Distance to Verticality - MTC November

Inspired by the game Distance and built for the November MTC, this fast paced and rather loopy track will push you to your absolute limit. Any airtime is to be avoided, as you will find yourself losing speed and time.


In late October, I'd was playing a game called Distance. The spiritual successor to another game called Nitronic Rush, Distance is an Arcade Survival Horror Racing game. In it, the car you drove has a variety of abilities including a Boost, a Jump, and Flight. Now, for a MTC where there was to be no flying, those don't seem like something that could inspire an entrant in such a contest.

But the tracks that the car drove on ranged from smooth and flowing through to intricate and technical. The tracks also looped and rolled over themselves, and you could quite easily spend more time not knowing which way was up than actually flying. And it's that somewhat chaotic, looping style of track that inspired me to create this.



Designed in such a way that airtime is to be avoided, this is probably my favourite track I've made so far. A hard, fast, flowing circuit with opportunities galore to eek out that little bit of extra time. I ended up really enjoying trying to hunt a good Author Time, even as I got frustrated at crashing out every other attempt as I pushed things too hard.

Despite this, there was only one revision at the end that I made to make things easier. Originally, as you came diving out of the Bowl as I like to call it, the light poles were spread across where the car would travel as an additional obstacle. With the right line, you would sail between them. With the wrong one, even a glancing blow would slow you down enough to be worth a flying respawn back at the Checkpoint Ring to try and recorrect. The idea here was that in a race scenario, getting it wrong would only cost you a second and it was very easy to get it right on the second attempt.

However, it simply wasn't fun running into the same bloody light pole on lap two of an absolute flying lap while trying to set a decent AT. So I had to redistribute the light poles manually to open that up, and within half an hour I finally had an AT I was happy with.



Tips:
Keep it clean coming out of the start. Pick your apex well, and you'll be set up well for a good start.

Keep it tight turning onto the dirt. There's a lot of space provided, but don't use it. It's only there to reduce the impact of missing the turn in.

Coming off the dirt and onto the grass up to the first wall-ride, keep it as straight as possible. Any turning will cause you to slide, losing you valuable speed.

After the wall-ride, make sure you start setting yourself up with a good line into the vertical. Depending on your line, you may need a touch of brake near the top in order to keep control. Don't worry too much about too much brake, you'll regain your speed quickly coming back down.

The loop is the first obstacle where you can really push it or play it safe. For maximum speed, you need to exit it right at the checkpoint. However, doing so could compromise your line going into the Bowl. There is only a narrow gap for you to make at the correct angle. Dropping down early will give you plenty of time to set up, but you could be significantly slower.

The Bowl is nearly blind. You won't be able to see much, even in Cam 3, and you will be going fast. Fortunately, the line is rather straight forward. Learn it, keep it smooth, do not let go of the accelerator, and you'll come flying out of there.

And finally, the Identity which I like to call the Distance Roll. This rolling section of track is difficult to get right, but oh so rewarding if you manage it. Getting up to the Ring Checkpoint is the easy bit, but the transition back to upright is hard. It is possible to full-speed it with the correct line, but there is only one line where this is possible. Too far left and you'll drift off. Over commit to the apex on the right and you'll go flying off the other way as the track tilts back. Hit both apexes and you'll be set for either a chicane into another lap or a quick dash into the finish line.