Chocobo Racing and Weather Effects

[Nyghtmarerobu]

Now I've seen a lot of speculation on weather effects, affecting chocobos. Rain destorying fair weather ones and so on. But I'm looking for some solid info that bad weather chocobos are better than fair.

From all of the testing I've done with a friend of mine, I don't see a real differance between the 2. Fair chocobos like Clear/Sunshine/Heatwaves, Foul like Clouds/Rain/Thunderstorms. All of my findings have nothing to do with speed boosts or who wins or who doesn't win, I only looked at speed coming out of the gate. Before you say "Well thats silly because ... " both of our chocobo's have headstart so we generally come out of the gate at the same time.

With all of this in mind, without using chocodash or any other skill we would race to the first chest in Sagoli. When the weather Was clear, which is the minor fair weather chocobo buff, I would pull in front, but beat him by only a small margin to the chest. When sunshine was out, I would beat him by almost a chocobo length and a half. If Heatwave was out, I'd just blaze away as I'd assume his stats would hit rock bottom it seemed. He would burn through more stamina and it seemed like his bird ran sluggish. Which could be the same for me. Whenever it was cloudy, we'd be fairly even to the chest, but he would usually be in the lead. When it rained, I'd really feel the pain, and my speed and stamina would hurt pretty bad if it rained for a prolonged period of time.

so for the skeptics saying foul weather is better? Hard to say to me. I feel like it depends on the track you play on for the most part. If you have a fair weather, stay on Sagoli or Costa. If you have a foul, stay to Tranquil or costa, Costa being in the middle I think. RNG will be RNG, but honestly its just chocobo kart, try to have fun.

P.S: If anybody has any actual information to back up what I said here feel free to post it, because this is just from what I see, and notice while trying out different things. Thanks

[Welsper59]

I had a Foul weather bird once, but I accidentally went through with releasing it when I tried to see what would happen if you tried to retire early lol. I can't really comment on the actual performance advantages between weather because of that. I can, however, comment on how frequent the weather benefits are for Foul vs Fair. The grand majority of my races are done with Sagolii (or whatever it's called), but the rain is ridiculously common. Heatwave is ridiculously rare by comparison. I might as well attempt to get 30 Terra cards before I ever expect to see Heatwave throughout an entire race, or even the majority of a race, unlike its counterpart (rain). In that regard, Foul weather birds certainly do have a noticeable advantage over Fair ones.

It really just comes down to frequency of the extreme weathers and their effects. Heatwave is definitely noticeable compared to rain for a Fair bird. I'm assuming it's the opposite for Foul birds with Rain being their best performance, and Heatwave being the worst.

[Nyghtmarerobu]

I can, however, comment on how frequent the weather benefits are for Foul vs Fair. The grand majority of my races are done with Sagolii (or whatever it's called), but the rain is ridiculously common.

I'll agree with that, and maybe that needs tweaking in an upcoming patch. For as arid and desert-like Sagoli is, it does rain quite often. Technically you should have an advantage there with your fair bird, but the weather patterns are kind of all over the place.

[Aphel]

From Pedigree 2 to Pedigree 6 all of my Chocobos were Foul-weathered and I was skeptical about it myself. Pedigree 7 and 8 were fair weathered ones and when it rained it was very bad. i.e. During raining when I'm sprinting, I smack a Heavy on a competitor Chocobo, my sprinting speed and his Heavied Chocobo are running at the same speed.

Trust us, we have raced A LOT of races and it's very obvious when you're racing at high speeds (high ratings). Our Japanese friends are complaining the same thing as well. Different language, hardly any communication between us yet they came up with the same conclusions:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...6%9C%9B/page23
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...81%84%E3%81%A6

Heatwave hitting my Foul-weathered bird - Slight decrease in speed/stats
Rain hitting my Fair-weathered bird - Inflicted with Heavy

No we aren't exaggerating or trying to leverage our way for ninja buffs on Fair-weather Chocos. We just want balance.

Also add to the fact that when you race with a friend, both of you are placed into the Open category where your stats are reduced to almost basal levels. You would hardly notice a 30% reduction in stats at such low speeds just based solely on how fast you come out of the gate. When your stats are in the 200s and that stat reduction hits you, you really feel it.

[Nyghtmarerobu]

No we aren't exaggerating or trying to leverage our way for ninja buffs on Fair-weather Chocos. We just want balance.

Also add to the fact that when you race with a friend, both of you are placed into the Open category

No I agree. I'm on pedigree 2, and me and my friend have been racing at Rank 41-80, and I can feel the things you say, obviously not to the extent your saying, but I notice when I'm not going the speed I know I should be going.

[Lilianne]

There was a video posted in one of the other threads that shows the differences quite cleary along with multiple other threads discussing how bad this is.

However as Aphel pointed out, fair birds in rain = perma heavy until the rain lifts. It does make a huge difference and is totally out of balance right now. Get up to the higher stats/pedigrees and race with a fair bird and you will see the issues. R40-80 are pretty much the starter races for any higher pedigree bird and so you won't notice how bad it gets.

[RyuujinZERO]

There was a video posted in one of the other threads that shows the differences quite cleary along with multiple other threads discussing how bad this is..

Probably this one

tl;dw - Sunny weather run gets no speed boosts, but finishes course in 109 seconds. Wet weather it rains for 3/4 of the course, gets a hero potion AND sprint shoes, finishes in 123 seconds.

The most telling moment for me, is how once the weather clears up in the wet weather race, the rider gets heavied, but is still moving faster than when it was raining.

[Lilianne]

Yes, thank you again Ryuujin, and I totally agree with you. It is so sad to me to see that and I wonder just how something so obvious got by.

[Aeyis]

Heatwave hitting my Foul-weathered bird - Slight decrease in speed/stats
Rain hitting my Fair-weathered bird - Inflicted with Heavy

No we aren't exaggerating or trying to leverage our way for ninja buffs on Fair-weather Chocos. We just want balance.

The problem with the common speculation is that it compares random good/bad weather with each other, instead of what the OP did: compare each seperate bad/good weather.
Considering that I've noticed slow downs (on a foul weather chocobo) during rain, implies that it's not as clear cut either.

I very specifically remember the theory of ''foul weather prefer isnt effected by anything'', well that seems to be wrong then, based on the OPs observations as well.


Lots and lots of speculation. If someone actually compares all courses, using all different builds, and comparing all 6 of the weathers: fair game. I'll be the first to agree that foul weather should be nerfed. But with a lot of theorizing still missing I dont see the point in making hasty assumptions.

One major offender in the theories thus far, in my opinion: everyone (OP aside) seems to compare total time the race took.
Why? That adds so many more variables you need to calculate in: buffs/debuffs/weather changes/time lost due to opponents chocobos moving against/in front of you/ time lost due to changing lanes/turning, etc.

[Aphel]

Snip

Did you even read what I wrote? The effects are so blindingly obvious that you don't even need to consider the total time.

Step 1: Get a high pedigree foul-weathered Chocobo and race in Heatwave/Sunshine and observe.
Step 2: Get a high pedigree fair-weathered Chocobo and race in Rain/Thunder and observe.

In neutral weather there's no boost whatsoever.

Only then will you understand what we are talking about. I have 1579 races under my belt (Pedigree 8 and gone through both types of Chocobo) and other players have way more than me. Our judgement isn't hasty, it's mind-numbingly staggeringly obvious and I do not understand why other people fail to see this glaring fact. What a facepalm moment.

We aren't talking about nerfing foul-weather chocobos, we just want all Chocobos to have the same degree of sub-optimal performance in unfavorable weather. Why? Put both types of Chocos together in the same race.

During sunshine/heatwave: Fair-weathered Choco gets little boost (+10%), foul-weathered Choco gets little penalty (-10%). Difference between them = ~20%
During rain: Fair-weathered Choco gets heavy penalty (-30%), foul-weathered Choco gets little boost (+10%). Difference between them = 40%

The people not aware of this fact are those who have not raced enough on both types of Chocobos to understand. What you are doing is theorizing. What I (and many other people) am doing is speaking from experience arising from countless races.