Unbeatable ghosts in contracts/stadiums
There doesn't seem to be enough of a stink being made about this issue as I feel like there should be. These are incredibly game-breaking bugs that I'd like to make sure are extremely high priority. I'll break down everything I know about the bugs below.
Contracts:
- This is a glitch that seems to only apply to contracts that require you to "catch up" to another rider that's been picked by the sponsor. It sounds like it can appear on any of these catch-up contracts, since I've seen reports of this happening on at least 3 different tracks. I experienced this personally on Angkor What's contract by the mysterious rider who asks for 17 seconds of inverted air time while also beating a player who's given a head start before you.
- The glitch is that the ghost you're paired with will sometimes be impossible to beat. Not just difficult, but even the fastest time in the world might not be close to the time you would require to reach the finish line before the ghost does-- and that's completely ignoring the additional tasks the contract asks for you to do, like landing a certain number of flips, for example.
- The supposed time that the ghost takes to complete the track displays correctly on the end screen, so I feel like the problem might not be that the replay is "wrong." I suspect what's happening is that these impossible ghosts are losing most of their time in the first couple checkpoints. That way, when their replay is chosen to be raced against in one of these catch-up contracts, their time is sometimes even cut in half, thanks to their replays picking up after the checkpoints that were responsible for a majority of their run. That's only speculation though, since I have no idea what the parameters even are for selecting ghosts for contracts.
- This glitch does not consistently make the contract literally impossible to beat. I was placed against a ghost in another catch-up contract that was extremely difficult, but I was fortunately able to complete by achieving a near-diamond medal time along with the minimum amount of flips required to complete the contract. The impossible ghosts are only in the worst-case scenarios.
- This bug was present as far back as in the closed beta. I recall it happening to me on two different catch-up contracts.
Stadiums:
- This glitch seems to have the potential to appear in any of the stadium events in the game. It's currently in all 3 of the stadiums that I've gone back to replay.
- The stadium glitch has been reported here already, but I'd like to stress just how unfortunate this glitch really is. The stadiums events, on your first time playing them with the RedLynx contract, will pit your rider against 7 other pre-made riders with, what I assume to be, pre-recorded runs. They're designed to be fair and passable. These riders are not the glitch.
- The stadium glitch occurs when a player goes back to previously completed heats in a stadium event to replay them for personal improvement/enjoyment OUTSIDE of the assigned contracts. The ghosts that are given to the player as competition in the event will sometimes (and in my case, always) be pulled from the highest ranked players for that given stadium event. This makes it impossible for the player to place in the top half of the racers without placing at practically the top of the global leaderboards. Obviously, this is a feat that not everyone can accomplish. This in itself might not be a huge issue, if it weren't for the fact that players can't even place new medal times or highscores without placing in the top half of the heat.
- This bug was present in at least the open beta, and was reported in the forums 6 days ago. The response was that in the full release "the ghosts will be offline and will be easier to beat"
WORK-AROUNDS:
For anyone suffering from one of these two glitches, there are a few ways around them. If you know any methods that aren't listed here, please mention them in the replies. These work-arounds do not fix this issue, but they may allow you to continue progressing through the game if you are fortunate enough.
For the contract glitch:
- Players have stated that disconnecting from the internet will allow you to race against a new ghost. This did not work for me, since my PS4 archived the ghost I was stuck with and, even offline, I had no choice but to race against the unbeatable replay. If it works for you, great.
- The ghosts cycle. I don't know how frequently this happens, or if anything needs to be done triggering it. About a day and a half after I first attempted my broken Angkor What contract, I was given a new ghost to race against that was fortunately not broken. This may have been the result of disconnecting from the internet that day before, or the ghosts might just be on a 24 hour timer. I wasn't able to prove either theory.
For the stadium glitch:
- If your goal is only to achieve some better medal times in the stadiums after you've already finished each of the initial RedLynx contracts, there are more contracts for each of the stadium events later in the game. These each give you a second opportunity to grind on the tracks until you get a time you're satisfied with. After completing these contracts, the ghosts will return to chosen replays from the leaderboards, so make sure you don't complete the contract until you're happy with your medal time. If you've already completed these second contracts and you want to go back, then I don't know what to tell you. Either get 1st place in the world or wait until a bug-fix rolls out I guess. That's where I am right now.
I am very adamant in seeing these problems fixed, not because I dislike the game, but because I've actually had a great time in Trials Rising so far, and I want this game to be the best game it can be. Can somebody please just confirm to me that these issues with the ghosts are being looked into right now? I'm not demanding a fix for tomorrow, I just want to know that the dev team are aware of the problem and are adding it to their plate.
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