[R]GARAGE site unmaintained... D'Oh!

Believe it or not, it's been awhile since I updated my site with new stuffs, but not including newer stuffs you've seen in this blog. I've been very busy in real life and it pretty much dumps my time to maintain my site and update all sections with new downloads. Yup, you don't see Grupard on my site yet... I've been showing disinterest in updating the site because I have no idea when I can update the site. The only thing that grows my disinterest is how my internet load the Site Editor and time constraints. Even my 1GB midday quota always run out for less than one week, and Wi-Fi connections... Well, they don't do justice for me, even if they're fast. :(

[R]GARAGE still in its natrual life form... Not really updated -_-

I also don't feel good with the site's style. Sure that HTML5 is the best, but somehow the way my site looks and the interaction overall somehow doesn't fully suit me 100%. It's not that I hate my own site, but somehow I need something which design and interaction overall suit me. Plus, I'm still thinking of how to put a picture without it being a gallery. If there's such option on Wix, I can work it out and that means it'll undergo a total revamp.

One thing that I want to have in my site is the same layout like this official site of Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune series. From its first installment to the most recent WMMT5 (in Japan and some parts of Asia. Indonesia still has MT4), it keeps its layout like that, and I'm considering my site to follow such layout. But didn't my old site RendyTUNED also had such layout? I thought this will go down as a consistency to-die-for, especially when I found out that each brand has a consistency of layouts between its print ads and its websites (if they have one).

But there were things that have been past prior to this post, and I've experienced them all. There were also projects and some to-bes that are in their WIP phase.

SINCE I'VE BEEN GONE, ish...

Despite all the bombshell, the Kickstarter Alpha demo of GeneRally 2 is out already! Now you can taste all the sweets GR2 has promised, including cars with more polies, day/night cycle, and new looks on objects. I can say that the team has done great job in doing this game, and am really looking forward for the finished product. Or, if I have a mean to "Pledge" this game, I could pledge as many as 20+ plays of Maximum Tune 4, Indonesian server, where a game is worth IDR 8.750 the cheapest.

Ladies and GENEtlemen, the moment you've been waiting for has arrived!

Although the demo they served a long time ago isn't perfect, they have an all-out effort to perfect the game to not only give a new life to a game with humble beginnings in the hands of Rabina brothers, but also retain what the first GR had: simple, no-nonsense, in-your-face, gameplay. There's no need for car setups yet you could make your own car and model it by yourself, and trackmaking in this game is progressively addictive as you play with Landmaps first and then Objects, Height maps, and to some extent, Landmap arts. You could even make your own object just by combining several objects at once, just like how the Track of Month-winning authors!

My own review for the GR2 should come soon after this blog!

Winners of the Karawaci Tourney on 22nd March. Once again, Infamous dominated, yet MVI's Aulia broke their dominance by placing second. (Image courtesy of Indonesian WMMT Community @ FB)

Days back, I've also participated in another Maximum Tune 4 tournament, this time held at Supermall Karawaci. The result is pretty much the same; me being phased out in the second round and Infamous once again took the domination. No surprise indeed, except that one of the Infamous guys handled the commentary duty instead of myself. I guess he handled it well even though one of his friends said that my way of commentary is still better, and the part that he funnily counted down the final meters of every race he commentated (read: wrong counts) was very hilarious and entertaining.

Yet there's another catch to be happening at Supermall Karawaci: tag team tournament. Yup, there's a plan about an MT4 tag team tournament in works, and now they are seeking sponsors, collecting prize pools, etc. Malaysia also had their own MT4 tag team tournament that claimed to be a "Tournament that concludes all tournaments".

Taken from an MT4-related FB page: Hi everyone! KL , Malaysia will be having a tag team competition on June 7 and 8.
64 teams draw lots to 4 teams per group. Play C1 against each other. Top 2 advances to stage 32.
32 teams draw again and play same format as 64.
Best of 16 onwards will play knockout on C1 , Osaka , Hakone until finals
Finals will play 5 maps
Prizes:
1st - RM 3000 (Cash) + Trophy + Cert + Other goodies TBD
2nd - RM 1000 (cash) + Trophy + Cert + Other Goodies TBD
3rd - RM 200 (In game credits) + Cert + Other Goodies TBD

Registration:RM50

GAH! Why can't Maximum Tune 4 be an international e-sport already and spread the game around the world now? How about a The International-styled MT tournament between teams from around the world? Seeing Asia-Pacific competitors is sure exciting, but more exciting with more parts of the world able to enjoy MT4, but is it really possible? I don't think so; will they accept the way of... *cough* Networked Arcade?

STUFFS PROGRESS

While I have dumped Al Dasein 2013 due to the fact that I disliked how the Height map made one of the corners "bumpy" and that I can't think of the decent parking space at the bottom of the track, plus the fact that GRHmEdie (GR Hmap Editor by Mlynki) hates tracks version 1.20 above, PLUS I'm too lazy to do it all over again, I'm working on a WS 120 temporary street course, with finally a rapid WIP progress never achieved by any WIP of mine! I've never, ever, enjoyed playing with environments for this track \\:D//

The course you're seeing here is set in a park which has a circuit section of its own. The course traverses from the circuit to the streets, which actually are one-way roads. There's a chicane when you drive the second road and left hairpin follows after. The rest of the track is full of hairpins.

One thing I enjoyed from making this track however is the fact that I emphasized the environment on the right side before I can further my progress. You see, the buildings are inspired by buildings you'll be familiar with if you're living in New York, and so does the park. But does that mean that it's set in New York? Hmm...

Things left to do are persons on the paddock area and the road lines, with everything done except for AI lines. Learning to what Haruna did with the AI line to my Grupard via Skype, I will also try to make the decent AI line so that racers will be given a tough time trying to overtake a full field of cars! Hopefully this track will be finished if the condition permits me :)

From above to below: Okayama Circuit, Nippon Highlands V2, and a Sarthe-Inspired track

Meanwhile there's more Japanese goodness for Turbo Sliders as I have planned on making two more tracks set in Japan; the second version of Nippon Highlands, and Okayama Circuit. As I disliked the flow of the first Highlands, I decided to create another one that would have a better flow than the first version had, having experienced helping Lanz on making the Show Event course for PTM's second season. Despite not using my version, at least he knew how the checkpoints for this Show Even work, the same for Okayama. Only this time, as Okayama is a real-life track, I think it's safe to say that it's going to be my second real-life circuit after Tsukuba. I thought I could do Circuit of The Americas for SCARTS races but, well...

Under the two Japanese tracks is yet another track: a TSE-styled track inspired by Circuit de la Sarthe! I guess that the TSE style will be the standard for most tracks whose layouts are done in Photoshop. Other than that, the tracks are still WIP, with all of their kerbs are being worked by the time of this post.

Also, take note that I still owe myself a blog post about how I make skins for various games, including for TrackMania United Forever and GTR 2. I've been making so many skins yet I haven't show the world how they look like. The one you're seeing here is a TMUF representation of an FD RX-7 made by ..., with a skin that you should recognize from Gran Turismo series, especially first two installments. Know what that is? Yup! RX-7 FD LM Edition! Even though that they might won't be totally following the actual livery, I guess this should be a good representation of the old style LM Edition livery. :D

Until next time, folks! Will be posting about my GR2 experience after this! :)


~[R]

My First Maximum Tune 4 Tournament Foray

A week ago, exactly on Saturday, I decided to join a Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4 tournament at Summarecon Mall Serpong, a mall located in the Serpong area of Tangerang City, which is Westwards from Jakarta. A long time ago before MT4 even existed in Indonesia, I joined a preliminary of a Zone 2000-ran tournament in the Bogor area where the preliminary took place at Mal Parung, and the winner went to the finals which was held at one of the malls in the Bogor area. Sadly, due to my place's misinformation about the finals, I was totally excluded from the finals. In other words, I missed the finals which I shouldn't have to. My tournament experience was screwed...

Fast forward to the 2014 where MT4 has already existed in most of the major malls in Jakarta. Not only Jakarta, but other cities have cab sets of MT4 too. With MT4 enthusiasts grew from the first time it arrived at Puri Indah to the present day, a tournament to determine the best MT4 players has finally come. It isn't the first time an MT4 tournament is held, but this year, it is. Popular arcade chain Timezone held an MT4 tournament at Summarecon Mall Serpong where competitors battle it out to win a total prize of millions of Rupiah in a form of cash and vouchers, and of course trophies for the top 3. It was series one of many series the MT4 tournament took place, so to speak. The tournament's rundown for January was SMS on 25th followed by Mall Taman Anggrek and Margo City on the next day. The rundown like this made me wonder why not making this a championship series instead a la Global Rallycross Championship? Why you don't give each mall an interval of minimum one week after a tournament is finished so maybe the same faces would compete once again? Probably they wanted to have a variety of winners at each venue, perhaps?

Technically, it is my first Maximum Tune tournament because the Zone 2000 is not counted due to aforementioned incident. Summarecon Mall Serpong is not a near place to reach from my home but I was still able to make my show there...

IT IS SHOWTIME!!!

Let's cut directly to the tournament's D-Day, shall we? The D-day begun with people lining up for re-registration. There are 48 competitors, most of them are pros and experienced in this very field. Hell, those from known Indonesian MT Teams such as MVi, Infamous, and SuToS, to name a few, joined the fray. These 48 competitors waited for the drawing session, and as the drawing session commenced, they were eagerly waiting to find out who they raced with. No surprise, among from those 48, there's yours truly and my friend Handi R, who is better known as Rena_KonataKanade in one of the Maximum Tune-related forums.

The competition begun as four MT4 cabs in the arcade turned into Event Mode, and then four more. The first heat gathered two drivers in separate sets, which made me wonder why the organizers didn't field all four competitors for the sake of time... Initially, the heats with two drivers were set into "Double Distance" mode where races are twice longer than usual, but then the game was changed with full field of racers, only one set of four cabs turned into Event Mode (which means the other set became back to normal), and normal distance. My heat was fourth, while my friend's was fifth. Also in the drawing the cab positions were defined by letters. This means mine was B4 and my friend's was A5.

In my heat, I was fielded against another blue R34, a camo-sticker FD3S RX7 belonged to Infamous team, and one more that I can't recall. The battle started on straights where I could hold my lead against the other R34 until the red turn where the Infamous RX7 stole my show, but I managed to score 2nd place and advanced to the next round. As we reached the red turn people were screaming hard and it was quite a mental test. Gladly, I could maintain my composure there. As for Rena KK, he used his white 180SX, but sadly he couldn't take the pressure against other drivers as he was stuck in 3rd place, thus not able to advance to the next round.

An impromptu breakdance routine in the middle of the race

Next round, I raced against yet another blue R34, and the Infamous RX7 that raced with me on the previous round, this time with a known-face competitor who advanced with the other R34 driver; an MVi member with a car named 84NK5. I don't know if the name sounds like a 1337-speak rendition of a certain supermodel or not but I'm sure he's quite senior in this field. Sadly for this round, with the fact that I was rammed early game, avoided braked-in-front technique in vain, and a series of low-key lining and speed, I had to call off my journey to the final. However, my journey didn't end just that as I followed the tournament from start to end and got to try an unorthodox antic ever done in an MT4 tournament...

#SMSMT4TOURNAMENT LIVE FEED FAILURE

This is one of the things I point out here. From my Twitter account @RebirthAY, I tweeted the live feed of the #SMSMT4Tournament. The going went smooth until when trying to tweet a live feed, where Opera Mini logged off my Twitter for NO APPARENT REASON. I have filed my complaint to the Twitter team before but apparently deleting cookies doesn't solve the problem. I guess that for this reason, never use Opera Mini for live feed purposes, use a Twitter app or even a laptop and a modem to do it. This was also one of the things that supported my desire for the next statement below:

RENDY: THE NEXT MARTIN HAVEN. Seriously?

I said to myself "If you lost a game but you have a good antic or two to show, you are yet considered as a sore loser". Martin Haven, a prolific commentator known for his commentaries in numerous racing series like Le Mans 24 Hours and World Touring Car Championship, is my idol and that I followed his path of being a race commentator for this tournament. Yup, if you attended last week's tournament at SMS, you can notice that this blog belongs to a 'nameless commentator'. (Image courtesy of uk.eurosport.yahoo.com)

One of the most memorable antics in the tournament was the fact that I become a commentator for some heats and numerous rounds I wasn't in. Commenting is a fun thing for me to do it but executing it is anything but easy. One thing for sure is that you cannot use soccer-like commentary styles when commenting MT tournaments, because everything has its own place. When commentating a racing event I had to make sure that I comment the actions not too rushed and take it slower, but not very slow, especially too slow. When I could only witness the other guys racing for advancing to the next round, I was thinking to myself about how I could become a good commentator like Martin Haven does.

And now let's see how Martin does it... :)

CHECK ANOTHER SHOWREEL OF HIS HERE (For some reason this video is unsearchable...)

I took this chance because sometimes the in-store commentator was busy on the brackets with the organizers, he couldn't able to commentate some of the actions happening, so I asked him if there was another mic for me to commentate on, but there wasn't, so I took the chance of being the commentator for some of the races. With knowledge of featured cars, courses, and drivers, as well as having an ability to know which team the competitor is on, I was happy to be a part of the competition, both being a graceful loser and a Martin Haven in the making.

But the real philosophy is that I wanted the world to treat Maximum Tune as another part of E-sports. In this world, there are many games that are considered E-sports, but only a handful that's popular, namely Defense of the Ancients (DotA) and Counter Strike series. It breaks my heart that Tekken, from its arcade roots, became a part of the internationally-known E-sports too, while MT isn't. Sure MT is internationally known, but are those in the American and European region know MT well? Do they have MT4? Not even that, Arcade scene isn't so much popular, let alone networked Arcade games. By being a commentator who has intermediate knowledge to the MT world, I wish I could par MT's competitive environment more.

FOUR ADDITIONAL RACERS AT THE LAST MINUTE! Urgh!

There were four last-minute racers joining in the tournament, which means that there were a total of 52 that competed. Because of that, the bracket had to be re-arranged so that the three winners and three runners up can be determined. This means that in select heats there was three-man heat and two-man heat too, with those heats only took one winner to advance.

THE ALL-INFAMOUS FINAL

Infamous Team clinched its one-team final after their members defeated all the competitors in the semifinals where the races were done in duel manner and each winner went to the final while the losers went to the runners up stage. The special request came from one of the members saying that they could pick any track they like for the final. Without a doubt, the final pitted three FD3S RX7s named Pxl, *Lynx, and Akina (correct me if I'm wrong) in Hanshin Expressway. Everyone rammed and sped their way to victory, until the victor was decided. I couldn't recall who was driving which, and even who the winner is, but congrats to them anyways! They make a great fight in the final! Special mention also goes to the runners up as they also served a great battle too. Sad that an MVi member didn't make the cut to the final as it is one of the greatest teams out there, but nevertheless, everyone enjoyed the tournament, as much as I and my friend Rena KK do

THE WINNERS AND THE RUNNERS UP IN A PICTURE

The runners up got Timezone vouchers with an accumulated total of IDR 450,000! Among them was a famous face whose ghost I always see when playing at Bintaro Plaza before MT4; Roy Alkaisar, better known as R-Ksr. I was rooting him for the rest of the rounds.

The winners got Timezone vouchers (total of one million), a lump sum of cash (also total of one million), and a trophy for each placer. As Infamous dominated this tournament here, they have secured ALL THE PRIZES! MUHAHAHAHA *evillaugh*. Btw, from left to right are 1st to 3rd placers: Brian Jonathan, Asen, and Brian Julian

So there you have it. A sum of what I've experienced in my first MT tournament. Tried live tweeting feeds in vain, lost in the second round, and being able to commentate the races was a superb experience for me! I just wish that I could repeat this moment albeit at a different place. All we have to do now is to wait for another MT4 tournament to come, but I prefer the tournaments to be held at a reachable place. Please don't force me to make a trip from Sawangan to Mal Kelapa Gading, okay?

~[R]

edit: Rena KK is not Handi, my mistake. -_-