I know that derby means nothing to a lot of folks in game but for those of us who DO enjoy it the Spring Update was a huge dis - a pet focused update with nothing for pet pvp! But if what Sparck says is true....
Sparck on Mar 5, 2020 wrote: We love Pet Derby! It's all about the community's interest. If you want to see it shown more, we'll show it more.
[wish I knew how to properly link to a different thread, but really, he said this]
...then perhaps K I just needs some suggestions as they ponder the 5th Age of PvP. Without further ado....
Training your pet in PRACTICE
Training a pet only after a RANKED race makes NO sense. ZERO. Why would you enter a race with a pet that still needs to improve if your RANK depended upon it?! But training a pet after a PRACTICE race would be BRILLIANT!
Something like
Join a race by yourself and you get, say, 10 training points.
Join a two player race and get 14 for winning, 12 for finishing second
Join a three player race, 16 for first, 14 for second, 12 for third.
Join a four player race, 20 for first, 18 for second, 16 for third, and 14 for fourth.
Nothing in the game is worse than grinding through the mini games - this would make training fun without affecting your rank.
More than ANY other idea, this really and truly would give derby a HUGE boost. More people doing derby > shorter wait times to do races > more races > more fun
But wait...there's more! Add Derby to the Pet Promenade Instead of event points for burning snacks for happiness, or gold to hatch a pet, give +25 points for ONE derby race!
Spectator mode Arena gets this so why not Derby?
Tournaments
Unlike a PvP tournament which can be decided on the whims of Diego, Derby was MADE for tournaments!! Races are done in no more than 4 minutes and in the rare event of a tie, simply race again?! Arena (AND FISHING!!!) gets this so why not derby?
Leaderboard Arena gets this so why not derby?
More Courses When Derby first came out, there were 18 course. 10 years later, there are 18 courses. In that same time Arena has gotten several new themed arenas, but what arena you are competing in has ZERO affect on the match. Different courses, however, can have a huge impact in derby! A few courses I’d love to see…
A water dominant course. Water is the least common surface on all 18 courses, and as such most derby hatched pets are weak on this surface. A course predominantly water, themed after, say, Celestia, would be revolutionary. A course with no straight-aways and super hairpin turns. It’s obvious you want to be on the inside lane, but with constant sharp turns a pet with any of the LOCK abilities – currently mostly considered fails – would be super helpful if it could lock a pet in the wrong lane. A Marathon course. The fastest courses can be done in just over a minute, but even the longest courses can be completed in under 3 minutes by the derby pros. Make a course that would take 6, 7, 8 minutes by even the fastest pet. Make morale scarce so that even the most morale boosted pet will be running on empty.A course with multiple paths One might be longer, but it has hurdles to give you moral, or one is shorter but it has water.
More Ranked courses Currently ranked matches are done on 4 courses – one from WC, KT, MB, and MS. Why not add more? It's not as if the courses need to be coded - they already exist for practice! Plus, the MB course, which is 25% of the courses available in ranked matches, is GLITCHED!!! So…
Fix the glitches As long as I’ve been doing derby, which was not long after it first came out, MB has been glitched. Some glitches can be overcome – a pet can skip about ¼ of the first lap right out of the gate – but one in particular cannot – the 3rd lap glitch. I've only seen it on the MB course, and while it’s NOT every time, over the years I've been cursed by the dreaded third lap at least 40 times. Since it's been around for...10 years?...maybe it CAN'T be fixed, but if that's so please remove it from the potential courses for ranked!
Team Formats In the arena there are 2v2 matches, 3v3, and 4v4 matches in both ranked and practice. With derby the options could be even MORE exciting as there can be different formats of team derby. Relay Races: One player racing after another. This within this format there could be 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4 Team Races: 2v2 races where two players from the same team run on the course as two players from another team. Under this format there can be an endless number of variations as well.
So, Arena gets this so why not Derby?
DERBY INCENTIVES Derby is fun – no, really, it is! Like the aforementioned idea, if more people have to do derby / want to do derby, the impossible waits for derby will disappear and derby will flourish. And nothing works quite like an incentive. The following are a few…
More Tickets This one is almost too obvious. Unlike some of the other suggestions this would be easy to do since you'd just be changing ticket values.
Un-hatchable pets available to players with a certian rank Like the Sheep, or Pioneer Dragon, or others, but making a pet only available to certain ranks would be a huge incentive given how popular pets are. Sure, there's the Crimson Spectre, but even though you need to have Warlord rank to purchase one, ANY one can get one in a hatch and they are also available as drops.
Timer "discounts" for players with a certain rank Tapping in to the popularity of pets and hatching, giving timer "discounts" could be a major boost to Derby.
One way would be to give a discount by rank, like...
Corporal - take 30 min off your timer permanently - 11 1/2 hrs or 23 1/2 hrs for non-members between hatches
Sergeant - take off another 30 minutes from your timer permanently - 11 hrs (or 23 hrs) between hatches
Veteran - take off another 30 minutes from your timer permanently - 10 1/2 hrs (or 22 1/2 hrs) between hatches
Knight - take off another 30 minutes from your timer permanently - 10 hrs (or 22 hrs) between hatches
Captain - take another HOUR from your timer permanently - 9 hrs (or 21 hrs) between hatches
Commander - take another HOUR from your timer permanently - 8 hrs (or 20 hrs) between hatches
Warlord - take TWO HOURS from your timer permanently - 6 hrs (or 18 hrs) between hatches
OR
Take time off your Current Timer per each ranked race you do.
So, after a ranked race you get 15 minutes off your current timer if you get a GOLD, 10 minutes for a Silver, and 5 minutes for a Bronze. While those times may seem trivial, if you keep racing and placing in the top 3 you can really knock a significant chunck of time of your timer.
OR
Both? And what impact to the game is there if you can hatch faster? More hatches > more pets, more pets > more pet training, more pet training > more snacks needed. It's a win / win!
Last, and perhaps the BEST idea.... DERBY DOWNS - a house with a Derby course!
This may be my most far fetched idea, but Arena gets this so why not Derby? However, because Derby and Arena are so very different, you could actually do so much MORE with a derby house – as in customizable courses!! Picture a house and around it (and through it?!) there is a short course. Anyone could buy this house, and race on the short course, but to customize it you would have to have a derby rank above private. Something like:
Sergeant – Walls for your course for, say 10 tickets per wall Veteran – Jump or Duck Hurdles for, say, 15 tickets per hurdle Knight - sections of surface for, say, 50 tickets for each section of Water / Clay / Grass / Dirt Captain - sections of Mud or Cobblestone for, say, 75 tickets per each section. Commander – Stars for, say, 100 tickets per Yellow Star, 125 per Red Star, and 150 per Blue Star Warlord – Maybe a 50% discount on all the above?
Custom courses would be the ultimate game within a game! Added to the Housing Tours, you could go from house to house doing races on completely custom courses.
I know all of these ideas are ambitious, but Derby didn't die because it wasn't fun, it's dying from neglect!
I know that derby means nothing to a lot of folks in game but for those of us who DO enjoy it the Spring Update was a huge dis - a pet focused update with nothing for pet pvp! But if what Sparck says is true....
Sparck on Mar 5, 2020 wrote: We love Pet Derby! It's all about the community's interest. If you want to see it shown more, we'll show it more.
[wish I knew how to properly link to a different thread, but really, he said this]
...then perhaps K I just needs some suggestions as they ponder the 5th Age of PvP. Without further ado....
Training your pet in PRACTICE
Training a pet only after a RANKED race makes NO sense. ZERO. Why would you enter a race with a pet that still needs to improve if your RANK depended upon it?! But training a pet after a PRACTICE race would be BRILLIANT!
Something like
Join a race by yourself and you get, say, 10 training points.
Join a two player race and get 14 for winning, 12 for finishing second
Join a three player race, 16 for first, 14 for second, 12 for third.
Join a four player race, 20 for first, 18 for second, 16 for third, and 14 for fourth.
Nothing in the game is worse than grinding through the mini games - this would make training fun without affecting your rank.
More than ANY other idea, this really and truly would give derby a HUGE boost. More people doing derby > shorter wait times to do races > more races > more fun
But wait...there's more! Add Derby to the Pet Promenade Instead of event points for burning snacks for happiness, or gold to hatch a pet, give +25 points for ONE derby race!
Spectator mode Arena gets this so why not Derby?
Tournaments
Unlike a PvP tournament which can be decided on the whims of Diego, Derby was MADE for tournaments!! Races are done in no more than 4 minutes and in the rare event of a tie, simply race again?! Arena (AND FISHING!!!) gets this so why not derby?
Leaderboard Arena gets this so why not derby?
More Courses When Derby first came out, there were 18 course. 10 years later, there are 18 courses. In that same time Arena has gotten several new themed arenas, but what arena you are competing in has ZERO affect on the match. Different courses, however, can have a huge impact in derby! A few courses I’d love to see…
A water dominant course. Water is the least common surface on all 18 courses, and as such most derby hatched pets are weak on this surface. A course predominantly water, themed after, say, Celestia, would be revolutionary. A course with no straight-aways and super hairpin turns. It’s obvious you want to be on the inside lane, but with constant sharp turns a pet with any of the LOCK abilities – currently mostly considered fails – would be super helpful if it could lock a pet in the wrong lane. A Marathon course. The fastest courses can be done in just over a minute, but even the longest courses can be completed in under 3 minutes by the derby pros. Make a course that would take 6, 7, 8 minutes by even the fastest pet. Make morale scarce so that even the most morale boosted pet will be running on empty.A course with multiple paths One might be longer, but it has hurdles to give you moral, or one is shorter but it has water.
More Ranked courses Currently ranked matches are done on 4 courses – one from WC, KT, MB, and MS. Why not add more? It's not as if the courses need to be coded - they already exist for practice! Plus, the MB course, which is 25% of the courses available in ranked matches, is GLITCHED!!! So…
Fix the glitches As long as I’ve been doing derby, which was not long after it first came out, MB has been glitched. Some glitches can be overcome – a pet can skip about ¼ of the first lap right out of the gate – but one in particular cannot – the 3rd lap glitch. I've only seen it on the MB course, and while it’s NOT every time, over the years I've been cursed by the dreaded third lap at least 40 times. Since it's been around for...10 years?...maybe it CAN'T be fixed, but if that's so please remove it from the potential courses for ranked!
Team Formats In the arena there are 2v2 matches, 3v3, and 4v4 matches in both ranked and practice. With derby the options could be even MORE exciting as there can be different formats of team derby. Relay Races: One player racing after another. This within this format there could be 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4 Team Races: 2v2 races where two players from the same team run on the course as two players from another team. Under this format there can be an endless number of variations as well.
So, Arena gets this so why not Derby?
DERBY INCENTIVES Derby is fun – no, really, it is! Like the aforementioned idea, if more people have to do derby / want to do derby, the impossible waits for derby will disappear and derby will flourish. And nothing works quite like an incentive. The following are a few…
More Tickets This one is almost too obvious. Unlike some of the other suggestions this would be easy to do since you'd just be changing ticket values.
Un-hatchable pets available to players with a certian rank Like the Sheep, or Pioneer Dragon, or others, but making a pet only available to certain ranks would be a huge incentive given how popular pets are. Sure, there's the Crimson Spectre, but even though you need to have Warlord rank to purchase one, ANY one can get one in a hatch and they are also available as drops.
Timer "discounts" for players with a certain rank Tapping in to the popularity of pets and hatching, giving timer "discounts" could be a major boost to Derby.
One way would be to give a discount by rank, like...
Corporal - take 30 min off your timer permanently - 11 1/2 hrs or 23 1/2 hrs for non-members between hatches
Sergeant - take off another 30 minutes from your timer permanently - 11 hrs (or 23 hrs) between hatches
Veteran - take off another 30 minutes from your timer permanently - 10 1/2 hrs (or 22 1/2 hrs) between hatches
Knight - take off another 30 minutes from your timer permanently - 10 hrs (or 22 hrs) between hatches
Captain - take another HOUR from your timer permanently - 9 hrs (or 21 hrs) between hatches
Commander - take another HOUR from your timer permanently - 8 hrs (or 20 hrs) between hatches
Warlord - take TWO HOURS from your timer permanently - 6 hrs (or 18 hrs) between hatches
OR
Take time off your Current Timer per each ranked race you do.
So, after a ranked race you get 15 minutes off your current timer if you get a GOLD, 10 minutes for a Silver, and 5 minutes for a Bronze. While those times may seem trivial, if you keep racing and placing in the top 3 you can really knock a significant chunck of time of your timer.
OR
Both? And what impact to the game is there if you can hatch faster? More hatches > more pets, more pets > more pet training, more pet training > more snacks needed. It's a win / win!
Last, and perhaps the BEST idea.... DERBY DOWNS - a house with a Derby course!
This may be my most far fetched idea, but Arena gets this so why not Derby? However, because Derby and Arena are so very different, you could actually do so much MORE with a derby house – as in customizable courses!! Picture a house and around it (and through it?!) there is a short course. Anyone could buy this house, and race on the short course, but to customize it you would have to have a derby rank above private. Something like:
Sergeant – Walls for your course for, say 10 tickets per wall Veteran – Jump or Duck Hurdles for, say, 15 tickets per hurdle Knight - sections of surface for, say, 50 tickets for each section of Water / Clay / Grass / Dirt Captain - sections of Mud or Cobblestone for, say, 75 tickets per each section. Commander – Stars for, say, 100 tickets per Yellow Star, 125 per Red Star, and 150 per Blue Star Warlord – Maybe a 50% discount on all the above?
Custom courses would be the ultimate game within a game! Added to the Housing Tours, you could go from house to house doing races on completely custom courses.
I know all of these ideas are ambitious, but Derby didn't die because it wasn't fun, it's dying from neglect!
Thanks for listening,
Casp
Some excellent suggestions, thanks Casp! Our Marketing Coordinator and ex. (and still present of course) community member, would love to see some of these implemented.
Some excellent suggestions, thanks Casp! Our Marketing Coordinator and ex. (and still present of course) community member, would love to see some of these implemented.
I bet she would!
Said Marketing Coordinator and ex (but still present) community member is a very gifted racer and the inspiration of many of those ideas and many, many more.
Hopefully people listen to what she has to say - she's a players player who doesn't just know every part of the game, but excelled in everything she did.
These Ideas are awesome and might bring back derby. I really would like to see more people into derby and joining derby tournaments (idk... either in game or in central tourneys) More tracks, update and or fixing bugs on the existing ones, there is so much to do :D As for me, the derby community is much more friendly than the pvp one hahah
Hopefully one day :) please KI, take care of derby :) <3 ❤️
