A whole bunch of random questions

[v4nkw15h]

I'll start by saying that I'm new to the Trackmania scene. I've had this game for around three weeks and only very briefly tried the original game so I have a few questions about a number of different things. I'll ask them in the order they come to me.

1. Manialinks: I understand and like the idea that we can type the name of a manialink to connect to that page in-game but am I missing something? Where the heck do we find the names of mania-links to look at? It would seem fairly obvious to me that there should be a page listing them all with most popular, most viewed recently etc but I can't find anything like that. Is there such a page in game, or even a fansite that does that job?

2. Buddy system. So I started chatting to someone in a game online and they asked to be a buddy. I said yes. But all I can do when I click on the buddy tab is see their name and the option to send a message. I can't see what server they are playing on or connect to it, I see nothing about their ranking in solo or multiplayer. Is this feature woefully underdeveloped or am I missing something?

3. I'm fairly sure this isn't possible but can we not save a track that we are playing online? I already know that the track appears in the cache file, and we can move that to the maps downloaded folder and it works, so why can't we simply choose to click a button while playing a track in game to automatically do this and give us a copy of the track.

4. Similar to question 3 - We can choose to race against replays of the best times of other players in solo mode. Can we not save their replay along with our own so we can compare them to see where they are making up time? Is there a way to save their replay at all? Seems weird that we can't. Again I'm sure it will be in the cache folder if I could be bothered to guess which file it is.

5. With respect to the last two questions? Does there exist a mod to decipher the cache folder to allow us to solve the problems in questions 3 and 4?

6. Is there any way to record a replay of someone else during multiplayer?

7. Could someone give me tips on controlling spectator mode during multiplayer. I will admit I've not looked into this much but I can't seem to find the buttons to cycle through players or control anything in spectator mode. I seem to remember buttons 5,6,7 or F5,F6,F7 from when I read the manual but those always seem to cycle back and forth between two random players.

I know I have other questions but I'll add them later when I think of them and have more time.

Thanks for any replies, advice, help.

[Weeeeee]

(The ones I dont answer,is simply because I dont know.)

2.The buddy system is very buggy,normally you should always see what server they are on,but very often you dont.I guess this will be fixed in a patch.And yes,I agree they should do something more with it,like a live-chat e.x

3.esc->advanced options->Save Map

4.This is also a fault by nadeo I guess,that could be fixed in a patch.

6.Not by one special person,but you can go esc->advanced options->save replay(not save previous replay,that only saves your own),and you get ghosts of everybody playing that game(e.x,all rounds on one track in rounds mode,and all the playtime on the track you are playing in TA.)

7.Tab->right click on the player you want to spectate,this is often very buggy,so I guess it will be fixed in a patch soon.

[v4nkw15h]

Hey thanks for a quick reply Weeeeee.

I'm actually surprised that I hadn't found the replay saving and maps saving options. I usually dig around everywhere before I resort to asking questions but I guess I'd missed that advanced menu in my travels.

It's good news though. I was expecting the answer to be no to most of my queries.

I'm very happy to find the map saving option. There are a couple of maps I've hunted online for without luck which I seem to find myself playing more than most. It's good to know that I can save it next time I play it.

I'm also very happy to be able to save off replays of online games. As I am sure is the case with most people, there are a handful of maps where I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how I'm being beaten by such a margin.

Thanks again. You answered my main problems.

[Weeeeee]

And if you want to save replays of a match,and be sure that you dont forget it,go to profile->advanced->Save automatically all replays,good for matches and such.I would not recommend to have it enabled always,as it should take alot of place.

[v4nkw15h]

Yeah, thanks. I'd noticed that option but assumed that it would only save personal replays because when I'd tried saving replays in solo mode it only recorded my own, and not the world record time I was racing against.

That'll teach me to make assumptions.

Now hopefully someone can enlighten me on manialinks. It appears to be such a big feature that is close to useless if I have no way to find the manialinks in the first place. It needs a storefront like in Forza for searching for car designs, tracks etc. I'm truly baffled that something like that doesn't exist. Why go to all the trouble of implementing manialinks if nobody can find what exists unless they stumble across a random manialink on a forum. Surely I'm missing something obvious here?

[Weeeeee]

I just searched for it myself,and found it . ->House in the bar in the top of the screen->Bookmarks->Find new bookmarks

[v4nkw15h]

Oh, that simple? All I remembered was - Bookmarks - You have no bookmarks - with no obvious way to find new bookmarks. I'll take a look now.

Edit: Doh! Okay, I missed that option too, but then I was looking for manialinks not bookmarks. That's not very intuitive or obvious is it? A list of names isn't what I was expecting either but it's better than nothing for now I suppose.

Thanks again Weeeeee for your time and replies.

[Trackmaniack]

Hey OP, Welcome to TM! It seems that Mr (Ms? ) Weeeeee here has answered most of your questions, but I am going to add a little bit to the one about Manialinks. You're right in stating that there is no "Google for Manialinks", at least yet. Maybe that's something the community should work on. But, before I digress, what you'll want to check are the community sites--things like Maniapark, and of course the sites advertised in their banner, and Mania Creative (mania-creative.com) and the sites advertised in -their- banner. A lot of times, in said sites, below the site links, they'll also have manialinks for you to explore...

[zootie]

I see nothing about their ranking in solo or multiplayer. Is this feature woefully underdeveloped or am I missing something?

You can view all your buddies accomplishments by visiting your player page. http://player.maniaplanet.com/

[EnaiSiaion]

You're right in stating that there is no "Google for Manialinks", at least yet. Maybe that's something the community should work on.

That's something Nadeo should work on. Nobody uses manialinks because nobody knows how it works so it's a useless feature.