Advice on track building

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Advice on track building

Rxerox´s words of advice

1: First time builders - start out making short tracks 20 - 40 if you cant make 20 seconds of good track then how should it be possible to build 9 min of good track.

2: Make it easy to see where people should drive - it is impossible for others to see the idea inside your head.

3: Test it on others - if you have friends who are willing to be honest then use their feedback.

4: This is a link containing a short list with a limited explanation of track styles Just found this list after posting Updated list right here
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Defacer´s Words of advice.

1, Build your track in the style you enjoy the most.

2, You can be inspired by other tracks you see aroud MX but the track itself should be yours.

3, Search for original & innovative combinations while building.

4, Don't overdo the difficulty if you want your track to be played online.
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Ganjarider´s words of advice

- First of all, try to make your own style. Easier said then done, but I guess the best way is not to focus too much on other people's tracks. Be inspired, but don't copy.

- Variation. Never use the same construction twice in a track. First of all, lack of variation makes a track dull. But it can even get confusing for players. For instance: you've built a looping to the left followed by a turn to the right. If you build another looping to the left followed by a turn to the left, it can confuse people. They can choose the wrong direction after a looping. Even after driving the track many times.

- Reset points by adding straight roads. Mainly needed in full speed tracks. Gives people a moment to breathe before the next construction. Sometimes I see tracks that are one big rollercoaster. If you make a mistake somewhere, you crash three corners later because everything is connected. To prevent this, make reset points by adding straight roads in between constructions. But as few as possible or it will make the track dull.

- An online track should be forgiving. People want to set a good time in 5 minutes and at least finish the track a few times. If a player makes a mistake and slows down in one part of the track he/she should still be able to drive the next part. The most common bottleneck I see in tracks is a jump that you can only take while going maximum speed in a flawless run. This is hard online where you have many distractions (other players/chat/lag) and loss of concentration after playing for a while. So make sure a jump can also be taken at slower speed. It may look cooler to have a gap in the road but online, effectiveness wins over coolness.

- Margin! The thing that makes a track easy to finish but hard to master. An online track needs a noob and a pro race line. You need to make sure both lines work. Hard to explain though. Needs to be tuned on feeling. Simply test drive your track 100 times and try different routes. Even drive bad on purpose. Also test while you are tired or otherwise less concentrated so you can see the bottlenecks. The relation between the noob and pro line should be like a balanced dance.

- Because you know your own track so well you might still not see all bottlenecks. The best way to get rid of bottlenecks is watching someone else race your track for the first time by spectating. Host your own server and invite some friends. They don't even need to speak. Just watching them and seeing where they have trouble says more than a thousand words. Try to watch people with different skills.

- Wayfinder. I noticed that since TM2 Canyon has more detailed graphics it can be hard to see the way. GP blocks can be a bitch at high speed. I think it's because of the small white border and details in the buildings and fences. And platform blocks have the same-ish grey colour on the side as on the surface so pretty useless to distinguish the side of a road. So make sure you use plenty arrows. Use sign billboards, sign blocks and any colored scenery blocks. Whatever it takes to distinguish the side of the road from the color of the road. Especially at high speed.

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Smok3y´s words of advice
1. Always ensure you have tested your tracks for the slowest and the fastest racers. Don't like driving too fast and banging on top of a CP.

2. Scenery is a very important aspect of track making. Give the racer a feeling of driving through a nice environment with well built scenery.

3. Night mood, remember to light the track as much as you can. No one likes to drive in the dark.

4. Validate with a good author time, give the racers a challenge in offline mode, make them work hard to get a time. That way you can keep them addicted to your track a little more and that gives them time to appreciate the map you have made. When they play longer they find more good stuff in your map.

5. Take cues and hints from some of the best in the business and try and understand what ticks and how to go about trying to make that epic map.

I hope these will help

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The goal is a simple list that is easy to follow and get inspired by.
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Thanks for adding to this Defacer, Ganjarider and Smok3y (y)

Special thanks to Bucky Truly appreciate it

Last edited by eyebo,

RxeroX

Learner Driver

Updated GanjaRider's text and fixed broken image links.

eyebo

Site Leader
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