Johkr, the first block in all of my tracks post 2011 is a turn. I have a fancy Fun Trackers tag which means that I spend most of my TM time either mapping or testing maps, and I'm probably decent at it too. I just can't build a PF start, I don't like them anymore. And as I said, replayability is a KEY factor on a track, and a PF start reduces replayability to nonexistence about 99% of the times. It might even affect judging, because you can't judge a track properly with your first run and you don't want to see a 15 second intro to a 35 second track each and every time you restart it, which means less testing, rushed judging and even more subjective results if possible. It's a gamble I can't take.
In fact, I took gambles making tracks for contests that weren't good on the replayability department. Let's just say I didn't do too well. In fact, I ended dead last in one of them. Granted that I made what could be considered a trollmap, but it still validates my point - it was too hard to even finish within a reasonable amount of time, so it was brought down. I didn't mind then and I don't mind now, because I know that the map was the craziest piece of block connection I could come up with. I wouldn't be able to finish it if I tried it now, and I built it myself.
I'm saying this trying to help you, honestly. There's nothing that would bug me more than a 10th anniversary contest with 2 entries. And in a close second is a 10th anniversary contest with a healthy amount of tracks that are sub-par and similar to each other. And sadly, this ruleset kind of encourages that, because after a rolling start of 10/15 seconds it's hard to build a proper 25/40 second track. I don't know if you noticed, but the stadium car is FAST, and after 10 seconds of PF it gets to a point where either the PF has been so utterly boring you give the entire track a 0/10 or you're too fast to do anything outside of generic FS. And I wouldn't want to judge 30 generic FS tracks.
I'm asking you to seriously reconsider the PF start issue. It's not of any help to judges, mappers or drivers. It can work the first run or if you're an easily impressed little kid. And after 20 consecutive PF starts you begin to wonder why did you actually put PF start in the rulebook. I've done that whole testing tracks with PF starts thing. It sucks. Big time.
But this game's been around for 10 years now, there aren't many of those easily impressed little kids around when you look at the bigger picture.
I can't even recognise the kid that took TMS the 19th of January of 2006 as myself, even if the machine I used back then is sitting at the right of my laptop. And that probably happens to a lot of the (young) OGs, who are the ones actually excited for the 10th anniversary. Or do you really think that these new players that got TM² Stadium with a box of Smacks even knew what TM was back in 2005? Or 2010? Most of them are just happy to get a free game, and it happens to be one of the most amazing ones on earth. And they get the news that the game is 10 years old and they think "10 years? Never seen it anywhere! I got it on these Smacks because it was free! I think they're lying" and move on with their lives. And I know because I showed this to a classmate (Computer Science, btw) and he thought it was a new indie game around.
And there are plenty of other ways to give my tracks to the new drivers. I have a couple of them that aren't impossible. I even have one in a 100k server and it's not a league track, so people notrain it for WORLD RECORDS. It can't be that hard.
And this sounds elitist (which I am), but I don't really want the newer players to play my tracks, because they took 4 years of building crap before they started to look decent. It kind of discourages you to see so many good maps around and you can't do the same. And (I Apologize in advance for this expression) they're ass in this TM.
tl;dr:
- PF STARTS AREN'T GOOD FOR YOU BECAUSE:
- They become boring over time
- Which affects the judging
- Which affects the results
- Plus they end up being lower quality tracks
- And too generic as one
Best regards, the undercover Spanish
.
(if its true)
And I'm sorry for not being able to provide you with this information sooner