Iiiii overeacted
In holding out hope, I complained about my Trackmania map getting a bunch of downvotes and my frustration with some of the feedback I got. I was really upset.
WELL. I still think the downvotes were stupid. BUT. The feedback was mostly good. As cranky as I was, I did take the feedback and implement some changes.
I do think a map is sometimes overall better when there is less visual information, when learning the map is required. But I've added things to make the map more intuitive to drive on your first attempt at it, before you've really learned it. These changes don't really make the map overall better. IMO they make it slightly worse, in terms of overall vibe.
(Adding green & red arrows is a typical approach. I use scenery & colored light bars instead of arrows.)
BUT, they do make it better for the competitive Cup Of The Day (COTD) format where you only get 15 minutes to learn the map, and people of all skill levels play.
Still, there are so many maps that make it through withOUT these quality of life features, and I don't understand.
My frustrations with the Map Review process stand. But my intensity does not. And my frustrations with the feedback, well, ... I might still feel them a little, even though I think the feedback was genuinely good.
I also received some additional feedback after my changes ... and then today I made another round of changes. This second round of feedback was regarding the actual driving, and ... well again I was frustrated with the feedback, thinking "You only think it's 'press-forward' (uneventful, easy) because you aren't trying to reduce air time/optimize". Well my thought was ... a little right and a little wrong. They were right that adding more features to the one section in question made it better.
I also made some additional quality-of-life changes. The new QoL changes were based not on feedback but on watching more people play the map, and ... well just seeing that they keep trying to go the wrong way.
The map is a straight line with no real turns ... so I didn't think going the wrong way would really be a problem. Ah well.
Again, I think the map is not necessarily overall better with these QoL changes, but makes it a better fit for the competitive format.
(In one spot, I added a bears as scenery to help direct you toward the right path. More bears is always better, so this I love actually.)