Chocobo Races TOO OP! Question for Ya'll though!

[MassEffect007]

Just want to go ahead and let everyone know I'm the KING of Chocobo Racing and if you want to go Fast and Furious with me then let me so we can showdown at the Chocobo DRIFT!

Now for my question...

What changes or things would you like to see added to the Chocobo Racing?

For me I would like to see
-A betting system added for racers.
-A spectator mode which also has a betting system.
-Let us use our weapons once while racing as an ability maybe?
-Have the ability to knock people off their chocobos, especially those Lalas! :O
-Able to rev (or SQUAK) our Chocobos to get the engines and adrenaline ready before takeoff.

Anyhow I can go on but my race que just popped, so let me know your thoughts.

[Quinna]

It would be pretty cool to be able to "Rev" up our birds at the gate for sure!

Having some kind of friendly taunt emote would be cool as well. I'd really like to burn past someone and be able to give em' the old trucker horn pull. WOOMP WOOOOMP! lol :3

[Fealow]

This is more about what the races need rather than what I want, but I hope they add more endurance focused tracks because currently all of the available tracks are sprint focused making for very linear stamina strategy where every body spends 80%-90% of the race lathered.

Also I suggest that they need to rework the Briars item as currently it is far too game changing for a common item, or at least omit it from the first two item chests where everyone is gathered up so it becomes more of a mid-late race item where players are often more spread out and it can be used/saved more strategically than simply screwing over 3-7 other racers within the first 10-20 seconds of the race.

Lastly they need to address the "head start" ability as it is extremely unfair if only one person in the race has that ability as it guarantees them control over the first chest every time, all the time as well as giving them a stamina advantage. Currently the only counter play to it is the sprint ability.
The only defining factor that gets you out of the gates faster than anybody else should be your acceleration stat in my opinion. I know you could argue that it's a limiting ability because obviously it gets used straight away and then its gone for the whole race. However I have raced the same person more than ten times in a row with that ability and I could never beat them simply because of the gap, item and stamina advantage it creates and I honestly don't think you could argue player skill either because every time I raced this person I always finished 2nd with that initial starting gap mostly remaining intact if not increased through sprint shoe items. So with all that in mind I personally feel it needs a nerf in it's current state, for example: Decrease the covered distance/time passed that head start remains active during at the start of the race.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

I say no to using weapons during the race because then every race would be focused on who can smack each other around until their stamina depletes or someone who is fast enough can just zoom ahead to avoid the cluster #$*(%. Ditto for throwing people off their birds; this is a race, not Mario Kart or Road Rash.

Devs said they are looking into a spectator mode however.

[Garlyle]

This is more about what the races need rather than what I want, but I hope they add more endurance focused tracks because currently all of the available tracks are sprint focused making for very linear stamina strategy where every body spends 80%-90% of the race lathered.

Yeah, this really throws me that there's so much stamina as a baseline that it really doesn't matter when we choose to sprint. If you get a Stamina Tablet or two it's entirely possible you'll reach the end of the race with stamina to spare even if you spend the second half permanent dashing!

[MilesSaintboroguh]

I would agree on that, but I had my share of races where I spammed that wine that puts someone in a 15 second Lathered status and screwed them over from emptying their stamina too soon.

[Fealow]

(Bearing in mind that I race with a rank 40 chocobo so the stamina/endurance stat is fairly high)

Currently the only reason not to sprint is if you get heavied (as by the time it wears off you'll still be mostly accelerated towards your max speed) or get caught in a briars, or on the on the other hand if you have a briars and everyone knows it you can hog the lane and force everyone to stay put behind you for quite some time.

However my point is 2/3 tracks can be raced without ever letting go of that sprint button as long as you don't lose stamina via an external means (items, obstacles etc...) Even the third track which is 1700 yalms only requires that you cover about 10% of the track without using sprint.

[Linadae]

Agreed Briars is massively overpowered and could use a bit of adjusting. Also I noticed the NPC racers will get the bonus at the end. Is there a way to exclude them from the roulette?

[chidarake]

speed and stamina are going to be the defining things to win races just like in 7, if you get a fast start and a decent lead and have stamina enough to increase it you will in nearly all circumstances win. at the very least until everyone is running with the top tier chocobo's, then player skill will be a factor for sure.

the races need some tweaks and its hard to say for certain but some things seem slow or lagged like jumping for instance, not sure if its working as intended since my bird is still pretty low level but it definitely takes at least 2 seconds before it actually jumps. also sometimes when running over a buff or debuff or chest marker you sometimes don't get the intended effect even though you clearly went over it.

Also I noticed the NPC racers will get the bonus at the end. Is there a way to exclude them from the roulette?

agreed the npc players shouldn't get the bonus

[Soular]

Already Rank 33 with my current chocobo and I can safely say I have not once considered really pumping stamina/endurance/cunning thanks to current track layouts. Everything has gone into speed/acceleration. I did some stam/end early on for a minor boost but since about rank 15~20 I haven't needed to raise them anymore.

The current tracks are pretty much just "you either go fast or you get screwed". Weather at least plays some factor in that it seems to slow you down/increase stamina consumption if you're lathered, but its really not a major factor (unless bad weather persists for the WHOLE race).

And what does cunning even do- I never saw it explained.

Edit: All in all, its a new system. I'm sure Heavensward will bring some changes. Right now it seems like they wanted to get a good framework down. I think its in a good spot to be expanded on.