The Official Trackmania United thread

The GAF TMU group info is:

login -- neogaf
password -- believe

To join a group, go to profile -> add on the right.




As was recently posted the US release of Trackmania United is right around the corner, so here's a chance for you all who have either not picked TMU up or have deliberately avoided the game due to starforce to read up a little about the game.

The Steam version of Trackmania: United has *no* Starforce at all, in any way, shape, or form.


Ok, back to the game. Trackmania United is the perfect game for people completely new to Trackmania because it's actually a compilation of ALL the Trackmania games to date. Trackmania Original (2003), Trackmania Sunrise (2005), and the free download Trackmania Nations (2006). This game is pretty much an arcade racing equivalent of a Hot Wheels set, including the ability to create tracks with a very healthy track editor and then share those with everyone. It includes 7 environments (Stadium, Island, Desert, Rally, Bay, Coast, Snow) and 3 modes (Race, Puzzle, Platform). Back to those in a minute...

When you create your user profile, you also select your ManiaZone. Your ManiaZone is your Country and State/Province. These are used for one reason, when on single player or multiplayer your times, skill points, and multi-player ladder points are all added up and compared first in your state, then in your country, and then worldwide.

Groups:

Something like a clan, but not really. Groups are pretty much what they say they are. You join the group and from then on out, when looking at times for tracks, you can switch from the default “World” view, to one of your groups (you can join multiple groups) and then compare times and download replays solely from members of your group. It's a great way to play with people you know. GAF already has a group, PM Agent Icebreezy and he'll give you the name/password.


Coppers:

Coppers are the in-game currency that is used for a lot of the community features. When you want to download a replay of someone's time, you pay a small amount of coppers (5) and it's stored on your hard drive. If you run out of tracks to play and set official times on, you can click “Get a New Challenge” and pay 10 coppers to get an all new user-created and uploaded track. Coppers are gained in a handful of ways. You pay 10 coppers to set an official time, if the time you post is fast enough for a bronze medal (this doesn't mean that it was the 3rd fastest time, this is a preset time for the medal), you receive 5 coppers, Silver 10, and Gold, 15. These all stack, so if you get a gold time, you actually receive 30 coppers. You cannot repeat a track and get more coppers out of it, once you've gotten a gold medal, that's it, but that shouldn't stop you from trying to get a better time for the hell of it. Optionally, there's a green medal which is the Author's best time. This awards no coppers, however. All replays you have can be turned on as an opponent that you'll see in your race so that you can follow their lines and see what you can do to improve your time.




Environments:

The environments in the game dictate the blocks you'll see (and use for making tracks, if you choose to) as well as the car you use. All the seven environments have different cars and those cars drive and handle differently. All cars have a degree of air control. As you reach a jump, you can quickly press left or right to send the car spinning, and while in air, you can press the opposite way to stop spinning. Also, if you hold the gas in air your car will go further and if you brake you'll land shorter.

One of the best things about Trackmania is the (almost) completely freeform track creation. You don't have to use a traditional road, anything that's a block in the game, including things that you'd think you'd normally use for scenery, get frequently used as part of the course. Including the tops of buildings,


Stadium - Probably the most played and well known environment. Stadium takes place (as you'd guess!) inside a stadium. This car looks very similar to and F1 and is fast and very grippy. While it isn't very agile, you won't be sliding around at all barring dirt and grass sections. Letting off the accelerator going through some turns will prevent you from hitting the sides of the track, slowing you down.

stadium.jpg






Island - Island environment is a very bright and colorful locale. Very “Outrun”-looking and this also goes for the car. The Island car, based visually on various exotics like Lamborghinis or Ferraris, is incredibly fast with a tendency to powerslide. This can be both good and bad. While you can generally power through sharp turns without letting up on the gas at all and not lose much time, it's the subtle turns that require a very slight touch that, should you end up sliding, can cost you some time. Keeping your traction when you can will shave time off. Island tracks are usually very over the top with loops, very long jumps, and wide sweeping turns that you'll powerslide the whole way through.


island.jpg





Desert - Based on American muscle cars, the Desert car accelerates slowly but tops out a fast speed. However, the handling is very clunky. If you try to take a hard turn with enough speed, you'll find that the Desert car will begin to flip over. While you can manage to balance this on two wheels for optimum speed, if the car loses balance, it'll spin you around backwards, obviously ruining your time.

desert.jpg





Rally - The rally environment takes place in a very grassy, backroads area. The roads are all very narrow including some nasty bridges that aren't much wider than the length of the car. Modeled after the sporty hatchbacks seen in the WRC, the rally car is really straightforward. It handles moderately well, is moderately fast, and has a moderate bit of grip, and really good acceleration. One of my favorite environments.

rally.jpg





Bay - A San Francisco-esque area with lots of the blocks revolving around bridges, docks, boats, as well as driving through (or on top of) an Urban bay city. The Bay car is an SUV (Part of me wonders if this is a subtle knock on Americans :-p) that is fast and handles deceptively well.

bay.jpg





Coast - Inarguably the environment with the longest learning curve, the coast car is weighty, has poor acceleration, and will very, very easily get out from underneath you on a turn. The key is watching your acceleration through turns, as stepping on the gas too early (or not letting off at all), will have you losing control near-instantly and hitting the wall/barrier, your time then wittles away as your car struggles to regain its lost speed. As bad as this may sound, once you've got your head wrapped around how to drive coast properly, the sense of speed is actually just right and it's really fun to drive.

coast.jpg





Finally, Snow - My favorite environment and the one I've probably put the most time into is Snow. An Eastern-themed Winterland that uses small 4x4 trucks. While not the fastest, Snow cars are absolutely the most nimble. No matter the speed, the Snow car won't lose grip and will turn on a dime. Unique to the snow environment is a block that is pure ice. While your car is on ice, no matter how you turn or in what direction, you will not change directions or lose speed. You can slide down backwards if you want, doesn't really matter. This means that you need to pick your angle beforehand or you'll find yourself nowhere on track.

snow.jpg




The Modes:


Race - As you would expect, this is self-explanatory. The goal here is to reach the finish line the fastest, passing through the checkpoints. The most played mode online and off, this has the most tracks made for it as well. There's no dearth of tracks here, with 16 (5 for each difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard, plus 1 for Extreme, the final difficulty) tracks stock per environment, as well as the challenges you can continue to download.


Puzzle - The original intended game mode for Trackmania. Each puzzle track sits you down in a specific environment with already predetermined checkpoints and blocks for you. The goal here is to create a track (and then race on it), that can achieve the fastest time possible while passing through all the checkpoints.

Platform - A personal favorite, though I spend more time with Race. Your time in Platform mode DOES NOT matter. What does matter is getting through a variety of tricks, turns, jumps with the least amount of checkpoint restarts. You can take all day long so long as you get to the goal. The tracks designed here are deliberately tricky and tough, with the most usage of blocks that will cut off your engine, thus leaving you to coast until the next checkpoint. Also, lots of speed sensitive areas where success won't always be gained through going as fast as possible.

Multiplayer:

Similar to solo mode with ghosts, Multiplayer is an online time trial (although, there's also Stunts mode, where you get points for doing tricks) where all players compete with each other trying to get the fastest time within a time limit (about 5-7 or so minutes, some servers shorter, some longer. Your cars WILL NOT touch, instead, like a ghost, they'll simply pass right through you and you them. While this may sound like a bummer, play a few of the tracks and you'll quickly understand why.



The Track Editor:

As user-created content and community is one of the biggest draws to trackmania, it's also fitting the game has an extensive, easy, block-based track creator/editor. Each environment has its own set of blocks that are used for just about everything you see in the track. Buldings, terrain height changes, twists, turns, loops, buildings, everything is made from blocks. Due to the way checkpoints work, everything is game when it comes to track creation. You can start your track in mid air and use ramps to have cars jump from roof top to roof top in Bay. You can use the speed of Island and Stadium cars to launch them across the track, then bounce off the water and back on the road again. Experiment and go nuts, Frequently when I play online I run into a track that uses the environment in a way I'd never seen before. Also, there's the MediaTracker which you can use to add cinematic intros and outros to your track and add new music.

track.jpg




The Replay Editor:

One of the biggest features in Trackmania (and you may have seen a good example of this in the net-famous 1K project video, where 1000 replays were all merged together) is the replay editor. In the replay editor, you can add several extra replays that are on the same track, alter camera angles and camera routes, effects, text, and then use the in-game export to churn it straight out into a video you can post online and share.


replay.jpg




The Paint Job Editor:

Not happy with the standard liveries that come with the game? You can use the paint job editor to create your own unique paint job that EVERYONE you play online with or watches a replay of you will see. While you can choose to share it or even put it up on your ManiaLink or just plain ole anywhere you want on the web, you can choose to keep it just for yourself.

paint.jpg



ManiaLink:

http://en.tm-wiki.org/wiki/Manialink
http://en.tm-wiki.org/wiki/ManiaCode_Tutorial

Everyone can use and register ManiaLinks. A ManiaLink is a website you design for use in-game that you can use to host and/or charge (with coppers, silly) for paint jobs, cars, tracks, movies or just a general clan/team page. From what I understand, ManiaLinks are coded in XML, but are somewhat limited in the tags Nadeo allows, so no crazy sicknuts flash sites. You then register the ManiaLink name with Nadeo, and then in an AOL Keyword type way, you type in the registered keyword and bam, you're sent to the site you wanted. Manialinks are hosted by yourself, not Nadeo, so you'll already need your own webspace.

manialink.jpg




It's also worth noting that while earlier I mentioned how cars are designed on exotics, F1, etc. You can also import your own 3D models into the game.

And, that pretty much wraps it up. There are a handful “Webisodes” Nadeo created that went over some of these, but I felt like typing it all anyway. That you can see here.

The game comes out on Steam on June 14th, currently for a 24$ pre-order for US or 39$ for European folk. But, the game's already out in brick and mortar stores in Euro-land and Canadia. It's incredibly fun, with a never ending mountain of tracks and a fairly large (mostly in europe for now) community that also has a good douche:cool ratio. So go buy it if you're in the US for sure, as it's a ****ing steal. It also has pretty low system requirements. Athlon 1600+XP, P4 1.6ghz, 256mb of RAM, 16 MB video card.

GET IT.


Corrections welcome as I frequently talk out of my ass.
 
Ive played demos of just about all of them.Was interested for the first demo I played,but never got around to buying it so I guess I might get this or a past cheaper one.And that A lot of Blur...
 
The M.O.B said:
Ive played demos of just about all of them.Was interested for the first demo I played,but never got around to buying it so I guess I might get this or a past cheaper one.And that A lot of Blur...

You turn it on or off
 
Thanks for the heads up.. I'll be buying this with my new rig in August. I played the demo of Sunrise(?) a long time ago and really liked it. Seems like one of those games you'll really get your money's worth... lots of replayability with the community aspect.
 
Were there ever plans for a console version? I love trackmania, but my PC is nowhere near as capable as the 360 and It'd be nice to have a pretty version.
 
Just ordered it. Now the waiting.


Tre`, much thanks. You always look out for your fellow PC gamers :)

Been a while since I used steam...'picked up' some other stuff while I was at it :b
 
"Were there ever plans for a console version? I love trackmania, but my PC is nowhere near as capable as the 360 and It'd be nice to have a pretty version."

The director's been pretty vocal about not thinking that the community aspect of the game would work as well in the Console Space.
 
Most games that are heavily mod-able like hl2,unreal,oblivion,etc are still the best on the PC because the community is easily accessible.
This game ran on my integrated graphics card a couple years back at a close 60fps with just some of the prettier effects turned off,and I still had fun.
 
"Nicely done thread. But what the hell happened to the price? This afternoon it was $30 and now it's $50."


Really? I booted up Steam again and it still showed 29.95$/23.95.
 
Does this not have copy protection at all? Because Starforce requires drivers to be enabled.

Either way, I really liked Trackmania Sunrise and Nations, installed them despite the Starforce.
 
Crypto said:
Does this not have copy protection at all? Because Starforce requires drivers to be enabled.

Read the big bolded part of the original poster's post.

Also, pre-ordered via Steam. $24 can't be beat, thanks crappy US dollar you've come through for me once again.
 
"The Starforce in Trackmania United works similar to Securom where there's only some files in the main Trackmania folder that the executable calls for blah blah technobabble. "

That would be a new version of Starforce if true. To use Starforce it has always required the driver install (which it usually does in the background without notifying you).

Otherwise it's not using copy protection, that's why I asked.
 
"That would be a new version of Starforce if true. To use Starforce it has always required the driver install (which it usually does in the background without notifying you)."


It is a new version. This version of starforce does not install drivers. Not in the background either, none.
 
I can't stress this enough, listen to Teknopathetic. This series is awesome! Graphically impressive, awesome arcade physics, great online, simple and track editor, challenging and fun courses, etc. EASILY worth the $20 asking price.
 
One of the best racing games ever made. Since I already own the game, I wonder if I'll be able to put my serial into steam so I can have the game associated with my steam account, I would prefer it on there.
 
I still don't trust Starforce, even IF they seem better behaved.

And as much as I liked Sunrise, no sale because of this.
 
"They really oughtta just bring this to consoles."

No need. Coupled with no intention of putting it on consoles, the game has garnered a nice following in Europe that pretty much keeps them from ever needing to put it on consoles.

And this ain't the thread to voice your Starforce (deserved as they may be) complaints.
 
theultimo said:
I still don't trust Starforce, even IF they seem better behaved.

And as much as I liked Sunrise, no sale because of this.

Sunrise had the bad Starforce.

Edit: Now the price is back to $30. It's bouncing back and forth.
 
How is this game performance wise for someone who has TM:S? I want this title but seeing some of extreme tracks they have is making this another must have pc buy.
 
Teknopathetic said:
"They really oughtta just bring this to consoles."

No need. Coupled with no intention of putting it on consoles, the game has garnered a nice following in Europe that pretty much keeps them from ever needing to put it on consoles.

And this ain't the thread to voice your Starforce (deserved as they may be) complaints.

Online TM for consoles sounds horrid anyway I think about the possibility of how it would likely turn out. Unless they nail the current format completely as it is or better this title would suck.
 
TMU is really an awesome game. I love it. Just the missing configure tool for the analog pad axis makes me sad.

I bought it 4x when it was released here. 1 for my girlfriend, 1 my brother, 1 my sister, and me!
all these were special editions with a t-shirt in the box! "Gold is for girls" is on the front of the shirts :D


Here are my Skins for TMU

cars.jpg
 
"How is this game performance wise for someone who has TM:S? I want this title but seeing some of extreme tracks they have is making this another must have pc buy."


If you ran TM:S, I'd imagine you can run TM:U no problem at the same fidelity you ran TM:S with the same performance.. The big graphic bump comes when you turn on SM3, which only really affects Stadium that has bump mapping and the ZOMG grass, etc. So no change.
 
Teknopathetic said:
As was recently posted the US release of Trackmania United is right around the corner

?

I bought it and downloaded online and have been playing it since last year. Was that a limited release or something?

Anyway, very fun game.
 
VALIS said:
?

I bought it and downloaded online and have been playing it since last year. Was that a limited release or something?

Anyway, very fun game.

They offered it online at Nadeo's site first. That is where Tre and I downloaded it from. Paid $49.99 for it and it was worth every single penny.
 
"I bought it and downloaded online and have been playing it since last year. Was that a limited release or something?

Anyway, very fun game."


I bought and downloaded online as well, yes that was meant to be a limited time thing for people who didn't have the game released in their territories yet. The Steam release is the first one targeted at the US.
 
Agent Icebeezy said:
They offered it online at Nadeo's site first. That is where Tre and I downloaded it from. Paid $49.99 for it and it was worth every single penny.

Yeah, that's where I got it. I didn't realize it wasn't officially out in the US yet.
 
Teknopathetic said:
If you ran TM:S, I'd imagine you can run TM:U no problem at the same fidelity you ran TM:S with the same performance.. The big graphic bump comes when you turn on SM3, which only really affects Stadium that has bump mapping and the ZOMG grass, etc. So no change.

I'm already running SM3 so it's good to know I can keep the 80fps+ and have all that content. I never really played nations that much or TM so having all these new environments plus extreme built right is a huge plus.

Do analog controls still suck compared to a dpad or keyboard setup?
 
Hatorade said:
I'm already running SM3 so it's good to know I can keep the 80fps+ and have all that content. I never really played nations that much or TM so having all these new environments plus extreme built right is a huge plus.

Do analog controls still suck compared to a dpad or keyboard setup?

I use the 360 controller and Tre goes with the OG Xbox controller.
 
Yeah, I haven't noticed any control issues with analog control, though I have my triggers set up as digital if that makes any difference to you.
 
Teknopathetic said:
Yeah, I haven't noticed any control issues with analog control, though I have my triggers set up as digital if that makes any difference to you.

Your triggers isn't a biggie that never got to me in TMS. The steering is what got to me even if I adjusted the sensitivity made getting gold disgustingly hard. After I went dpad or keyboard setup I can get green developer times and exceed themrather easily say about 3-6 hours for short levels and the long levels about 12-18.

Snow levels are going to be pure fun along with f1 based setup of nations.

I do feel the pain of no console version simply because people don't understand how flippin cool this game is. BTW starforce isn't that bad and with someone with an htpc along with photography and games I should have tons of problems with it because people on the net said so yet TMS has never given me issues outside of not being able to older replays but it's the same for cs and dota to me.
 
"Your triggers isn't a biggie that never got to me in TMS. The steering is what got to me even if I adjusted the sensitivity made getting gold disgustingly hard. After I went dpad or keyboard setup I can get green developer times and exceed themrather easily say about 3-6 hours for short levels and the long levels about 12-18."


Yeah, I haven't had a problem (with TMU) getting golds/greens with an analog stick, or at least any problems that I could say "Man, this control scheme is screwing me over."
 
Don't forget that Desert, the oldest of TM envs, is still the king of TrackMania environments :)

It might be difficult for some people to get the feel of it but when you do it's a really rewarding environment and you'll begin to love it and get seriously addicted to it. You'll have to trust me on this
thumbup.gif


Since TMU I've not spent much time at all playing online because it seems that most of the people just host the brainless and boring pedal-to-the-metal super speed tracks. It was different back in 2003-2005 when the tracks actually required you to do much more than just press forward, they required you to think. That's what I would like to see brought back: the intelligent track building that yielded such a HUGE amount of great and memorable experiences with other trackmaniacs.

So... I'd like to see more quality Desert and Alpine tracks online. The servers are now flooded with Stadium(/Island) tracks and, while I love Stadium, it's just not so "sophisticated" as the original TM envs. With Desert there's more slow bends and tight curves and generally lots of situations where you have to really think about how to take a section of a track and what steering techniques to use in order to better your time. The gameplay in TrackMania has much more to offer than just pressing the forward key.
 
"So... I'd like to see more quality Desert and Alpine tracks online. The servers are now flooded with Stadium(/Island) tracks and, while I love Stadium, it's just not so "sophisticated" as the original TM envs. With Desert there's more slow bends and tight curves and generally lots of situations where you have to really think about how to take a section of a track and what steering techniques to use in order to better your time. The gameplay in TrackMania has much more to offer than just pressing the forward key."


Have you ever checked out the Air Time United servers? They're a "clan" of sorts of track makers. Usually some good non-stadium (but there are stadium tracks as well, of course) tracks. I have seen an overwhelming negative response to "technical" tracks, that I too enjoy.

As far as Desert being king, I favor (if only because I'm best at them) Snow and Bay over Desert, though, like coast, once you "get" it, it's very rewarding.
 
Teknopathetic said:
Have you ever checked out the Air Time United servers?
Yeah, I've been there. It's a good place with mostly skilled players.
Usually some good non-stadium (but there are stadium tracks as well, of course) tracks.
I actually like Stadium very much but it just so happens that about 95% of the hosted Stadium tracks are those "unmotivating" ones.
I have seen an overwhelming negative response to "technical" tracks, that I too enjoy.
Me and many of my long time TM friends have also noted this happening for quite some time. It's sad... it's like a big part of the original TrackMania legacy is being suffocated.
 
Could someone tell me what specs are needed?

I really want this game and have owned every TM game before.

I got:
Amd Sempron 3000
512MB Ram
GeForce FX 5500

You suppose that'd be enough?
 
"Could someone tell me what specs are needed?

I really want this game and have owned every TM game before.

I got:
Amd Sempron 3000
512MB Ram
GeForce FX 5500

You suppose that'd be enough?"


If you can run every TM game previously, you can run this game. :-p
 
Teknopathetic said:
"Could someone tell me what specs are needed?

I really want this game and have owned every TM game before.

I got:
Amd Sempron 3000
512MB Ram
GeForce FX 5500

You suppose that'd be enough?"


If you can run every TM game previously, you can run this game. :-p

Alright, good enough. This has got my monies.
 
arena08 said:
this game is awesome.

that is all you need to know

No it isn't cause thats an understatement. I remember the original TM and the tricky Desert courses people made, god those were great. Is that what you mean by 'technical'? Different paths to take and some lead to death or trickier routes?
 
I might get this although I don't understand why when I buy stuff on Steam they add taxes, at least when I tried to buy Hitman 2 for 10 dollars the total became almost 12.
 
Neo Child said:
No it isn't cause thats an understatement. I remember the original TM and the tricky Desert courses people made, god those were great. Is that what you mean by 'technical'? Different paths to take and some lead to death or trickier routes?
Depends on the course, really. The official level design is all over the place.

One thing to note is that United is fully compatable with all of the old gbx track files. If you have a previous game in the series, just copy the files right into the tracks folder and you no longer need to keep the old game around.
 
I love Trackmania and I'm having a blast with United. I would really like to play this on 360, just for the comfort to play while sitting on the sofa. Plus, Live would be perfect for tho online approach of the game. Make it happen Nadeo!
 
So agreed. You'd miss out on custom models and skins, but a console release would be incredible with the included track editor and a Halo 3 beta-style bit of public webspace.
 
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