Playerproblem

[ChillyBilli]

I think this thread will only help in some way if we get everything sorted in a way. I will try to find the main arguments in ure post and write the down. after that we can discuss them and then I will edit them in my first post. The arguments are now just all over the place. thats a shame because i allready found some ideas which i personally really like.

[ChillyBilli]

I will start with the post of livert.
I hope I found every point u have made.


Possible solution:


-get new player

+Instead of making one free gamemode u propose making all gamemodes free. If uwant to progress further then a certain rank (gold for example) you have to pay the game.


-make the game less competitive

+More gamemodes in which u dont play against real people.
*The obstacle/shooting gamemode would be good as a tutorial in my opinion. But I agree. That's not really how a shooter should work. Maybe there are better solutions to make gamemodes which are less competitive.

+Make beginner servers.
I want to discuss this point. Wouldn't a beginner server boost the usage of smurfs?

+Prevent new players from joining normal servers.
*I don't get this point entirely. You mean the new players get frustrated when joining normal servers because they are sometimes not fully filled? I my opinion new players would be more frustrating on normal servers for already better player.

+remove the possibility of multiple accounts per e-mail for reduction of smurfs.


-long time motivation

+Add better statistics as long time motivation and implement a possibility to show them off. This will help to judge a players skill level too.

+Rewards.
*Hard to make rewards in a game where everyone should have the same possibility. The rewards should at least not influence the gameplay.

+The current ranking system isn't fair.

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Tutorials. I think I've already mentioned that.

Map carma is not fair in shootmania because of the possibility to vote without even playing the map.
This gets a bit offtopic or am I wrong?

Sell it as a complete and free game.
hey! I'm not that good in english. tell me whats's so funny about it ='D

[Livert]

+Make beginner servers.
I want to discuss this point. Wouldn't a beginner server boost the usage of smurfs?

Yes, it would. That´s why I also made a suggestion how to lower the number of smurf accounts. But the problem would still exist and sadly the only way to really reduce the number of smurfs to a minimum would be to remove the option to play the game for free. But this doesn´t go along with luring new players to the game...

+Prevent new players from joining normal servers.
*I don't get this point entirely. You mean the new players get frustrated when joining normal servers because they are sometimes not fully filled? I my opinion new players would be more frustrating on normal servers for already better player.

You´re right^^ They get frustrated when joining a server with players who are a lot better than a beginner... What I wanted to say is that when you play the game for the first time and you only get to play a 1vs1 or 2vs1 (this goes for elite mode) on maps which are designed for 3vs1 it gives you a wrong first intention of the game. That´s because in this case the maps are too big for the number of players which leads to less action and less fun^^
-> The beginner thinks that the game is more boring than it actually is...

Both things wouldn´t happen on a smurf-free beginners only mm server^^ (which is highly theoretical xD)

[-murphy-]

I think we have different type of players with different needs to get sastisfied by SM. Since it seems to me that Nadeo has its own way to handle it (just improving the game itself and the tools) we should focus and things we can do and stop complaining about missing advertising, bigger tournaments and cheaper prize. I also don't like that Nadeo hopes so much on the community itself but I think they have their way to deal with it and won't change it so we need to life with it.

While it is harder for us to get new players into the game we maybe should focus on keeping new players in the game. For example I see more new german players on the battle server but maybe they will not stay long if they loose motivation. Some ideas that came in my mind:

Tutorial videos
Maybe I missed the reason why there are no tutorials but I think that would be a great benefit for new and advanced players with relatively low cost because the videos itself could be done by the community. But they should be directly accessible from the game menu. The tutorial videos could explain the different kind of blocks and gamemodes or you could just link an alternating "Tip of the day" video doing it. So maybe we shoudl work on a tutorial concept and ask Nadeo if they could integrate it into the game.

Lobby or Meeting point
A common problem for players is not having enough players to play the gamemode they like. Matchmaking servers are a way to handle it but is limited to a single gamemode and only works for Elite at the moment. So I think we need a kind of lobby or meeting-point where you can find other players that also don't want to join an empty server. IRC was a solution for that in the good old times but I don't think it is used that much right now or am I wrong?

Using planets
Maybe the initial idea from Nadeo was to spend your planets for custom titles, models and other community created things but I think nowadays creators can be happy if someone actually notice their creations. So beside spending the planets for servers and more stations there is nothing you can do with the planets for common players. If the planets could be spend more useful there maybe would be more motivation to play more. But then there should also be a way to get more planets or other benefits for experienced players with more than 80k like today. So were there any good ideas about it we maybe could satisfy Nadeo with?

[-murphy-]

An suggestion for the IRC related thing is here:
http://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic. ... 94&start=0

Oh, didn't notice it before. This would definitely the best solution. Too sad there isn't much feedback about such ideas from Nadeo.

[bervt]

As far as i can see :

I have say it But we need one tutorial mod for Shootmania , I was hoping it was the platform mod but it is not the case ( fun mod but you cannot learn ) .
Obstacle seem to be a solution , the problem is that when there is Noob on my servor (Oxygene debutant ) , i need to explain all ( how to do this ext ... ) , i cannot do this to all so a lot RQ .
There is Hysteria tutorial , this is more like tutorial for the game ( focused on obstacle ) , but you need to see the panel to know what to do , it is one step , but to understand it well we need some voice tutorial .And it work well !, I invite some complete noob to come to my teamspeak when i can, so that i can help him and on most of the case they can finish a map (even if it take 40 min ).

It is not that easy to make ( try to ) , because need to think about a lot of stuff ^^ .

Tutorial videos
Maybe I missed the reason why there are no tutorials but I think that would be a great benefit for new and advanced players with relatively low cost because the videos itself could be done by the community. But they should be directly accessible from the game menu. The tutorial videos could explain the different kind of blocks and gamemodes or you could just link an alternating "Tip of the day" video doing it. So maybe we shoudl work on a tutorial concept and ask Nadeo if they could integrate it into the game.

I like the idea , and already work on , but need to be in french ,english ,dutch , ... And a problem that i want to fix it to make the video the smaller possible to be not borring .

Map carma is not fair in shootmania because of the possibility to vote without even playing the map.

This is already possible in obstacle thank to the Obsmania Plugin ( Thank marl who make it ) , you need to finish the map one time to be able to vote , and he don't really have look but he think it is possible to do it with Elite .

[Livert]

It´s possible to add camera sequences when you trigger a certain location, isn´t it? Is it also possible to add sounds like a voice replay? (I think the problem is that the map data will be too big if this would even be possible). If both these things would be the case you could add trigger points to the checkpoints which people need to pass anyway... or to the spawns where they will end up when they didn´t make it on their own in their first try. Of course there would need to be different servers (Tutorial English, Tutorial French, ...). It would be nice to have an option to turn the tutorials on and off then but I think that´s not possible. It´s also important that the maps for such servers would be chosen well. They need to explain only the basics cause otherwise it will be just to much input. There is also no use in explaining stuff which doesn´t work in any other game modes than obstacle (infinite rocket movement stuff for example). These servers would also need some kind of special treatment because otherwise beginners won´t find them when playing for the first time.

Tutorials for how the different game modes work would also be nice. That might make it easier to decide for beginners which gamemode they would like to start with.

I think someone would need to create a map which explains the basic movement and the last few checkpoints would just be triggering tutorial videos for the different game modes. The servers should only be running this one map then. No time limit for a mapchange cause it would be annoying to enter the server 2minutes before mapchange, start the map and having to start all over again cause the server switched the map...