Welcome to the ManiaExchange Monthly Track Contest (MTC), July 2015.

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 and a winner will be found.


• Theme of the Month: Crossroads
  The track must pass it's own driving path at least three times total (preferably a lot more) using ALL of the following types of crossings at least once:
  • Standard crossroad (A section of roadtiles passes another section of roadtiles on the same height. A tunnel and a bridge is not a crossing. The cars should be able to collide),
    
  • Jump (the car jumps over a road OR the crossing is in the air, meaning that both parts of the crossing includes a jump. The only condition is that the cars are within an area of 2 blocks high, when they are at their closest),
    
  • Re-use (a part of the track is re-used, so cars can meet going seperate ways. It is important that the routes cross each other only an odd number of times (once, thrice, five times, seven times,...) so that the cars go .
    
  
  
  
• Deadline
  All tracks should be submitted before the end of Sunday 19, July 2015 PDT (To give our Americans a last full day to built too)
  
  
• Prize
  The winner of this MTC will be chosen as the author for the new ESL Author Cup. (more information in this news)
  Honour and the right to brag! (Jozii used to say that. I hope anyone still remembers him? )
  Top 3 tracks will be featured in a video, getting extra spotlight.
  The top 3 winners will receive a showcase of a track of their choice (< 10 awards)
  
  
• Rules
  • Use ALL in the theme section specified types of crossings.
    
  • The track must be no longer than 2min.
    
  • Custom blocks that fit the rules are allowed
    
  • Envimixing allowed
    
  • Blockmixing allowed! Just make sure to build no flickering textures because they're ugly.
    
  • Custom Titlepacks are not allowed, i.e. all Titlepacks from Nadeo are allowed (Canyon, Stadium, Valley, TM2)
    
  • No PressForward, PressBackward or pressAnyKey maps
    
  • 1 map per author
    
  • You can update your map within the deadline as many times as you want.
    
  • Include the sequence of letters MTC somewhere in the track name so that it can be easily discovered on mania-exchange.com.
    
  • To enter a track, simply upload it and post a link to your submission in the submission thread.
  
  
• Judging
  We'll use the public judging system of the BASCO 2014:
  • Everyone is allowed to judge, even players who submitted a map (give your own map a 10)
    
  • Every map will be judged with marks from 1 (bad) to 10 (good).
    
  • Note that you have to judge a stage entirely, you cannot judge only half of it.
    More details will appear after submission ends
    
  
  Good luck, and as always: If you have any questions, please ask

Object embedding tutorial


detail for the re-use:

the purple area is the collection of blocks in which the re-use takes place.
On the left you see 3 examples of re-uses that cross each other an odd amount of times. They are allowed.
On the right you see that the re-uses do not cross or an even number of times. This is not allowed.

In general you can identify allowed re-uses by the fact both paths leave the re-use on the other side of the other path. If you imagine the paths as strings and pull at the ends, the two strings cross each other.
This is not the case for the red and orange paths on the right

Since I'm first to comment, I'll ask for a clearer definition of a crossing. I'd suggest that a crossing is made within the boundary of an editor block, and that the two routes need to cross-section (if seen from above) each other within this block.

This gives a rigid definition which avoids "parallel reuses", where you both enter and exit the reuse on one side, as well as making a platform high above another road to be considered a crossing even though they're 10 blocks apart on the height axis. Of course, some lease could be granted when it comes to a jump-jump crossing, where airborne height may depend on each driver's speeds.

If I'm not mistaken, this was basically the definition at the CrissCross competition ages ago in TMU, of which I have fond memories. Ah, Bay was such a rad environment for such a track.

Wonderful theme now just as back when. Who knows, I might actually give it a go if I manage to find the time to do a thing more than stalk the forums.

I think you should highlight that custom titlepacks are not allowed this time.

Also you didn't make a frontpage post for this.

the "not" was actually highlighted, but the effect is not very strong. fixed it now.

And yes, there is no news yet due my lack of time.

I also want to do examples as pictures.

I will try to do all of that on the weekend


Now regarding the definition of a crosroad:
In general a bridge is not a crossroad, but a ... yeah a bridge and the other road is called a tunnel. You should really be able to collide with other cars on a crossroad.

The same counts for the re-use. Cars should be able to collide. And a re-use should consist of more than one block to differ it from a regular crossroad. But it doesn't matter in which direction the cars go while on the re-use. But it is important that the routes cross each other. A "parallel" re-use is not allowed.

For the jump the cars should be within an area of 2 blocks high, too make it not too difficult.

I hope it is a bit clearer now. If not, I'll make pictures on the weekend

Why no custom titlepacks this time?

Because I plan on hosting a server

broadsword says:
Wonderful theme now just as back when. Who knows, I might actually give it a go if I manage to find the time to do a thing more than stalk the forums.

I actually searched for the earliest mtc themes for suggestions, and this one was one of them I'm impressed that you remember it

Well, it was my best individual result; of course I'll remember it

Just wondering, are duo maps allowed?

yeah sure. Submit a duo map. It is still just one map per author. (Well, technically it is a half map )