Bots in Chocobo Racing

[Angelusdemonus]

It was only a matter of time.

Sure, maybe you can't legitimately prove it. But a guy that enters a race and finishes (DNFs) at 100% stamina over and over is suspicious enough to me.

Me and a FC member of mine DNF'ed on purpose to see the rewards, and you still get MGP and EXP.

What am I asking here?


Well, I would love for BOTs to be banned (unlikely). But, I think the best solution is to eliminate the rewards for DNFing, or most certainly remove the EXP reward. I can't imagine a legimate player DNFing in a race so many times in a row at any point in time.

It's pretty cheap someone can just enter a race in AFK mode and just lose everytime, but still get rewards. Certainly not fair to many of the players working hard on their racing birds.

[Risvertasashi]

I think it's a bit bold to claim they're bots. More likely just AFKers, as you say.

Having gotten first place a few times, even once on the "open" bracket with a rank 2 chocobo...

Yeah, the rewards are lackluster.

[Angelusdemonus]

I think it's a bit bold to claim they're bots. More likely just AFKers, as you say.

Having gotten first place a few times, even once on the "open" bracket with a rank 2 chocobo...

Yeah, the rewards are lackluster.

It's always been a difficult thing to eliminate the bots in this game, so yeah to call out people as bots is a bit bold, plus obviously proving it is difficult.

However, it's been about 5hrs since I've been racing, and between me and my friend he's been afking every single race we've encountered them. Probably longer I suspect. A race or two...maybe 3? But not for hours on end.

It's just too suspicious for me. Even though DNF rewards currently are weak, being capable of doing it essentially forever is pretty lame.

[Risvertasashi]

It's always been a difficult thing to eliminate the bots in this game, so yeah to call out people as bots is a bit bold, plus obviously proving it is difficult.

However, it's been about 5hrs since I've been racing, and between me and my friend he's been afking every single race we've encountered them. Probably longer I suspect. A race or two...maybe 3? But not for hours on end.

It's just too suspicious for me. Even though DNF rewards currently are weak, being capable of doing it essentially forever is pretty lame.

At the very least, I think rewards for performing well (say top 3? or even at least finishing) could be buffed a bit. Maybe a withdraw-esque penalty for DNFs, like 3 DNFs and you get a 30 minute lockout? It's really hard to see how even the newest, unluckiest players wouldn't finish if they're actually at the keyboard.

All that said. Unfortunately, I think it's only a matter of time before we start seeing bots that actually perform. This kind of limited-controls-on-the-rails content lends itself to being botable x.x

[alt_key]

Gonna second the call for having the rewards for DNF removed. There's no reason placing DNF should yield MGP and XP, for just this reason.

[Niwashi]

What's "DNF"? The only thing I can come up with that would be relevant to a race is "did not finish", but that's not even possible in this game (unless someone disconnects in the middle or something, but I'm pretty sure that already eliminates any reward). It sounds like you're talking about coming in last, but since I can't come up with a way to turn that into the "DNF" acronym, I'm not sure if I'm even reading this thread right.

Anyway, I do think how you place in the race should have more than its current trivial effect on your reward. Compare it to the other big draw of the Gold Saucer: In Triple Triad, if you lose, you're out your entire entry fee. If the match ends in a draw, you're out part of your entry fee, though you get a portion of it refunded. (Actually, there I think TT is the one that's off. A draw should result in no change, giving you your entire fee back, but no profit.) Only if you win do you actually receive anything.

For chocobo racing, I think coming in last should result in a forfeit of your entry fee (though your chocobo could still gain some EXP). Coming in seventh should return as much as you spent to enter, but little if anything beyond that. Sixth and above can give enough reward to be a profit beyond refunding what you spent, but with the top three and especially first place being significantly higher than the others.

[alt_key]

What's "DNF"? The only thing I can come up with that would be relevant to a race is "did not finish", but that's not even possible in this game (unless someone disconnects in the middle or something, but I'm pretty sure that already eliminates any reward). It sounds like you're talking about coming in last, but since I can't come up with a way to turn that into the "DNF" acronym, I'm not sure if I'm even reading this thread right.

DNF is indeed Did Not Finish. The race doesn't wait for every player to cross the finish line if someone takes too long. I don't know if every race has a hard cap time limit, or if it's based off of when the first player crosses the line, but there's definitely a DNF place.

[alt_key]

For reference's sake, I DNF'd a race just to show what's being discussed. Note that my bird (Mars Gold) placed "DNF" at the bottom of the list, and that I received a small amount of MGP and experience points doing so.

DNF'd race

[Ashkendor]

For reference's sake, I DNF'd a race just to show what's being discussed. Note that my bird (Mars Gold) placed "DNF" at the bottom of the list, and that I received a small amount of MGP and experience points doing so.

DNF'd race

Your image puts up an error for me. o.O

[alt_key]

Your image puts up an error for me. o.O

Try again; I was told that it worked for someone else after a refresh.