What do you think of, expect, want in Shootmania?

[Trackmaniack]

Well, I think in this case, the unlockable might be replaced with the custom. The editors in here have always been really simple and user friendly. I may suck at 3D modeling, but with the imagination of the community, I'm sure there's a car designed like the one I want, and even ones I can't think of. Same thing with SM and QM. If there's not a sword out you want right now, wait a week and it'll be there. And everybody can paint. The in-game painter's only gonna get better with our suggestions, and so I'll bet it won't be long before the custom guns and armor are all over the place.

[pjw]

The problem with replacing unlockable with custom is that (to my knowledge?) there's never been any custom base elements in a Nadeo game. In other words, you can change meshes and skins all you want, but I'm guessing that you're not going to be able to make a brand new gun, for instance, with new range/spread/RoF and so on, or else the actual gameplay would potentially get unbalanced very quickly.

It would be like creating a new TM car that has better acceleration and higher top speed than any other car. It would break the game. To continue with the TM comparison, I would be happy to swap out engines, or tires, or adjust the suspension on cars (if those things were unlockable), and play with the associated pluses and minuses. It adds gameplay variety without allowing the user to actually break anything (assuming, of course, that those elements are correctly balanced when the game ships).

Although it's possible to have pure and non-pure servers and just throw the gates open, I'm guessing that Nadeo will continue to hold tightly to the basic skeleton of whatever game is released, and allow us to only change the flesh, the proportions, the aesthetics, as we like.

Of course I may be quite wrong.

[Timmeh7]

The problem with replacing unlockable with custom is that (to my knowledge?) there's never been any custom base elements in a Nadeo game. In other words, you can change meshes and skins all you want, but I'm guessing that you're not going to be able to make a brand new gun, for instance, with new range/spread/RoF and so on, or else the actual gameplay would potentially get unbalanced very quickly.

I really hope that we are able to make brand new guns. And because it would get totally unbalanced, the weapons should be bound to the map or a mod. I would love a system where you start with a gun (probably not so powerful) and pick up the others (this could also be integrated as a gamemode). And then you could use new guns and place them on the map. Too many of those created weapons would be bad, but I think there is so much potential with this way. With many different weapons, there is the possibility for many different gamemodes (for example you make a weapon which kills with one shot, give it to every player on the server -> InstaGib gamemode.) I dont know if I'm talking bullshit here but the concept of Maniaplanet makes me think of that whole custimization stuff.

[pjw]

You're right--that would add a lot more flexibility and a lot more potential variation. It would just be a bigger headache to make a game around that sort of system, because of that potential variation.

I actually hope it does go that way...I'm just guessing it wont. I'm guessing that Nadeo will continue with more of the same (obviously successful) formula, and not change things too radically. We'll see...

[Trackmaniack]

LOL I wasn't talking about the ability to totally change the base physics of the game...I was talking about the ability to change everything BESIDES that. For example: In the Trackmania we have now, just how many models are on carpark? Probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions. And each one of them is insanely different, right? But they all have the same -base-. Every car driven in stadium drives the exact same way, regardless of the model laid over it. I think it's gonna be the same general concept with Shootmania and Questmania. A sword is still a sword, a shield has specific properties, a sniper rifle is a sniper rifle, etc etc. Like, you couldn't mod a sniper rifle to shoot explosive rounds that level half the map like a rocket launcher, but you COULD model different parts over the base, and/or paint it with different colors. Just like the playermodel. You couldn't make yourself one floating pixel, cuz that would be cheating, of course, but there would be variance, for sure. At least that's how I think Nadeo's gonna do it.

[Timmeh7]

LOL I wasn't talking about the ability to totally change the base physics of the game...I was talking about the ability to change everything BESIDES that. For example: In the Trackmania we have now, just how many models are on carpark? Probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions. And each one of them is insanely different, right? But they all have the same -base-. Every car driven in stadium drives the exact same way, regardless of the model laid over it.

Yes, I know that, I just thought that this idea would be cool, too. It's unlikely, I know. And it wouldn't be cheating when everybody on the server can use it. I don't mean that you can build a gun and play everywhere.

[Trackmaniack]

Right. I was actually referring to pjw who was saying that the idea could be bad due to the possibility of cheating and unbalanced gameplay.

[AngelFred]

I think that the thing to make brand new guns would be cool if, as Timmeh7 said, everybody can use it. But it can also be a easy thing like skins in Counter Strike. You only have the appearance of the guns, armors,things that change. And this is cool because you can customize your thing like you want and people are not oblige learn a new gameplay with a new gun.
That's another thing. With brand new gun, you change the gameplay and people will have to always change their ability and never be Da best because the stats of each gun will always change. That would really not be good.

[Trackmaniack]

Again. People seem to be reading some of my post, but not the whole thing. Let me say this: Just like and Island car is an Island car, a Coast car is a Coast car, and a Bay car is a Bay car no matter what model you stick over it, in SM, the most logical path to take would be that a pistol is still a pistol, a MG is still an MG, a shotgun is still a shotgun, and a RPG is still an RPG. No matter WHAT skin you lay over it. There are hundreds of thousands of different types of guns, but they all fit into set niches...like how many different standard "pistols" are there? There's a revolver, a 9, a glock, etc etc ad nauseum. So even the "normal" weapons already out there give a ton of variety. Think how much more so there will be when the trackmaniacs get their hands on this game.

[Timmeh7]

Let me say this: Just like and Island car is an Island car, a Coast car is a Coast car, and a Bay car is a Bay car no matter what model you stick over it, in SM, the most logical path to take would be that a pistol is still a pistol, a MG is still an MG, a shotgun is still a shotgun, and a RPG is still an RPG. No matter WHAT skin you lay over it. There are hundreds of thousands of different types of guns, but they all fit into set niches...like how many different standard "pistols" are there? There's a revolver, a 9, a glock, etc etc ad nauseum. So even the "normal" weapons already out there give a ton of variety. Think how much more so there will be when the trackmaniacs get their hands on this game.

Nobody doubts that. But it doesn't have to be like in Trackmania where you can only make skins. It would be cool to be able to create new weapons (not only a skin), maybe for a gamemode. I know you weren't "talking about the ability to totally change the base physics of the game", I just thought it would be nice and threw it in here.