I tend to agree with Voyager. I've always left the default values because it gives you an idea of how horrible you drove a track  People have always complained about my Author Times being too hard so I generally try to leave some room unless it was meant to be a Pro Track where I only anticipated a few people would drive the track for a record and would want my best effort for the Author Medal. I had a situation once where people were unable to get the gold even with the default values.
For each style of track I've become accustomed to receiving particular results. For Tech Tracks, a good effort usually results in being within 3sec of the top drivers and I've come to accept this and am satisfied. Of course if I "train" a track I can usually get within 1sec. Fullspeed tracks I expect to be competing for a top ten time.
I can understand your position and generally agree that the times are a bit loose, but we have to keep in mind the style of track when tweaking the medals. I actually get annoyed when the Author sets them too high especially when it's clear that they are a Pro driver already. And it's also annoying when someone puts no effort into the Author Time and you get all four medals on your first run but then I always figure it's some young kid who simply lacks the skill to drive good times. You have to keep in mind that you tend to get quite skilled in whatever environment you build in and if you want broader appeal that you need to not drop ridiculous times for your Author Medals. If you only want to appeal to skilled drivers in a particular environment then adjust accordingly.
In conclusion, I say for a:
-ball breaker track where you know you are driving nearly flawless leave at least 0.25-0.50sec room for improvement
-a track meant for everyone to enjoy 1sec room off your best efforts
-a track meant for less skilled players 3-4sec room off your good efforts
Tighten up the Medals a little I suppose just don't get carried away 
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Thrawn«¦ says:
It's much more fun to drive a map which has been created "with love" 
Of course there are other indicators like scenery or even writing a short author comment here on the site 
So yeah, it's a way of showing that you build these maps for other users, have them enjoy them and hunt your times (basically what MX is all about).
I agree so much with this idea =)
Scenery, custom screenshot (even if is just a simple one) and some author comments, are things that I always thought make tracks more than just not another "disposable" one that looks randomly uploaded to mx.
Unfortunately a lot of authors don't share this view. You end up finding a lot of hidden gem tracks that have no screenshot and no Author comments.
Some examples of Valley builders with almost no screenshots and Author Comments but with some really creative Valley maps:
Brago
62316e
But i guess there are many reasons for that,
for some people their English might not be that good,
or they may not know how to create a screenshot (or they may not have fun doing it), (like I don't know how to create good MT and have no fun doing it =)
or for them its simply about creating the track and uploading it and that's it =)
which in a way is ofc a totally googd way of enjoying the game! =)
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An interesting topic to be honest
... says:
Have you ever driven a track and been disappointed that the medal times were set too easy?
Or maybe they were too hard?
Or maybe they were just unfair? =)
Yes I had that happen to me more than once
Your approach of setting your own AT is very close to my own (Driving your own track for a longer time to get to know it and get a good run). This is of course easier for you as the author as opposed to some one who downloads the map because you build the track from scratch and probably drove it multiple times during testing.
Now the second step is new to me. I never paid that much attention to the other medals, I only correct some of the times, because the standard values TrackMania suggests to you are really bad (Noone drives like that ).
Do I value a good AT? Yes, of course I do. I am here on MX to have fun first and foremost and share my tracks with other users. But while doing that I like to appreciate the work of others and in my eyes the author time is an indicator how much time someone is actually willing to invest in his/her creation. It's much more fun to drive a map which has been created "with love"
Of course there are other indicators like scenery or even writing a short author comment here on the site
So yeah, it's a way of showing that you build these maps for other users, have them enjoy them and hunt your times (basically what MX is all about).
That's my take on the matter
Cheers
Thrawn
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Interesting to read your take Voyager =)
thanks for posting!
I hadn't thought about that, that people expect to get the medals on the first run because that's the default.
Good point also that different map types have different audiences, I agree with you that it should be taken into consideration.
About posts around other similar themes, I'm not that much of an expert on the ones you mentioned (GPS, Outros, Screens) so maybe I leave that up to others to write if they want =)
The only other thing I plan to write about is track design (route types, scenery etc) I'm very interested in track design as level design, pacing, flow, variety, what types of features make a track fun for offline hunting, online rounds, TA etc...
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Cool blog idea  I'd like to read (and express) opinions about other stuff such as GPSes, Outros, screens etc.
What I do is to calculate what the default medal times are actually supposed to be, as the game always round them up:
 : AT * 1.06
 : AT * 1.2
 : AT * 1.5
Why the default values? Because they're predictable and most often used. When I drive locally, I would get disappointed if I finish a 1 minute map, 5 seconds slower than the AT and not get a single medal. It would've totally been a silver medal by default!
The difficult thing is to guess how optimal the AT should be. You wouldn't want the AT to be the world record of the map for an extended period of time. It also depends on difficulty and target audience. League maps can be very different from online maps, and so can the times be. As for the latter, my thought is that the driver need to know all parts of the map (where to drift and not) and tricks necessary to make the run flow well - in order to get the AT.
In general, being a rather decent racer, I think letting off 1 second of my PB per minute of track is good, but then again I build rather difficult maps.
Though I'd make some exceptions with fullspeed, trial, RPG and the likes...
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Bronze: A non clean run where you can touch walls/barriers a few times but still make a respectable drive without flipping the car.
Silver: A clean run where you don't touch any barriers but where you drive a not very perfect line (loosing time sliding or releasing the throttle or picking a bad line).
Gold: A clean run where you drove a good racing line, losing very little time by sliding or releasing throttle, you should be proud of your replay if you achieve this.
Author Time: A clean run where you have spent a lot of time optimizing your driving line and taking maximum risk to get close to the apex on even the hard sections.
) A nice clean run will usually not be sufficient to beat AT, you will have to focus on the little details of the track to gain time on each spot.
I'd like to read (and express) opinions about other stuff such as GPSes, Outros, screens etc.