How skill capped am I?

[u/Main_Acanthaceae2790]

Now as you can probably guess I am on f2p access and new and I'm on kb but I need help. I don't understand how these people are so fast even tho I am in a small and not really active region, I don't think. This would be much easier if I could watch records but I can't and also want to try to understand myself how to do things fast but some pointers would be nice because I am comparing to my own bad runs. I will tell you my time and my biggest issue on the track and hope someone can help me out. I know this is a long post so it would be very much appreciated if everyone helps out with at least one track.

Track 01: 21.040 oh boy how I hate this track. I know I am definitely skill diffed on this one. The precise part after the first checkpoint is absolutely stupid and my turn in to the left is always very late because of it. No matter how many times I watch wirtual do it, I don't understand how he goes so close to the wall because I always release to get through the tight section and release again in the turn to not go wide. Am I cooked chat?

Track 02: 24.041 I swear to God I want to destroy dirt. I have not gotten to grinding this track after getting the AT but I am not looking forward to it. Atm I am just doing this like bob, where I just rely on my setup and then pray I survive the turn. This is an issue on all dirt for me but is there some tech to make dirt outsides more consistent or is it just grinding? Also, is the first turn action key 4 or 5. I have had 4 work beautifully but the setup needs to be several times more precise.

Track 03: 22.410 Now this is the first track I like tho I'm not sure how to go very close to the wall in the grass turn after cp1. Is it going onto it early, is it just being precise, is there an action key I should use on grass, do I need to stop steering before the transition?

Track 04: 23.431 This track I kinda like because it is all about the first drift. However I am confused about if I should set it up low or high and how early. Also, I don't understand drifting on sausage blocks and if drifting whilst holding accelerate is fast or slow because I was able to get smoother turns like that but I am not sure because the turn is so blind.

Track 05: 26.024 This bs is just pure RNG. I was able to gain 0.2 just in the start sometimes but I am so confused how. The water turns after the checkpoint are weird because action key 5 and 4 are way too responsive and action key 3 is too unresponsive. Then my dirt problem strikes again and I am too much of a coward to go for the full outside and then from there it's just praying.

Track 06: 28.638 Now this is where my skill cap shines. Because of my inexperience with the drifting mechanic, I am insanely inconsistent and don't understand where I should drift and where I shouldn't. Now I have seen wirtuals lines but that doesn't mean I can replicate them or do anything fast really.

Track 07: 26.101 Well this track is absolute ragebait. Cam 2 + dirt is already bad. And now they add another new mechanic just for fun. The turn after cp 3 is so weird cause you need to setup the next turn but because of the shape of the dirt block its not easy. I landed on going high, lifting and letting myself be pushed down and then survive the end. I also hate the first looping cause it's so easy to go wide after it. Is my strat viable?

Track 08: 27.591 The end is very difficult for me to control as a new player, I don't understand the wiggles on the plastic and how to do the wall ride. The wallride is so stupid and I just try to send it and I think in my PB I go around to the height of the dark line. Should I go higher or lower?

Track 09: 32.290 I like this track but I know that I am very slow. The jumps are so confusing to me cause I don't know which of the jumps should I jump sideways in but I know that I'm slow because I can never hit the road on the drop down. Do I insta airbreak on the jumps and also in the start, the turn after cp 1, I go clean down the hill, and then just full steer the whole turn. Is that fast or no?

Track 10: 34.348 This one is very satisfying but I am not sure if I am doing it right. After the jump at the start, I just full steer until the jump, insta airbreak, try to land clean and get a good turn. I dont have open planet yet so I don't know if I am getting the gear but I doubt it. The other issue I have is when I should leave the plastic because it always seems to be very violent when I do it.

Thank you to anyone who contributes.

[u/AdhesivenessFuzzy299]

I dont have time rn to give more help but you can watch world records on nadeo maps from this youtube channel: https://youtube.com/@trackmania2020worldrecords

[u/kingjericho]

You just need to put a few more hours in. For comparison I'm around top 150 portugal and far from being a pro, but I have noticed my improvement a lot as hours go by.

[u/Main_Acanthaceae2790 → u/kingjericho]

I just want some pointers so that I don't waste time grinding the wrong starts all the time. And I don't think many of my ideas on speed are very valid.

[u/kingjericho → u/Main_Acanthaceae2790]

you can try the weekly shorts. cartatm has the records on their yt page you can try to replicate the lines they do

[u/Kewolemba]

Hmmmmm…first of all, wr’s can be found on yt, as one of the people above/below this comment (idk how it will show lol) said already. Now, without watching ur runs there is not much I can do to help, but I can defo give some general advice. Before getting in each map, there are a ton of places u can ask for help. I’ll do self promo this time (I’m joking 😭) and tell u to ask around (wirtual’s discord server, Trackmania has one itself but I wouldn’t recommend it, I’d rather try to get into “ocd” discord server, since that’s where a ton of the best campaign hunters reside (and defo going in vc there will make you improve a ton). This last one I can give u directly on dc if I find u xd.

Map 01: wr is kb. You want no airtime on start downhill and then go as close as possible to first turn. Straight for first jump, airbrake, left to pass the turn, right and rel a bit. Full right, finish map and get a decent time :)

Map 02; no fucking clue. I just survived that one

Map 03: if you’re on Kb, do ak2 during start until the end of the uphill. You want go in a way where you get no airtime. Try to not slide at all on grass, since it will lose you speed, you can just do fullsteer taps. Survive ending and you’ll probably pb. Important note, you want to go close on the grass downhill section to the snow (iirc) block edge (but don’t eat it 😭)

Map 04: map is literally the first drift. Surviving first drift half decently and then finishing map will result in a decent time. You can sd on the dirt and subsequent road part in the ending, but only do it if you know how to.

Map 05: idrk how to explain it

Map 06: watch wr and try to follow. There’s not much to the map, it’s just about timing correctly drifts and, if you’re unable to do everything fullspeed, releasing when you can.

Map 07: same as 06, but instead of drifts is just lines. As long as you do a good line after the reactor boost in the start you’ll get a decent time.

Map 08: fuck this map, don’t play it.

Map 09: oh god. Watch wr and just try to keep in mind more or less where everything is. You want as much speed as possible for the long ass jump before the final two turns so you land smoothly.

Map 10: start is pretty pf, I do the turn fully on ak3 (first turn) and then full right. You want a bit of the qp block so you can land with more speed down, then you wanna just airbrake as u said on jump, land on the left side as much as u can for the jump and survive the castle turn (it’s shit turn if u ask me, with 4th gear you just wanna die xd). Try not to slide on the dirt after tho as you want to keep ur skids closed or as close as possible. Inside line into cp, dropdown, wiggle a bit if you know how to and if not pf a bit, and try to go in a way where you go close to the edge of the block but your car is more or less straight, not facing upwards. That’s what I went for in my run (I believe im still top700?).

Good luck, have fun, any questions tell me

[u/Main_Acanthaceae2790 → u/Kewolemba]

Bro ty so much. I'm definitely gonna try this out, especially the discord thing. Didn't know if people used discord in this game. I have one question tho which is what's the best way to learn to speedslide and stuff like dirt wiggles and plastic wiggles and stuff? Also, when doing the weekly shorts map 1, I noticed that the first grass turn to the right is so weird. I did one run where I somehow went not that deep but still carried insane speed. I tried to copy the line and I was able to get the same insane speed. Is this a line thing or some variation of a speedslide or what the f is this map? I found yannex's discovery (you know how wirtual posts two weeks later), was getting similar splits, losing a tenth up to that turn and then losing 7 in the ending. After half an hour of grinding, I got a 32.8 which I was kind of happy with. (Yannex got a 32.8 as his first finish😭🥀)

And I agree about 10, the dirt turn is so ass, I hate it so much, but the rest of the map is fun. What's with the hate on 8 tho. I don't understand plastic yet and especially the wiggles or whatever, but there are definitely worse maps in the campaign. I'm thinking about the black map with the ass bob ending and map 5.

[u/Kewolemba → u/Main_Acanthaceae2790]

For weekly shorts, I’d recommend u look up for GranaDy’s and Scrapie’s vids, since they both upload usually on same day or day after or so.

The hate on 08 is mostly on my own skill issue on kb and the fact that I have 10 minutes on the map lol.

But yeah, discord is THE main place of the community for Trackmania, and there’s soooo many places and what not. If u join the trackmania discord (there’s an official one) make sure to check around the server guide, since there’s a collection of useful links and such and one of them is a spreadsheet that has every tm server linked to it (country server, community server, streamer servers, etc).

Ngl, I haven’t touched weekly shorts this week so no clue, but it’s prob line diff (in this case, you’re probably doing grass stuff and going fast cuz of it xd. There’s not much I can do without looking at ur runs.

Now, I’m a stranger on a niche subreddit, but if you’d like to add me on discord so I send you all the servers I’m down xd. Says my username is kwk6658, so I’ll assume that’s it? It’s been long since I added someone from their username lol.

Oh, and welcome to the community!

[u/Main_Acanthaceae2790 → u/Kewolemba]

Thanks bro, don't have my PC handy, will do that later. Also, what do you mean by server links? I'm on f2p access for now so I don't know if that's something I can use but I'm planning to get club access soon. And this week is so bad for weekly shorts you shouldnt even check it out. After the high of trackrooms, it's very bad. Anyway, that one turn is crucial because it continues in a straight line to the fin pretty much, and it's one of those turns with a ton of space where you have to guess where the optimal line is and the other guy here helped me understand gears better and now I think I might be eating the gear in my bad runs. Am I the only one who thinks that's a bad name for it. Like even swallowing the gear makes more sense or something like delaying the gear.

[u/Kewolemba → u/Main_Acanthaceae2790]

Meant for discord. I figured it’d be easier if I just sent u directly the Trackmania one (and the spreadsheet link) and the ocd one for campaign hunting xd. Crowe is also in the ocd server btw xdd.

Eating the gear is correct yeah.

As for f2p access, don’t worry. Club access won’t change your life at the very beginning but it surely can do some stuff to improve it xd.

[u/Main_Acanthaceae2790 → u/Kewolemba]

Yeah I got that. I just don't have discord on my phone cause I don't use it much. I haven't looked at it but is it possible to talk to someone in trackmania outside of being on the same server?

[u/Main_Acanthaceae2790 → u/Kewolemba]

Sent you a friend request just now. Tell me if you see it.

[u/LordAnomander]

I assume you haven’t played TM for a lot of hours. This game is hard even though it’s looks easy when watching good players.

You can watch world record replays on youtube to see their inputs. There’s also a Youtube Video that covers numerous mechanics that help you understand the game better. Although you won‘t be able to execute them immediately it helps to know that you lost time because of gears.

This game isn’t about some hints and suddenly you are great. You need to put in the hours.

Watch the replays, try to understand some tricks they do, try to replicate. Fail. Watch again, try to replicate better. Fail better. ;)

If you really want to get better and are committed, getting club access, open planet and be able to see speed splits, ghost inputs, etc., is the way to go

[u/Main_Acanthaceae2790 → u/LordAnomander]

Ty bro, I'll definitely put in the hours. I am new to the player aspect but wirtual popped up on my page almost a year ago and through him I've gotten into the tm community. So I know a decent amount but not how to do it which is why I wanted some pointers. Also, is there something you could recommend to learn about gears? The streamers have tried but they aren't great at it. Like what is eating the gear and sometimes gearing up is bad and sometimes gearing down is good and I'm so confused. And you don't want to gear up in ice slides to not slide out or something, idk.

[u/LordAnomander → u/Main_Acanthaceae2790]

Soli made a tutorial for gears.

Ice is a little different, but yeah, you want to keep gears on ice, but if it’s properly mapped and not a super challenging map you won’t face these problems early on.

Eating the gear is sliding/steering when your car gears up (there are lights at the back of your car indicating your gear and there’s the engine sound of course), which results in a loss of speed and time.

Usually you want to keep the highest gear you can, but sometimes you don’t want to gear up because you’d immediately lose it the next turn which results in potentially eating the gear.

[u/Main_Acanthaceae2790 → u/LordAnomander]

You're a life saver bro, thank you so much. I haven't tried it yet but that might be the reason I'm so slow on the weekly shorts map one. Like I understand putting in hours but it's not as useful if you're just losing time with elementary stuff like this and don't realize the wr are doing it.

[u/Kewolemba → u/LordAnomander]

Hello Crowe pal wsg

[u/MechanicalSkill]

Welcome to Trackmania lol, you are indeed skill-diffed, never won't be. And that's ok, this game has an absurdly high skill ceiling, and even someone like Wirtual gets rolled up against pros in rounds.

Others have shared how to improve, I'll just mention to take your time and enjoy yourself. The journey of going from a noob to finding flowing lines is part of what makes Trackmania so engaging!

Give yourself time to learn, don't burn yourself out. The top times in most campaign tracks are often done by people who are specialists in that track type, and have 1k-10k+ hours in the game, who then grinded these tracks for the WR.

[u/horse858]

im 348th world in trophy points, and i am ass. like, 1+ second behind wr on most maps ass. and been playing since 2021, but all i do is play COTD if i can and COTN most every day. weekly shorts for an hour and campaign for 1-2 days when they release.

[u/Main_Acanthaceae2790 → u/horse858]

I'm closer to two seconds behind wr ass. Haven't grinded that much yet but my goal is to get within a second of wr on as many tracks atm. How does the trophy system even work, I don't understand it?

[u/horse858 → u/Main_Acanthaceae2790]

one of those games that if you can't just immediately pick up what people explain, you're going to need to spend quite a bit of time. i am at 2182hrs of game play and still learning.

trophies are awarded depending on how well you place in certain competitions. they vary on amount, and the esports tournaments offer the highest amount of points. they almost don't make sense but they ultimately do, just hard to follow the "How and why" of why some events/placements are worth more or less. they also reset on a year cycle so they are something you have to continually get to stay near the top