STK Enterprise
STK Enterprise is an official STK track, created by rubberduck and Jean-Manuel Clémencon (samuncle).
History
STK Enterprise was added as an official track to 0.8.1 after being an addon as "In the Spaceship" for some time before already. The track was mainly created by rubberduck, and samuncle made a few changes before it got released as official track.
Description
STK Enterprise is famous for its 90° turns which are still difficult because of sharp walls of a strange shape. Unless directly specified otherwise, in this section all turns are considered to have 90° angle.
The track is mostly suitable for middle karts, and heavy karts are good too if the player makes no mistakes at all (e.g. speedrunning). A normal lap takes about 40-45 seconds, the default laps number is 3.
The starting grid is placed on a rather long straight. Soon after the start 3 giftboxes follow which make the start quite important. Then, after a left turn, the road splits in two parts which complement each other to form a circle. A player needs to be careful while entering this part to not hit the wall while taking the small nitro there.
Two dangerous bananas follow right after another turn (left or right depending on the path taken). Moreover, then goes another right turn with another banana. This section is considered to be one of the most difficult in official tracks. Karts going to this point from two different paths tend to collide and push other karts, and walls are close too. Probably a good strategy is to pick a nitro before the turn, immediately change the kart direction to fit the kart between bananas, and then turn right as soon as it is possible to not hit the wall. Swappers can be efficient there to gain an advantage or to turn a small nitro into a nasty pink gum.
Then there is a straight ending in 3 gifts, and a 180° curve formed by two sharp left turns which have a very short straight with 3 small important nitros in between. You can cut a bit of those turns being in the air for a while unless someone applies a parachute on you.
The road is getting wider for a short time, offering a few more gifts and nitros, but also a banana until the road splits again while doing a right turn. Players now have the choice between two parallel paths (one in front, one behind); or they start on the front path, go through the middle, take a big nitro, and end on the back path.
Two more left turns follow after the paths have merged again. They contain a few bananas in between on the right side so usually being on the left is preferred. Those turns end with a pair of giftboxes and a nitro. The upcoming straight contains a big black zipper ramp which leads players to 2 nitros and a gift. Those are a good target for a swapper, since it is hard to avoid them. Another straight with giftboxes appears between the next right and left turns.
This leads a player into some kind of bigger room. Players can lose or win quite a lot of time in that part of the track, depending on where they go. The best choice in most cases is staying on the left side as much as possible and taking one gift as well as 2 nitros until the road leads to the final straight. Be careful with the last turn as it is pretty easy to hit the wall (especially going from the very left) and to be attacked by a swapper (though it also applies to a giftbox and a double nitro before).
The whole track is located in a black spaceship which makes the background rather boring. It is colored rather dark with a few exceptions.
Overall, STK Enterprise is one of the most difficult existing tracks, due to a lot of 90° turns, nasty corners in the wall disturbing the driving sometimes, difficulty to see where the road goes and some hard-to-avoid placed bananas. However, it is quite popular in online gaming, especially among top players who have a better winning probability (though the start defines how the race goes and can be messy). Newer players often get confused about the route.
