Jet Moto - Strategy Guide (Page 05)
Below are the cheat codes, hints and help for Jet Moto - Strategy Guide (Page 05).
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10.6.4 RACING LINE
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The second suicide course in the game is presented as an Amateur track, though
with all of the obstacles, it's actually more difficult than Hammerhead.
It can be difficult to pick a path through the swamp. Remember that Turn 1
goes slightly left, then Turn 2 is a sharp right. Stay near the right side of
the track.
Do not hit the sides of the covered bridge. This will almost certainly knock
you from your bike.
It seems easier to approach Turn 3 (the first suicide turn) from the left side.
The path of least resistance seems a bit easier to pick out from this
direction. Go straight for a short distance from the middle of the bridge and
remember that the track now turns sharply to the left.
Stay in the center of the mud trail.
Hit the ramp on the right side of the track at the end of the straightaway,
then grapple around the turn and try to land your maneuver. You may even get
some applause.
Stay in the center of the mud trail to the finish, unless you feel that you
might hit oncoming traffic (a real danger through this part of the track). In
that case, take to the ramps and jump everybody.
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10.6.5 TURBOS
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start
covered bridge after suicide turn
just before mud trail
* once more on mud trail
after second suicide turn
This might be a track where turboing at the start can be tricky, especially if
you have a bike that doesn't want to avoid the trees. Plus, you've got that
tight Turn 2 to contend with and too much excess speed can end up making you
miss the bridge.
You'll want to pick up some speed after the first suicide turn and the track is
forgiving enough on the way back to allow the use of a turbo here.
The mud trail is perfect for turbos. The slight bumps are evened out by high
speeds and if you're heading straight on into the pack, turboing the jumps will
get you far above everybody's heads.
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10.6.6 COMPETITION
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Top CPU finisher: 1.50-1.52
Field: 25-35 seconds
Best CPU racer: Wild Ride
The times that the computer puts up for this track are almost laughable. But
it can be tricky to avoid all of the obstacles. It can also be tricky to avoid
head-on collisions with other racers, especially considering how small and
narrow the track is. At least on Hammerhead you could get out of everybody
else's way; here is a track that's only slightly longer but is much more
confined.
This is the reason that the field is spread apart in time so much. It can be
easy for the computer to get hung up on trees and other racers. Don't let the
same happen to you. That difficulty in avoiding others is the primary reason
that I consider this track to be the most difficult of the three suicide
courses. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't finish on the podium, however.
Be especially careful when you reach the end of the race. Many frustrating
times I've been leading this race, if only by a few seconds, when I approach
the end. Due to the unnaturally long spread from first to last, though, there
are racers streaming onto the back half of the track as the leader is
finishing. Because of this, it's very easy to run head-on into one of these
back markers; in fact, I think they're gunning for you. Getting knocked from
your bike two seconds from the end is a quick way to go from placing first to
placing fifth. So be careful.
Half the time over ten recorded seasons the computer won on this track.
Technician took three of those victories and Wild Ride took two. I list Wild
Ride as the best on this track because she's more likely to finish first or
second, while Technician will sometimes finish off the podium (especially if
you go gunning for him). The computer is relatively consistent on this track,
though, and here's a rundown of a typical first-column finishing order:
Wild Ride, Technician, Miko, Quick Jessie, Tetsujin, Rhino, Dakota
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10.6.7 SIMULATED SEASON
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10.6.7.1 RESULTS
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Pos. Rider Time Spills
---- ------------ ------ ------
1. Gunner 1.38.3 1
2. Dakota 1.41.4 1
3. Stone 1.42.3 1
4. Wild Ride 1.42.7 2
5. Tetsujin 1.43.6 2
6. Shannara 1.44.2 1
7. Chien 1.45.3 2
8. Miko 1.45.8 1
9. Irons 1.46.2 2
10. Quick Jessie 1.48.2 3
11. Mace 1.48.4 2
12. Arroyo 1.49.8 2
13. Harris 1.50.7 2
14. Blackjack 1.50.9 1
15. Masala 1.51.4 3
16. Rhino 1.51.6 4
17. Bomber 1.52.6 2
18. Shirow 1.53.1 3
19. The Max 1.54.8 3
20. Technician 1.55.5 3
Average number of spills: 2.05
The first point to cover on this track is the number of spills. As you can
see, every racer averaged two spills. Even though this is the second-shortest
track in the game, it turned out a higher number of spills than any other.
Despite that, I only rate this track as "moderate" in technical difficulty.
Usually when you get thrown from your bike here, the frustration isn't with the
track so much as it is with yourself. You feel like you saw that coming and
you should have been able to compensate for it. You feel like the "perfect
race" is possible on this track.
However, I didn't manage a perfect race on any of my twenty attempts to race
this track. That's right: None of the riders made it through the track without
getting tossed at least once. This makes one think that it should be possible
to drive those times quite a bit lower, yet I've never succeeded in doing so.
Most of the discrepancies between two riders that have identical bikes come in
the number of times they spilled. For instance, Gunner finished first with one
spill, but Wild Ride finished fourth with two. Likewise, Dakota took second
with one, but Chien had two and so finished seventh.
Light bikes appear to have a slight advantage, mainly due to their better
handling, but heavy bikes still have a chance. After all, Stone managed to
take third place. Then again, he does have the best heavy bike of the four, so
that may have had something to do with it.
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10.6.7.2 RIDER STANDINGS
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Championship Rally
-------------------- -------------------------
2 1 Shannara [1] 75 2 1 Irons 15.02.9
1 2 Masala [2] 70 1 2 Masala [2] - 0.1
3 3 Irons 68 4 3 Wild Ride [1] - 3.8
4 4 Wild Ride[1] 66 7 4 Gunner [1] - 5.3
8 5 Gunner [1] 61 5 5 Shannara [1] - 8.4
6 6 Arroyo [1] 55 6 6 Miko -12.2
5 7 Rhino 52 3 7 Rhino -12.6
11 8 Dakota 51 10 8 Dakota -20.5
7 9 Miko 45 8 9 Arroyo [1] -23.7
12 10 Chien 39 11 10 Chien -25.5
15 11 Stone 37 9 11 Harris -27.3
9 12 Harris 36 13 12 Stone -27.4
13 13 Mace 34 12 13 Blackjack -33.0
9 14 Bomber 33 15 14 Mace -34.8
14 15 Blackjack 29 14 15 Shirow -39.0
19 16 Tetsujin 23 16 16 Bomber -40.5
16 17 Shirow 20 19 17 Tetsujin -43.9
17 18 The Max 17 18 18 Quick Jessie -45.1
20 Quick Jessie 17 17 19 The Max -46.2
18 20 Technician 14 20 20 Technician -59.6
After being unseated last race, Shannara retakes the points lead with a sixth
place finish on the second suicide course of the season. Masala ran into a bit
of trouble and finished up fifteenth, dropping him back into second place and
five points behind the leader. The cushion that he enjoyed after last race has
disintegrated.
Irons continues to impress, holding on to her third position and creeping up to
within two points of Masala. Wild Ride remains consistent, finishing fourth
here and holding onto fourth place. The winner of this track, Gunner (who
rides a bike identical to Wild Ride's), starts to show his stuff and moves into
the top five.
Trouble continues to befall the racers that were expected to do well this
season. Technician had a terrible race and fell to last position. The Max
(riding an identical bike) didn't do much better. Tetsujin and Quick Jessie
did fairly well on this track, but nobody expected them to fall in the bottom
five, either.
Due to Masala's poor performance here, the rally field has tightened up
considerably. The spread of the field (not including Technician) has decreased
for the first time since Hammerhead. More importantly, the spread among the
top racers has considerably lessened.
After Blackwater Falls, Masala held a comfortable 5.1-second lead (the largest
of the season) over second place, with over a twelve-second gap back to third.
Now, Masala has lost his top position to the determined Irons, though only by
the smallest of margins--one tenth of a second. And the spread from first to
third in the last race is nearly the same as the spread from first to seventh
here, with the top five being separated by less than ten seconds.
Irons continues to prove that winning races, while rewarding, is not the most
important standard when it comes to performing well in a season. Despite the
fact that she hasn't been a race winner this season, Irons holds third place in
the points, only seven back, and leads the rally by 0.1 seconds.
We have finished with the "easy" part of the season. Moving on to the alpine
tracks, there is potential for somebody to break this season wide open.
Nothing has been decided yet.
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10.6.7.3 TEAM STANDINGS
-----------------------
Championship Rally
-------------------- ------------------------
1 1 Mountain Dew 306 1 1 Mountain Dew 75.59.4
2 2 Butterfinger 245 2 2 Butterfinger -1.06.8 [-33.5]
3 3 K2 170 3 3 K2 -1.54.5 [-17.0]
4 4 Axiom 121 4 4 Axiom -2.36.2 [-25.1]
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10.7 WILLPOWER
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10.7.1 COURSE STATISTICS
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Top 5 Times
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1. 4.43.4 Wild Ride
2. 4.43.7 Wild Ride
3. 4.44.2 Gunner
4. 4.47.3 Chien
5. 4.47.6 Technician
4.47.6 Masala
Length - very long
Technical Difficulty - moderate
AI Difficulty - hard
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10.7.2 DESCRIPTION
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Although this is a race, speed is not necessarily your friend. Leading the
pack has sent many racers flying into a wall or off a cliff.
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10.7.3 LAYOUT
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Immediately following the start is a very steep downhill run followed by a jump
in the track {Jump 1). Following the jump is a figure-eight sequence, three
turns in gradual succession. After Turn 3 is another very steep drop, this
time with a wall blocking your path. You must go under the wall. This wall is
marked by a sign that says "SLOW".
After the SLOW sign and checkpoint 2, the track twists and flows up and down,
generally downward. Jump 2 leads you into Turn 6, a banked 180º right,
followed by Jump 3. A very steep uphill climb, broken up by a couple of jumps,
awaits you next. You'll continue uphill under a tunnel until the track
switches back on itself.
Turn 11 is a grapple-assisted right. Checkpoint 8 is midway between Turns 11
and 12. Turn 12 is a grapple-assisted left. There is no edge to the track for
the last couple of turns. Turn 14 is a 90º right leading uphill to the finish.
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10.7.4 RACING LINE
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The nature of the game changes right here. For the last four tracks in the
game, there is another danger added--falling off the track. If you happen to
fall off the edge, your race is not over. You will be restored to the track at
the last checkpoint you passed.
Jump 1 shouldn't cause you any trouble unless you've managed to lose speed by
bumping into people.
FIGURE 8 (TURNS 1-3)
This section can be a bit tricky due to the fact that you're heading
downhill at a pretty steep grade.
At the end of Turn 1, you'll go under checkpoint 1. Immediately after this
you flow into Turn 2, which heads to the right. It's very easy to slam into
the wall or into other racers at the transition from Turn 1 to Turn 2. Because
of the grade of the track at this point, you'll likely get thrown, even if
you're riding a heavy bike.
From Turn 2 into Turn 3 is one of the most dangerous spots in the game. A
couple of factors make this transition area tough. For one thing, you've got
the steep gradient. A bigger problem, though, is your competition. It's very
easy to bump into somebody ahead of you and lift up into the air. Since the
railing is almost nonexistent here, that's an excellent way to go off the
track.
In general, it's best to flutter (tap) your accelerator through here. Most
of the bikes can keep from bouncing around on the track (and off) by keeping
your speed around eighty, which isn't easy because of the slope.
SLOW
At the end of the figure-eight turn is a steep drop. You'll know you're
here when you see the big caution sign that says "slow" in front of you.
The first time you see this you're likely to dismiss it as an unnecessary
warning. Of course, if you do this, you will hit the wall. It's as simple as
that.
The fact is that you MUST slow down to successfully pass this section,
especially since everybody else is. Again, if you bump into somebody in front
of you, you're likely to lift into the air and smash into the wall. You don't
want to do this.
The only successful way to get through here is to stand on the brake. The
degree to which you brake can be lessened if you roll your bike onto its side,
or even totally upside down, to keep from clotheslining yourself.
After Turn 4, a left, you'll head back uphill. At the top of this hill is the
third checkpoint and Turn 5, a right. Since you're going uphill, the crest has
a tendency to become a ramp. The track moves off to the right, making it
relatively easy to go off-track here. A reliable method of keeping your speed
is to hug the side and then use your shoulder buttons to keep your bike in
contact with the track.
Stay away from other riders when you approach the next jumps, as it's easy to
bump into one of them and plummet into the abyss.
After the 180º Turn 6, the track starts heading steeply uphill. To keep your
speed, stay along the inside of the track, along the right wall, and utilize
your shoulder buttons to keep your bike in contact with the track. This will
help you keep your speed over the bumps in the track, and by staying to the
right you will stay on the track.
TURNS 11 & 12
After the long uphill climb and tunnel, you have a couple of very tight
turns. They're switchbacks, really. These really aren't hard to take.
Grapple ability is a must here, however.
As you come up the hill toward Turn 11, you'll likely become airborne. At
this point, you'll need your grapple and R1 to whip around the corner in the
air. Make sure you don't release your grapple too late or you'll go off the
right edge of the track, possibly falling and losing a lot of time.
Turn 12 is a little bit tougher, a tight left with less air time and less
space to maneuver. You may need the grapple and both L1 and L2 to get around
this one, unless you have someone like Chien or Dakota.
Turn 13 is a gentle right. The catch is that there is no edge and the track is
quite narrow. Ease off the acceleration a little bit, if you need to, to make
sure you stay on the track. Remember, the last checkpoint you passed was after
Turn 11, some ten seconds back. Especially with the heavy bikes is it a good
idea to slow down.
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10.7.5 TURBOS
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* start [1]
after SLOW
* before Jump 3 [2]
around Turn 6
after Turn 7
* through Turn 14 [3]
Believe it or not, turboing at the start is a good idea. All of the bikes have
enough oomph to get them over the first jump. If you get bumped, which is
unlikely, the engine is forgiving at this point. You'll almost always make the
jump, even if it seems like you won't.
The "Slow" sign obviously slows you down, so using a turbo here is a good idea.
Since you're going downhill, the turbo's effect is magnified, so be careful
coming up the next hill, toward Turn 5, as it's easy to go off the track if
you're going too fast.
Using a turbo around the hairpin seems effective, and burning another one as
you go up the steep uphill climb shortly thereafter is also a good idea. If
you've even tried to climb that hill without any turbos, it's time-consuming.
It's pretty worthless to burn a turbo at the start of the second and third
laps, so that leaves you with one extra for each of those. On the second lap,
turboing into Turn 6 gives you a nice head of speed; on the third lap, holding
onto your turbo for the end works well since you can go fast up the final hill
and even slam into the checkpoint sign. Don't worry. The race is over.
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10.7.6 COMPETITION
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Top CPU finisher: 4.47-4.57
Field: 25-40 seconds
Best CPU racer: Wild Ride
This track gives you a taste of the bad things that can happen from here on out
to those who run into fellow racers at bad times. For instance, bump another
rider on the figure-eight and you'll probably go off the track; bump someone
climbing up the hill after the hairpin and you're going to lose a lot of speed,
speed that you won't be able to regain unless you have a turbo.
The wide variance for the time of the best finisher is explained this way: The
high end will be the typical uncontested finishing time, whereas the computer
can push it toward the low time if you're there egging them on.
This is the second track where the computer won every time in ten recorded
seasons. Wild Ride took five of those victories; Technician won four. The
other win went to Chien, who was obviously hot stuff on that race. Following
is a typical top seven:
Wild Ride, Technician, Dakota, Miko, Quick Jessie, The Max, Chien
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10.7.7 SIMULATED SEASON
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10.7.7.1 RESULTS
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Pos. Rider Time Spills Falls
---- ------------ ------ ------ -----
1. Technician 4.47.6 3 0
2. Chien 4.48.3 1 0
3. Quick Jessie 4.48.7 0 0
4. The Max 4.48.9 2 0
5. Rhino 4.49.1 1 0
6. Harris 4.49.7 1 0
7. Shannara 4.50.4 0 0
8. Masala 4.51.0 0 0
9. Tetsujin 4.51.1 1 0
10. Dakota 4.51.4 0 0
11. Wild Ride 4.55.4 2 0
12. Mace 4.57.2 1 0
13. Miko 4.57.8 0 1
14. Gunner 5.00.4 7 0
15. Shirow 5.02.0 2 0
16. Arroyo 5.06.8 3 0
17. Irons 5.16.7 3 1
18. Stone 5.19.2 7 1
19. Bomber 5.21.5 2 2
20. Blackjack 5.25.0 3 2
Average number of spills: 1.95
Average number of falls : 0.35
Not a track for a heavy bike. The bottom three are all heavy and they ended up
there by spilling and falling repeatedly; only Mace, with a nearly perfect
race, managed to finish decently. Obviously falls hurt worse than spills, as
the racers with two falls finished in the last two spots.
Interestingly, some of the racers that have previously been having problems did
well here. Technician and The Max, who are the two worst in the game based on
the first six races, both finished in the top four. Quick Jessie and Tetsujin,
two other bad racers, finished within four seconds of the lead.
Oddly, though, Wild Ride and Gunner, who have been doing well, finished out of
the top ten. Gunner even managed to spill seven times.
Take a look at the times of the top ten. A spread of only 3.8 seconds covers
first to tenth; more than that spans tenth to eleventh. And after such a small
spread for the top ten, the bottom ten elongate the times so badly that
Willpower has the largest spread from first to last of any of the seven tracks
raced so far.
The problem that the bottom ten had was mainly due to spills and falls. The
top ten averaged 0.9 spills per racer; the bottom ten averaged 3.0 per racer.
However, spills aren't the only problem afflicting these bikes; after all,
Technician spilled three times and still won.
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10.7.7.2 RIDER STANDINGS
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Championship Rally
--------------------- --------------------------
1 1 Shannara [1] 85 2 1 Masala [2] 19.54.0
2 2 Masala [2] 78 5 2 Shannara [1] - 7.7
4 3 Wild Ride [1] 71 3 3 Wild Ride [1] - 8.1
3 4 Irons 67 7 4 Rhino - 10.4
5 5 Gunner [1] 63 4 5 Gunner [1] - 14.4
7 Rhino 63 6 6 Miko - 18.7
10 7 Chien 59 8 7 Dakota - 20.6
8 8 Dakota 57 10 8 Chien - 22.5
6 9 Arroyo [1] 55 1 9 Irons - 25.4
9 10 Miko 48 11 10 Harris - 25.7
12 11 Harris 46 9 11 Arroyo [1] - 39.2
20 12 Technician[1] 39 14 12 Mace - 40.7
13 13 Mace 38 18 13 Quick Jessie - 42.5
11 14 Stone 37 17 14 Tetsujin - 43.7
14 15 Bomber 33 19 15 The Max - 43.8
18 Quick Jessie 33 15 16 Shirow - 49.7
16 17 Tetsujin 30 20 17 Technician[1] - 54.7
18 The Max 30 12 18 Stone - 55.3
15 19 Blackjack 29 13 19 Blackjack -1.06.9
17 20 Shirow 21 16 20 Bomber -1.10.9
Holding on to the lead in the points for the second race in a row, and the
sixth out of seven, Shannara increases her lead to seven points, though she is
stretching it even further over positions further back. In the wake of a rare
bad race from Irons, Wild Ride picks up third position.
The value of a race win can be seen in the unlikely victory of Technician, who
has been bottom feeding all season. His win on Willpower rockets him up eight
positions, into twelfth.
Over in the rally, Masala has regained his lead with an impressive margin over
the other top runners. In fact, his 7.7-second cushion over Shannara is the
largest of the season. After the last race the top seven were within thirteen
seconds of the lead; now only the top four are.
Irons' poor performance here hurts her ranking in the rally far more than it
did in the points. She only lost one position in the points, but she has
fallen twenty-five seconds back in the rally. One would think that would
effectively eliminate her from contention, but we'll see.
Despite Technician's win, he only managed to pick up about five seconds on the
rally lead along with his three positions. And Blackjack and Bomber become the
first racers to fall back of the rally lead by over a minute.
Such is the way things go when falling off the track becomes a danger. Is this
a portent of things to come? If so, Ice Crusher has the potential to level a
boom on the playing field.
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10.7.7.3 TEAM STANDINGS
-----------------------
Championship Rally
-------------------- -------------------------
1 1 Mountain Dew 329 1 1 Mountain Dew 100.51.1
2 2 Butterfinger 268 3 2 K2 -1.18.8 [+35.7]
3 3 K2 231 2 3 Butterfinger -1.20.7 [-13.9]
4 4 Axiom 154 4 4 Axiom -3.09.4 [-33.2]
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10.8 ICE CRUSHER
-----------------
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10.8.1 COURSE STATISTICS
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Top 5 Times
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1. 3.38.2 Wild Ride
2. 3.38.8 Gunner
3. 3.40.9 Wild Ride
4. 3.42.2 The Max
5. 3.44.6 Wild Ride
Length - long
Technical Difficulty - very hard
AI Difficulty - moderate
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10.8.2 DESCRIPTION
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Ice Crusher is carved out of a fragmented glacier. It's a test of guts: how
fast will you go, how close to the edge will you run? Make sure to keep your
nose up!
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10.8.3 LAYOUT
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Following the start and a break in the track is a steep uphill climb. After
two turns you go along the first straight, through a tunnel and into Turn 3 on
the other side, a right. At checkpoint 4, the track splits in two. The
general tendency of the track is a leftward curve, which we'll call Turn 4;
this turn is half to two-thirds of the course. The Track Splits become three
around checkpoint 8 and finally join up for good at checkpoint 9, where the
track turns sharply upward to the finish.
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10.8.4 RACING LINE
------------------
The best piece of advice for this track is contained on the loading screen:
Keep your nose up. Since the surface of the track is really just a series of
blocks of ice, the edges have a tendency to catch your bike and throw you. By
keeping your nose up, you avoid this problem (mostly).
Going around Turn 1 at the top of the initial climb, try to cut the corner a
little bit to keep your speed up.
When the track splits, stay left.
In the sharpest part of the turn, around checkpoint 6, there'll be a noticeably
raised ice block that produces a large lip on the left side of the track.
Moving to the right side of the track will help, but if you're riding a bike
with lower lift, be extra sure to pull your nose up here.
When approaching the final checkpoint (9), watch that you don't crash into the
sign, especially if you happen to be riding the left side of the track.
Watch out for glitches on this track. Sometimes you'll fall into an extremely
narrow space between two ice blocks and get "stuck." Sometimes they'll let you
fall and there's not much problem. Other times, you'll retain control of your
bike and have to figure out how to climb a vertical space. In rare instances,
they'll let you fall, then put you back into the exact same situation, causing
you to get stuck over and over again. Any of these will ruin your times and
there's no way to know when or if it will happen.
There really isn't much else I can say, since the challenge that this track
presents is mainly from two things: the competition and the lips of the ice
blocks. Otherwise, it's just a series of gentle curves with a couple of steep
climbs thrown in. Keep your nose up!
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10.8.5 TURBOS
-------------
* start
after Turn 2
after checkpoint 4
after checkpoint 7
* after checkpoint 9
* straight to finish
It's tricky to know when it's best to turbo here. There are three areas where
it's definitely a good idea, though.
Turn 2 is the second lefthander before the tunnel. This is also on one of only
two flat straights on the course. Turbo on this straight. The other flat
straight is after checkpoint 7, when the track splits are starting to converge
again. You'll come around a sharper left and be able to see the next
checkpoint (8) ahead of you. Turbo here. It's a good spot.
The third good area to turbo is after crossing the fourth checkpoint (and
staying left). Turbo off the level block of ice over the drop. If you don't
you'll have to land on at least two or three more blocks before hitting the
bottom, losing speed every time.
The fourth turbo presents a problem. Honestly, it's not a very good idea to
turbo at the start here; you'll notice that nobody in the computer pack does.
Since they don't, you stand an excellent chance of colliding with one of them
and falling through one of the two gaps in the track. This will obviously lose
you a lot of time.
It's better to use your fourth turbo at the end. Here you have three good
options: first, you can activate the turbo immediately after the ninth
checkpoint and use the extra speed to climb; second, you can turbo near the top
of the incline and ramp off the top, covering most of the distance on the final
straight in the air; third, you can turbo after the climb, once you've landed
on the flat spot.
Whichever of the above three methods you choose, you won't be able to make the
last leg faster than the computer. They kind of cheat here, I think.
------------------
10.8.6 COMPETITION
------------------
Top CPU finisher: 3.50-3.54
Field: 40-50 seconds
Best CPU racer: The Max
Like all of the alpine tracks, it's flat-out dangerous to run into another
rider on this course. There are several spots where doing so is likely to
cause one or both of you to fall. Some of these spots are: the initial
incline, Turn 3, near checkpoint 4, around checkpoints 5-7, near checkpoint 9,
and the final incline. The track presents enough problems; just try to avoid
the other riders.
The wide spread of the field is due to the fact that some of the computer
racers have great trouble with this track, too. It can be extremely satisfying
to hear the plaintive scream of one of your competitors as they plummet off the
side of the track, especially if you are the cause of the fall.
In actuality, the above-quoted spread is generally from first to eighteenth or
nineteenth. Usually one, and sometimes as many as two or three, computer
racers will run into some kind of serious problem. Sometimes it's just falling
off the track repeatedly, which gets them times of 60-70 seconds back of the
leader. But sometimes I think that they either miss a checkpoint or get
"stuck" (see section 10.8.4 above). In these instances, it's not uncommon to
see the rider in twentieth end up with a time of seven minutes or more; I've
even seen eleven minutes.
In ten recorded seasons, the computer won on this track nine times. The Max
took three, Dakota took three, Wild Ride had two, and Gunner had one. Usually,
these front runners are very close together timewise, as well. It's something
to watch out for. A typical top four is as follows:
The Max, Wild Ride, Dakota, Technician
-----------------------
10.8.7 SIMULATED SEASON
-----------------------
----------------
10.8.7.1 RESULTS
----------------
Pos. Rider Time Spills Falls
---- ------------ ------ ------ -----
1. Gunner 3.38.8 0 0
2. Wild Ride 3.40.9 0 0
3. The Max 3.42.2 1 0
4. Rhino 3.45.7 1 0
5. Shannara 3.47.1 0 1
6. Chien 3.49.0 1 0
7. Mace 3.50.0 0 0
8. Dakota 3.50.5 0 1
9. Bomber 3.51.6 2 1
10. Masala 3.52.8 1 0
11. Harris 3.55.2 1 2
12. Quick Jessie 3.56.2 1 1
13. Arroyo 3.56.9 0 1
14. Tetsujin 4.01.8 1 2
15. Miko 4.08.2 0 1
16. Blackjack 4.12.4 2 5
17. Shirow 4.15.2 1 2
18. Technician 4.17.6 2 4
19. Stone 4.18.3 0 4
20. Irons 4.29.6 3 3
Average number of spills: 0.85
Average number of falls : 1.40
In general, the clear key to this track is lift. Two out of the three perfect
races were run by the top two, Gunner and Wild Ride, both of whom have lift
ratings of ten. Maneuverability and lift helped out Chien and Dakota (sixth
and eighth, respectively), while mass and pure speed was essential for the Mace
and Bomber (seventh and ninth).
In actuality, this track can go smoothly. It is fairly wide in many spots and
the curves are fairly gentle and visible from a distance. But if things start
going wrong, it's hard to make things start going better. This results in some
disparate times for riders on identical bikes. Mace finished seventh while
Blackjack took sixteenth. The Max finished third and Technician struggled in
eighteenth. Masala was tenth; Irons, twentieth.
The number of spills is relatively low on this track. Much of this is likely
because the number of falls is so high. And the falls are the killer. The top
ten averaged 0.3 falls per rider; the bottom ten averaged 2.4. The simple fact
is that falls take up so much more time. Sometimes you can be off the track
for three or four seconds before the game catches you. Then you have to make
up as much as fifteen seconds that you lost on the track.
The difficulty of this track is obvious from the spread. Even leaving Irons
time out of the equation, there's a larger spread here than on any other track
(a tenth of a second more than Willpower). And, unlike other tracks, there
aren't really any tight groupings of racers; instead, there are sizable gaps
back from almost every place.
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10.8.7.2 RIDER STANDINGS
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