The game is just starting!

[TMarc]

isn't there an excuse for everything?

[xnorb]

To add something positive to my rather sad comments:

Yesterday i played on a server holding 60+ players.
Now that was pure TM feeling !

[AlexKF]

Having a server with 60+ players is nothing new on canyon. What would be the true TM feeling is having 150 players, 100 players, 80 players, 60 players and 50 players all in the top 5 servers, something that is very unlikely to happen.

[xnorb]

Well, 120+ is something that more or less was a phenomenon of TMN.
I don't remember racing against more than maybe 80 others in TMS/TMU.

[Trackmaniack]

Allow me to sum this up simply.
Free game > Paid game
Old game with established fanbase > Fresh game that tweaks things.
Now in this case, > doesn't mean better, it means its literal meaning, greater than. In my opinion, TM2 is a better game than any of the previous TMs. But we haven't seen all of TM2 yet, and TMNF (since, for some reason, everybody seems to have a penchant for comparing the two) has been out, well, since 2006, if you count ESWC. So please. Just be patient, everybody.
EDIT: Oh, and yeah. They fixed the lights. Yup. I'm late to the party on this one, I know. But it still rocks that, hey, they're still listening to their community. Um...I can't think of any other company that makes awesome games that does this, other than the limited beta-test squads. Yeah. They're fixing the game AFTER the beta, people. Nadeo: Rocks.

[xnorb]

and TMNF has been out, well, since 2006, if you count ESWC. So please. Just be patient, everybody.

I'm yet to see a game in which the population increases 1 year after release (except MMORPGs).
Usually peak population is reached in the first 2 months and then starts to drop.

Now we can of couse speculate that every new environment will also get at least a small ammount of players to
buy the old(er) environments too, increasing the population, but i wouldn't count on that.
Nowadays the lifespan of a game lasts 3 months at max before the random player switches to the next title,
leaving only the core community active.

Of course - Valley bring new players to TM², but it's uncertain if they then also will get TM²:Canyon.
If for example Valley is more challenging to drive (like Coast in TMS) the ammount of customers also getting Canyon
will be pretty low.


I still fear that this "selling every environment on it's own" is the complete wrong direction.

[firstdriver]

I'm still patiently waiting in the hope that TM2 will improve enough for me to enjoy it and for the servers have more of a variety of both tracks and play modes... TA is a real turn-off for me, as are no signs, narrow tracks and circus tricks Last night there was 68 players on less than 640 worldwide servers

[EnaiSiaion]

Maybe Nadeo/Ubisoft should simply call TM:C a failed
experiment and release a real Trackmania title with at least 3 environments and
3 game modes alltogether as a full game when they finished them all.

This. Previous TM games were all very good value for money, TM2 (although it is a good game despite the retarded narrow roads) is very bad value for money. Negative publicity -> bad sales -> no multiplayer -> worthless game.

Valley is not going to help and will do even worse until Nadeo figures out people want TM2 United with all environments for a reasonable price. Perhaps Storm will be better, because at least it will be new but why not buy a real discounted shooter? Nobody cares about a map editor in a shooter.

Questmania is their potential cash cow, if they go all out on offering as many tools as possible including map/item/spell/NPC/quest editors and a DM module, Neverwinter Nights style. If they decide to cut back on content ("back to basics") in order to sell other Questmania titles, well...

[isamu]

Maybe Nadeo/Ubisoft should simply call TM:C a failed
experiment and release a real Trackmania title with at least 3 environments and
3 game modes alltogether as a full game when they finished them all.

This. Previous TM games were all very good value for money, TM2 (although it is a good game despite the retarded narrow roads) is very bad value for money. Negative publicity -> bad sales -> no multiplayer -> worthless game.

Valley is not going to help and will do even worse until Nadeo figures out people want TM2 United with all environments for a reasonable price. Perhaps Storm will be better, because at least it will be new but why not buy a real discounted shooter? Nobody cares about a map editor in a shooter.

Questmania is their potential cash cow, if they go all out on offering as many tools as possible including map/item/spell/NPC/quest editors and a DM module, Neverwinter Nights style. If they decide to cut back on content ("back to basics") in order to sell other Questmania titles, well...

You make some good points, but in all honesty I reckon that there would be a lot more people playing the game if the controller input options weren't completely broken. I mean seriously....they are BROKEN!

Nadeo don't want their players to use ANYTHING but a keyboard or some gamepad to play this game. Which is funny, since it's a *driving* game, and I can't even use my sodding steering wheel properly. Absolutely pathetic. I've talked to many people who wanted to get into TM2 but couldn't, because they have steering wheels and the wheel support for the game is abysmal. No centering spring strength setting, no way to map analog controls properly, no way to delete controls you've already assigned, no support for separate analog gas and brake, no true force feedback support...I mean wtf...is it a driving game I'm playing or what?

I really REALLY hope they change this and revamp the control options entirely for valley.

[tcq]

Maybe Nadeo/Ubisoft should simply call TM:C a failed
experiment and release a real Trackmania title with at least 3 environments and
3 game modes alltogether as a full game when they finished them all.

This. Previous TM games were all very good value for money, TM2 (although it is a good game despite the retarded narrow roads) is very bad value for money. Negative publicity -> bad sales -> no multiplayer -> worthless game.
Valley is not going to help and will do even worse until Nadeo figures out people want TM2 United with all environments for a reasonable price.

A reasonable price? I can't recall 3x20€ being much, spent over at least 2 years. I mean, it's less cheaper than buying each year a new NFS product. An what about the "no multiplayer"? The game has a multiplayer mode and it works great (even if there some bug fixes needed).

You make some good points, but in all honesty I reckon that there would be a lot more people playing the game if the controller input options weren't completely broken. I mean seriously....they are BROKEN!

Nadeo don't want their players to use ANYTHING but a keyboard or some gamepad to play this game. Which is funny, since it's a *driving* game, and I can't even use my sodding steering wheel properly. Absolutely pathetic. I've talked to many people who wanted to get into TM2 but couldn't, because they have steering wheels and the wheel support for the game is abysmal. No centering spring strength setting, no way to map analog controls properly, no way to delete controls you've already assigned, no support for separate analog gas and brake, no true force feedback support...I mean wtf...is it a driving game I'm playing or what?

I really REALLY hope they change this and revamp the control options entirely for valley.

You get that this game is a real acarde game, don't you? If you want to play with analogue gas brake control, then go and play an simulation racer. I mean, what should it be doing good if they implement it and it will be giving you a significant advantage? Then only the players can be good at the game which bought such a steering device.
If you take a look at ralley on TMU. There you can be good with all devices, but it's get easier when you have a higher range in the sensitivity of your steering. And that already gave some player types (wheel, joystick) and enormous advantage over pad and keyboard players. Furthermore, as i already told in some other thread, there are good wheel drivers in this game which are able to perform well (even on tech maps). I don't know what you are doing wrong, but it's possible.