Far too much RNG in Chocobo racing

[beanboy]

@Miste - If you want a "perfect" full potential P9, then you'll likely have to rank up both genders from what I've read.

That's easier said than done. I win most of my races, compete in the highest group available to my rank, and it takes 3-4 won races to rank up. My guess is that most people don't actually race and just let the chocobo go while they do other things because last place when you aren't playing but are instead watching Netflix is still progress.

What I'd like to see them do is give much more xp for the top three spots. 1st place: a rank up for anything in that class, possibly two rank-ups if it is a low level bird in that class, 2nd or 3rd: rank up for low-level bird in that class or about half a level for a high-ranking bird in that class. 4th&5th: Okay progress - about what 1st place and 2nd place are now, 6th-8th: nothing (prevent dead-heading).

[Aphel]

At the moment whoever is in 1st place has enormous control over box contents (what powerups get passed down). If a Briar-filled box appears, the rest of the clustered group behind him usually suffers and thus widening the gap. He is in control because he has very few things to worry about: Managing his stamina and the one directly behind him. Sprinting all the way can also be a good strategy against potential Meteor storms... gonna get Meteor-ed? Hey at least he's covered the majority of the race.

This heavily favors a sprint-and-pray strategy with Headstart + Dash III. Granted this combination is somewhat diluted in R180+ races because the racecourses are all trying to kill you, but it's still an extremely potent combo.

Meanwhile the racer who prefers a 'catch up later in the race' strategy still has to contend with potential Briars, any of which can screw up his stamina management.

Side note: Chocobo Shock III is extremely potent in higher ranked races. Everyone's going so fast (finishing a course in 90 secs or less) and an item lockout lasting 30secs means you'll be missing 2-3 items.

1. Make a small additional stamina drain to Frenzy.

2. Make Meteors, at the most, once per race and preferably last in an item box.

3. Lower Briar's effect a little - It's supposed to drain Stamina, not totally cripple your opponents and make them feel like there's no point in racing anymore. Putting 4 Briars in the same box isn't a great idea.

4. Lesser chance for Hero/Stamina spawning as the very first item in a box - No point giving extra powerups to the person who's already in first place.

5. Same degree of weather-related stat reduction/bonus for both fair-weather birds and foul-weather ones.

6. Lessen the powerup targeting priority that NPCs have for human players.

7. More transparency and clearer explanations about Chocobo stats - It's not beginner-friendly at all. Does your Choco reach maximum speed in lathered state? How much speed is lost when you change lanes? The lack of a 'speedometer' means you're racing with the foggiest idea of what the heck is going on, and little clue as to how to improve/customize your Chocobo. Oh yeah I fed my Chocobo with Endurance greens, it should help.....somehow.

8. Chocobo controls with more freedom - Being only able to jump or change lanes at set points in a course makes the experience really weird and unnatural for new players. Cunning might help, if people understood its use in the first place.

9. Treasure Box position - Players who have raced for a long time will know which lanes these boxes are situated in, but for the majority of newer players it's just frustrating.

10. Abolish these invisible lanes altogether.

11. Offer basic Chocobo colors in the vendor. More exotic ones can be obtained via breeding - People are going to be spending a lot of time racing with these Chocobos. It's worse if they're stuck with a Frenzy-resistant, Choco Ease, brown and sad-looking Chocobo getting Briared twice a race for like 10hrs.

12. Explanation of Stamina Tax for higher rating races - Races at higher ratings require more stamina. i.e. You can Sprint all the way from start to finish in a Sagolii R80 race with 90 speed, 90 stamina. With the same stats, however, you cannot do that in a Sagolii 180 race. You'll need to raise your Stamina appropriately in order to meet the tax demands. This isn't explained anywhere and players need to adjust accordingly.

[Gallus]

Seriously stop fooling yourselves with the "I haz 40% winning rate and I'm on my P5 chocobo already!".

You can place 1st in R60-R120 99% of the times by leaving the controller on the floor. It doesn't require absolutely anything.
But hey, why don't you freaking try the same exact thing with your so adorable 1 stamina star and fair weather chocobos against R300 where the NPCs average a 75-78 seconds time?

[Miste]

Seriously stop fooling yourselves with the "I haz 40% winning rate and I'm on my P5 chocobo already!".

You can place 1st in R60-R120 99% of the times by leaving the controller on the floor. It doesn't require absolutely anything.
But hey, why don't you freaking try the same exact thing with your so adorable 1 stamina star and fair weather chocobos against R300 where the NPCs average a 75-78 seconds time?

So...you didn't quote me but since you are talking about things I had mentioned in my post I assume you are going off on me with this so adorable anger and hate filled rant. Be rude if you want to, I guess it is your prerogative, but you are just being rude to someone that was just trying to help.

If you read my posts thoroughly I was actually trying to give some help, advice, and some of my statistics about the races I have encountered so far so people could maybe place higher more often. I never once mentioned R300, so your advice that me, and possibly others in this thread, should "freaking" try it with our "adorable" 1 star chocobos was completely pointless.

Instead of taking out your anger on random people in a forum just because you have problems in R300, it would have been better to maybe add to the discussion by posting your experiences with R300 and explaining the troubles you had.

PS. You cannot get in first leaving the controller on the floor, just ask the AFK DNF racers that are in 8th place every race.

[Gallus]

Problem is, someone states that there is too much RNG involved, which there is, at ridiculous levels.

1 star stamina chocobo? No chance.
Fair weather chocobo? No chance.
Trash skills? No chance.
Atrocious chain of coffers with lolmeteors and lolheros tonic? No chance. (for some reason SE loves spamming coffers with hero's tonic and choco meteors inside them, both in the same coffer, giving an almost free win to those who grab the hero's tonic and get away with the meteors while everyone is lamed...yeah...lame).


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...

That, or either keep going on and eventually face yourself what really is going on further ahead.

[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...

[Aphel]

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

[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.

[Alexiell]

^thats what im afraid of too...that second ability will be hard to get. you could breed again but there is also the risk to run out of breeding capacity before getting a good chocobo again... This also means that we shouldn't feed our final chocobo with grade 2/3 food before we dont get a good second ability, which might not happen until very high ranks, like in your case.

just out of curiosity, is your chocobo pedigree 10? i heared from different people in other forums that they got a P10, but didnt see any picture yet...

[Gallus]

just out of curiosity, is your chocobo pedigree 10? i heared from different people in other forums that they got a P10, but didnt see any picture yet...

From my experience, this is false. I must've bred over 10 P9 chocobos with another P9 and the resulting fledging is always P9.