Reduce Shootmania's possibilities. Focus your resources.
- Map Editor
- 4-5 Modes (1 or 2 for esports, 2-3 casual)
No titlepacks and everything that it includes. I know it's a very harsh approach that 90% of you will not like. Implementing the "channels-system" was a great idea to focus the remaining resources. But in my opinion, it wasn't enough because Maniaplanet simply offers too much to canalise your resources on a certain thing by adding channels. So, these are the main reasons for my idea:
- Less possibilities means less devs that are necessary
- Less possibilities means less bugs
- Less possibilities means more players on one thing and thus a thriving & healthy playerbase
- Less possibilities means a more comfortable environment (no mess, no chaos, everything is clear and understandable)
Imagine you double click the Shootmania client and you see a welcoming screen with only a circle (that represents the planet) which is divided into two halfs: "Play" & "Create". And a nice background animation. You click on "play" and chose between ranked or casual. You join the queue and you play when the queue is over. You click on "create" and you immediately join the map editor. On the top right corner is a little buttom with personal/social stuff like changing username, chatting with friends etc. That's it!
Successful example of this approach mentioned above:
- Trackmania Nations (forever)
=> It offered 1/10 of what TM offers now. But it had 10000/1 players
=> It offered way less but it was easy to dive in
=> It had a cleaner interface because it offered less
etc.
I know that you dont like this idea
You dont like this solution because it removes all the wonderful gifts that were brought to us over the last years. Action maker, mesh editor, maniascript etc. But please think rationally/economically and don't let your emotions blind you. Think of a relationship. You like a person very much. Maybe even love. But he/she guided you on a path that harms you. Drugs, losing your job, social isolation. Then you have to let your feelings go and do a harsh but necessary approach. Get rid of her/him. For
greater good
In the end
We can build up from this reduced SM version. If this game has gathered a nice and stable foundation of players, we can
slowly add more stuff. Like adding a mesh editor to the map-editor. Or a more "open" map editor. I would like to emphasize on "adding slowly" because if you try to accelerate the process of growing a plant (too much water/sunlight/nutrition), then it dies.
I haven't studied game design or anything. I am not experienced as Nadeo or any other game developer. This solution is made up from my own experiences because I personally think that we spend too much time on unnecessary things while forgetting the important things in life. Having a simple life helps you on finding the right and valuable things you need to spend your time on. Less is more
Greetings,
Soprah