RACETRACKS - Guide / Tips / Tutorial

[TurbTastic]

RACETRACKS is a King of the Hill variant that will record 1 lap as 1 second if the map is built properly. The game type was created by Masta Hippie in his efforts to make a substitute for the race game type as 343 sadly left it out. The game type has withstood the test of time and remains the best substitute in Halo 4 racing. You can download it here. The attached map is Bowsers Castle, which has a good checkpoint and starting shield for examples.

 

It's best to play this with everyone on the same team. The reason you do not want to be on different teams or free for all is because there is no way to turn off hill contesting, so players wouldn't get credit if going through the checkpoint at the same time.

 

The most difficult aspect of making your track compatible with the game type is getting a checkpoint built that always gives 1 second and is uncheatable. These can be minor issues or major hurdles depending on your track layout and budget situation. There are essentially 2 ways you can approach making your checkpoint.

 

The most common method involves using 4-5 one-way shields that will continuously push the players through the zone even if they try to resist. Since these shields cost 200 a piece, I spent a great deal of time making it work consistently with only 4 doors and I will share my spacing techniques. If the shields are too close then players will be able to sit in the hill without being pushed through. If they are too far apart it can easily be cheated. My coordinate measurements will be more useful if you are building your map (or at least the checkpoint) on a 90 degree basis, which I thoroughly recommend. Here is a photo of one of my checkpoints:

 

First you will need to make a Hill Marker that has the game type label of KOTH-HILL. Rotate your Hill Marker so that it is facing forwards on your track where you want your checkpoint to be. Change the shape to a box and make the width 3.5 and make the length long enough to span the width of your track. The 1st shield in the checkpoint should be just barely inside the hill. The 2nd shield should be 1.0 away from the 1st. The 3rd should be 1.1 away from the 2nd. The 4th shield should be 1.1 away from the 3rd. This last shield should also be just barely inside the hill. If you get the placement right players will be unable to park on either side and get credit. In order to prevent people from sitting in the hill on foot, you will need to have a Sender teleporter in the hill with Players=True and Vehicles=False. Add a Receiver teleporter at the beginning of your track with the same settings.

 

An alternate method is to put the checkpoint (Hill) in midair as part of a jump. You can choose to make this work using man cannons and/or gravity volumes. This method has the benefit of being much cheaper than the previous method, but it will likely be a bit more difficult to get it working right (always 1 second, uncheatable). I personally have no experience using this method myself, but I have seen it work without issues on many occasions.

 

Not having the race game type means all vehicles must be placed on the map. To make your map compatible for 16 players you will need to use 8 mongooses and 8 ghosts. If your map has areas where players can fall off and have their vehicle destroyed, then you may want to consider adding spare vehicles in the form of warthogs. The game type will turn the ghosts and warthogs into mongooses. The respawn time should be 1-5 seconds so they don't take long to come back. Instead of lining the vehicles up bumper to bumper, you may want to have them slightly angled inwards so they can drive forward without obstruction.

 

With my newer tracks I've been using only respawn points and skipping the initial spawn points. You should have 1 respawn point for each mongoose provided (excluding spares). I like to put them right next to the vehicle so that when a player spawns they immediately have the option to get into the vehicle. This minimizes the chaos that usually occurs in the first 10 seconds of the race. All respawn points should be neutral.

 

One of the most frustrating things about losing the race game type is that when you die you go all the way back to the beginning. Those who have played my tracks probably know that I use a system of teleporters as a substitute for checkpoints. Doing this can be pretty simple or impossible based on the layout of the track. If your track is spread out it should be easy. If your track intertwines and overlaps a lot then teleporters will not be feasible. For basic layouts, you have the ability to set up 5 checkpoints (alpha-echo). The idea is that you will have them situated in such a way that if you fall off you will only go back a little bit, and never forward. For the Sender teleporters I recommend making the "top" value 0.1 and the bottom value 1.0+. When having a complete system is not possible,I recommend putting the teleporters under the most difficult obstacles/sections. This will minimize frustration and maximize fun (these are good things).

 

If you really want to go the extra mile, then you can add a starting gate. Having a starting gate will give everyone a fair chance and makes competitive sessions much easier. This usually will involve a dominion base shield and a delayed fusion coil (18-20 seconds), but you can also use delayed structure pieces. The most difficult thing about the shield method is getting it set up so that the shield never comes back (the game type has 0% damage in the settings so players can't take it down). Logic would tell you to put the respawn time to never, but this will cause the shield to never spawn in the first place. It seems to miraculously work for me sometimes when I leave the spawn time at 15 seconds, but this does not work all the time.

 

Random tips:

-dominion base shields are extremely useful (as walls/borders), colorful, and cheap

-the impact pallet is the most useful for complex maps, there is a wide variety of pieces and they are cheap

-sources of flat: building blocks, walls, upside down stunt ramps, grids, platform large, platform xlarge (top or bottom), cylinder large (top or bottom), brace large, bridges, upside down tower 3 story, tunnel long, +some map-specific pieces

-the default game type has damage set to 0% (due to use of starting shields) so if you plan on using mines or kill balls you will need to use a player trait zone to override the game type (10% damage, invulnerable, assassination immunity)

- dominion base stripes make for nice railings

-to save money on spare vehicles you can use mongoose vehicle pads and assign them to the defender team, that way players on the red team can use them (100 each instead of 150)

-score to win: 2 x # racers + 1 will end the race when the lead player gets 3 laps (assuming no lapping occurs)

 

Where to find good racetracks:

TurbTastic

Noble Forger

llehctim4

Lord FluffBall

WhiskeyWarm

NukedIceCream

vR Iceman

Tripmine413

TheRedEyedDevil

DjV RazoR

x DREAM76 x

oomishday3

DRG Incubus

Jernst Reborn

SoS Darth Algar

Halo Customs

ForgeHub

ForgeCafe

YouTube Channel - treez0

YouTube Channel - HiddenJewGold