My vision and my opinion...

[xGEKKOx]

Hi all,
i reconnected after 1,5 months to Maniaplanet.
The situation is not good.
If you go around on google you find that the game is really much downloaded, but played in solo (with crack).
(You know i'm a game coder, so i hate cracks and piracy).
Now....
I wanna just suggest for another time the only way to get money and players online.

1) Make it F2P with item mall (now is standard, for great games. Without, you don't sell)
2) Make the server can be bought with money in the item mall (2,50€ / month)
3) Re-Enable the video decoder in game
4) Don't focus on ManiaLive (too low interest if players connected are 300 every day)
5) Sell new ENV into the item mall for lower price Ex.: 5€
6) Casual players don't mind of great sponsored tournament, they wanna play with a "mountain" of challengers.

Sorry, but this time, i really don't understand what the Nadeo team is going to do and what is doing.
I understood for TM ESWC, for TMU, but TM2 seems to be abandoned or seems to be forced to die.
Maybe we expected the editor could save it forever, but as i see, ideas for tracks is over!
All tracks are same, and there is no fun in the game.
Well, the game is great, i love it, but it need to be free.

Do something please, do the base game free and ENV under payement but do something. Don't mind if i paid my TM2 copy, as nobody mind (i think).
Give free 2nd ENV to who paid the 1st and free the Canyon..... i don't know...
but please do something.

Sorry if i seem to be always negative, but i always guessed the future on TM until now.
Maybe a coincidence, maybe lucky, but everytime i ask to someone, they agree with me.

Regards,
Gekko.

[metoxys]

Mmmmmmmmh sounds good actually.
Team Fortress 2-inspired much?

[tcq]

1) Make it F2P with item mall (now is standard, for great games. Without, you don't sell)
2) Make the server can be bought with money in the item mall (2,50€ / month)
3) Re-Enable the video decoder in game
4) Don't focus on ManiaLive (too low interest if players connected are 300 every day)
5) Sell new ENV into the item mall for lower price Ex.: 5€
6) Casual players don't mind of great sponsored tournament, they wanna play with a "mountain" of challengers.

1) Don't see how 1) should work? I mean, i tried several F2P games and they simply suck. Take a look at BFH or LotR. They are simply bullshit, because you need to pay to be good. If you aren't able to spend money on such stuff, then the game simply don't hold anything of worth for you because you get beaten by any noob which has the money, but still sucks at the game.And i mean, what the hell do you want to sell in such an item mall? Faster cars? I mean, this game is about skill, not about the upgrades you can buy.
2) Sounds like a favourable think, but i don't believe Nadeo has the man power and it's simply economical not favourable i think. I mean, each person is able to create a server for their own. Either dedicated or not.
3)Dunno about that, never used it
4)Would agree here. The only thing which seems nice is the server manager ManiaLive, don't see an application for the other stuff.
5)You are so funny ...
6)If you think this way, keep it on.

[kripkee]

I think the problem is, that TrackMania2 is just a new game expect no new ideas. For a coder is maniascript maybe interest, but the rest...?^^ I like Canyon too, but the content of Canyon is still the same like TMNF with planets and a extended Manialinksystem - for 20 €. The price is maybe ok, but for sure not the best. If you are "a new player" and you will ignore the good grafic from Canyon, you can buy tmo for 10€ with 3 Envis and a lot of more modes and you would have more fun, i think (but players would say the tmo/s are envis are waste, tmnf rulz etc.). Of course, to play online with TMO is useless, it is just an example^^.

Maniaplanet is in my eyes the extended Maniazones forum. I don't know really the sense of this, but ok (yes, this included tm2/sm/qm but "wow" ^^)

I don't want talk bad about nadeo, but these "long terms" are very bad. For Example: ManiaPlanet 2.0, everybody heard it, but nobody know it, and this since October/November. Maybe a new Version of a big puzzlemode which collect everywhen a "full game", but for a player (like me) is this .. "blabla" ^^. And yes, the nadeo team is just small, this have good and bad sides, this is normal.

I give Shootmania a chance, if this failed in my opinion, then I have to wait of ManiaplanetForever or something like that. "The future will ..." and so on.

Cheers Kripke

[xGEKKOx]

Yes infact Nadeo is not bad....
I think they are wrong on date precision... i mean they need to do a precise release timeline for updates and news.
They need someone dedicated to this thing. Users come here to get news and go away for ever after 2 months of no infos.

For me, in the past, Nadeo was a "little" great software house, with great ideas.
As the time gone by, they changed something. And they did just like when only 1 member of the team has changed. I mean, Hylis is the same... we know and love him, we know how he answer, how he think (+/-)... but something changed as someone else changed in the team.
So sometimes it seems to me like the marketing solutions comes from another brain now, completely different from the first.

Anyway, the choices they did are different, radically different. Those changes makes much confusion to the players.
TMN : Free with advertise (no cars, no avatar, good ladder but boost)
TMU : Paid 29€ (i paid when it came out, good ladder but boost)
TMFN : Free with advertise (no cars, no avatar, good ladder but boost BUT VERY FUN TO ARRIVE 1ST IN THE WORLD!!!)
TMFU : not free (bad ladder NO FUN AT ALL, boost)
TMF : Freezone (max 40 players, with coppers)
TM2 : 20€ great game, much fun but few blocks and bad ladder again, planets and coppers are same

Now the story of TM say us that thay done the FreeZone in a terrible moment, ok...
When the moments are not good, we try to save the boat.
But after 1 year if the boat continue to go down, something is wrong.

Returning to us...
To TCQ:
Well tcq, as TM2 is not a mmorpg, it can be a simple F2P.
To be a F2P, yes you are right, they need at least to change the ladder, to give a way to go up.
1 unique ladder, more easy, more intuitive and based on something else than the current.
If Nadeo do a poll and all users answer, they will found a solution from 72000 (accounts) mind. More minds better ideas.

To Kripkee:
Well Nadeo is a small team, but i think the community is the key. They must have learned this from the story.
They must listen to users needle, it seems to me they did always the contrary we asked...

The main goal is get players again, and the rest come after.
IMHO

[AlexKF]

I like the idea of an item mall being available with the game being downloaded free...

Now, you say TCQ, to buy what from this item mall? Well I think all that needs to be done is think of ideas. Of course, we are so used to TM being a game that you drive + a ladder and that's it. But if Nadeo (and the community) tried hard and threw lots of ideas of what an item mall could consist of then I think we could get some really good ideas... all it takes is people to think and discuss/comment/debate about ideas.

I think it would also be important to keep the game fair, so certain things would not be possible (ie: a faster car) but things that would keep more players in the game would be essential.

I guess it wouldn't be fair giving away the TMC for free now (seeing as 80k people have paid for it) but maybe releasing Valley and introducing the item mall there.

Blah, I think this is all useless as Nadeo have their plans set in stone and won't change their thoughts... even if many people agreed to this idea

The main goal is get players again, and the rest come after.

I agree 100%

[Romain42]

But it is probably YOUR goal. Is it Nadeo's one?

[AlexKF]

But it is probably YOUR goal. Is it Nadeo's one?

To get more players? Yes, that is one of their goals...

[jonthekiller]

But it is probably YOUR goal. Is it Nadeo's one?

To get more players? Yes, that is one of their goals...

Yes but not many now and zero after. Nadeo thinks on sereval years. We need to wait some months, ManiaPlanet will be stronger will MP 2.0, Storm, Valley and other environments after.

[metoxys]

That is a good question actually. What can be bought from the mall then?
I mean, car upgrades will cause all true TM players to murder the person with that idea.
Maps are downloadable on TMX, skins on Maniapark.
Additional blocks? How is that going to work when other players play those maps?