"UI is bad" Why?

[Miss]

I tried to look more from the most general perspective, while i agree with everything Miss has pointed out, i firmly believe that just fixing the inconsistencies and removing the stuff that does nothing is simply not enough. It would be much cleaner and easier to use, but it wouldn't fix the root issue, that for me is all the unnecessary menus the user has to go through to just play.

Oh yes don't get me wrong, I agree with a lot of what you wrote too but not all. I think the main menu with the channels is a pretty good view, and scrolling down to see the games *should* be natural since they're already half off-screen. Scrolling down is something you'd expect. Considering ManiaPlanet itself hosts multiple games, it makes sense to have to click on Canyon or Stadium or whatever you want to play first.

Of course the extra "Play" button on the title itself might not be super helpful, it might be better to just directly enter the pack instead of having to confirm it after clicking. But then there's another problem (which is technical and perhaps could be solved) which is that entering a pack takes time to load the pack, which, if you just want to quickly look through serverlists or so, is not a very great experience if it just went directly into the pack.

Also.. gamepad navigation probably doesn't work in the main menus..

[TMarc]

This is why they need a menu design and a ux expert

[Hylis]

I agree that there is a lot to improve, but please don't be silly when you compare a multiplayer game only with no user made content & modes with what we do in term of complexity management. We have much more things to handle there, including multiple games, multiple modes, multiple style of maps etc. And with shortcuts of titles, you should be in there directly, like with any game of any platform. So, YES, the UI should be improve, and NO it's not like another game. By the way, we just changed recently the landing page of the steam game in order to provide channels some new comers to discover players creations because we also care about that. Feedback are more than welcome! Lessons can be sometimes negative when they are not really "fair" or taking into account the whole thing. And by the way, you can launch directly and remove the login prompt individually. Your welcome ^_^

[Monk9443]

Personally, i cannot see the difference between the maniaplanet games and a multiplayer only game like Overwatch, or Rainbow Six Siege.
Both kinds of game require a constant player base to stay afloat. Many of those players will never create anything, but even that doesn't matter. If we take a look back at the beginning, when the game is released people who bought it want to play it, they want to experience what they spent their money on. They want to insure that they bought a game they will enjoy. The same applies to any new players that try the game.

Yes, there is a lot of things in maniaplanet, multiple games, multiple modes, lots of tools to create content, and they all have to be accessible in a clean way.
But a new player doesn't care about that, a new player just wants to try the game he has bought, he doesn't want to mess with the whole maniaplanet as a service thing.

I'd like to make a little comparison to better illustrate the problem i see.
Imagine you're going to a clothing store to buy clothes, but when you enter it, it's a bit different. There is a food court that you have to go through to get to the clothes. You're not hungry, you just want to buy clothes. Yes, there will be some people that, when they enter are hungry and they'll eat something, but most of the people want to buy clothes. Having to walk through the food court each time to get to the clothes will leave a negative experience on people.
(disclaimer this is an idealized situation and an idealized store, and the food doesn't smell)

There are also many ways to solve the issue, with mode shotcuts, turning off unnecessary screens. But those things need an active user that knows about them. Those are issues that are really hard to solve in 2018.
Now days people have lost patience, they want the things and they want them now.
There are many solutions to this problem, but i feel like polishing the existing UI will not help as much, though i do believe it is necessary.

I did write too much and i apologize, but if there will be another maniaplanet game i feel like this UI/UX issue has to be solved.

[HYPE]

I agree with you mostly monk, but don't forget about the Channels. It might not be all that clear for new players what the channel is, but it's the first thing you see when opening the game and it needs you two clicks to be in the game. Often it's the most crowded server with players of your skill level. So I think this was a big improvment compared to mp3.

When the players play more they will go deeper in the menus and time by time they will learn to understand how everything works, same as we did. But most importantly is that they can play with other players, right?

[Miss]

I think one of the most important parts is that players can play the solo campaign without having to search for it.

[riolu]

I think one of the most important parts is that players can play the solo campaign without having to search for it.

Sorry, excuse me? I just recently came across a guy during my stream who was asking for help because he got lost and didn't know how to access Stadium's solo campaign

[Miss]

Yes, exactly, that's what I'm saying, I agree with Monk's points on that

[niarfman]

Almost agree with a lot of remarks here.

The main purpose of ManiaPlanet is to offer a game experience.

Then the gamers will enjoy the titles and some of them, but not a majority, will want to contribute and then will try to reach advanced features such as map editor, server creation, etc ...

This is similar to real life. If you take an association, for example. Many members will enjoy what the association offer, but only a little part of them will contribute by beeing volunteers, and again, a very little part of them will help to carry the things.

I think UI has to reflect this usage, being as simple as possible for the majority of players, and offer more for the ones who want to contribute. And in this case, the access to the tools has to be easy, understandable without reading a whole manual or parsing thousand of post on a forum. Some steps, as obvious it can be, have to be described as clear as possible. Because volunteers will often give up if too many effort is needed ...

Love all

[Soprah]

Simplicity

Shootmania's & Trackmania's gameplay is simple but yet so deep. Why not the same for the UI?