pedigree 5 would be ridiculously unbalanced and unfair. D:

And another tip for easy wins - Get the increased stamina passive ability. At lower levels stamina ceases to be a concern in combination with that and good feed training.