Contest Idea

I just thought of an idea:

What if everyone entering a contest gives a certain amount of points, and the top (couple of) winner(s) get the points (maybe with a little extra)?

isn't that how most tournaments work in the real world?

Then only people who already have some points could enter.

[hyyyper]

^then get your ass to the exchange and rate some tracks

That's a good idea, and will stop total n00bs from joining up! Yaay.

^n00bs can be good nl builders...

^ but they have been known not to be.

^^Case and point, EElover2.

Hey, now, isn't the whole point of this site to encourage people to build better tracks? Sure, rating the tracks from the new builders is kind of a pain in the butt for the contest runners, but that's what teaches the n00bs to stop being n00bs and make better tracks.

^Game, set and match...

True, but this could just be a contest for more experianced builders. I mean, there are tons of open contests where all n00bs from across the globe can join and learn!

[hyyyper]

At least in the tournament, n00bs get kicked out

And the problem I've noticed is total noobs, completely brand new to NL and wws, get rates like something like this:
"There were many many support collision issues as well as major pumping being traversed almost every segment of track. You should work on the radii of your leadouts and ins so the gravitational forces aren't so great and it will be realistically survivable. I also noticed a vast amount of wheelhits due to the sharp banking angles of the curves on many points of this coaster. Do better next time."
Yes, that's over-exaggerating(sp?), but it's an example. Noobs have no idea what the chuff ANY of that means; therefore, they cannot improve.

IE: Look at brandyns rate on "My First RollerCoaster". Perfect example.

^which is why I wrote rates like this: a pain in the butt, yes, but I'd like to think that it helped the builder.

"This track was very lackluster. The pacing was absolutely crawling, and the technical aspects were slightly lacking as well. Also, the track was very straightforward in layout. It was just an overall below average ride. It needed a lot more planning and tweaking. Try to study some more, and I hope you will try again in the future.

Technical:
From the banking transition style, I'm guessing that you are somewhat new to NL, so I'll try to be as informative as possible. The banking transition style seemed more like an arrow coaster than a B&M. There was no heartlining, and there were several places where straight pieces of track were banked. The way you did it was by banking the track before the coaster entered the turn, and letting it level out after the turn was already over. If you look at on-ride videos of coasters, this is not how they bank. Real coasters increase their banking as the radius of the turn tightens, and the banking does not begin until the track begins to turn. The problem with the way you did it is that there were hanging lateral g?????????s on straight pieces of track at the end of turns, and the g?????????s shifted very rapidly from one side to the other coming in to the turns. Ideally, your lateral g?????????s should be as close to zero as possible throughout the course. In addition to the shaping problem, there were quite a few pumps and bumps all throughout the ride. Also, There was an undercarriage support hit at the ride?????????s beginning, but it was with the contest template (which is not a real support), so I'm ignoring it. A real issue????????? you need to check your g forces not just in front, but also in the back. There was a g spike of -1.7 on the second hill, and -2.0 near the midcourse brake run. Those would hurt. E-stop passed, tunnel test was fine, stacking was minimal, and the ride capacity was good. So, overall, not horrible but still needs a lot of work. Technical is not really what hurt you.

Adrenaline:
This is where you really lost a lot of points. The end of the coaster just felt dead. The first drop was very good, and the big air hill was fine also. The speed through the first turn was a little slow, about 20, and the double helix was just a touch slow. The next few elements, however, were great. There was good airtime, a nice sensation of speed, and I liked the turn after the MCBR very much. But then, there was the return trip to the station????????? it stunk. The last 3 hills had no airtime, positive g?????????s of only 1.5, and it felt like the coaster was crawling. The speed was awful. Next time, try to either conserve more speed for the end, or make the hills tighter for better sensation of speed. An excellent coaster saves some of the best stuff for last, and leaves the guests pumped full of adrenaline. This coaster started thrilling, but I wanted off when it came into the last run of hills. More speed!

Originality:
There were no original elements, and the layout was very straightforward B&M style, so the key here is the ride?????????s pacing. Unfortunately, your pacing was really flat. So with no original elements, a standard layout, and flat pacing, you can imagine that this score is very low. Your saving grace is that you made a custom station. That, combined with the modest custom support work, gave you a bit extra.

Technical: 4.0 Adrenaline: 3.5 Originality: 3.5 Overall: 3.67 Result: 27th"