Chocobo Racing and Weather Effects

[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.

[RyuujinZERO]

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.

While anecdotal evidence is not the most sound method scientifically - chocobo racing is inherently packed full of RNG and variables you cannot readily control, which means you'll probably never get the precise figures you demand.

You're quite right there appears to be a gradient, as OP says and seems true in my experiences too - the farther you push towards warm/wet, the better/worse performance becomes. But the experiences of dozens of people, with tens thousands of races between them and dozens of different birds all say the same thing: That fair weather chocobos are unduly punished in wet weather - whether that be simple rain, or a full on thunderstorm, compared to foul birds in the warm.

Nitpicking the methodology does not change the facts on the ground.

[Gallus]

Try doing this with a fair chocobo under rain weather:



I did this with a foul chocobo under fair weather.


I wish you some nasty luck trying to win these guys with a fair chocobo. I was lucky in this one there wasn't Teioh and an NPC called Star Breaker which I calculate have a maximum speed of around 500...just so that you make a slight idea of what that is, they can permanently sprint at roughly the same speed as any chocobo under choco dash. R300 is a nightmare even with an R285 chocobo with 460 max speed and 500 stamina. I dread to imagine what it would be like with a permaheavy every time it rains. I'm not gonna be the one to find out, you can give it a wild try though if you want.

[Welsper59]

Try doing this with a fair chocobo under rain weather:



I did this with a foul chocobo under fair weather.


I wish you some nasty luck trying to win these guys with a fair chocobo. I was lucky in this one there wasn't Teioh and an NPC called Star Breaker which I calculate have a maximum speed of around 500...just so that you make a slight idea of what that is, they can permanently sprint at roughly the same speed as any chocobo under choco dash. R300 is a nightmare even with an R285 chocobo with 460 max speed and 500 stamina. I dread to imagine what it would be like with a permaheavy every time it rains. I'm not gonna be the one to find out, you can give it a wild try though if you want.

Was that while enduring a large portion of the race with Heatwave weather though? Rain is just way too common and is the extreme for the foul weather conditions, whereas heatwave, as uncommon by comparison as it is, would be for fair. I mean the fair weather birds aren't anywhere near as bad in cloudy/foggy weather, as long as it's not rain. Foul weather in general seems to be way more frequent than fair, and I don't think bias has too much of an effect, since people will generally always be looking for beneficial weather and happy to get it lol.

On a side note though, I really don't think the NPCs are bound to weather conditions. It really seems like they're just following a set AI difficulty (making stupid mistakes, slowing down to give an advantage, etc) and doing these things reliably as though they were at the max stat levels for the given R-bracket. I can't speak for anything above 200, but below that it seems to be the case.

[Gallus]

I don't remember if there was heatwave, but I recall getting heatwave a lot of times, and the stamina drain seems completely normal, if heatwave really drains more stamina from foul chocobos, I can guarantee it's almost negligible. I'm at 460 max speed, 500 stamina and 460 endurance. I can sprint just fine the entire race with the passives Increased Stamina III and Head Start regardless of the weather. I'm always left with around 5% stamina left, and my average seems to be around 82 seconds in sagolii (if nothing bad happens like choco meteors, which sadly, happen very often...). I've never experienced a type of weather where I was forced to stop sprinting because my chocobo's stamina couldn't keep up, all the weathers have absolutely the same effect to my foul chocobo (or very similar at least). The only things that drain my stamina abnormally are the occasional bachus wine, caltrops and choco meteors.

[Welsper59]

I don't remember if there was heatwave, but I recall getting heatwave a lot of times, and the stamina drain seems completely normal, if heatwave really drains more stamina from foul chocobos, I can guarantee it's almost negligible. I'm at 460 max speed, 500 stamina and 460 endurance. I can sprint just fine the entire race with the passives Increased Stamina III and Head Start regardless of the weather. I'm always left with around 5% stamina left, and my average seems to be around 82 seconds in sagolii (if nothing bad happens like choco meteors, which sadly, happen very often...). I've never experienced a type of weather where I was forced to stop sprinting because my chocobo's stamina couldn't keep up, all the weathers have absolutely the same effect to my foul chocobo (or very similar at least). The only things that drain my stamina abnormally are the occasional bachus wine, caltrops and choco meteors.

Hmm, but you don't notice a speed drop equivalent to heavy when you get hit with heatwave weather? Honestly, I don't notice much of a stamina depletion increase (not to the extent that Bachu's do anyway) as a fair weather bird in rain. I can see how it's easy for people to associate that though, if that's the case, given the slower run and the stamina it takes to get a short distance because of that.

IMO for now, the only guaranteed benefit that anyone can really "prove" is the frequency of foul weather compared to fair weather. For example, it can rain for the entire duration of a race but out of hundreds of races I've done so far, not one has ever had heatwave for the entire duration... or even for the majority of it. And I say that because there's so many variables at play that it makes it hard to really prove something without being able to do a controlled test. Items, weather shifts, brackets, stats, etc can all truly manipulate data collected to be one-sided unfortunately.

[Gallus]

Hmm, but you don't notice a speed drop equivalent to heavy when you get hit with heatwave weather?

No, it runs just fine, nothing abnormal. Why don't you just try it and see it for yourself? Honestly, those who are skeptical about what has been repeatedly said, if you think this is all bs, just keep racing. I have more than 3500 races over my shoulders, I certainly do not need 3500 more races to notice brutally obvious effects of certain weathers on certain chocobos. I started noticing how my fair bird was badly stroke by rain weather like 2-3 weeks ago, and it pissed me off dearly, I even made a thread comparing it with a snail...then, on P4-P5 I think it was, I got a foul chocobo, and weather did not have absolutely any effect over it, and if it had, it was almost impossible to even notice, I was extremely surprised, if you think it's my own paranoia or my own personal neurosis, just ignore everybody who has experienced the same thing so far (as well as myself) and breed your chocobos without worrying about their preferred weather.

[RobinRethiel]

I mean the fair weather birds aren't anywhere near as bad in cloudy/foggy weather, as long as it's not rain. Foul weather in general seems to be way more frequent than fair, and I don't think bias has too much of an effect, since people will generally always be looking for beneficial weather and happy to get it lol.

Cloud/Foggy is neutral weather and has no effect at all for both chocobo types.