Tracks - Making your own tracks with the editor

[Mike Nike]

I think, with the raising TS 1.00 community, i have to post my experience about some track making issues here...

Next to i still want, that the forum gets special subforums, i listed...i also mailed the Creator about an extra page just for tracks and track making stuff...

But what i want to say here, has high importance for me:

@ All the people, who makes their own tracks:
Before you publish your tracks:
Have a schooled eye on your checklines in your track(s)
Bad placed checklines or missing checklines can ruin a track...
Driven lap records are thrown away easily, if you find out a shortcut, which saves you 1 second....

If you have checked the checklines, if you want, you can send your tracks to me and i go and check them, if i have time enough...

Here an example of an already (or almost) published track by hengari, where i showed him his mistakes...
The blue line is the/a possible shortcut lap.
The most of the red lines should be a checkline instead. The yellow lines can be optional checklines...and show the way, to get more easy sure, there won't be a shortcut.



And here an example of a complete track-test list (tracks by Punatiainen and SharKK):

http://mikenike.csas.info/Error_Tracks/ ... iainen.txt

Fortunately i was quick enough to tell SharKK the errors, before they get higher published...

A few lines of the list you see here as example:

! tracks\Punatiainen\pu_deserton 1* 7.2 (after chl.6 there is missing 1 chl.-> speedercut of 2 seconds)
8.2 (after chl. 7 you can cut a 90°corner over "grass")
1.2 (after chl. 8 you can drive over "grass" straight to startline)[/url]

[Hengari]

Thanks for Mike for testing my tracks. I already fixed my tracks. You just have to think like a shortcutter when placing checkpoints. On Mikes screenshot there is 1 shortcut, which got unnoticed but for those two others you need a wicked mind

You can find my tracks at http://www.sliderpoint.tk/

[ShraKK]

Next to i still want, that the forum gets special subforums, i listed...i also mailed the Creator about an extra page just for tracks and track making stuff...

That's a good idea!

And as MikeNike showed me: there couldnt be too much checkpoints
btw my first 3 maps for 1.0 are online

[Hengari]

I made a simple track design -guide. It can be found on my page: http://www.sliderpoint.tk/

There are some design principles and some practical tips for track designing.

[Flexman]

I made a simple track design -guide. It can be found on my page: http://www.sliderpoint.tk/

There are some design principles and some practical tips for track designing.

In general this guide is not bad, but I think it contains many things you prefer. While I don't mind if you can lean on the edge on some tracks (and the track creator might have done this on purpose) I'd suggest not to use that new walls too often. You really can get mad with these, because you can get stucked too easily. And don't make too big tracks as smaller tracks often are more fun and don't get boring.

About the line misalignement and the gaps in the Tracks: I think this is a bug of Turbosliders that should be fixed. Even the Standard-Tracks contain gaps! Just look at the PNG preview images. Some tiles also don't fit together in certain solutions. You might fix that in most cases if you play around but I often had tiles where I had no idea how to make them fit together in all resolutions.

[Hengari]

I made a simple track design -guide. It can be found on my page: http://www.sliderpoint.tk/

There are some design principles and some practical tips for track designing.

And don't make too big tracks as smaller tracks often are more fun and don't get boring.

The guide is pointing my opinions about good tracks. Maybe I should make it show more clearly in that guide. Ofcourse the guide is not the absolute truth and I change it as new ideas arise.

Both big tracks and smaller tracks are fun and have their purpose. Although with smaller tracks it is pain to drive with a lot of drivers, it get's nuts. All are just pushing each others.

Big tracks (about 30-40s per lap) are good for cup driving. I like puna's pro cup tracks, they are just long enough to get the positions right.

About the line misalignement and the gaps in the Tracks: I think this is a bug of Turbosliders that should be fixed.

The tile alignment is a feature of that editor and not a good one. Almost every cases you can get the tiles aligning with turning them and trying other similar tiles. But it is quite impossible to make all tiles not to be misaligned. With other tiles you can fix those problems and with testing you get the biggest gaps solved.

Track making is easy but you need to spend some time with it if you want your track to look good and, as you would say "too perfect".

[Flexman]

Both big tracks and smaller tracks are fun and have their purpose. Although with smaller tracks it is pain to drive with a lot of drivers, it get's nuts. All are just pushing each others.

This might be true if you are going for serious competitions, but if you don't want any collissions that is what the ghost server is for. And...

Big tracks (about 30-40s per lap) are good for cup driving. I like puna's pro cup tracks, they are just long enough to get the positions right.

I don't agree. The 0.86 cups started to be more boring where there were all of Punas big Formula 1 tracks.

They really were like Formula 1 - only few overtake-mannoevres and after 2 laps the field is nearly identical with the end positions.

If I race with friends the game is much more fun if you can have more overtakes on a track. Sure there are some who want to make it serios, go for records, want it like in the Formula 1. But the game lives from the fun an that's why it is more fun for many players if you can have more fights on the road than on Nascar, F1GP and all kind of simulations where you only see all the other players at the start.

So I disagree that big tracks are good for cup driving. It also makes the cups lasting too long and by the way they didn't work fine on my older computer.

But Sliderpark is a nice track he did!

[Rupert]

Tracks should be made so that if you drive anti or speeder you can win. Small tracks are mostly best whit anti and long whit speeder. Long tracks are allso boring to drive mostly. If you drop last you can most of the cases stop driving cause there is no change to catch others. But i think we should get 2-3 servers (trying to get one) whit diferent kind of races cause some like clean race and some want action on track Like i do

[Punatiainen]

Flexman wrote:

The 0.86 cups started to be more boring where there were all of Punas big Formula 1 tracks.

Well, I dont have time to come here everyday to defend my old tracks against your opinions. Many players liked my tracks and many players will like my new tracks as well. But some didnt, what can i do. Some players like serious racing, some like different kind of racing. Your point is allready very clear, you like funny tracks, so you can just cut the criticism. Make those funny tracks then, and dont complain all the time.

What comes to track length, i think that is indeed important issue. It is true, that too long tracks gets your nerves, especially if they are bad ones. My opinion about the track's optimal length is 24-25 seconds. Some of my new tracks are about 30 secs, which is the maximum indeed. So it is the laptime, not the tracksize, that counts.
Or in fact, both
(25 seconds in 200x200 area isnt that nice, is it)

Of course, with editor it is very difficult to say, how long your track is going to be in seconds. You need to just add few checkpoints and test and then build some more road or decrease it.

The previous thing, like everything else in trackmaking, needs lots of time. And i believe that time, will show on the track. If a track is made in 5 minutes, it will very likely going to be very bad track. But tracks, which have been made with time and patience, there is always something good and positive in them, even in those funny ones

[Flexman]

Flexman wrote:

The 0.86 cups started to be more boring where there were all of Punas big Formula 1 tracks.

Well, I dont have time to come here everyday to defend my old tracks against your opinions. Many players liked my tracks and many players will like my new tracks as well. But some didnt, what can i do.

Sorry I didn't want to say that all your tracks are bad, they even weren't (except that thing with the check points). But it suddenly happened that the server was full with long tracks and that was a little bit boring for me, so I think it is important both to have enough short and long tracks on the server.

But the best would be like Rupert said:

But i think we should get 2-3 servers (trying to get one) whit diferent kind of races cause some like clean race and some want action on track.

The only problem is that there aren't enough players to get one server full now, if there were enough players for all possibilities we wouldn't have to discuss what we prefere here, we just would join a server which has the settings we need then...

But what am I writing... I guess everyone wants to have full servers.

[Creator]

The only problem is that there aren't enough players to get one server full now, if there were enough players for all possibilities we wouldn't have to discuss what we prefere here, we just would join a server which has the settings we need then...

But what am I writing... I guess everyone wants to have full servers.

Patience... remember that 0.86b was available for more than half a year before the 1.0 release and the 1.0 has only been out there for a little over one month. And now that the game has changed from all-free to a licensed game... it just takes some time

[Flexman]

Patience... remember that 0.86b was available for more than half a year before the 1.0 release and the 1.0 has only been out there for a little over one month. And now that the game has changed from all-free to a licensed game... it just takes some time

0.86 had a very quick start. Sure if it is free, but I doubt that the shareware restriction of only racing three tracks helps much. Don't forget that also existing players might vanish if the servers always are empty.

I wonder what the game Soldat would be if unregistered players only could play 1 map. Though I don't know if they sell much as there are hardly restrictions in the shareware version. But maybe you'd think about making another limit for the shareware version if the situation will remain the same.

But let's hope the best!

[Punatiainen]

Going a bit off-topic, but:
flexman wrote:

maybe you'd think about making another limit for the shareware version

I must say, i agree. Maybe five tracks could be just fine. Then it would be more like 'cup', not just three races. At least, that would increase the excitement in demoservers.
If you compare 3 tracks to the 20 other default tracks, maybe the amount is ok, but we know that there are and will be hundreds of tracks available, then the 3 tracks is just too few.

Also, if you would add one of the tracks, that is made by ts-fan, then the players in demoservers more easily would realize, that when they register, they'll get access to other tracks too, made by fans. And of course, i would be happy to contribute one of my tracks to this purpose
The extra tracks should be very carefully considered though.

This is just a thought, but it sure sounds like the right thing to do.

[Flexman]

I must say, i agree. Maybe five tracks could be just fine. Then it would be more like 'cup', not just three races. At least, that would increase the excitement in demoservers.

This might be an idea, so the demo players will get the idea of the cup better.

But you still have to remember one thing: There is no point in registering the game if the only action takes place in the demo servers.

Many players like the online gaming most and registering doesn't make anything better for them if 90% of the cups take place in the demo server while others are empty. The best solution would be one where "demo players" also can fill up the existing servers somehow.

Maybe that works if you limit the time, cups or races per day. Then demo players could join other servers. If a player can play 20 races (or 1 hour or whatever) per day he might join a regular server and get the fun of the game better. Also you can shut down the demo servers meaning that all players meet in a normal server where they usually stay longer.

Another thing might be a solution like in Soldat (which I now stated very often ) where you can play normal in every server but get additional features after registering like more colors, recording races etc. Don't know if that helps to get many registrations but I think most important is to get the people into the normal servers to get more people starting playing this game.

And of course, i would be happy to contribute one of my tracks to this purpose
The extra tracks should be very carefully considered though.

I'd vote for Sliderpark then.

This is just a thought, but it sure sounds like the right thing to do.

I also think that something must be done, but of course it is difficult to estimate beforehand which solution will be the best...

[Kobradog]

But you still have to remember one thing: There is no point in registering the game if the only action takes place in the demo servers.

At least on demo servers all of the three tracks are good. The same cannot be said about PTX servers anymore.

Many players like the online gaming most and registering doesn't make anything better for them if 90% of the cups take place in the demo server while others are empty. The best solution would be one where "demo players" also can fill up the existing servers somehow.

And the best way to fill those full game servers is to include the worst & idiotic ones of 0.86b tracks? Sure, that works just fine.

[madcowie]

I think Flexman might be on to something here. If you could put a time limit or a race limit on the demo version they might think about buying the full game.

The other thing I suggested was limiting the numbers of players on a demo server. So for example this week its set at 16. Next week it would be set at 15 and so on down to 4 I think. I think if it had been set at 4 in the first place it would of done the trick. And then you could have all those cheesy comments like "16 Players is so much fun in TS" and for once it would be true. Normally crap like that isn't.

By the way guys I ran a 55 track cup tonight which took about 2 hours. And I didn't use any of the original tracks or the 0.86 conversions. I sorted all my tracks out and downloaded a boat load the night before. I can honestly say probably 50 of them were perfect for racing. Which is more than I can say about the playtrix tracks. Some of those are just pure terrible!!!

MC

[Creator]

The other thing I suggested was limiting the numbers of players on a demo server. So for example this week its set at 16. Next week it would be set at 15 and so on down to 4 I think. I think if it had been set at 4 in the first place it would of done the trick. And then you could have all those cheesy comments like "16 Players is so much fun in TS" and for once it would be true. Normally crap like that isn't.

We can't do a timed campaign like that, because every day we get new people trying out the game...

Thanks for the ideas though, we're aware of the problem and will do something about it in the future. Nothing is going to change in the near term, but fortunately the game keeps selling and the number of full version owners keeps increasing steadily.

[madcowie]

I can say that around 10pm to 2am is a good time in the UK to find some racers. Most nights the same people are now meeting up. We are a friendly bunch and all are welcome if friendly

I am trying to get in contact with someone from BH motorsports but as yet have had no reply. I will try the private forum at USpits to find a contact. If I get them to advertise the game do you want the download.com advertising? If not what do you want me to put?

BH Motorsports has a massive following and its important. Alot of USA hits go there.

Stu

[Mike Nike]

Edward (Guest) made a track (http://www.jollygoodgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30), where he made a typical TS 1.00 editor "mistake", or he did it extra.

I tested his track and it isn't possible to drive under the bridge at the left side, like it is the case in few tracks in TS 1.00 already. When this is made extra, as fun, like invisible other objects in funtracks, then it is okay, but it should be somehow mentioned, please!

Another thing is:
there is a "fast-car" shortcut in his track. If you jump for example with speeder over the jump, you can cut 1 turn and save time.
If this is made extra, it is okay
But to warn authors, which want, that cars drive the way, the author want to: please do enough checklines in your track. Place them in that way, you wish, that the car is driving along, even you sometimes think, isn't that a checkline too much?

In that track for example, people who are fighting for records against each others, it would be easy for drivers like powerhead, me and Tijny to find out the shortcut and being 0.5 seconds faster than the rest of the drivers. Hopefully authors will take this as good meant tipp for building their tracks.

[Flexman]

I can say that around 10pm to 2am is a good time in the UK to find some racers.

Guess it was...

Or maybe it is now again. The only "normal" Server is up again (Standard Cars, no random). Seems that this constellation gets most players now as everything else is empty. There are some guys in the random server and there were even more players in the non-random server so let's hope they will return now.

[JUHA]

hey. I'm trying to build a bridge to my ''Finnaroring'' track. yes, i've found that bridge tile, and tried to make a bridge with it.. but it didn't work. i couldn't drive under it i know, i did something wrong.. there's something i dont know yet. please help me guys!

[JUHA]

hey guys. This is my second Turbo Sliders track.. it's called ''Finnaroring''



i have no download links.. i don't know where/how to host it..
well, at least you can come to my server sometimes when i'm hosting it and then we can test it.

JUHA

[Sativa]

tracks by Me!



nS


Elevation


MobyDick

http://paginas.terra.com.br/lazer/shock ... Tracks.zip

"Click with right button in link later in Save As.."



ClimaCool

http://paginas.terra.com.br/lazer/shock ... macool.zip

Bye see ya!

[JimMiE22o2]

JUHA, how did you put in a picture if you don't have a url???

[Hengari]

JUHA, how did you put in a picture if you don't have a url???

There are plenty of web-systems that let's you upload images and then link them to web-pages like that http://www.photobucket.com/. There are also web-systems for datahosting and for different kinds of things. http://www.google.com is your friend.