Trackmania RPG blog

4F RPG Week 2 starts today !

2011-12-23T04:52:00.008+01:00

The 4F RPG Week 2 starts today at 14h
It will end on the 8th of January at 21h

Here is the tracklist :

- [RPG] Sharx by Simo
- Tales Of The Flood [RPG] by Popgun
- [RPG] The Creek by PCC
- Grimbergen by Moi57
- 「RPG」Heavens doors by Kill-Evil
- [RPG] Corridors By Nunquam
- [RPG] Acropolis City by Dedmick
- RPG ~ Mystical Feelings by Mario
- [RPG] Western Fort by Reahx

and the prices to win :

1st : 25000 coppers + gold tag
2nd : 20000 coppers + gold tag
3rd : 15000 coppers + gold tag
4th : 10000 coppers + silver tag
5th : 8000 coppers + silver tag
6th : 7000 coppers + silver tag
7th : 5000 coppers + bronze tag
8th : 4000 coppers + bronze tag
9th : 3000 coppers + bronze tag
10th : 2000 coppers + bronze tag

You can register here !
More infos : here !

Merry Christmas to everybody and happy new year, good luck and have fun !

BNC RPG Week #2 starts today !

2011-11-10T15:04:00.008+01:00

***********

Hello RPG drivers !

The BNC Cup starts today at 21h and the competition takes place until the 20th November for those who could have missed it !
You can register on this thread at any time and find more information here !
Good luck to everybody and have fun !

Joinlink of the server : tmtp://#join=xfu-oiram456
Add Favourite Link : tmtp://#addfavourite=xfu-oiram456

Track Page Update

2011-06-13T19:47:00.003+02:00

*wuuuuush* .....blowing off the layers of dust off the writing desk ^^

Just came back here real quick to announce that Nunquam took the time and patience to update the RPG track page with entries of tracks ranging back as far as one year, in total 106 new track entries!

Nunquam says that he didn't have the time to test all tracks from this huge timespan so that if anyone feels like their track has been left out they should contact him (on the RPG Forum).

Anyhow, it's an amazing effort that Nunquam undertook in the pursuit of capturing the current state of RPG and far surpasses the efforts of the being that is myself, who still hasn't gotten around to updating the mods page ^^

Speaking of which....in case anyone still doensn't know about it....new mods and old ones likewise can be found on this page: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/

Cup RCT²

2011-01-09T10:01:00.002+01:00

Now, after Kacklappen!
I am announcing the beginning of the comp RCT-Team !!!

RCT² Cup

RpgCompetTrack

System:

* This is a contest Maps RPG!
* As of 16 January, the mappers have until Feb. 20 to make their homework! ^ ^
* The maps will be sent here with their replay mail: rctmap@hotmail.com
* The maps will be made between 8 min and 12 min for a confirmed player
* The maps will be new. And unpublished TMX or anywhere else.
* The maps will be tested and judged by a jury composed of members of the team RCT "RPG section." They will be graded out of 100
- Cp, SPOT / 50
- DECO, MOD / 20
- MEDIA TRACKER / 20
- GENERAL INTEREST / 10

1st prize: 30000 + coppers tag gold
2nd prize: 15000 + coppers tag silver
3rd prize: 10000 + coppers tag bronze
T 4th prize: 7500 bronze coppers + tag
The 5th prize: 5000 bronze coppers + tag
* Based on the notes, the first 5 maps will be selected for the rest of the competition!!
Date:

* The competition will close the RCTrack February 20 at 18:00

RpgCompetTime

System:
* The second part will be a comp on the top 5 RPG maps selected before!
* The maps will be played Friday 18:00 (GMT +1) to Sunday 18h (= 48), every weekend = 1 map,
* The No. 5 for the 1st week
* The No. 4 for the 2nd week
* ... ... ...
* The No. 1 for the fifth week will be the final!

* Top 5 players of each phase maps will be final.
* A mappers can not qualify on his map!
* So if you want to enter the final, you'll just call you a few weeks of the competition.
* The player called the 1st week will not be counted for the other week, of course!

The price of the final are:
1st prize: 20000 + coppers tag gold
2nd prize: 10000 + coppers tag silver
3rd prize: 5000 bronze coppers + tag
The 4th prize: 3500 bronze coppers + tag
5th prize: 1500 Coopers Bronze + tag
From 6th to 10th prize: tag bronze

Date:

* The competition will take place from the RCTime February 25 (18:00 )to March 27 (18:00)
25/02/11 at 18h: map # 5
4/03/11 at 18h: map # 4
11/03/11 at 18h: map # 3
18/03/11 at 18h: map # 2
25/03/11 at 18h: map # 1 map final

Server (s):

* For the period of the competition, we will use "rct compete Server" (1 or 2 serv).

NB:
* Winners coppers’ TMU must have an account, no transfers on behalf of other players will be made.
* Every player who plays for the price should be recorded here rct² :: REGISTRATION RCT²
* The RCTs’players will participate in the RCTime but will not return in the ranking and price! Just for Fun! ^ ^
Your servant !!

Icsday

Kacklappen RPG CUP

2010-10-24T09:35:00.004+02:00

Yeah, another cup, but this one will be different and You can win big prices.

System:

Monday to Friday, each day 1 map (24h), alltogether 5 maps
best 5 players of each map are in finals.
so we have 25 finalists.
weekend is the final, on 2 maps, each 10-22.00 cet.
all qualifiying maps will be about medium +-
final maps will be harder

So if You want to get in final, You will just have to get in the top at one day between monday to friday.
If You don´t make it in finals on (for example monday) You may still try on the other days. So You have 5 days max. to qualify for final.
If a player has qualified on monday and he also qualifies on tuesday that will be ignored. Only one qualify/player.

Date:

Nov. 15th-21th 2010

Tracks:

5 qualifying maps
2 final maps
length: between 7 and 12 min estimated 1st dedi (or depending on driver 12-15 min. authortime), but we will se what the trackbuilders do.

The tracks are new tracks. And not published on TMX or anywhere else.

Trackbuilders:

Nom² - final map ( - qualify map)
Disgo - qualify map
Igntul - final map ( - qualify map)
Moi - qualify map
Dope - qualify map
Popgun - qualify map
Trunks - qualify map
Clem - qualify map
Foxi - qualify map
Retsamniarb - qualify map

Best fitting tracks of the builded are in the cup, we will see.

Every trackbuilder with a track in this cup with a TMU account will receive 3.000 coppers!

The trackbuilder may not qualify on his own track! But the trackbuilder is allowed to drive in finals on his own track. The advantage will disapear after a while.

Prices:

1 new TMU account / or maybe a Trackmania 2 account (game) when there will be some more information about price/release
1 TM-Gameserver for 6 months (no matter what ranking up to 90k)
1 Teamspeak 2 server for 6 months (sorry Teamspeak 3 is not so easy to give, even with a rootserver - there are licences needed)
45.000 coppers (25.000, 15.000, 5.000)
Every finalist with a TMU account will receive a "Kacklappen Winner Tag" like this:

The 1st winner may choose a price of all prices. The 2nd winner may choose a price of the rest. The 3rd winner may choose a price of the rest......
So no one wins something he might already has (except maybe the last winners)

Server:

For the time of the cup we will use Kacklappen RPG XXL server and rename it to Kacklappen RPG CUP server and it will get for this period a brand new database to check the local records via xaseco.
For spectators we will do a relay-server (a server where You can join as spectator and the players wont see You or Your chat)
We also try to get the server stream running for this period of time
The max. players on this server will be 40. If more slots will be needed we will have a spare server with same database and it will be switched on in time.

Rulez:

Every player just may qualify one time for the final
No account sharig allowed
Winner of coppers must have a TMU account, no transfer to other account
Every player who plays for prices has to be registered here
...we will think about other rulez

Help:

Any help is welcome
Writers for forums, like nadeo, tmx, tm-creative, slidestar...
Moviemakers for maniazone, Youtube, TM Tube...
Referee-Admins as spectators help watching the cup. for example kicking idiots who wanna disturb the cup, or explain rules, help players to find this site, and so on...

So any feedbacks, help, ideas, suggestions, critics or trackbuilding offers here or contact me via:
email: alex@crew-delux.de
ICQ: 339519624

Klick here to register for the cup!
http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/361-registration-for-kacklappen-rpg-cup.html

Update 1 - 23.10.2010
Date for the Cup: Nov. 15th - 21th. 2010

The cup will be on 2 Servers with identical database: 2x 40 player slots - 2x 100 spectator slots (details and serveraccounts will come soon)

Monday, Nov. 15th - Open qualifying - Map A - 0-24h cet. ---> Top 5 players are in semi finals
Tuesday, Nov. 16th - Open qualifying - Map B - 0-24h cet. ---> Top 5 players are in semi finals
Wednesday, Nov. 17th - Open qualifying - Map C - 0-24h cet. ---> Top 5 players are in semi finals
Thursday, Nov. 18th - Open qualifying - Map D - 0-24h cet. ---> Top 5 players are in semi finals
Friday, Nov. 19th - Open qualifying - Map E - 0-24h cet. ---> Top 5 players are in semi finals

Only one qualify/player - More qualify will be ignored

Finalists will receive the password for the server here in a separate Private-Message, only for finalists.
This password may not given to others!

Saturday, Nov. 20th - semi finals day 1 - 10-22h cet. - 25 players - passwordsafed server - spectators on relay server
Sunday, Nov. 21th - semi finals day 2 - 10-22h cet. - 25 players - passwordsafed server - spectator on relay server

Finalists get points depending on their rank. The player with the most points won.

If anyone of the 25 finalists can´t play in finals, the next (26th) player is in final, and so on.

Cup admins:

Big Al
Lucker
Tabasco

If anyone of the cup-admins should drive - this will be not counted for the cup.

RPG blog update

2010-09-19T10:46:00.002+02:00

Due to lack of time, me and Hawk are not able to update the blog anymore (at least regularly), so I ask you to post guides in the RPG forum: www.trackmania-rpg.com, and news, new mods, funny/nice screenshots, competitions, etc etc in the RPG thread on TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=threadshow&id=1165580&page=auto#auto. Thanks.

4freaks weekend RPG tournament #3 results

2010-08-23T18:59:00.002+02:00

The third 4freaks weekend RPG tournament is now finished, and here are the results:

Robot took the 1. local record on all maps, and also set some new Dedimania records, so congratulations to him for winning the first prize.

The next 4freaks event will apparently be held in September.

4freaks weekend RPG tournament #3

2010-08-15T10:34:00.001+02:00

Next weekend from Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd there will be another 4freaks RPG tournament in TimeAttack on Heavens RPG. Beep posted info on TMX and on the RPG forum: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/283-4f-weekend-rpg-3.html

Hey RPG player :)

We are pleased to present the third edition of Weekend 4F RPG.

After experiencing the best track, now who the best driver ?

Theme : RPG track building contest #2

Opening date: Friday 20/08/2010 18:00 (6PM) CET (UTC+1/GMT+1)
Closing date: Sunday 22/08/2010 21:00 (9PM) CET (UTC+1/GMT+1)

Mahadevi's Gardens by Nunquam
Medusa by VKLF
Lutenx by Igntul
Space Invaders by Fish
Jamaica Island by moi57
Building an RPG by rtv
Spell my name by Stromek

Rules:
Server is in TA mode
round 1 hours
Jukebox is ON
Next map and restart vote is ON with 90%
Server is running and all record are saved by xaseco.
At the end of time, the classification is determined.

Price :
1st : 5000 coppers + tag
2nd : 2000 coppers + tag
3rd : 1000 coppers + tag
4th : 500 coppers
5th : 500 coppers
and for player without tumf account, a tag ll be given for rank 1,2 and 3

See you soon on 4Freaks Weekend RPG 3
4Freaks Clan

Big thx all for all donate for this event and special thx for Moi57 for ths big donate :thumbup:

Tecfan's contest series #003: Guess the track #03 answer

2010-08-15T10:04:00.006+02:00

Here is answer from the Guess the track #03:

The correct answer was Poseidon's Wrath, by .maX. Other guesses included Four Powers, [RPG|Endurance!! (2), "upcoming Kryw's Portal", Abandoned Castle and Puzzletime.

Thanks a lot to HawkGer for making the pics. Sadly he is now removed from the contestants for already knowing the answer ^^.

Tecfan's contest series (#003)

#	Nick	Points	Total
0	100% correct	1.5	3.5
1	occam	1.5	3.5
1	Kiyo	1.5	3.5
1	Igntul	1.5	3.5
1	realized2	1.5	3.5
1	Dawe	1.5	3.5
2	eie	1.5	2.5
3	Nøtt	0	2
3	Vklf	0	2
3	Nunquam	0	2
4	Hardarm	1.5	1.5
4	Hokiebird	1.5	1.5
4	Voyager006	1.5	1.5
5	Klody	0	1
5	mt17	0	1
5	Jofo	0	1
5	Paul	0	1
5	TITI54	0	1
5	fabio_m	0	1
5	Mixalis	0	1
5	Kuba	0	1
5	Shorty	0	1
5	NomNom	0	1
5	B1ts	0	1

The next contest will come soon, and if you have any tips for what it might be, you can let me know in the comments or in the forum thread.

Tecfan's contest series #003: Guess the track #03

2010-08-09T19:20:00.005+02:00

Answer now out: http://trackmaniarpg.blogspot.com/2010/08/tecfans-contest-series-003-guess-track_15.html

Press the screenshot to see a larger version.

Can you see which track this is? The picture is made by HawkGer. If you guess correctly, you will get 1.5 points in my contest series. The one with the most points in the end will win something (of very little significance). So, if you want to win, don't tell others what you guessed! Participants who posts the answer in a public forum or chat will be disqualified.

So, take a guess. You can only guess ONE track, and you have to send it in a PM to me. Either send a PM to "Tecfan" on TMX or a PM to "Tecfan" on the RPG forum.

Remember, it's just for fun! I can't rule out cheating and abuse, so compete with yourself and don't rely on other people's answers.

General feedback and discussion thread for the contest series is available in the RPG forum. (Do not post the answer there!)

Tutorials from the RPG forum #2

2010-08-09T17:01:00.000+02:00

This is a compilation of some recent guides posted by the community members in the RPG forum.

How to make simple lakes
fabio_m posted a tutorial on how to make simple lakes here: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/227-how-to-make-simple-lakes.html

How to make a locator
Trunks wrote a detailed guide on how to make a locator, essential to RPG mappers. Read it here: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/231-mediatracker-how-to-made-a-locator.html.

How to add multiple soundtracks
Igntul wrote a guide on how to add multiple soundtracks, useful for long RPG's. Check it out here: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/247-multiple-soundtracks.html.

Advanced EditorMixing
Eie has written a guide on how to do various hacks in the editor (editormixing): http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/263-advanced-editormixing.html.

How to make grass in the air + general grass mixing tips

2010-08-08T11:59:00.001+02:00

This guide will help you blockmix grass in the air. This is pretty basic blockmixing, and it's in fact exactly the same procedure as when you make water in the air (but I will add some grass-specific tips and tricks).

This guide presumes you already know how to use ChallengeEdit (CE), or other CE-based blockmixing programs (like TS). If you don't, google some guides or read the water mixing article I linked above.

To make grass, we need to transform blocks. The first thing you have to do is to add transformable blocks (a block that does not exist yet in your track) to your track. The blocks don't have to be placed the exact same place you want the grass to appear, as you can move them afterward. It is of course faster and easier to place them the exact same place if it's possible for you.

Every image except the CE image can be shown in a big version by clicking the image.

I want to add four grass blocks in the air, so I have placed four transformable blocks where I want the grass. I have chosen the block "StadiumHolePillar" simply because the block hasn't been used in my map yet. Save the track and go to CE.

The first thing you have to do is to select the primary block. The primary block is the first block you placed of its kind. The primary block is marked with a "-P" as you can see in the screenshot. When you change the primary block's name, all the other blocks of the same kind will also be changed.
When you have selected the first block (the first StadiumHolePillar in my case), you have to press the "unlock" button. This allows you to change the block type of all StadiumHolePillars. Press OK.
Step three is to select the block "StadiumGrass" from the block list. Do not use StadiumGrassClip.
Press "Save block modifications to memory". You will now see that all the blocks of the type you chose, have changed name to "StadiumGrass".

You can now move the grass blocks around if necessary. Save the map. You should now have grass in your track.

Double-mixing
For some reason, mixed grass and/or water will sometimes just disappear from your track after you transform it, but it will still be in the block list in CE. To make the grass/water visible again, simply repeat the process so you have two grass/water blocks on every block. Your grass/water should now be visible again. Sometimes grass/water will disappear from CE as well, if this is the case you have to re-do everything.

Tips and tricks
The back button
Never use it. The back button has an habit to magically unmix stuff. Variation 16 mixes will be lost, grass will disappear and Trackmania will often crash. Never use it. Use the delete button or hide the blocks with CE if they are undeletable.

Fill gaps
Have you ever had a hole into "infinity" on your track? This is caused by many things, and a grass block is the cleanest way to fix this. This will even make cool and new tricks.

Here you see what happens when you mix various blocks to Z=1. Holes.

And here is what happens when you fix it. Pretty nice? All you have to do is place grass blocks in the gaps with Z=0 (you might have to double mix).

Make entire floors
Ever wanted to make a multi-level map? Well now you can. Just add grass blocks to the entire stadium and you have a new floor. You can even start your track on a higher level and then work your way down. This will make some pretty cool mixes too. You can place high blocks underneath the grass and only parts of the blocks will go through the grass. This is limited to Z=0 on the normal grass, but now you can use even higher blocks and other types of blocks. Experiment.

It works above the stadium
Yes, you can blockmix grass blocks above the stadium, but not outside the X or Y coordinates. With creativity you can make some really unique tracks with this method (I have an upcoming map myself with this trick).

Grass is invisible from beneath
This is cool. Why? Well, you can make traps and you can make bugs. Be creative.

TM Actu starts RPG news posts

2010-08-07T20:40:00.003+02:00

One of the biggest Trackmania websites in France, TM Actu, has started an RPG news compilation series, with Kryw as the author. The articles features/will feature news from the RPG blog and the RPG forum and will further spread the word about RPG. Trackmania superstar frostBeule is one of the first commenters, so that's a good sign ^^.

The first post, All in RPG #1 is about the recent mapping contest, TrackStudio, some modding guides, the RPG blog and the forum and more. The article is also available in French.

ESL is starting RPG cups - need builders

2010-08-06T14:04:00.013+02:00

More great news this day: an ESL admin has asked the RPG community to build maps for upcoming ESL RPG cups.

Here is a quote from a guy called "NOW" from his RPG forum post:

Hey guys, iam an ESL Admin and we search RPG-Maps for Cups. Do you can build an RPG-Map for this? 60 Min time and after this 60 min win the 3 fastest times. The Map should be easy, but not to easy. In the Cups drive many rookies, so they must find the way. The Pros should be drive in they first try a time around 20 min. The rookies between 30-40 min. It would be great, if you can answer me ;)

The cups will be one Wednesday per month, and the first one will be on August 18th. As of right now, the cup is only for German, Austrian and Swiss players, but they are hoping to make it international.

I look forward to these ESL RPG cups anyway, and you can be sure that the RPG blog will cover them.

And as NOW states, they need builders, so if you are interested, this is the place to go: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/256-esl-is-starting-rpg-cups.html.

Unofficial TrackStudio model addon released

2010-08-06T13:01:00.000+02:00

Good news for us RPG mappers: the promising blockmixing program with a 3D interface, TrackStudio, has gotten an unofficial model addon release adding nearly all the missing models (over 400). The models are made and released by HawkGer; the reason it's an unofficial release is that the creator of TS, tossha, hasn't been online for many weeks, and the models are a great resource that shouldn't be held inaccessible to mappers. It's important to notice that tossha has not validated these models yet, so there might be errors in them.

Here is an early introduction video to TrackStudio:

Download link, screenshots, comments and instructions are available in the RPG forum: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/251-unofficial-trackstudio-model-addon-400-new-models.html.

RPG blog 1 year anniversary

2010-08-05T14:35:00.000+02:00

It was around these days we started the blog last year (or at least made it public), and I must say that RPG has grown really big. We've gotten a forum, competitions, RPG resource pages, maany pages of RPG servers, an IRC channel, Mumble server, the RPG topic on TMX has over 100 pages and 60 000 views and there are over 2 000 RPG tracks on TMX. So, like we did at the end of 2009, here are some statistics from the blog (data from the end of July 2009 to 4th August 2010).

There are 117 posts on the blog, we've gotten 64 225 visits, 142 533 pageviews. Below is a graph of visitors per day the last year. Almost all pictures in this post has a bigger version you can see by clicking the it.

52.53% of our visitors use Mozilla Firefox, while 23.57% use Internet Explorer. 98.12% of our visitors use a Windows operating system and the most used screen resolution is (sadly) 1280x1024, with 21.40% of all the visits.

28.84% of the visists came from Google, 27.79% came directly, while 22.85% came from TMX.

The most used Google keywords that has led people onto the blog is "trackmania rpg", "trackmania rpg blog" and "rpg trackmania".

Our most popular pages are the front page (45 752 views), the mod page (27 003 views) and the overview of RPG tracks page (14 143 views).

Germany is the country giving most visits (15 383 visits), with France on the second place (8 707 visits) and Czech Republic on the third place with 5 201 visits.

You want to know more about "your" country, "your resolution" etc.? Drop me a comment ^^.

TMX Allround Champion: Results round 1

2010-08-03T13:19:00.005+02:00

The TMX Allround Champion (ARC) is a multi-style contest organized by Peteypablo7. The styles are tech, dirt, FS mini, FS, speedtech and RPG. The contest consists of five rounds, with one track from each style in every round. The hunters then have to hunt every map and submit replays. You get points based on what position your replays has after the time limit has expired, and every round (except this first, because of too few contestants), a certain amount of the lowest scoring hunters will fall out of the competition.

Of course, you already knew this since you pay attention to what's going on over at TMX, so I'm gonna bring you the results instead:

TMX Allround Champion: Results round 1

#	Nick	Points
1	B1ts	143
2	Dawe	135
3	Matza	134
4	Jofo	120
5	Kiyo	113
6	Egus	107
7	Griff	106
8	Realized2	95
9	Chuckn0rris	93
9	Mixalis	93
11	occam	78
12	Kedy	70
13	Dog.street	68
13	Chris	68
15	P!tyx	65
16	The 14th Jocker	62
17	Shortzz	58
18	Vklf	56
19	Hubby	51
19	Eie	51
21	Scitix	40
22	Samuelhip	39
23	Flo	34
24	Hoodie	31
25	Moutmout	30

.maX, the creator of masterpieces like Abandoned Factory and Poseidon's Wrath, made the first round's RPG map. The maps has to follow the naming style set by Petey, so it's called ARC - .maX. It's almost like a fullspeed RPG; very flowy and very easy, using the UtS mod.

Here's the exclusively released top 10 times from ARC round 1's RPG track:

ARC - .maX: Top 10 ARC times

#	Nick	Time
1	B1ts	04.12.01
2	Realized2	04.13.12
3	Mixalis	04.15.80
4	Kiyo	04.33.51
5	occam	04.36.21
6	Vklf	04.38.40
7	Jofo	04.39.78
8	Shortzz	04.43.41
9	Chuckn0rris	04.44.22
10	Dawe	04.46.50

So, congratulations to B1ts, Realized2 and Mixalis for very good times, and congratulations to B1ts, Dawe and Matza for the top 3 places ;)

Results of the RPG track building contest #2

2010-07-31T18:43:00.006+02:00

The voting for the RPG track building contest #2 has ended yesterday and the results are set. But first I want to thank all the people who voted: koek-trommel, kiter_g1234, luffy-greece, ZuLu, Tabasco, Realized2, Nyrbius, Tiji78, Tecfan, NomNom, MankeMongel, SideWinder, Speed, duiveltje1990, caveman3 and DIABLO-ITA.

Including me that's 17 people who combined submitted a total of 170 votes.
I hope all the voters had fun testing and judging the tracks and above all I too hope that the builders enjoyed creating tracks for this contest likewise.

Now for the interesting part. Here are the results:

1st Place:
Mahadevi's Gardens by Nunquam: 79,9 avg.

2nd Place:
Medusa by VKLF: 77,8 avg.

3rd Place:
Lutenx by Igntul: 75,4 avg.

4th Place:
Space Invaders by Fish: 74 avg.

5th Place:
Jamaica Island by moi57: 72,3 avg.

6: Building an RPG by rtv: 71,2 avg.
7: Spell my name by Stromek: 70,8 avg.
8: Kvwoos by Igntul: 68,3 avg.
9: Ming's Biosphere by Golo: 67,6 avg.
10: Bleakhouse by Popgun: 64,3 avg.
11: The Dragon Talisman by Trunks_11: 60,5 avg.
12: F.B.I Dossier 9117 by HouseKeepR: 60,3 avg.
13: TM cry II restricted area by Fish: 57,4
14: Mayan Temple by Promaxer: 57,2 avg.
15: Mysterious Box by Brainmaster: 50,5 avg.
16: Respect by Airon': 37,6 avg.

I would say that was a pretty close race, with only a 22 points difference between the first and 14th place. So congrats to Nunquam for winning the contest and VKLF, Igntul, Fish and moi57 for being close behind.

Prizes will be given out as following as soon as I have your logins:

40 000 coppers *
30 000 coppers *
15 000 coppers *
10 000 coppers
5000 coppers

*In case coppers cannot be received, we will send a Generations Digitales DVD

YouTube increases the upload limit to 15 minutes for all users

2010-07-30T11:57:00.003+02:00

Great news for us RPG players today from YouTube; I'll quote from their blog:

We want YouTube to be the best place to upload video. Without question, the number one requested feature by our creators is to upload videos longer than 10 minutes. We’ve heard you, and today we’re pleased to announce that we’ve increased the upload limit to 15 minutes.

The reason they finally raise the limit is because they feel confident that their content-ID system (the system that automatically disables videos with copyrighted music or video) is so good that they are no longer afraid of the piracy uploads. The reason they added the 10-minute limit in the first place was because people were uploading full TV-shows and movies.

For us RPG players, this means more GPS footage in one video, and less "wait for part 2 to load" ^^. (Remember, the 2GB upload limit was removed some time ago also)

New GPS video maker to subscribe to: Igntul

2010-07-28T23:34:00.001+02:00

For those of you who are interested in RPG GPS videos, there's a new GPS maker to subscribe to at YouTube. Igntul has recently gotten a new computer, and is obviously using it wisely; contributing to the community and spreading RPG even more. You can subscribe to his YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/igntul3.

Other "active" GPS posters include HawkGer, Tecfan and occam. If you know other RPG video makers worth subscribing to, post a comment :)

Tecfan's contest series #002: Guess the track #02 answer

2010-07-27T20:00:00.001+02:00

Here is answer from the Guess the track #02:

The correct answer was Project Kitchen, by Stromek. Other guesses included O Clock, Helliópoli and Puzzletime (2).

Tecfan's contest series (#002)

#	Nick	Points	Total
0	100% correct	1	2
1	occam	1	2
1	realized2	1	2
1	Dawe	1	2
1	Nøtt	1	2
1	Kiyo	1	2
1	Vklf	1	2
1	Igntul	1	2
1	Nunquam	1	2
1	HawkGer	1	2
2	Klody	0	1
2	mt17	1	1
2	eie	0	1
2	Jofo	0	1
2	Paul	1	1
2	TITI54	0	1
2	fabio_m	1	1
2	Mixalis	0	1
2	Kuba	1	1
2	Shorty	1	1
2	NomNom	1	1
2	B1ts	1	1

The next contest will come soon, and if you have any tips for what it might be, you can let me know in the comments or in the forum thread.

#RPG.tm - RPG channel on IRC/Quakenet

2010-07-26T19:05:00.003+02:00

I have started an RPG channel on IRC, so that we have a chat room like other communities have. If you don't know what IRC is; it's what everybody used before IM's like MSN and ICQ came along. A giant chat room with different networks and channels.

If you already have an IRC client, you can press this link to join our channel: irc://irc.quakenet.org/RPG.tm. Add #RPG.tm to your favorites and make it so you automatically join the channel every time you start IRC :).

For those of you who don't have an IRC client, read this:
To connect to the channel you need an IRC client; I prefer X-Chat 2. Download and install it with default options, and then open it. The first thing you will see is "XChat: Network List", select your nickname etc, and scroll down to "Quakenet" in the "Networks" list. Press it and press "Edit". Here you have to check the "Auto connect to this network at startup" checkbox. In the "Favorite channels" input, type "#rpg.tm" (with the #). Press "Ok", mark the "Skip network list on startup" checkbox and then press "Connect".

Now you will automatically connect to Quakenet and join our channel #RPG.tm every time you open Xchat.

So what can this be used for? Well; general chatting, asking for help, helping, direct contact with various RPG players, etc. In the next days I'll add a Q bot and maybe an RPG bot to help with normal questions.

Next Xaseco version to include support for really big times

2010-07-24T01:22:00.004+02:00

As we've all noticed, Xaseco is by default limited to 139:48.60 minutes, but in our simple hack, we were able to raise this to 279 minutes. However, even this has proven to be too little. Today, Xymph, the developer of today's Xaseco, told us that it is possible to raise the limit even more.

Here is a quote from TM-forum:

But (unsigned) Int should be more than adequate, as that can go up to 2G/4G millisecs or 596/1193 hours.
I'll change the tables in the next Xaseco release then, just for you RPG nuts. :P

So there we have it, Xymph has confirmed that for the next Xaseco release, we RPG players never have to worry about time limits again, unless you're aiming for Dedimania.

RPG - spell my name showcased on TMX

2010-07-23T17:23:00.002+02:00

Stromek's "Spell my name" is now showcased on the TMX nations front page. The TMX showcases are a good way for RPG to get even more known in the Trackmania world; for example, when Grizzli's "Jungle Valley" got showcased, it went from a modest 5 awards to 21 in a few days.

So go ahead and try the showcased track, or check out previous showcases.

Tecfan's contest series #002: Guess the track #02

2010-07-22T13:05:00.006+02:00

The answer is now out: http://trackmaniarpg.blogspot.com/2010/07/tecfans-contest-series-002-guess-track_27.html

Press the screenshot to see a larger version.

Can you see which track this is? I have changed the mod to make it a little harder for you. If you guess correctly, you will get 1 point in my contest series. The one with the most points in the end will win something (of very little significance). So, if you want to win, don't tell others what you guessed! Participants who posts the answer in a public forum will be disqualified.

So, take a guess. You can only guess ONE track, and you have to send it in a PM to me. Either send a PM to "Tecfan" on TMX or a PM to "Tecfan" on the RPG forum.

Remember, it's just for fun! I can't rule out cheating and abuse, so compete with yourself and don't rely on other people's answers.

General feedback and discussion thread for the contest series is available in the RPG forum. (Do not post the answer there!)

RPG track building contest #2 - Voting

2010-07-19T14:03:00.002+02:00

The building phase of the RPG track building contest #2 had ended two days ago. A lot of interesting tracks have been submitted; in total 16. Now it is time for you readers to decide which tracks shall be the winners of this contest.

To rate the tracks, you need to be registered on the RPG Forum and make a post in this particular thread: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/199-the-voting-thread-rate-the-contest-tracks.html

These are all the submissions in overview (sorted alphabetically) with TMX links:

Bleakhouse by Popgun
Building an RPG by rtv
F.B.I Dossier 9117 by HouseKeepR
Jamaica Island by moi57
Kvwoos by Igntul
Lutenx by Igntul
Mahadevi's Gardens by Nunquam
Mayan Temple by Promaxer
Medusa by VKLF
Ming's Biosphere by Golo:
Mysterious Box by Brainmaster
Respect by Airon'
Space Invaders by Fish
Spell my name by Stromek
The Dragon Talisman by Trunks_11
TM cry II restricted area by Fish

To learn more about the tracks and to discuss them, visit their individual presentation posts in the RPG track building contest 2 section: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/rpg-track-building-contest-2.html

A mappack including all submissions can be downloaded here: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/RPGt…submissions.zip

RPG Pub #2 server, hosting all the tracks: http://tecfan.nitrolinken.net/tm/tmtp.php?murdirt

Tecfan's contest series #001: Guess the track #01 answer

2010-07-19T11:15:00.005+02:00

Here is answer from the Guess the track #01:

The correct answer was Atlantis, by Meky. Other guesses included Area 51 and Seila.

Tecfan's contest series (#001)

#	Nick	Points	Total
0	100% correct	1	1
1	occam	1	1
1	realized2	1	1
1	Klody	1	1
1	Dawe	1	1
1	Nøtt	1	1
1	eie	1	1
1	Jofo	1	1
1	Kiyo	1	1
1	Vklf	1	1
1	TITI54	1	1
1	Igntul	1	1
1	Mixalis	1	1
1	Nunquam	1	1
1	HawkGer	1	1

The next contest will come soon, and if you have any tips for what it might be, you can let me know in the comments or in the forum thread.

RPG polls

2010-07-17T18:17:00.004+02:00

Over at the RPG forum, there's a number of polls going on, so if you haven't voted yet, get started:

Keyboard or pad? http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/113-poll-keyboard-or-pad.html
Your top 10 RPG tracks: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/108-poll-your-top-10-favorite-rpg-tracks.html
The best RPG's for beginners: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/p241-rpg-tracks-for-beginners.html#post241
Top 3 favorite HawkGer mods: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/p279-hawkger-presents-14-new-rpg-mods.html#post279

Tecfan's contest series #001: Guess the track #01

2010-07-13T23:42:00.005+02:00

Answer now out: http://trackmaniarpg.blogspot.com/2010/07/tecfans-contest-series-001-guess-track.html

This blog needs some activity, so I'll start a series of competitions, all for fun.

The one with the most points in the end will win something (of very little significance). So, if you want to win, don't tell others what you guessed! Participants who posts the answer in a public forum will be disqualified.

The first game is called "Guess the track", where I will show you a screenshot from an RPG, and you will tell me what track it is from.

Everybody who guesses the correct map will get 1 point.

Here is the first track:

Press the screenshot to see a larger version.

So, take a guess. You can only guess ONE track, and you have to send it in a PM to me. Either send a PM to "Tecfan" on TMX or a PM to "Tecfan" on the RPG forum.

Remember, it's just for fun! I can't rule out cheating and abuse, so compete with yourself and don't rely on other people's answers.

RPG track building contest #2

2010-06-16T22:00:00.003+02:00

After the success of the first RPG track building contest we are back with the second edition! Naturally, we have arranged to have a few alterations compared to the original contest to ensure that track builders are challenged with new and innovative concepts. We have also taken the RPG mod contest submissions and my recent mod creations as an opportunity for a mod-guideline. Keep on reading to find out what it is all about :-)

The prizes are:

40 000 coppers *
30 000 coppers *
15 000 coppers *
10 000 coppers
5000 coppers

*In case coppers cannot be received, we will send a Generations Digitales DVD

How it works:
This is an RPG track building contest, so we only accept tracks which qualifies as RPG's. The "definition" of an RPG track can be read under our "RPG introduction" page. RPG's are very diverse, so be creative.

This time the theme you will have to follow in order to qualify your track for the competition is 'backwards driving'. Meaning that you will have to build a section (or multiple sections) where the player is forced to drive backwards. This can be achieved through a trick in the MediaTracker which has not been used by any RPG yet (look below to see the video tutorial). A minimum of 25 blocks need to be driven backwards throughout the track. Once a block is touched by the car it counts as 1 block. Huge blocks (such as the arch's) also just count as one block. To give the driver a bit freedom to reposition himself, we allow a maximum forward speed of 40km/h in the backwards driving sections (trigger condition: speed > 40).

In addition, the second guideline is that we restrict the usage of mods to only the two RPG mod contest submissions and the 14 RPG mods HawkGer made; 16 mods in total to choose from. If your track does not have one of these mods assigned, it will be excluded from the competition. Small modifications to the mods are allowed. Hosting for these can be provided by HawkGer.

You can submit as many tracks as you like. You can also build duo tracks, but you only get one prize.

The deadline is 16th July. This is the last day you can submit your tracks for the competition.

In case there are any questions left on your part, you can post them here in this article or in this post on the RPG Forum.

Here's the tutorial on how to force players into driving backwards:

Rules

You have to have an auto-downloadable mod (use GBXDump to see if your track has one)
The mod needs to be one of the 16 stated mods (these + these)
A minimum of 25 blocks need to be driven backwards.
The track has to be minimum 5 minutes long
Submit the track before 16th July
All CP's must be respawnable (you can still have rings of course)
No blockmixing of CP's into eachother. Many servers will ban you if you drive through two CP's at the time, so don't do this! It might look very beautiful, but it will lead to this
Don't submit beta's or unfinished tracks!

Judging system:
After the 16th July every submitted track will get it's own thread in this subforum for presentation. Users will be able to discuss the tracks publicly. Voting will take place secretly though, only admins on the forum will be able to see the votes. Every registered user except the participants in the contest will be able to vote (from 0-100 points). Results will be revealed on 30th July.

Track building resources:
Guides:

Mods:

Submitting your track:
Upload your RPG to TMX. Remember to include [RPG] somewhere in the TMX name. Please also link back to this article in your track description. Then post the TMX ID or the EXTERNAL link to your track in this thread on the RPG Forum.

A list of trackbuilding tips

2010-06-16T21:19:00.001+02:00

The following list was compiled by Tecfan and me for the first RPG track building contest and it shows some of the building tips we had to offer, including things that we value and things we hate to see in RPG's. Because we think of it as a helpful resource, we decided to give the list it's own article. So here it is:

Don't over-do the MT!
MT can be wonderful for creating a good atmosphere. Enai Siaion's tracks are an example of that. But remember, forcing the player to drive with stupid cameras or making them sick by ever-changing colours is not a positive thing!

Mods
For an interesting atmosphere, use a mod that has not been used so much yet! You can even make your own. Have a look at our RPG mod overview. Also, follow this guide very closely. If you have made your own mod, you can just send me a message, and I will host the mod for you.

Story
A good story also shows that you can be creative, but we won't put much weight on this aspect. The important thing is that your track feels adventurous, even though there is no real "adventure" to go with.

Avoid ring rooms
Ever played Camateraz? For me and Hawk, that last room, with 1CP and 7-8 different rings which can not be taken in one "movement", is an instant turn-off. Ring rooms really ruin the flow of the track, so please avoid this. Of course, you can still use rings, just not make a room full of rings.

Atmosphere - you need one
This whole thing with atmospheres might confuse some. Basically, a track's atmosphere is the feeling you get when driving it. Try driving Cargo 714 or The day after, then you'll know what an atmosphere is. To create a good atmosphere, you need a mod and you need nicely built scenery.

Go cut-hunting!
Self-explanatory. A track's route can be ruined by cuts, so be sure to check for cuts when you make your map, and triple-check before validating it!

Repetition
Variate your tricks! Don't use the same building blocks all the time. For example, three wallride balancing parts in one track is just overkill.

Avoid bugs
With "avoid bugs" I mean two things: refrain from using Trackmania bugs as a part of your tricks, because most people don't know about them and will be stuck. The other thing, which is even more important, is the wall-balancing-2-CP-block bug. This is an extremely bothersome bug, which totally kills the flow of a track. Here's three screenshots of different versions of this bug: 1) Wallborder to CP block bug, 2) Wallborder to StadiumFabric bug (this is the block which makes a blue pattern on the ground), 3) Wallborder to wall border bug and 4) Wallborder to border block. Of course, this is only bad if the route goes on this. You can of course still decorate with wall borders on CP blocks, as long as we don't have to drive on them.

Music and sounds
... are not taken much consideration, but! Great use of sounds and music can really make the atmosphere a lot better.

Avoid confusion
There should never be any confusion as for which CP you are going to take next. Make sure it is only possible to take one CP at a time, or at least make it very obvious which CP is correct to take first. But please, make it challenging to find the CP's, I didn't say that you have to make your track easy :).

Avoid multilap starts
Multi-lap start blocks is something I personally dislike, because when driving online, there will be no autoreplay saved.

Beta test
As a builder, you already know where to go and where not to go. We as players have no idea. Therefore it is very important for you to test your track with other people, so you can see where people have trouble finding the path, or take wrong CP's etc. You can win a free, online beta test if you win one of the RPG round races. Keep an eye on the blog so you know when the next race is.

New mapping technology + blockmixing tutorials

2010-06-14T16:12:00.005+02:00

Two days ago MixD and CMC held a competition in which a new mapping technology was unveiled. With this new technology it is now possible to use the car handling of all seven environment cars in your track, no matter in which environment you build. How effective this new technology is for building Stadium RPG's with United car handling and if finally the combination of United tracks with the Stadium handling will boost United RPG's remains to be seen.
Naturally, players not in the possession of TMU cannot make use of tracks build with this technology.
Here's one example video of a Desert track with Stadium car:

It is not possible to convert existing track, that's why blank bases have to be downloaded (42 total): http://magnusknight.com/tm/envmix/

Advanced Water Mixing Tutorial
Have you ever wondered how it is possible to make water re-appear after it has been replaced by a block? If you do, Stromek has posted a very helpful tutorial on the RPG Forum: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/133-tutorial-advanced-blockmix-technique.html

Mixing outside the Stadium
Another tutorial dealing with blockmixing has been posted by Igntul, explaining how and under which restrictions it is possible to place blocks outside the stadium: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/135-tutorial-blockmixing-out-of-the-building-area.html

Transforming Landscapes
GSNPaul posted a very detailed guide on how to use variations and rotations of blocks in ChallengeEdit to create Dirt-landscapes. Anyone ever wanting to enrich their RPG's with those elements should follow that guide.
http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/147-advanced-mixing-with-landscape-blocks.html#post472

4freaks weekend RPG tournament #2

2010-06-07T14:53:00.003+02:00

Next weekend from Friday 11th to Sunday 13th there will be another 4freaks RPG tournament in TimeAttack on Heavens RPG. Beep posted info on TMX and on the RPG forum: http://www.trackmania-rpg.com/124-4f-weekend-rpg-2.html

Hey all RPG players

We announce the forthcoming opening of a tournament "4Freaks Weekend RPG 2" on HEAVENS RPG

Theme: Best awarded TMX

Opening date: Friday 11/06/2010 18:00 (6PM) CET (UTC+1/GMT+1)
Closing date: Sunday 13/06/2010 21:00 (9PM) CET (UTC+1/GMT+1)

The maps:
MONTEZUMAS TREASURE by TstarGermany (109 awards)
Sobékite by Kryw (71 awards)
THE GREAT ESCAPE by Fish (67 awards)
[RPG] Ex Gehenna 2 by Enai Siaion (64 awards)
[RPG] Four Powers by sebik1992 (59 awards)
Pyramids Of Giza [RPG] by HardDance (47 awards)

Rules:
Server is in TA mode
Round 1 hours
Jukebox is ON
Next map and restart vote is ON with 90%
Server is running and all record are saved by Xaseco
At the end of time, the classification is determined.

Prices:
1st: 5000 coppers + tag
2nd: 2000 coppers + tag
3rd: 1000 coppers + tag
4th: 500 coppers
5th: 500 coppers

and for player without tumf account, a tag ll be given for rank 1,2 and 3

See you soon on 4Freaks Weekend RPG 2
4Freaks Clan ^^

RPG round race 16

2010-06-06T18:27:00.000+02:00

RPG round race 16 - Saturday, 5th June 2010 20:00 (8PM) CEST (GMT/UTC+2) on Pixelsport RPG.

Track 1: T_robots + 05:00 minutes finish timeout (3 rounds)
Track 2: The day after + 20:00 minutes finish timeout (1 round)
Track 3: Thegreenhell + 45:00 minutes finish timeout (1 round)

Results
T_robots

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

#	Player	Time
1	HawkGer	03:52.64
2	realized2	03:52.70
3	Tecfan	04:03.59
4	Max	04:07.97
5	NomNom	04:24.57
6	B1ts	04:26.09
7	Nunquam	04:42.75
8	Robot	04:47.00
9	Pechic	04:56.75
10	Igntul	05:02.16
11	Vklf	05:02.25
12	Spirit	05:32.68
13	Tiji	05:41.76
14	Soso	05:45.43
15	Crash	06:34.15
16	medikart	07:06.04
17	parmalat	08:32.76

#	Player	Time
1	realized2	03:42.40
2	HawkGer	03:48.64
3	NomNom	03:51.86
4	Pechic	04:06.15
5	B1ts	04:10.47
6	Max	04:17.40
7	Igntul	04:17.66
8	Tecfan	04:23.44
9	ondra	04:27.87
10	moi57	04:29.84
11	Soso	04:32.02
12	Drunk Racer	05:05.85
13	Nunquam	05:30.52
14	Vklf	05:36.46
15	Joost	05:40.41
16	Spirit	05:51.31
17	vince	05:59.99
18	Crash	06:27.47
19	medikart	07:27.63
20	parmalat	07:28.72
21	Mighty	07:45.22

#	Player	Time
1	HawkGer	03:43.75
2	realized2	03:49.21
3	Tecfan	03:53.56
4	Dawe	04:08.63
5	NomNom	04:13.77
6	Mar	04:13.85
7	Soso	04:22.09
8	Max	04:27.13
9	ondra	04:32.16
10	Vklf	04:37.18
11	Igntul	04:44.04
12	Nunquam	04:45.92
13	Pechic	04:46.08
14	Freak	05:05.75
15	Impi(?)	05:11.55
16	vince	05:25.66
17	Tiji	05:58.92
18	B1ts	06:02.86
19	parmalat	06:04.25
20	Crash	06:19.01
21	deathracer	06:39.06
22	Drunk Racer	06:40.03
23	Sogard	06:47.22
24	Boobytrap	07:22.33
25	Mighty	07:29.43
26	Sir_Hans	08:07.57

The day after

Round 1

#	Player	Time
1	realized2	13:53.65
2	HawkGer	14:18.79
3	Tecfan	14:57.82
4	Max	15:09.73
5	NomNom	16:23.76
6	Soso	21:25.01
7	ondra	23:07.29
8	Igntul	23:57.99
9	Impi(?)	24:58.57
10	Pechic	27:04.43
11	B1ts	27:36.73
12	tossha	31:19.32
13	Vklf	31:19.56
14	Brainmaster	32:03.57

Thegreenhell

Round 1

#	Player	Time
1	realized2	30:31.06
2	HawkGer	31:52.58
3	Tecfan	31:55.74
4	moi57	34:03.65
5	Max	40:59.22
6	NomNom	40:59.65
7	tossha	44:52.47
8	Igntul	47:10.18
9	Simon	47:45.24
10	Brainmaster	63:34.96

Dedimania records

Track 1: T_Robots (RecordDate = 2010-06-05 18:35:36)
Track 2: The day after (RecordDate = 2010-06-05 19:16:57)
Track 3: Thegreenhell (RecordDate = 2010-06-05 20:27:37)

See GPS videos from the tracks of this round race

See an overview of all RPG round races

HawkGer presents: 14 new RPG Mods

2010-06-02T17:56:00.009+02:00

Seeing that my previous efforts to motivate the community to create new mods haven't resulted in much change and due to the fact that ideas for new mods flourished in my head, I felt very determined to create a bunch of mods myself.
In total I managed to create 14 distinctively different mods, ranging in themes from Ancient Civilisations to futuristic scenarios in space.
I recommend first watching this video which I put together, showing all the mods in an interesting and entertaining way:

You can download a 400mb .zip file including all the mods here: click!
Here are the individual downloads:

Ancient Maya mod
The Ancient Maya mod tries to resemble an atmosphere similar to that of the Mayan civilisations temple structures. The textures mostly consist of unstructured rock and brown ground pattern.
Locator links:

Ancient Maya mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/AncientMaya.zip (34.8MB)

A Romanorum Superbia mod
A Romanorum Superbia (Latin for A Roman's pride) aims to portray Temple-like structures of the Roman culture with the help of solid rock textures and ornaments.
Locator links:

A Romanorum Superbia mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/ARomanorumSuperbia.zip (31.8MB)

Imperial Palace mod
The Imperial Palace mod tries to illustrate and create the atmosphere of traditional Japanese/Chinese palaces.
Locator links:

Imperial Palace mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/ImperialPalace.zip (32.0MB)

The Pirate Bay mod
The Pirate Bay mod uses dark plank and rock textures with gold engravings to create a Pirate Bay atmosphere.
Locator links:

The Pirate Bay mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/ThePirateBay.zip (32.6MB)

Terra India mod
Terra India is a mod using many tile-textures in very colorful variation to create the atmosphere of Indian architecture.
Locator links:

Terra India mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/TerraIndia.zip (32.3MB)

Western Fortress mod
Western Fortress mod aims to simulate the ambience of the American Old West. It uses slightly abstract plank textures in the colour brown. A very interesting texture is also the road textures, depicting a train road.
Locator links:

Western Fortress mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/WesternFortress.zip (25.8MB)

African Tribes mod
The African Tribes mod takes you into the world of the African Tribes, aiming to especially recreate the setting of their cottages.
Locator links:

African Tribes mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/AfricanTribes.zip (27.8MB)

Dark Art mod
The Dark Art mod brings you into the underground, where darkness and graffiti's are commonplace. This mod probably fits best in closed and dense rooms.
Locator links:

Dark Art mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/DarkArt.zip (29.7MB)

Construction mod
With the use of clean wood and metal textures the Construction mod tries to model the ambience of a construction site.
Locator links:

Construction mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/ConstructionMod.zip (26.0MB)

Nature's Paradise mod
The Nature's Paradise mod takes you into the natural world where leaves and trees are dominant. Advanced alpha channels imitating branches and leaves enhance this experience.
Locator links:

Nature's Paradise mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/NatureParadise.zip (38.9MB)

Arctic Breeze mod
Arctic Breeze uses a lot of transparent textures and strong FXclouds in combination with ice textures to create an Arctic ambience. Dense architecture with lots of transparent blocks probably creates the most realistic scenario.
Locator links:

Arctic Breeze mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/ArcticBreeze.zip (25.6MB)

Broken Hull mod
The Broken Hull mod simulates the atmosphere of a broken spaceship. It mainly consists of one texture which is used all over again. The PlatformFloor and Fabric texture create the appearance of Forcefields and the strong FXclouds enhance the damaged atmosphere.
Locator links:

Broken Hull mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/BrokenHull.zip (24.1MB)

Toon mod
Toon Mod depicts a very abstract atmosphere in cartoon-style. The textures mostly have colours in the range of brown and grey. Recommended for tracks with dense building, for larger rooms the atmosphere will appear unnatural.
Locator links:

Toon mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/ToonMod.zip (24.4B)

Color Flash mod
Color Flash is a very abstract mod, consisting mostly only of basic colours and basic pattern. The Mipmap version uses even more colour variations and geometric structures. I do not necessarily recommend using that version as mipmaps tend to be displayed not very nicely in lower graphics.
Locator links:

Color Flash mod: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/ColorFlash.zip (16.3MB)
Mip map version: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/ColorFlashMipMap.zip (16.6MB)

Special thanks to Skeleton who gave me very useful information on the normal maps. Also thanks to Tecfan, Igntul and Hardarm for betatesting the mods!

RPG round race 16 - Tips & tricks

2010-05-30T22:20:00.003+02:00

T_Robots (driven by HawkGer)

The day after (driven by HawkGer)

Thegreenhell (driven by Tecfan)

GBXDump - An application to extract information of GBX files

2010-05-28T21:44:00.007+02:00

GBXDump is a utility for Trackmania which reads the content of GBX files and displays them for the user. Potentially useful could this be in the field of RPG to check if all media files are properly linked with a locator. Now the media files won't have to be deleted locally anymore to see if they load ingame, the only thing to be done is to check if the url is specified in the gbx.
Here's the message from Electron which he posted in the RPG Forum:

Hi community,

I would like to introduce my MS-Windows utility GbxDump to you.
The tool indicates all interpretable contents of any GBX Challenge and Replay file.

Besides the usual track information, like times and scores, all external dependencies are indicated.
Especially RPG tracks contain many of such links to mods, pictures, sounds, etc. By means of GbxDump these can be inspect very fast and easy.

More details, a screenshot and the download link can be found on my website:
http://www.wolfgang-rolke.de/gbxdump/

Introducing the RPG Forum

2010-05-21T14:35:00.001+02:00

With decreasing activity on this blog I'm pleased to report that an offspring of this blog, which was developed by Tabasco and me, just opened it's doors: The RPG Forum

The forum is mainly seperated into two sections; one for sharing knowledge and the other for presenting your creations. Especially for the "creations"-section we are hoping to gain some momentum as it offers, unlike the RPG Blog, a free way to share your beloved creations which is accessable for everyone.

We also implemented a Projects & Beta subforum in which you can seek feedback on unfinished projects (beta tracks for example), find people who want to collaborate with you and propose completely new projects.

The RPG Blog work & Discussion subforum is where you can send in articles to be published on the RPG Blog, offer your help on updates or simply share your opinion of the RPG Blog.
At this point I would like to thank Nunquam and B1ts for offering their help on updating the tracktable, thx guys!

A very interesting feature, which is reserved for registered users only, is the Forum's Database.
This database supports direct linking of media files, meaning that you can use the sounds, images, signs etc. which you uploaded to the database as a locator in your track. The database comes with certain limitations, read the instructional post therefore.

...and many more things worth checking out. So why not register right now and say hello? :-)

MoonBase Mod by Sol666 + Ra Mod by Stromek

2010-05-09T17:31:00.015+02:00

Voting is closed, results at the end of the article !
I have been waiting a little longer than originally planned for the presentation of the first mods that were submitted for the RPG community mod contest and unfortunately, due to seemingly very little interest in this contest, the following two mods from Sol666 and Stromek will be the last ones I'm going to present. Thanks a lot you two for putting the effort into participating in this contest!

Author: Sol666
Mod download: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/MoonBase.zip(28.4mb)

There are 149 modified textures, the following are taken from Lunar Cross:
StadiumDirt1.dds
StadiumDirt2.dds
StadiumDirtRoad.dds
StadiumDirtRoadBorder.dds
StadiumGrass1.dds
StadiumGrass2.dds

Furthermore, I modified StadiumRoadGrid.dds from the original Nadeo textures to create my StadiumRoad and StadiumFabric textures.

Author's description:

As I am a science-fiction fan, I like to build sci-fi themed mods. In this case, I updated one of my old mods (Lunar Cross) which originally contained only dirt textures.
This mod is meant to simulate a moon base, so I used a lot of (rusty) metal textures, basically with the colors grey and yellow. I changed the light settings to very bright light and a dark sky, as the moon has no atmosphere. In night and sunset mood, there is a decent mip map effect on the StadiumFabricL: light is white in the distance, yellow when you get closer. I'd recommend sunset or night mood to make use of the changed lightmaps.
As I also wanted to use this mod for dirt tracks, which are usually very open, it is designed for closed rooms as well as for open scenery. There should be a lot of possibilities to use it in sci-fi based RPG maps, especially the outside atmosphere is very authentic I think.

Author: Stromek
Mod download: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/Ramod.zip(14.7mb)
Textures modified: 131
Special texture: the dirt texture is real sand from the river Sázava

Author's description:

As you can see I tried to create a mod that it's atmosphere reminds forgotten Egyptian times, so you can find a lot of Egyptian symbols and letters. The mod is very colorful, containing also some transparent parts, which are a bit stained so you can see through them.
I also tried to apply more spectatulars maps for some textures, but the result is only visible with PC3 setting.
There is also different color of the sky and clouds in the Day mood.
Mod is primary designated for all temple-styled tracks, with many tombs, big rooms etc.

Voting:

So at this point I would like to encourage you readers to examine the mod and then rate it based on your experience. Look at the description of the mod, watch the videos and maybe even try to build an RPG with it ingame.
Some things you could base the vote on: Uniqueness of the theme, quality of the textures, generated atmosphere, implementation in RPG tracks, integrity of the mod etc.
Voting is open till thursday (13.05.10). You can vote by leaving a comment on this acticle or sending a message to HawkGer. I only require your rating (from 0-10 points), your trackmania login (to prevent spam) and maybe a small personal comment if you like.
Thanks to everyone who participates :-)

Results:

MoonBase Mod (5 ratings): 9.1 points average
Ra Mod (8 ratings): 8.7 points average

Congrats to both for such high scores! Sol666 will receive 9.1k sooppers and Stromek 8.7k :-)

RPG Rounds Race 'United Nations Edition'

2010-04-27T06:03:00.041+02:00

all dates and times refer to CEST (Central European Summer Time) = Paris, Oslo, Prague, Rome, Amsterdam, Berlin,...

Races will be held on RPG United (rpgunited) and TM Classics (rpgmania)

Thursday

Training United · A Dragons' Tale
Thu 18h -19h30 --> Play on RPG United

Training Nations · Karnak
Thu 20h -21h30 --> Play on TM Classics

Friday

Start on the United Server for the TimeAttack Race will be
TA Race Friday, April 30th 18h Track: A Dragons' Tale

Start on the Nations Server for the TimeAttack Race will be
TA Race Friday, April 30th 20h Track: Karnak

Saturday

Start on the United Server for the RPG Rounds Race 'United Nations' will be
ROUNDS Race Saturday, May 1st 18h Track: A Dragons' Tale

YouTube --> A Dragons' Tale

Start on the Nations Server for the RPG Rounds Race 'United Nations' will be
ROUNDS Race Saturday, May 1st 20h Track: Karnak

YouTube --> Karnak

for Friday and Saturday there will be a password, although it will
not be extremely secretive^^ the PW will also be in the server name :- )

PW = fun (password = fun)

all dates and times refer to CEST (Central European Summer Time) = Paris, Oslo, Prague, Rome, Amsterdam, Berlin,...

Resutls Friday

Results Saturday

Modding Video Tutorials

2010-04-11T15:40:00.012+02:00

When announcing the RPG community mod contest I wrote that I would be posting 80 minutes of video tutorials soon. It has taken a while to finish them up but here they are finally:

This 10min long video shows on which surfaces the textures are being displayed ingame:

The following video shows some examples of already existing textures (2 parts):

Part 2:

This video is the first part of a 44min long video tutorial showing basically all the steps necessary in order to properly edit textures and create a good-looking mod.
Make sure to have annotations activated, else you won't see my explanations.

Part 1: Acquiring textures and images, Preperations, Editing StadiumPlatformD.dds, Seamless Tiling

Part 2: Seamless Tiling, Blending Images, MIP map effect, Normal and Specular maps, Avoiding Shadow Bugs, Creating the zip-file

Part 3: Editing StadiumCircuitD, StadiumFabricD and FabricFloorD, Creating Alpha Channels

Part 4: Editing StadiumPlatformFloorD, StadiumRoadD and StadiumWarpAuvent2D, Advanced Alpha Channel editing

Part 5: Packing the mod, Testing

The following two videos show how to create batch-jobs with which you will only need to make a few mouseclicks to edit 100's of textures:

Part 2:

I hope I was able to provide you guys with a bit of insight and knowledge into environment modifications. I'm not really an expert on this field either - I only have created one proper mod so far - so in case there are errors I have made in those videos feel free to correct me =)

Introducing the RPG community mod contest

2010-03-31T22:26:00.006+02:00

Here at the RPG Blog we like to provide resources which make the building-process for authors easier and more efficient; specifically we regard mods as one of the most important ones, giving authors a good variety of themes to choose from. Noticing that recently the rate of newly released mods has dropped, we decided to start a contest with which we will hopefully be able to showcase a new series of mods!

We will be giving out a total of 100k coppers in prizes; read the voting section for details.

How it works in a nutshell:

Create a mod
The mod gets presented in a post
Our readers will rate the mod

1. Create a mod:
This is a very open contest. No specific guideline or theme needs to be followed, giving your creativity free space. Make sure that there exists a certain consistency in your choice of textures though; mods with completely random textures which do not follow any theme will be disqualified.
There are two restrictions which need to be followed:
- More than 30 edited texture-files need to be included in your mod. There are 290 textures available for editing so this shouldn't be too much of a challenge ;)
- The following textures must be included in your mod: StadiumPlatformD.dds, StadiumPlatformFloorD.dds, StadiumCircuitD.dds, StadiumWarpAuvent2D.dds, StadiumFabricD.dds

Once your mod is finished, upload it to a webserver or filehost (for example http://drop.io/) and send me the link on my TMX Account HawkGer or by E-mail to hawkger@gmail.com
I will upload the mod then to a webserver for public use.

2. The Presentation:
Every mod will be presented in an individual post including a description and a video.

The small description I will write myself, though I (and probably the readers too) would prefer if the author of the mod would write it himself. Some topics you could be talking about:

The theme of the mod/atmospheric intention
Field of application on RPG tracks (i.e suited for open or closed tracks?, which scenery fits best?, which layout?, ideas on MT and story)
Recommended mood-setting
Your background as a modmaker
Special technical info on the mod

To create the video I require you to send me a replay-file which needs to be driven on an RPG track; an already existing one or a newly made track (minimum 3min length). The replay doesn't need to have your mod assigned so you can take almost any replay of an RPG track from TMX (or drive the replay yourself) and send it to me.
The readers will base their vote hugely on this replay(video) so make sure the replay is optimal for presenting your mod.
Info: If you want to see for yourself how the mod looks on your replay, you have to delete the replay's original mod from your local folder and rename the .zip-file of your contest-mod to the name of the original mod. Ingame you will see your textures applied then.

3. The voting and prizes

As soon as the presentation is published, our readers will get the chance to rate the mod.
They can rate the mod in points ranging from 0-10. Coppers will be giving out in relation to the points, so for example a score of 8.7 will make the the author of the mod get 8700 Coppers :-)
Authors without a United-Account can participate but they won't be ably to receive any prize (coppers)
13k coppers were donated by fallen.soul, 7.5k by DasEimer and 4k coppers by Tossha, the rest I will finance myself. Thanks a lot for those donations!

The rules:

Only Stadium mods are allowed
The mod needs to follow some kind of theme
It needs to contain at least 30 edited textures including the 5 mandatory textures listed above
A replay of min. 3min length needs to be provided
Already existing textures from other mods can be used. It needs to be mentioned in the description though.

I will start presenting mods in three weeks in a random order. The contest will end once the 100k coppers have been giving out. Happy modding everyone!

Resources
Presentation example
80min. of video tutorials
Basic mod-tutorial
Mipmap-effect texture guide
Our mod overview page

Portal Mod [Example] - RPG community mod contest

2010-03-31T22:24:00.007+02:00

The following mod-showcase is an example of a submission for the RPG community mod contest. As it solely functions as an example, it won't be rated by the readers and the mod creator [me] won't receive any coppers.

Mod download: http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/Portal.zip(13mb)
Textures modified: 53
Textures taken from other mods: StadiumFXShadows.dds (GMU)

Author's description:

My primary motive while designing the Portal mod was to create a mod that could resemble the atmosphere of the equally named game from Valve. That means: very clean textures with few colors, a technological feeling and extreme transparency on certain textures. One could build a Portal-themed RPG with this mod but of course also other themes could fit, for example a biolab. The mod looks best in day mood and within closed rooms. StadiumPlatformD and StadiumPillarD have MipMap effects which are supposed to enhance the technological feeling.

Voting:

At this point you (the readers) would be able to vote the mod now, ranging from 0-10 points and coppers would be given out accordingly to the creator of the mod. Voting for this mod is disabled but you could still leave a comment telling if you like the mod :-)

4freaks weekend RPG tournament

2010-03-28T09:52:00.000+02:00

The 4freaks clan with Beep and Fish as the organizer will hold an RPG tournament the next weekend. Unlike in our regular round races there will be used the TimeAttack mode in this tournament so it should provide a fresh feeling and lots of fun! Here is Beep's invitational message:

Hey all RPG players

We announce the forthcoming opening of a tournament "4Freaks Exclusive Weekend RPG" on HEAVENS RPG.
Opening date: Friday 2/04/2010 18:00 (6PM) CET (UTC+1/GMT+1)
Closing date: Sunday 4/04/2010 21:00 (9PM) CET (UTC+1/GMT+1)

TMCry by Fish
Tenochtitlan by Fish
Amarna by Fish
Drops srcolls on Sobekite by Fish
T Robots by Fish/Stromek
Atlantiss by Fish
Mars Attacks by Fish
Il nome della rosa by Fish
Mansion of madness by Fish/Hardarm
Beep's cake by Beep
...and a surprise by Fish

Rules:
Server is in TA mode
Time limit: 2 hours
Jukebox is ON
Next map and restart vote is ON with 90% ratio
Server is running and all records are saved by Xaseco.
At the end of time, the classification is determined.

Prices:
5000 coppers
2000 coppers
1000 coppers
500 coppers
500 coppers

and for player without TMUF account, a tag will be given for rank 1,2 and 3.

See you soon on 4Freaks Exclusive Weekend RPG
4Freaks Clan ^^

RPG round race 15 (GM edition)

2010-03-20T14:56:00.004+01:00

RPG round race 15 (GM edition) - Saturday, 20th March 2010 20:00 (8PM) CET (UTC+1/GMT+1) on Pixelsport RPG.

Track 1: czakram + 15:00 minutes time limit
Track 2: Abenteuer 3 + 20:00 minutes time limit
Track 3: Abou Simbel + 40:00 minutes time limit

I think we got a new player record this time - over 80 players playing simultaneously! A very high number of finishers on czakram. And finally, Hawk didn't win anything :D

Results

Track 1: czakram

Track 2: Abenteuer 3

Track 3: Abou Simbel

#	Player	Time
1	realized2	07:07.59
2	Drunk Racer	07:25.22
3	HawkGer	07:26.91
4	Soso	07:32.15
5	Kiyo	07:35.82
6	LEXX	08:08.47
7	White	08:09.03
8	Tecfan	08:13.16
9	Kedy	08:26.74
10	Mar	08:31.36
11	Noka	08:40.73
12	Vklf	09:02.40
13	Teddy	09:30.12
14	VaGaB496	09:47.27
15	Igntul	10:29.50
16	Maraboo2000	10:32.05
17	Voyager006	10:49.98
18	Brainmaster	10:54.07
19	Klody	10:56.24
20	Robin	11:17.22
21	Tintin	11:18.21
22	Monstha	12:15.48
23	MesS	12:24.21
24	Plox Box	13:06.80
25	mt17	14:08.73
26	crash	15:39.65
27	nixonii	17:05.09
28	Unknow	17:41.17
29	Waritor	19:37.73
30	ikano	19:38.46
31	sogard7	19:59.75
32	sylian_break	21:57.66

#	Player	Time
1	Tecfan	08:31.99
2	realized2	08:36.44
3	HawkGer	09:34.66
4	Mar	09:50.62
5	Kiyo	09:58.72
6	Klody	10:27.23
7	Drunk Racer	10:45.05
8	LEXX	10:45.98
9	Dawe	10:46.61
10	MagicMan	11:54.23
11	Noka	12:41.71
12	Vklf	12:49.67
13	Robin	13:25.95
14	mt17	15:03.34
15	Soso	15:53.32
16	Tintin	17:49.21
17	White	18:01.85
18	Kris	19:43.36
19	DasEimer	22:27.77
20	Grimgor	26:15.66
21	Vince	28:07.45
22	weaveworld	28:25.97

#	Player	Time
1	Tecfan	19:33.01
2	realized2	22:42.59
3	HawkGer	23:31.06
4	Kiyo	24:56.09
5	Drunk Racer	26:58.42
6	Dawe	27:59.24
7	Kedy	31:54.35
8	Mar	35:01.64
9	Vklf	36:27.88
10	Noka	38:08.99
11	Grimgor	48:38.99
12	Igntul	49:16.94

Dedimania records

Track 1: czakram (RecordDate = 2010-03-20 19:28:24)
Track 2: Abenteuer 3 (RecordDate = 2010-03-20 20:02:04)
Track 3: Abou Simbel (RecordDate = 2010-03-20 21:07:27)

See GPS videos from the tracks of this round race

See an overview of all RPG round races

New RPG's - week 10 and 11 [2010]

2010-03-18T16:53:00.001+01:00

It has been a long time since we last showcased tracks on this blog - I will try to cover some RPG's of the past two weeks :-)

The Cydonia Incident
Just freshly released, this newest RPG from Sol666 is a sequel to his story track "Cydonia" and takes place on the mars to which one is send to repair an antimatter reator which caused the planet to drift into an asteroid belt. Like in his previous RPG tracks, sol666 makes heavy use of MT and 3D Skins which are incorporated into the story (i.e. an asteroid, a spaceship etc.). Very cleverly he also managed to mark invisible water with 3D skins and applied MipMapping on those skins, which looks fantastic in my opinion! The track uses the self-made Cydonia mod which sol666 updated to make it ready for the use on RPG tracks.
The route is more adventurous and longer than in sol's previous RPG's. It is still basic though and can thus be enjoyed by all players - meeting the expectations of drivers and story enthusiasts likewise.

TMX ID: 2477073
Difficulty: Intermediate
AT: 16:03.57
First-time length: 30-60 minutes

The energetic platforms:

The exit into space:

Factory Catacombs
This new RPG from Katodik was uploaded two days ago. As one can guess from the track's name it's location is aimed to resemble an old rusty factory. Like almost all of Katodik's tracks it has a custom made mod applied, the Rusty Factory mod. It gives a somewhat similar atmosphere like the Metal Stadium mod from .maX, has a much greater level of detail though. The track's design hasn't got many similarities to the RPG track Abandoned Factory, which one might have in mind when playing the track: the rooms are much more dense and small, blockmixing is used on the highest level (Abandoned Factory hasn't got a single mix^^).
Be sure to check out the track though and get your own impression!

TMX ID: 2475666
Difficulty: Advanced
AT: 13:57.78
First-time length: 40-70 minutes

Miner Tedd
This track is Teddy's third RPG-track, released on the 13th march. After a castle- and a forest-theme on his previous RPG's he now chose to try himself on a miner-theme, creating a very realistic mine-structure in the process. He achieved this mainly by keeping the track very open, creating hallways that lead to previous (already driven) sections, like shafts being connected to each other. Of course most of the action takes place under ground. The mod he used is, who could have guessed, the Manic Miner mod from Katodik. The track is very beginner-friendly and suited for people who like to search a little longer for the way ;)

TMX ID: 2462397
Difficulty: Beginner
AT: 08:29.86
First-time length: 30-60 minutes

A collapsed mine:

Scarbiec Imperium
This RPG from Jurek was released on the 6th March and follows the line of the classical styled RPG's. It uses the GMUltimate v2 mod, has a very beatiful temple structure with an atmospheric scenery and a lot of creative tricks which are partly accomplished through the use of very original mixing. If you like the classical adventure tracks, then this one is surely for you!

TMX ID: 2438356
Difficulty: Intermediate
AT: 16:01.15
First-time length: 40-80 minutes

Al-Zahrain
As the last track I like to present Al-Zahrain, Stromek's newest track and also a temple-inspired RPG which was released almost two weeks ago. You take on the role of an archeologist and have to make your way into the tomb to find the treasure of Al-Zahrain. Not only will the tricks and the pathfinding make it hard for you to find this treasure, Stromek also implemented some traps with the help of MT. Custom 3d models are used to make the experience of falling for those traps even more exciting, along with some oversized models for the ambience. Whoever wanted to touch the sphinx in real life but couldn't do it, this track gives you the opportunity to try it out virtually now^^

TMX ID: 2433826
Difficulty: Advanced
AT: 14:36.28
First-time length: 50-80 minutes

The glorious view on the sphinx from the startsection:

RPG round race 15 (GM edition) - Tips and tricks

2010-03-14T14:42:00.002+01:00

czakram

Abenteuer 3

Abou Simbel (part 1)

Abou Simbel (part 2)

3D models conversion tutorial - extending model sizes

2010-03-08T21:26:00.035+01:00

This article is written by sol666, his second tutorial on the RPG blog. This time he explains how to "hack" Nadeo's Maxbox to create custom models larger than the standard maximum size. Understanding and reproducing this tutorial will require the possession of 3dsmax and prior knowledge of 3D modelling in TM. I made a short video to show some examples:

A short guide on how to convert 3d models bigger than Nadeo's maxbox

First of all, I assume you know how to create / import models for TM in general, so I leave this unexplained.

Step 1: import / build your model and finish it (position, size, object names, textures,...)

Step 2: place all pivots at 0,0,0 (might not be necessary, but I prefer doing that for easier downscaling / not having to move the complete model after scaling. So this might not work for moving parts although I didn't try yet). Affect pivots only!
Press the image to see a larger version.

Step 3: Reset xform to all objects of the oversized model.

Step 4: re-convert all objects into editable mesh and export the complete model to *.3ds (export might not be necessary, but I sometimes had trouble when not doing that)

Step 5: import the oversized model into a new empty scene.

Step 6: switch to pivots mode, resize all objects to fit into Nadeo's maxbox (affect object only!). I always resize each object on its own, never all together. Having placed pivots at 0,0,0 is a big advantage then. You can simply scale each object down to xx percent. better scale it much too small than a little too big ;)
Press the image to see a larger version.

Step 7: import a working 3d model (also helpful to see if the downscaled object fits into maxbox). Delete everything of it except one object. rename this object to some unused name (i always use sDummy).

Step 8: switch to vertex mode and delete everything of that new object except a vertex ( you can also leave the complete object, but that might look strange ingame ;) )

Step 9: mark all objects, switch to pivots mode and reset, transform and scale.
Press the image to see a larger version.

Step 10: export as .3ds and convert with TM (remember you need MainBody.gbx and MainBodyHigh.gbx, so you might need to do this for two models...)

That's all, hope I was able to help someone.

Cheerz, sol666 / =RR= arian sunnO)))

MT trigger conditions tutorial

2010-03-06T19:00:00.003+01:00

The following article is written by sol666, an author who just recently tapped into the field of RPG with his first RPG-tracks Apocalyptic Hybrid, Orion Invasion and Ghouls. He was so kind to create a tutorial explaining a specific MT feature he used in these tracks, so many thanks sol666 for sharing this knowledge!

Here is a short guide on how to use conditions in Trackmania's mediatracker.

I'm sure you all know how to place triggers in the mediatracker and how to make them do something, so I won't explain that.
What maybe not all of you know is that these triggers can have the following conditions, which you can change by simply clicking on it:

- none (standard)
- racing time <> x (does not work online!)
- already triggered x
- speed <> x
- not already triggered x

Now "already triggered" and "not already triggered" are those of interest. If you have ever wondered about the number behind that condition, the answer is very simple. It is the id of the trigger, which gives the condition. When placing a trigger in mediatracker, it automatically gets a unique id, starting from zero. So the first trigger you set gets id "0", second trigger gets id "1", ... really simple. And basically, that's all you need to know :)

Here is a short example how to use these conditions ingame, taken from my map Orion Invasion:

Let's assume the following situation (you come from the cp in the middle of the pic and drive "north"): An area of the track is guided by a motion detector (red). You can't pass without having the code to deactivate it. This is how i did it:

First I set the following triggers:

id 1: contains the alert / blackscreen (red)
id 2: contains the message that you used your key (not really necessary, just information...) (yellow)
id 3: contains the key you need to pass (green)

Trigger 1 now should only be activated, if you haven't found the code (trigger 3) yet. So I set its condition to "not already triggered 3".

Driving there without having passed trigger 3, you get an alert. Having passed trigger 3, nothing happens.

Trigger 2 gives you the message, that you used the code and deactivated the motion detector. As this should only happen after you found the code, I set it to "already triggered 3".

Driving there without having passed trigger 3, nothing happens. Having passed trigger 3, you get the message.

Trigger 3 now doesn't need any conditions in this case. It simply informs you that you found the code you need to pass trigger 1.

And that's basically all. Surely it gets a bit more complicated when there are more CP's between the triggers. There are a lot of possibilities on how to use this, I think. It's just up to you / your creativity.
For the programmers of you: a big disadvantage of this method is, that it only allows "if-cases". There is no "else". And hell, I would have needed "else-cases" a couple of times.

A useful tip: name all triggers you place with the id it has, just as i did. It really helps a lot when you have pages full of conditions. On this very track I used 41 ingame triggers, and I would have been lost without knowing which id does what.

Hope I was able to bring some light into the darkness of mediatracker conditions ;)

Cheerz, sol666 / =RR= arian sunnO)))

Interview with Golo and showcase of his new Bay RPG

2010-03-01T16:54:00.015+01:00

More than two months ago the German TM-blog Tmaniacs published an interview-article in which Golo gives answers to a wide range of topics regarding RPG, making the interview especially interesting as Golo is one of the only few authors who builds United RPG-tracks. I found this piece of writing so interesting that I decided to translate all of it into English so that a broader audience can read it. So if you like to know more about Golo and his ideas on RPG and TM in general, keep on reading!

Hello Golo! Could you first give out a few words to our readers about you personally?

Sure. In Trackmania I'm known as Golo, but in real life I have a prettier name of course, namely Arno. I live on the outskirts of Berlin and currently occupied with my A-level examinations which goes quite well so far. My exact age I don't want to tell but it is somewhere between sixteen and eighteen. On the further course of my life though I do not have any specific concept yet. Apart from that I'm playing piano and football but also enjoy other sports such as badminton. Moreover I like writing articles.

How did you get into the world of Trackmania? How did things proceed after that?

The Tm-World; that's certainly a fascination itself. Actually I find it rather odd during my down-periods how a few blocks can get you occupied for so long. Back then,a long time ago, I read an article about the very first Trackmania which also happened to receive a very good rating. The cover with that extremely long track and with the many extreme blocks impressed me. That is why I instantly bought the game. Even though the game experience wasn't really the way I had expected, it did provide a really big appeal for me.
Early on I already had contacts to a server on which long tracks were driven. That seemed to have shaped me a lot; at least I was impressed by their creativity and wanted to replicate it myself. The editor has therefore always been of most significance for me. Somewhat later on I also bought the successors Nations and Sunrise which didn't occupy me too much though. In Trackmania United I then, for the first time, had enough experience to build good tracks on my own and to publish them. Since then I'm more or less active.

"More or less", how do you mean that? And what is your point of view towards the future with TM2?

I meant that occasionally I did not have motivation anymore to continue driving or building and as a consequence ruthlessly turned away from the community. It happens to many players I think...but one still eventually returns. Momentarily I'm playing again a bit more TM. About TM2 I'm not able to tell much yet. Didn't really inform myself more detailed about it but I believe there are only a few information available anyway. Those sound very interesting and the video makes a good appearance too, concerning graphics etc. But for me there still remains the most significant factor; that the key-principals of TM won't be thrown over. Thus I stay sceptical for now.

As you already mentioned trackbuilding is your main activity in TM. Which are the best tracks of yours in your opinion and why?

The way I see it is that my tracks, despite big differences, have a very consistent quality. Whereby one cannot compare the long-tracks, especially Inca Temple with all the other mass-produced tracks. Needless to say I'm insofar the most proud of Inca Temple because I put the most work into that track. But I generally also regard the track as having turned out very well. From the other tracks I probably like Bite before you bark the most because it expresses my rather crazy side.

Good you mentioned those two tracks since I would argue those were the beginning of your "RPG-career".

Yes one could look at it that way; I wouldn't really call those few RPG-tracks a "career" though. At the time I was inspired from the stadium RPG-tracks but as I thought that I couldn't do them much better anyway, I tried to be the first to create a United-RPG which I succeeded with halfway decent.
Afterwards I got the urge to try it in the Stadium environment nevertheless, but that is bound to a lot of work and is really difficult to build. And by now it is essentially impossible to surpass the best tracks in any way. Therefore I rather tried to continue building United-RPG's. I hope that this will be received well.

With that we come to an important (for me not understandable) issue. The RPG-community takes place nearly completely in the stadium-environment, why is that?

Well, I want to be honest and simply think that TMNX has the better trackbuilders. Even though all the Non-RPG's do not appeal to me the least one cannot overlook the fact that they are build very detailed. Seemingly every nuance (for example in the scenery) is being thought about twice. This certainly is due to the bigger TMN-community in which more trackbuilders build tracks on the highest level. Primarily they do not back off from a little spare time work, though. One can notice this from the numerous, long and quite perfectly build PF-tracks which surely require a lot of work. The same applies for RPG tracks. I just do not think that many TMUX-user would spend so much energy to build a perfect RPG track. And in TMNX there only exists stadium as an environment.
The crucial point is probably though that stadium is also somehow perfectly suited for it. I can not imagine that Nadeo has ever thought of doing this, the more crazy it is how well, for example a perfect temple atmosphere can be created. One can easily build enclosed rooms; by adding a mod it then really looks like an authentic building. Even the handling of the cars is almost perfect for such tracks too, there are many tricks and challenges which are suitable for those tracks. In other environments it is difficult to create something like rooms. For example I first tried it in Snow but the only solution was to create one huge room in which everything takes place. And apart from that everything is also just not as perfect as in Stadium. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that it is also possible in other environments. The growing number of United-RPG's confirms this (if you type RPG into TMX), even though the total number is of course still very low.

What do you think must happen so that more TMU-RPG-tracks will be build? Is it only "take away the laziness", or how how some TMU players would put it: to become a no-lifer? Or could there be other ways?

Surely it must not necessarily be build more United RPG's but it would be nice of course. Well now, I think that it is generally difficult since users who are mainly active on TMUX do not witness much of the Stadium RPG's and would likely not play those tracks till finish. If one namely picks up a particularly hard RPG-track it can be very deterring. I believe it is not in any case of need to become a no-lifer if one divides the time and especially at United-environments the building process is, from my experience, substantially shorter. I think it would be quite a good animation if a few good TMU-RPG's would be released, as they would be driven by people who in return might get inspired themselves to build a similar track. I do not hold high hopes for this though. And due to TM2 the time is additionally limited. How it is going to be in TM2 we will have to see. I do think though that RPG's will fade into the background at first as there will already be enough to discover.

RPG-mapping, also a field of activity because one has "enough from the rest"?

Hmm, yes, I think one always needs some advance in order to not get bored. This indeed worked out at first in TMX-United; the jumps got shorter and smoother, new ideas were added, until the transition-maps came. I have absolutely nothing against transition-maps and found them pretty cool at first, but then it eventually got exaggerated which was rather a step backwards.
Then came a period that could be described as a split. Some cheerful kept on building 'Island-Ideal Line-Transition-Maps' while others as a counter-movement again very simple old-school funmaps. Thereby I think it would have been possible to break new grounds, for example with tracks in which one has to get used to the brakes; tracks which do not run quite as smooth...just to give an example. But I saw no progress anymore and no attraction. Along with it important personalities became inactive which let me to visit TMNX. But I must say that RPG-tracks would have charmed me also with a better United-community and then would have forgotten the rest.

Can we expect to see you increasingly on normal tracks in the future?

Actually, I cannot say anything to this; my mood changes so quickly. First of all I don't even know if I will generally be increasingly active. But a new one minute long track would also be cool once again, if I can actually do that still.

I would not doubt that. Yet again regarding another topic which interests me, namely the building process of an RPG-track: When you're in the editor in front of the empty area and want to build an RPG-track, how do you go ahead?

In the editor I do not stand in front of a blank area and think to myself "Hmm, well, let's just start building"; the way I actually do it on many other tracks. You really need a distinct concept in advance and must ask yourself: What can be displayed in the editor the best? What would look the most authentic? Ultimately the goal is to get away from Trackmania as far as possible. At best, one should think to be in another game. One also needs to be concerned about, preferably innovative challenges, tricks and enigmas which need to be implemented into the mentioned atmospheric background. A certain harmony should be established which is only possible within specific scenarios though.
During the actual construction I must admit that I so far in my three stadium-tracks composed only very simple scenarios. Constructing a temple is therefore relatively easy because it's just a giant cube or cuboid in which inside one can create whatever wanted. Partly open RPG's are more difficult there. In the temple itself one first has to think of a clever segmentation however: There is not unlimited space available which should thus be used. So I use a few blocks for the basic structures and then build chronologically. The ideas sometimes even come spontaneous and instant. One still must note that it always should look good; meaning that the challenges and the scenery harmonize or in best case enter a symbiosis.
The rest is then only minutiae work but which takes up the most time and is very annoying; the reason why I not always have so much motivation. The endless amounts of platform-blocks required to fill a room with walls and ceiling and the many necessary blockmixes can drive you crazy. In United-Environments it is much more relaxed.

Did I understand correctly that in United you get along without mixes and in Stadium you implement them? And above all: Are mixes in RPG-tracks inevitable?

In the United tracks are much less mixes included because they are not absolutely necessary, but in Stadium they do often make sense. Inevitable they are not; there are also good tracks without mixes, for example Abandoned Factory by Max. But it should be noted that they are considered not as much of a sin on RPG-tracks than they usually are.
The rejection for mixes elsewhere is surely justified, especially when they are being used because no other possibility can be found to place a block. In Stadium however there does exist for example the possibility to blockmix water up. When you then drive on the blocks, one doesn't see the water because it is above the field of view. The result is that one drives on invisible blocks. Such mixes are beneficial for RPG-tracks and expand the possibilities.

From construction to driving. When you drive an RPG-track for the first time are there certain "techniques" or strategies one acquires?

There are certain techniques. Therefore as a beginner one should first drive a track in which these techniques are not required. I'm going to make some advertising and advice everyone who is interested to try the track Prey and Shadows by Enai Siaion. It is simple and not too long. Additionally it has an impressive atmosphere (a certain performance of the PC provided).
Going back to your question: To overcome anti-booster or for the driving on wallride-edges for instance one needs to acquire techniques which must be discovered and learned for yourself. Otherwise, there are often many friendly people on RPG server who can help you out. Other than that you often just need to have patience or try to gain much speed on small space or estimate the flying curve at jumps well. With a bit of practical exercises the standard repertoire won't be too difficult anymore.

What goes beyond the "standard repertoire" then?

Well, practically a few things are considered as standard repertoire; the driving on invisible blocks, on halfpipe-/wallride, on those white pipes, on the small platform-ledges, anti-boosts, also simple jumps. If you will, everything else goes beyond that. Which doesn't mean that everything else would be innovative, and in the end it is of course important for a track to be innovative. If there comes an obstacle that requires one to open the eyes, meaning riddles which are not so easy to perceive or the question of where or how to continue, it is certainly a good thing!

Are there a few RPG-tracks you like best which you could recommend to our readers?

First of all I can recommend a video for all those who do not want to try it themselves or do not have the possibilities.
Regarding the tracks: As previously mentioned I guess Prey and Shadow is the best track for beginner. Whoever wants to experience a bit of hardness could also start with easy temple-tracks, such as Sobekite by Kryw (with which I also started).
Furthermore the other tracks from Enai Siaion are also very interesting; atmospheric and not too hard. One level more difficult are the tracks from Fish, in which he very impressively erected a complete legocity for instance (Legopolis). Similarly all of his other tracks are an eye candy too.
Especially beautiful and realistic does the track Cargo714 by solix look from the outside in which one can admire a ship with an entire port. However, not very easy.
If you prefer to stick to United-environments, one could give Bay Watch and Sahara a go. Apart from that unfortunately I still haven't discovered any really good United-RPG. Not to mention that the RPG-Blog always provides good information about everything relating to RPG.

We are already at the end of the interview. Is there still anything you would like to get off your chest?

I would like to thank you for the interview! To say one thing that goes beyond RPG's: You should not forget that you alone are the master of your own thoughts. I find that one should try from time to time to take a shot at a new style in TM. Even if it is not always crowned with success it will bring you further all in all. One can even say that for life in general. I hope you always have your own minds and that TM is only a pleasure for you, not a burden or main occupation. I myself am still young and can hardly dictate anything. But I can say with certainty that you should always think in the long run.

Thank you for the interesting and informative answers, it was a delight for me!

Like I [TmJosef] said the interview is not all of it. After snow with the track Inca Temple Golo has now approached his favorite environment Desert and mounted a diversified and tricky RPG-track:

Inca Ruins by Golo

In this sense I [HawkGer] would too like to thank TmJosef (who was the interviewer) and the Tmaniacs blog for making this interview possible.
And of course Golo for those brilliant answers!

The translation is also not all we have to offer. Golo has been working on a new United RPG-track in the Bay-environment using my self-made Mystmod. So everyone who likes to experience Bay differently, I recommend to check out this brand new track!

The Lost Island by Golo

Video from the betaversion:

External links:
Tmaniacs Blog
The original article in German
Information about RPG tracks on the TMUX-Forum

RPG track pack with working locators

2010-02-21T13:00:00.008+01:00

Every experienced RPG player has probably at least once encountered the problem of a non-auto loading mod on an RPG track. It is especially a problem for newcomers in the RPG genre who certainly will not know that the track actually is intended to have a mod. Recently noticing that Sobékite doesn't have a functioning mod download made me eager to know how many RPG tracks are affected in total by this and came to the result that at least 61 out of the 250 RPG tracks listed in the track table do not have a proper mod-download. I managed to fix the locator for 55 of these tracks, the remaining 6 tracks have a password.
Download the trackpack here:
http://www.vinummusik.de/Trackmania/RPG%20tracks%20fixed%20locator.zip

These fixed tracks are especially interesting for server admins. The version on the server for each track can be replaced without losing records; the only thing players will notice to be different is the working mod download. I'm looking forward to authors updating their TMX track version though, which would make the process of updating easier for server admins.
So if you, as an author, find one of your tracks in this list please update it at TMX:

(I will include a link to the tracks once they are updated at TMX)
Kill Bill · Modern Times · The Lost World · The Phantom Menace · V for Vendetta · Catalyst · Darkwood · Lengthy Final · Planes in the sky · The Factory · AlkatraZz · Castlemania · Forest Bury · Temple Of Fortune · ThaOldTimer · Blo-c-ity · Forest!!! · Stone!! · The Last Crusade · R-240np · Sobekite · Old Wood! · 2012 · Abou Simbel · Byzance · Cargo 714 · Chemical X · Exacidie · Honduras · HyperCube · Ice -Virus · Jungle Safari · Legoland - City Centre · Legomania · Lost Soultown · M story · MetalBlog · Mykerinos · Palace India · Psychoterror · Roule Des Templiers · Atlantis · Noodu Home · Tree Of Life online · Tree of Life · Sunshine Island · RPGmax18war · Sande Boks · Saqqarah · speedRPG for all · T(ea)m Fortress! · The Labyrinth · The Legend of Zelda · the temple of freedom · Zeppelin Station

Not in the pack included (due to password restriction):
Enigmes V2 · Tournalin · Occam's Tribute · RPG.my1st · Abenteuer3

What do you want to see more of on the RPG blog?

2010-02-18T20:41:00.002+01:00

So, we here at the RPG blog want to create interesting articles. Interesting as in things you actually care about and want. But what exactly do you want? Let us know in the comments!

Here's some questions to get your brain started: More competitions? Tutorials? Track reviews? Interviews? Anything other? What kind of competitions? Driving competitions? Mapping competitions? Modding, blockmixing, anything other? What kind of tutorials? Mapping? MT? Settings, basic tips and tricks, various RPG obstacle helping tutorials? Driving tutorials? Modding tutorial? Basic and advanced blockmixing?

Just some ideas.. but we want your ideas!

Oh.. and while we're at it:
We also want some tips on RPG round race themes and maps. RPG round race 13 was trial, 14 was anniversary edition.. what will number 15 be? GM maps only? Pyramids only? Kryw night? 3-4 maps.. 1 easy and 1 hard at least.. Be creative ;)

Oh btw, just so you know it, here is the list of already planned tutorials:

How to make a lightening in MT
How to find the locator / mod name for "unknown" mods

RPG round race 14 (anniversary edition)

2010-02-08T21:38:00.006+01:00

RPG round race 14 (anniversary edition) - Saturday, 13th February 2010 20:00 (8PM) CET (UTC+1/GMT+1) on Pixelsport RPG.

Track 1: Sobékite + 15:00 minutes time limit
Track 2: Drop Scrolls on Sobékite + 15:00 minutes time limit
Track 3: Four Powers + 20:00 minutes time limit
Track 4: The Graveyard + 30:00 minutes time limit

I don't think we have had such an exciting rounds race in a very long time! Hawk had a total of 105 points, realized2 102 and me (Tecfan) 97.

Results

Track 1: Sobékite

Track 2: Drop Scrolls on Sobékite

Track 3: Four Powers

Track 4: The Graveyard

#	Player	Time
1	realized2	10:09.60
2	HawkGer	10:23.67
3	Tecfan	10:26.69
4	Klody	11:08.71
5	Riishuu	11:40.54
6	Kiyo	11:41.14
7	Tintin	12:28.75
8	Kedy	12:31.85
9	Dawe	12:37.92
10	jurajojo	12:57.15
11	teddy	12:58.11
12	LEXX	13:01.26
13	tossha	13:11.34
14	occam	13:16.71
15	Mar	13:17.26
16	Paul	13:18.42
17	OLDBOY	13:28.58
18	Igntul	13:41.72
19	Drunk Racer	13:53.20
20	Ondras	14:43.04
21	Hogleg	14:56.29
22	Max	15:21.08
23	wootalyzer	15:33.72
24	Sturmovik	16:33.24
25	oddanova	17:34.00
26	Maraboo2000	19:24.65
27	JoFo	19:56.40
28	tullybugger	22:52.32
29	Beep	24:25.48

#	Player	Time
1	realized2	06:14.70
2	HawkGer	06:59.58
3	Tecfan	07:02.23
4	Dawe	07:36.47
5	Kedy	07:51.65
6	ondra	07:58.93
7	teddy	08:07.15
8	moi57	08:25.69
9	Sturmovik	09:44.69
10	Igntul	10:02.69
11	Noka	10:57.15
12	tossha	11:51.35
13	Klody	12:23.70
14	Soso	12:30.93
15	B1ts	13:14.24
16	OLDBOY	13:34.08
17	SEISMIC	13:55.53
18	Paul	15:19.54
19	Drunk Racer	16:51.17
20	tyrra99	17:31.53
21	tullybugger	19:34.67

#	Player	Time
1	Tecfan	10:27.72
2	HawkGer	10:33.91
3	realized2	11:03.25
4	Riishuu	11:58.74
5	Klody	12:11.42
6	Dawe	12:12.30
7	Paul	13:15.93
8	occam	13:37.97
9	Soso	14:00.58
10	Hogleg	14:15.77
11	Noka	14:16.70
12	Kris	14:28.55
13	B1ts	14:34.66
14	Kedy	14:42.90
15	Drunk Racer	15:06.16
16	Igntul	15:33.12
17	OLDBOY	15:33.56
18	Kiyo	16:39.40
19	teddy	22:41.02
20	SEISMIC	23:11.07
21	Sturmovik	24:33.28
22	Maraboo2000	25:13.26

#	Player	Time
1	HawkGer	12:44.67
2	Tecfan	12:47.03
3	realized2	13:50.48
4	Klody	14:11.56
5	Dawe	16:58.65
6	Kiyo	17:28.37
7	Kedy	19:02.99
8	Soso	19:11.61
9	Stromek	22:05.89
10	OLDBOY	24:24.45
11	B1ts	26:30.64
12	Noka	27:22.84
13	Sturmovik	32:37.66
14	Paul	40:25.36

Dedimania records

Track 1: Sobékite (RecordDate = 2010-02-13 19:33:59)
Track 2: Drop Scrolls on Sobékite (RecordDate = 2010-02-13 19:59:24)
Track 3: Four Powers (RecordDate = 2010-02-13 20:35:32)
Track 4: The Graveyard (RecordDate = 2010-02-13 21:25:46)

Videos

Track 1: Sobékite - Best run

Track 2: Drop Scrolls on Sobékite - Best run

Track 3: Four Powers - Best run

Track 4: The Graveyard (part 1)

Track 4: The Graveyard (part 2)

See GPS videos from the tracks of this round race

See an overview of all RPG round races

RPG round race 14 (anniversary edition) - Tips and tricks

2010-02-08T20:25:00.001+01:00

Sobékite (part 1)

Sobékite (part 2)

Drop Scrolls on Sobékite (driven by fish)

Four Powers (driven by TunniQ)

The Graveyard (part 1) (driven by Klody)

The Graveyard (part 2) (driven by Klody)

RPG round race 13 (trial edition)

2010-01-26T10:31:00.004+01:00

RPG round race 13 - Saturday, 30th January 2010 20:00 (8PM) CET (UTC+1/GMT+1) on Pixelsport RPG

Track 1: Trial Pro Area Zone I + 2:00 minutes time limit
Track 2: Away From the Sun + 5:00 minutes time limit
Track 3: Virtual Insanity + 7:00 minutes time limit
Track 4: Technological Breakdown + 15:00 minutes time limit
Track 5: Masochism + 30:00 minutes time limit

1 round per track. The last track will not get doubled points this time.

Results
Trial Pro Area Zone 1

Round 1

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	HawkGer	01:22.70	30	30
2	Voyager006	01:25.06	25	25
3	Tecfan	01:30.52	21	21
4	HardDance	01:33.57	18	18
5	Kiyo	01:37.12	16	16
6	realized2	01:50.83	15	15
7	Januz	01:57.35	14	14
8	moi57	01:58.35	13	13
9	Soso	02:02.11	12	12
10	MagicMan	02:02.43	11	11
11	Kouba	02:06.23	10	10
12	Igntul	02:31.98	9	9
13	Nøtt	02:39.70	8	8
14	Soso	03:08.57	7	7

Away From the Sun

Round 1

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	HawkGer	03:22.59	30	60
2	realized2	03:46.80	25	40
3	Igntul	03:57.87	21	30
4	HardDance	03:57.93	18	36
5	MagicMan	04:15.88	16	27
6	Soso	04:22.30	15	27
7	Drunk Racer	04:28.87	14	14
8	Januz	04:32.47	13	27
9	Tecfan	04:32.94	12	33
10	Kiyo	04:49.64	11	27
11	teddy	04:58.99	10	10
12	moi57	05:02.37	9	22
13	Nøtt	05:03.14	8	16
14	dnb	05:07.08	7	7
15	Kouba	05:07.83	6	16
16	maraboo2000	06:25.68	5	5
17	Soocioti	06:49.19	4	4
18	FRNCZK	07:10.49	3	3
19	Voyager006	08:19.93	7	32

Virtual Insanity

Round 1

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	Tecfan	04:02.83	30	63
2	Robot	04:05.60	25	25
3	HardDance	04:29.89	21	57
4	Drunk Racer	04:46.32	18	32
5	Kilburn	05:26.73	16	16
6	HawkGer	05:59.61	15	75
7	Igntul	06:01.06	14	44
8	moi57	07:00.32	13	35
9	Januz	07:29.82	12	39
10	Soso	08:00.31	11	38
11	realized2	08:46.92	10	50
12	MagicMan	10:03.94	9	36
13	Voyager006	10:59.21	8	40

Technological Breakdown

Round 1

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	HawkGer	09:40.18	30	105
2	Tecfan	09:51.95	25	88
3	Kilburn	10:11.94	21	37
4	realized2	10:29.26	18	68
5	Drunk Racer	10:47.69	16	48
6	MagicMan	11:23.35	15	51
7	ondra	12:13.70	14	14
8	Kiyo	12:33.26	13	40
9	Soso	12:50.04	12	50
10	moi57	14:00.15	11	46
11	Robot	14:01.58	10	35
12	MiniGod	14:04.05	9	9
13	tossha	14:49.92	8	8
14	HardDance	14:50.51	7	64
15	Januz	14:57.55	6	45
16	Jurek	16:03.67	5	5
17	Igntul	16:05.16	4	48
18	B1ts	17:28.07	3	3
19	Lins	18:20.95	2	2
20	Kouba	20:58.10	1	17
21	Voyager006	24:36.88	1	41

Masochism

Round 1

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	HawkGer	08:35.30	30	135
2	Tecfan	10:00.11	25	113
3	realized2	10:13.40	21	89
4	Kilburn	13:51.28	18	55
5	Drunk Racer	14:49.03	16	64
6	moi57	16:56.31	15	61
7	Soso	18:51.30	14	64
8	Igntul	19:24.36	13	61
9	YaWee	25:25.88	12	12
10	B1ts	26:04.90	11	14
11	MiniGod	28:55.52	10	19
12	MagicMan	31:42.42	9	60
13	Nitroguy	32:13.39	8	8
14	Kiyo	33:06.60	7	47
15	Voyager006	38:31.31	6	47

Dedimania records

Track 1: Trial Pro Area Zone 1 (RecordDate = 2010-01-30 19:10:29)
Track 2: Away From the Sun (RecordDate = 2010-01-30 19:22:59)
Track 3: Virtual Insanity (RecordDate = 2010-01-30 19:38:49)
Track 4: Technological Breakdown (RecordDate = 2010-01-30 20:10:04)
Track 5: Masochism (RecordDate = 2010-01-30 20:53:54)

See GPS videos from the tracks of this round race

See an overview of all RPG round races

RPG round race 13 (trial edition) - Tips and tricks

2010-01-26T10:11:00.003+01:00

Trial Pro Area Zone I (driven by Tecfan)

Away From the Sun (driven by Tecfan)

Virtual Insanity (driven by JumperJack)

Virtual Insanity alternative route (driven by Occam)

Technological Breakdown (driven by HawkGer)

Masochism (driven by Tecfan)

RPG blog site update

2010-01-20T19:55:00.000+01:00

The last few days, me and HawkGer has been updating most of the pages on the blog.

On the "Tracks overview page", Hawk has updated the table, adding most of the respectable RPG's from November till today. The table has also gotten a "GPS video" field, with a link to the GPS video on YouTube.

The "Mods" page has been updated with a couple new mods, some new links to variations of already known mods (GM Ultimate, e.g.), and "Tracks with this mod" lists has also been updated.

The "Other resources" has also been updated, with a couple of new servers added to the list.

Our sitemap has been updated, and is now an even more complete overview of everything on the blog.

And last, we've gotten a new contact form on the "contact" page. You can now send a private query to us, directly from the site.

RPG track building contest results

2010-01-16T22:30:00.005+01:00

We received 14 submissions to our RPG anniversary track building competition, and today we are finally able to release the results. We hope that everybody had a challenging time trying to follow our rules and theme^^. We have seen many original and smart solutions to the "alternative routes" theme, everything from simple, second-gaining jumps to the requirement of special powers to move on. We have driven all tracks two times, judging by originality, atmosphere, the implementation of the theme and the route/tricks. Points were given from 0 to 100, where 100 is the best. Below are the final results + our reviews.

#	Track	Author	Tec score	Hawk score	Total score
1	Drop Scrolls on Sobékite	fish	90	84	87
2	Four Powers	Sebik	80	88	84
3	The Graveyard	Stromek	81	82	81.5
4	Tikal	Hogleg	76	73	74.5
5	GoldenEye	AtoM	68	70	69
5	Fang	svbg869	73	65	69
7	Thrillerbarc	Igntul	60	70	65
8	Impel Down	Robot	50	55	52.5
9	Arcadia	Enai Siaion	38	50	44
10	Polaris	jurek	30	45	37.5
11	We Be Pimpin	Kopstoot	37	30	33.5
12	AlienAttak	White	20	30	25
13	Avoid Fail!	Syr Skwirrel	10	15	12.5
14	Race to the Lighthouse	DarkPowa	1	5	3

Drop Scrolls on Sobékite, by fish

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2152985#auto

Tecfan:
The first run on this track left me with a very cool impression. It takes some time to find the route, the atmosphere is great, the track design is beautiful and the GM update looks very nice (though a bit too "clean"). Most of the jumps have an original feeling to them, and the alternative routes are small, but perfect! You will gain a decent amount of time taking the fast routes, but neither route ruins the flow. The flow of this track is its best property. WR-hunting on this track is great(ly frustrating:>) because of the race-like feeling. 90/100

HawkGer:
To begin with I really liked the idea of a Sobékite-themed track. The similarities to Sobékite concerning atmosphere and the route are not too striking, I found your implementation to be a good compromise. The route and the tricks are very good, producing a great flow. Especially in combination with the nicely implemented alternative routes it's very fun to search for the fastest way. With a little over 6min I found the track to be too short though. The atmosphere was good too but not very original. Especially tweaking the scenery would have made it much more stunning. Overall a very good track, 84/100 points

Four Powers, by Sebik

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2132778#auto

Tecfan:
I never actually liked the Manic Miner mod, it's too clean for me, but the great intro, music and MT makes the atmosphere pretty good. A very original concept with the whole "obtain special powers to move on"-theme. The alt. routes however are hard on the "easy" routes, and easy on the hard routes, but the MT to show which route is which is great. The route is cool, with a lot of re-uses made possible by the MT and the theme of the track. The tricks are very easy, but none of them are particularly bad. 80/100

HawkGer:
This is an extraordinary track. The basic route is already build very professional with lots of variety and good obstacles. But what makes some of these tricks so special is the "power"-theme the track is using which was conveyed very authentic to me and is implemented very intelligently to create new challenges. In general the MT and especially the 3D-Skins were stunning and add greatly to the atmosphere, which to begin with I already liked very much by using the Manic Miner mod. The only major flaw this track has are the alt. routes which are too long compared to the normal route. 88/100 points total

The Graveyard, by Stromek

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2146376#auto

Tecfan:
This track has a great atmosphere, but is kinda ruined by the bad MT work. The MT colors are dull, and there are no transitions between the different colors, and no use of trigger conditions at all. It's a little confusing in the start, figuring out the correct CP order (you can take multiple), but other than that the tricks route were excellent! Great pathfinding challenge, the alternative routes are not always obvious, but most of them are smart and good. On the second run, it also gets a very nice flow, so 81/100 for me.

HawkGer:
The track was very interesting to drive the first time, offering many challenges one had to figure out which, after multiple runs, proved out to be very calculatable and flowing. The atmosphere as already mentioned by Tecfan was indeed great but could have been much better with a few MT tweaks. I very much liked the implementation of sounds though which added greatly to the atmosphere. The alt. routes have a good length compared to the normal route and are well placed on sections which could be difficult for the player. 82/100 points in total.

Tikal, by Hogleg

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2085617#auto

Tecfan:
Tikal is a track which at first does not give you a good feeling, but after some CP's it's getting great. The atmosphere feels kinda old-school, but it is something different with the Stone mod (something different here means "no so good"). On the second alt. route, you will be punished for not being lucky enough to take the hard way. All the tricks are nice like on the classic RPG's, but still a lot of originality. Some of the alternative routes are perfect in terms of length and hardness. Despite its flaws, this is a great track, so 76/100.

HawkGer:
A really good track this one. Especially the route and the tricks is what I liked the most. A lot of creative, original and challenging obstacles. Some of the alternative routes were too long; if the normal route had been longer they would have been very good. On the plus side the track has the most alt. routes per checkpoint. The atmosphere was good, though not really impressive. But definitely the best atmosphere created with the Old-Stone-mod so far. A great track: 73/100 points.

GoldenEye, by AtoM

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2149676#auto

Tecfan:
Great layout on the track, looks very beautiful. Gives a nice atmosphere. The tricks are mostly cool, the route is nice, though I forgot CP1 the first time I tried it. The alt. routes are however not too good, but they're not directly bad either. On CP31 you can take two different CP's. This is a good track, but not the best. 68/100

HawkGer:
I liked this one a lot. The layout of the track is really amazing and the fact that all the action takes place on such compact space is remarkable. I also liked the compact atmosphere in combination with the Forest-mod, although it has been seen many times. The tricks are very original and fun in my opinion. They are diverse and produce a good flow throughout the track. That the route is incorporated into the layout makes the track very structured, I like that. Alt. routes were generally built quite well but they were too long/too hard. A great track overall - 70/100

Fang, by svbg869

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2051213#auto

Tecfan:
This track's first impression is great. Nice use of a clean, but interesting mod. The funky scenery makes the atmosphere interesting. I found the track to be pretty original, diverse and to include new tricks, and you needed to search to find the next CP. However, sometimes the route was a little messy, and you could take the wrong CP if you didn't pay attention. There's also a couple of rings which really kills the flow. The alternative routes though, are great. They are not always so obvious, and there is a good difference between the easy and the hard route. I believe that the CP0 alt. route is the perfect example of an alt. route, but this track won't get full score because of the rings. 73/100 from me.

HawkGer:
Unlike Tecfan I was rather struggling on my first drive. It was on many occasions unclear to me as to where the correct route would lead. Probably a major reason for this is the open room construction and the overloaded scenery in combination with the mod which gets very transparent with the blocks you used. I didn't really like the look of such crowded design. In result, the atmosphere was also not particularly impressing to me. The mod is a good choice as it is used very rarely but to me it wasn't very appealing. The general layout of the track however I found very original for which you will get heads up!
On second and third drive the track became better compared to the first impression, not giving me headaches from searching the way. And I really liked the flow of the tricks then too, which btw. most of them I really like. The tricks are quite diverse, challenging and well calculated. They are not all too original though I find. The rings outside the normal route I found to be rather useless and annoying. The implementation of alt. routes is well made throughout the track. Overall I have a positive feeling about the track but many aspects make me give this only 65/100 points.

Thrillerbarc, by Igntul

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2146178#auto

Tecfan:
This track is a nicely built RPG with cool tricks and an OK atmosphere, but there are some problems with the alternative routes.. The first alt. route is for example a lot easier on the hard way than on the "easy" way, and the alt. routes are in general not very good as opposed to many of the other alt. route solutions we have seen in other maps. The track isn't extremely original, but with some of the new tricks this was all in all a good driving experience, even though the color MT work was dreadful. 60/100

HawkGer:
This one is quite a great track. The main point it scores with is the route.
Upon first drive it's not confusing to find the route and it feels very adventurous to advance in the track. The tricks are mainly well calculatable; there were only two or three sections which felt required a lot of luck to master. They are also diverse and sometimes original and I also like the fact that the race time of the track is very long. The atmosphere on the other hand wasn't too convincing; not even once did I feel the spooky/scary atmosphere the track promises to give me. In terms of layout the track only reminds rudimentary of the track's theme. Maybe some good MT would have helped to create a better atmosphere but the one being implemented rather makes it even worse through bad clip transitions and big fonts.
The alt. routes are mostly okay, only one seems to stick out by being harder than the actual route. 70/100

Impel Down, by Robot

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2159314#auto

Tecfan:
For me, there's no atmosphere at all on this track. From the sky, the track looks OK, but once you go under water level it's just lots of random building blocks underneath the sea. The mod is original and self-made, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is good. CP6 and 27or28 is pure luck. The latter really just destroys the track. Some of the alternative routes are actually easier the hard way, and I'm not so impressed by the alt. routes in general. However, this track has many great new and original tricks and some cool CP's, and I would like to see more from Robot in the future. 50/100

HawkGer:
I didn't find a particularly interesting atmosphere in this track either. The textures of the mod are quite good but they don't really produce a special look as one would expect from an anime-themed track and neither does the design of the track support a decent development of an atmosphere. Some of the obstacles are very well made and original but for me there were too many luck-based stunts in it which made the route quite unpleasant to drive. The alternative routes are not very well implemented, some being harder than the standard route.
I will give this track 55/100 points, considering the creative aspect of the mod, the tricks and the signs.

Arcadia, by Enai Siaion

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2079330#auto

Tecfan:
Arcadia is a track which is almost atmosphereless for me. The mod is over-used, does not look good, and does absolutely not look good in fog. The track however is extremely original, and has a good route, but not very exciting and not very original tricks. Technically this track doesn't even have any alternative routes, which actually should disqualify the track. 38/100

HawkGer:
This is a good track but nothing exceptional. The only thing that sticks out is the basic idea behind taking checkpoints in a free order. Its implementation could have been much better though by not having to respawn three times for each checkpoint and rather creating a path for the three rings which would then lead back to the checkpoint, assuring the creation of a flow. I was also very disappointed about the tricks; nearly solely focusing on jumps. I liked the atmosphere of the track, having a good design, scenery and usage of MediaTracker but it didn't feel very special. 50/100 points.

Polaris, by Jurek

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2142994#auto

Tecfan:
Polaris is a track that feels very mediocre. First, the ice mod does not look good at all, and gives a terrible atmosphere, and all the rings makes a bad first impression. The route and tricks however feels pretty nice, but don't impress me much. Some of them are also very unsafe. I could not see many alternative routes, I'm not even sure if there were any. 30/100

HawkGer:
The track started out with quite a nice compact route in the beginning but the more I advanced in the track the less interesting it became. Some of the tricks are quite luck-based and the rings don't help either building up a flow. The atmosphere was good in the beginning but to the end it felt like it was very unfinished. A lot of spaces which got no surrounding blocks at all and therefore you could see through the whole track. A better scenery definitely would have boosted up the atmosphere. Alternative routes were virtually not existing. All in all only 45/100 points.

We Be Pimpin, by Kopstoot

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2151892#auto

Tecfan:
This track has no atmosphere whatsoever. It uses a mod that does not look good at all in the current mood, and a theme that is rather lame, with non-funny pictures spread across the whole map. The tricks are OK, sometimes cool, and sometimes not, but the few alternative routes were not so good (though I really liked the CP4 one). But the track has a good flow and easy to know which CP to take next, but of course the author had to add pointless rings which ruins the flow. 37/100

HawkGer:
I didn't really enjoy playing this track. First off the checkpoints are, for my taste, set too near by each other. And in combination with the unchallenging tricks, the route doesn't really get exciting. Also the route was way too clear upon first drive and you didn't really have to search for the route so that it felt more like a long racetrack rather than a RPG. The atmosphere isn't very special either. The mod doesn't really match with the theme of the track, which btw I found even distasteful at times. There also isn't a structural design visible and neither does the scenery make much good for the atmosphere. All in all a decent track, 30/100

AlienAttak, by White

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2146431#auto

Tecfan:
This track gives a bad first impression. It looks like a bad RPG from the start. The scenery is boring throughout the track. The "fail" MT is sometimes triggered even though you stay on the route, thus forcing you to restart. The "drive maximum 80km/h to pay respect" is a direct rip-off from Enai. The MT is terrible all over the track, and especially at the last CP. It's just torture, and really, really, really kills the track. All the tricks are mediocre, only basic balancing and jumping, and not original at all. The alternative routes were nothing special. 20/100

HawkGer:
I didn't really expect much from this track right from the start and the rest of the track didn't convince me otherwise either. The tricks are very monotone, having very few variety with only border and jump parts. The atmosphere and the design do not change much throughout the track, they are consistently unattractive. The MT was horribly used, making the experience even more unpleasant in the process. It is not the worst track, but still only 30/100 points.

Avoid Fail!, by Syr Skwirrel

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2159040#auto

Tecfan:
This track does not have an atmosphere, mainly because of the trial-like route and scenery. On many CP's you are able to take the wrong CP. The very few alternative routes I spotted was not good at all, and the first one is nearly impossible (without luck), in other words, you will be punished for not being lucky. The track has some dead ends which tells you to search somewhere else. It is not very original, but it does include a few new tricks, but it can not get a good ranking because of the lack of atmosphere and alternative routes. 10/100

HawkGer:
This track is built very basic and was thus unattractive to me as a player. The tricks are not very special to begin with; no block combinations that feel original. The route had some basic elements of pathfinding, but it isn't too clever build. Scenery is used very lightly and the track looks too open with it. Generally there isn't really any atmosphere in the track, it just feels like blocks being put randomly near each other. The few alternative routes are not very well made. Only 15/100 points.

Race to the Lighthouse, by DarkPowa

TMX: http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx?action=trackshow&id=2094684#auto

Tecfan:
Lighthouse is not even an RPG, and technically it should have been disqualified for not being built on the track base. You can cut virtually every CP, and the route is very unclear and bad. No good tricks, no RPG elements. Just terrible. 1/100

HawkGer:
This track is very poorly build. It nearly completely lacks a structured route and elements of design. Scenery is virtually not existing and thus the track looks very unfinished. It's possible to take multiple checkpoints on many locations, making the route very confusing. The tricks are very basic and not special at all. Only 5/100 points for this one.

So that's about all! We have to congratulate fish for the victory, and Sebik/Stromek for the runner up places. Here's what they won:

fish: A brand new TMUF account
Sebik: 15 000 coppers
Stromek: 10 000 coppers

How to extend the maximum allowed time for records in Xaseco

2010-01-14T22:25:00.006+01:00

(Note: this is a guide for RPG server admins)
(Note 2: this is guide is incomplete and soon obsolete)
Driving long RPG's for the first time is probably the best part with RPG for me. Only then I get the adventurous feeling that RPG's are supposed to have. When you finally finish, you of course want to be rewarded for your hard work, by getting a spot on the local records list. But there is a problem: there is a upper limit for times in Xaseco of 139:48.60 minutes (or roughly 2.3 hours). Any record above this time, will show up as exactly "139:48.60". Read on to find out how to extend this time limit to 279 minutes (or roughly 4.6 hours).

To fix this, you need to do some changes in the Xaseco database. Only the host of the server (often, but not always, the MasterAdmin) have access to this. You do not even have to shut down Xaseco to do this, but I can not confirm that the records from the track you are currently driving will be saved when the track changes (although I can't see why they will not be saved either).

Method 1 - PHPMyAdmin
Go to your PHPMyAdmin site, log in and find the Xaseco database (it's called "3tmf_xaseco" on my screenshots, but it can be named anything).

Press the image to see a larger image.
Click your way into the "Records" table, located in the left menu.

Press the image to see a larger image.
On the "Score" field, press the "Edit" button (as shown on the screenshot).

Under "Attributes", select "UNSIGNED". Press Save. That was all, your server can now accept times up to 279 minutes.

Method 2 - MySQL Query
Note: I have not tried this myself, but it will probably work, as it's just the same as above, just in command form.

This is for people who do not have access to PHPMyAdmin, and only a MySQL query console. To change the "Score" field from a signed to an unsigned mediumint, copy this SQL query:

ALTER TABLE `records` CHANGE `Score` `Score` MEDIUMINT( 9 ) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT '0'

And that's it. Everything should now work.

The theory behind this is that by default, this database field uses a signed mediumint (3 bytes). The minimum and maximum values for this numeric data type are -8388608 and 8388607 (milliseconds, or 139 minutes). When you set this field's attribute to an unsigned mediumint, all you do is make the minimum value go to 0, hence making room for more numbers on the positive side. So an unsigned mediumint goes from 0 to 16777215 (milliseconds, or 279 minutes). This is the maximum value you can get without going up to 4 bytes (int). I'm no SQL expert myself, so you can read more about numeric data types in the official MySQL documentation.

RPG for beginners: optimized input settings

2010-01-10T14:06:00.036+01:00

Game pad and keyboard settings for RPG fans: Optimize your controller settings for RPG to prevent DEL-key accidents :->

Especially important in many Adventures is 'booster-drifting' (aka power-sliding or 3-key-drifting): It is essential that the keyboard processes all three pressed keys. Sometimes it is necessary to reassign the keys for the combination of left,right,throttle and break.

Tecfan about booster-drifting:"'If you can only drift in one direction, and not the other, it is because your keyboard has some limitations. Then you need to bind a second button as brake. To do this, in Trackmania, go to `Profile´ , and then `Inputs´.'"

The importance to hide the DEL key as good a humanly possible is often underrated. But it becomes painfully clear when DEL is pressed accidentally: Poor JumperJack, the latest Del-key victim might agree^^ that it is the most important key to reassign for a lighthearted RPG-experience.

JumperJack in TMX-Forum:

For left-handed folks (like Ned Flanders or C. Montgomery Burns :->) the next tip may not be an improvement, but for the many Trackmaniacs, that are right-handed, the assigning of the free-camera-keys 4,5,6,8 to A,S,D,W will bring some additional comfort. The left hand on the keys ASDW, like common in many games will make navigating with Cam7 very comfortable.

Arcadia, by Enai Siaion + Venezia, by Igntul

2010-01-09T11:57:00.001+01:00

Arcadia by Enai Siaion
A new way of record hunting. There is no defined route. Amazing MT work of Enai again. Nice flying cam and an interesting way to explain the ring locations. Under the Seas mod is used for this map.

"A multiple route RPG in an ancient city. The layout branches into 5 districts, each with a checkpoint and 3 rings to collect. Visit each district, gather all 15 rings and come back to the start/finish to complete the map. If you lose your way, instructions are included." - Enai Siaion

TMX ID: 2079330
Difficulty: Intermediate
AT: 12:21.45
First-time length: 20-50 minutes

World records up to date 5th Dec 09:
Online: 6:57.54 by Klody
Offline: 6:57.54 by Klody

An MT video:

Venezia by Igntul
A nice scenario with the Asphalt Tango mod. The illusion works, you think you are in the Italian city Venice. The route is sometimes not easy to find and for a record hunting may be 1-2 spots that will need some luck. But the map is a nice experience.
"As is tell in the intro you are in this "city of the Water" for business. You have a free day to spend visiting the city. There are rumors that there is a treasure hidden in the deep water of this city. But there is a layer of clay between the deep water and the surface one clay that make you cant access down. Will you find a way to get under the clay? And will you find the treasure?" - Igntul

TMX ID: 1763767
Difficulty: Intermediate
AT: 6:53.99
First-time length: 20-50 minutes

World records up to date 12th Dec. 09:
Online: 6:29.14 by 《ॡic3》»»Steppke««
Offline: 6:53.99 by Igntul

A GPS video:

RPG track building contest update

2010-01-05T16:39:00.002+01:00

Some of you are wondering when the results will be out, so I'm just here to say that we're currently testing your tracks, but it's a slow process (due to vacations, laziness and school/work).

We are going to drive the tracks a second time now to get better impressions, and then we have to write and take pictures, so I don't think the results will be out this week. Just hang in there ;)

RPG blog 2009 statistics

2009-12-30T22:06:00.006+01:00

Since we're heading into a new year, after celebrating RPG's 1 year anniversary, I figured it would be nice with some statistics from the blog, to sum it all up:
(Note: these numbers are from 30th December)

Since we opened the blog back in August, there has been 50 032 pageviews from 20 805 visits. The day with the most visits was Sunday 29th November, with 264 visits.

The most visited pages, apart from the front page, was the mod overview page (7 598 pageviews, 15.19%), the track overview page (3 365 pageviews, 6.73% of the total pageviews) and the RPG history page (2 001 pageviews, 4.01%).

71 articles has been posted on the blog, which has received 404 comments (5.69 comments on average per post). The post with the most comments is our RPG track building contest article, with 71 comments.

33.19% (6 906) of the total visits came from the TMNF TMX, 23.77% (4 945) came directly to the site and 21.93% (4 562) came from Google.

The Google keyword that gave the blog the most visits was "trackmania rpg" with 754 visits, followed by "trackmania rpg blog" with 384 visits and "tm rpg blog" with 240 visits. In total, there were 1 149 different search queries from Google to the blog.

There were 4 834 people visiting the site from Germany, 2 665 from France and 1 956 from Czech Republic. The blog had visitors from a total of 71 countries.

54.37% (11 317) of the visitors used Firefox, 24.34% (5 066) used Internet Explorer and 9.21% (1 918) used Opera.

(Chrome has 8.92%)

The average time on the site is 3 minutes and 8 seconds. On August 17th, people spent averagely 10 minutes and 17 seconds on the site.

We have driven 12 RPG round races. HawkGer has won 29 rounds, Tecfan 13, Klody 4, MagicMan 1, .max 1, Minigod 1 and Voyager006 1 rounds.

So, what do you think 2010 will bring?

RPG for beginners: brighten your RPGs

2009-12-29T21:40:00.026+01:00

Some might like their dungeons dark and dangerous^^, for all who want them as bright as possible, have a look at the following screenshots and tips.

To change the settings for the lightmaps go into the launcher.

For maximum brightness set the lightmap-quality to 'No shadows'.

Setting the quality of the lightmaps to 'No Shadows' will not have an influence on already calculated lightmaps, so you have to delete already existing lightmaps in your cache.

There is one exception i know so far:
The mod 'Under the Seas' (used for example for 'Poseidon's Wrath') will be too bright without shadows.

So you may not want to delete the lightmaps for tracks using this mod.

As mentioned above if you keep the already calculated lightmaps in your cache-folder, you still will see the effects, even if you have set the lightmap-quality to 'No Shadows'.

This way you can have it both ways, see the effects of lightmaps that come in handy and enjoy brightness in dungeons that otherwise would be very dark.

Some videos showing the difference:

Four Powers, by Sebik + Teotihuacan, by Igntul

2009-12-27T22:56:00.001+01:00

Four Powers by Sebik
A wonderful artwork of RPG track building. It was built for the RPG track building contest. Four Powers, using the Manic Miner mod. It has a brilliant balance between speed, climbing and brainteasing. The MT work is awesome and shows us impressive options about the abilities of the mediatracker. Very good for beginners, exploring and time hunting.

"On the map are placed special markers with POWERS: Water, Fire, Wind and Stone. You may take powers on map to help yourself. Each power gives you special possibilities and very frequently allows to reach next room" - Sebik

TMX ID: 2132778
Difficulty: Easy
AT: 12:41.10
First-time length: 30-50 minutes

World records up to date 19th Dec. 09:
Online: 11:40.22 by Ġτα-Kilburn®
Offline: 14:35.12 by AtoM

Teotihuacan by Igntul
The scenery of Teotihuacan (an old city of ruins in Mexico) built with the Teotihuacan mod (Montazumas mod update) is beautiful. The track leads into the pyramids with some challenging checkpoints. It has a nice clear route that offers much fun for exploring and also for time hunting.

"167 b.C., you are a poor slave of this city, while you absolve your hard work, when your leader is a bit distracted, you try to do the thing that you arleady premeditated, kill the king! Your working place is near the Sun pyramid, the bigger one, and the king is on the top of it. But you cant climb it because of the guards that monitor the pyramid day and night. You have to pass on it but how? Maybe you can use the subways and the old catapult, that is hidden underground, to get it" - Igntul

TMX ID: 2094591
Difficulty: Intermediate
AT: 19:39.17
First-time length: 40-80 minutes

World records up to date 19th Dec. 09:
Online: 13:52.76 by Klody
Offline: 13:52.76 by Klody

RPG track building contest submissions

2009-12-25T08:47:00.007+01:00

So one year has already passed since the release of the very first RPG Sobekite. We like to thank everyone involved in this community for shaping RPG for what it is nowadays and hope for an equally exciting second year!
Meanwhile, the RPG track building contest had ended Thuesday with the following submissions:

Tikal by Hogleg
Race to the Lighthouse by DarkPowa
Four Powers by sebik1992
[RPG]Fang by svbg869
Polaris by Jurek
Arcadia by Enai Siaion
The Graveyard by Stromek
AliEnAttAk by hi-jumper
Thrillerbarc by Igntul
GoldenEye by AtoM
Drop scrolls on Sobekite by fish_UT
We Be Pimpin by Kopstoot
Avoid Fail! by Syr_Skwirrel
Impel Down by r00bot91

That's quite a great outcome. Thanks for the participation to each of you!
It will take some time to judge all the tracks so you have to be patient for one or two weeks ;)

The RPG Blog wishes relaxing holidays and a merry Christmas to all of you.

Prey and Shadow, by Enai Siaion + Atlantiss, by Fish

2009-12-15T16:03:00.000+01:00

Prey and Shadow by Enai Siaion
A very short RPG, but the design and the ambiance is fantastic, again very much love in details. The route is quite clear and speedy with much flow. The Grande Muraille v4 mod is used for this map and looks great to this dark and scary looking track.

"The setting is a haunted monastery where the enemy has a hidden spy radio station. Find it, blow it up and get back out. But hurry - there's a thunderstorm incoming." - Enai Siaion

TMX ID: 2101483
Difficulty: Expert
AT: 3:59:85
First-time length: 10-20 minutes

World records up to date 10th Dec. 09:
Online: 3:50.50 by Drunk Racer
Offline: 3:32.21 by HardDance

GPS video:

Atlantiss by Fish
You start on the Greenpeace ship, the rainbow warrior II and begin to explore the sunken island and city Atlantis.

The map uses the Manic Miner mod, its textures and colors fit very nice to the map. It's fun to explore and nice for a time hunting also.
"It could be short and speed with difficult tricks or longer and easyer with some fun enigmas. I built it thinking about recs but not only. I did my best to offer u the optimal travel as i could where u can have a lot of fun to discover brand new places." - Fish

TMX ID: 2086013
Difficulty: Expert
AT: 8:15:15
First-time length: 20-40 minutes

World records up to date 11th Dec. 09:
Online: 6:08.56 by Kilburn
Offline: 7:45.07 by fish

RPG round race 12

2009-12-14T13:21:00.003+01:00

RPG round race 12 - Saturday, 12th December 2009 20:00 (8PM) CET (UTC+1/GMT+1) on Pixelsport RPG

Track 1: Mansion of Madness + 10:00 minutes time limit (2 rounds)
Track 2: Eert 75 + 15:00 minutes time limit (2 rounds)
Track 3: Cargo 714 + 30:00 minutes time limit (1 round)

Note: the last track will get doubled points.

I know I announced the wrong date on the blog for a few days, and in the TMX thread, but I corrected it, and also had the correct day in the TMX messages I sent out, but we were seriously few people today. Maybe I'm not the only one who's getting tired of RPG ^^. Anyway, 2 out of the 3 maps got a new WR, so it was a good day!

Results
Mansion of Madness

Round 1

Round 2

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	Tecfan	08:09.07	30	30
2	HawkGer	08:29.91	25	25
3	realized2	09:27.43	21	21
4	Igntul	10:48.56	18	18
5	Soso	11:07.67	16	16
6	White	12:10.74	15	15
7	DasEimer	12:17.36	14	14
8	???	12:46.39	13	13
9	Kosvkv	12:58.13	12	12

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	HawkGer	07:54.07	30	55
2	Tecfan	08:32.02	25	55
3	Hardarm	08:57.12	21	21
4	realized2	09:44.31	18	39
5	Soso	10:20.58	16	32
6	Kosvkv	11:32.93	15	27
7	moi57	11:48.71	14	14
8	Lucifer	12:04.08	13	13
9	EXA	12:52.16	12	12
10	???	13:13.71	11	24
11	White	15:03.20	10	25

Total standings after Mansion of Madness

#	Player	Points
1	Tecfan	55
2	HawkGer	55
3	realized2	39
4	Soso	32
5	Kosvkv	27
6	White	25
7	???	24
8	Hardarm	21
9	Igntul	18
10	DasEimer	14
11	moi57	14
12	Lucifer	13
13	EXA	12

Eert 75

Round 1

Round 2

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	HawkGer	12:32.44	30	85
2	Tecfan	15:37.53	25	80
3	realized2	15:40.80	21	60
4	moi57	16:33.42	18	32
5	Soso	21:09.90	16	48

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	HawkGer	12:41.36	30	115
2	realized2	15:48.89	25	85
3	Tecfan	16:53.64	21	101
4	Soso	17:56.60	18	66
5	Klody	19:14.04	16	16

Total standings after Eert 75

#	Player	Points
1	HawkGer	115
2	Tecfan	101
3	realized2	85
4	Soso	66
5	moi57	32
6	Kosvkv	27
7	White	25
8	???	24
9	Hardarm	21
10	Igntul	18
11	Klody	16
12	DasEimer	14
13	Lucifer	13
14	EXA	12

Cargo 714

Round 1

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	Tecfan	24:27.94	60	161
2	HawkGer	25:29.91	50	165
3	Klody	31:19.80	42	58
4	White	35:45.84	36	61
5	realized2	36:18.76	32	117
6	Soso	36:40.88	30	96

Total standings

#	Player	Points
1	HawkGer	165
2	Tecfan	161
3	realized2	117
4	Soso	96
5	White	61
6	Klody	58
7	moi57	32
8	Kosvkv	27
9	???	24
10	Hardarm	21
11	Igntul	18
12	DasEimer	14
13	Lucifer	13
14	EXA	12

Dedimania records

Track 1: Mansion of Madness (RecordDate = 2009-12-12 19:43:38)
Track 2: Eert 75 (RecordDate = 2009-12-12 20:40:27)
Track 3: Cargo 714 (RecordDate = 2009-12-12 21:39:24)

See an overview of all RPG round races

Hunting Santa Claus, by Lucker and Big Al

2009-12-11T07:08:00.000+01:00

This week, 7th December, Lucker and Big Al released their X-mas project "Hunting Santa Claus" on TMX. Fitting to the season it´s a Christmas map. Imagine it is x-mas and Santa Claus is sharing out all the presents but he is about to forget you! Your only chance is hunting and catch him.
The map has a colorful x-mas mod and is filled with many MT showing Santa Claus in his sledge, riding away. The auto-downloading soundtrack with many rocking x-mas songs is also recommended.

TMX ID: 2091860
Difficulty: Intermediate
AT: 21:22:45
First-time length: 40-60 minutes

RPG blog is looking for writers

2009-12-08T18:45:00.001+01:00

As you may have noticed, there is not much activity on the blog these days.. If you are an active RPG gamer, and want to write for the blog, just send me a message and I'll consider it.

RPG round race 11

2009-11-26T16:19:00.013+01:00

RPG round race 11 - Sunday, 29th November 2009 18:00 (6PM) CET (UTC+1/GMT+1) on Pixelsport RPG

Track 1: Baofengxue + 10:00 minutes time limit (3 rounds)
Track 2: A Trip to the Hills + 15:00 minutes time limit (2 rounds)
Track 3: The Great Escape + 30:00 minutes time limit (1 round)

Note: the last track will get doubled points.

Despite start problems before the race (new plugin causing massive lags), and the race being on a short warning and on a Sunday, 50 people showed up. A lot of people finished, so I'm happy about that. Voyager006 won the race and can pick a prize when he reads this ^^. There were new world records on every map!

Prizes
Please donate prizes :). The winner gets to choose a reward, but if he does not want any prizes, the next person in the list can select one, and so forth.

Prize	Offerer
Free car skin hosting	fallen.soul
An online beta test of your RPG	Tecfan
2500 coppers	(many)

Results
Baofengxue

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	HawkGer	06:30.93	30	30
2	Voyager006	06:32.33	25	25
3	Tecfan	07:26.12	21	21
4	Kilburn	07:58.34	18	18
5	Soso	08:18.71	16	16
6	Tunniq	09:00.65	15	15
7	OLDBOY	09:55.41	14	14
8	Minigod	10:13.71	13	13
9	Drunk Racer	10:17.08	12	12
10	Bajs	10:57.86	11	11
11	DonTomato	11:03.15	10	10
12	Marty	11:17.13	9	9
13	error1.3	11:46.07	8	8
14	McBain	11:54.20	7	7
15	Stromek	14:10.91	6	6
16	fish	14:46.09	5	5

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	Tecfan	06:10.64	30	51
2	Voyager006	06:59.17	25	50
3	Kilburn	07:17.23	21	39
4	MagicMan	07:40.23	18	18
5	error1.3	08:11.73	16	24
6	fish	08:31.32	15	20
7	Drunk Racer	08:37.46	14	26
8	OLDBOY	08:52.54	13	27
9	HawkGer	08:57.01	12	42
10	Soso	09:07.79	11	27
11	Marty	10:07.73	10	19
12	DonTomato	10:15.19	9	19
13	.maX	10:51.73	8	8
14	Alchr	11:23.22	7	7
15	McBain	13:27.16	6	13
16	White	13:40.19	5	5
17	Nøtt	15:33.75	4	4

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	Tecfan	06:17.48	30	81
2	Voyager006	06:30.68	25	75
3	HawkGer	06:30.82	21	63
4	Kilburn	06:54.11	18	57
5	Tunniq	07:24.84	16	31
6	Drunk Racer	07:47.66	15	41
7	Soso	07:52.51	14	41
8	Marty	08:10.12	13	32
9	OLDBOY	08:14.93	12	39
10	White	08:56.72	11	16
11	MagicMan	08:59.77	10	28
12	DonTomato	09:07.41	9	28
13	fish	09:10.64	8	28
14	error1.3	09:17.00	7	31
15	Stromek	10:53.29	6	12
16	Alchr	11:32.96	5	12
17	.maX	12:53.94	4	12
18	Hogleg	13:04.41	3	3
19	Nøtt	13:41.73	2	6
20	McBain	13:53.69	1	14

Total standings after Baofengxue

#	Player	Points
1	Tecfan	81
2	Voyager006	75
3	HawkGer	63
4	Kilburn	57
5	Soso	41
6	Drunk Racer	41
7	OLDBOY	39
8	Marty	32
9	error1.3	31
10	Tunniq	31
11	fish	28
12	MagicMan	28
13	DonTomato	28
14	White	16
15	McBain	14
16	Minigod	13
17	Stromek	12
18	Alchr	12
19	.maX	12
20	Bajs	11
21	Nøtt	6
22	Hogleg	3

A Trip to the Hills

Round 1

Round 2

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	HawkGer	10:39.91	30	93
2	Voyager006	11:14.65	25	100
3	Tunniq	12:01.03	21	52
4	Kilburn	13:08.50	18	75
5	Tecfan	13:22.79	16	97
6	Minigod	13:57.83	15	28
7	MagicMan	14:04.82	14	42
8	Soso	14:16.05	13	54
9	OLDBOY	14:54.26	12	52
10	White	15:49.28	10	26
11	DonTomato	16:08.72	9	37
12	Arma2	17:20.61	8	8
13	Drunk Racer	18:03.86	7	48
14	error1.3	19:20.03	6	37
15	EXA	20:57.91	5	5

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	Minigod	10:46.35	30	58
2	Voyager006	10:55.09	25	125
3	HawkGer	11:25.11	21	114
4	Tecfan	11:36.87	18	115
5	Kilburn	11:58.28	16	91
6	Tunniq	12:32.84	15	67
7	MagicMan	12:53.07	14	56
8	Drunk Racer	13:55.52	13	61
9	Soso	14:54.72	12	66
10	DonTomato	15:27.72	11	48
11	Alexor54	15:38.25	10	10
12	OLDBOY	16:57.79	9	61
13	.maX	18:36.49	8	20
14	error1.3	18:39.89	7	44
15	White	19:20.01	6	32
16	Stromek	19:48.44	5	17

Total standings after A Trip to the Hills

#	Player	Points
1	Voyager006	125
2	Tecfan	115
3	HawkGer	114
4	Kilburn	91
5	Tunniq	67
6	Soso	66
7	OLDBOY	61
8	Drunk Racer	61
9	Minigod	58
10	MagicMan	56
11	DonTomato	48
12	error1.3	45
13	Marty	32
14	White	32
15	fish	28
16	.maX	20
17	Stromek	17
18	McBain	14
19	Alchr	12
20	Bajs	11
21	Alexor54	10
22	Arma2	8
23	Nøtt	6
24	EXA	5
25	Hogleg	3

The Great Escape

Round 1

#	Player	Time	Points	Total
1	Voyager006	19:58.37	60	185
2	Tecfan	24:09.07	50	165
3	MagicMan	26:11.03	42	98
4	Tunniq	27:13.43	36	103
5	fish	31:33.06	32	60
6	White	32:55.51	30	62
7	Drunk Racer	36:34.75	28	89
8	Igntul	37:16.20	26	26
9	Soso	40:43.61	24	90

Total standings

#	Player	Points
1	Voyager006	185
2	Tecfan	165
3	HawkGer	114
4	Tunniq	103
5	MagicMan	98
6	Kilburn	91
7	Soso	90
8	Drunk Racer	89
9	White	62
10	OLDBOY	61
11	fish	60
12	Minigod	58
13	DonTomato	48
14	error1.3	45
15	Marty	32
16	Igntul	26
17	.maX	20
18	Stromek	17
19	McBain	14
20	Alchr	12
21	Bajs	11
22	Alexor54	10
23	Arma2	8
24	Nøtt	6
25	EXA	5
26	Hogleg	3