Chocobo Racing and Weather Effects

[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.

[Natsuno]

I've on G5 and it's my 1st fair weather chocobo. And as someone mentioned before, I've been on the receiving end of a heavy whilst on a foul chocobo during rain. It only slowed me down to their pace, and as we were going the same speed, I stayed ahead. This was one of the later birds, so I assumed it was the results of breeding (better stats, high max speed, etc), or being a higher level. Either way, regardless of weather, I could sprint the entire length of sagolii/costa and I'd rank high unless I got badly screwed over during the race. Rain seemed to be a rarity (anecdotal).

Now though, as I've said, I'm on my first fair weather, and I've noticed what a huge difference the weather can, and does make to these birds. Also, anecdotaly, it seems to have brief showers in nearly every race at the mo.

On a side note, does anyone know if prefering foul weather is hereditary? Because if that's the case, then I'll just breed my foul weather chocobos with each other.

[Gallus]

On a side note, does anyone know if prefering foul weather is hereditary? Because if that's the case, then I'll just breed my foul weather chocobos with each other.

I can't confirm, but I think yes. This is however, horrendously annoying to test, given how SE decided not to share weather info on the chocobo registration cards, which means you have no possible living way to test this if you decide to breed with Gold Saucer chocobos (which is what everyone does until P9). Also, given how you can only have 1 registered chocobo at once, you don't know if your fledging's preferred weather is fair or foul until you retire your current racing chocobo. SE really needs to fix a lot of things up.

[Nyghtmarerobu]

One major offender in the theories thus far, in my opinion: everyone (OP aside) seems to compare total time the race took.

Thanks, and I agree with this. Only way to get an accurate reading on how it affects your chocobo is to have it rain the whole race. This is why I think it better to test running to the first chest. Its hard to track time wise except for maybe the clock on the side.

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.

The one thing I noticed in the video at right about 4:05 and 4:06 you can see that the 2 birds she passed weren't sprinting. She was already running at a high speed so once the weather cleared up, her acceleration most likely drove her to max speed faster than the 2 npc's who weren't sprinting and trying to conserve stamina. As for the heavy, the NPc that was behind her, passed those other 2 with ease, but if you noticed, hit the red pad, and also took the turn far to the outside, kind of why she stayed in the lead.

I will continue to watch, just hit pedigree 3, so got a ways to go yet. I like all the feedback in the thread, if anybody has anything else to add, I'm all ears, and I'm sure others want to hear as well.

[Alexiell]

i never noticed the other two foul weathers, only rain so far. are they only in high rating classes?

[Gallus]

i never noticed the other two foul weathers, only rain so far. are they only in high rating classes?

In sagolii there's just rain, I've never encountered thunderstorms or showers (pretty sure it was always rain, never showers). I can confirm however, thunderstorms on the third circuit (tranquil paths) and shower in 2nd circuit (costa del sol). I don't know know how bad fair chocobos are affected by those 2 weathers though, as I rarely race in the 2nd and 3rd circuit, though it would be pretty reasonable to think that they both destroy fair chocobos as bad as rain.

[Alexiell]

In sagolii there's just rain, I've never encountered thunderstorms or showers (pretty sure it was always rain, never showers). I can confirm however, thunderstorms on the third circuit (tranquil paths) and shower in 2nd circuit (costa del sol). I don't know know how bad fair chocobos are affected by those 2 weathers though, as I rarely race in the 2nd and 3rd circuit, though it would be pretty reasonable to think that they both destroy fair chocobos as bad as rain.

i see, but if there is only 1 type of foul weather per map (at least in sagolii) then maybe foul weather is less common than fair weather. so it would make sense that rain has a stronger negative impact on fair weather chocobos, than fair weather has on other chocobos.

Edit: ok.. since i wrote this i got ALOT of rain in sagolii lol, so maybe its not less common

[YakushiHinata]

I seem to only get rain when I use a Fair one at Sagolii so its all RNG I guess. But I do notice the speed difference, hopefully it is something they will fix with the upcoming adjustments in 2.55.
On a side note, anyone that is currently at the R300 races can tell me how much stamina you are normally left with if you get no stamina related items at all for a full race, and if weather is in your favour?
I managed to get a 4 4 4 1 4, so it's stamina would cap at 380, you think maxing endurance to 500 with G3 food would help to compensate the stamina drain vs the low cap?