Welcome to the ManiaExchange Monthly Track Contest (MTC), January 2013, hosted by MX. I will be your host for this month

In the MTC, your task is to build a track on a given theme (see below). Later on, all of the entered tracks will be rated by our judges and a winner will be found.

The Details

Let's have a look at the details of the contest:

Theme of the Month: Up and Down: Build a track in which the car reaches the lowest and the highest buildable level during the race, at least one of them twice, with the other one in between. In other words, the track has to contain:
- climb from the bottom to the top, followed by a descent from top to the bottom,
OR
- descent from top to the bottom, followed by a climb from bottom to the top.
the Climbs/Descents may feature jumps, falls, there may be smaller descents and climbs on them etc. The car may be airborne at the moment when it reaches the top or bottom.
There can be additional sections prior to this main part, and there can be additional sections after this main part.

Schematic picture:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/21/sideviewupdowntheme.png/

Deadline: Saturday, January 19th 2013

Prize:

Honour and the right to brag! (Jozii used to say that )

The rules:

Build a race track in which, while racing, the car reaches the highest, lowest and then highest buildable height, OR it reaches the lowest, highest, and then lowest buildable height.

Author Time must be less than 2:00.00 (two minutes)

Max. 1 track per author. Single author per track.

Blockmixing is NOT allowed.

Include the sequence of letters "MTC" somewhere in the track name so that it can be easily discovered on mania-exchange.com.

The track must have been uploaded to the exchange before January 20th 2012 (January 19th 23:59:59 is OK).

Important: To enter a track, simply upload it and post your submission in THIS thread.

Theme explanation
- The idea behind the theme is to create a track with greatest possible vertical differentiation. Waking a VERTIGO or "launch of a space shuttle" feeling in the players is desired. Imagine a sideview of a large mountain such as Mt. Everest, and the profile gives you an idea of what the track might look like if you pick the version Bottom->Top->Bottom.
- The important thing is that there have to be BOTH directions: Either the main section begins with a climb, and then changes into a descent, or it's the other way round - first a huge descent, then a climb.
The lowest possible building height is a road just above water (!!!) - not on the ground.
The highest possible building height is eg. a tunnel through concrete block in the sky, or a road tile up there.
- You don't need any checkpoint in these highest or lowest heights -- in fact, the more original you can make it, the better.


The Judging System:

Confirmed judges:
pjw
Alcator
(I'm still looking for more judges)

A number of judges will rate the tracks on the following topics:

Design – Layout, respawnability of checkpoints, learning curve, scenery, the general "feel" of the track. Max 20 points/judge
- I am adding "Learning curve" to this section: Ideally, a player who never raced the track should be able to get further and further in your track with each try, or become better and better with each run. Try to avoid building sections which are show-stoppers for less skilled players.
- As a general rule of thumb, the faster a player goes through the track, the harder it should get, not the other way round.

Creativity – The creativity of the track itself and especially the Up&Down or Down&Up (main) section. Max. 10 points/judge

Fun Factor – Sometimes a track can be poor in every way, but still extremely fun to drive. Depending on how fun the judges find your track, a few extra points can be given. Max 10 points/judge

Regarding the final results, the lowest and highest score of each track will be deleted and the average of the "medium scores" decides - if the number of judges is at least 5.


We need reliable and committed judges, so if you want to volunteer as a judge, please send a PM to Alcator!

Good luck! If you have any questions, please ask away

A new MTC! wohoo nice!
And it is challenging from top to bottom and back.. uiuiui

yeuyyy!! will try it out

Cool theme! I'm in!

And "bottom", I presume, means right above sea level? Just for clarification.
I am still somewhat unused to there being levels below the default level and I might not be alone.

broadsword says:
And "bottom", I presume, means right above sea level? Just for clarification.
I am still somewhat unused to there being levels below the default level and I might not be alone.

it is explained in rules.

My mistake, never seen the "theme explanation" section in the description before. Thus, being located in between two sections I know by heart, I overlooked it.

I already made a track called top to bottom and it goes from top to bottom. it doesn't go back up though. Is it feesible to modify this track and use it??

Alcator says:
Build a race track in which...

Does this mean that platform tracks are not allowed?

Intrepid War says:
I already made a track called top to bottom and it goes from top to bottom. it doesn't go back up though. Is it feesible to modify this track and use it??

Generally we ask that builders make new tracks for MTC, or at least tracks which they have not yet uploaded to MX. Ultimately, no-one is going to check for similarities with previous maps, so it's up to your sense of fair-play whether you'll use the (potentially significant) advantage of having half of the track already well-done, or if you'll build from scratch.

pjw says:
Can it be a platform track

Please make it a race track, so that judges don't need to switch/install additional station (among other reasons). The track should be suitable for racing, i.e., competing for fastest run-through.