Summary
- Mount Racing is an interactive system where players can gamble on or spectate races run by Mount Racers NPCs
- Mount Races take place at the Prevalia Meadows, a new racing track region players can access through any Town-Destination Moongate
- Races will typically occur each Sunday night at 8PM ET, however during certain events such as King's Faire, there may be races scheduled nightly
Reaching Prevalia Meadows
- Players can reach Prevalia Meadows from any Township Moongate by selecting the "Prevalia Meadows" option
Races
- Each race will feature 8 Mount Racers randomly chosen from over 20 persistant Racing NPCs, each with their own tracked Stats, Records, and Backstory
- Each race consists of the racers completing 4 Laps
Racing Mechanics
- Each Racer stays in their starting lane for the duration of the race
- While some lanes have a longer distance to travel around turns, the system is scaled so no lane has an advantage over others (even if it would appear otherwise, we promise!)
Racing Stats
- Each racer has 3 Stats which will impact their performance during races: Gateburst, Endurance, and Finishing
Gateburst
- The Gateburst stat determines how much of a speed bonus the racer experiences during the first lap of a race
Endurance
- The Endurance stat reduces the speed penalty the racer accumulates during a race due to fatigue
Finishing
- The Finishing stat determines how much of a speed bonus the racer experiences during the final lap of a race
Mount Racers
- Any Racer who is not scheduled to race during the week can be found in the Stables on the north side of Prevalia Meadows
- Racers who are to participate in the next scheduled race will be displayed in the promenade in the center of Prevalia Meadows
Inspecting Racers
- Players can double-click any Racer, or their Mount, to launch their Inspection Menu
- On the Inspection Menu, players can view their Racing Stats, their lifetime Record, their historical Times, and their Backstory
- Note: The Record and Times for a racer reflect actual races run by the racer, with a large number of them resolved before the system goes live, so players have information to base their betting decisions upon
Betting Board Menu and Betting on Races
- Players can double-click any Racing Official NPC or Betting Board item throughout Prevalia Meadows to bring up the Betting Board Menu
- The Betting Board menu is where players can Bet on races, as well as view all information for the current race or even past races
Racing Entry
- Each racer participating in a race has an entry on the Betting Board with a number of fields
- Win Button: Select this racer in a bet to Win (1st place finish)
- Place Button: Select this racer in a bet to Place (1st or 2nd place finish)
- Show Button: Select this racer in a bet to Show (1st, 2nd, or 3rd place finish)
- Odds: The 'overall' expectation that this racer will perform well in the race, based on total bets placed on it (a higher number means lower expecations but higher potential payouts)
- Racer: The Name of the racer
- Record: The racer's results over their lifetime: Total Races - Win Results - Place Results - Show Results
- View: Launches the Inspect menu for the racer
- Gateburst: Stat that determines how much of a speed bonus the racer experiences during the first lap of a race
- Endurance: Stat that reduces the speed penalty the racer accumulates during a race due to fatigue
- Finishing: Stat that determines how much of a speed bonus the racer experiences during the final lap of a race
Placing Bets
- Betting for an upcoming race opens one hour after the previous race ends and is available until 5 minutes before the race begins
- Each character is allowed to place 1 bet per race
- Any bet involving multiple racers must be either an Exacta Bet or Trifecta Bet (explained below)
- Bets are made based on the Finish the player expects for their Racer such as: Win (1st place), Place (1st or 2nd place), or Show (1st, 2nd, or 3rd place)
- The bottom left "My Bet" section will show the player's selected Racer + Finish (i.e. Vanderbilt to Place)
- The bottom right "Place Bet" section allows the player to select how much they wish to Bet on their Racer + Finish
- Once a character has placed a bet, they cannot change the bet or cancel it
- Note: players may place bets using multiple characters and we are simply applying the 1 bet per race rule to streamline the betting interface for players
Exacta Bet
- Players can choose to make a more risky bet known as an "Exacta Bet" where they attempt to pick which racers will Win (1st place) and Place (2nd place) in that exact order
- If either racer fails to finish in the expected order picked, the bet will lose
- To make an Exacta bet, players need to pick a racer to Win (come in 1st) and then a different racer to Place (come in 2nd)
Trifecta Bet
- Players can choose to make a more even more risky bet known as an "Trifecta Bet" where they attempt to pick which racers will Win (1st place), Place (2nd place), and Show (3rd place) in that exact order
- If any of the three racers fail to finish in the expected order picked, the bet will lose
- To make an Trifecta bet, players need to pick a racer to Win (come in 1st), and then a different racer to Place (come in 2nd), and then another racer to Show (come in 3rd)
Pari-Mutuel Betting Concept
- Betting for Mount Racing on Outlands is based on the "Pari-Mutuel" concept which means players are competing against each other (rather than the house) over Money Pools for each bet type (Win / Place / Show / Exacta / Trifecta)
- Effectively, if you place a bet for a racer to Win, the amount of potential money to be won will be based on all other players who also placed Win bets on any racer (and will not be impacted by how much was bet by players making Place / Show / Exacta / Trifecta bets)
Betting Pools and House Take
- For each type of Bet (Win / Place / Show / Exacta / Trifecta) the total amount money players bet on that bet type is added into a pool: i.e. a Win Pool, a Place Pool, a Show Pool, an Exacta Pool, and a Trifecta Pool
- A house Take of 20% is then removed from each of those pools (i.e the server gold sink)
- The remaining pool amount for each of those bets then gets distributed to players who correctly pick the winning result for that bet type, with their Payout scaled based on how much they bet and the expectations people had for that racer to achieve that specific result (less people = higher payout)
- The displayed Odds for a racer are simply a "general" expectation players have the racer will do well, based on how much total money was bet on the racer (to win, place, or show) compared to all other racers
- A higher Odds value for a racer will usually mean the expected overall payout will likely be higher because few people placed bets on the racer
- With Pari-Mutuel betting, the Payout for a particular result (such as Win) comes from the Pool of money from players betting on that result type (i.e the Win Pool)
- The Payout for specific racers is then scaled based on how likely (via betting amounts) players expected that racer to have that result
- Payout values are displayed using the standard Horse Racing $2 baseline (i.e how much would a player win if they had bet $2)
- Its entirely possible for a Show (3rd place) finish for a racer to have a higher payout than a Place (2nd place) finish simply because there was more money in the "Show Pool" due to more players making Show bets, and that particular racer was picked by very few players to achieve that Show (3rd place) result
- Effectively, the largest Payouts that can occur for a player happen when there is a large amount of money bet on a particular bet type (Win / Place / etc) and the players picks a result that very few other people also bet on
Viewing Past Races
- Players can use the Left/Right arrow buttons at the top center of the Betting Board menu to navigate between viewing the current race and all past races
The Racers
There are 20 Persistant Racer NPCs that will participate in Mount Racing
- Torgan Treefeller and Wildeye the Paint Horse
- Ice Queen and Coldsnap the Lusitano Horse
- Desert Falcon and Horu the Desert Ostard
- The Crimson Knight and Stayn the Blood Courser
- Horsebreaker Bill and Tumbles the Chestnut Pony
- Bearpaw and Ignuk the Polar Bear
- Dragonclaw and Sparque the Emberhoof
- Sandwave and Tikron the Llama
- Gloomy Guz and Malaise the Frenzied Ostard
- Temporal Sorceress and Epoch the Unicorn
- Grulburz and Gnasher the Direwolf
- Black Bonnie and Midnight the Fresian Horse
- Pursuer of Souls and Deathglance the Skeletal Horse
- Mei Llama and Moonsign the Llama
- Packrat and Ratbear the Bearrat
- El'Sava and Softstep the Palamino Horse
- Bluecloak and Justice the Standardbred Horse
- Vanderbilt and Fiat the Thoroughbred Horse
- Shin'dred and Umrae the Saddlebred Horse
- Ghostrider and Torpor the Dreadmare