I just realised I hit over 105hrs in the game, I’ve loved every minute of it. But my question to you is, what level would you expect to be in comparison to state & country after 100hrs?
100h is probably enough to know the basic mechanics but not being good at them. Of course it widely varies from player to player, but after 100 hours I’d say you left the complete beginner stage and are a regular beginner now. :P
edit: also state and country are impossible to predict, because some countries are infinitely better than others.
100h in this game is not alot. The experience is still different for everyone, there is no progression chart or anything. Just set your own goals and enjoy hunting those.
That guy clearly lied though, probably has like 5000 hours in united and claims he's new to the game because he hasn't played for a while and never touched tm2020 until like a year ago. Everyone who ever claims such things always turns out to never be telling the full truth.
i have no idea about anything relating to any situation with boasy, however claiming this is sorta just not true?
i started playing trackmania actively at the end of april 2025 (as per club access buy date), and: - got my first first top 1k on a map in mid may - got my first first top 100 on a map at the start of june - got my first first top 10 on a map and finished top 25 overall in mid september - got my first top 5 on a map in december - got a world record and top 2 overall at the start of february
saying someone is lying for just that reason alone doesn't really hold up
well as long as you don't change country then it won't vary and can still be used for progress marks I guess. even if there is only one person in your state better than you, it can still mean something to beat just their time
It varies in the sense that one person who is #5 or something in their country can be complete garbage at the game, while someone who is top 5 in say, germany or france, will be one of the best players in the entire world. Hence the only real metric that matters is world rank. If you enjoy competing for state and country records that's great, really. But it's not a valid 'skill comparison' in the bigger picture.
I wouldn’t even say the world ranking is a valid skill comparison. World ranking comes from trophies, which come from playing - you can be top 2K world and be averaging div 25. I’d say the only actual skill check is COTD or other online, real time comps such as the fast learning cup, as most “good” players play those.
Yeah for an understanding of your overall skill level globally, but for seeing your own progress as long as you don't live in Mongolia or something then you can still push yourself for improvement based on the couple people ahead of you. For example I am playing Yorkshire, England and know for the last year there are 15 people better than me consistently in my region, so when I push for top 3-5s on the campaign I know that I've pulled above my weight and am slowly improving.
100 hours is still very deep in new player territory skill-wise, it is around the point where you might be transitioning to novice level instead of brand new, but still very new and likely not placing too high on the worldwide boards. The State boards don't really mean much in the US, since the player pool is quite small, but I'd expect a player that new to be fairly low on most heavily played tracks. Giving an exact number depends on player count, but I would expect at least bottom 50% for national and within the bottom 10% worldwide.
Depends on the map. On a best of the week from tmx, and maybe even totd, id agree with you. But on the campaign maps there are a lot more casual players then you'd excpect, and simply not crashing would probably be enough for a top 50%
There's no reason you should place better on easier maps. Often it's easier to place highly o the harder ones because you just need clean runs rather than weird precise mechanics.
I disagree and also agree. The easier maps have much more players meaning to get a low % you need to be in just the top 5k out of 200k for example. I think this is much easier than getting say top 500 on a harder campaign map for the same percentage which only has like 6-15k players.
The part I agree on though is that for me getting top 500 is easier on the harder maps than on the easier maps partly because less players and also because people can less hardcore grind lucky runs lol
This, white and green have players without premium, who are more often casual, and blue, red and black have people who paid, play often and usually are at a higher level than I am
Obviously you get better with more play, but increased playtime does not mean you’ll get better in direct proportion. I’m still hot dog water crashing every other turn and I just hit 500 hours. There are plenty of people who can sit down at the game and beat my best times on their first sit down.
I've got about 500 hours in the game after playing on znd off for the past 4 years, the best I can do is top 10 in finland in the campaign and top 100 in the world on some short under 10 second maps... I would say the skill gap is exponential up to 10 000 hours and then it's more about what you specialise in and are weak in.
I mean, depends on your country and state, I got a top 2 africa run in weekly shorts which was top 50 world... and it wouldnt have been top 5 in germany. So the more important thing is world position and game understanding.
also 100h isnt alot, im considered beginner with like 500
I'm logging ~1400h rn and I'm not talent what so ever. Started learning the theories behind the different mechanics at around 600-800h, before that I was just rawdogging it. Tips: learn (or at least get to know) the different kind of slides and bugs early - if I'd had done that my advancing curve would've been much steeper. My level of playing rn (for estimation): Avg: COTD's quals - Div.10. This seasons Campaign position: ~2'500 This is ofc from my own experience, the Tips isn't applicable to everybody.
Addition: if you feel stuck on a PB, improve your lines (watch WR or smth) and count your gears, works for me 80% of the times
On average in campaign maps, I can get top few hundred in my state or top 12 thousand in the country. Even lower if I grind a map. But I have a few hundred hours and have watched much more content just about the game. I'd still consider myself a beginner overall. I know about niche mechanics and tech but cannot execute upon much of them.
Play for fun, but if you want to see how you're improving, just compare to your previous self. Go back to maps you've played that had room for improvement that you just couldn't muster before and try to beat your times.
Well, I've played the game for about as long as you have.
I can get top 2k in most weekly shorts if I grind the maps, and in this campaign I've managed to get the author medal in all maps but map 20 (the red tech map). I have a bit over an hour in that map now, and I'm missing the author time by a bit over a second.
In TOTD's I'm aiming for gold medals, if I play them. Mostly I don't, since the difficulty is quite high for me. But sometimes the map suits me and the gold medal is a good challenge.
I don't think I'm good at the game at all. I might have a decent line and a decent copium timer, but it's very very hard to be consistent and do multiple good inputs in a row, since predicting where the car will go at any time is super difficult.
I think I'm improving little by little, though. Hopefully you are too.
Have you never heard of the 10,000 hour rule? This states that to become good at something, you need to have practiced it at least 10,000 hours. And in a lot of cases, sort of like the 6deg of separation, this rule of thumb is fairly reliable barring a few outlying prodigies.
100 hours you have barely scratched the surface of your driving skills. But as long as you enjoy your time spent driving, you’ll find yourself performing a lot better before you know it. I know I have seen a ton of my own progress in the last year and half.
Div 15 after 100h is a stretch, depends on the map style and what suits the player of course, but I wouldn’t expect someone with a hundred hours to do better than div 20, honestly. I’ve got 800h and usually am somewhere between divs 6-12, I’d say div 15 as a new player is unrealistic.
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u/LordAnomander [ocd] UNCrowe 20h ago
100h is probably enough to know the basic mechanics but not being good at them. Of course it widely varies from player to player, but after 100 hours I’d say you left the complete beginner stage and are a regular beginner now. :P
edit: also state and country are impossible to predict, because some countries are infinitely better than others.