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I decided to have a rummage through the infinite amounts of tracks available a while ago and I realised that a lot of tracks are very similar - race around a pretty flat landscape, some scenery, a jump or two, usually a bridge or crossing - but it all gets to feel the same. There are a few however which break the rules and are completely random and different. Here I should list some but they're all well known and (deservedly) over mentioned. So what does everyone else think? Which track makers do you think ignored the basic ideas of MTM and went off on a complete tangent of genius? Which tracks are at the cutting edge of what's new in the MTM world. What have I missed in the last year?

Cheers for any thoughts

Paris to dakar part 1 and 2 sure are different than the usual. There are lots of good tracks around.

For myself, i've been racing on a lot of tracks and one thing i would'nt say is that they all turn around in circle style.

I don't know about the last year, but ZOON COASTER, ZOON MOON and ZOO KITCHEN come to mind.

"GPA Mega Fun Park Final" is a creative collection of games and obstacle courses that I found very interesting.

3-2-1 Blastoff! by TEAM DEATH was a cool track on another world...very different.

Discussions of this type can go on forever, but I'll throw in a few names/tracks:

mike204's 3-Way Paper Run
HotShoe's The Sandbox
Malibu350's EVO 1&2 to MTM 2 conversions
Phin's Alphaville
Winterkill's Wake Up!
Spreker's Button Hook
Hoop Dreams by Spazmonstr
Badger's Mother Lode 1.5
Fila's SLO Mountains
DavDemBlues' Extreme Luge
Rocketalces' LaPaWoP & LaPaMa MC/EF
Preacher's Preacher's Mines


...and a ton of others that I can't seem to recall at the moment. Mind you, the tracks you see above (as well as the ones that aren't named that definitely fit into this topic of discussion) are creative masterpieces on several different levels. They're not just visual masterpieces with specialized gimmicks. I've been playing this game for 4 years, and I'm still amazed at what these guys and girls are capable of doing with this game in terms of creativity and technological advances (if you will). With that said, I for one tip my hat to every track makers out there. You all are awesome!

At any rate, that's Copey's 2¢ worth.

Cheers guys I'll take a look at all those tracks. What I'm hoping for is inspiration. I think it's been a while since my last track so I needed to know what's new. Hopefully I should be able to make something with strange undiscovered uses of game elements (though a hell of a lot has been done which was never in the original tracks).
I still haven't got around Topcrush. Some tracks I've seen use it in a basic way but they have glitches like after racing on the track the models remain crushed until you reload the game. I've been looking at 'Topuncrush' where you drive onto an object and it gets taller instead of shorter but no luck.
Other tracks that stand out use ramps in clever ways (many examples by ZooN). I know not many tracks are boring circles but still I prefer tracks which do something off the wall. Underground races are pretty good fun and very different if done well. Also downhill tracks with sweeping curves and rediculous jumps can be good for a quick race.
Just having a wade through the various download sites I've seen quite a lot of new track makers with fresh ideas have come about. I guess there's still a few copies of MTM turning up in the £2 bin at the game shop then.
I did consider a bit of reprogramming to completely change aspects of the game but its a lot of work and I don't have that much time. Mabye I can fit in a bit of track making in between designing a rollercoaster for the new Matrix film (which was pretty poor btw).
Thanks for the input anyway

There's a fine line between innovation and gimmicks, and an even finer one between quality and quirks. If you're looking for inspiration, you're looking in the wrong places. Seeing what others have done will only show you what's already been done. For that, check out the expo.

http://mtm2.com/~mtmg/contests/expo2003/

If you're looking for new ideas, then read a book, listen to music, watch a movie, visit a friend. And when you're done, come back and bring your experiences to the game.

It's true, a lot of things have already been done.
But not nearly so much as what's still to come.

the first guy who used the elevator got pretty lucky.

Still waiting for the taliban's chase or something from the actuality.
hehehe chasing Bin Ladden in caverns and mountain in afganistan.

We have Christmass and halloween tracks, all we're missing is something from an actuality theme

Not one known for innovations although the sun dial cut on indio desert was pretty cool along with the gigantic cow :o) Then there was blood dance with the cool texture effects, rocket sled, bottlenecks... all cutting edge and eye opening stuff at the time... ralloween. hammerhead, strip n go, lakebed, bigdipper... all great stuff, top notch even. They all not only looked great but were/are a blast to race on, a combo that is difficult to acheive. If it weren't for ValveJob I probably never would have picked up a copy of traxx or stuck around as long as I have. It borders on tragic that he didn't do more than he did but I'm thankfull for what we have.

Ah yes, I agree, Mal. VJ is one of my favorite track makers, and the sad thing is not many present-day players know of his work....and of those that do don't like his stuff lol. Lakebed and The Moors are two of my fav tracks, and although Hammerhead is more of a novelty item than a actual racing track, I think it's superb.

SIG, I kind of went off on a tangent myself. You asked for tracks that have come out within the past year specifically, and I pretty much ignored that and dove in head first talking about tracks in general lol. I love talkin about tracks, so anytime I can sort of bend a topic that mentions tracks/authors, I'll do it in a heartbeat. I'll also add that I agree with Phin; I think you would be better served foregoing your quest to be "original" and just make a track. If you're making it so that the MTM community can enjoy, great. If your desire is to fulfill your own creative needs by bringing an idea you have to life in the form of a track, also great. Your work will be based on its own merits and not judged or critisized based on originality or innovativeness. Speaking of "your work", whatever happened to that CNR track you were working on long ago?

Which one the science lab? Could fix it up its just lyin about. Hey when I say I'm lookin for original things I don't mean whole concepts. I'm just thinkin of strange track elements (ramps/crushables/glitches) to use in a track. I've had a little experiment in my time like the toaster, transporter and electromagnets and I haven't (well hadn't till I played some more tracks) seen too many uses of things like that. Obviously there are a lot of tracks with launchers and lifts but I've found a lot including my own are a little unreliable and not very controlled.
Of course I could 'just make a track' but I've done that a lot and now I wanted to do something that doesn't resemble the original game at all (cept for the trucks of course).
I think I'll have a play with some of the object parameters again and see what happens.