| TM Interview Project - Sic! | 29 Oct, 2013 |
| wormi | (11 comments, 2538 views) |
Today I present you someone who started playing TM in Canyon. Nowadays he's known about his maps - say hello to Sic! You can find more infomation about the project here. -- 1. Could you tell us something about yourself? Sure. My name is Florian, I am 27 years old and live in Germany. I work at an online retailer. We sell toys on Amazon and eBay. At the moment I don't really have much time for any hobbies, I didn't do much else than working and sleeping in the last 4 or 5 weeks. But when I have the time I love to play Trackmania, hang out with friends, listen to music, watch movies...just the regular stuff, nothing special. 2. How and when did you find Trackmania? That was a few years ago. I saw it on a TV show where some guys presented games to the audience. One of this games was Trackmania. I loved the idea of building own maps from the first second I knew about it. But as fast as I fell in love with this game I forgot it. A few months later I remembered that game and got a copy of it . I installed it, started it...and I was absolutely bad. It wasn't fun for me, so I didn't play any Trackmania game until last year. I wanted play a racing game and asked google which one I should buy. That was the moment when I discovered Trackmania again. The rest is a short story. I bought canyon, installed it and loved it from the first second until now. 3. Did you know about Trackmania before canyon? Yes. 4. Your building style hasn't any TMUF effect. Does that make your maps pure canyon? I don't think that my maps are pure canyon. My maps are always influenced by other maps and most of the guys who built those maps were already mapping in the old envis. Maybe my maps are a little bit more canyon than other maps. I don't know much about other envis than canyon, so I can't try to build something similar in canyon. Because I was playing online a few months before I started building I knew some different styles. I tried to build some of them and figured out that mid-speed drifting maps are the style I can handle the best. So I ended up here with the style you know. 5. Why don't you like stadium and valley? It's not that I don't like the other envis. Okay, I really don't like the handling in valley. I guess the point why I just build canyon maps is that it is the only envi in wich I understand the cars behaviour and the physics enough to build good maps. I think, understanding the cars behavior is the most important thing when it comes to creative or flowy maps. And I just don't understand the cars in the other envis good enough to build maps there. But I will keep on trying, promise. 6. Have you ever tried TMUF environments? Yes, a long time ago...and, to be honest, I didn't like it. Probably just because I didn't play it long enough. 7. Do you have any role models in building? Not directly role models. But there are some mappers that inspire me a lot. When I started mapping, I wanted to build maps like C4Freak does. But at some point I realised that I just can't build highspeed noslide maps. Another big inspiration for me is Falkers. I haven't seen more crazy stuff anywhere. Everytime I try one of his maps I want to build something new by my own. Some other mappers that inspire me a lot are div, MirExpress, ymce, stevenamtaan, kruemelyeti and a lot others (sorry to everyone I forgot to mention). I also get good ideas for new stuff while betatesting maps. Don't know why I especially get ideas while betatesting but it is how it is. 
Short version: I get my inspiration from good maps, thats almost it. So anyone can be some kind of a role model for me if the maps are good. 8. How did you find Mania-Exchange? It was on a server where some people talked about MX and maps and stuff like that. I asked them what this MX thing is and they told me. As soon as I had a map that I thought would be good enough to share with others, I created an account and released it. Well, it showed up that the map wasn't good enough but anyone needs something to start with. 9. Have you driven any tournaments, cups or leagues in TM? No, but I definetaly want to try it in the future. I don't think I could get a good result but I want to know how good or bad I am. 10. Valley has some objects in the editor. Should canyon get some also? Just a big YES! Any new blocks or objects are good and I really like the ones from valley. I hope we will see some in canyon (and stadium of course) in the future. Just a handful would be enough, some nice ramps or anything else. This would add many new possibilities to mapping in canyon. 11. Your top 3 websites, games, songs & movies. That's a tough decision. Websites MX Skyrim Nexus youtube.com Games Trackmania² Canyon Skyrim Guild Wars 2 Songs Halo by Machine Head Zenith by Huntress Ktulu! by The Vision Bleak Movies The Crow Sin City Zombieland 12. Describe yourself with four words. I just don't know.
13. Are there other known mappers who started TM with canyon in MX? I don't know if there is anyone known who started TM with canyon. But there are talented mappers that started with canyon. I hope they become known in the future. But unfortunately it seems there aren't much people active anymore. I hope that changes in the wintertime. 14. What makes a good track? Another tough question. A good track has to be flowy. I think mappers should always be ready to sacrifice transitions or combinations or anything else for the flow. It's the most important thing a good map needs because to me flow means fun... and fun is all the game is about. But creativity is important too. That doesn't mean you have to invent new combinations, a reuse of well known parts can be much fun if it's well done. A good copy is always better than a bad new invention. Smoothness is another thing good tracks should have. It can't be completely smooth all the time. Some parts just work when they are a little bit unsmooth. But overall a good map should be smooth. A good map should also have space for error. Don't get me wrong, I love tight lines and maps that just work when you get anything right but it also should be motivating to try again and again and again. Those maps are hard to build, so it is better to let some space for mistakes than ruining a good map with a too close calculated line. And going in hand with that the checkpoints should be respawnable. I personally dont't care for respawnability. When I fail I just start again. But many people don't do that. And when a track is fully respawnable it shows, that the mapper has thought about his map. The last things a good track needs are well positioned signs, a good scenery and a GPS. I think a GPS is needed on almost any map to help the player finding the way or showing some hints how to improve the time. Signs are important to me because it's just annoying to drive a good map that hasn't enough or wrong placed signs. And the scenery is important to me because it can be helpful to find the line...and if it doesn't help it should at least be good looking.
15. You are at an empty island. You can choose one object to have there. What would it be? My MP3-player. Nothing is worse than having no music. 16. If you have something else to say, please write it here. Thank you very much for the interview wormi. And thanks to all who downloaded and played my maps. Keep TM alive guys! 
Thank you Sic for your answers! See ya again next time! 
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| alrie writes ... | 11, Nov, 2013 |
| very nice interview dude =) pity i dont know you :/ but i really like your tracks and your author times/dedis are always fun to hunt! hope to see you online some time! | |
| stevenamtaan writes ... | 06, Nov, 2013 |
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Good to see an interview with someone who has more recently started playing TM..
And a nice interview also at that .. agree with many things you mention especially the need to place signs in their correct positions can really improve the playability of a track when there are "blind" spots as well as having a GPS to assist those that can have some problems defining the correct race path. You definitely have created your own unique style and that's important to hang onto. Its not difficult to see that you spend a good amount of time putting together your tracks as they are usually very challenging , good flowing and diverse. Getting inspirational ideas from other mappers and bundling them together to create your own good flowing track is what most track builders try to achieve . For me its becomes more difficult for each track/map as we are somewhat limited due to perhaps the lack of block types and objects in the editor. Come on NADEO more blocks please .. trees and water are great for scenery but we need more drivable block types -- platform , GP and transitional to and from these blocks..  . A few well thought out new block sets can provide thousands of various combinations for mappers to experiment with.
Hope to see more gr8 tracks from you in the near future ..
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| MirExpress writes ... | 04, Nov, 2013 |
Nice interview from one of my favourite mapper. I'm proud to see my name here ^_^.
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| T!K writes ... | 01, Nov, 2013 |
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Good interview !
interesting to read about someone who start playing tm with canyon 
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| gado writes ... | 30, Oct, 2013 |
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very nice interview! I enjoyed reading it. We seem to agree about good maps personally I think a gps isn't necessary if the line is built well and signs and scenery are enough for me too ^^ It might not be common and I seem to find the way easier than many players also ... I'm too lazy to do a gps because I always want to drive two good times with comparison, because that's helping more than a single run
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| eyebo writes ... | 30, Oct, 2013 |
Really great interview. I enjoyed getting to know Sic! a bit better. Keep mapping! 
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| FT»Lodec writes ... | 29, Oct, 2013 |
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Nice interview
btw i started playing with canyon but im not sure if i would call myself a known mapper
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| Falkers writes ... | 29, Oct, 2013 |
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Very nice read, great interview again
I must say that i feel very honored and happy to be mention in such a way by Sic! in this interview
Keep up the good work Sic!...love your track style, quality work every time
Long live Canyon!
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| ymce writes ... | 29, Oct, 2013 |
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Interesting interview with one of the best Canyon map builder!
Good questions and great answers. Very nice story!
Thank you for mention Sic!
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| XT kruemelyeti writes ... | 29, Oct, 2013 |
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Great interview again!
Makes me proud to read my name up there and be an inspiring mapper for you, Sic! Thanks for that! 
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| erikfzr writes ... | 29, Oct, 2013 |
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Nice interview!
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