Risa Surfing Race - Why most lose and some win?

storules

I stayed away from titling this post as "exploit". I myself stay away from the Risa surfing race but through the years I noticed that some folks have gotten really good at looking for loopholes to "win" the race. Everyone knows about the kit that makes you faster on ground during the winter event or "traits" that help your speed up.

Someone was just saying at Risa today...how come if I have the "bestest" of all surboards...even elite and yet still can't win vs others? Is this rigged or what?
Aside "strategy" to move around the "sweet" spots of the race is there anything else I need to speed up?

I'm not sure that the same kits/traits could help on water as it was done on ground during winter event. All I can tell is that either players who constantly win have found a "better" strategy or know about the same kits used on ground would help on water. And yes...its not the Risa tribble either.
Perhaps this is something Devs might want to keep an eye on. There is always a loophole to a system and a human mind will always find it.​​

gradii

Biggest issue seems to be that doing rather questionable things like cutting the corners of the track (leaving the track should disqualify you) and being able to grab a flag which seems to have a bugged interact sometimes matters more than skill.

echatty

Yeah, I think if you stay close to the edge of the track even if you go off it will keep you from getting DQed. I myself don't know all the 'loopholes'/sweet spots, but I don't worry that much about it since I can always count on two tags per race.

3 races = 6 tags = one monkey research project. Not having any difficulty keeping up with that every day.

anazonda

Two words: [Lohlunat Tribble]

echatty

The two Risa tribbles do not boost the powerboards, only the floaters.

From the Wiki itself:

Additionally, during the summer event, this tribble will improve your ability to effectively control Risian Floaters, allowing for increased Flight Speed and Traction.

It's the same for the new Risian tribble. It only affects floaters.

warpangel

The race is a sham, all that matter is the flag-picking at the end.

echatty

Most people don't realize it's a race for the flags at the end. It is not a race about who crosses the line first, it's who can grab the flags first for their bonus tags/favors. The vast majority of the time I only get to grab the Finish flag, but that's all I expect, even though I race my heart out to at least try to grab a place flag. And sometimes I do get to grab one of those. But I'm not going to whine about 'flag-stealers'. You are not guaranteed the first place flag if you cross first, you must also grab the first place flag, which entails knowing the best way for you to slow down so you can grab it, or jumping off your board so you can grab it. That's the real test, being able to grab that flag once you get across.

The post-race complaining can be very entertaining, though.

echatty

Also, the flags do not 'move'. Each one has a pre-determined place and will always spawn at that place once the previous flag has been grabbed. One just needs to memorize where the three place flags will spawn and adjust accordingly if you see you aren't going to get the one you're originally going for.

cuchulainn74

One of the most frustrating aspects of the flag placement is that the 2nd and 3rd flags are closer to the line than the 1st place flag. So if you're in a tight finish for 1st place, you may be better off grabbing 2nd. I've been pipped to the 1st place flag, and then been unable to go back to the 2nd place flag before somebody else got it. $.02 offered

echatty

I've been in that same situation myself. In fact it's one of the reasons I generally only get a Finish flag. It's frustrating, but not enough to rant off in chat about it, or here either. Just grab your flag and try to do better next time.

warpangel

When I did it to collect the monkeys and the accolade, I came to the conclusion that trying to "win" the "race" is...well I could write a descriptive statement but it would probably be half asterisks.

To retain sanity, this is my advice. Forget they ever advertised it as a "race." Treat it as yet another hoop-jumping mission. Pretend the other players don't exist. Just take a leisurely surf to the end and pick up a flag. You'll get some monkey tokens, and it'll count for the accolade.

And when you have your monkeys, and the accolade, or decide you don't want them anymore, forget the "race" ever existed. This is your true reward, that makes it all worth it.

monkeybone13

Part of the problem some people have with going slower than others is because they have the superior targ H.O.G. powerboard. They may not realize it's currently bugged - going slower than it's suppose to. A dev had confirmed it and said it should be fixed in the next patch or so.

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echatty

I don't have the Targ board myself. Just the freebie they gave away on BTTF Day. As does more than half the 'racers' in any given race, most of the others being the elite boards from the store and finally a few newbies with wooden boards.

I've never treated it as a 'race' as such, but just people trying to get to the flags as quickly as possible. The real goal is just to grab a flag, and first over the finish line does not guarantee the first place flag. That's what you need to do. Whether it's running on ice in winter or riding a powerboard in summer, that's always the real goal, because everyone gets a flag just for participating.

autumnturning

I don't have the pink hoverboards. I had no Powerboards when the event started. I have 4 captains, and had never raced around the island for Monkey Tokens before.

I started racing on saturday, after getting enough Lohlunat Favors to buy 4 Faction Boards (the top end items) so each of my captains has one.

Did I mention I had never raced before this weekend?

I'm mentioning it again so that it becomes obvious. I STARTED racing for the first time this weekend.

The first several races, before learning the route(s), ended predictably enough ... Participant.

But then I started taking "another lap" around the course after the race ended, and started trying to (*gasp* *shock* *horrors*!!!) LEARN THE COURSE. I needed to figure out What Worked And What Didn't. Like is there an advantage to be had by using the jump ramps (usually, no). Do the speed boosts you can drive over "work" for the top end boards (apparently not, as if there's a speed cap or something similar, or maybe they're all just bugged)?

Needless to say, I made my mistakes ... but I also LEARNED from my mistakes. I honed my "surfing" skill (called "piloting" in space) to be able to "fly" the course more efficiently/effectively. I upped by game, by practicing.

Within 36 hours of buying my first Powerboard ... and racing a dozen or two times ... I had gotten 1st place on all four of my captains. I now place either 1st or 2nd (or Participant when I TRIBBLE up) pretty routinely on almost every race. The only equip item I've got going for me are the Faction Boards that anyone can buy for 1500 Favors. If I can "do it" in a day, it's not unreasonable to expect other people to be able to Learn The Course and become a competitor for 1st place too.

At least the Powerboard racing doesn't have the same "steal the flag" exploit that the winter Skating event does.

sheldonlcooper

the speed boosts that you fly over don't always work but they work sometimes even for the fastest boards. i've never been able to discern why they activate sometimes and not others. And I'm talking about being the first to go over them and they don't activate. Indeed sometimes they activate for the 2nd person close behind the first.

I don't believe any speed boosts that worked in the winter work here. I have not experimented but I also can see that I'm going exactly the same speed as others with Marty board.

Kudos to Cryptic for providing the back to the future board in the first place. This is my first year with a good board and it does make the race much more exciting. In years past I race with the wood board - refusing to participate in buying board creep despite earning around 50,000 lohlunats a year.

gradii

You can know the course and still come in last on nearly every race. I've done the race about a hundred times now and only come in first once. the controls are awful, the course glitchy and full of invisible snags.

autumnturning

gradii wrote: »

You can know the course and still come in last on nearly every race. I've done the race about a hundred times now and only come in first once. the controls are awful, the course glitchy and full of invisible snags.

Then you have to be Doing It Wrong(tm).

Controls are awful? Just press and hold Forward on your keyboard and steer with your mouse.
Course glitchy and full of invisible snags? Try racing in the daytime when you can See The Rocks and try not to drive over them (unless aiming for them deliberately).

gradii

autumnturning wrote: »

gradii wrote: »

You can know the course and still come in last on nearly every race. I've done the race about a hundred times now and only come in first once. the controls are awful, the course glitchy and full of invisible snags.

Then you have to be Doing It Wrong(tm).

Controls are awful? Just press and hold Forward on your keyboard and steer with your mouse.
Course glitchy and full of invisible snags? Try racing in the daytime when you can See The Rocks and try not to drive over them (unless aiming for them deliberately).

I don't need some jackass to tell me how "Easy" it is, thanks, I know what I'm talking about.

echatty

I found out pretty quickly that you need to barely turn your mouse while speeding through the course, or you will go way off course. I mean, sometimes I barely twitch my mouse and get what I want. I've learned where almost all the 'snags' are. You graze a rock, it throws you off course. Sometimes you can even be nudged by another participant (yes, I've experienced this). It's all part of the race. And yeah, you can know the course backwards and forwards and still come in last.

I guess I'm doing things wrong, cause most all the time I still only get the Finish flag. But it's easy to run three races and get another monkey researcher mission. If I get lucky and get placed, all the better

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autumnturning

The most important thing to do is to not oversteer. Try and figure out "the straightest lines" to move in and what kinds of cornering you can do reliably/repeatably without messing yourself up. Never mind the zig-zag surfing moves your character makes while they "drive" since that really doesn't affect anything and just looks "action-y" as you power your way forward.

I just fly the course as though it were a car racing course. Find the shortest paths that allow you to maintain the highest speed on the longest straightaways with corners that you can complete reliably. Just fly as straight as you can for as long as you can.

ltminns

We don't call people 'donkeys' on the Forums.

echatty

The only thing I have to really watch for is accidentally activating my floater. I consciously keep my fingers away from the mouse buttons throughout the race to prevent that, since really I only need to jiggle the mouse once in awhile to change course.

That can get pretty embarrassing to be going along really well, then all of a sudden activating your floater and getting DQed.

markhawkman

echatty wrote: »

I found out pretty quickly that you need to barely turn your mouse while speeding through the course, or you will go way off course. I mean, sometimes I barely twitch my mouse and get what I want. I've learned where almost all the 'snags' are. You graze a rock, it throws you off course. Sometimes you can even be nudged by another participant (yes, I've experienced this). It's all part of the race. And yeah, you can know the course backwards and forwards and still come in last.

I guess I'm doing things wrong, cause most all the time I still only get the Finish flag. But it's easy to run three races and get another monkey researcher mission. If I get lucky and get placed, all the better

Actually, it's very important to remember that you can run into other racers. If you're trying to pass someone, you must go around them, if you try to go through them it won't work. This goes double for tightly packed opponents; it can make a solid wall. Hmm.. makes me ponder if you can jump over people.....

Also speed boost or not, ramps slow you down. not MUCH, but.... you don't want to give your opponent any room in a race like this.

My technique is to hit R and turn on auto-run, then just nudge the left and right keys to steer.

Also... I've actually memorized the course so thoroughly that even THIS doesn't slow me down:

hugin1205

my very first race (using the back to future board) I was in first place till suddently I stopped moving and couldn'T move till all others had passed me by. Only a few seconds after that I could move again - I saw them overtake me, so it wasn'T "Server doesn't respond" or lag....just strange.
Was quite annoyed, did one more, came 4th and figured: nah. May do one more to get 2 more tags and a monkey. If I can be bothered

tessaravejgan

I don't understand what the fuss is about. Its just a silly race. Does it really matter what place you get since you're gonna get tags and favors anyway. However I'll admit it is nice to see someone in front of you crossing the line first and missing the flag and then grab it right under their nose, heh

sunfrancks

Meh, I stopped doing the race years ago.

Lag and the map fps problems killed it for me. Not even mentioning the cheating and griefing that still goes on.

I have the same problem with the winter race, but the skill level for that race is much higher, which still makes it fun for me.

echatty

markhawkman wrote: »

echatty wrote: »

I found out pretty quickly that you need to barely turn your mouse while speeding through the course, or you will go way off course. I mean, sometimes I barely twitch my mouse and get what I want. I've learned where almost all the 'snags' are. You graze a rock, it throws you off course. Sometimes you can even be nudged by another participant (yes, I've experienced this). It's all part of the race. And yeah, you can know the course backwards and forwards and still come in last.

I guess I'm doing things wrong, cause most all the time I still only get the Finish flag. But it's easy to run three races and get another monkey researcher mission. If I get lucky and get placed, all the better

Actually, it's very important to remember that you can run into other racers. If you're trying to pass someone, you must go around them, if you try to go through them it won't work. This goes double for tightly packed opponents; it can make a solid wall. Hmm.. makes me ponder if you can jump over people.....

Also speed boost or not, ramps slow you down. not MUCH, but.... you don't want to give your opponent any room in a race like this.

My technique is to hit R and turn on auto-run, then just nudge the left and right keys to steer.

Also... I've actually memorized the course so thoroughly that even THIS doesn't slow me down:

Yeah, someone complained about that as well. Said everything disappeared on them. I haven't had that happen, usually I just get nudged around some.

I still find it a fun race, even if I only place once in awhile.

xavierid10t

Not surprised that most everything here is about complaining about the known issues or whatever.
I was actually looking to see if any complaints have been started about players exploiting the game with snow boots that run the race (on foot) and come in first without even using a board. These players can out run (go faster) than any board available.
Havn't seen any yet. Go figure.

storules

autumnturning wrote: »

The most important thing to do is to not oversteer. Try and figure out "the straightest lines" to move in and what kinds of cornering you can do reliably/repeatably without messing yourself up. Never mind the zig-zag surfing moves your character makes while they "drive" since that really doesn't affect anything and just looks "action-y" as you power your way forward.

I just fly the course as though it were a car racing course. Find the shortest paths that allow you to maintain the highest speed on the longest straightaways with corners that you can complete reliably. Just fly as straight as you can for as long as you can.

How can you NOT oversteered? Depending on the boards you used...did you notice that most won't go straight but have a small zigzag like maneuver built into them? Even if you go in a straight line you will feel that zigzag movement. Not sure if intended but at least should be a description of how much that zigzag movement is built into each board. I know probably small issue but anything can help in making the race more competitive from that instance.​​