Stats & Skills of Derby Stars horses — 2
Hello, Derby Fans. We are back with the promised second post.
Continuing from the previous article that explained the stats of horses, we will explain the skills and talents that you have been curious about.
There are over 500 skills in Derby Stars, and every horse has 6 skills. Those skills can be further classified into 1 special skill and 5 general skills.
The distinction between them is very easy. Special skill is used only in the last spurt section of the match and can only be used once during the match. It shows a much stronger effect than common skill. It is indeed used to turn the game around at the last minute, but special skills are not always used once per game.
The conditions for using the skill must be satisfied first and foremost. Then, whether or not the skill is activated is determined probabilistically depending on intellect. In other words, it may not be used at all in a match, and even if it is used, it will only be used once.
A common skill, on the other hand, can be used multiple times within a match. The higher the intellect, the more times the skill can be used in a single match.
However, if the use time of a skill is set, it cannot be used if it is out of that section. Taking the above screenshot as an example, in the case of “Early Rush”, the time of use is defined as “at the start”, meaning it is only used at the start of a match. On the other hand, “Health Care 1” can be used repeatedly throughout the match.
All stadiums at Derby Stars are divided into 5 zones: Start, Early, Mid, Late, and Spurt. (These 5 segments are not the same length)
Also, all skills have activation conditions and activation probability. (It does not trigger 100% just because the condition is met!) First, the trigger condition refers to the current situation of the arena. For example, conditions such as “excellent weather”, “within 5th place”, “many other horses around” refer to the situation of the stadium. Your horses can use the skill only when these conditions are met.
Therefore, in order to easily satisfy the triggering conditions, you should carefully consider the conditions of the competition you want to participate in — weather, distance, direction of rotation, characteristics of competing horses, turf or dirt, etc. — before deciding to participate or not.
If the activation conditions are satisfied, the use of the skill is determined by the activation probability. In order to increase the activation probability, the horse must have high intellect, and even a horse with low intellect can increase its intellect through training. Of course, intellect is not the only factor that affects the game, so you have to choose which stat to raise.
To explain more about the skill, the special skill is designed to have a big impact on Speed and Acceleration ability when making the last spurt regardless of type. However, there are 5 types of common skill as follows.
Common skill is a skill that can be used repeatedly, so composing it only with Speed and Acceleration becomes overly simplistic. For this reason, it is designed to have a more diverse effect than the special skill, and is classified as follows according to the activation condition or effect.
⊙ Self Condition Buff
A skill that is activated only by current situation without the intervention of other horses. ex) Speed and Acceleration increases very greatly when overtaking after running more than 1000 meter.
⊙ Competitor Condition Buff
A skill that is activated when the actions or situations of other horses affect me. ex) Speed increases slightly when overtaken by other horse in the straight.
⊙ Arena Condition Buff
Skills that are triggered by stadium-related content or weather. ex) Power increases slightly on a Dirt Track. Grit increases when running close to the fence on a rainy day.
⊙ HP Recovery
All skills related to HP recovery. ex) HP cost decreases slightly on the corner during the early phase of the race.
⊙ Debuff
Any skill that lowers the stat or worsens the situation of a horse. ex) Decreases Acceleration of nearby horses when overtaken by other horse while in the middle group.
Now, do you understand how the skills work? Visit the official website of Derby Stars and read the skills of each horse in detail. Perhaps the horses might feel a little bit more lovable, and you can have fun imagining how powerful they might become on a stadium.
Other than skills, one of the most asked questions from the community is related to Talent. In Derby Stars, Talent means running style of a horse. Just as athletes have different ways of running, so do horses. There are athletes who like to run short distances or long distances. We felt that these factors had to be taken into account in order to create a proper race.
Even in real races, horses that hate getting dirt on their faces want to run in front as much as possible. If your horse runs to forefront right after the match starts, its stamina will be consumed quickly, but instead it can run comfortably.
On the other hand, in the case of a horse with a poor start or low agility, but good stamina, it stays behind throughout the match, then pours out all of the stamina it had accumulated in the last straight section at once and rushes forward. Thus, each horse has its own taste, which is reflected in Talent.
In Derby Stars, there are 4 types of Talents shown above. In actual horse racing, some countries classify running styles into 3 categories or 4 categories, but we decided to set it up a little more subdivided for the fun of the game.
⊙ Runaway Runner
A running style that aims to maintain the forefront until finish line.
⊙ Front Runner
Runs right behind Runaway Runner, aims to win by increasing the speed from the middle of the race.
⊙ Stalker
A running style that is positioned behind the Front Runner until the middle of the race, and starts accelerating from the final corner / last straight track to outpace the horse in front.
⊙ Stretch Runner
A running style that is positioned furthest to the back until the middle of the race, starts accelerating from the final corner / last straight track to outpace the horse force in front.
These four running styles are innate tastes and do not change permanently. You can’t even change it with training. In other words, it is like an element that is the same as a person’s taste or habit. So, it is expressed as S, A, B, C, and D. Running in a certain position is S if the horse likes it very much, D if the horse hates it’, etc.
So, for a horse with an S of Talent, can your horse always perform at its best if you only play in its favorite position? In short, it’s not. For example, if your horse has been instructed to play in a match as a front runner position, but has too many competitors playing in the same position, the horse may be too tense or have a hard time fighting, so the stamina could drop more quickly.
Also, even if you’re lucky to be playing alone in the stretch runner position, if the runaway runner for the match is too fast, unfortunately you may end up not even making a proper last spurt. In other words, to win a match, you have to look closely at the situation on the stadium, the nature of your horse, and the abilities and strategies of your competitors. The race in Derby Stars is not simple!
We’ve seen a lot of comments from the community that the game details haven’t been released for a long time since the 1st pre-sale. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize once again. In the meantime, the Derby dev team has been creating, implementing, and testing the detailed game design architecture as above.
We ask for your understanding for the fact that it took time to design it to the extent that it can be explained in detail. However, we will not repeat the previous mistakes. In the future, we will be more careful so that we can share more information quickly.
Please join our Discord community if your have any questions about the stats and skills. Thank you!
