Drifting in TrackMania Nations Forever
What is Drifting ?
For those who don't know, drifting is a driving technique which consists of turning your car sideways to let it slide on the ground.
why drifting in TrackMania Nations Forever ?
Besides being as cool and stylish as it is in Need For Speed or in 2 fast 2 Furious, drifting in Trackmania can give you a slight advantage that shouldn't be underestimated in some bends. And remember that when you play online, people are not always able to break the nadeo time in 5 minutes. That being said , knowing how to drift properly in basic bends will enable you to release the gas on difficult parts of the map. (When you need to avoid pillars for instance)
When to drift?
You can drift almost all the time as there are actually several drifting techniques. However , some situations make drifting comfortable and you should therefore automatically think of using it.
When you have to take a >45° turn, you MUST drift. I know taking bends the normal way , that is to say releasing gas and/or braking BEFORE the turn to make you able to accelerate through the whole corner is tempting , and should be done in 90% of cases but sometimes you'd rather not bother wasting time decreasing your speed.
How to drift?
First of all and this is of capital importance , you MUST rebind the brake key. Inded you will have to press 'GAS' and 'BRAKE' simultaneously. I don't know about you but I find it difficult to press 'UP' and 'DOWN' arrows at the same time. Unfortunately some keyboards won't allow you to press more than two keys simultaneously and your computer will start beeping. I can't press UP , LEFT and SPACE for example, I had to find a key ( 'y' ) that works. Don't ask me why this one works and many others don't , I ain't got no clue but keep looking for one.
Dre would you stop the chit chat now and tell us how to drift ?
Absolutely. This is actually easy to make but difficult to master because it all depends on your speed , on the bend angle and on the position you need to prepare correctly the NEXT turn.
But remember to:
- press DIRECTION, GAS and BRAKE at the exact same time when you're real fast ( first bend in the clip )
- press DIRECTION and GAS a little before pressing BRAKE when you're not fast enough ( second bend in the clip )
- press DIRECTION and GAS a little before pressing BRAKE and try to slide on the small green part of the road called the "Rammstein" when you're as slow as Duke or to give you a nice start ( first bend in the clip )
[yt]qgA32asnlxo[/yt]
How to practice ?
Trackmania Nations Forever implements a great feature that permits you to play against replays as ghosts.
So just download and exctract my 9KB replay in C:\Documents and settings\Your Name\MyDocuments\Trackmania\Tracks\Replays\ , launch the game , click on "edit" in the main menu , then "edit a replay" then select the replay and click on "launch" and finally "play".
Or if you're as lazy as me , just extract it wherever you want and double click on it It will launch the game and a small pop up window will apear , select "play against" and have fun
This one doesn't need to be pinned as more are coming soon and everyone can do some if they find helpful techniques.