Loving the Game...but REALLY?

[nd23rin]

Hi Everyone,

I have been playing games (fps,moba,rpg,rts) for many years...too many to share here! I was involved in the beta for Shootmania, and have since been playing the release version. I must say that, this game can potentially offer the most nerve wracking, pressure filled scenarios. I immediately went and purchased the Steam version for 2 of my friends and they also now love it. Interestingly enough, they were not even PC gamers until about a month ago...and now they have all but sold off their consoles . Someone else here suggested a "Steam Free Weekend", and although I think SOMETHING needs to be done asap to get a more robust community (particularly in North America), I don't know if the game is ready for it. Please don't flame...I love the game, but I would hate to see people try it and have the following issues and bolt this time FOREVER. First impressions are oh so important.

1. It took me actively searching all over to figure out how to install the "Combo" game mode. Not difficult, once I figured out the steps, but why waste an hour of a free weekend trying to get this done.

2. Friends system is horrible. Sorry but it just is IMHO. In order to add friends from Steam from my non steam version we had to add each other, exit game, enter game to have the person show up, exit again and enter to have them have dot showing them offline when they were not, then exit and enter again to have them show as online. This is crazy. If your main advertising point for a game is that it is competitive and team based, make the system for adding friends actually work.

3. More on the friends system...how in the world can you party up so that you know you will be on the same team with friends. I understand you can start hitting F keys to switch teams, etc...but it shouldn't be that difficult.

4. Why so many different "titles". Is there a reason why this game behaves unlike any other ever by showing all of these different game modes separately? I had to explain the difference between the following a million times....the layout is so counterproductive: Royal, Royal(exp),Elite,Elite(exp),Joust,Combo,Storm,Battle.

OK, so I know this was too long, but having helped two new players into this game I feel that if it wasn't for me having struggled through some of the issues myself...their opinion of the game would have been wrongly critical. Being in the US, playing Combo is almost impossible because most of the time between 7PM-Midnight there are 3-5 players online in the game mode. If I'm lucky US Elite servers might have 10.

If any of my criticisms are based on wrong information about how to do something in game...sorry, please let me know! Thanks

[RatskilleR]

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[RatskilleR]

Completly agree.
Ive also posted feedback about the ridiculously complicated menus with all the titles being necessary to instal and whatnot being the combo installion the worse in all the mess.
It is so obvious that new players that are experiencing the game for the first time will be put down with all this complexity .
Never heard anything about devs about this tho , even after all the feedback sent wich is kinda sad.

[TheXPlaying]

For once i want to say something in defense of NADEO/the devs:

I don't know you, but it was kinda intuitive for me the whole maniaplanet thing!
I mean, you have stations, you click there and you load the title you want, what's so complicated about it?!?

Yeah, Combo was a little more tricky, but don't forget that it still is just a sample, it's not officially "complete" yet.

I agree that this system has some little hidden things that are less intuitive, and even some that are really impossible to discover by yourself, but i think the basic stuff is quite simple to understand.

I have to agree with OP for the friends system though!

[nd23rin]

Well, for me as someone who has been tooling around with PC games, mods, console commands, etc, etc....it was easily figured out but I definitely would not call it intuitive.

The point I think I was trying to make was that of course there will be people like you and I who know our way around and will always be willing to put the effort in. However, like it or not the newer generations of gamers are in many cases coming from consoles or just for the first time earning enough to buy a good rig. I saw it first hand with two guys in there late teens early twenties who are intelligent but having never had to deal with some of the delicate ways of getting PC games to work correctly, were not as tolerant of it. I'm not saying I agree, but that's the way things are going.

I introduced them to Dota 2 at the same time, and it was so streamlined and easy...we were up and running in a party instantly. They were able to spectate the live matches with ease, and easily see the "community" aspect of the game. Shootmania right now is ridiculously fun, but it feels like you are disconnected when you log in....as if you are just a lone person trying to jump in on someone's game.

You know, the definition of "Intuitive" is - Easy to use and understand. I hardly think hidden game modes, having to enter and exit multiple times to add friends, listing game modes as "titles" or having to add game modes from store even after purchasing the game is "easy to understand or use"

Just my 2 cents

[TheXPlaying]

Well, i guess you do have a point.

Unfortunately, like i said in another thread, NADEO is reluctant on taking references from others popular competitive games such as Dota 2, Starcraft 2, COD 4 & Counter Strike...

[lightdarkness]

I agree with all but the last point, exp is like a beta enviroment, its good to be there. (although sometimes elite matchamking servers look like a beta enviroment too

[RatskilleR]

Well, i guess you do have a point.

Unfortunately, like i said in another thread, NADEO is reluctant on taking references from others popular competitive games such as Dota 2, Starcraft 2, COD 4 & Counter Strike...

Sometimes reluctant to take references and sometimes make a copy of Quake3 Arena. Logic.

[nd23rin]

I think the above posters comment on (exp) proves my point...I get that its beta and Im fine with that. My problem is....where is that easily understandable?? How would you know if you just bought the game on steam?

[lightdarkness]

I think the above posters comment on (exp) proves my point...I get that its beta and Im fine with that. My problem is....where is that easily understandable?? How would you know if you just bought the game on steam?

If u just bought the game on steam there's a lot more you have to deal with than just that :C maybe a thread with all the links and info would be useful.