Can't run Official race until winning Gold?

[FifthStreet]

I just reinstalled TM2 after taking a break from it for a while, and now it seems like you have to beat the Gold Medal time before you can record an official time... Can this possibly be true? As I recall it used to have a timer that counted down a couple minutes before you could do official races, and that was just fine. I'm not an expert at this game. On many of the tracks, it's a minor miracle when I win the gold medal and that run will forever be my best race on that rack by far. When I see that gold medal come up, I breath a massive sigh of relief that I finally did it after probably 20-30 tries, and maybe 50+ tries on harder tracks. And now that race DOES NOT EVEN COUNT! That is absolute horse manure.

I'm sure some people here will laugh at me because they can win the gold on every track while drunk and blindfolded, and well excuse me for not being as awesome as all of you. All I want is for my races to count for my official time, and not have to spend an hour or more in "practice" mode because it's hard for me to get the gold.

[matsilagi_tmu]

I think they may have done that to prevent hackers from getting official times.

Thats just an tought, it may not be truth.

[nailbomb69]

That's the way it is no biggy really
hackers still get official times with this system ruining the game for people that do legit times.
as for your times just keep playing you can only get better

[FifthStreet]

I won a Gold and ran into the 5 minute timer now, so it's even worse than I thought. This game is now for elitist players only. Anyone who isn't a God at this game may as well not even install it anymore. Very sad what they have done.

If there's a problem with hackers, they should fix the security problems with the game so that it cannot be hacked. You don't just make it harder for everyone as a "solution" to hacking. If the game is so easily hacked, the hackers can probably just hack there way around this gold medal and 5-minute requirements anyway, and then they have an even bigger advantage, while normal, lower-skilled players like me are the only ones who are penalized. Ridiculous. I was thinking about buying Valley, but not anymore. I'm glad I decided to play Canyon for a bit first before I wasted my money.

[eyebo]

From what I understand...

The 5-minute timer is not primarily a way to stop hackers from setting times.

Rather, it is designed to give players the same thrill as rounds-based online racing. You practice/warmup until you get consistent, and then go for an official time. And you know it's the run that counts, so it adds some tension to the race, which adds fun.

It also eases load on the master servers from having replays uploaded constantly.

In the old TrackMania you could pay a certain amount of in-game currency per official attempt. This meant you had a finite number of attempts, because no one had unlimited amounts of in-game currency. With the 5-minute timer, you have virtually unlimited attempts. Time is the only barrier. You just have to practice a little between attempts of course. But it's good training/preparation for online play, which is ultimately where most players end up.

I strongly believe it's an important feature of the game. I wouldn't like it if they removed it.

[FifthStreet]

From what I understand...

The 5-minute timer is not primarily a way to stop hackers from setting times.

Rather, it is designed to give players the same thrill as rounds-based online racing. You practice/warmup until you get consistent, and then go for an official time. And you know it's the run that counts, so it adds some tension to the race, which adds fun.

Well for those of us who do not have the special gift of perfection this game requires, that tension just adds more crashing. It's already nigh impossible to get a clean run just in practice, and when you add the pressure of time limited official runs, it's nearly impossible.

The bottom line is the game used to be fun and accessible even to people with less skill, and now these rule changes have completely eliminated those people from participating in the game at all. I could see if there was some sort of cash prize or something for having the best times in the game, but there isn't. Ultra competitiveness is not the point, the point is for the game to be fun. And watching a 5:00 timer count down about 30 or 40 times before I can get an official time posted isn't fun at all.

[serujio]

your complains seems to doesnt make sense, because if you can´t even beat gold, your login would never appear on the official times ranking list, because it only shows the 10 best times of the region you live.

also, it is not hard at all to beat gold time, don´t say you are a bad player, they set a pretty fair time for the gold. If you can´t beat it I guess you should not be focusing on this aspect of the game. Or you start practicing to play better, which I´m sure you can do it, or start enjoying other of the many features of the game, playing online, building maps, making videos, running servers, etc, etc.

[Omnixor]

I could see if there was some sort of cash prize or something for having the best times in the game, but there isn't. Ultra competitiveness is not the point, the point is for the game to be fun. And watching a 5:00 timer count down about 30 or 40 times before I can get an official time posted isn't fun at all.

then do something which IS fun for you, why do you bother with official runs? I'm probably a twice better player than you, but just like you I don't like that tension and so, so I just do another things in TM, because there's a lot to do actually.