[Epic suggestion] Official times

[Domi.97]

When I bought the game, I hated waiting 5 minutes, but now I accustomed waiting, because it makes the solo campaign longer and maybe the fun is more then. What's bad with waiting? If there are 3-4 minutes left you can practise racing the map and when the counter is over you can drive official. The only bad thing is if you make a crash the official time counts.

[RacingTopsy]

Why not just decrease those 5minutes waiting time to 2 minutes?
Would be a compromise. Server would be strained a little more and our nerves a little less.
Please let it happen!

[xanatos.chimera]

Well, if you crash, that's your fault. Just don't mess up your run and you'll save these 5 minutes waiting time.
The official mode is about weighing 'driving savely' up against taking too much risk. It doesn't favour 'nolifers' but skilled players. ...

You wouldn't have to wait that often if you drove more safely. ...

This is just glib, and makes the person saying it sound like a twit. Other reasons one could crash: the game locked up temporarily and then rubber-bands the player (the screen image freezes but the game actually keeps driving, when the image starts moving again the view is "teleported" to a section further down the track). Rubber-banding has absolutely nothing to do with the skill of the player. Or the OS could decide that a pop-up baloon or other application needs to steal focus from the game, or tries to. Besides, Trackmania isn't about driving safely. It's about doing the most epic, badass, nose-to-the guardrail drifts at speeds only matched by production cars like Ferarri, Lambourgini, McLaren or Bougatti. It's about fun. If I want a game that is about balancing risk with completion and realism and such I would be playing Forza, Gran Tourismo 5 or other simracers. Official Mode is for showing off your most badass runs, and comparing them to everyone else's most badass runs.

The Official Mode can function in two ways based off how data is transmitted and when when doing a run. The current system is one attempt, whether one finishes or not, every five minutes. This method makes sense if the computer is streaming the replay and time data directly to the server.

What metoxys is suggesting is the other way the Officialy Mode could be implemented: you can submit one official run every five minutes. How this would work without creating an overload on the servers is if the game records the replay data locally on the machine, and only submits the run if the run is completed, which is what metoxys is suggesting. This way you can have the balancing factor of only being able to submit one Official Mode time every five minutes, but if you crash or stop the run before completion the data isn't sent to the server, and thus no server load-problems. So the posted suggestion would strike a balance. You can only submit one completed Official Mode run every two, five, whatever minutes, but if you restart before completing the race, the data stays on the local machine and isn't submitted unless the run is completed. It's balanced, doesn't cost planets that less avid players would have less of, and it removes some of the frustration of having to wait again and again to try because of a player error or system interferes or a phone call. The latter two of which have nothing to do with player skill or recklessness.

[Weeeeee]

Sure,you can say that you want to remove the timer,and that every run shall count.But then say that,instead of writing 100000 lines making it sound like something else.

[xanatos.chimera]

Sure,you can say that you want to remove the timer,and that every run shall count.But then say that,instead of writing 100000 lines making it sound like something else.

I'm guessing you didn't read the post. I didn't say remove the timer and make every run count. I said have it so that you can submit one completed run every five minutes but if you crash and restart the run, the data isn't transmitted to the server and you don't have to wait for the next Official Attempt. Once you complete an Official run you can't submit another one for a given time period. I wrote the "100000 lines" making it sound like something else, because I meant something else. I meant have the game set up so that it only submits data from completed runs not ones that were aborted and that Nadeo could still have the limit on how many completed runs you can submit per hour.

[Weeeeee]

Aha,my fault then,and that actually sounds like a great solution.Sorry

[Chevron]

Maybe I'm blind but in this suggestion I can't see the spirit of official racing. Don't you think so?

[metoxys]

Maybe I'm blind but in this suggestion I can't see the spirit of official racing. Don't you think so?

All the frustration, rage, debate and quitting because of the 5 minute timer is the spirit of official racing?

[Chevron]

No but I meant there's no difference between training and official in your suggestion.

[metoxys]

No but I meant there's no difference between training and official in your suggestion.

In my opinion the word "training" has nothing to do with TrackMania. TrackMania is about racing, not about training. This is not a simulation racer but an arcade.