When designing the course for a track, a maker should always be aware of potential shortcuts and take steps to head them off to prevent the risk of a sharp racer making short work of the layout and bypassing much of the track maker's pride and joy. There are several ways this might be done.
<ul>[*]First on the list would be careful checkpoint placement. That is, strategically arrange checkpoints so racers have to follow the road. This is why you'll often find checkpoints at corners or at the extreme ends of a road.</li>[*]Another trick is to create lakes or hills beside roads or in the middle of big flat sections of terrain. Not only does this prevent a driver from cutting across a vacant expanse, but it dresses up the track and makes it look more appealing to the eye.</li>[*]A last idea is to use signs, buildings, trees or other models to obstruct the easy passage through potential cuts or to make trimming corners a bit more of a challenge. Of course, when using trees, one must be careful to set them to no collide facing, and place an object box trunk, so racers are not running into invisible parts of the model.</li>[/list]
And it's this last point that brings me to BADmotoXisland by mxkid. One thing that a track maker should
never ever do is put invisible model boxes between roads or wide corners so a truck cannot get through. There is absolutely nothing worse than to be flying down a road at 80 mph only to be stopped dead in your tracks by running smack dab face on into an invisible wall. Such is the problem with [url=javascript:void(0)]<font class=nf>BADmotoXisland</font>[/url].
mxkid, clearly you have many good ideas and show great potential to become a very good mtm2 track maker. However, I would like you to take seriously my suggestion to give up the habit of using invisible boxes as a way of forcing racers to stay on your path. Your tracks would be infinitely improved if you shaped the terrain a bit more, and if you must use barriers, then consider using fences and billboards instead of purple object boxes. There are plenty of fences here at the mtmg, and on malibu350's site, that you can use to your heart's content. It's really not much more work, and everyone will enjoy your tracks all the more if you do.
One last thing, I'll say it before Copey does, is that giving the track out to a couple beta testers will help you find these problems. It's really easy and the rewards are usually well worth it.
