[PC] Test the track!

Someone making a rallycross track, I had to try it out and see how it is as the rallycross fan I am myself! Alright, here go my thoughts:


Most of my critics will come from the fact that you actually called your track a rallycross. It might sound weird or silly right now, but bear with me for a moment.

First off! The good points!

► The location of the race is good. Few people realize it, but the location is important. For example, so many tracks are set in Sandy Shores nowaydays. Sure the place is nice for tracks because flat and no sidewalks and lampposts and all. But god damn they became all boring now when it comes to the landscape. Tataviam Mountains are a place that is rarely used in racing (which is too bad considering it's an atypical place with the dam and the huge cliffs with the lake down, gives a beautiful scenery to look at).

► The layout of the track is nice. It flows nicely, I didn't get surprised by any weird prop placement or anything. And kudos for using double checkpoints on large roads, many people forget about it and put a single, tiny checkpoint for a super large avenue, it's annoying. So thumbs up for that.



Now let's head to the parts where it bothered me a little.

First, I'll detail my trail of thoughts so you know where I'm coming from. Rallycross tracks are known for being very technical. Sharp turns, skimpy roads, with lots of contact between the pilots and their cars (it's really not rare to see rallycross racecars losing their bumpers and all during a race from grinding too much in the corners against the other cars). It's part of the discipline's charm, a part I'm quite fond of actually. Rallycross tracks require both a good mastery of your vehicle, as well as a certain aggressivity towards other pilots to get ahead of them. I didn't... quite get that feeling, here are the reasons why:

► The track has too many, long straights. Long straights are not the most interesting parts in racing (just look at Rockstar Verified tracks, ugh, horrible *shudders*), and they're even less interesting in rallying/rallycross. You could use some more corners here and there to make the race more interesting in those parts (adding chicanes with sign props maybe? It's not rare in rallying to see artificial chicanes made of haystacks actually). In a smiliar fashion, the width of many portions of the track is too much, it'd be a miracle to get contact with another car on them.

► You made the corners after the dam -way- to easy to go through IMO. I was actually looking forward to press the handbrake button to go through them efficiently in my Omnis, but the way you placed the props on the outter sides of the corners made them way easier to go through, I barely had to brake (especially since they turned out to be on the asphalt of the stunt props rather than the dirt of the actual road, giving a lot more traction than on dirt). I'd suggest to remove them instead, and to simply place barrier props along the sides if you're just afraid of people falling down the cliff (which is understandable, no one likes to fall down a cliff).

► The pit lane could use improvement. First off, the large moving exclamation point sign makes it for a poor entrance IMO. Because it's a mobile prop, it could make the entrance to the pit lane quite messy, especially if you've several people trying to go through. And second, the slow down zones were waaay too strong. At full speed on my Tropos, I managed to get slowed down twice on the single slow down zone at the entrance. And got slowed down twice again at the exit. The slowing down factor could use some adjustements. Speaking of pit lane, there's no pit lane in rallycross races! Rallycross races last between 4 and 6 laps depending on if you're racing against the clock for qualifications or racing in your assigned group, so there's no pit lane necessary. There are kind of stands of course (which are pretty much improvised spots with tents like in rally), but nothing close to a pit lane. Minor detail though.

► And finally... a major flaw for me for a rallycross track... No jokerlap! Blasphemy! Heresy! No I'm overreacting. But seriously though. Jokerlaps are super important in rallycross tracks. Jokerlaps are alternative paths to the main track that elongate the track a bit, to force the pilots using it to take longer to complete the lap. The rule in rallycross is that every pilot has to go through the jokerlap at least once per race. That's a really flavourous addition that makes the races a lot more impredictable. Of course, I don't expect randoms to use this kind of rule. But when you race with rallycross afficionados, it's a really, really nice addition. I'd suggest to watch Broughy's video about rallycross if you want more info on that. Either way, no jokerlap, big flaw to me.

Oh, also, as a final note, the choice of available vehicles when custom vehicles are turned off. In most races it wouldn't matter, but in rally and rallycross tracks, it does matter IMO, for example if you don't trust everyone to use a rallycar. The first time I've played your race, I accidently turned off the custom vehicles (like an idiot), so I had to pick one through the list. And I've see the Verlierer, the Specter, the Specter Customs, the Sprunk Buffalo, aka cars that are far from being rallycars. The most common used cars used/allowed in rally/rallycross races are the Omnis, the Tropos, the Kuruma, the Sultan and the Stirling GT, so it could be good for this to be changed, but that's a really minor detail, I'm really being picky on this one.



As I said, most of my negative points are mostly based on the fact that you called your race rallycross. If it was called... I don't know, rally circuit, or rally stunt, or something like that, it wouldn't have bothered me so much (even not at all for some points, like the JOKERLAP--sorry, sorry, I'll stop with that stupid jokerlap thing). Titles can be deceiving, they say. But I still enjoyed racing on your track! Just, not as a rallycross track, and more as a regular rally circuit/stunt. Hope my insight was useful anyway, I hope I wasn't too bashing, it wasn't my intent!


My turn to submit a track I suppose, so here is this one: Rockford Hills Rallycross. Have fun anyone who's going to play it!


rsg.ms/3a7977a

I don't know if I'm supposed to answer your criticism or if that ruins this thread (a moderator could delete my post if so).

First of, wow what a great review! I mean, wow, so detailed, thank you!

I was actually thinking of a jokerlap but I ran out of props.
The fact that it is called a stretched rallycross-track may be a mistake on my end, I didn't really know what to call it so that people would get an idea what it was about.
The moving stop-sign was the last prop I placed because when I tested the track out with randoms they kept going the wrong way and ended up slowed down for no reason (we raced it as a standard-race because of randoms).
Overall (with the easier asfalt-bends at the start) the track is more focused on pleasing random racers than the rallycross-community I guess.

But based on your criticism I think I will create a version 2 of the track that is a proper rallycross track, aimed at the rallycross-crowd. I will post in this thread when that one is completed

Again, thank you for a great review!

Alright, so this thread's been quiet for a month, but I've recently tried my hand at the creator and would like some feedback on the race I made. So, here's a review of the previously submitted track La Marina:



Construction:

Overall well-constructed. There are barriers where you need them, the signs and cosmetics aid in showing where the route is (need to pay attention to the hairpin warning signs) and the sunken raised stunt tracks and stunt tubes help wall off the sections to create a more varied experience from turn to turn. Without those, it'd feel too much like driving around a parking lot. The main driving surface appears to be the side of a raised stunt track with a building block raised to just about the same height. This is meant to create a low-grip surface with a paved look but unfortunately shows clipping/strobing effects on my computer, which I'm not really a fan of. I'm not a fan of the sound effects of driving on this surface either, which sounds like a wooden barrel rolling down a wooden ramp but I understand there's really no other easy way to create a large low-grip surface.

Other nitpicks:
It was likely important to the design to have the helipad as a section, but the landing lights do mess with my car sometimes.

There's no barrier across the upper sections of the bridge, so if one drives off of it they will have to respawn, which is time-consuming. The respawn location is aimed in such a way that it's very difficult to turn the car onto the bridge at any kind of speed.

The checkpoint just before the finish line can be missed if one takes a very wide line.

Experience:

The default class for the track is Supers, which was personally a bit frustrating because I don't get to drive them at any kind of speed in a map like this. The low-grip surface is another wrinkle that can mess with someone who isn't prepared for it. The track kinda reminded me of those license testing tracks in Gran Turismo, which also frustrated me back in the day. The track feels more suited to skills competitions and time trials, and in that dimension there's plenty of challenge in getting a good lap time.

When I was driving a supercar, it definitely felt like I was driving a car too big for the track. This gave me an idea and I tried some smaller vehicles. The Ruston and Tropos's turning radii were a bit wide for the turns and the Bifta could handle things, but still felt a bit big. Of the vehicles I tried, it was actually the Street Blazer that gave me the best experience. Traction was a non-issue on the low-grip surface, the tight turning radius was well-suited to the many hairpins, and the footprint was small enough to allow for racing with a decent number of players. It was likely not the creator's intent but I think that this track provides an excellent setup for a quad race with contact on.

TL;DR: Not my kind of track, but well-made with a few minor issues. Try a Blazer variant or Bifta for a different experience.


Here is my track, Catfish Causeway Carrera: rsg.ms/2d73cfb

I'm fairly happy with how it has turned out. I'm concerned, however, with the dominant laptimes of high-traction vehicles in the few tests I've conducted with other players. It's an easy track, but the turns are almost too easy with some of them. The early top-speed section can spot you a lead on the RE-7b but the thing's going to be on your rear bumper for the whole second half of the track and if it passes you then I'm worried the race is over. Jester Racecar also appears dominant. Haven't seen a Feltzer tried yet. Anyways, I'm hoping someone here can check this map out and give me some pointers on balancing it or fixing any other problems they might see. Thanks.

Good stuff, most of the checkpoints/transitions are quick fixes I can take care of later tonight. I've got some questions/comments that maybe you can help me with.

I wasn't aware that stunt building blocks have lower traction. I knew they had better grip than the sides of raised tracks and the undersides of road sections. Is there any custom flat surface that has road-level traction, perhaps the circular platforms made of the tube material?

The idea behind those land railings was that if anyone's unfortunate enough to slide off into that area as a result of a misjudged turn or a racing incident they won't fall into the ditch or slide down the hill and require a manual respawn. Might sound silly on a track where you can drive right off into the water but it's a pet peeve of mine. It's an unlikely scenario and if I need props for the upcoming rework those will probably get sacrificed.

I'm going to look into remaking the platform area and second half of the stunt section to include some sharp, low-speed turns. My initial plan was a switchback section but I didn't have the skills to build it back when I made that area. I can probably build it now. The short sprints and hairpins would both screw the RE-7b and help out cars like the Zentorno, which have probably been made irrelevant by the speed of the track.

I could remake the two land-side big banked turns into something lower-speed and more challenging. There's a turn I remember from the track PRS Cercle de la Vie (banked half-circle on the outside of the straight just before the turn) that might suit both of those areas.

Anyways I'll let folks know when I've made enough revisions to warrant another review.

Thanks for the review X9000, I mainly chose supers, because you said, other cars tend to turn too wide, and most of my tracks are tightly woven exactly for the purpose of tight lines and record hunting. Good points though, will adjust some things.

Can u share the link？