New Guy Online Help Tutorial

MTM2 may be entering its 11th year of existence, but it is still the most popular Monster Truck simulation out there what with a full dragging community with dedicated realistic truck and track makers to keep the game alive. But what really keeps this game kicking is its online community. Because all of the other tutorials here are about dragging, I will NOT include the circuit community into this tutorial.

What You Need:
The FULL Version of MTM2 (I will not provide a link for this, find it yourself.)
A knowhow of how to put trucks and tracks into the game
A Good Version of AOL Instant Messenger
A Good Attitude

Getting Started

First off, get over to http://www.mtm2draggers.net and register there. This is the gateway site to the entire dragging community. Now go make a post in the General MTM Talk section introducing yourself. This will help people get to know you before you start attempting online racing.

Now, be sure you have MTM2 and you know how to put trucks and tracks into the game. Also, make sure you have gotten the patch and fixmore4.pod. Now, you need to race in a small little fun run first to get acquainted with the game and some of the people that race it. A fun run is a race that is not sponsored by a league, and is just for fun, not for any kind of points or bragging rights. How do you get in on these? That's why you post on Draggers so people know you're new and know you want to race online. This is where you have to make sure you have AIM. You need this so you can contact other draggers and get into the AIM Chat Rooms so you can race. People that feel like running a fun run will need to contact you on AIM so you can participate and get some experience before you attempt running in a full blown league.

Your First Race

Congrats! You just got invited to your first fun run. I'm assuming at this point that you're in the chat room. Now, the host of the fun run will decide on a track for the race. You then need to go to http://www.mtm2.com and click on tracks and type in the name of the track they said. You know how to put it into the game, I'm assuming by now, so go ahead and POD it up. Also, make sure you have a truck ready as well as the stock trucks look like poop compared to some other good trucks out there. Now, in your pod list, make sure fixmore4.pod is listed AT THE TOP of the list or else it will not work. Make sure all of the stock PODs are mounted, but you can get rid of the stock tracks. The only required PODs for MTM2 to run are:

startup.pod
music.pod
sound.pod
truck2.pod
cockpit.pod
ui.pod

Now, POD up the track and your truck and again make sure fixmore4.pod is at the top of your list and get ready to race.

Sometime around now, the host will give out the IP for you to join. Select and copy that IP as you'll need it. Open up MTM2 and go to the multiplayer tab. Click Connect and click Join... then click Internet TCP/IP Connection for DirectPlay. Paste the IP into the box, click OK. The game should come up in the bottom box. Click that and click OK. You should now be into the game and 1 step closer to being on the track! When you get in, everyone will be in Bear Foot, or so it seems. Actually, you do not have their truck podded because you don't need their truck podded. This in turn makes MTM2 show their truck as stock Bear Foot. Don't worry about that.

Now, I'm sure some people in the game have their Skill Level at Rookie and their Latency may say Unknown. This isn't a problem, all you have to do is say "Everyone please reclick." Reclicking means to go back to Driver Check-in and move your skill level up and down a few times until it's back to professional. You also need to do the same to your truck and move it up and down a few times and back to your truck. I'm sure someone will need you to do that as well. Now, we need to make sure your options are right. Go up to the top and click options>game... go down and make sure Show Chat Messages has a checkmark next to it. Now make sure chat messages time, in that box, says 1. Make sure brake and throttle are set to None. Graphics, Sound, and Controls are up to you. Everything should be good to go, so now click Ready and go into the game.

When you get in, go straight to the pits and wait for orders. Qualifying should be first, so wait for the host to call out the first qualifier. Press N to show names on the trucks and then press K to switch to the truck with the name of the person called. Don't play around in the pits while things are going, and most importantly, DO NOT TALK while someone is qualifying or racing. When someone says your name, you're up. Go out, line up, and press T to bring up the chat window. Type "Ready" in the box and hit enter. When the person who's timing says "Go", tear off and do your pass the best you can. When you finish, go back to the pits and wait. When it's time for racing, do the same. Go out there, line up, and wait for the other guy to say Ready first. Then you say Ready and wait on the host. When the host says Go, try to beat the other guy. You're new so don't expect to win anything at first. No matter how much you play offline, you aren't that good yet. Accept your defeats and just simply say "Good Race" if you win or lose.

Go back to the pits and wait for your next race if you won, or just sit there if you lost. When it's time for freestyle, it's the same deal. Go out, say ready, and do your freestyle run. When you finish, return to the pits and wait for the end of the fun run.

Having a Good Attitude

Like I said earlier, you're new. You're going to lose for a while. It takes experience to compete with the best. All you can do is take it without complaining. It will be hard at first, but the bigger of an attitude and the bigger of an ego you get, the quicker everyone will hate you. The more people hate you, the less you'll be racing and the more you'll be made fun of. So what I can suggest is just be quiet, have fun, and do your best. Just find some style of racing and freestyle that works for you, stick with it, and practice. You'll get there eventually.

Entering a League

There are many leagues out there, some more prominent than others. If you want to race one that's a little more on-level and less of the big veterans race, try out Monsters of the New Year. Go to Draggers, go to the section, and post your sign-up info. You can join whatever league you want. For these leagues, they are extremely competitive and ARE for points. Fight hard to win, but again, keep your head on your shoulders and don't let it inflate if you start doing good. Keep a good attitude as always and enjoy yourself most of all. Try to never make a league race your first race unless you are completely sure you won't screw up. Leagues like things to go as smoothly as possible and they will probably get mad if some new guy comes in and disrupts processes.

This is all the information you need to start your online racing career for MTM2. Remember, it's a game. Enjoy yourself no matter how much you lose. Someday, you'll be a winner, and until then, strive to reach that point.