Big Oval - for Monster Truck Madness 2

by phineus@mindless.com

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Made using Traxx 1.2 8/19/98 (trial version)
e-mail: SoftParts1@aol.com
Web:    http://members.aol.com/SoftParts1/traxx.html
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Inspired by the many excellent MTM2 add-on tracks, I thought I'd look into creating my own personal homemade track.  After all, if so many other people are doing it, then there should be no reason why I can't do it too, right?  Well, not exactly.  I was quickly overwhelmed by the huge amounts of information and details involved in the track-making process.  I felt like I had missed a turn somewhere, skipped over a roadside mound and was lying upside down in a ditch with no helicopters coming to my rescue.  But, just short of giving up, I found Guitar Bill's Traxx School.  

http://members.aol.com/SoftParts1/traxxsch.html

With easy to follow step-by-step instructions spanning seven clearly defined lessons, Traxx School got me over the hump.  Big Oval is my Traxx School graduating thesis.

Big Oval is little more than it's name.  Just an oval on an all-but-flat surface and a few objects for scenery lending themselves to an arena-like atmosphere.  I won't kid myself or anybody else: played alone, I can easily imagine growing weary of the circuit fairly quickly, even though, at the professional level, the computer trucks will do their best to keep things interesting.  I also think that Big Oval might be good with eight players in a twenty-five lap race; it would probably be more of a rumble than a race in the usual sense of the word.  I'll have to see if I can try it.

As to Big Oval's composition, I will say nothing because I created nothing.  Everything was ready-made (including Traxx) and the result you can see for yourself by giving it a spin.

I will, however, say a word about the grid.  I was curious: just how big is 256 x 256?  To find out, I built a road that spans the outer perimeter of the grid (this is the true/real big oval).  I put a few trees at the corners to keep you from running off the edge of the world, and at the midpoints just for progress indicator sake.  I put a canal alongside the outer road and a barrier that marks the grid's limit (containing it within itself).  Yes, mine is a flat, not a round, world.  What I learned was this: long flat straightaways are boring, the MTM2 grid is about two miles along one side (four square miles), and, surprisingly, most tracks use only a fraction of the entire available surface.

Next up?  Designing an interesting track (a bit of a challenge) and playing with altitudes (which seems impossibly difficult).


Have fun, and keep on truckin'

Phineus.

