Ok this is what I think of racing. Gambling should definatly be up to 100k like you all said. Gotta have more than 3 tracks or it would get old fast. Spectatorship would be a wonderful thing, being able to watch others race would give someone something to do when they dont want to do the norm in FF and dont wanna race their own bird. Also, I'm with most people here that there shouldnt be gear for it, and also that not being able to control your bird sucks, maybe have two different kinds of races, one where its automatic, and one with control, like in ff7. Thats just my two cents, I'm looking forward to this actually being fun and giving me a reason to play even if I dont want to grind.

I am completely disappointed that you cannot control the Chocobos during the race.

I realize connection is the issue; why not make the races instanced events? Then it becomes an issue of connection between just the racers involved.

Sitting on my hands while watching my Chocobo lose a race sounds really boring and frustrating.

What I am not seeing from this is:

- The number of track options we can do.... Just three types of tracks arent going to work... I want more options for even more competition..... See, what lacked in FF7's racing was the fact you ran one of three tracks... Thus, it was easy to win those races because you knew where and when to advance in the race. It got old pretty fast.

So how do you handle this? Add different terrains to create certain advantages for a few chocobos, and other terrains for other chocobos...

Make a chocobo either strong, weak or neutral in that terrain... (For example a chocobo that could be strong in snow and can race in a snowy terrain like the Ulegerand Range setting, whereas an opposing chocobo could not cause he was not bred for that.)... It cuts out the competition fast and creates a system where you wouldn't be able to hack and the rider/breeder has to think "How would I win this kind of race?" Strategy is key to winning and I think that maybe if we couldnt control our chocos to prevent the hacking, make it a worthwhile experience to continue racing.... Make the options 'many and fun' as some have stated in the past. As I stated before, the more tracks available, the better the racing will get because every race is a different experience. Good racing areas could be:

- Caedarva Mire
- Arrapago Reef
- Pashhow Marshlands
- Wajaom Woodlands
- Ulegerand Range
- The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah
- anywhere in San d'Oria (except the Chateau)
- anywhere in Bastok (except Metalworks)
- Windurst (Except heavens Tower)
- Purgonorgo Isle
- Meriphataud Mountains
- Yhoator/Yuhtunga Jungle
- Dangruf Wadi
- Palborough Mines
- Den of Rancor/Sea Serpent Grotto

Other suggestions/ideas not mentioned:

- I'd also love to watch the races as well from any area to cheer the choco on...

- If my friends are in a race, I'd love to have access to wearing their colors too to cheer them on.... I'd love to have the option of wearing their colors too! Or if I want to cheer on an opposing linkshell, I'd love to get on their colors for a race too!
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As for the gambling, I have no problems with this... In fact, I love the idea.... 10k, though is too little... Make it worthwhile a maximum so that people won't have the reason TO buy gil in the first place, but of course that would have to be for the smart betters.... 100k in maximum earnings will do for those people who do not farm and it shouldn't ruin the present economy... Plus, it gets ideas to gamble in a game instead of real life.... Its a great idea.

I know this is not a completely new future that SE is willing to implement, but I really did enjoy how chocobo racing was setup in FFVII. It was great, you got to control your own chocobo, got to use up as much stamina as you allowed. There was a limit to how much stamina a chocobo could have, but it was also based on what type of chocobo you had. There were just as many colored chocobos in FFVII as they are willing to implement into FFXI. If you've ever played FFVII and played the racing games or even gambled to see if your chocobo would win in a race, then you all know what I'm getting at. I LOVED that part of FFVII and would very much love to see it back again. Now because raising your own chocobo will have a huge effect on how fast or how much stamina your choco might have, I don't think the color should be that much of a factor when racing chocobos. In FFVII, it was a HUGE factor because your speed increased with different color choco and stamina as well. I noticed that chocobo racing wasn't going to be controlled by the actual players, well...i thought that was complete bull! What fun is that going to be? Believe me, controlling your own choco through a race adds A LOT to the excitement of the activity. Those are my thoughts on the matter. Hope this helps SE someway.

I just think that it is a little funny as in how SE wants u to tell them what u want to do with your chocobo as far as racing him, but give u no info on how to turn ur egg into the chocobo. They need to worry about one thing at a time - it is clear they are having a hard enough time gettin the chocobo ready to raise - cause if i remember correctly it was supose to be in july when we could raise our chocobo and its alread august. SE need's to stop distracting it self and focus at one thing at a time. IN other words - dont put the cart before the chocobo. Let's be able to raise the chocobo and worry about the racing later.

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Wonderful!

The ability to remotely control your Chocobo by commands eliminates people who would cheat the system with movement speed software and hacks. Take the concept another setup forward by integrating automations / puppets as jockeys with customizable frames and heads that enhance the natural abilities of your breed. The addition to performance enhancing automation / puppet frames, provide cosmetic saddles, reigns, flags, armor, and headdresses for your Chocobo. These items are earned by trading points after a race in an assault like point system.

To provide an incentive to keep players racing long after the novelty as worn off, allow Chocobo accessories to be equipped on rented / summoned Chocobo from all city based stables.

Introducing a system where players can gamble gil (gold) could lead to inflation, because money is created on demand by the system. Instead use a gambling system that has players wager “points” earned from previous wins or purchased from attending NPC’s. Having a wager system will also ease congestion by providing a secondary way for people to quickly earn Chocobo armor.

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-Avotas
Shiva Server




Edited, Aug 4th 2006 at 12:12pm EDT by Avotas

wrong topic sorry for the mis-post



Edited, Aug 4th 2006 at 12:00pm EDT by BlazzeEvolved

Idea's and questions

first off, no your not going to be on the chocobo, Nor can you controll the chocobo, it says that right in the letter.

secondly if they make this into a big money making thing *I.E. betting* you will see very few people taking part in this at reg. times.

where i think there should be a small amount of gil or a "Rare/EX" item that can be own for winning the race, or coming in top 3, i think it should be more about fun then gaining something from it. having random LS events where you race your chocobo for fun would be a great idea to have and would be really fun to play with, even if there is little to no reward in it, the fun and being able to say you beat your friends/linkshell would be worth it enough to me, maybe i am different from everyone else, but there are a ton of other ways to make money in game why take an event that could be fun and used on a daily/weekly/monthly bases and turn it into massive gil lost/gained you know some people out there will just spend months and months gaining the "best" type of chocobo and then just sit there winning chocobo matches for gil if that is the way it turns out, where if it is a smaller reward, only the people wanting to do it for fun and excitment will really put in the time and effort to race the chocobo's.

really do we want more things we can sit around and complain about gil sellers with? look at the casino things still on my server (not nearly as much) giving people gil just to /random - really, how lazy can you get >.>

The idea of another element to the game that allows players to get away from leveling, crafting and questing is definitely a plus. This is a dangerous teritory that is being explored. Not in that players will become obsessed, this already happens and does not pose a threat to anyone. The danger is in something that SE has been working to address, but you still see, Gil-Sellers. A betting system is a bad idea unless has very minimal payout cap. This is their perfect solution. No farming or waiting for items to sell, just bet and cash out. The participants should be rewarded with items worth winning or a reasonable amount of gil. There needs to be a limit to the number of times that a participant can compete, this will have a two-fold effect: 1. Discourage gil sellers 2: Add a element of reality. Running races back to back to back is unrealistic even in a fictious game, I mean even the chocobos you ride have a time limit and they aren't racing.

The racing itself:
The biggest thing is that it has to be a combination of Luck and Training, the idea of Non-player controled racers is great. As mentioned in some of the other threads means that doesn't allow for someone to figure out how to win every time. Luck because there is a large element of luck involved, training is good, but things happen. To have a good chance one should have to interact with the chocobo, before every race to get it's temperament, this will give a clue as to how the chocobo should race, and it's not just talking to the chocobo once before the race. The idea of classes is good. Players should be moved automatically into classes and their racer evolves until finally an elite class, where prizes are the greatest. Players should not control what class they race in. This way a player can't skill cap the racer and leave them in a class where they can dominate. Performance enhancing gear is bad, it's kinda like cheating and should not be allowed. Again you will run into where the noobs get screwed because they can't afford the gear. And with gear it means that to be competitive you have to have the enhancing gear.

The most important thing is please DO NOT GIVE the Gil-Sellers a tool to ruin the game for others. I hope that my reasoning was explained. I know that there are ways that would probable make it more fun, but this keeps the game fair for everyone.

(didn't feel like logging on because of laziness @_@;;)

Chocobo Racing Creators... surprise me! one thing that i think would be really cool, (if only for the people betting) to have some sort of telescope (like in the big cities at the major tourist attractions) where you have to pay maybe a 2 gil fee for a zoom function and the ability to rotate the camera around the stadium (maybe with the black outline like in binoculars. Perhaps, have a couple rows of stands around the stadium where you could watch the race from your position.

and to expand upon:

Chocobo racing npc (like a Pursuivant) at entrances to the cities where you can set up races to certain zones among several people (password protected like the kokba hostel) so it'd go something like...

Hello! I am a representative from the Chocobo Stadium in Al Zahbi!

How may I assist you today?
-I would like to race my chocobo against my friends' chocoboes.
-I would like to pay 50 chocobo points for a teleport to the stadium in Al Zahbi
-What is chocobo racing? (if you really must lol)
-Nothing, thanks!

You have chosen to race your chocobo against your friends' chocoboes.
-Pay 500gil for the race.

You have chosen to begin the race at X city (X city= current choco-pursuivant's position. Where shall the race end?
-(really long list of zones)
- |
- |
- |
- V

You have chosen to race from X city to X place.

Please select a password for all entrants.

Enter Password: ...

I will allow 1 minute for the entrants to enter their password.

*everyone enters*

*race begins*

*entrants arrive at destination*

*entrants zone into ending area* (mhaura for example)

*cs with choco-pursuivant*

The standings are:
1st- player x
2nd- player y
3rd- player z

Congratulations player x!

(could include bets among players via trade system or through pursuivant, don't personally care to get into betting lol)

So hey,
Automated racing sounds like a blast, but I have a good chocobo idea, how about reasonable chocobo digging being added to FFXI? After spending hundreds of hours riding around on chocobos leveling it maybe it would be nice to be able to do it for 15 minutes now without being fatigued for the next 24 hours. But we get automated racing at least, sounds like a cute novelty. I'm not going to put much effort into it though because if it turns out to be any fun eventually the developers will nerf it.

I'm of the opinion that racing itself is the cake and any additional features are pure icing. Thanks for taking our thoughts into consideration.

Different series for different classes would be great. Maybe tally them when conquest is figured. Have a minimum number of races needed to compete so that the person that goes 1-0 doesnt win based on 100% winning percentage, yet have percentage matter so that the person with no life and no job/school (or who's job IS to play <.< >.>) doesnt win because they can do 300+ races a week.

Have the ranks level up similar to the crafting system, or maybe equate them to levels like bcnms. (X number of races get you from E to D with extra points for placing). Oh perhaps a class cap on races. This means no easy wins for the Class B running against the Class E racers ^^;

Prizes for 1st-3rd on a per race level in line with the circuit that was raced in (taking 1st place in an F class race wins you something a lvl 20 could make use of while winning the F Series Championship wins you something out of the BCNM20 pools). Hmmm...S Class Series Champion wins <insert insane item here>.

/dream
Congrats on your S Class Series Championship Whitterquick! Please select a prize:
Whitterquick obtains Amanomurakumo! Hey...big race, big prizes, right? It's my dream and it can be as over-the-top is I want it to be so there! :D

Would be nice to have number of races/series won affect breeding, kinda like RL where HQ tend to be bred from champions.

Betting minimums and maximums are almost a must. Maybe have different min/max per circuit with level restrictions on wagering? 100g gets you in the door with a 5k max bet in the lowest circuit while you have to be a certain level/country rank (ooooh incentive to actually finish city story lines!) to place bets in the high roller circuits with substantially higher min/max.

I'm sure the final results will be interesting. Good job, SE.



Edited, Aug 4th 2006 at 9:37am EDT by Whitterquick