I'm curios and interested to see how Maniaplanet 4.0 will look like and what new features it will have. Beside that though, I would wish that some of the existing "bugs" will get fixed, that are still in the game.
The last days I thought about listing all bugs of the spectator mode that came into my mind. I also asked other players, if they also know some that I forgot, and people here can add some in the forums and I will put them in the following list, too. Also, regarding that you want to focus more on Esports in future, spectating plays an important role.
Almost all things that I will mention now, are working very well in TMUF/TMNF and for me (as I’m not so fit in programming things) it is difficult to understand, why specific things did work easily in the old Trackmania and are now bugging or missing.
I will divide the list into 2 parts. First the things that would be really important for me to get fixed and then the remaining things that came into my mind, but are less important than the first ones.
Important Spectator mode bugs:
Time Difference
In TMNF/TMUF you had 3 things shown in the bottom when you spectated a player in TimeAttack mode. There was his best time, his last time and his difference. The difference (sth like +0,14) was shown on every Checkpoint and was the difference compared to the Top1 time when pressing TAB. This feature is sadly missing in Maniaplanet right now. When you spectate a player and there is no Fast on the server, you have no chance to know, if the player is on a good time or not. I think such a feature is a must-have in a racing game and it would be great to see it back.
Cameras
I’m using Camera1 in driving and when I go into spectator mode, I’d wish to see also a Behind camera. In TMNF/TMUF this wasn’t a problem. You just had to be sure to click on “Follow†in the bottom right and then you got a legit Behind camera in all situations. In Maniaplanet, especially in Canyon and Valley, the camera is partly beside the car in turns and you can’t see, how good the driver hit the apex and you can’t see what’s coming after the turn. Riolu mentioned, that this problem seems to be even bigger in cases where at least one tyre of the car is slightly in the air. Additionally, whenever a player restarts a round and is standing on the start block, the camera can be everywhere, in some cases in front of the car and it needs to turn around first in the beginning of the lap. Especially regarding casts of matches, it is necessary to have proper Behind cameras.
By the way: Same problem with the cameras I have in the replay editor. Especially with dedimania replays it is crazy. The camera is like never really Behind the car, but all the time beside it or even in front.
Unspectable drivers
We all know this. You join a server and player X is in that moment in spectator mode. Later, player X decides to drive. You want to spectate him, but it doesn’t work. You can’t see him. Even with Camera7 you could search him, but he is not there. In order to see him, you either have to leave and rejoin the server (now he is in playmode when you join), or wait for a restart or skip of the map. If a player is in spectator mode during the mapswitch, you also can’t see him driving on the next map. And also I myself could join a server in spectator mode, but start driving then, and nobody could see me. All those things were never a problem earlier in TMNF/TMUF. How come this?
Horns
I’m still not sure what produces this bug. I was spectating a player in TimeAttack mode. And at some point I suddenly hear his horn. And this horn comes automatically every single time when he presses delete and restarts a run. At each restart I hear that horn. That can be mega annoying with some horns. But it doesn’t happen always, I’m still not sure what situation is the reason for it.
Hotkeys
When you spectate or cast a match, you have those 6 hotkeys that you can hit and each hot key makes you spectating a specific player. However, which driver is behind which hotkey seems to be totally random. For example it could be done regarding the ranking: hotkey 1 makes you spec the leader, hotkey 2 the 2nd place and so on. But it’s not like that, it seems totally random. But the real bug here is, that when you have exactly 6 players (like in a 3v3 match) or more, it sometimes happens that 2 hotkeys are on the same player. And another player has no hotkey then.
Joining players
That is also a common bug. You spectate a player on a server and then another player joins the server. The camera switches automatically to the new joined player (which is obviously shown in the desert in the edge of the map in the first 10 seconds). Why is that so? I think nobody wants to spec a random player suddenly and have to get active then himself to move the camera to the player again, that he wants to spec.
Other spectator mode bugs and suggested improvements:
Automatic vs. Manuell
In TMUF/TMNF it was in specific cases senseful to use the automatic way, which player you are spectating. For example, if you have 2 players driving and you used “Automatic†the camera was on a player until he respawned or totally retired his run. Then the camera automatically switched to the other player which was in the mid of his run, and you either saw him finish or fail. If he fails, the camera goes again to player1 which is now in his run. In Maniaplanet, if you choose “Automaticâ€, the camera goes on a random player and stays there. Like this, Automatic is pretty useless as I could myself choose to spectate only that one random player. A version like in TMNF/TMUF would be better.
Replay vs Follow
Other than in TMNF/TMUF it doesn’t improve the camera when clicking on Follow. It is beside the car in both cases. There are no differences between Replay and Follow in that. Also, I heard, that MediaTracker is also shown in Follow sometimes, but in that thing I’m not sure, it would be good if others share their experiences here about this topic. Is there really a difference between Replay and Follow still in Maniaplanet?
GPS
This bug was already in TMNF/TMUF. When there is a MediaTracker block on the start block (mostly it is a GPS), the speccam gets totally crazy. Like flickering a lot and being black sometimes. I think it can’t decide between showing GPS and the player or so.
Laps Mode
If you watch Spam’s weekly race for example: You have at the bottom the “Best time†and “Last timeâ€. I already mentioned I’d like to see also “Time Difference†there. In Laps mode it doesn’t show any useful information somehow, though. At best time you see how long the race is being played already (like 31 minutes or so) and on Last time is just nothing. Would be cool to see the time of the last full lap of the player there.
My spectators
Someone mentioned it would be cool to see who is spectating you. As you have that spec symbol, when you drive, it could be a solution that you can click on it and see your spectators listed there.
Driftmarks
In Nascar, SpeedFun you drive mostly very fast noslide turns. The player has no skidmarks behind his tyres, but in the spec you see and hear them. Not very important, rest is fine with skidmarks.
I'd love to see some of these issues fixed in Maniaplanet 4.0
That would make the game even more enjoyable to play, to spec and to cast.
Feel free to post your opinions about this here.
Cheers!
