MTM2.com

Try this one and see if it's any good.
http://mtm2.com/~tracks/details.cgi?thistrack=3751


I hope all goes well for your wife Teknor, I promise not to tell anyone you had some fun in the meantime.

What in the.... Hey! They're cheating!

Well... I managed to beat the AI trucks the second time around, but only because of AI trucks just missing their checkpoints (and calling for the whirly bird). Otherwise, I would have been near the back. I tried, and tried, but could never succeed at getting that "express" path those AI trucks took easily. Every single time, the hut and that big rock prevented me... but most of the AI trucks would sail right through them. I had to really work to make up for the time they'd gain going that way. I also noticed trucks frequently going through the rock outcroppings, especially near the top of the hill/mountain.

Interesting, and challenging against the AI.

Side note/thought... do we need this thread split? We've kind of wandered away from the original topic.

I'm testing Orient Express on Pro now!
So far around 1 in 10 tracks make the grade, but only 1 in 20 are top notch!

That seems to be the pattern.

You know, it seems to me that many (if not nearly all) of the tracks have potential to have good AI, but the AI Trucks get hung up on some little thing like a tight turn, a chasm to barely jump, a missed bridge, etc. and they struggle to get past that.

So many really nice looking (and fun) tracks with silly little hangups for the AI.

There is a solution

http://mtm2.com/~traxx/traxxsch.html

Which only reinforces the statement that if you want good competition, online racing is the way to go. Yes, it's understood that some don't or can't race online for various reasons, but like most things in life it's a trade-off. Again, no matter how good the AI, at some point the computer trucks will offer little to no competition at all, so if you can get online for even a couple of hours a day it might be well worth the effort/time/expense.

I've been forging ahead with looking for tracks with decent AI. Not sure if I've mentioned it here (and I'm too lazy to go back and look lol), but Mon thru Wed are bad for me since I work very long hours. In the end, whenever that is, we should have a pretty good list of tracks compiled.

There is nothing wrong with online racing. It is the ultimate way to go.....But even a future Grand Prix driver starts by learning to drive a kiddy car.
going from zero experience straight to online racing can be a real downer for someone new to MTM.
Common sense dictates that a progressive learning curve is best. Beating the computer trucks over 4 laps on a regular basis will inevitably (if they love MTM) lead to the online community.
By the way, I now have 8 meg broadband, thanks mainly to nagging the wife!
You can view offline racing against Computer trucks as good practice (as long as the AI is good), so a bit more of this practice, and I will give online a go!

Methinks you misunderstand, Disposable. I'm not suggesting or implying that offline racing is bad. As for common sense dictating that offline competition is the best approach, that's an opinion. I learned online. Yes, I raced offline for a while because I didn't know about the MTM community when I started. What I can say with absolute certainty is that I learned more in 2 months online talking to different people, getting tips, watching how they ran tracks (hitting k - it's called "riding with"), etc., than I ever could've offline. Moreover, not everyone is on the same skill level online; some racers are simply better than others. More importanly, it's just more fun. Still, if racing offline is better for you, so be it. I'm just saying I've experienced both sides, and regardless of my skill level, I'd take online racing any day of the week. Surelog seems to be having fun.

Anyway, didn't mean to give off the impression that I was putting offline racing down. Done lots of it myself--practing the tips I picked up from others and watching replays. I still do actually.

And I am sorry if I gave the impression that Offline was better! What I was trying to say is that a complete novice to MTM is going to find the computer trucks enough of a challenge to start with, and if he learns to love MTM then he may want to progress to online racing.
It is not a foregone conclusion that he will do that. I am still having a great deal of fun racing against computer trucks on the pro level, provided the AI is good!
I already know that I will move on to online MTM soon, but not just yet. I need to build my confidence some more first, and my racing ability.

Online is certainily challenging, i myself also got my skills from online racing, i went online in 2002, but i started mtm in 1996. Back then and till i went online best i could do was intermediate b4 the comp trucks beat me, i had tried pro but then comp trucks took the cuts I found and would beat me. But when I went online, I tried to race a guy as bearfoot and intermediate. The no bearfoot thing really stummped me for a long time, anouyed me too since it was my fav truck since the start. The low res days made bearfoot look like a flame job and being only 10 years old, that was pretty cool to me. Then prolly after my first 2 races online I went pro, and started destroying the computer trucks. Now-a-days I lap the trucks on 2 lap races.

I've been going through the tracks I have... and I got to Swiss Alps... and it's AI is working just fine in Professional. I run it a few times more just to be sure. For me the AI seems fine in Professional.

Did I miss something?

I think we all have different standards of what we accept and what we don't! What may be a great track with good AI for me or you, may not come up to scratch for someone who has played MTM for years as Slo Cope has!
For example, I will allow trucks to run off line as long as they can finish the race. But Slo might decide that the trucks have to keep to the racing line and finish the race.
We all see things differently.

Some people report that cpu speed effects the computer truck's performance.

You're exactly right about standards/expectations with respect to AI, Disposable. Personally, I don't think I'm overly critical, but others might very well disagree. Also, that's the first time I've heard that, Phin - wasn't aware, but at the same time I'm not surprised either.

When I reported that the AI on Swiss Alps was top notch it was based on my memory of getting beat down by those trucks (it was ugly lol). They seemed to be virtually flawless. Course, that was nearly 8 years ago, and I know how time affects memory (some more than others), so when I ran the AI just recently, I was surprised to see that the trucks all crashed during the first turn at the bottom of the hill. I thought to myself, "Man . . . how is it that these trucks beat me routinely back then? Was I that bad?" lol. Well, I was, but I was also running a 333 processor with a 16meg RivaTnT video card. I'm running a 2 gig now, which is by no means blazing fast, but it very well could be the difference. I sure hope so lol. As I said before, I remember telling my then MTM tutor, RIP_TK, how good those computer trucks were on that track and he'd laugh at me, tell me, "You have sooooo much to learn" lol.

Maybe Mal can run Swiss Alps offline and tell us how the AI performs for him. I recall him saying something about having an old relic laying around that he needed to fire up.

I think what really matters is that we get a good selection of tracks that give reasonable performance for someone new to MTM. If I find a track where all the trucks crash on a certain bend, then I discard it because the race stops there. But as long as three or four trucks keep going, then you still have a race on your hands (seen from a beginners perspective), so I would rate this track as good.

Sounds good to me.

I could do it, im still using my old relic, on that note, the track search takes ages to load on the 200 mhz, do you got a direct link for me?> lol

I've updated my post on page 1 of this thread, it now has 43 good (Relatively speaking) AI tracks. Plus the 10 that Slo Cope posted, so 53 in all.
More to come, I'm on my next 100 track tests!

I hope to come up with a few more in the next few days as well.

Here ya go, Slayer - http://mtm2.com/~tracks/tracks.cgi?sear ... s&track=on

k got it and sent it home