Maniaplanet Forum

Demented wrote:Just yesterday I was thinking... "We haven't had any new blocks in a long, long time."

I'd like to see sometime in the future a customizable block with vector points that you can stretch out, bend, rotate, raise, lower, tilt, etc... kind of like in Moto Racer 2 (which I think Hylis may have worked on) or Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. Now, I'm not talking about creating an entire track using vector points, just the ability to create a block up to 4x4x4 that would have clips that line up with standard track blocks. In this way some of these blocks we "Wish for", we could easily create and upload.

Agree with this, check out the editor for The game Distance, that seems pretty nicely done. Rotate blocks any direction stretch bend, snap to end points, create a connection between two points automatically if wanted.

However Modnation Racers had an even better concept where you just drive the car like an aircraft to create the basic track layout, after that you can then go into advanced features and alter any section of the track to create bank turns, bumps, bigger inclines, ect. Would be awesome if Trackmania had a way to enter and exit this kind of mode at any point start/end point without needing to be connected to other parts of track.
The editor also had many limitations which would need to be improved upon to be truely great.

Still love Trackmania and its editor is still great, In a way limited block pieces has its own kind of charm. But be cool if we could modify each piece. For example stopping the quarter pipe before it reaches 90 to create a very steep step-up jump.

Those do have interesting editors, especially Distance. Good example of what I'm talking about. Still like the overall TM concept better though.
If Trackmania had full track vector editing from the start I would probably like it but, because it is a "Block" style editor and has been all along I wouldn't want to see it changed too much. This is why I like the idea of being able to create a custom block(s) up to 4x4x4 using vector editing inside the track editor rather than a full vector point track. And really for me it's kind of like using blockmixing to achieve something you can't quite get from the standard blocks but not so much for a complete track build.
A Perfect example as you said, like making a quarter pipe into say, an 80 degree jump.

Demented wrote:Those do have interesting editors, especially Distance. Good example of what I'm talking about. Still like the overall TM concept better though.
If Trackmania had full track vector editing from the start I would probably like it but, because it is a "Block" style editor and has been all along I wouldn't want to see it changed too much. This is why I like the idea of being able to create a custom block(s) up to 4x4x4 using vector editing inside the track editor rather than a full vector point track. And really for me it's kind of like using blockmixing to achieve something you can't quite get from the standard blocks but not so much for a complete track build.
A Perfect example as you said, like making a quarter pipe into say, an 80 degree jump.

Yes, I think so too. I don't want see a full vector based editor, the blockbased editor is one of TrackManias main things... But the idea of one customizable block (or maybe more than one) is good, i would like to see this!

Yea, I wouldn't want to see it limited to just one custom block per track but rather a bit like Macro blocks where you could create and save a block... And maybe even a bigger limit than 4x4x4, maybe 5x5x5 or 6x6x6.
There could be a few different "Base" blocks textured to the road types like Road, Dirt, Concrete etc. and they would have to have clips that must constrain to existing clips in the environments but maybe you could even choose a start clip and end clip type to create custom transitions.
I'd love to hear if Nadeo would even consider this idea for a future update.
It really would eliminate a lot of "Why didn't they make this block yet?" because you could just make it yourself and save it to your "Customized Blocks" folder or upload and download them as well.

Uh... its not about new blocks but blocks placement. We all know that trackmania uses squares for block placements... I think that if we can get to triangular placement, with some adjustements, this gonna make trackmania much more interesting!

Triangle blocks might be nice but would require a complete rework of the editor system.
Or, do you mean blocks with a clip at 45° so you could make diagonal roads? That would be nice, but would require a lot of extra blocks.
Or, do you mean the ability to rotate current blocks? Which you would still need a 45° block to transition with unless the entire track was built at an angle and well, what would be the point of that?
The biggest problem with 45° clips or blocks is that there is no way to have a 45° connection between two blocks without them taking up two block values at single location. They would have to overlap.
Diagonal roads could be added with the addition of 4 extra blocks per road type like in the Blacktop Blocks in Coast.

OK, I got another idea... Whatabout the system that we "create" our blocks, as in Coast, where we would be place ; road border, middle of road (turbo, cp, multilaps, startline, finishline, etc.). So... and also giving to the blocks a freedom of their "box". So, instead of having a squared surrending box it would be only the block shape as the "box". I think also some blocks could be great for terraforming while using blockmixing. For example. When you want to place a road on the same "clipping block" where you want it (ex : road curve on rocky hill) you can choose to have "air variant" or "ground variant". Same as for water, we could also have the possibility to create water surfaces (deep water, non-deep water) on differents levels and also have blocks such as : waterfall (1x1), waterfall corner (out)(1x1), etc.

So... I think that's it!

And what about the new environment named Lagoon? Is it doing well ? ^_^
People who bought every(or one) environments could buy "lagoon" for 5000 planets ? that could be nice.

This block:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-cMu8 ... sp=sharing

adamkooo2 wrote:This block:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-cMu8 ... sp=sharing

iLikeIt

@ Trylk255: I'm not sure "Lagoon" has been made an official name yet for the next environment, but there is a lot of rumors and speculation about it. I'm also getting excited for a new env.
You might like THIS topic about future environment ideas and suggestions.

@ adamkooo2: Is that the Valley road splits without the jumps and barricades? That could be a useful block.