Greetings!
A very unusual sight: a riolu track in Stadium. After hearing about the announcement of the AirFrance TrackMania Cup and its accompanying map search, my interest has spiked to an extent that it brought me into the map editor.
The theme was to build an airport-themed mixed track between 45-60 seconds. A bunch of creative ideas have been swirling around my head but only that many can fit into a single track while keeping the building cost as low as possible.
After laying out base ideas, I began firing up the mesh modeler to prepare specially made items to fit the airport theme. Using the deprecated Valley City titlepack by Darkpuddle, I reconstructed and retextured certain objects - such as the hangar, entry hall food booths or the tower. These were vital to give the airport theme more life.
The main gimmick of this map is the simulated takeoff at the end of the track. Thanks to additional meshmodeler work to create invisible blocks, I was able to convert my idea into a working end section of my track.
Despite trying to keep the route simple, I struggled to build interesting turn combinations that would be competitive and fair enough in regards to the cup. That's mainly due to my lack of experience in Stadium mapping.
Nevertheless, I am super happy about the result and positively surprised about how well I was able to work out my ideas into the map. It was a very fun experience to have a strict theme to work along on and this map getting accepted for the cup came as a pleasant surprise.
Special shoutouts to Niebo for mental support and some help with the meshmodeler.
GL & HF!
More information regarding the AirFrance TrackMania Cup:
https://airfrance-tmcup.com