Looking for a different type of track

[firstdriver]

The HC1maps remind me of that old pc game called Insane lol

I found another track that is almost nearly all offroad.

http://tm.mania-exchange.com/tracks/view/11134/

This track is exactly the type I'm after, Cheers

I've found a few more but no server specialising in them ...... YET!

[eyebo]

This track is exactly the type I'm after, Cheers

Now that I know that, I'll keep my eye out for some more.

[MouldyK]

BTW, people.

I made my first track, nothing like Firstdriver wanted sadly, but I had fun with my 2 hours making it.

Also, sadly, it's 3 minutes long, so I need to REALLY edit it so it is:

1. Easier to drive (The tracks I make I want to be easy to drive and hard to fail at, like falling off or flipping over and some parts of the track are very hard to tackle still).

2. Shorten it so it is 1 min 30 seconds - 2 minutes long (I don't think people will want to play a long track).


My real aim by the end of this is to hopefully make this and 4-9 more tracks and then make a server for my tracks if I am able to do all this XD

And don't worry, I will try my hardest to try making a map like Firstdriver wants at some point as part of my map pack
ETA: End of March, but I hope to at least upload my first map by the end of the weekend and I will make it known to you when I do.

[banjee]

Thats cool to hear, have you also thought of uploading your tracks here: http://tm.mania-exchange.com/ ?

[MouldyK]

Thats cool to hear, have you also thought of uploading your tracks here: http://tm.mania-exchange.com/ ?

When I find them a respectable standard of playing, I will.

Hard to find a balance between the fun I want with my track and the ease, but also to make sure I aint bored with it.

I am my own worst critic.

[banjee]

dont worry i have the same problem. i haven't released a track in at least two months i think

[Demented]

Why is it that people don't like longer tracks?
I've made about 30 tracks. They all have Media Tracker Intro, Podium and End of Race cameras and they are all between three and nine minutes long and most are 2 to 4 laps. I put a lot of work, testing and retesting into my tracks to make sure they flow well and are fun to drive, not frustrating. However I have never posted any of them online because most people seem to like these short 30-60 second runs.

[eyebo]

For online play, generally shorter "30-60sec" maps are more desirable. The reason being... you can do many more runs in the given timelimit and improve your time quicker. It's also nice that if you mess up or crash, you've only lost about 30secs instead of wasting 5mins on a wasted run. Some people just can't drive for 5mins without messing up.

These shorter tracks have always been most popular online in TM, and that probably won't change in the foreseeable future. So many authors build tracks within that timelimit because they wish to see their tracks played online.

Even for offline play, about a 1min to 1min 30secs is about the threshold to which most people want to sit down and hunt a good time on a track.

There are people who enjoy longer tracks though. Let's look at some examples:

- Over 40 people built tracks over 3mins long for the Monthly Track Contest on TMX United in March-April 2010.

- "Size Matters Even More Now!" and "does size still matter?", two Desert tracks by tmjonas (both over 10mins long) received over 20 awards each, the latter receiving over 40. And both of these tracks have been played numerous times online.

- "20:01 a coast odyssey", an amazing Coast track over 15mins long that took 2 years to build, received over 35 awards and some of the top Coast drivers hunted times on it. It was also played on numerous occasions online in time attack mode with the timelimit turned off.

- The "mx Crew on Canyon 1" track has received 58 awards and 25 replays uploaded. The top 4 replays are all within half a second of each other. And this track is just over 3mins long.

- Lastly, the CMC (Coppers Millions Cup) is a competition on endurance tracks held in United. It has seen many editions and dozens and dozens of tracks have been specially built for this contest. It has now come to TM2 in the form of the PMC (Planets Millions Cup). I'm sure they would welcome some track submissions if you enjoy building long tracks.

[MouldyK]

Yeah, nothing wrong with the longer tracks, but it's all about pick-up-and-play alot of the time online. People wanna enter a server and atleast post 1-5 good times i'd say.

Longer tracks are for offline play though, nothing wrong with that.

Update 1: Shortened first part of the track, had to clap when I realised what i did made it more fun.

Update 2: Decided half of the track is not needed.

Update 3: Officially given up on track. Going to use it as a test of features though.

Got a more ambitious project lined up though...

[Demented]

Thanks you guys. That's helpfull info and makes a lot of sense.
I don't play online much. I like it but I usually keep my gaming computer offline.
I tend to make tracks with lap times closer to what most real world tracks might be.

A couple more questions:
On multilap tracks is it lap times or race times that count online?
& - How long should an end of race 'Podium' media track be?