Some challenges i don't understand the nadeo time. I keep improving my time little by little every time, but i'm nowhere close i to nadeo's times i think XD. GG nadeo haha

Maybe the Nadeo tracks AT were set by different drivers. I drove one earlier and it took about 2 hours to get the AT. Then I drove the next one and on my second run got the AT.

It is my understanding that Hylis drove all of the author times personally.

voodoo says:
Maybe the Nadeo tracks AT were set by different drivers. I drove one earlier and it took about 2 hours to get the AT. Then I drove the next one and on my second run got the AT.

You're totally right. ^^ Sometimes I got the AT, I don't even know why, and sometimes the best of my province can't even beat it (How can I be sure? I'm the best of my province in many maps x) )

The A and B campaigns are quite alright. Straigt forward, mostly GP-block tracks. These 2 actually gave me hope Nadeo doesn't only have terrible trackmakers. After that, the C campaign. Meh, it's not that good. But hey, nothing to complain about. Yet. Because then comes D. Oh my god. Not going to spoil anything for those that haven't tried it yet, but IT SUCKS. Oops, spoiled it. I really like narrow roads in TM². If used properly, that is. The D campaign features pretty much nothing but narrow roads, and they are NOT used properly. To make things even worse, the offroad handling plays a big role here (both when driving off of the roads and plain offroad parts) and well, that is just awful. I do not understand how they could have made the offroad handling this bad. I'm dreading the E campaign, since that will probably contain terrible tracks, just really really long.

So all in all, no, I do not like the campaign.

Bucky says:
It is my understanding that Hylis drove all of the author times personally.

When you are the boss, you can call that work and who is going to argue?

Well I hadn't got to D campaign yet but just tried it to see what people are talking about. Played the first two maps. First map is just a loop basically, simple. The second track make me frown Coming from a dirt track building background I know if I made a dirt track like this and put on TMX the comments would all say something like "No award this time, badly calculated jump".

Do they do that on purpose? If so it's rather annoying seeing as there is no air control in TM2

In A Nutshell
The tracks are superbly designed. Really great variety!

Observations
There was definitely an overarching theme to each progression:
A maps.. GP mostly
B maps.. GP and Arena blocks
C maps.. Roads
D maps.. Canyon roads
E maps.. Mixed

Then you have some other themes:
- 5, 10, 15 maps are usually lappers... a mini-boss if you will
- 3, 8, 13 are usually minis or.. for some... lolmaps.

And of course the mood changes every 5 maps.

Each progression to a new color introduced a new theme. When I played the first D map and saw "the loop", I was like... yep... another progression.

Every map introduced some new element to the driver. A new challenge to be met. A new idea in track design. It's a great way to learn the environment... and the blocks it contains... playing through and really studying the maps as you do so.

A Little Bragging?
I drove A01 -> E02 in one night and got training gold on everything. In the midst of it, I was also submitting numerous bug reports. I got bronze on E03 and haven't played much of the campaign since then, except for some official times on A->C maps. I played E04 and E05 in hotseat since they weren't unlocked in the campaign for me yet.

I feel like the campaign is challenging, but also very doable. It's not overly hard, but certainly has some amazing maps for hunting. The "gold" medals are friendly for the committed driver. The author times scare me.

Drifting Is More Fun If You're Fast
I'd driven several hundred community built maps before I tried the campaign. And one impression I immediately took away, after playing the campaign, was this:

Woah! We're building drifts way too slow! Most (not all) of the speedtech maps I've played are rather slow... even the fast ones! And that's okay, they're fun! But the campaign has some incredibly fast drifts in it. I mean, it's really edge of your seat stuff! It's the first time I've really been inspired by an official campaign to change my track design. I hope it inspires others as well.

Roads
I already loved the "narrow" roads and the challenge of driving them, but the campaign made me fall in love with them even more. The feeling of pulling off a very narrow drift on a canyon road and keeping the car under control... keeping your speed, there's nothing quite like it. The better I get, the more I gravitate to the narrow roads.

Well, you know me... I like a mix. So I love GP and Arena blocks too.

Scenery
What can I say? I was blown away! It's elegant, always in the right place, and perfectly complimenting the tracks. I think the campaign is the perfect example of scenery done right. I was especially taken by how well the night maps were lit and how lightmaps were paid close attention to in designing the day maps. A lot of authors aren't giving enough attention to lightmaps and how they affect track design. They're an important part of designing now, and we need to take them into account.

The Timer
An area of much contention among users, especially on the MP Forum, where there's a 17 page topic about the timer.

It's not really a part of the campaign itself, it's part of the system for playing the campaign.

Anyway, about the timer... at first I was totally for it, but I've changed a little and I think some adjustments would be nice. I love the feeling of "this is the run, I better get it right!".. so I hope whatever changes might come don't lose that feeling.

Conclusion
From my perspective, this campaign is the best official one Nadeo has ever given us. I think this campaign goes a long way to putting an end to "Nadeo tracks" being the butt of people's jokes about bad tracks. These are truly a great set that will, in my opinion, stand the test of time... and be fun for years to come.

A Request
My only wish is that certain people who I will not name would shut up about A08. I'm sick of hearing about it. Learn to drive!

voodoo says:
...there is no air control in TM2

This is false. There is air control, it's just on a much gentler curve than Stadium or TMS environments.

Some little details about the campaign.

I was the one hired by Nadeo to "polish" the campaign. So if you want to fire upon someone about the quality of the tracks, it's me.
I had been given a set of tracks already made before, and my job was to create a convincing set for the campaign. Most of the tracks were reworked from scratch, however. Eyebo summarized perfectly the contraints encountered during the building of the campaign, as A tracks needed to be GP, C tracks narrow roads, etc.

It was no easy task, as you really have to think about everyone to be able to finish the official tracks, even the most terrible drivers. But it was an incredibly interesting experience, and challenging too, from the point of view of a track builder.

I really tried to do my best here anyways, hope you're not too disappointed with the final result.

Btw, there are 2 easter eggs hidden in the campaign.