Beta 3 RC1

[Xeiom]

Hey Folks,

I've done myself some playing of this update and I'm going to say that there isn't anything I don't like about it??? Keep going guys, you are making the right choices about how to develop this game and trying the new elite mode has caused upset (that's how you know you're doing it right)

Just because I like the update doesn't mean it doesn't have its kinks

I've been playing some b3elite and the first game I played was the single most fun I've ever had in the game.

Little elite problem, these new options have broken some of the maps ^^ We saw this from Beta 1 to 2 when people could walljump to places not originally intended for jumping but now certain maps from the ipl and esl map pool have become massively damaged from the new addition (this doesn't mean change it back, it just means we'll need new maps) - People are claiming this is not balanced but that would imply in a game with equally skilled players on both teams no-one would make an attacking round but most of the claims here imply one team dominated the other which means a skill gap or tactical error.

I think the laser might need a bit of a balance tweak for defence, if you hit the attacker then that laser comes back awfully fast now, maybe the restored amount should be lowered or removed. (I think we'll need some beta3 maps before we can truly see what's the solution or if this is fine) - laser is actually very weak at stopping flag steals but very strong on long open maps

Nuc is in some circumstances horrific to fight against due to the fast reloading on hit (two people can pretty much lock the attacker off the flag with nucs) but I figure you should probably just kill one of the nuc users so this weapon seems to be fairly reasonable, I don't feel obligated to take it and I don't feel that there is no uses for it.
The nuc can cause close range +0's and displace the defender in elite, something I've missed!

Some of the Realm gameplay has been amazing, great addition. Nice skyboxes, musics swish.

Recommendations:

Rockets are cool, they are rockets. We know them and stuff, I'd love to see how restoring half ammo on self hit affects gameplay though(let players move more with rockets) - Just an idea.

I've fiddles with settings and can't seem to turn player skins off without losing their custom horns, I'd really like to have the horns without having camo'd enemies.

Separate options for forcing colours between team and free-for-all modes. I really like everyone having custom colours when it's free for all but I'd like to force their colours during elite/siege.

Multiplayer Map editing


Bugs:

It's possible for the lightning icons to be stuck on your screen (I think its when you have allys using laser in defence, its your attack next and the enemies don't use laser at all to defend)

Menu's occasionally glitch which you keep pressing the same button

Replays don't seem to be saving everything in elite mode(possibly others)

snapshotdelta says "label" needs to be removed

having problems activating beta2 balance on our servers :s

custom corsairs being reverted to default when in the options for corsairs (even if you don't change anything)

[dmi]

Haven't read the comments before me, but I'm quite sure most of the people agree - The new Elite settings are horrible. Thanks for making it possible to change back on the server on the fly, at least we can play normal games now

Seems like the new Elite is kind of a 'fun' gametype, might be good for Storm or something, but nothing more. Balance issues, the constant wallhack kills the skill of the game, grappling hook - something that comes from the previous patch - is now useless due to the laser defenders... It indeed opens new tactics - like 3 laser defenders camping in the spawn, 3 nucleus guys hiding on the pole and then killing the attacker easily due to the abnormal hitbox of nucles (even reloading = infinite ammo), and stuff like that...

So - to be honest - Elite has become horrible, no wonder no team is searching for a B3 Elite game, all are playing with the old settings.

Now, the positive things - everything else is freaking great! Thanks for the optimisations, I love the new graphics (except for when there is a bug when trees go black) and the UI tweaks - keep up the good work!

[Iaminflames]

I've been following this thread since it strated, and I guesse its my turn to give MY personal feedback.

0. Major CPU optimizations, including the removing of the debug information that accelerate the execution.:
Complete 10/10 on that one, it's flawless. For some one like myself who used to have FPS problems this is
fantastic.I am absolutley in love with this part of the update as it gives for more smoother gameplay
and more enjoyable time.

1. Gameplay: Instant reload of half an ammo when you hit someone:
This has it's plus and its minus side.For example: If you are atacking and you have 3 rushers agaisnt you that
would assist you to murder all of them in no time(GIven that you have some skill)How ever in the last 15 seco-
nds whiles the pole can be caputerd that might create a disbalance-as allot of deffenders sacrifice one of their
own so they can rush in and kill the atacker.
From the deffence side...ugh...well right now i cant give my opinion on that one as with the choice of weapons
this makes everything completley unbalanced, As the nucleus has a very long reload time, but if it hits it reloa-
ds 50%, thus giving it amost an instant use after a 99.999 chance of hit.If it were for only rockets tho-that would
be great.

2. Land or water decorations, and 8 lighting moods instead of 4. Major textures update.:
Gorgeous, absolutley awesome. Allot of maps are very light thus allowing players to see what they coulden't some-
times before.I think thats a great edition. It would make it much cooler to spectate or to make a frag movie as
its not just a plane wall but it has some texture adding to the "Futuristic esc tv/sport show".Absolutey loving it.

3. In-game UI features, update and libraries. Markers can now be manialinks. Improved score tables.:
Im not too keen on that to be honest.I loved the former UI and it was great...and the scoretablets are a complete
mess right now as you have 4 graphs (rockets, lasers,nucliai(?), and atacks) and its very messi, to be honest,
it woudlve been a clever idea to keep it as it is...it gives it more detail which is kind of awesome but if you have
the 3 weapon choices its well...it dosent give you as an exact overview as it would be for.Aka nucliai (?) only in
tunels lasers only on pads etc, that would give better overlook on waht youve done wrong or where not to go, simpe as.

4. New mode: Realm. The team with the most poles continuously score and needs the confirmed majority to win.:
Haven't played that, therefor I won't give my opinion on it.

5. Elite mode: defense can now select their weapon. If they select laser, attacker always locates them.:
Argh...now....Don't fix waht's not broken.The balance used to be perfect.Atackers used to know where to be wary
of lasers or nucliai (SERIOUSLY CAN SOME ONE TELL ME HOW TO WRITE THE DAMN THING edit from Hylis: Nucleus), but now its all over
the place.Yes, the ligtning gives some idea of where the atacker is-But unless you're a god you cant hit 100%
and if you have 3 deffenders with laser your pretty much skrewd.All together I think this is the worst part from
this update and is the only thing that has to be change, in the end of the day thats just my opinion.

6. Battle mode: Battlewaves renamed Battle. More information on atk/def score. Unique point of engagement.:
Sorry what, Did i miss somthing ...no actuly i probabbly didin't, once a gain I am not sure of this point therefor
i cant give my opinion on it. (if its the scoreboard i already said waht i had to say)

7. Gameplay consolidation: more precise walljumps, more acceleration and constant jump from wetwood:
We asked for it and we got it.Absolutley amazing.Some jumps that weve masterd however are now alittle bit off
but since its more precise we can learn them anew.This is great. Nothing more to it

8. Updated autobalance function that takes into account the result of the last match.:
Thats awesome-a cool new edition that not allot of people will take advantage of since in competitive games
or premade games its already balanced...sorta...But for public its great. It gives alittle bit more chance for
the unexpirienced players, and alowes them not to get roflstomed like...like....(insert something stupid here)

9. Elite matchmaking with lobbies.:
Thats cool-I think it would help make eveyrhting abit more organised not sure how much as i havent used it all
that much, but if it could be pretty awesome if it repaces IRC completley *Fingers-crossed* you keep developing
it

10. Musics:
Thats good.However as of writing this allot of people have a bug where the music dosen''t stop even mid game
which is VERY annoying for people like myself who play mainly with sound.I on the onther hand just diabled the
music completley so its not such a big deal...But as it is a bug (I hope) fix it please.

11. Advanced sound balance: decrease the volume first decrease the rocket trails and explosion.:
Cool, again-I play allot with sound and someitmes the rocket and nucleous explosion were distracting as they
were so very loud.Thank you for listening to your community once more.

12. Players are suggested to add the server they are leaving to their favorite:
Sure...good..wahtever...LET ME TURNI IT OFF DAMN IT. Its quite pointless if your playing competitive as
you play on so many servers each day, and at a point you just get annoyed with it...it would be great
if there were an option to turn it off that would make it even better (dont hold it against me if there is one)

13. Bunkers have a starting block without the camera zoom purposingly.:
Bunkers?:D

14. Some enhancements in the editor, like being capable to put blocs on top of others over zone frontiers.:
I dont use the editor, never have and probabbly will at some point.But as i dont know how it was before,
i cant judge it in its current state.

15. More trees and the ability to slightly change tree colors:
PRETTY COLORZ. Yes please, it adds more stuff and more interesting features to the map-thus making it more
interessting for the player and specatator.Tweaking the samall things is always very impressive so thank you
for that.

16. Away from keyboard management in script. Now put in spectator, with a resume button displayed
Thats ok i guesse.I mean if your afk you woudlve been voted to be kicked or moved to specator anyways,
so that just makes it easyer i guesse:D

17. A function determine the beginners and enable scripts to help them. Invite your clumsy friends ^_^:
I damn straight will, and than laugh at them...and feel like a bad person...ill just go cry in a corner now...
No but in all seriousness if the script explanes the indepth movement system that would help newbies allot
so thats a great edition for starting players

18. Rankings of buddies:
Yay....now i can...feel bad about myself No but that would give for alittle bit more competitivness in
friendly zones.I remember playing with a coupple of friends on trackmania:Nations.We played for
10 hours staight and we were competing with eachotherses times...SO this could make it a tad more
entertaining.

19. Continental ladders:
Whats wrong with the world ladder!? Meh i guesse im ok with that

20. Lan mode:
All good, cool new edition, lets see how it works out.

This is just my personal opinion on the update.I Don't care if youll flame me about it (funny considering my name)
For everybody that just goes all out to say "YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED IT ENUGH" i have.And for everybody that says
that this update is great and that were all wrong, well sk!!!w you its my own damn opinion.

This game has become something fantastic and i want to keep it taht way.Keep up the great work nadeo,
and please don't go too overboard like Nexiuz.Im quite curious how the new maps will look tho:D

Once again thanks for all the the hard work put into this, and good luck keeping it as good as it is

Don't hold any mistakes agasint me im not English:D

[Hylis]

thanks xeiom for the complete feedback and finding the little glitches

[Hylis]

thanks Iaminflames for the complete feedback. We made so much work in it that it is pretty cool to see each point with comments. Continental rankings are made for people with too distant location for ping or timezone to avoid being locked in a region where the ladder is growing more slowly. Otherwise, the top 100 players from the world would more likely to be in the most populated region of players. It is a little like Elo where top players have to meet the others. We tried to fix this in TM with Sunday afternoon and no ping issues, but I believe it is better with continental approach now.

[Iaminflames]

You are more than welcome.Thanks for commenting on the continental lader thingi.Also thanks for the great work,
and keep it up

[Hylis]

I also answered your question about the Nucleus in the text.

your comment where funny sometimes by the way

And yes, I forgot to say, but the Elite Lobby thing will arrive tomorrow I think. It should have been in the last 3 features. I will modify it now.

And I think we may have to do something for the favorite server window pop up, at least for the lobby thing that will send you on sub servers.

[Iaminflames]

IM not too serious of a person im glad you enjoyed it and im glad i could get my opinion out there:D

[dreammyw0w]

Hi Nadeo,
Here is my constructive feedback of beta 3. ( Im an Elite player so I'll only focus on Elite. )

CATEGORY
SCREENSHOT
-PROBLEM
-->SOLUTION#1
-->SOLUTION#2
*suggestion


@HYLIS: Any feedback on my custom scoreboard/HUD
If u want to read more go to :http://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic. ... 96#p142096


THE GUI ( the menus , not ingame )
http://www.imgdumper.nl/uploads6/5116bb ... 3c0a-1.jpg
Everything looks sharper, more crips & better. So that's good! I can read text better.
BUT
-There are different styles everywhere and that shouldn't be the case...
--> Its a futuristic shooter, so everything should look like that.


THE HUD(ingame)
SUGGESTED HUD/SCOREBOARD : http://www.imgdumper.nl/uploads6/5117d8 ... eboard.jpg


NADEO HUD/SCOREBOARD : http://www.imgdumper.nl/uploads6/5116ee ... ardold.jpg


The Style & Feeling of the HUD & Scoreboard are good. It looks good. They have the same style.
But :

- Use a default avatar! This makes the scoreboard + chat + killfeed + names ( left & right) look better.
--> Design something nice in Photoshop
-->A blue SM logo for the blue team // A red SM logo for the red team
-->A blue character // A red character

- The Nadeo Logos are pixellated.
--> Change it.
--> Remove it. Why would you put the logo ingame 24/7? we have the Nadeo logo in the menus...

-The Shield is empty. Why?
--> Let your graphics designer create something cool to put on it.
--> Just put the text "VS" on it like you did on the scoreboard.


THE SCOREBOARD
-RED vs BLUE at the top of the scoreboard is ugly. Plain text is ugly.
--> Design this!!
*I know its a variable. Sometimes the text can be a teamname or something, but in 95% of the games its BLUE vs RED. So design this.

-The name of the attacker at the top of the scoreboard is redundant. You gave his name a red background already + You add his name a 2nd time on the top of the scoreboard with a bigger font. You're doing the same thing twice...
-->Remove one of both.

-The name of the attacker is too big & shows over the VS-shield.
-->Remove it.

-The text at the bottom of the scoreboard is badly aligned and/or doesnt have enough room. + What should have a big font and what not?
--> Nobody cares about "turns won". Make it smaller or remove it.
-->The "longest laser" is the most important stat. This should be the biggest.
-->"Point limit" & "Points to win" should be smaller because its almost always 9 & 15.


THE GRAPICS INGAME
Aight. It takes some getting used to, but its okay!
Some maps look weird and werent designed with this change in mind. Some maps will need to be changed for sure.


THE WEAPON SELECTION SCREEN
http://www.imgdumper.nl/uploads6/5116c5 ... 32d7-3.jpg
-weapon selection screen has a totally different look & feel than the game itself. = BAD
--> Give it the shootmania style, like the HUD.
--> Show an image of the weapon. A lot of players dont even know what a nucleus is.

THE MUSIC
I love the song, but I dont like the fact that I can hear the music when Im playing this competitive game.


THE GAMEPLAY
The game runs smoother, but maybe this is in my head.

Suggestions :
*Delete the laser as a defensive weapon. Even the nucleus should be removed. I prefere the old gameplay.
Railpads are useless & It was cool that you could only use the nucleus in tunnels. Its weird now.
Even after getting used to it! I will always prefere the old gameplay.
You shouldnt change the game so drastically, but , in stead , perfect the things you already had.
I think it could work for a 3n3 situation.

But ill keep testing it and give you my opinion later.

-The precise walljumps are good^^ Ty.


THE PERFORMANCE
I did not notice faster loading times.
I did not notice an increase in CPU performance.
I did not notice any FPS drop/increase.
This game just runs perfect on my system since forever. I always have 140fps, no matter what I do.


OTHERS
-No SNAP showing in the analyser.
-->add it back
*Suggestion : Show FPS + Shows SNAP + show PING. Remove the audio.

-Elements of the serverbrowser showing in the loadscreen.
--> Remove these

-Why cant I spec who I want?
--> Let me choose who I spec.


--------------------------------------------------------------------


Currently you have 4 styles :
1) The ManiaPlanet Portal
2) The Title design ( the server browser etc )
3) The Ingame Shootmania Style
4) Other styles like plain text etc.

This should be :
1) The ManiaPlanet Portal
2) The game ( Shootmania )
This is , imo , the biggest problem with the game atm.

[Omnixor]

after playing some battle, imho the new scoreboard is hardly readable and too clumsy... too small avatars, too dark background, too many unnecessary numbers. and home/end doesn't work for switching pages any more!