FYI - when you quit out of an active ranked pet derby race, you get -10 to your pet derby rating. I see people quitting active races all the time to avoid either the -5 rating that goes with a 3rd place finish or a -10 rating that you get with a 4th place result. Well folks, you aren't avoiding anything so please stop.
When people do quit an active race, the other racers get fewer arena tickets for their efforts. Also, when a racer quits a race seconds before they would have finished the race, the other racers are left standing at the finish line and the results NEVER come in - forcing THOSE racers to also quit and also get the -10 pet derby rating.
So KI.. I humbly suggest you change a few things.
1) Fix the bug where the race gets stuck as described above.
2) When attempting to quit an active race (hitting ESCAPE key) you currently get a message asking if you really want to quit. Add a line letting the player know they will recieve a -10 rating should the player confirm that they really do want to quit.
3) Stop penalizing the non-quitters by reducing arena ticket rewards.
4) Remove the penalty ratings for 3rd and 4th place finishes! This is what is causing this mess in the first place. It is also the reason that finding a rated race often takes a long long time since nobody likes to put the time and effort into something only to be penalized in the end. Third place currently "rewards" you with 1 arena ticket and a -5 to your rating. Since you need to have a high rating when you buy ANYTHING with the arena tickets, the tickets alone are almost worthless. 4th place gives you 10 gold and the -10 rating curently.
My suggestion is to leave the arena tickets/gold reward portion as they are currently and award a = +10 rating for first, +5 rating for second, and no rating changes for 3rd and 4th. You could even be more generous and award 10/5/3/1 or even 10/7/4/1 ratings points for the respective finishes. Doing this would make those rated races a LOT more popular and more importantly more FUN for everybody involved (and isn't that the point?)
