So, after a week. Hows the community so far?

[flunkorg]

I intended to get trackmania 2 the day it was released, but I gotta wait till next week (or, luckily, at the end of this week) so I'm curious how the community has grown so far.

Are the servers active?
How are custom maps doing so far? I gather there won't be much (in tm standards) in just a week.
Is the community dedicated to the new title?
Is there going to be custom skins like before?
I haven't done much research on this, but theirs this kind of "planets" economy system. How does that work in this game exactly? Is it like before where you could buy maps/skins/horns or have they expanded and improved on it?

I still intend buy trackmania2 canyon (and probably the other mania titles) but I'm curious how the community is reacting so far.

Any response would be appreciated.

[janculits]

You've been missing all the party - the open multiplayer beta is out since - hmm - 17th of august???

[flunkorg]

I only learned about that the day the game was actually released. And I was lucky to even see that. The lack of marketing for this game has been, odd. I have no idea how I even missed the beta or the release since I've been following this game since the announcement. Huh...

[eyebo]

I intended to get trackmania 2 the day it was released, but I gotta wait till next week (or, luckily, at the end of this week) so I'm curious how the community has grown so far.

It started in July with about 100 people in Beta1 (privately invited)
then about 300 people were invited to join in early August with Beta2
then in mid-August the public Multiplayer Beta started with Beta3
Anyone who preordered the game got in on that Beta3.
About 24,000 people played online and got some sort of ranking to enter the multiplayer ladder during the multiplayer beta.
The number of people in the online ladder is now around 40,000. Bear in mind there's probably some people who have not played online yet, and even if they have, they need to beat someone else in order to get a rank. So it's not necessarily a representative number for everyone who owns the game. But it gives some idea of people have actively participated online.

There are 17,000 people already on the Solo ladder. But then, most people haven't had the solo campaign until the release some days ago.

Are the servers active?

That much depends on the time of day. Presently the majority of users are still in Europe. So you'll find servers maxed out during the peak times over there. I get on all kinds of times though. Sometimes I'll see servers with over 50 people on them. Right now there's a server with 98 people on it. Some others with 67, 46, 44, 43, 39, 38, 29, 27, 27, 20, 20... etc. Quite a lot of people online right now.

Needless to say, there's always people to play with online. If previous iterations of TM are any indicator, that will remain true for the next 3 or 4 years, or even longer, and it's likely to get even more active with subsequent titles released.

How are custom maps doing so far? I gather there won't be much (in tm standards) in just a week.
Is the community dedicated to the new title?

There's already over 4000 maps on ManiaExchange. It's probably grown by 500 or so since the release. The quality of maps is generally quite high. Obviously it varies a lot depending on the author, but that's always been true. I've seen some really creative maps. Some people are using the blocks in very creative ways to make some truly entertaining maps. Others are making very simple maps, but ones that are crafted in such a way that you can really enjoy hunting a good time on them. Even some RPGs are being made. The blocks really tend towards making RPGs a lot of fun. The car physics is a whole new beast to tame when it comes to RPG-style maps, but I have a feeling that the RPG community will thrive with this new environment. We've already seen some incredibly environment mods by users like HawkGer (check the ManiaPark link below).

Regrding your 2nd question: It's TM, the community will always be dedicated to it. The question is, how big will the community be? I have a feeling the community will only grow as ManiaPlanet does itself and more titles are added. Even though the game is released, and there is a very active community here, it's likely only to get bigger with each subsequent release. We're looking forward to at least 8 more titles, 2 of which will be in TM².

Is there going to be custom skins like before?

Yes, custom skins AND models, as well as environment mods and ManiaScripts. Check out ManiaPark for that.

I haven't done much research on this, but theirs this kind of "planets" economy system. How does that work in this game exactly? Is it like before where you could buy maps/skins/horns or have they expanded and improved on it?

It's true you will be able to use Planets much like you could Coppers, but the system has also changed a bit. I still don't totally understand it. Hylis explained the whole thing in this post. You don't need Planets in order to get maps from ManiaExchange. But I think you can pay for some cars from ManiaPark. Mostly I guess it'll be used for ManiaLinks, although I think it also has some connection to ManiaCredits. Again, I'm still learning this stuff. I haven't put much time into understanding the relation between the two. You do get a daily allotment though, so I'm not too worried about running out. So far I've mostly spent Planets on buying additional buddy slots as you get a max of 50 to start with and can expand from there for 150 Planets per slot.

I still intend buy trackmania2 canyon (and probably the other mania titles) but I'm curious how the community is reacting so far.

There's a fair amount of criticism going on here on the forums about various topics. It's usually with the goal in mind to improve the game. Though some people just like to express their frustration due to their lack of skill on some portion of the game. They interpret it as the game being unfair. For instance, some people really dislike the narrow roads. I happen to love them. A lot of people dislike that official times in Solo mode now require waiting five minutes between tries (you can still practice on a map as much as you want). There still needs some refinement with that feature. There's some other things too if you roam around the forum. I have to say that by and large the game is quite polished and certainly good enough to have hours and hours of fun playing.

You have to think the most outspoken people are the people dissatisfied with some feature. The majority of people who are going along and liking everything just fine usually see no need to come to the forums and say how much they like it, though I have seen some do that.

Overall I think most people really enjoy Canyon. I've heard a lot of compliments about the game while playing online with people. Some people, like myself, like it just as much as any previous TM title. And I was an avid fan of every prior environment. Others like Canyon a lot, but will still focus on Stadium since they have such a passion for it. As with anything else, personal taste enters into the picture. And it's hard to say if a person will like it or not.

I find it a lot of fun. There's a big emphasis put on drifting to get better times, although noslide fullspeed is surely faster when possible. So it's balancing these two driving techniques and knowing when to use them will yield the best times.

Canyon is surely worth the price. But only a few days playing it will enable you to decide whether it's your cup of tea or not. The community will definitely be here to support you if you decide to continue with it.

[EnaiSiaion]

The rage about the price disguises the fact that you still get a freaking full featured racing game with a huge online community and a track editor for €20. That's the third best video game deal in the world (the first and second best deals being TMNF and TMUF).

______

The online community is doing fine. 3000 people online may not look like a whole lot, but it beats every other PC racing game. Also, unlike in other games you can join a server while a race is in progress, instead of only during a small window between races.

Moreover the server browser is misleading in two ways: by default it only shows servers in your own country, and it shows only servers at your own skill level and hides the others at the back of the list. Click around a bit and you will find a total of at least 10 pages of servers with 10+ people on them and a few dozen servers with 30, 50 or 100 players (I found a server with 255 people!).

______

About 100 tracks are released on MX daily. This is fewer than Nations Forever but then TM2 is a paid game. Assuming 80 of them are garbage, this still gives you a few hours of tracks to plow through each day.

[Trackmaniack]

Personally, I'm still going gaga about how beautiful TM2 looks--and how easy it is now to make your own beautiful screenshots and videos (for the latter you need to have a beastly PC, but still). Within 15 minutes I had already made a race, replay, and was shooting shots off of it just for fun.