An open letter to Nadeo.

[haenry]

It seems that this titles-thing and ManiPlanet is mostly for the artists and the more creative part of TM, i really, really struggle to see what benefits i, as a player only, get from it.... I belive there is a viscious circle, MP is made for people who create stuff for other players, but there are hardly any players anymore for the artists to create anything for....... which also makes the artists go away.

I think Pedal made the right point!
Do something for the basic players of TM. Create deep gameplay experience with a long lasting learning curve to keep players playing for more than just a few months.
If the players stay for at least a year because the gameplay is diverse enough, the artists and creative players will start to come back automatically.
Additionally more players would start playing competitive and assemble in Clans, which binds them to the game for years.

• basic players: -play a short overall time (but can "evolve" into other types of players)
• competitive players: -stay for years and create (at least in parts) idols for basic players
• artists: stay for a very long time and add content, which benefits everyone!

Basic players are like plankton in the sea. If they're missing, the eco system's engine is missing, as everything relies on plankton. Plankton is the "engine" of the eco system. In the same way are basic players the engine of the MP-System.
(not a perfect analogy, but you get the overall idea of my opinion)

And if the harmonic circle is empty, it will remain empty.
Nothing can only create more nothing!

EDIT: It's not an easy thing to do, but I believe you can achieve this!!

[fleo]

As I understood, Nadeo's developing tools and basic modes and the community's creating deeper content. Nadeo's titles are examples, templates to inspire the community. You probably don't know but developers (not from Nadeo) are quite numerous imo and they're working on new modes. Some of them are just for fun and other aim to be competitive. It's not Nadeo's plan to create tools and content, they are already working so hard to give us good tools and the whole system to make it work.

I believe the demo release, or let's say when MP will become a free-to-play with a time limit per day, will bring a lot of players (with a good com from Nadeo, because as you said, TM and SM are not so fresh anymore) and some of these players will find the tools interesting and will create content. This new content will bring more and more players, and there is your circle

I know many players who were loving Elite but now are tired of this old mode. That's why I'm developing an alternative to this mode with feedbacks of players. Hopefully my mode will bring back some old lovers And I know other people who are working in that same direction.

I agree on one point, the release of MP3 was very uneven: amazing for mappers, programers and other content creators but very frustrating for players because it had no real impact of their gaming experience (except new textures). But be patient because the real goal of Nadeo is to have a complete game for the demo release. And it will be, because players will have developed new modes and hopefully new competitions like EPL will have take place.

That's why it's really not the good time to leave this community. If you like(d) one of MP game it's now the time to support it and you will collect benefits this summer! If you're "only" a player, maybe try to find some "content creators", they always need help. Or at least, try to play from time to time just to keep the boat at the surface

Hopefully my message will inspire some of you, see you!

[novationx]

spoken as a true poet
I agree completely

[Pedal]

Thanks for the post, it is absolutely, 110% for sure that it is because of you, and people like you, that MP at all actually even exist anymore……..

I see a lot of talk and requests about being patient, just be patient and wait and you will see…….

Well, for me, my biggest issues with the game, beside the amount of active players, I reckon is lightyears away from even making it to the “to-do-list”, as Hylis has said that this is not important for Nadeo/MP.

I cannot enjoy the game with only FXAA which suffers from sub-pixel aliasing as this is the only kind of AA available for the render they use in their Nice/Very Nice shader-option. I pay a lot of my hard earned money to buy computer equipment that is able to cope with the latest technologies and to be able to play my games with all eye-candy on highest settings. As this is in the “backbone” of the game, there is really nothing a community-modder can do for me and graphics quality is not important to Nadeo so I guess I am stuck lol.

As for the Demo, personally I am afraid that it is coming too late, that the game has lost too many players already. This may very well be because of my own negativity towards the game right now so let’s hope for MP, Nadeo and the community’s sake that I am wrong and this all will be blooming in x-amount of years for those who are patient.

For me there are plenty of other games I can play, enjoy and challenge my computer with so I will for sure and easily survive… .

I wish you all the best of luck, keep up your good work and most importantly; be patient…. .

Over and out from me.

de Pedal.

[fleo]

I know you're right, I was so disappointed when I bought a new computer mainly for SM and I saw that FXAA and other graphic glitches... I started playing Shootmania 2 years ago and some issues from there are still here and that's very frustating and I agree about the fact you cannot say to players to be patient, they won't be, they'll just move to another game.

Imo that's not a problem, I'll stay on SM as long as I find something fun to do, and I'll eventually leave it if everyone else leave. But I'll come back for a reason or another because I love that game. I've stopped playing it for 6 months and now I'm back because of MP3, hopefully you'll be back for the demo

[Alcator]

As I understood, Nadeo's developing tools and basic modes and the community's creating deeper content.

You see, this is where I think you're wrong.

If this were the case, then Platform would not be a separate STATION; instead, it would just be a simple script that we can add to our NORMAL maps (in any environment), thus changing the LOGIC/GAMEPLAY of any track (Stadium, Valley or Canyon, currently) into a Platform track.

Furthermore, now that Nadeo has finally allowed Car-Mixing in Canyon and Valley, we would be able to make PLATFORM maps with Car-Mixing.

But no! That would, obviously, be too "Unreal Tournament (1998)" and its Modifiers...

Instead, I have to have Canyon, and Stunters, and Platform as separated stations, and when Nadeo releases MultiEnv station, OF COURSE it does not apply to Platform or Stunters...

====
BTW, thank you for the Mysterious update 2014-06-05, which contains undisclosed "fixes", but sadly, I STILL CANNOT VALIDATE NEW PLATFORM TRACKS! That is just brilliant: A new station is released 2 weeks ago, and since then, I cannot release new Platform tracks.
====


*Sighs with frustration.*

[fleo]

I guess Platform is a pack because of its solo campaign and I know Nadeo's trying to turn every TM modes in scripts so I guess again it's their goal to make platform maps as easy to create as others.

About the update of today, a short changelog is in the topic of the updates of mp3.

[stevenamtaan]

The following points are probably some of the most correct and important articles I have read here in these forums for quite some time now. Sooo many players and 'artists' have given up or have had enough of MP.

It seems that this titles-thing and ManiPlanet is mostly for the artists and the more creative part of TM, i really, really struggle to see what benefits i, as a player only, get from it.... I belive there is a viscious circle, MP is made for people who create stuff for other players, but there are hardly any players anymore for the artists to create anything for....... which also makes the artists go away.

I think Pedal made the right point!
Do something for the basic players of TM. Create deep gameplay experience with a long lasting learning curve to keep players playing for more than just a few months.
If the players stay for at least a year because the gameplay is diverse enough, the artists and creative players will start to come back automatically.
Additionally more players would start playing competitive and assemble in Clans, which binds them to the game for years.

I think the Nadeo team need to look more closely at these issues if they ever intend to try or get back even just a small percentage of the many players and "artists" who have left this game. Just having patience... .. and waiting for an undisclosed number of years .. .. for things to become better is just not going to
"cut the cake"... .. for myself and many many others.

There are many great games that are offering a wide diversity of gameplay experiences and the latest one for me is called "Watch Dogs"... ..

[Alcator]

As I understood, Nadeo's developing tools and basic modes and the community's creating deeper content. Nadeo's titles are examples, templates to inspire the community.

IF this is really what Nadeo is trying, then I'd expect this:

1. "Open source" and "well documented" approach.
What does that mean? PLATFORM is a "custom mode" which changes a racing game into a "parkour/steeple" game. Great inspiration and I can imagine something like this done for ShootMania (instead of "kill everyone", it would be "get to the other end in the least amount of time"), but in order to be able to script something like that, I need to be able to study and understand how PLATFORM is made. So, where's the script? Where is the documentation?
If someone wants to learn PHP, a scripting language, all they need to do is type "PHP tutorial" into google. What happens when you type "ManiaPlanet script tutorial" into google? You _maybe_ will find http://konte.org/trackmania/maniascript ... ation.html , which won't really help you much.
If you are really brave, you might try googling "platform mode script", which will, sure enough, lead you to GitHub, where you find the script code, but (of course) no instructions on how to use it.
Another example: What does "Rotate reference frame" mean (when placing triggering cubes of MediaTracker clips)? What does "Editting cut" mean (as type of clip contents)?

I'm thinking about what's happening in NADEO offices, and can't wrap my head around it: Some programmer spends hours, days or weeks implementing a feature ("Rotate reference frame"), and when he or she is done, they - what? Tick a checkbox in their tasklist, and that's it? Would it really kill anyone if they would shoot a 3 minute video "How *Rotate reference frame* works in Trackmania" ?

2. Significantly more things should be possible in the editor itself (and they should be well explained, tutorials should be available - see above).
For instance, asphalt track tiles will have a fence at the edge, if they are not connected to another asphalt track tile. Why can't there be 4 checkboxes [X] Fence WEST, [X] Fence EAST etc./ Why do I need to actually activate blockmixing, then place a concrete block underneath, then delete it to get rid of the fence?
Why can't I record 4 medal ghosts and embed them into a track I've built? Why do I either need to "fake" this with in-game MT (which means I will never get a perfect Author time ghost), or put the track into a "Title Pack".

[Cerovan]

1. "Open source" and "well documented" approach.
What does that mean? PLATFORM is a "custom mode" which changes a racing game into a "parkour/steeple" game. Great inspiration and I can imagine something like this done for ShootMania (instead of "kill everyone", it would be "get to the other end in the least amount of time"), but in order to be able to script something like that, I need to be able to study and understand how PLATFORM is made. So, where's the script? Where is the documentation?

For the first case, you haven't search very long, there is a link to the Platform sources on the page presentation: http://shootmania.com/platform (direct link: http://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic. ... 21&t=28626)

For the second case, we have planned to communicate about the Maniaplanet documentation next week (the documentation has been revamp this summer but waited September to talk about it).
You can find it at this address: http://doc.maniaplanet.com

You should everything to learn to code in ManiaScript and many others things. The weak points of this documentation for now is the Map Editor and the MediaTracker but it'll be fixed later