Welcome to the ManiaExchange Monthly Track Contest (MTC) for August 2020! This month is once again hosted by Arkive, and if you think he's kidnapped the other hosts you wouldn't be the first!




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





Theme of the Month: Checkpoint Central




Build a course where many CPs must be packed within a small area.




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Theme Specific Rules

• A number of checkpoints must be placed within a single area
  
• The area must be a rectangular prism. The prism may be any size
  
• You must have at least as many CPs in this area as the sum of each side of the prism. Height units are divided by four, and the final required CP count is rounded down. For example, a 2 length by 2 width by 7 height prism (based on cursor coordinates) requires at least 5 CPs. Since height is divided by 4, the 7 height turns into 1.75, which rounds down to 1, and 2+2+1=5
  
• In the case of particularly small areas, at least 3 CPs must be within the defined area
  
• A CP is defined as being in the area if the intended route activates the CP within the area. The CP itself may have bounds that go outside the area or even respawn outside the area
  
• In addition to the required CPs, you may also include as many CPs outside the area as you wish. Keep in mind that having a large number of CPs outside the main CP area could affect your Theme score

Those rules might be a bit confusing, so here's an Example:


This is a 2x2x4 prism. Since 4 height ticks are the same length as 1 grid space, we divide the height by 4 to get a more fair CP requirement. That leaves us with 2 length + 2 width + 1 height, which added together makes for 5 required CPs. Thusly, at least 5 CPs must be placed within this area, but it can contain more.



This is a 3x1x7 prism. Dividing 7 by 4 gives us 1.75. All numbers are rounded down for requirements, so this turns into a 1 again. That gives this area a requirement of 3+1+1 CPs, or at least 5 CPs again. You're free to use smaller or larger areas than these examples.



Last example. This prism has an area of 1x1x3. After adjusting the height, that gives us a CP requirement of 1+1+0, or only 2 CPs! However, the rules state that at least 3 CPs must be within the area at a minimum. Even though this area would calculate a smaller requirement, you'll still need at least 3 CPs for this.

These rules are a bit wordy, so don't forget that you can ask me if you have any questions!

General Rules

• You may submit one track maximum
  
• Duo tracks are allowed, but each map counts as one track for each author involved
  
• MTC should be present in the track name. Example: "little blue box (mtc)" or "[MTC] Checkpoint Bomb" (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
  
• All titlepacks are allowed
  
• Blockmixing is allowed
  
• Envimixing is allowed
  
• Embedded items are allowed
  
• Stadium64 base is allowed
  
• TMUF cars are allowed
  
• Mods are allowed (remember to include locators!)
  
• 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 August 31st at midnight EST. Submissions will continue to be accepted until I officially announce closure in this thread, which will likely occur the following EST morning
  
• Tracks submitted within the deadline will have 24 hours after submissions close to make any last minute edits
  
• Public voting will go from September 1st to September 8th or until the internal judging is finished, whichever occurs later
  
• 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)

How to Submit

• You MUST upload your map to this map-pack and optionally post a link to your map in this 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
  
• Updating your track after the revision deadline has passed will lead to a disqualification. You are free to update your track once the results are published

Judging: Public and Internal
We will use a mixture of 75/25 between internal judging and public voting if there is 1 public voter, 60/40 for 2, and 50/50 for 3+

• 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 track will be judged with marks 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 must play and vote on all tracks for your votes to count
  
• 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 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!

Submissions are officially closed! Once again, it looks like we've only got one submission. If you have any last minute edits, you have 24 hours from this post to make them. I'll have the public voting sheet ready soon.

August 2020 Public Voting Link: https://forms.gle/3yRPZijkrdvZgGrS9

This month there's 1 map again! Download it here.

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:

8.2 - Very clever implementation of the theme!

• 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 mixture of the average public score and the average internal score
  
• The mixture will be 75/25 between internal judging and public voting if there is 1 public voter, 60/40 for 2, and 50/50 for 3+
  
• You must be able to play 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 public voting will soft close on September 8th, 2020 at midnight EST. After that, you may still vote until the internal judges complete their voting.

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pjw takes home the gold!

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• This is an interesting one. Overall I found it a nice challenge. - Eyebo
  
• Each corner is distinct, and the course stays short and too the point. - Arkive
  
• I really like the "gymkhana" mood and the "desaffected factory" scenery. The map is also nice to hunt so good job! - Akiliyh

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Congratulations to our winner!

They get a news showcase of their choice for placing in the top 3.

Here's the link to the full results sheet.

Thanks to our participant this month for joining in the contest! In case you missed the news, there is not a TM2 MTC for September. We'll host another one in October, and then figure out how frequently we'll be hosting further TM2 MTCs. Hey, if you're craving more MTC action, the TM2020 MTCs are in full swing! There's still time to build for their TM2020 September MTC which is all about very short maps! But, once you're done with that, maybe come back here for October?

Thanks for the feedback and scoring folks--it's greatly appreciated. Hopefully there will be more MTC participation in October, once the initial TM2020 dust has settled a bit...