New gameplay feedbacks since Beta 2

[nAka]

Yes I was a bit raging at this time maybe I said it a bit agressive

[kriouf]

Naka, what happened between 3 and 22:00 that you suddenly raged?

May be he lost a cup match vs randoms guys because of the +0 and the stupide spammy maching gun rocket

I tought they have enough feedback now, no need more for the 4 or 5 things that have changed in the game play since the alpha almost one year before. We can also see that everyone exept levezo hate the +0

For my part im just disappointed for the slowliness of the developpement of elite. But i tought they are really working hard for the rest of the stuff: the tools, the maniaplanet application. But they really need to focus on shootmania and let the rest of the stuff aside because the release of the game approach, the buzz is ongoing and if SM flops they will never have a second chance. The world of esport is crual.

To complement what naka says about esport and casual, i think that nadeo need to choose between creating an esport game, or a casual game. Those two things cannot go together.

But as i said i trust them, and i know they prepare us a nice surprise fo the game's release.

[DiamondCut]

So I was going to read through what everyone has said so I don't cover over things others have said but I am sure many people will share the same opinions as me from time to time so screw it!

So without further ado, here is what I think of Shootmania Storm!

My first initial thoughts on the game were fairly positive, it fairly basic with a slight learning curve that almost anyone can pick up. All you have to do is learn the movements and the rest was up to your mouse. The game is very skill dependent and for that I love it, some will claim the game is all luck but that simply isn’t the case. The reason people say that is because they are used to having very limited range of mobility (excluding TF2 and all Quake games) where aim is only a small portion of the games worth. In SM if you aren’t consistent and make one wrong slip you‘re toast. This game takes as much dedication as any other first person shooter and requires a lot of map knowledge to really grasp the games potential.
Beta 2.0 was really a turning point in this game for me, a lot of people have complaints and arguments made to the developers but I think of change more of a hurdle that I just need to get over to improve myself. My number one favorite thing about Beta 2.0 is wall jumping, it opens up a lot of new angles and venues we once never even thought of attempting to accomplish. More advanced gameplay is being experience across all servers and I think everyone is really enjoying this new ability. I also really like variable jumping and I know some people really hate it but I think that it really is a great addition. Some might say that it isn’t reliable, well first thing I noticed is that anyone who uses a keystroke to jump will not get the full benefit of the variable jump because in order for me to do a small skip I have to quickly tap my mouse 2 button in order to not over jump. This gives me a huge advantage over others who are not taking full use of variable jumping as I can just double tap and hold mouse 2 and be sprinting in an instant. I’ve done this multiple times and it really throws people off so I think it’s just a matter of how much time you spend actually learning how the mechanics of the game work before criticizing them. I would also like to add to the fact someone might say they need to change the amount of time it will take for you to do a hop rather than a jump will not work because if you had to wait any longer to do a full jump after holding jump would cause for a much slower gameplay and only feel like halo. Next is rocket elimination, now I know a lot of people say it’s terrible but I am going to again have to disagree. I think it allows the attacker the ability to skillfully defend themselves by destroying incoming rockets. I do agree it is rather annoying for my shots to get denied by rockets but I think it only adds to the gameplay. The change I see fit for rocket denial would be smaller hitboxes, leaving the greater chance of getting a kill and making it more difficult for the attacker to land a rocket shot. Grappling hooks are also a great addition to the game, but I don’t see them being all that popular in the competitive setting with the way the hook currently functions. When using the grappling hook you are in a fixated path that is very easy to read and will be an avoided part of maps for the most part. If the developers want to see grappling hooks in the competitive scene I think a different form will be necessary. I will explain, (as I brought this up with Mr.Miso at IPL 5) the only hook that I would see fit for quick competitive play would be a hook that would hook into a wall and pull you to that direction within an reasonable speed within a reasonable distance (15m). You could put these points anywhere on the map on walls, in the air, or make it only wood and concrete objects would make a latch. That’s idea of a fast paced grappling hook. I also like the new blocks and I look forward to future blocks. The map maker is pretty straight forward and to the point so anyone can make a creation of their own which is great.

What I think the game needs improvement on is some minor world collision bugs and shadowing bugs on some blocks on the maps. As far as the game itself goes I like what I am seeing from the developers and can’t wait to see what else they come up with. If I were to be working for the company and coming up with new ideas for the game I would be creating new types of rockets and testing them to see if they would still keep a balanced playing field in all game types. Speedball would be extremely exciting if the rockets were smaller but traveled faster and reloaded slightly faster but only 3 shots. It would feel like paintballing with quick movements that would make for a difficult targeting game. I also think wood would be a lot more fun if you made it bowed and made more curved and slanted pieces so there was wavy parts and kept you moving fast as possible.

These are just my thoughts and opinions on the game so far and if you haven’t noticed I am enjoying it very much. I would love to see more new people on and more tournaments. I also plan on joining a mod team for the game once the devs release resource packages!

[Hylis]

When I came on ShootMania the first thing a TrackMania fanboy told me was: U WIL C NADEO LISTN TO THE COMUNITY IT WIL BE SO KOOOOOOOL

Some players think that "listen to the community" is do what they want because they think they are best know how to make a game. I read the posts, go online, go on events is a way to listen to the community. But the answer is always more complicated than only what you think, otherwise, making games would be easier than many things in fact.

If you do not understand our answers to some stuff, it is logic, or I can't think you would give much chances for our game to succeed. Making games can be complicated. You are speaking of the GA gameplay. It was great, in LAN and no ping. If the moves are a little less nervous in some parts, like the left/right strafe spamming, it is also to rely less on ping. So, it is two subjects that are tied together.

Maybe if somebody told you that Nadeo listen to the community, it was a little right. You try to be even insulting with him by quoting him like he can not speak, you should think of your way to judge us or them. Honnestly, my best wish is to make a great game for many players, and just a little less for the people that are insulting. If you understand this, the effort we made so far, maybe you will see more how I work, communicate and make decisions. And maybe you will be less frustrated, and more positive again, one day.

[Hylis]

If the developers want to see grappling hooks in the competitive scene I think a different form will be necessary. I will explain, (as I brought this up with Mr.Miso at IPL 5) the only hook that I would see fit for quick competitive play would be a hook that would hook into a wall and pull you to that direction within an reasonable speed within a reasonable distance (15m). You could put these points anywhere on the map on walls, in the air, or make it only wood and concrete objects would make a latch. That’s idea of a fast paced grappling hook. I also like the new blocks and I look forward to future blocks. The map maker is pretty straight forward and to the point so anyone can make a creation of their own which is great.

(...)

These are just my thoughts and opinions on the game so far and if you haven’t noticed I am enjoying it very much.

It is part of our list to have some platform from which you can fire a the 'hook' (I name it the tractor beam) in order to go and clutch yourselve on a caslte wall nearby. Don't know if we will do it, in the priorities, but yes, I think it can add some good diversity.

[SiH13]

I would like to bring up some things in the mediatracker.
First of all the animation is awful. When setting cameras playing it back and watch it the player is at a different place than where you set the camera. When you change the camera to where he moved he move again. He will never be at the spot where he was when you set the camera.
Set a camera close to a a player who is jumping or in action and see.
In slowmotion the animation is bad aswell. The player has the same running speed, but it takes longer time for him to reach the place. The landings are also at normal speed. When he's shooting he immedeately raise his hand and shoots.
When rendering and recording audio it slowly fades in from no sound to 0db. I want it to be sound in the beginning at the clip and not have it to fade in. This leaves me to record a lot of unnessecary footage in the start to let the sound fade in.

(...)the zoom tool is very choppy, for example if there are 2 keys at the beginning of the track. These gets cut away. You will understand if you try this out.
Also if you have 3 replays, you go into number 1 and change a little ting like for example change the camera from custom to first person. If you save the replay and then try to open all 3, its impossible. You only open number 1, the one you edited, and if you open the other, number 2 and/or 3, you cant import the edited (number 1)replay.
The only thing to do is to save each replay invidually (those you edited) as clips and import them. I edited 35 replays and i had to save each one and import them..
This worked in TMN but has been cut away since tmu. In tmn i could just make camera on replay number 1 and then openreplay 1 and 2 together and both replays had the camera I added at replay 1, instead of having to import it afterwards.

Keyframes are too sensitive and cannot be placed too close to eachother, not even when I zoom in and add it next to it

[tatar]

If the developers want to see grappling hooks in the competitive scene I think a different form will be necessary. I will explain, (as I brought this up with Mr.Miso at IPL 5) the only hook that I would see fit for quick competitive play would be a hook that would hook into a wall and pull you to that direction within an reasonable speed within a reasonable distance (15m). You could put these points anywhere on the map on walls, in the air, or make it only wood and concrete objects would make a latch. That’s idea of a fast paced grappling hook. I also like the new blocks and I look forward to future blocks. The map maker is pretty straight forward and to the point so anyone can make a creation of their own which is great.

(...)

These are just my thoughts and opinions on the game so far and if you haven’t noticed I am enjoying it very much.

It is part of our list to have some platform from which you can fire a the 'hook' (I name it the tractor beam) in order to go and clutch yourselve on a caslte wall nearby. Don't know if we will do it, in the priorities, but yes, I think it can add some good diversity.

Yeap, just want to add that blocs is not really something that's critical right now, if people don't like grapplins, they just wont add them on maps, no biggie. There is no maps Elite with checkpoints right? it was implemented but not used, whatever.

What concerns me and I really would like to know why +0 is not an option anymore? would it just set the point for everybody?
If some league wants it let them have it. Maybe it's a matter of not splitting the community e-sport in little groups with own tweeks?

[Hylis]

More complicated than that tatar

If you let the choice, unfortunately, it does not necersserly turn out to be the best option that is kept since short term and long term ones have different values, in addition to the fact that established ones are often less critized, because already admitted.

It is more often easy to see what option would be good if you think how it would look to go backward in 5 months. Imagine that you remove walljumps in 5 months, then people would be disapointed, you can easily guess it. What if you let an option on the progressive jump? would people would be disapointed of it's removal?

Maybe checkpoints are not used because nobody have tried them hard enough with maps after 50 hours of play to realize that it provides much more depth, or not. I don't say it works, I just say that without testing it for real, in real conditions, with real competitions, it is really hard to determine the interest.

[tatar]

Ok I understand,
Did you get any Feedback of curse tournament players or IPL weekly cup players?
They would be the ones to give you the necessary background to make the good call then.

I'm just worried coz january 23rd is approaching and I think making radical changes after this release date will be more troubles than anything.

Thanks for your answer by the way.
And happy new year to everbody

I hope everything will turn out for the best.

[Forgot10]

Speaking of MediaTracker and Beta 2. Why is it that whenever I choose "Shoot video" directly, I always get name tags on players? Is there a way to avoid it? Because as it is, I choose "xxx editor", and then click "AVI" button there to get a replay with players untagged.