Foreign Fan Sites

There are plenty of interesting fan sites out there, but unfortunately many are in languages other than English. So let’s help people find good fan sites in their own language! How? Simply list your favorite non-English fan sites in the comments below. Feel free to add some comments about each site, and don’t forget to mention what language it’s in 

For starters, here are two:

tmunited.estranky.cz. It has a lot of content, and if you can understand the language I’m sure you’ll find something interesting. Language: Czech (I think).

perceptra.net/tm. The Italian blog you’ve seen being mentioned here once or twice. You have to log in to experience it all, but there are some cool features to check out if you speak the language, besides the blog. It’s an entire website, the blog part is just a thing on the side. Language: Italian.

So, what else do you have?

Screenshot of the Week - Week 26, 2007

We’re still in need of more screenshots! Send yours to Jozii@pp.inet.fi

Screenshot Collection

By TimeBreaker:

 

By T_Z_:

 Screenshot of the Week

 

Loony wins 100 coppers for this screenshot.

If you have a screenshot or two, send them to Jozii@pp.inet.fi. All screenshots will get published in the blog, and every week one screenshot is selected as Screenshot of the Week.

Track Review - ÐÐ Team Track 1

Change:

We now have colors to indicate the ratings. Red = bad, green = good. Then there’s everything in between (five stages in total). The colors are displayed as a little “+” behind the ratings. This should make it more fun and easy to read the ratings

• Track: ÐÐ Team Track 1 (direct download) 
• Author: Devil Driver community track (Stadler, Waldorf, Ashborn, Rod@N, ODS)
• Type: Race
• Environment: Island
• Length: 1 min
• Mood: Sunset
• Custom content: None

 

First Impression

Community tracks are always good. Or usually they are. I mean, if there are four to six guys, at least someone must be doing something right… Right? Anyway, this track doesn’t really look too bad: A full-speed stunty Island track.

TMU Writing Contest

There’s so much that can be said about and done with TrackMania. There’s a vast number of things to learn and to get better at, and everyone is constantly improving their skills, whether it may be mastering the different environment vehicles, building great tracks, competing in online tournaments, leading or being a member of a team, working on community projects, or just about anything else. The world of TrackMania is not a small one, and now your expertise is needed!

The TMU Blog is now hosting a writing contest, open for all TrackMania United players, with the aim of aiding everyone in getting better at whatever they want to focus at, as well as spreading the word of TrackMania and various views on the game throughout the community. How? By giving everyone a chance to express their opinions, share their knowledge, provide information and simply get their voice heard.

Article - The Tao of Difficulty

Written by Alcator.

You’re building a track and want it to have a certain difficulty level. You may, for example, want to make it so that only about half of all racers in an on-line race are able to complete the track during the first 6 minutes of playing. Or you may want to make it so that all finish but only few make it the “fast way”.

This article will give you some tips on tuning difficulty.

Back!

Some of you have already seen me online today and yesterday, but for the rest of you, yes, I am back from my trip now That means posting goes back to normal, with one post/day.

I’d also like to remind you once again that we are in need of articles (or anything else) to post here at the blog in July, as I will be away for some time again then. That means it would be highly appreciated if YOU could write a piece or two (obviously related to TrackMania). The more material written by you guys, the less time the blog will have to be “closed”. We’re talking about several weeks here, so you can’t write too much, really!

Send your material to Jozii@pp.inet.fi.

Oh, and despite this little announcement post, an article by Alcator will be posted later today as usual

Article - TMX Award System

As many of you readers here are active TMX members, or at least know what TMX is (it’s a site where you can upload tracks, if you’re a lost soul not knowing that ), here’s an article on the TMX award system. There’s long been “complaints” on the award system at TMX (you can award the tracks you like) being flawed, and in this article we’ll look a bit more into the award system and the criticism it has had to live with.

How does it work again?

Ok, so just to have it said, here’s how the TrackMania Exchange award system works: If you like a track, you can “award” it at the TMX website by going to the track’s unique page. Here, there’s an “Award This Track”-button, which will take you to the award page. Here you’ll be asked to write an award comment. You can write basically whatever you want, but of course people want to know why you are giving the award. More on this later.

 Click to enlarge.

Simple? Of course it is, and that might be part of the problem.

Screenshot of the Week - Week 25

Oh no! We’re running short of screenshots again! You know what that means? Sure you do. Make some cool screenshots and send them to Jozii@pp.inet.fi. As always, all screenshots will get published eventually

Anyway, here’s todays collection - an Island special!

Screenshot Collection

By T_Z_:

 

By Tonic_91:

 

Screenshot of the Week

 

Cab, great screenshot! Unfortunately I don’t have access to TMU at the moment, so I can’t send the usual 100 coppers. However, Cab, if you e-mail me a complaint and beg for the coppers, I’ll remember sending them as soon as I can

If you have a screenshot or two, send them to Jozii@pp.inet.fi. All screenshots will get published in the blog, and every week one screenshot is selected as Screenshot of the Week.

Interview - MadneSS

As most of you know, TrackMania Nations was the first and still the only game to be created especially for the Electronic Sports World Cup. This obviously lead to a lot of great TMN players seeing the light, and today you get an interview with one of those guys: MadneSS.

MadneSS, currently a 19-year-old member of the professional British Team Dignitas, can be considered a professional player as he has earned money on playing in three different games. He gets to travel around Europe to attend various events, and last year he was one of the few skilled enough to actually play Nations in the ESWC.

The TMU Blog asked MadneSS a few simple questions, which you get to take part of today!

Away!

When you read this I’m propably somewhere over the Atlantic, heading for New York. And I’m never coming back! Nah, just kidding I’ll be back on Tuseday, but until then, I won’t be able to answer my e-mail or in-game messages or do anything blog related. However, you will still get some special treats during the days I’m away: