| TM Interview Project - LoCoBuDDha | 20 Jun, 2014 |
| wormi | (6 comments, 2938 views) |
Well hello guys! Today I present you an interview with a Danish mapper with a dream job – or is it? You can decide, say hello to locobuddha!  And yes I had to use the older writing form in title!  You can find more information about the project here.
-- 1. Could you tell us something about yourself? Of course! My name is Filip, I am 30 years old and I live in Denmark. I have 2 jobs. I work as a security guard and something completely different, which is called tantra massage. It will take a lot of time to describe what it is in details, but its an erotic and spiritual massage. Basically it is helping women to become more in contact with their bodies, be more sensual, more loving, more in touch with their sexuality, basically helping them in there lives and give them what they need in life. It's what you can call a dream job for every man. I'm very proud of it. It is a big part of my life, so spending time on something else is limited, but when I find time I certainly do some crazy mapping 
I also like going to the gym and make sports. Besides that i practice yoga and meditation. I love to have long discussions over a great meal with my best friends, and playing good board games. And of course I like to meet with my lovers. 2. How and when did you find Trackmania? In summer 2006 I didn't find Trackmania, one of my friends did, fortunately ! I was amazed about the game, just the atmosphere was; wow what is this?! And the best part of all, you could not drive into each other! I had a feeling that this game was going to be huge, and I was right.
3. Tell us about your early times with the game. I didn't play the game that much in the beginning. The whole thing started when i broke my heel, and was forced to sit down for a very long time. My brother came by and was telling me that I could make maps in the game, after that i got addicted. I opened up a server and people was going totally bananas on my tracks, the server was full every night and I somehow felt to just continuing. So every week they got a new map on the server
I was very active in the danish community as and admin for tournaments and so on, but not international. When i stopped, the whole danish community went dead unfortunately. 4. You have been a known mapper for long on stadium. What actually was your breakthrough into mapping? There where no specific map that was the case, but I remember that I was very fascinated by speed maps from ronTurbo, Ganjarider, nap and Irondragon, Andre and so on. Back in the old days Tech was not so famous specially not on TMX. But then there was a window opportunity for me. I started out with my Irish Tech's, and in the beginning I didn't upload them there because I though it will be useless, but I was wrong, people really loved my style, and slowly tech was beginning to become more famous on TMX. 5. What are your favorite maps and why? Did you really had to ask me that? I mostly like the old maps from GC4, STC3, NC2. Because in that time we didn't only see drift corners, the new mappers should really try to study these maps and learn. But if I have to chose some ''newer'' maps I will say;
ESL-Denolied by Ksenun NC5/STC6 - Lentejas by Calketh NC5`Hipp - A`STC6 by Hipp-E STC6/NC5 - Black Star by Korre They all had some very great new ideas to offer, smooth transitions with great flow. Challenging enough but in a good way, not full of blockmixing or random parts. They are very technical like a tech track should be. They just stand out from many others with their extra touch of something else. My list of the best oldschool maps is; NC2-Stanley-B by Stanley GC5-Sylphide GX by Krwy STC3-tK-C by tK GC4-Frenzy Show by LorDo These maps seriously rocks! They where from my time when I was mapping a lot. What makes them special is that they don't have full drift corners all the way, they are very technical, so you have to release gas and be good. They again have something else, this extra touch that fits. Specialy STC3-tK-C was at first very weird and hard, but he actually invented new types of slides with this map. Also with his STC3-tK-A track but that map was insane haha. After the STC3 tournament we saw a lot of maps that copied his ideas. 6. As an old player you have seen the evolution of stadium from TMF ESWC to TM2 Stadium. What has been improved, and what has gone worse in your opinion? Even that I have been a lot on and off the past years, my eyes see a lot! Shall we start with the bad news and end with the good ones, as usual? I want to say some words about the development of the game, how it had a major influence on tournament tracks. When TMNF came out I was very disappointed about many things, one of them was the blocks, I felt the new blocks was only customized for speed maps and that doesn't really work in tournament maps. I expected some more tight road blocks that fit for Tech. Nowadays we see way too many transitions in tournament maps, witch is very bad cause it's killing the flow. People somehow are forced to make blockmixing causing to miss blocks and that is a very bad development. In my opinion, block mixing should be less used in tournament mapping, they are overused, just take a look at the ESL11 maps. Thank god it was the last ESL in TMNF, it was going too much the wrong way. Even the admins makes clear rules about it, and take maps in that is not following their own rules, its very sad to see. The good news is that after TM2 is out we have more tight roads/blocks that fits for tech maps, they made little of them now for TM2 which I am very grateful for. I specially like the fact that you can transition smoothley from ground to higher points. I still hope for some underground roads with no dirt and mini loops. About the car change, i'm a noob cam1 user, so i can really feel the differences. I don't know what Nadeo was thinking back in 2008 with TMNF, the car was super light and with all the new transition opportunities, yeah thumps up for bugs! Now after the TM2 release the car is super heavy and slow. Slides are very different. In beta it was like, they wanted us to play Canyon just in a stadium, ridiculous! The good news is that the game is bug friendly now. I'm still not comfortable with the new TM2 editor, for me its to damn slow and when you pick blocks, you have them all over the screen, witch is super annoying, I was 10 times faster in TMNF. Some improvement would be nice. Shall i continue? I had played Broodwar sense 1998 so I know a little about E-sport gaming. A big problem here in Trackmania is that they don't focus on Stadium which has a huge potential for great E-sport game. I was very disappointed when they announced Canyon without stadium, they almost destroyed the game. But it still survives, it says a lot about how good this game is. The good news is, they made TM2! Now Nadeo just have to realize that it's only stadium that has this spark of a great E-sport car game.
7. Trackmania is over 10 years old. What makes it stay interesting for so long? Hahaha! I don't even understand it myself, I said it a lot of times, that I will not make anymore maps, but after a while i just get huge inspiration for a map, and create something nice for people. It happens a few times a year, and thank god for that, because I really work intensely when i get into these periods of my life. It's like from 8 in the morning to 4 o' clock in the morning. I sleep 3 to 4 hours and map again all day, sometimes I don't eat, for me its like going into another world. I know my maps are a very big inspiration for many people, even if they don't say it or award. I just know it and that's also one of the reasons I still do it. I want to inspire people. One of the major factors is that I'm a person who is not afraid to fail and trying something new, I see it a lot of times, new good mappers come round and make good new maps, and then they stick with their style, and slowly they fail, because the mapping scene changes, and they disappear unfortunately, but i'm still going, cause I have nothing to lose. 8. Of course you can't compare the drivers from different ages of the game that well, but who are the best stadium drivers ever for you? No one can beat Karjen! Sorry frost and Carl Jr
9. Why is your nickname actually locobuddha (often in form LoCoBuDDha)? Because I'm a Buddhist and I'm a little crazy, so it makes sense doesn't it?
10. Your top 3 websites, games, songs and movies. Websites: 1. Youtube 2. Facebook 3. TMX Games: 1. Starcraft 2 2. TrackMania 3. Age of Empires Songs: Asura - Life Aes Dana Oxyd Solar Fields - Sol Movies: 1. Hero 2. The Big Lebowski 3. A Perfect World 11. Describe yourself with four words. Passionate! Loyal Honest Sexual 12. I have asked many people this, but what makes a good track in your opinion? A good map needs a lot of things. Flow is extremely important when it comes to tournament maps, the quality of the maps nowadays is falling dramatically in my opinion. Either we see a lot of copied corners or a lot of transitions, sadly the transitions are killing the flow. Secondly it needs to stand out in some way from all the others, a map with new types of slides or calculated jumps, resus, everything creative is what I look for in a good map. I also look a lot on how the map is constructed. I need to feel like I am driving on a real stadium, so if the road blocks are randomly placed... I don't really like it. It's very easy for me to see how much work they have put into it I like when there is something new on the table, a map which is not too speedy and slow. It should be challenging in some way. I always say a good tournament track should start easy but very new and creative and in the end part of it should be harder, that makes it more exciting to look at, and i like excitement! Also the map should not have more than 3 or 4 transitions, nowadays almost every corner is a transition I find it very problematic. Anyway I'm not so picky when it comes to maps, its always up to the driver to adjust hes driving. 13. According to my experiences, making other than drift corners is harder in TM2 Stadium than in TMN and TMNF due to weight of the car. What do you think? I actually find it to be the opposite. I see more opportunities now! Because you don't bug so easily, therefore you can go closer to the ram stain, and the sliding is longer, so there is some good chances too make different kinds of sliding, which is really good. The issue is that it is not so acceptable any more, but let's see... maybe it will change some day. 14. I am trying my best to invent something weird! Which is best of your own maps to you, and why? All of them! Oh well if I only have to pick one I will always play Irish Tech 5! The reason why is because it was the first really good tech map I ever made. Its super funny and have great flow, jumps, road resus, and it's very original. It even has a booster in it! But if we are talking ''newer'' maps for big tournaments I will go for ESWC-Soleil from ESWC 2011 Final mappack. Once you get the feeling of it, it's really awesome to drive. But you need to be a skilled driver to step in to the intensity of what this map has to offer. It also has really great original start. Yes I can easily fall in love it with
15. If you have something else to say, please write it here. Yeah why not Thank you for the interview wormi. It was a pleasure to speak out some words. It was also a little hard cause I have sooo much to say, but I don't think people really get it then, only the players and mappers from the old school time. So I hope my interview makes sense to people. I tried my best.
I will still be around, and I'm looking so much forward to see and try a lot of new great maps in this new stadium. I think it's gonna be awesome, just take it a little easy with all the blockmixing guys
Live your life to the fullest! Thank you really much, I really liked your long answers! See ya (not deadmau5 song) later with some totally different kind of a player!
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| wormi writes ... | 02, Jul, 2014 |
vpix says: Basically means a corner where you are supposed to drift/brake on stadium
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| vpix writes ... | 02, Jul, 2014 |
| Great interview ! Let me ask the noob question: what is a drift corner ? I've never heard about it before... | |
| Andriv writes ... | 24, Jun, 2014 |
nice interview 
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| Kamakaze»FT writes ... | 24, Jun, 2014 |
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A great read
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| haenry writes ... | 23, Jun, 2014 |
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Very cool interview! What an inspiring positive attitude!
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| tcq writes ... | 21, Jun, 2014 |
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Great interview as always and a pleasure to read your thoughts about the TMN evolution LoCoBuDDha
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