Originally posted by CharterOak:

1. Things that force you to slow way down to have any chance.
A. Meteors. They sometimes land so many shards that you literally can not get through. It's way too much and not fun. I would suggest cutting the number of shards by half or two-thirds. 5-6 shards is plenty, IMO. I want to be able to at least attempt to race through, not stop and pick my way through or just try a different track. They could be fun, but not as they are now.

"Shard" is a keyword - if you don't want shard launchers, you can use "notshard", "nevershard", or "antishard" in your seed to remove shard launchers. Also, you don't have to slow down to avoid them because the locations shards drop in are random depending on your speed. If you're going faster then they're spread out a little more. You can typically also direct their landing locations some by facing diagonal toward one side of the track before the orange highlights appear, and then swerving to the other side before they land.

Originally posted by CharterOak:

B. The large wedge things that follow you on the track and then come down in front of you. They generally can not be avoided unless you slow WAY down. Not fun. I might make it so that you can get past them if you are going fast enough. Or maybe make them miscalculate and miss the track entirely if you maneuver in a way that makes it think that you are going to leave the track. Again, I do not want to have to slow to a crawl to avoid them. It's a racing game and that is no fun.

For these as well, you don't have to slow down to avoid them once you know their pattern, but if you don't want them on your trackmog maps, "dropper" is a keyword and, again, you can use "notdropper", "neverdropper", or "antidropper" to remove them from that map.

Originally posted by CharterOak:

2. Inverse maps. I would rather like to have a box to click for no inverse tracks. Most things don't need this, but because of the way that it's forced to start you all the way at the beginning of the track if you crash and the way it makes jumping nearly impossible, I think think you should be able to turn this setting off entirely. This might not be a problem for some, but if you use random settings by hitting enter with nothing in the box it is a problem.

The only time this happens is if "upsidedown", "ceiling", or "inverse" keywords are in your seed, which intentionally turns the whole track upsidedown and removes checkpoints. The reason for this is because trackmog doesn't want to generate checkpoints in locations where the player would spawn upsidedown (and fall off as soon as they respawn). Occasionally it may actually spawn a checkpoint or two even with those keywords included; if it happens to try to generate a checkpoint in precisely the right location of the map where the track is right-side-up.

For avoiding all three of these though, you're thinking very inside the box. Distance isn't a standard or traditional racer where you're stuck on the road. Trackmogrify is the epitome of this. I hopped in and recorded about 10min of trackmog as an example:
https://youtu.be/0rXyNbmn6OY

The devs have been looking at a trackmog v2 as a potential future update, although they are mainly focused on trying to finish up Adventure mode and release out of early access right now. In v2, the main new feature would be custom-built scenery and track sections that get imported into the generation which would include track transfers, jumps/gaps, and possibly flight sections as well. They have also mentioned the possibility of something akin to the Tricks menu[imgur.com] (main menu>garage>tricks, or while in stunt mode>pause>tricks) to list all the trackmog keywords you've found so far (with "???" for ones you haven't used yet). I'm not sure whether this would include some way to toggle on or off specific keywords when leaving the seed blank, but it is something that seems possible.

Ok... I watched enough of that to get the idea... You are very good and you love to fly... Unfortunately that is not my style... I like to drive. Am I playing the wrong game? Maybe, but I don't think so. I love this game and I love the potential of the Trackmogriphy, I just think that it could be improved, that's all. :)

And thanks for the insight into possible future ideas. That sounds good. And I understand that the devs have limited time. I just want to put in a vote for some Trackmogriphy love, as it's my favorite style of play, by far. :)

Originally posted by CharterOak:

Ok... I watched enough of that to get the idea... You are very good and you love to fly... Unfortunately that is not my style... I like to drive. Am I playing the wrong game? Maybe, but I don't think so.

I wouldn't necessary say the wrong game, per se, just that by only using the roads to get through the maps and not using the jump, flight, rotation, and ability to drive on any surface (buildings/"scenery"), you're creating a self-imposed limit that isn't an actual limit in the game itself - there is much more freedom, and, to me, it seems like you would be getting a lesser experience by not fully utilizing all the game mechanics you have at your disposal. This is, by the way, fully intended - as an example of that, there is a hidden teleporter near the beginning of the official map Corruption, behind a bunch of buildings you have to drive on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb79eDpkOAA
Or for a more difficult but faster way to get to it (and some other stuff): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/173593778
Also in both of these videos, you can see the dropper drones are easily avoided. It's all in learning how they work.

Yup, you are good. I always crash into those. I simply can't turn fast enough to get around them. At least not at full speed.

I do jump, I just like to stay with the track and mostly drive on the road. I try to avoid the obstacles while still staying on the road... It's quite fun. The flying, for me, not so much fun. Maybe it's because I have mostly played the trackmography. I tried the adventure mode early on and found it to be too much for me after a while. It was frustrating. Maybe I should try it again... but I do love the trackmography a lot.

I also feel like skipping the road obstacles entirely kind of takes away much of the point of having them, as well as much of the fun that comes from trying to avoid them at high speed... At least for me. That might be because I play exclusively single player? I could care less about time or beating other players... For me it's all about driving fast, avoiding obstacles, and finishing as cleanly as possible.

Either way I quite enjoy playing this way... though I still feel that some things could be improved, which is why I posted.

Anyway, thanks for trying to help me see the light and for being friendly and helpful. :)

Hmmm... After watching both your videos I had a thought... Is it possible that people who like to drive more than fly would be drawn to the Trackmography while people who prefer a more well rounded experience would prefer the handmade tracks?

I say this because I can see why a player like you would far prefer the Corruption track to almost anything that Trackmography could possible come up with. On the other hand trackmography centers around building the track itself and the obstacles on it. It does not tend to create any serious terrain outside the track except mostly for scenery purposes. On the other hand it gives you a fresh experience every time and can do a good job of creating interesting track with interesting obstacles to avoid...

Actually, the more I think about that the more it makes sense to me. I wonder if that is true, one, and two, if the developers have thought of that. Trackmogriphy will, IMO, never be as good as handmade tracks for people who like to fly and explore and stuff... But for those who like to just stick to the track and want a fresh new experience every time... I think that is what Trackmography is made for. If this is true, maybe the devs might keep that in mind if they ever get around to some trackmography love. To at least try to drive through and try the obstacles the old fashion way, as that may be the style that trackmography fans are drawn to?

Meh... could be all wrong, but it makes sense to me.

Originally posted by CharterOak:

I do jump, I just like to stay with the track and mostly drive on the road. I try to avoid the obstacles while still staying on the road... It's quite fun. The flying, for me, not so much fun. Maybe it's because I have mostly played the trackmography. I tried the adventure mode early on and found it to be too much for me after a while. It was frustrating. Maybe I should try it again... but I do love the trackmography a lot.

What about Adventure was "too much" for you? The track transfers? Wings/flight sections?
Because, as I mentioned before, transfers are likely the next thing coming to trackmog, along with the possibility of gaps and flight sections as well.

Originally posted by CharterOak:

I also feel like skipping the road obstacles entirely kind of takes away much of the point of having them, as well as much of the fun that comes from trying to avoid them at high speed... At least for me. That might be because I play exclusively single player? I could care less about time or beating other players... For me it's all about driving fast, avoiding obstacles, and finishing as cleanly as possible.

When doing offroad routing, you can look at the buildings and other "scenery" as obstacles - every object in the map is an "obstacle" as well as a potential landing/driving location. Even the road objects themselves can be obstacles (such as at 5:20 in the first video I linked). Offroad routes can also be very cleanly executed, and typically take much more skill than staying on the road where you generally only need to hold boost and turn left/right; there isn't much (manual) 3D movement if you stay on the road, aside from the occasional jump barrier.

Originally posted by CharterOak:

Hmmm... After watching both your videos I had a thought... Is it possible that people who like to drive more than fly would be drawn to the Trackmography while people who prefer a more well rounded experience would prefer the handmade tracks?

[. . .]etc.

Not necessarily. I like trackmog and that's how I always play it. I wouldn't exclusively play trackmog, but that's because there's some very well-made stuff on the workshop (3 community authors even got hired to help make Adventure because of the stuff they were making), and I'm a speedrunner, so a majority of my playtime is replaying the official maps.

I would say trackmog is actually better for the offroad stuff than most user-made maps. A lot of map authors don't consider the freeroaming aspect of the game, and tend to place the endzone right near the start, and then get upset that players aren't following the road they placed down; this makes a majority of the workshop content fairly useless for the offroad routing or freeroam, since most authors aren't thinking about it. You have to have a lot of practice with it already to be able to know where the best place to put things like hidden teleporters or alternative offroad shortcuts, otherwise players will typically just come up with some fairly easy skip. Trackmog also doesn't have any teleporters you have to think about when coming up with a route, and it's a different map every time, so you can make up the route as you go instead of trying to grind a specific route on a premade map. Also, the black arrow on your car compass points directly to the end, so it's a clear indicator that you're supposed to be heading in that direction to get to the end. You'll notice in the trackmog video, I will most always turn toward where the arrow is facing and hop right off, continuing in that general direction.

As for if the devs thought trackmog would be more for driving, there is an achievement for finishing in under 10s on trackmog, with the intention being to skip to the end like in my initial video, although you can also type in a seed to make a very short map. So, no, they aren't making trackmog for driving - it's just that this is the first itirition of the random generation, and it's much easier to string together road splines like it does. They would need to create a system to store object groups and load those groups into the generation if they want anything other than a single long string of road. They've been talking about doing something like this and including those object groups as premade editor objects, so newer players could more easily lay down things like track transfers with proper alignment.

Ok. I do love this game as is. I just think a few things could be tweaked to make things better for players who like to drive the road and for trackmography as a whole. But the devs have limited time and if not enough people want it I can understand why they focus elsewhere. :)

how about a share to workshop after you beat the trackmogrify you made?