Test Discussion Multiplayer Race: Swimming Seahorse Challenge

Thanks for running the Swimming Seahorse Challenge!

Please post your best race time(s) and any feedback you have about the race here.

-Millbarge

Known Issues:

• The Seabiscuit Feat can not currently be achieved.
• The Reward for completing the race can only be claimed once at this time.

Best time is 1:09.2 so far.

You almost have to do the whole thing in Supersonic mode to have a chance at one minute. Problem is that there are a lot of places where you can get stuck. Trying to fly between two buildings has a bad habit of bringing me to a complete stop for some reason. There are also a few places there you can get stuck on the roof tops.

I'm not a fan of that last "right turn" right at the end as you come out underneath the bridge. You are going to miss that turn on you first few attempts.

It is possible to be a griefer in this race. Simply position your character where the first loop is and everyone running the race has to fly around you. They can't fly through you. A couple of strategically placed people would really mess things up.

Feel like there is alot of invisible walls related to the kelp where I would just hit them and stop randomly where I didn't feel like I was close enough to any object or pillar to account for the stoppage. Roughly 12 seconds into the race at the first tight bend if there are multiple players trying to fit through that on live running this it will be impossible to get through without hitting something or someone through that space to slow you down and hinder the platinum time.

My best time is 1:23. I feel the one minute platinum isnt reasonable with such a tight inclusive immersive map which makes getting snagged on anything quite easy since you have to use supersonic alot. It seems to favor a sloppy fast rush over technique and skill. You cannot beat the record without overusing the supersonic. I felt the 1:20 was a good record for the platinum...even tho I havent reached it yet.

That's the thing tho because of the tight quarters and tight turns it is favoring technique and skill over sloppy rushing because you have to push through most of it in supersonic despite the sharp turns which can lead you off course or knowing when to drop out of supersonic because the turn will be too tight etc.

It wasn't even a clean run from me I had to double back and that cost me 4 seconds and I still ended up with a platinum time

Link to the start of the race timestamp

If you wasted 4 seconds and doubled back and got plat that proves it favors just gunning with super sonic and not skill. With past races you didnt have to rely on the fast movement modes to get a platinum record. Thats what bothers me about this race...you cant finish the race with plat without using super sonic at some point...not only that but you gotta recklessly spam it to get even close.

The more I run this race, the less fun it becomes.

If someone was running the race with me, my odds of getting platinum decreased quite a bit. That person would get in the way at a corner or pick an odd place to stop throwing me off my run.

The hit detection in places can be weird. You either have to aim high or wide when going around certain buildings. It is pretty easy to get caught up on something on the last portion of the race. There are several blind turns that you have to know about in advance because the arrows do a poor job of denoting the path.

Generally Flight races are a little more forgiving than this. Previous races at least gave you a shot at getting platinum without going supersonic. In this race, you have to do the entire thing in Supersonic.

I'm not sure what the intended difficulty level is for this race.

Thank you. Exactly what Ive been trying to say.

59.3 seconds


That was without anyone else being in zone. I'm not sure how you are supposed to do this if other people are participating in the race or interfering.

The reward for doing all of this is a set of collection pieces.

I'm lucky to get it under 2:00. My best time was 1:57 after 2nd attempt. I didn't make any mistakes.

Did you have your movement mode activated? Were you using "Supersonic"?

One of the issues with the race is that it doesn't tell you can switch to fast movement mode.

The catwoman race is still much harder a platinum, some of the mastery races are still harder platinums. There re plenty of the flight races that required alot of supersonic because of the great distance of the race itself through metro. I'm sure there are plenty of players currently that don't even have the catwoman platinum. The superspeed races when they created the bottled gotham and had all the bots ground you and attack you during races wasn't changed. You needed players to pull and stun adds while you did the race itself.

The hit detection can certainly be weird but that's more the map design than it is the race. It's not even that im trying to keep the race hard because im the evil elitist obsidianchill its just that why make an easy platinum race? its doable, in your 59.3 there were plenty of moments to improve upon just like there was in my 59.8. The fastest completion time could easily be around 55 seconds or less.

If I go supersonic; my reactions aren't fast enough to not make mistakes.
Then it ends up taking a lot longer. I can probably shave off 15-20 seconds with some practice; but I doubt I'll drop below 1:30. I never got the Platinum in the original races.

55 seconds sounds like a reasonable expectation with an empty zone and lots of practice. Trying to run this with other people in the race is a pain though. I had a few race attempts where AFK people were blocking the first ring. You can't just fly through them. Dealing with other races can throw you off your ideal race path. I think getting 55 seconds on Live will be quite the accomplishment. As is, I feel like there is very little margin for error to complete the platinum requirement.

If the intention was to make this a casual for-fun group race, I think further tuning adjustments will be required for ring placement and completion times. If the idea was to make it challenging, I think they are about there. There are certainly people that will never complete the platinum conditions in the current version of the race. In any case, there are a few rings where I'd like to see minor adjustments be made.

Feedback
It is possible to do damage in Seahorse form if you have Dive Bomb specced. You're most likely to accidentally use Dive Bomb near the middle portion of the race as you are going toward ground level and passing some mob groups. Taking any damage from those mob groups will knock you out of Seahorse form. You can still complete the race in Human form though.

Devs: Is the last rare purple collection piece "Coral Fragment" of the "Rein it In" Collection available on test? Ive run the race close to 40 times w/ mission and still havent gotten it. If it is gonna be in a vendor later on that would make sense but if its a drop from the mission, you might wanna increase its drop rate.

The last piece is definitely available -- it will not be a vendor item. Please let me know if you are still having trouble completing the collection.

Autymn

This race was a challenge on test. I would consider turning down the start timer and making this not a group fight test on live however as the tight corner race will make this near impossible to get platinum with others racing alongside you. I would have liked more open water targets for a group race.

For difficulty itself, it took me 8 tries to get platinum and you have to be in boost for near all of the race except for the second turn around the building through the seaweed that people have been complaining about above that you will get stuck on even when going slow. It's an ugly turn that really should be moved. We have this great big map and the race is only through small tight corners with limited visibility. It's disappointing as I love races and am working on getting platinum on all races in every movement mode.
First run 1:30.7 final run 1:07.3

why is there a wiggle move?

Maybe bump up that drop rate. It is gonna be a problem if you do 40 runs and STILL dont get it. Its just gotta be changed to a more reasonable drop rate.