Welcome to the ManiaExchange Monthly Track Contest (MTC) for December 2018! Due to a mix up of who's naughty and who's nice, you're unfortunately stuck with Arkive hosting!

In the MTC your task is to build a track on a given theme. Later, all the entered tracks are rated and a winner is found.

Theme of the Month: A Surprise Gift
Nadeo's given us the old TMUF vehicles to mess around with. Show us what you can do with them!


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Theme Specific Rules

• Your map must use a TMUF vehicle archetype
  
• Check this post to find a helpful set of map templates

General Rules

• At most, you may submit ONE track
  
• Duo tracks are allowed, but each map counts as one track for each author involved
  
• Your author time must be between 30 seconds and 2 minutes
  
• MTC should be present in the track name. Example: "MTC - Nando's Gift" or "old friend (mtc)" (check that any special characters do not break in the TM or MX track name)
  
• The track should be built in the most recent version of the game
  
• All environments are allowed
  
• Blockmixing is allowed
  
• Embedded items are allowed
  
• Mods are allowed (remember to include locators!)
  
• Custom titlepacks allowed this month include: TM2, TMAll, and MrSloppi's
  
• Custom titlepacks not explicitly mentioned are NOT allowed
  
• Press Forward, Left, Right, or similar tracks are NOT allowed
  
• Courses requiring OpenPlanet are NOT allowed

If you have any questions or would like to contest a rule, feel free to ask!


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Deadlines

• Your track should be uploaded before the end of Sunday, December 23rd at midnight EST. Submissions will continue to be accepted until the thread closes, which will occur the following morning
  
• Public voting will go from December 24th to January 6th
  
• Results are calculated and posted soon after public voting closes



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Prizes
Honour and the right to brag! (Jozii used to say that. I wasn't around then, but maybe some of you still remember him? )
The top 3 winners will receive a showcase of a track of their choice (< 10 awards)
Automatic admission onto Santa's 2019 Nice List

How to Submit

• To submit a track, upload it to MX and post a link to your submission here:
  MTC December 2018: Submissions Thread
  
• You can update your track within the deadline as many times as you want
  
• Submitted courses may be updated within 24 hours of submissions closing, in case of any necessary last minute changes; new courses may NOT be submitted in this time frame

Judging: Public and internal
We will use a 50/50 mixture of the public voting system and the internal judging

• Everyone is allowed to judge, even players who submitted a track, but the vote for your own track will not count (give your own map whatever you want!)
  
• You must play and vote on all tracks for your votes to count
  
• Every track will be judged with marks from 0 (bad) to 10 (good)
  
• The internal judging will note some detailed feedback with points based on categories (Theme [20p], Creativity [10p], Fun [10p], Detail [10p])

Good luck, and if you have any questions, please ask!

Since we're doing nostalgia this month, how about allowing use of the TM1 Speed pack, since it not only provides an easy way of getting the original desert car model/physics into your map (since it uses that TM1 archetype on newly-created maps), but also provides an easy way of getting the original TM1 environment blocks?

(My understanding is that if we use those new TMUF archetypes, there's currently no way of getting the "correct" car models/sounds to show up other than a) forcing players to download extra content (models/skins/.wavs) and setting a map to explicitly use that content, or b) creating an entirely new game mode hosted on a dedicated server for one map.

It just grates on my OCD tendencies to, for instance, use the "coast car" in a map but have it look like the rally car. : p)

I understand where you're coming from, and deciding whether or not to allow the TMOne Speed titlepack was something I had a hard time choosing. One facet that I personally wanted from this was to use the old cars in new ways. TMOne Speed is mostly a recreation of TMUF's environment; as such, I feel like allowing that titlepack would invite people to just make normal Speed maps rather than experiment with the Speed (or other TMUF) car on a TM2 environment.

That said, I'm not against changing this ruling if you can get support for it. I could make a poll to gauge interest, if you'd like.

Actually...the more I think about it, I think you have a good point.

Never mind.

This is gonna be quite difficult as i don't know how to make a map like that in a singular enviroment titlepack. Even after downloading that pack and testing it, it just reverts to CanyonCar.

Unfortunately, you have to use a multi-environment pack to use the archetypes; single-environment packs aren't compatible. I'd guess that it's probably restricted that way because it's sort of like normal envi-mixing, but I don't really know for certain.

Looks like i'm gonna miss out on that then. Need at least the rest of the 4 enviroments left.

Submissions are now closed! All entrants have 24 hours from now for any last minute updates to their maps. I'll try to have the public voting sheet ready in the next couple of days. Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

December 2018 Public Voting Link: https://goo.gl/forms/aXqkmkbgEIqrZMP33

There are 5 MTC entries.

In the voting sheet, give your score before your feedback (0 to 10, decimals are allowed). If you have comments, leave them right after your score. For example:

7.8 - Too much water!

Everyone is allowed to judge, even players who submitted a map (your score on your own map will be removed, so give it whatever you want!)

Every map will be judged with a decimal number from 0 (bad) to 10 (good). All votes greater than/equal to 7 or less than/equal to 4 require constructive feedback on why you gave it that score

Note that you have to judge a stage entirely! You cannot judge only half of it. If you are not able to finish the map, your vote can still count! Please only leave that as a very last resort, and still judge the entire map fairly

You need to verify your vote by making a post here (for example: "Voted ")

One best and one worst vote for each map will be ignored if more than 10 people vote

The overall score will be a 50/50 mixture of the average public score and the average internal score

You must have access to and vote on all maps for your votes to count

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A panel of judges will also judge the maps.
This internal voting will follow the format of:
Theme (20p) | Creativity (10p) | Fun (10p) | Detail (10p)

All voting will close when internal voting finishes or on January 6, 2018 at midnight EST, whichever is later.

Results? Yeah, man, we've got 'em!

  riolu! and   Lars will be sharing gold!

Brutally techy, but surprisingly forgiving. - PangoLynne

Great choice of car and very nice job tailoring the track to it. - Rexine

This track is too technical for my pathetically casual skills to handle! - Arkive

  Marius 89 coasts into second!

MTC - Paradise Garden by   Marius 89

I like the progression of risks you took in the route though, and they work well. - Rexine

You wanted a technical course, you certainly got a technical course. - Arkive

Good variety in surfaces ... overall not a bad drive. - PangoLynne

  Askej gets two halves of a bronze medal!

Mtc - Half by   Askej

The forest roads almost seem built for the CoastCar, and this map uses them expertly. - Arkive

Nice cruisey map, well suited to the car. - PangoLynne

...it's a very polished track in the route and the look. - Rexine

Fan Fact: Not only were 3 out of the 5 maps CoastCar maps, but all 5 maps used Sunrise vehicles!

Riolu, Lars, Marius, and Askej receive one front page track showcase of their choice (having less than 10 awards).


Find the full results and feedback here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uFee8tfoGmuMddeguU6esOhk4kO-q-766HoAGJ6LGE8/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks to all participants this month for joining in the contest, and thanks to the judges for helping rate the maps.

Thanks for tuning in! Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll let the more capable Rexine handle the January 2019 MTC. It should prove interesting; it's all about bringing new ideas to the table. Hopefully we'll see you there!