I got the World Record on Sanharaja 2

[@MicheleWolfe-g9g]

I love it when wirt does these challenges for himself, they are so nice to watch on a rainy day. No drama, no clickbaiting, just him enjoying himself behind the wheel.

[@SUNG0DRA]

"no clickbait" he says with that handsome swedish mug on the thumbnail

[@rallicat69]

@@SUNG0DRA i mean he didn't really clickbait that they put a swedish car skin on his gps run lol.

[@SUNG0DRA]

@@rallicat69 i love general literacy

[@konijnenmans1]

They sure trolled hard with that Swedish skin 🤣

[@Pistolsatsean]

The real reason he decided to improve this one 😂

[@SaturnusDK]

Norway, Sweden, isn't it the same thing?

[@Real_MisterSir]

@@SaturnusDK Yea, it's all Denmark at the end of the day but lets give them their own separate rooms to play in :>

[@brianatordk6578]

Thats like asking if america and canada is the same

[@zrecul4957]

@@SaturnusDK it's like saying romania and hungary are the same thing

[@Flopsaurus]

Author time should be the best time the author wants to set. It shouldn't be a given that all players can get the author time. If the author wants to grind it and show off an excellent time, go for it.

[@THICCTHICCTHICC]

Counterpoint - map designers aren't always good at driving

[@beargrylls6135]

For intermediate/advanced players author times can be too difficult and gold too unrewarding. I think gold should be set as the goal and author time as the ultimate reward. For me atleast gold feels unsatisfying because its too easy (can get them with unclean runs) and author time being just a tad bit too hard so I lose motivation

[@icycloud6823]

@@THICCTHICCTHICC Not really sure if that's really a counterpoint. If the author can't get a good time then they can't get a good time. Author time is basically the world record of the track before it gets released, and if it's a pitifully easy time then so be it. If it's a good time, then it's a strong WR from out the gate, and it'll be difficult for casuals to beat and maybe even really good trackmania players to beat. This is why I think people should set custom medals and what-not. Especially on the hunted AT maps. So people still have something satisfying to aim for. I mean it would suck for the AT to be impossibly difficult, but for the gold medal to be pitifully easy...

[@Kero-zc5tc]

It’s a bit stupid tbh like gold is 1st silver 2nd so on which suggests the wr should be gold which isn’t what people likely want. I think author time should be the author time and gold silver bronze should be irrespective of author time, maybe so that gold is top 10% of runs silver x% and so on

[@ManUtdTobbe]

@@THICCTHICCTHICC And that's fine, they should still set the author time... Then if they want to ask a better player to drive the GPS that's fine, but the author time should be set by the author.

[@soresumakashi]

Regarding ATs: I think an AT is exactly that: An Author's Time. They should be as strong or as weak as the author likes, although I do think it should be driven by them. If the author is one of the best players in the world and wants to grind it, then I say go for it. Other players' runs should be GPS at most.

[@keineangabe8993]

Yes, i fully agree. As long as it is driven by the author, everything is fair game.

[@vKrnz78]

This AT was driven by me

[@kylehart8829]

Nah, in previous games AT has always meant an attainable record for intermediate players. It was actually a pretty consistent difficulty level all the way from TMNF to TM2 to the campaigns on the new game until the most recent game, and community maps generally reflected that until tm2020. Hunted ATs are a tm2020-specific phenomenon and one that kinda ignores the challenge level that has always been the target for these games. AT doesn't mean "the absolute best run that the author or some really good player can set given 12 hours of hunting", it means "a decent run from the creator of the map". It's just pointless when you can simply put up a sign with the super-hard hunted target time on it.

[@keineangabe8993]

@@kylehart8829 why is that pointless? Why shouldnt it be a medal that signifies that you beat the author on his own map? What it was previously is not an argument.

[@Nightroast]

@@kylehart8829 whats really pointless is telling the author of a map they cant set whatever time they want as their own medal

[@AldersCooking]

"I want to build a track with a strong author time of my own" and its called "youdori"

[@Real_MisterSir]

"Mydori"

[@goatfryed5464]

*iourdori

[@p3t3rrrn]

​@@goatfryed5464 aye comrade

[@caraid3957]

34% AGAINNNNNN

[@samuelsalita1660]

If you really like the map you are building, and want to see how good you can drive it instead of holding back, you should totally full send it. An AT shouldn't be a participation award, that's what a gold medal is for.

[@uakie]

Have you heard of the 34% incident

[@chillynewberg2652]

​@@uakie nobody cares about that 1 in a million situation. An author time can be whatever the author wants. Easy, hard, or somewhere in between. The incident doesn't change that

[@malfraxbn]

For authortime, as a newbie that can't get all the medals on campain what is important is if the author time is made for the 0.001% of players, I prefer having custom medal for gold, silver and bronze that is easier to get. Like in the campain where their is some time 5-7 seconds between author and gold :)

[@triggermovies]

My 2¢ on medals : for official maps, I think the author medal should be beatable. For community maps, it's fine if the author medal is very hard, especially if there's a bounty attached. Or, Nadeo could just incorporate Champion medals into the base game : bronze/silver/gold as usual -> author time (set by the author, hard but beatable) -> champion medal hunted by a top player

[@BrooksMoses]

I think those champion medals already exist and are called "world records"? :)

[@JamesV1]

@@BrooksMoseschampion medals do already exist, and they are calculated with knowledge of the world record in mind.

[@CoconutMigrating]

@@JamesV1champion medals aren’t part of the base game though. It’s a third party plug in.

[@kylehart8829]

​@@CoconutMigrating Yeah, that's why GPS times exist. They're the perfect solution and have been here the whole time. A sign saying "target time: xx:xx.xx" is what every hunted AT should be replaced by.

[@djGLCKR]

So pretty much bringing back STM (Super TrackMaster) medals as the "official" champion medals, at least for Campaign maps.

[@frqctal2601]

what you said at 4:43 is super true, a few days ago i spent 4 hours straight grinding for an AT (22) but I just couldnt drive the lines i felt like i was driving easily. I took a break to eat dinner and came back later and got the medal in 5 minutes (and i wasnt neccesarily just lucky, in those 5 minutes i drove more runs at faster paces than my previous 2 hours of grinding combined)

[@CodeineAbdulJabbar]

I completely agree. You play a map long enough you won’t improve. It happens to me all the time. I get a good time early and then I can’t improve after running it over and over

[@Iceman-135]

that transition at 12:55 was sublime, barely noticed it was two different runs!

[@Lilith_Te]

It blew my mind i had to do a triple take 😂

[@isaacdeer]

its so seamless

[@paolocagliero8590]

I'm addicted to the Green Timer as much as Wirtual is addicted to hunting tracks for "five more minutes"

[@mikhael666]

I personally like it when the author time is achievable and not too hard while GPS time is level or two above the author time, setting a "real" benchmark for players who want to push.

[@ProDanBoi]

You can do what sbville did with his campaign, set normal at's like nadeo does and have a challenge time on a billboard. If you drive under it you will see the ghost for that time you hunted for.

[@chaminduvidyarathne2651]

I don't know for real, but there is a forest called Sinharaja in my country here, Sri Lanka. It's good to think that this map is derived from that.

[@vKrnz78]

Yea that was the inspiration

[@chaminduvidyarathne2651]

@@vKrnz78 who is the maker of the map...

[@vKrnz78]

@@chaminduvidyarathne2651 me

[@eyrietracer]

@@chaminduvidyarathne2651the guy you just replied to?

[@declanclaus6681]

@@eyrietracerlmao

[@iFsken]

He said that playing for 5 hours straight might make you blind to a map. Sleeping on it might make you see it clearly. This apply to so many things, like playing an instrument. If you practice a piece too much, your muscle memory is gonna pick up so many nasty mistakes. Especially when you start to get tired. Taking brakes at the right time is key!

[@Zel-Veraan]

I'm big on fighting games and I can vouch it works there too.

[@Mass_peach]

I think that the gold medal should be the medal that the majority of players go for and the author medal is the actual best author time

[@RainbowPlayz-kb2ro]

Green timer zone: 0:27-17:08

[@collinhughes3037]

Thanks

[@Radzballe]

wow we are really have GTZ for now... lol

[@thegoodone4104]

Video Prediction: Wirtual does a thing

[@Sleepyhead080808]

And that thing will be sliding on the floor covered in mayonnaise.

[@f0rgus]

For community maps I think author times can be whatever the author desires. I dont think there's such a thing as a too hard author time. You don't necessarily have to get AT on every map you play. AT can simply just be a sign that you've matched a time the author of the map was happy with. For Nando maps I feel like ATs shouldn't be too hard as a way to introduce them to new players. I also think the difficulty of the author time should be pretty much the same on 01 and 25. Piss easy author times in the first 5 maps of a campaign make it harder for new players to actually find something to grind for. I remember playing some TM turbo demo version as a kid. I only got the AT on the fifth map, which was a multilap. In past me's eyes I had to optimize the run quite a bit and I honestly enjoyed it. Instead of just giving me the author time the game forced me to drive better and find better lines. All I knew back then was sliding = slow, not sure if I was aware of speedslides but I dont think there were any on that map.

[@Xaymar]

03:30 personally don't care about Author times being hunted, but i do dislike if Gold is too unreachable compared to all other maps prior to it.

[@glaxez4498]

I honestly forgot why I first started watching which was his “Main” channel seems to be forgotten by 😅

[@kaloncpu57]

Personally, I think Gold is a fine goal if the author can actually set a crazy AT on their own. I really think the only rule on an AT should just be: whatever the author can drive

[@1990erre]

Author medal should be the authors best time, if they want to grind for that time to be hard they can choose to do that. Gold medal should be the achievable time by most.

[@alexanderf8451]

I'd love to see a map by Wirtual with some kind of "annotations" like signs or a way to trigger an animation to show what to do.

[@lvcifer-cloverfield]

Hear me out, there's an analogy to be made: Trackmania is at its peak very much like an instrument. Campaign ATs should be hard, but not unbeatable. Let's say some difficult passages but manageable overall, classical chamber music, etudes and whatnot. They're used to show off what can be done on the instrument, can become very challenging as well. If someone decides to write a piece that is very challenging to play well (a hard track) and simultaneously wants to show how they intended it to be performed (strong AT), would that be controversial? Tosin Abasi didn't release just any take of Modern Meat, he kept recording until he hit every note precisely how he wrote the piece.

[@JackHennessey51]

The transition in the edit at 12:55 🤌

[@andremigcasol]

The most fun I had in my relatively short playtime of trackmania was chasing author time that was just a bit too hard at first. Feeling myself getting more and more consistent over time and eventually getting it after grinding a little is so much satisfying and I do believe it's that feeling that makes trackmania a worthwhile game

[@maxmigdal7829]

I think Nadeo needs to redo the medal system. Author times should be cooked but there needs to be a medal harder than gold for the vast majority of players to strive for.

[@keineangabe8993]

Why not make the gold medal harder and make the silver medal what was previously gold? Currently the medals below gold are not really used for anything because they are not an achievement.

[@kylehart8829]

​@@keineangabe8993Maps like this have ATs which are unattainable for intermediate players but gold medals which are pitifully easy. At least Wirtual's time wasn't set as the AT here but even the actual author medal was way harder than it needed to be. If we're going to create this new idea that ATs should be a hunted time for top players to target, we should then make gold medals custom times that are set like ATs were in the older games (perfectly in line with the campaigns generally). Play some awarded maps in TM2 and you'll see how consistent the community was with author time difficulty. My opinion: if you want to hunt a time for top players to target but still have the AT be a fun challenge for decent players, the current medal system is fine; just put the hunted time as the GPS.

[@keineangabe8993]

@@kylehart8829 i dont think that the AT should be a target for top players to hunt, just the best the author can do. If the author is a top player then yes, the time should be hard. If the mapper is not that good, then it should not be hard. Imo it should be what the Name suggests, a medal for beating the author at his own track. If the other medals are consistent, then this could even mean that the AT is slower than gold. The other medals probably would need to be reworked then, but that is not a big loss as noone sees bronze and Silver as real achievements right now.

[@keineangabe8993]

@@thomasbohl6924 that would need to be changed then. Link campaign progress to silver medals and make them about as hard as gold was before?

[@kylehart8829]

​@@keineangabe8993I just don't see how any of this is necessary. Medals should be a consistent difficulty and represent a certain level of mastery of a track; that difficulty has been well-defined for 20 years at this point, and if you want to add a challenge that's beyond that just put your hunted time as the GPS. Nothing in the game needs to change, mappers just need to set medals at consistent difficulty levels.

[@psymar]

I'll be honest I don't even expect Nadeo campaign author times to be doable, in fact I doubt I'll even get all golds...

[@OfLastingThunder]

As someone who has about 300 hours in Trackmania, I played maybe the last 4-5 seasons and the author medals were all much too easy. Within a day I had all of them, or at the very least all of the ones that I enjoyed. I skipped last season entirely because I really didn't enjoy the maps. This season, however, is so monstrously difficult it gives me something to work for beyond spending a day playing. I've authored up to 20, and gotten the author on 23 in the black maps. All the maps feel fun, even with how difficult they are which helps, but the raised ceiling really gives me something to work for. I approve of very difficult author times as someone who isn't the best.

[@Tymanderr]

I haven’t gotten one this season after getting almost all of them last season. Maybe I got worse. I also play on my steam deck and have no clue how to see the author times. So I run the cleanest lap I can even after I get gold. If I don’t get the author I move on.

[@michaelk__]

I feel like an AT should be whatever run the Author sees as appropriate for that. Can do a champion medal, WR run or just a much more grinded GPS if they want to set an even higher goal for the grinders to achieve.

[@Zicrus]

I believe author times should reflect the skill of the author, and I don't believe it can be too difficult. It's clearly not meant as a target, since it's not shown by default, and by treating it as a target, it kind of defeats the purpose of the gold medal, which is meant as the "very good run".

[@yukster.]

the transition at 12:55 is just... *chefs kiss*

[@geraldduke7693]

Tbh I feel like an annual campaign would be a sick idea for tm2020 where top players make insane times for their tracks. Kind of like the old super track master times

[@CrimVulgar]

Author Time is just another aspect of the difficulty of the track - like speedchecks or risky fins, they are exactly as hard as you choose them to be. I don't love that a hugely optimised AT drags down the Gold time as well, as I see that as a "you drove the track properly, good job" medal rather than an active challenge, but with AT go as crazy as you want if you think the track warrants it.

[@solkvist8668]

I think author times should be a “clean” run. Solid execution of the map with zero mistakes and good routing. I think for the super good times that an author grinds there should just be another tier. That, or make author the highest tier and then add diamond or plat or something above gold. You get the idea

[@icycloud6823]

That was something I was thinking as well. 4 medals seems to be too few to really give satisfying times for everyone to aim for. If they doubled the amount of medals then there could be much less of a gap between all of the medals. Since often times the gaps between gold and AT can make gold pitifully easy and AT way too difficult, so people end up having nothing to really aim for.

[@keineangabe8993]

I think that clean run should be the gold medal. The author medal should be the best, that the author can offer. This means no pros setting the time for you but if you happen to be a pro yourself as the mapper then so be it.

[@rumfordc]

@@icycloud6823 there are really only 2 medals. when was the last time your goal was to get silver? never. bronze and silver might as well not exist given how easy they always are to get.

[@rumfordc]

a run with no crashes or major slideouts should be bronze a run with no crashes and good routing should be silver a near perfect run using just basic techniques should be gold a near perfect run using every advanced technique the author can muster should be author medal

[@icycloud6823]

@@rumfordc I mean, for some people silver can be a goal. I was watching Captain sparklez hunt the minecraft maps and he could barely even get silver. While players like granady and scrapy were struggling to get gold. Bronze though... You'd have to be a complete newbie to even be trying for it. Of course, these maps had custom medals set, so gold was often only a few hundredths behind AT, rather than a couple seconds.

[@shotdown5191]

Bass back again with a banger edit

[@macobber]

I love the original video you did to set the author time. I enjoy watching you the most when you obsessively milk out everything you can get out of a run on a map.

[@Shlaboza]

if i see anything over top 300 for cotd maps i don’t even bother going for AT

[@gammoregan]

One thing to consider when deciding what to make Author Times is how they fit into the wider community. Like RMC for example. It's not the only thing by far, but it shouldn't be ignored either.

[@Cruzz999]

Isn't it possible to have an author time that's like "You've done well on this track, feel free to move on now", and also set the fastest you can as a GPS, as an aspirational "This is the best I can do, can you beat it?" Seems like the best of both worlds imo.

[@marcelomessias3816]

We always remember past accomplishments as being easier then they were, this happens a lot in trekking with me when I go back to peaks that i've already conquered in the past.

[@MarkedForJazz]

When it comes to author times being really hard or beatable but challenging, i think it'd be good to consider a few things: do you consider the author time to be the best the author could get while grinding for a session or 2? Do you consider it to be a challenge for other players to try and achieve? Do you consider it as a means of tracking progress or skill? And how do you feel about each of these ways of considering it? If you feel people should let go of author medals as a means of tracking progress, as in they don't tie their perceived skill level as tied to the medals they have, maybe start spreading that message and setting difficult author times for the author medal, but set the gold medal to be the "beatable, but challenging" time. Say, after 10 minutes of grinding the track? Maybe have silver be whatever time you get on your first try if you're a very skilled player. And bronze be some arbitrary time a few seconds or minutes longer than that. But if you're ok with having a decent time as the author medal, and people instead using the leaderboard as a means of tracking their progress and skill, then sure, set a beatable, but challenging time for the author medal.

[@hctaz]

Ima say it again about ATs: They should make champion medal an official thing, place it at the skill level of about what Spring 2024’s ATs were at, and then the actual ATs should be full send. Reasons I think this: gold medal is clearly the, “get a clean run and you get this medal” and it’s obviously expected for everybody to get it since you need to get gold on all prior 20 maps to unlock the final 5 in a campaign. It’s designed to be relatively easy. That only currently leaves us with one singular medal and it’s like… okay so there’s room to grind for something but how hard should it be? Should it be a grind for top players? Should it be a grind for casual players? And I just think a solid middle ground would be giving 5 total medals. Champion was the community made “hardcore” medal, but I don’t see why it needs to be. I think the idea of having the author of a track grind out a really strong run is cool because they’re the ones who literally built the map. So gold medal should be easy to get, champion should be the old AT medals where the author purposefully set a run that is less hunted, and ATs should be the author of the map at their best to see if anybody can beat their time.

[@TWW.F34rrr]

Omfg the transition at 12:58 is crazy I haven’t seen any comments on it but most people probably didn’t see it or just didn’t comment but wow I only noticed bc the green timer.

[@DonYagamoth]

On the topic of author time: - The name suggests, that it is the best time the author could drive on their own map. So whatever that time ends up being, it's the best time from the author in my mind - But of course, it is a medal in a racing game, where it doesn't feel complete unless you get all medals. And some tracks being insanely absurd to get that final medal can be quite frustrating So really, both forms are a valid approach. The author creating the best timed run they possibly can - or making sure it's challenging, but not insane to get all medals. But unfortunately, sometimes these two ideas are at odds. So really - neither is wrong. The only true solution would be to separate the concepts into: "Author Time" (with no medal) and "Pro Medal time" or whatever you want to call it

[@Alan89-u2r]

Congrats SolivaganTz for beating the new time with a 0:44.138

[@olbence]

12:55 smooth

[@Radzballe]

didn't even realize.. loll

[@Divinitybagon]

I think it would be nice for mappers to be able to set 2 times: the author time and a starting record time. This still gives hardcore players a goal to reach for while allowing players less committed or worse at the game to shoot for the easier author time.

[@ReSunDestin]

I love hard author times but it makes me want to push my limit, which is why I really like this summer compaign, I just started playing like a month ago and from the red track onwards, it's very challenging and I take like 4+ hours for each map, but I love it

[@jeremyfmoses]

Consider: less than 0.5% of players who tried this map got the author time. It depends on what your idea of fun is, but I've never got into the top 0.5% in anything in any game.

[@Zalied]

i think author times can be crazy hard or standardized it depends on the kind of track, i think author has become a standard goal to reach partially due to author times being relatively easy (campaign) compared to the idk what they are called grandmaster times or whatever that plugin creates after a few weeks. so grinding for author in random challenges and campaign is the norm so making insane authors on every track would be kinda counter to the community goals but occasionally challenge author times are fun if thats the goal. i think gold was suppose to be the kinda community goal time and my one issue with insane authors is the gold is calculated off that time (not that it cant be changed manually) which if not thought about can make even casual players not reach their own goals so it is something to keep in mind so insane author challenges are fun and i think should exist but as the question "should the author be obtainable or should good authors hold back" i think hold back is probably better for the top drivers to do on average. but it would be interesting to see where that line is. how much effort should the average driver need to put in to earn an author. if the author time is free that even casual players get it instantly thats not much of a challenge or fun either but if its so hard the average player just doesnt feel its worth even attempting then thats no fun either. their must be some difficulty scaling that is ideal that theirs no true way of knowing.

[@HenryCutler-yr8fc]

In my opinion, the gold medal is a sign that you are good at the map, while the author medal can mean a variety of things. I think varying author times are completely fine

[@rikschaaf]

I think about the author time argument: there are tracks aimed at beginners, intermediate players, experienced players and veterans. If you aim to make a track for beginners, don't hunt the author time to perfection, but when making one for veterans, I'd say go all out and challenge the other players to the point it's near impossible to beat.

[@finian2]

There should be a difficulty rating system where people can rate maps on a scale from white to black based on how difficult the author time is.

[@Psychomaniac14]

imo the author time should always be whatever the author believes is best for the track. If it's a really hard track then perhaps a really strong author time would make sense, but for an easier track an easier author time could also make sense. As always, it's up to the author

[@willowk6320]

Author times should be as hard as the author time wants them, but there should be an in-game (no plugins or calculation required) display of what percent of people who finished the map have it. That way a 1% author time with 10k people attempting is clearly way easier than a 0.01% author time with 10k people attempting. This would reflect how the prestige of an AT fluctuates with the difficulty of the AT, and it would let people set their own difficulty: you could set your goal to be getting all author times that are 3% completed or easier, for example, so you're not attempting the hardest times.

[@GizmoTheViking]

you should make a small campaign, 5-10 maps, where every single map has very hunted AT. Call the campaign "Impossible AT Campaign" or something similar. having maps with difficult ATs give people something to strive for. Kind of like DD2.

[@treebirdgames9200]

as a casual player, ill give my opinion on author medals. I think if its a track meant to be track of the day, and put in such a spotlight readily available to casual players, then an author time should be set to give a realistic goal for a normal player to strive to obtain. However, if the track is just built as a challenge or competition, then having an incredibly strong author time is fantastic as a fun challenge to top players, as well as a fun thing to watch as a spectator.

[@Spiun666]

Trackmania should add a new medal called "Platinum". It should sit exactly between gold and AT by default and should become available retroactively to past tracks. This should fill the gap where mid players (like myself) are finding gold medals relatively easy but some of the author times impossibly hard

[@coreymullins7716]

I don’t mind difficult author times as long as they can be done with a standard player’s toolset. For example, if the AT in this map required quantum sliding to achieve, that’s not a great experience. Same as if an insane AT is set for a rally car map with controller. It rules out too many players instantly.

[@kipchickensout]

I do like that I can beat a lot of official campaign author times (maybe not the hardest? not sure) at some point, even though I'm not very experienced, I think custom maps like that can have an author time like that, as long as it's driven by the author

[@EeveeTheEevee]

With Author Times - They should be viewed and treated as a bonus goal. Bronze, Silver and Gold are your benchmark times, your average player hits these as feels accomplished. With an author time though, this should probably be the author's strongest time/a really difficult bonus challenge that tests your mastery of the game, and the knowledge you can gleam from said track. I can't imagine people would have genuinely far criticism for a brutal Author Time as like.. what even is the complaint there? Not every achievement should be easy anyway.

[@MaxIV77]

An AT should be proportional to a couple things: investment in the map, the purpose of the map, and the target audience of the map. If you have spent a lot of time making the map, it is totally reasonable to set an AT that you can be proud of. Maps also are built somewhat with a purpose in mind. Maybe that purpose is to teach, explore, hit that one trick, or just go really freaking fast. The nuance of that purpose should guide how tight your AT is.

[@Insignificantsip]

"lets do 5 more minutes guys!" *looks at timer*, *sighs* 13:36

[@keep1t5imple5tupid]

Congratulations on your map being selected for COTD!

[@Chief_Chimp]

In a campaign, author times should be standardized to be achievable. If youre making your own map, i think it can be a lot of fun to make an extremely hard author time. Would love to see a video of people trying to match your hunted AT

[@kwarrtzorau7203]

I sort of understand why Nadeo wants the ATs on TOTDs to be accessible, since the main purpose of those is to be played in a single cup format, not hunted. But I think a map made for any other purpose can have as hard an AT as the author wants

[@kalejaneth2457]

I enjoy being able to get ATs, and I don't mind when ATs are tough, but when they're so tough only the top5 have it in a map that's been played by thousands of players, it's not very dopamine-inducing. The whole shtick of medals is to give players an incentive to keep improving, but when you make it too steep of a climb then players will be discouraged. And, while I think it's not currently the case for Trackmania, as a game's lifespan goes on, the remaining players are usually great at the game, and the challenges are ever greater to cater to those players, and it can put off newer players from entering the game as they see it as too hard to compete. This can vary from game to game, but it's something I keep in mind, even if it might not apply to Trackmania. Personally, I'd like an AT to be challenging enough so that you're playing the track correctly, doing the necessary tricks well and not crashing, while Gold would be a good clean run even if you don't pull off every hard trick cleanly, Silver being a fairly clean run with maybe a small crash or two, and Bronze a bit more forgiving for a hard crash mid-map so a newer player can still play for it while not being entirely free. Then the Champion Medals and Top 5 in leaderboards (since those are shown on the left-side menu by default) already are optional challenges for top players wanting to hunt the map fully. The mapper can even add special medals (like SBVilla's maps, iirc) or hunt the map after publishing to set a tough time in the leaderboards for those really seeking the challenge. That said, everyone's free to set their times as they please, this is just my personal preference and opinion. There are maps I've hunted after getting all medals just because I enjoy the map and want to do better on it, but getting the medals is one satisfying step toward that, and I don't enjoy it as much when I'm hunting for just the medals.

[@DerpJustiice]

Author times should be the best time the author can drive, no holding back.

[@finn8518]

only now did I figure out that it‘s called a QUANTUM slide because you slide and not slide at the same time. That‘s a great name

[@metacob]

As a viewer I want to see Wirtual kicking ass, so the idea of him setting an unbeatable author time is pretty fun. As a player I'd rather have author times that are consistent, e.g. where a mediocre player like me will need 1-2 hours to beat them.

[@thomasgad2136]

scrappies video this evening "How a took Wirtuals money"

[@LyndanTylor]

Great edit!! Bass is Best!

[@pignebula123]

AT should be set by the author themselves in 99% of cases (Something like Deep Dip is an exception). Official maps should always have a beatable AT with a medium level of skill while community maps should have times set by the authors themselves regardless of skill level. If that means a really easy/hard AT then that's what it means.

[@cyanhacker]

2:50 yes, back to 34%

[@cyanhacker]

Please do iiiiit

[@polly_jean3122]

I'm only going to watch youtube for five more minutes.

[@greffen]

about author time difficulty: tbh I think that there is no harm in setting a hard time whatsoever. Anyone going for it will know it's hard, and there's nothing wrong with not wanting to go for a hard AT because its too hard for you! variety is the spice of life, and not all maps need to be the same :P

[@hyperventalated]

The Norway car skin looks clean as hell. Ive never seen it before

[@jimmyh2137]

For AT i think it depends on the map. A TOTD map ment to be played by all kinds of people (newbies and veterans alike) in an official competition shouldn't be that hard. It should be achievable. In a map for experienced players, a "challenge" map of some sort, here the AT can be grinded as hard as the Author feels like.

[@JWbrasser]

I like the compromise of a "soft" author time with a GPS thats the "actual" author's time

[@keineangabe8993]

Why not just make the author time the hardest the author himself(not someone else) can offer. You dont have to be able to beat all medals. If the author is better than you, then you should not get a medal, that has in its name that you beat the author. Just make the gold medal a bit harder if that is what is wanted. The silver medal could take its place. Currently nobody hunts silver anyway.

[@kylehart8829]

​@@keineangabe8993The author being better than you and the author hunting the track for hours are two very, very different things. If Insanity for example set his times after 30 minutes of hunting most intermediate players could get them in a couple hours. Hard but doable. But he hunts them for 10+ hours, meaning not only do you have to be as good as one of the brst dirt players in the world, you also have to grind for half a day even if you're that good. The AT literally doesn't provide a fun challenge for any player in existence, so why is it there? Play the old games to see the difficulty that community ATs have always had; it was perfectly fine that way, and a hunted time would be a GPS. The system works perfectly and hunted ATs are literally pointless since you can set a separate target time anyway.

[@vxwk]

On the AT debate I think it should be the best possible time the author can drive in about 30 min because you can't expect people to play your map for hours to get it

[@rumfordc]

i think the only way the bronze, silver, and gold medals can add any value to the game is if author times are consistently difficult. the first day i played i got all the golds and was satisfied until i got most of the author medals, then all of the golds suddenly felt like silvers. now i get the golds in a couple tries and don't care about them at all but still have to look at them in the default UI. If the golds and authors were harder the medal system would have felt rewarding for a lot longer than a day.

[@seraphir4662]

I think an author time should be the time the author thinks is about average when you complete the map with absolutely 0 mistakes

[@StAngerNo1]

3:22 When Pyramidori? It has been ages!

[@matheass93]

perfect upload timing, on the same day that Wirtual lost the record to a dane

[@garbo_lawyer4879]

Author time should only be able to be set by the mapper and medals should be able to be adjusted however mapper wants. Meaning, author time should just be whatever time the mapper is happy with and if its slow then they can set their bronze/silver/gold medals to whatever they want even if it means gold being a better time than author time. However, for the better players to also have a goal other than world record; I think they should add another medal to the game like the champion medal plugin where it gets auto updated and you only have it if you're top 1% or something like that. Then the community needs to collectively use the medals appropriately. Set you bronze/silver/gold at reasonable times you think a player at that mmr can get ie, a bronze player can get bronze medal after some effort and same with silver and gold respectively. That way people can be satisfied with getting whichever medal they want including those that just want author medal since this "should" result in easier author medals overall, and for those that want a challenge they can compete for wr and for the champion medal. And yes, there will be people who abuse the custom settings and set stupid medal times but theres already people who do that now with author time. Community as a whole just needs to not play maps made by authors that do this. I also think this would encourage more players to map because I know when I first started; I was intimidated to map because I thought I would suck at making "good" lines to drive because I wouldn't be fast enough to know what those lines would look like and if I had seen more mappers have worse author times but have good maps it would've encouraged me to start mapping sooner.

[@Figorix]

about AT talk: I really loved that one COTD video where you said that AT was set by super good player that nobody can beat, than turns out AT was piss easy and then turn out GPS was like 5 sec faster than AT and noone could beat. I think thats amazing way to do it. Yeah, people can get AT... BUUUUUUUT can they get GPS time?

[@kylehart8829]

That was definitely an Insanity map, he is one of the origins of this "hunted AT" phenomenon and he got a ton of criticism for it, so he set the AT on one map like 10 seconds slower than the actual target time as a sarcastic reply to people who said ATs shouldn't be impossible for normal players to get. In previous games community ATs were the same difficulty as campaign ones, hunted times are specific to the new game and are a distinctly new definition for what an author time means. We have always had the actual solution to the problem right in front of us with the GPS or even just a sign with a target time on it and an author medal in line with the standard "AT difficulty" that has been consistent for like 17 years at this point.

[@ghislainbugnicourt3709]

What about a dynamic system, where the "normal" medals are constantly evolving based on the percentage of players you can beat ? That way you get a very consistent difficulty for bronze, silver, gold, (maybe more ?) and then you can leave AT as something unique, less prestigious, but instead an indication on the author's skill.

[@capscake6578]

Author time should be what the name implies. The one who created the map should be the one that creates the medal. They should add another difficult challenge medal thats like automatically calculated, like a "challenger's medal".

[@TahmidA150]

@14:45 its that one xqc meme but with wirtual's face lol

[@gomjabbar6246]

I don't watch you to see normal, calm author times. I want to see grinding and dedication to excellence. More bonkers author times please

[@blaku2u]

As someone who is not good at the game, I just try for gold medals on the tracks of the day. I feel as though it usually provides the appropriate challenge for me at my skill level. Sometimes if an author medal is weak, I'll try to get author, but I know my limits and where my skill is at. No problem having hard AT's to challenge the best

[@totally_not_a_bot]

Set the author time as a "this is the time the author considers to be a solid run." If you want to push it, post it to the leaderboard or use the GPS.

[@void_snw]

I like it when AT's are difficult but doable. A pretty good clean run. If the mapper is fast, the AT is hard. If the mapper isn't... DON'T MAKE SOMEONE FAST DO THE AT. That feels so uninspiring. You're just beating a fast guy's time, not the actual author who had a vision of what lines to build. There's FUN in finding something the author may have missed. It's not fun hunting some random fast guy's time.

[@Whytho2000]

I think for author times, you have to show off all the tricks you wanted to intend in the track, and get a good run you felt was pretty clean.

[@limitetpancake]

my take on the author time discussion is: it should be a fast time the author set himself without spending 100's of hour's perfecting every line. it should always be achievable not nearly impossible

[@babeldude]

Love this kind of video. Grinding a map.

[@CicadaTY]

NEW VIDEO HYPE

[@chadoftoons]

The author time needs to be a challenge but it can definetly be too hard. But i think if its really close to perfect its frustrating. It is probably best to keep the author time no more and no less then around 1 second away from what you consider the perfect run maybe a little longer if the track is over 55 seconds. I mean you'd want as an author for as many people as possible to think they can get an author time but has to be a learning experience in understanding the map too.