Maniaplanet Update #3 information

[Hylis]

It's quite like chris & thatoneguy said. We know some experts and there are many fields: scripts, hosting, maps & mediatrack etc. There could be also different phases, where we welcome more players after, either directly, either with people inside the beta being capable to invite other players to make tests. What we have seen is that the more there are players the less the feedback are good.

pksens, I answered to you, by saying that the GA is important and that we can not change the gameplay 1 month before, and have the risk to have bugs during weeks of preparation. It would not be a good thing at all. And 160 people that travel to there is enough to be considered. To say it's a shame is like a judgement that is useless in a good communication. You seem to try to defend your way of doing, but I still believe that being constructive is good. I made mistakes in trying to determine when things would be done, but the efforts of the team are great to make maniaplanet as good as possible in the time given.
pksens, I should add that you make good reports, but it looks like your goal is not to help but to attack. There are exagerations and the risk of making us lose our time because of this in a test. We had many reports for hitbox, and each time we looked on the server side replay, there were no issue. And if you expect the server to have the exact same position as the client, it would mean to ignore the whole concept of speed of information. We are going to make improvemetns in the netvision part of things, with the next update, and be sure we will look at having it as stable as possible for when you put your hands on it. And I don't say all is perfect, but we need players with test abilities, not attack abilities.

There is also a tradition of making some 'forum skill' games, named the "stupid games" They are made to give chance to new players to be part of the beta and discover it. It's between a lotterry, community & deductive skills games. And they are at least motivated enough to stay a night long to do stupid games ^_^ It's often some of the best testers that come out of it, and it's good to know that anybody have a chance during these games.

I don't know when or if I would do stupid games, but I would like.

We never really invited on the rank of the players in the ladder. But having expert in some modes may be a good thing. However, it would come with time, since it would be too many people to start with (enough siege players to host a regular match of siege during the tests + Elite + etc.)

[fng_thatoneguy]

Curiosity question:
For those that do get selected to participate in the beta... will their updated client still be able to connect to existing non-beta servers with other non-beta clients? Or will they only be able to connect to beta servers?

I ask because those that wish to still play with everyone else may need an extra computer to keep the older game client on to be able to live in both ManiaPlanets, correct?

(Or can the beta get installed to a different path on the same computer and both versions can be run from the same computer?)

That will be good to know for the beta testers so they can plan their environment accordingly.

[TheM]

Curiosity question:
For those that do get selected to participate in the beta... will their updated client still be able to connect to existing non-beta servers with other non-beta clients? Or will they only be able to connect to beta servers?

I ask because those that wish to still play with everyone else may need an extra computer to keep the older game client on to be able to live in both ManiaPlanets, correct?

(Or can the beta get installed to a different path on the same computer and both versions can be run from the same computer?)

That will be good to know for the beta testers so they can plan their environment accordingly.

Past experience (and I think I read it somewhere ...) says there will be a different instance on which you can test MP, which you can install alongside your current installation.

[Hylis]

There will be another setup for another folder. Both can be used. The updater will udpate the beta during the tests and udpate the main distribution when going open.

[fng_thatoneguy]

Awesome, thanks to both of you for the clarification!

[wawawawu]

Although i am very impatient, waiting for the new Stuff, i also know that it's better to have a stable game than an earlier game. And i agree totally with hylis that it would be a great mistake to run the update a few weeks before that Event. In that case i can wait, 'cause it makes sense to me.

And i wanna say to all that notorious complainers out there: stop moaning and let us all be part of progress to be taken seriously and making this game better, step by step.

Back to the serious side of live... I really look forward to that update, and i hope we'll see an extensive promotion to hold gamers in game and fill the servers with new gamers from all over the world, not only in Elite...

[kripkee]

With being rank 1 in europe I should be selected

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I liked the way in alpha 1 from shootmania with the groupsystems and groupleaders. I think this was quite good and the leaders of them could filter allready reported things. Whatever, I would like to see some screenshots like the maniaplanet 3 menu or something like that to feed the user.

Edit: I can wait, it's done when it's done [TMarc, your sign pls^^]

[pksens]

Hello and greetings! Regarding server side versus client side, that is my current focus.- that there are sometimes discrepancies that I am exploring. I hope you see the message as constructive and not attack based! Maybe our differing native languages can cause some misinterpretations - some of the reports feature personal frustrations but I have to repeat that I want them to be constructive and I want the game to do well, I want the game to have as best an engine it can be for everyone. Even though this is the end of beta 3, I have the need to collect data because it would be good to compare to your 'Beta 4' (I don't know how you term it).

Simply we have different opinions over GA -this is fine. In the previous iteration of the game you introduced Beta 3 whilst allowing for server options with 'Beta 2 mode'. This allowed tournaments to feature Beta2 mechanics whilst you rolled out Beta3 and gave it life. You could have that situation where you roll out 'Beta 4' and keep a Beta3 server setting in case it isn't 100% ready for tournament. If not, hopefully the closed beta will be swift & fast.
Keep up the good work.

[Hylis]

- it's too complicated to keep code compatibility for such big updates
- I saw your video already, and it's positive. At least, it's obvious that you can not have the same visual on a server than on a client, since they have distance of information to cross. Thanks to netvision, you will have a closer match from both.
- you know we are not in beta, and you are in the topic named: update #3. It's internally named maniaplanet 3, but it could be seen as well as 1.3. You know 1.6, it was the version of a popular game

Things take time, and having more and more capable players to follow, understand, detect & report topics is also something that takes time to have, and a great plus to make a great game.

You can not say that we have different oppinion on the GA and still keep your judgement of saying "it's a shame" like if there is only one truth to be judged. If you would have said that you believe it to be a mistake, it would have been simplier from the start. As easy as that. We can not make a solid game without being precise, and I expect the same with the people that discuss on it, even if the langage barrier is complicated indeed.

And stay vigilant, make reports, become experts of the timings/delay/parameters as much as you want, it's really a big plus for everybody there. When you will have the update, I hope you will see how we work to make things better also for stuff that you look after: hitbox, netvision, elite code etc.

[-Zenit-]

I would love to get invited *_* but there is one problem: i dont feel they need the help of the testers. I was B2 tester for canyon and got a random shootmania key. I posted always the same problems in the 2 betaforums but the problems are STILL! in the actual game.

I can only speak for mappers but the real problem is you fix this game for players and not for mappers... the editor itself is really frustrating to handle.

So i dont see any reason for this betatest. You fix bugs but a keypoint of trackmania (the editor) is not worth to change? :/

i would give you feedback too but i know it will be unheared