Holy crap, the art of AI (the good stuff, neural networks and reinforcement learning and designing to solve a specific goal, not Large Lying Models) is on an absolute tear in the #Trackmania world.
This next sentence will sound a bit mysterious if you're not familiar with the game, but: this thing found an optimal wallbang in order to best a human world record on a test track, and also beat the human WR on Hockalicious.
@timixretroplays yes!!! That reminds me of the following talk I watched a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLN-t3HN22E
The idea of hooking up an AI to an emulator to have it learn the game and optimize it is fascinating to me. That is way more interesting than all the other stuff that AI is marketed for and probably much less wasteful. 😩
I haven't really played since Nations Back in the early 2ks or something. I occasionally watch youtube vids of the game, and of course it causes all sorts of confusion on which version is current, etc.
I recall trying nations free again a few years back and was nagged and locked out of races at times. I'd buy a version that disables that if I could figure out how. As there are so many versions on Steam it's confusing on where to begin.
I'm not looking to be a pro player and chase records. I've never been a huge fan of kacky stuff and trick shots, but I enjoy learning the go fast tricks and interested in learning some of the more modern stuff like speed slides and others.
Is there a definitive package or version I should be looking at? I wanted to take advantage of the steam sale and stock up on Trackmania stuff! Thanks!
@Doom_Cough The game titled just "Trackmania" is the newest and most popular version - Steam shows 2023 release date since that's when it was added to Steam, but it's from 2020. For free you can play the current seasonal campaign (25 maps, changes every 3 months), ranked, and a couple of pre-determined servers. You need to pay 10€/year for most of the content, or 30€/year for club access which includes everything the game has. I'd suggest Club access if you plan on paying at some point.