Races/time trials should have different gold/silver/bronze target times depending on mount used

[Manpag.6421]

I love the variety of mounts in this game, and some of the races/time trials are a really fun challenge (the ones in Divinity’s Reach are always one of my favourite parts of the festival, because they’re usually pretty technical with sharp turns and narrow streets). They’re fun in themselves, but given how big the discrepancies are between the speed, handling, and mobility of different mounts, it’d be really nice if the times for gold, silver, and bronze adjusted depending on the mount you used.

We already have the festival footrace achievements that disqualify you if you mount up, so dismounting could default you back to the original/fastest times. I see plenty of people doing the current festival race on roller beetle for the challenge, while jackal is obviously an easy gold. On turtle, which is obviously built for neither speed nor mobility, a perfect run will still leave you 10–15 seconds shy of silver. Thinking back to Halloween, Li'l Eddie's Bunny Bounce is easily cheeseable on griffon, but could be a challenge if it was held to tighter, griffon-specific times.

I recognise some achievements for getting gold on courses made for a particular mount, like the beetle races, would need adjusting to specify that you need to get gold on that course with a beetle to maintain the intended challenge, but it could be a fun way of adding some diversity to them. ANet could even add different achievements for getting gold on each mount, so achievement hunters would have a reason to redo familiar tracks while facing different challenges. Some mounts are always going to be easier to use than others, it’d just be nice if the game recognised that and held the “easy” mounts to a slightly stricter time, while making sure that all levels were at least achievable (as long as the mount can feasibly complete the course, there’s no point in having raptor times on a skimmer course across the water for example).

[Gop.8713]

Anything that involves more racing equals more fun by definition, so I'm all for it . . .

[Kiki.9450]

Sounds like an easy way to squeeze a little more out of some of the content in the game. I'm for it.

Would be neat if they could redesign some of the races for Springer/Griffin/Skyscale too. Same course (generally), just "here's some vertical bits."

Can we get more scarves from the achievements? 😄

[Sobx.1758]

Disagreed, there's basically nothing to do with bunny to make it go faster, all it can do for simple, mostly flat tracks is hold W. With that in mind, I think it doesn't make much sense. I'd rather have them do specialized race tracks where different mounts can excel due to their individual skills. Mixed tracks are also a good idea imo.

 

I'm not sure people are doing current festival's race on beetle specifically for challenge as much as they do it because it's completing the track faster.

Edited February 18 by Sobx.1758

[Teknomancer.4895]

@Sobx.1758 fun fact: I have not seen even one player attempt the Divinity's Reach course on a Warclaw or Turtle. Can't imagine why not. 😆

[Antycypator.9874]

But what's the point of these timers in any non-beetle race? There's not skill involved, everyone's going with the same speed... the only difference is when you take sharper turn or don't get stopped by obstacles.

[kharmin.7683]

Sounds like a "people are winning faster than I am, so I want to make changes to ensure that I can win" type of complaint. 🙄

[Manpag.6421]

49 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Sounds like a "people are winning faster than I am, so I want to make changes to ensure that I can win" type of complaint. 🙄

Not really. It's not about winning the race, which I recognise will always come down to who has the most skill with the beetle, it's just about making sure that the time targets are physically achievable no matter what mount you happen to be riding, and recognising that "winning" the time trial will look different on different mounts.

1 hour ago, Antycypator.9874 said:

But what's the point of these timers in any non-beetle race? There's not skill involved, everyone's going with the same speed... the only difference is when you take sharper turn or don't get stopped by obstacles.

You're right to an extent; I'd say that holds true for jackal, warclaw, and springer. Jackal has the leap-launch trick, but no real technique beyond using your leaps as often as possible while taking the tightest lines you can, and springer and warclaw wouldn't really have any special technique to them. Even with something as basic as raptor, though, there is skill involved in judging when to use your leap(s) to best effect. Skimmer is affected by air drift, like the beetle and turtle, so has an optimal angle that will increase its movement speed to a max of roughly ~730 u/s, but that isn't maintained because getting top speed needs you to constantly drift from side to side at the correct angles without running out of endurance. Turtle tops out at about ~680 u/s air drifting, but can't maintain it constantly and has more downtime swapping from side to side, as well as needing much more room to do so.

1 hour ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Disagreed, there's basically nothing to do with bunny to make it go faster, all it can do for simple, mostly flat tracks is hold W. With that in mind, I think it doesn't make much sense. I'd rather have them do specialized race tracks where different mounts can excel due to their individual skills. Mixed tracks are also a good idea imo.

 

I'm not sure people are doing current festival's race on beetle specifically for challenge as much as they do it because it's completing the track faster.

Valid point about springer, I'm not aware of any techniques that can speed it up horizontally, and it can't really make use of its vertical mobility due to the charge time. I also agree that specialised race tracks would be nice, but again unless there are actual entry restrictions, it's likely that some mounts would do courses faster and more easily than the mount it was intended for (Li'l Eddie's Bunny Bounce being the prime example from what we already have). Perhaps you're right about why people use their beetles, but I suspect for the vast majority of the player base, using the jackal is the fastest and most reliable way to get gold because the beetle takes a ridiculous amount of practice to maintain both speed and control on the narrow DR course. Only those who are already very proficient with it will get better times, but it's also a great practice opportunity for people learning it.

[Sobx.1758]

18 minutes ago, Manpag.6421 said:

Valid point about springer, I'm not aware of any techniques that can speed it up horizontally, and it can't really make use of its vertical mobility due to the charge time. I also agree that specialised race tracks would be nice, but again unless there are actual entry restrictions, it's likely that some mounts would do courses faster and more easily than the mount it was intended for (Li'l Eddie's Bunny Bounce being the prime example from what we already have). Perhaps you're right about why people use their beetles, but I suspect for the vast majority of the player base, using the jackal is the fastest and most reliable way to get gold because the beetle takes a ridiculous amount of practice to maintain both speed and control on the narrow DR course. Only those who are already very proficient with it will get better times, but it's also a great practice opportunity for people learning it.

Yup, limiting entry to the set type of mount could help and they probably could do it -as long as they'd also want to do the specialized tracks- considering those springer/raptor "get from point a to point b without dismounting or teleporting" achievements. I think those were a nice change of pace and wouldn't mind getting some more in the future btw.

Edited February 19 by Sobx.1758