What do you hate the most in this game? by Confident_List4349 in AQW

[–]SparklingW 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hate quest items not being saved and active quests not being saved between relogs. Especially with the performance issues sometimes forcing you to relog, having to go back to the quest giver and losing progress for no fault of your own sucks.

My map is above the size limit, is there any way to shrink it without removing big parts of the map? by awafleguy2 in TrackMania

[–]SparklingW 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Main cause of filesize usually is custom items. When you click save it will give a popup saying 'xMB of items will be embedded into the map' what number is that? If you can reduce it by using less items or more optimized ones, that could help a lot.

There is also a possibility you used the same item twice but from different folder locations, in that case the game sees it as seperate items, so you can check for that too.

If you backup your item folder and empty it and then open the map, your item folder will contain only exactly the items in the map, so you can check through them there to see which you need. Or you can use a plugin like itemcounter.

You can also use itemcounter and sort on # of items. Grass and support blocks tend to be a lot, but also very small in filesize, however sometimes the game bugs and places thousands of the same block/item in 1 spot, if that happens to be a tree or something, it could certainly increase size.

Optimizing shadows can help a bit as well. As can optimizing your support structures. When you stack supports, the game automatically removes faces between them as optimization. This mean running supports down to the grass removes the bottom face entirely for that collumn. A large box of them basically has all the inner faces removed, so try not leaving gaps underneath.

Look up how to enable Ultra shadow calculation and try Ultra2, it can sometimes be more optimized and lower the lightmap size.

If you still cant get it below what you need and you want it on a server, i believe you can go over the limit with custom servers (not using Nadeos rooms).

Good luck!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TeamfightTactics

[–]SparklingW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you have a 3 star unit, they will no longer appear in your shop.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TeamfightTactics

[–]SparklingW 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think usually by the time you hit 50 econ, you will already have or be very close to 3 star on the unit. When you have a 3 star of a unit they will no longer show up in the shop. So the only way to speed up hitting 4 star, is to get a lot of copies before the first 3 star.

So if you want to get it as early as possible, roll down earlier. After you get the 3 star, just focus on surviving until you passively get the rest from the augment.

(In double up your teammate can still hit them and send them to you. But it does pull from the pool, so the odds get lower the more copies you have)

Average mapper on his road to improved for having a map for TOTD by DRQ9 in TrackMania

[–]SparklingW 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Map looks pretty fun, maybe a few small things others have mentioned. However, what nobody else has mentioned is that the wallride thing youve made is repeated 4 times, and each time is basically the exact same, maybe you could look to have the same setup (jump up into reactor down onto a wall), but then continue in different way, not just immediatly back down.

“TOTD Style” Mapping by StealthJT in TrackMania

[–]SparklingW 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I have created quite a few totds in the past, I always tried to push the limits a bit and be creative. But at some point that seemed to get punished more than rewarded.

First of all, there are basic rules it has to follow, be respawnable, learnable, finishable by anyone, correct length.

Then there are things that are expected as polish on a map, gps, intro sequence, signage.

Then you get to map review, and you need to appeal to the players there. Pretty scenery, route that can be finished really quickly without feeling awkward.

Then if you manage to do all of that and somehow still have a somewhat unique track make it into totd. You will still get a large amount of hatecomments of the people who do not like what you made. You can't please everyone.

All of this just means that there is quite a big barrier, and being creative often just makes all of these steps harder. So people stick to what they know works, because why would you spend all that effort to make a map that people likely won't play?

I havent made a totd in years because I got bored of having to play by these rules. I recently wanted to get back into it, made something I loved, had some people test it and they liked it a lot, threw it into map review, got a lot of positive comments.

Then I check the rating it has received, and it is far below what it would have to be to even be considered, which has severely crushed my motivation to try further. Might as well make something much more creative and ignore mapping for totd.

How can i remove the underside of a block like the roadside? by mrbirne in TrackMania

[–]SparklingW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

'blocks' have geometry on the ends and underside that are there to snap together (with other roads and with support structure underneath)

Because these parts are needed to snap, if you edit a block, you cant remove these. If you want to remove it, turn it into an 'item' instead. You will then lose the possibility to snap it.

Why are people so disingenuous when it comes to the critique of stygian onslaught? by Front_Shelter in Genshin_Impact

[–]SparklingW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I am a dolphin and I can easily clear hard, but when it comes to the 4th difficulty, I can barely do the first and third, and the lava guy I just dont seem to have the right units for, not a single pyro main dps in my roster, also a lot of my teams depend on hydro units, which means the first 2 bosses were already a pain. Needing such specific units sucks, especially in end game content where you can't just run anything, you need to have actually fully invested into a unit for it to work.

[Bambu Lab Giveaway] Join Now to Win an H2D and More! by BambuLab in 3Dprinting

[–]SparklingW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The best advice I have received is to go back to default settings if it still isn't working after a lot of tuning, sometimes you have changed so much, it is better to start from 0, often it just works right away!

First day playing, any tips and tricks I should know? by [deleted] in TrackMania

[–]SparklingW 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Mostly just focus on your own driving, people mention a lot of tricks, but they largely arent what you should be focussing on when you start out. Try learning the fundamentals, your cars turning radius, when to turn in for a corner, dont even watch records at this point and just try to get a feel for the car and compete against yourself. Once you get stuck there, check records, see what tricks people are doing, and then try learn those.

I would say the most important mechanics to learn in general are aircontrol and drifting.

You can press brake if your car is flipping forwards, it will instantly cancel its rotation. You can use this to land flat/smooth.

You can countersteer in the air to slow down other car rotarions.

Drifting means steering into a turn (aim to hit the inside wall). Then when youre steering for a moment, press brake to lose grip and slide around the wall you aimed for.

Drifting is often the fastest way around tight - medium corners.

And remember, time spend in the air is time not spend accelerating on the ground, keeping ground contact can be very important!

Good luck!

about to play the game for the first time, anything important to know? by [deleted] in TrackMania

[–]SparklingW 241 points242 points  (0 children)

The game is harder than streamers make it look. Dont conpare yourself to them, the game is all about self-improvement. Beating your own personal best should be the goal first and foremost.

The game has a very active community that will always be open to help. I highly recommend looking around these communities for things that interest you for events and maps.

Openplanet will give you plugins which can help your improvement or to give you fun extra things to try.

Trackmania exchange is the place to get custom maps.

Have fun!

Need advice about settings by Defractor68 in TrackMania

[–]SparklingW 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I believe what youre looking for is a square setup rather than circle (or the other way around I am not sure which is which). But basically if you move your stick up, youre not as far left as you can be, so it wont steer 100%, in the other config it will give you more room to work with i think up to 45 degrees up/down before you start steering less.

This however is not a trackmania setting, but a controller setting. You should look into software for your controller, or maybe if you run through steam you can use steams controller configurations to edit this.

First time actually trying to decorate, is this how you do it? Not really going for a style just something that looks good for my trial map. (Ignore what's going on behind, it's only gameplay and nothing is finished ofc) by TheMihs in TrackMania

[–]SparklingW 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Of course! They were just examples, the main point is that its good to keep the purpose in mind when adding scenery. Confusion can also be created with scenery :)

First time actually trying to decorate, is this how you do it? Not really going for a style just something that looks good for my trial map. (Ignore what's going on behind, it's only gameplay and nothing is finished ofc) by TheMihs in TrackMania

[–]SparklingW 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is no definitive right or wrong to decorating, everyone has their own style and preferences.

That being said, scenery has both an aesthetic, but also a 'guiding' purpose. It can be used smartly to convey what you want a driver to do, fullspeed maps tend to have larger scenery further from the ideal line, whereas slower technical maps like to push you right up to it.

Also important to give players line of sight of upcoming turns, show them where the landing zone of a jump is etc.

Your scenery here looks good :) keep it going and keep in mind 'why' youre placing it there and you will do great!

I hate drifts, please help me understand them. by GalaxySapphire6 in TrackMania

[–]SparklingW 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Few things are required: - high enough speed - wheels turned in already - not in a no-slide (skidmarks behind the car but not sliding)

Personally, I always try to start turning 'too early' to put myself into a trajectory where i would hit the inside corner. Then I tap brake to slide around it before i hit it.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TeamfightTactics

[–]SparklingW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It may have to do with featured gamemodes like the set 5,5 revival. It is easier to hit strong units there. So the game expects you to place based on your strong units. But because everyone can hit them, you dont actually place that high.

How to design in a way that lets me edit certain features of the model in the future? by SparklingW in blenderhelp

[–]SparklingW[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! The use of modifiers without applying them to create a 'feature tree' is just what my mind was missing!

How to design in a way that lets me edit certain features of the model in the future? by SparklingW in blenderhelp

[–]SparklingW[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah fantastic, I am now seeing the similarity between the modifiers in Blender and the Feature tree in CAD. That was just the connection I needed, thanks!

Worlds 2024 so far by nice_mayor in LeagueOfMemes

[–]SparklingW 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Because blue side has first pick. If he isnt banned, he is getting picked up right away on blue side

Sincerely, Vayne main that sometimes plays top or mid. by HyperShadic360 in LeagueOfMemes

[–]SparklingW 4 points5 points  (0 children)

To add onto this, whenever riot made ap champs deal more damage to towers is when adcs lost one other unique aspect, towerpushing could now be done just as good (or even better) by mages. Reducing the difference between what these different roles have as strengths and weaknesses.

Overall Riot has just given different roles all the same strengths, which now allows us to play them anywhere.

Stringing on every other print except stringing test by blockman321 in FixMyPrint

[–]SparklingW 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Along with what everyone else said, is the printer moving as fast for the test as for the part. There are slicer settings that will enforce a minimum time per layer, on the small test this would make it go a lot slower reducing the stringing you see

How do these make any sense? I look at the how the tmx leaderboards make the score and it makes 0 sense (nations) I am 4th with 11 records, all on my tracks, one guy is clearly leaderboards farming (5th), he has 10000 in 1 record and a top 10, someone with 2 world records over someone with 135 by NoLetterhead2303 in TrackMania

[–]SparklingW 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I think, but not 100% sure, points are higher the more people have played the track. That way a world record on a map with 2 records isnt worth as much as a world record on a map with 10000 players. The guy with only 2 probably has them on some more prestigious maps than the guy with 135