Racing Sub-Game? I Don't Get It

[Anders]

How can there be a race when everybody's mount runs at the same speed? Sure, the guy who wins the hole shot will win the "race" because the other guy can't urge his mount to exert an extra boot of effort to overcome the deficit and grab the win.

That's not racing, is it? That's a twitch-muscle victory, not one obtained because you have a mount that is in better physical form or that has such a powerful will to win that it exerts itself mightily to beat the other mount by a nose.

I have seen this racing idea floated over on the SWTOR forums as well. It just doesn't make sense to me.

[Lemon8or]

It'll probably come with Chocobo Breeding.

[BlaineCraner]

Well, they can make it "Mario Cart style"-simple. Many Final Fantasy games had mini games that worked on a completely different mechanic than the rest of the game. Heck, just look at FF7, you had both chocobo racing and a motorcycle mode where you could slash your opponents with the buster sword. ^^

If they will introduce chocobo breeding then that factor can come into play also. Different breed of chocobos could utilize some sections of the race track in different ways.

But those are just my assumptions. Nothing more. :P

[Anders]

Since I have never played an MMO with a racing sub-game in it I didn't think that there might be a different mechanic involved.

No wonder the Devs aren't responding to those requests - one way or the other. They can't afford to encourage the player base in this aspect. To provide such a feature has to involve a TON of coding and testing and re-coding and re-testing, and....

I'd rather the SE put its effort into adding functionality to the Market Board / Retainer system. And into fixing the lag issues that are causing such trouble in the high-level dungeons.

[BlaineCraner]

Well, if it would require a ton of coding then I doubt it would be a problem for Square.
Let's face it, it's Square! :P

But yeah, I doubt a mechanic like racing will show up anytime soon.

Also, what's the problem with the market? I didn't see any bug as of yet.

[busere]

Chocobo Racing?!?! Awesome! Need to have NPC Bookies to go along with!

[Anders]

There is no synergy betw MB & Retainer. No Buy Order. No market research function to help w/ pricing. No "Sort By" choices. See?

[Makeda]

Your argument against racing could be applied to every single racing video game put out since the start of video game arcades in the late 1970s...

But somehow this is a genre of games that survives. Developers of them manage to find ways to allow different racers to take advantage of skill and circumstance to alter that otherwise every pixel moves at speed X from point A to point B.

I'm sure someone at SE has experience in making a video game other than FFXIV, and so could figure it out. Heck I took a 1 semester class on making games for Flash apps, and even we covered tricks on this subject.


Some things that don't require boosters and powerups, so they can be hidden:
- surface friction. Moving through some zones slows or speeds.
- Response time. Built in "lag" between a command and a response that varies depending on current velocity and current attempts to apply turning force.
- Resistance to change. Or rather, built in innertia against any change in speed or direction. Similar to Response Time.
- Stress. Collisions with course edges or other 'drivers' causing a wearing down in your speed, control, friction, and other variables.
- Road grip. Taking actions to increase your 'grip' on the road to avoid sliding out of control, but at the cost of speed loss. Thus forcing a player to choose when to do it. For a chocobo, this could be 'gripping the course with talons as you run', and using wings to generate air-resistance.
- aerodynamics. "Put your head down and lung forward for speed, pull it up and skid to slow."

All sorts of things can be built "right into the bird" without ever needing a single floating cubed question mark that people have to run over.

You could even tie in use of the abilities to exhaustion meter... run out your meter, and your bird collapses right there on the track, to become ab obstacle for anyone behind you.

[busere]

Yep...and bookies to take bets.

[BlaineCraner]

I wonder if they will add jousting on chocobos. That could be a perfect thing for my lancer char. ^^