Trackmania United

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If there's a thread about this already just link me to it, I've searched and found nothing.

I'm just wondering if anyone from GTP has this game, if it's worth purchasing (meh, it's pretty cheap anyway) and if you guys are playing online.

I've played TM Nations when it was released but I got bored of it pretty quickly. United seems to be much improved (or so I heard), specially the online rankings organization. TM is all about online so I guess it would be fun to play with you guys. It appears that you can create customized rankings now, so we could have a GTP rank.

Anyway, here's the official website: http://www.tm-united.com/eng/
 
BUMP!!

I love this game! I just got it...I love how it is so simple but so fun to play

Perhaps we could get some people together to play?
 
I remember reading about this game last year and forgot about it....

Might have to check it out!
 
I remember having Trackmania Sunrise, great game, only got it for the track maker thing, i gotta check this game out :)
 
Haven't tried United yet. But I do own the two previous games - And I spend countless hours Trackmania Nations, which was/is completely free as I do believe you can still DL it.. There's still plenty of servers online as well.

Nations is, bar the License Tracks, completely online.
 
I picked up TMU a few weeks ago and am loving it. :D

Haven't had a lot of time to play with it but the track editor is a lot of fun for when you want to make some creative tracks. A bit hard to use (even if you're used to Nations) but it 's what makes TMU unique and stand out.

Aside from, y'know, driving through a corkscrew suspended probably hundreds of feet in the air at 400 MPH.

The different car environments really allow for a lot of different gameplay as well - although I only play the fast ones~ :lol:

(Online play should be competitive too, however I've only tried playing LAN against my family.)
 
I thought the speed was in kilometers per hour and not MPH... After playing TrackMania Nations, I'm more than interested to see what TrackMania United will be like. I may get TrackMania Sunrise if I go to a certain store. But if United is somehow available in stores, I'll certainly pick this one up.
 
I used to have TM: Sunrise. Its basically Nations with way more cars and more tracks. Theres even tracks where you can go underground. And there is AI which you can race.
 
I went shopping for a new sound card over the weekend. I came along with all of my money. While my mom thankfully paid for everything (believe me. I'm 25, but feel and act ten years younger), I saw one game that I really wanted like a girl wants a cute pair of shoes- TrackMania United Forever. The one I got was "TrackMania United Forever Limited Edition." This limited edition version had 3D glasses (those red and blue lens paper glasses that'll screw up your eyes). So this is my third TrackMania game. I was thinking that this was online exclusive and NOT made for stores. Here's a suggestion- make games available online AND offline! I don't know what I was missing if I had to sign up for some service just to download a game and pay to get it. Alright. So I had a chance to play this game this weekend. Here are my thoughts...



--- Environments ---
For one thing, the Stadium environment cured the shortcomings of the TrackMania Nations environment.. The Stadium environment needed a little sizzle to it for more advanced levels. I loved the water hazards as well as the dirt-covered areas. It brought a good game to a better dimension. In addition, not relegating this to daytime makes this even more enticing. Some of you may remember from the TrackMania Nations thread that I made my own hillclimb level for that game. Well, I may consider making a new hillclimb course by taking advantage of the newer overall style. I may have myself some limitations for reasons other than my imagination. I haven't yet mastered making tracks with this new environment.

Three environments are brand-new to me the Desert, the Rally, and the Snow environments.

The Desert environment can be pretty fun. It has a somewhat addicting country/electronica song. The Desert Car is called the American. But if you ask me, it looks a lot like an old Datsun. Just can't remember what Datsun looks closest. Handling dynamics are weird. It has some good acceleration, but it's a bit strange in the corners. Maybe the environment reminds me a bit of any arid part of Texas (speaking as a native Texan). I'm still learning how to master using this environment.

If I loved making rally courses for the Coast environment, thenthe Rally environment is really going to blow me away. I'm getting the hang of some environment features with this. I actually downloaded the rally car used in TrackMania Original's Rally environment, made available for TM Sunrise. This car is really quick and rather zippy around corners. The environment itself is very true to a rally-style event. Likely resembling rally race environments in the United Kingdom and even Spain. The coolest thing perhaps about this environment is that you can make water streams to splash through in crossing to the other side (or as the game does, pretend your car swam with the fishes... until you come out the water like nothing happened).

The Snow environment seems to highly represent a Chinese or Tibetian environment, but more along Chinese. I say China because I think immediately of the Great Wall of China with some of the road tiles that resemble the Great Wall of China. Then again, you know how most game developers try to converge different environments into one. Some Japanese writing is part of the decal packages for the different Snow machines. The car is a rugged Kei-like pickup truck. It doesn't go very fast. But like almost any Kei car, handling is incredible since you're not going so fast in corners. This track poses one unique challenge- ice. I did one of the solo races for the Snow environ. What ended up happening was that I was slipping and sliding out of control. I had to basically line my car up with the Finish gate. I think I got the Gold Medal from that event from one of my runs.

The Island, Coast, and Bay environments from TrackMania Sunrise are in United and have never looked or felt better. So what I loved and hated about the three environments are back.



--- Responses to the Game ---
Since TrackMania Nations, I've faced every TrackMania with adoring interest. This one is no different. I probably feared I wouldn't be able to enjoy this game because if its requirements. Any game that doesn't require anything north of 381 MB RAM for my PC are fine with me. Is it just me, or does it seem like there's a little more space to play around with in making race tracks? The newer levels and features add more depth and more possibilities in making race tracks. This means stuff like the Stadium environment. I can now make water hazards as well as combine a road course with some off-road locations. I could basically make my own Race of Champions course combining tarmac with dirt! While I do love the ROC buggies used for that event, this formula car is just as fun. Only a ROC course that has jumps and turbo boosts.

Overall, this game is virtual crack. You can really get addicted to the crazy nature of these courses and making whatever kinds of tracks you like. The non-tax price was $39.99 from the store I got it from. Money well spent. If there was any real negative, it's the dependence of online play. The game was made for online play, but single play is still solid. Pick this bad boy up if you see it at a store.
 
I created a pretty good level under the Rally environment. I created a stage that starts out on this little wooden bridge. All the while, there are variations of dirt roads as well as some tarmac roads. I may share it if I really think I can come up with a great track. Anyhow, the road begins covered with dirt. The track moves on to tarmac with winding roads the way only Europeans know best. A quick trip back to dirt gives way for a quick bridge setup across a small tream. Then, it's back on the tarmac for some more roads. An uphill descent on the tarmac roads leads to this wall that's easy to overshoot if you go too fast and fly off the road. A long blast down this wall leads to a dirt section lined with trees and has a few houses as well as lots of trees. Another ascent up a tarmac hill leads to a twisty series of left-right-left corners. After a few more turns on dirt and over a dirt hill, the rest of the way is a flat-out run into the castle. The castle features some village buildings as well as the finish line.

My best time was 2:36 flat. I forgot to save the track after validation, so I think the best time for it now is about 2:38. I'm still learning the environments as best as I can.



One problem I'm having is that I can't seem to make my own car for the Desert environment. I made my own car and gave it a different name... but it's saved as the Blackdevil or something like that. I use "Moonlight" for my user-created cars. It's to represent my ficticious motorsports team, Moonlight Motorsports. Team colors are blue and gold with alternative colors of red and gold. * I went ahead and uploaded some of the Sticker graphics from TrackManias Sunrise and Nations to my United Forever sticker package. I have very few paint options until I added on those extra stickers from past TM games. * Quick question: can I be able to upload cars I made from past TrackManias into United Forever?
 
I've been fooling around more with TrackMania United Forever. I made the decision to uninstall Sunrise and Nations and just port the stickers and stencils from past TrackMania games to be able to paint up cars. Just to stay within the "United" theme.

I went ahead and made a brand-new hillclimb level using the Stadium environment. Just to diffrentiate between TM Nations and this package... you know what happens if the car goes completely off the road? The track is surrounded in water. So if you don't want a car wash, make like Sasuke (Ninja Warrior) and stay out of the waters. The road begins on dirt while the rest of the way is asphalt. The track snakes upward. I even put United-exclusive material like the castles and tall decorative structures around. I admit that I'd probably still be playing TM Nations if the stuff included in the Stadium environment in TrackMania United Forever.

I've been getting some more experience in making Snow environments. It can be pretty tough riding around on slippery ice. The truly Asian environment is appreciative for me. I almost wish you can race any kind of car on any kind of environment because I'd love to tear up snow tracks with the rally car. However, I'm pretty sure that I got the small pickup for a reason. It's a fast car without being too fast. Otherwise, it would be too easy to overshoot the wood ramps.



I may need to re-install the game so that I can get over the issue in which I can never save my user-created car as my own car (I use "Moonlight" as my handle for my own creations). A real problem I have with the game is in the Track Editor. Taking the cursor too far will end up taking you away from the track itself sometimes. It can be hard trying to find the track you're creating if you the cursor advances too far in one direction. I never had this problem in Sunrise or Nations.
 
JohnBM01
I went ahead and made a brand-new hillclimb level using the Stadium environment. Just to diffrentiate between TM Nations and this package... you know what happens if the car goes completely off the road? The track is surrounded in water. So if you don't want a car wash, make like Sasuke (Ninja Warrior) and stay out of the waters. The road begins on dirt while the rest of the way is asphalt. The track snakes upward. I even put United-exclusive material like the castles and tall decorative structures around. I admit that I'd probably still be playing TM Nations if the stuff included in the Stadium environment in TrackMania United Forever.
Click to expand...

We've done the same thing. I made a track like that a few days back, water surrounds the 'chamber' where there is a long, snaking uphill track inside it. At the end of the race, you fall into the water. :) I'm loving the track editors, infact I loved any game with it. I remember playing V-Rally 2 back afew years back, loved the track editor in it.
 
I think the general time to scale this uphill track that I created was about 2:35. It's a daytime course. A thing about the Stadium car is that it's a terrible car to use if you're trying to climb up roads with a steep incline. Like if you fly off the course on a flat course, you have to restart the level or access the last checkpoint you crossed. At least this package allows you to have tarmac and dirt sections. Something else I'm considering for my track is a Reverse layout. This would be a DOWNhill event. I did a downhill course before, and I may use my current uphill track to create a downhill course.


Want to make your own hillclimb course with the Stadium layout? Here's how:

The base of your level obviously needs to have a Start line. The finish line needs to be at the highest point the editor will allow you to make. The rest is simple- make roads to go from the ground to go well into the sky. Rather than make a straight run into the clouds, challenge yourself by building tiles that undulate. You may even try some stunts, just make sure not to make the stunts too difficult to traverse any attempt to scale this mountain of yours. To be realistic, just go with an asphalt road (I don't think you can make a dirt road with a Start and a Finish. All of your dirt tiles have to be on the ground. you'll need a network of checkpoints so that when you screw up, that you don't have to start everything over again. Add some challenge by covering the entire course in water. In other words, every area that's grass should be turned into water. The water is out-of-bounds. Make sure you build a network of roads going upward that ultimately connect to the Finish line way up in the sky. All that's left is to go racing. Good luck! Just change the Start and Finish (respective) tiles to Finish and Start for downhill races.

TrackMania's all about having fun, so go right ahead making your masterpiece.
 
I made another track, finished it today. Basically it has 3 parts, the first 'highway' part consits of mainly uphill track which twists around itself many times. A giant wall conceals the next part; dirt. After racing on the dirt, you enter the tiny 'block' stage which ultimately leads to the finish line. I'm pretty proud of the track. It's around 7,000 in weight, or something.
 
I guess you can say there are two types of TrackMania racers- circuit racers and stunt racers. People who played the 1990 game called "Stunts" would probably be familiar with this kind of environment. Only thing is that you can't race against Cherry Chassis or Skid Vicious in TrackMania games. I'm more a circuit racer. I didn't try to make the hillclimb to be absolutely extreme. However, it's challenging enough to test the limits of circuit racers.
 
But there are also a few tracks which have a good combination of both. Now they are catagorized into Speed (You can hold forward all the time) , Speed Tech (Mix of both, but not as fast and has a bit more of the windy stuff), and Tech (which is basically all windy stuff). And of course there are Stunt and Dirt which are self explanatory. Now the circuit racing has kind of gone, I remember playing circuits back a few years ago on TM: Sunrise. TrackMania was originally made for stunts, and now circuit is being pushed away now. I like my Speed Techs, and now the circuit is a bit too boring since all the parts of the editors can be used to make something magnificent.
 
I've gotten back to TrackMania United Forever. I have created a few courses, mostly for the Coast environment. Part of my "maturation" with TrackMania United is in using the full scope of the available environment with little regard for the Coppers. I'm thankful games since TrackMania Nations did away with Coppers and just let one's full imagination create the track and let imagination be the only limit. This even included my longest Coast point-to-point race I've ever created. My best time around my own course is 3:49.02. The Bronze time I've set to 4 minutes flat. Gold is 3:50.00. It's good the Coast environment comes with proper racing track tiles. It adds some extra versatility to the kinds of tracks you can create.
 
I play united forever, and my ladder rank is 52,200 at the minute but improving quickly. I even had started a team / clan a few dats back to take on some of the clans we know :)
I drive a white murcielago or black Zonda :D
 

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