Hi,
"Finalem Impedio" is the last press forward track in the "Impedio" (obstacle) trilogy, preceded by Grandis Impedio in 2014 and Colossaeus Impedio in 2015, both of which were built in TMNF. After a five year long hiatus, I've come back to building and rediscovering Trackmania under this new release of the game.
If you don't want to download and play the map yourself, you can watch the track on YouTube here:
Firstly, I'd like to address the point of actually building these tracks - patience really is a virtue when doing it, being that you had to wait as many minutes as the track was long to try out your new spin, flip or landing. In this release the game, that is no longer the case, as you can place a checkpoint and respawn from it, without having to replay the whole track for a small portion. As a consequence, this track took no more than three weeks to build from start, to finish, to scenery, which is both impressive and scary for a 4 minute long track. Impressive because of obvious reasons, but scary because the feature of respawning from the last checkpoint eliminates the need for patience to build such tracks, which is indeed less boring, but it takes away from the fulfilment when completing it. As such, I'm afraid this is going to be my last build of this kind, as the fun and joy isn't the same as it was in the older game.
Second, I'd like to write about those reactor boosters that dramatically change the way the car handles. I've come to think about them as magnets, placing them one way makes the car stick to the ground and the other makes it float. Not only does it help with landings, but with spins and flips as well, as the booster has an impact upon those too. It's a really nice addition to an otherwise vast array of blocks and really opens up new horizons of pushing the editor to its limits.
It's 4:20.690 long, yes. I've always wanted to achieve this time ever since I started building PF tracks. As a matter of fact, it is actually my longest project that I've ever built, others coming close to being only to 3 minutes long. I'm not entirely pleased with the stunts themselves, but I am with the atmosphere they generate along with the scenery. Speed is plentiful, courtesy to the red boosters. Smoothness is quite a topic now, because you're being able to build off the grid - which I have, liberally. I've always been a fan of smoothness, and being able to place a block or a ramp in such a way to land perfectly is wonderful. A perfect landing didn't always happen, unfortunately.
As for the rest, I'll hope you enjoy it, I'm sure there will be players that won't, but you can't please everyone entirely. Leave a comment or an award accordingly, thanks!
-Aenhim