1. #1

    The Etiquette of Design for new track creators

    I posted a message on Youtube and realized I had never seen this specific topic addressed. I see these rookie mistakes, of which I was guilty of commiting several at one time. This a list of common problems, with brief solutions included. Detailed solutions can be found throughout the forum, just look for it.

    Rule #1: No ****ty cameras, period. It doesn't make it harder or cooler, it makes it suck more.

    Rule #2: No blocky lighting. Take em out or move em apart. Looks amateur and is distracting.

    Rule #3: No Lag. Turn off some physics, unglue some stuff, take out some lights. Lag= unplayable. Check forums for more info on this.

    Rule #4: Don't? steal, borrow. If you're going to "borrow" an idea, acknowledge the creator in your msg or video and contact him before posting and all will be well. Otherwise, you're a thief and will be labeled as such. Don't be a ***** and play like you don't know whats going on either. (Thieves, you know who you are! *cough*COG SOLDIER5*cough*)

    Rule #5: Don't forget to include your gamertag or an abbreviation of it in your title. Otherwise, your tracks show up all over my list of 400 tracks and I have no way of remembering who the hell made them. A simple capital letter will do. As a matter of fact, I rarely download them without one because it screams, "I have no idea what I'm doing and I suck!", which, of course, isn't always the case.


    *I edited out one that was more of a preference : No awkwardly angled objects against the driving line. This is when an object on the driving line is rotated to the left or right of the driving line, not up or down from it. This makes the driving line nearly impossible to detect, and while sometimes forgiveable, it almost always causes unnecessary frustration.





    Any other experienced builders out there feel free to add anything I may have missed.
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  2. #2

    Re: Essential No-No's for new track creators

    Originally Posted by Ajuvix
    I posted a message on Youtube and realized I had never seen this specific topic addressed. I see these rookie mistakes, of which I was guilty of commiting several at one time. This a list of common problems, with brief solutions included. Detailed solutions can be found throughout the forum, just look for it.

    Rule #1: No ****ty cameras, period. It doesn't make it harder or cooler, it makes it suck more.

    Rule #2: No blocky lighting. Take em out or move em apart. Looks amateur and is distracting.

    Rule #3: No Lag. Turn off some physics, unglue some stuff, take out some lights. Lag= unplayable. Check forums for more info on this.

    Rule #4: No awkwardly angled objects against the driving line. This is when an object on the driving line is rotated to the left or right of the driving line, not up or down from it. This makes the driving line nearly impossible to detect, and while sometimes forgiveable, it almost always causes unnecessary frustration.

    Rule #5: Don't? steal, borrow. If you're going to "borrow" an idea, acknowledge the creator in your msg or video and contact him pefore posting and all will be well. Otherwise, you're a thief and will be labeled as such. Don't be a ***** and play like you don't know whats going on either. (Thieves, you know who you are! *cough*COG SOLDIER5*cough*)

    Rule #6: Don't forget to include your gamertag or an abberviation of it in your title. Otherwise, your tracks show up all over my list of 400 tracks and I have no way of remembering who the hell made them. A simple capital letter will do. As a matter of fact, I rarely download them without one because it screams, "I have no idea what I'm doing and I suck!", which, of course, isn't always the case.



    Any other experienced builders out there feel free to add anything I may have missed.


    I should definitely follow these, but i have one question. What do you guys think is good decor and driving line. I have an idea what people think is good decor, but I don't really understand what people mean by fun driving lines
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  3. #3
    Jarr3tt88's Avatar Senior Member
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    Re: Essential No-No's for new track creators

    Theres a thread for this already but I think we def need good guideline for common sense building Jorma says this:

    Originally Posted by Jorma
    Here are my design guidelines and a checklist for testing the tracks. My view is that most of the user tracks I have played have been way too hard to be fun. Of course if you only have QcChopper, Skumbag and Lestropie on your friend list this might be fine, but I usually like tracks which have a nice flow and which I actually want to play again after I have finished them.

    Desing guidlines:
    Pick a theme, don't mix every idea to the same track. Don't make the track too long. Make the track fun. Give it a nice flow. If something annoys you, modify! Add check points. Add more checkpoints after every harder obstacles. Keep the distance between checkpoints short. Test the track from every check point multiple times. Avoid too hard places. Make the riding line clear (pile the objects so that it is clear where the bike wheel is going to land). Avoid custom cameras unless nescessary. Test. Fix. Test. Tune. Test. Finalize. Brag.


    Check list:
    Can you continue from each checkpoint? Also, is it more difficult to continue from a checkpoint instead of not faulting in that place in the first place?

    Is there enough of checkpoints? Is there a place that feels like you just did something difficult and you still have to do another difficult spot? Add a checkpoint already!

    Are there any misaligned objects causing the bike to bounce where it is not supposed to be? Nothing is more annoying than misaligned floor causing a bump that takes your speed away before a big jump.

    Can you play every intended driving path smoothly?

    Does the game lag at any point? Also check situations like explosions, bike being on fire and heavy bike collision. Physics, particles and rendering require partially distinct resoures so figure out what the bottle neck is. Lights are rendering heavy. Particles (explosions) also cause some extra rendering work on top of being a task of their own (setup and animation). Lights and lots of particles is usually a bad thing.

    Is there any blockiness in the rendering? This is caused by too many lights in that area. Some of the effects like small fires are lights too.

    Does the camera go through objects? Is the player view blocked at some point? Custom camera might be needed.

    Is custom camera used in a bad way? Do not use special camera in hard places! This can make the obstacle much much harder.

    Does the difficulty match the description? If you aim for medium there shouldn't be any hard parts. If you aim for hard, there shouldn't be any extreme parts. Generally try to keep the track difficulty equally hard for the whole track.

    Do you have to wait anywhere for physics to do something? Players don't usually want to wait no matter how nice your physics thingy is. Try to trigger your physics earlier if this is the case.

    Is the driving path clear? Is it not clear where to continue? Add some direction signs. This might actually be a problem in your level design if this is the case.

    Is there any flow in the track? Are there places that are annoying or cause most of your faults? Do the jumps match the landing places? Can you continue the track smoothly even without doing the jumps or tricks perfectly? Is there enough of driving in the track or is it just physics trick after physics trick?

    Is there only one way to clear a obstacle? This can be hard to tell as you usually know how the obstacle needs to be played, but it can be extreme annoying for other players to try to find the one way to clear a hard obstacle even if you think it is very easy. Especially, if you have trouble passing your obstacle with the way you intended, you probably should tune it down a bit so that it can be passed with more general skill set. Generally you should avoid hard obstacles that look easy and aim for easy obstacles that look hard.

    Is the track fun? Not every track need to be a 'challenge'.

    Is the track technical enough for your target audience? Even the easiest tracks can have places where skill brings some time savings.

    Is the track too short / too long? Not every track need to be maximun length. 10 seconds one obstacle tracks aren't that much fun either.

    Does the medal limits match the track? Platinum should be pretty hard and be the target for your friends, maybe even your own record from testing. Gold should be a reasonable good score. Silver limits should be something reasonable to aim for during the first few runs. (not like 5 faults, 2 mins in an extreme track that takes 200 faults for the first try).

    Does the track look nice? Who cares. Well, you could add some explosions for the graphics junkies.
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  4. #4

    Re: Essential No-No's for new track creators

    Here are some other resources:

    <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.redlynxgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=2196">viewtopic.php?f=54&t=21 96</a><!-- l -->
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    I was looking for another topic and didn't find it. Maybe someone else knows the topic I'm thinking of.

    Zoid - the exact definition of a fun line is going to be different for everyone, but there are some things that most people will have in common.

    I'm not a super picky rider - I'll ride most tracks, but here's what i look for in a riding line:

    - I generally don't want to stop to wait for something to happen so i can keep riding. slowing down is fine, but if something is supposed to fall so you can keep riding, then it should fall before you get there. If you're not the greatest rider, get a good rider to test this for you, as chances are, they might be able to get there more quickly than you.
    - I need to be able to see the line. I want to know where I have to go. don't put a hundred objects between the rider and the camera. This doesn't make the track harder, it makes it harder for you to see the rider and the line. There's a difference there. It's annoying, and not fun.
    - The track doesn't need to be "flowy" (like Pipe Network from the DLC, for instance), but a good rider should be able to find flow in the track. Putting things that stick up out of the ground or having the rider go super fast and then putting a wall at the end of it are again, just annoyances.
    - I don't want to ride on something that's broken. debris should ALWAYS be off the driving line as it may affect your approach to the next obstacle.
    - All physics should be as polished as possible. There are plenty of people here who will help test physics and give feedback on how to make them work. Good examples of complicated and polished physics can be found in tracks by DrittesAuge, Jook, Iron Warlord, and plenty of others.
    - Tracks should feel like they've been tested and tested and tested before I ever try them (unless I am the tester). I don't want to have to download the updated track 2 hours or 2 days after you released it because you had to update stuff. (Heet mentioned that in one of the links above.)

    I'll stop now and let someone else contribute.
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  5. #5

    Re: Essential No-No's for new track creators

    Originally Posted by lespritdelescalier
    Here are some other resources:

    <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.redlynxgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=2196">viewtopic.php?f=54&t=21 96</a><!-- l -->
    <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.redlynxgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1927">viewtopic.php?f=28&t=19 27</a><!-- l -->
    <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.redlynxgame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=2977">viewtopic.php?f=53&t=29 77</a><!-- l -->

    I was looking for another topic and didn't find it. Maybe someone else knows the topic I'm thinking of.

    Zoid - the exact definition of a fun line is going to be different for everyone, but there are some things that most people will have in common.

    I'm not a super picky rider - I'll ride most tracks, but here's what i look for in a riding line:

    - I generally don't want to stop to wait for something to happen so i can keep riding. slowing down is fine, but if something is supposed to fall so you can keep riding, then it should fall before you get there. If you're not the greatest rider, get a good rider to test this for you, as chances are, they might be able to get there more quickly than you.
    - I need to be able to see the line. I want to know where I have to go. don't put a hundred objects between the rider and the camera. This doesn't make the track harder, it makes it harder for you to see the rider and the line. There's a difference there. It's annoying, and not fun.
    - The track doesn't need to be "flowy" (like Pipe Network from the DLC, for instance), but a good rider should be able to find flow in the track. Putting things that stick up out of the ground or having the rider go super fast and then putting a wall at the end of it are again, just annoyances.
    - I don't want to ride on something that's broken. debris should ALWAYS be off the driving line as it may affect your approach to the next obstacle.
    - All physics should be as polished as possible. There are plenty of people here who will help test physics and give feedback on how to make them work. Good examples of complicated and polished physics can be found in tracks by DrittesAuge, Jook, Iron Warlord, and plenty of others.
    - Tracks should feel like they've been tested and tested and tested before I ever try them (unless I am the tester). I don't want to have to download the updated track 2 hours or 2 days after you released it because you had to update stuff. (Heet mentioned that in one of the links above.)

    I'll stop now and let someone else contribute.

    Thanks hopefully now I can put out some decent maps, also I mainly make sure everything is right and its doable when i'm making the vid for it, other people might do this too, but this way I can make sure if someone plays it once that it will work okay, but thanks again. and i should test it more
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  6. #6

    Re: The Etiquette of Design for new track creators

    Something I'd like to add here is to make sure you reward riders for doing an object really well. It can be really frustrating to get past a section perfect with a lot of speed only to hit your head cause you went too high off the next jump or land in some dynamite. This sort of stuff gives the player no real incentive to get better at these sections. But if you are rewarded with a better landing, a shortcut, or being able to skip some obstacles, people will keep playing the track over and over till they get everything perfect. There can be exceptions for this if you are trying to make them take a different line that you find more fun.
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  7. #7

    Re: The Etiquette of Design for new track creators

    Originally Posted by Lifeonaboard
    Something I'd like to add here is to make sure you reward riders for doing an object really well. It can be really frustrating to get past a section perfect with a lot of speed only to hit your head cause you went too high off the next jump or land in some dynamite. This sort of stuff gives the player no real incentive to get better at these sections. But if you are rewarded with a better landing, a shortcut, or being able to skip some obstacles, people will keep playing the track over and over till they get everything perfect. There can be exceptions for this if you are trying to make them take a different line that you find more fun.
    I would also like to add something as a rider if there is an alternate route that turns out to be a trap i will quit the map, these add nothing but frustration and annoyance and I would really suggest not using this idea.
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  8. #8

    Re: The Etiquette of Design for new track creators

    There is a similar topic with a lot of good info here..

    Note to all track creators - Things us riders find annoying.
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  9. #9

    Re: The Etiquette of Design for new track creators

    Yeah i hate it when deco is placed in front of the riding line and prevents me from seein the rider even if for a split second when im approachin the next obstacle, i find that a major annoyance. It should always be camera angle to rider/riding line to the deco in the background. I can understand that creators try to make it 3-D as possible which is fine by me but i prefer the rider to be visible from start to finish.
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  10. #10

    Re: The Etiquette of Design for new track creators

    Originally Posted by shotaneric
    There is a similar topic with a lot of good info here..

    Note to all track creators - Things us riders find annoying.
    That's the one I was looking for! Thank you!
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