Welcome to the ManiaExchange Monthly Track Contest (MTC), August 2014.

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.


• Theme of the Month: New Structures
  Your task is to build a track using custom objects, which have to be embedded into the mapfile. Thus they can be played in every titlepack. (For HowTos and Tricks see the bottom of this topic)
  
  
• Deadline
  All tracks should be submitted by the end of Sunday 24th August, 00:00 GMT.
  
  
• Prize
  Honour and the right to brag! (Jozii used to say that )
  Top 3 tracks will be featured in the News section, getting extra spotlight.
  
  
• Rules
  
  
  • To keep things fair, you're only allowed to use objects that were uploaded to Maniapark.com before Friday 1st August 2014. Those are:
    
    • Valley_Extensions by Dag@bert
      
    • Arena Tunnels Pack by Harrison_rus
      
    • Canyon Platform Extension Set by TGYoshi
      
    • Stadium Banked Platform Curves by TGYoshi
      
    • Canyon Banked Platform Curves by TGYoshi
      
    • Simple Canyon Ramp by TGYoshi
      
    • Canyon spiralling concrete blocks by DrPiZz [added on August 2nd]
      
    • Update1 spiralling concrete blocks by DrPiZz [added August 3rd]
      
    • cup by aca [added August 3rd]
      
    • Canyon Diagonal-1 by aca [added August 3rd]
    
    
  • Build in any TM2 environment. Although custom objects exist for all three environments already, I still recommend to choose the environment wisely depending on the amount of available objects and the filesize of these objects. For embeddable objects a sizelimit of 150KB applies, which is sadly super low! e.g. Stadium has only 2 objects so far, while Valley has a lot of high quality objects, which have a big filesize. Consider all that while choosing your environment.
    
  • Envimixing is allowed
    
  • Blockmixing is allowed! Just make sure to build no flickering textures and no ugly mixing to avoid point deduction in the polishing category.
    
  • 1 map per author
    
  • Important: To enter a track, simply upload it and post a link to your submission in the Submission Thread
    
  • Important 2: Include the sequence of letters MTC somewhere in the track name so that it can be easily discovered on mania-exchange.com.
  
  
  
• The Judging System
  
  We'll use the judging system of the last MTC.
  Each judge will rate every track using the following categories:
  
  • Route:
    Flow, smoothness, layout, speed, diversity, transitions, difficulty, etc.
    The general "feel" of the track while driven.
    Max. 15 points/judge
    
  • Theme:
    The judges will look at how creatively you implement the theme into the track.
    Max. 15 points/judge
    
  • Polishing:
    Signage, Scenery, MT. Does your track feel like it has the finishing (visual) touches?
    Max. 10 points/judge
    
  • Fun Factor:
    Depending on how fun the judges find your track, some extra points can be given.
    Max. 10 points/judge
  
  We need reliable and committed judges, so if you want to volunteer as a judge, please contact us!
  
  Good luck! If you have any questions, please ask.
  

• How To
  • Download the objects from Maniapark.com. (Mirror for MTC objects) Note that only the newest objects, which were created with the new MP3.0 Improter, can be embedded into maps. (See the rules section for a list of objects.
    
  • Place the zipfile in /documents/maniaplanet/Items/ and unzip it.
    There should be one or two subfolders after /Item/subfolder1/subfolder2/file.Item.Gbx to get the nice folder structure ingame. Depending on how many folder you want to have ingame
    (e.g.: /documents/maniaplanet/Items/CanyonPlatformExtra/ArenaBank/CanyonPlatformAreBorPlain.Item.gbx )
    
  • Use the hammer symbol in the Editor
    
    
  • Choose "experimental features" at the very bottom
    
  • Activate object embedding
    
    
  • Enter the the Item Mode by clicking the tree Symbol (F4) and place the objects somewhere on the map
    
    
  
  
• Tipps and Tricks
  
  
  
  • Click the Tree symbol twice (or press F4 two times) to get into grid snap mode for items. Thus you can place the items in a very small grid and also in mid air to easier align them with other blocks. The Tree Symbol turns white in Grid snap mode
    
    
  • Use the + and - keys on the numpad to rotate the Objects by 15°. Use the arrow keys to rotate them around the additional two axis.
    
  • The objects vary in size and quality. Some objects are too big to embed them, while some are really small, but simple. Choose smaller objects, if you want to embed multiple objects.
    
  • Using one and the same object twice (or even a 100 times) in the map does not increase the size, as it'll only be embedded once in the mapfile.
    
  • There is a list of the embedded items on MX after uploading your track on your trackpage. If the list stays empty, something probably has gone wrong.

Thanks for hosting this MTC! Great theme, I'll try to get a submission in Thanks for the "How To" it really helped

Thanks haen for starting this MTC. I might give it a whirl, gotta go back to TM at some point. If I don't, I will surely judge this.

you didnt even finished with the mtc before and now you want to do more work?

can you handle this? i mean you dont have a sudden final exam or sth like this?

I added new objects to the List "Canyon spiralling concrete blocks by DrPiZz" because the MTC only just started and it is better to have more objects to choose from

Nice to see you guys in!

I don't know who the missing judge of MTC may is, but it's probably not osaka

For the last time I extended the List of objects. Enjoy

What about the recommend track length?

I only wrote down the rules for the MTC, as they are important to follow.
30-90sec for a racetrack is in general kind of recommended. So there is no real need to add it.

My main argument is: I dont want to limit people to 90sec

funny thing, I just have build a track with objects (experimenting with them)
it was almost finished and now I see this mtc XD

dunno if I'll enter with that map, since it was my 1st time using objects for real, so i kept everything minor, and flowy XD