Maniaplanet Forum

Ok, I thought it may not be an actualy zbuffer error, I simply said this because it is the exact same in appearance. I was a 3D guy and N64 dev long ago and this is what zbuffer errors looked like in our engine and within programs like MAYA, etc.

I've heard that unsupported tools cause some weird issues but did not know it would appear so.

This is not a show stopper anyways, and not really that bad. Was unaware if it was known or not is all.

Thanks.

Very interesting topic! Thanks again Hylis for taking the time to listen to the community !

I have some ideas for the solo mode.

Official Mode
I've thought of some other ways to do official times :
-What if, instead of a try every 5 min, the player had a fix amount of tries every day? To give 12 tries per day to a player would be like 1 h of hunting for example.
-We could also receive a certain amount of tries depending of hours played. A player could played a few hours online, then go back to the solo mode and made some attempts without waiting 5 min. Of course one issue could be that some people would left the game opened...
-The 5 min delay could also be mixed with a system of saving : For example, for all 15 min since you did your last official attempt, you have another try, waiting-free, when you'll go back in solo mode.

Unofficial Ranking :
I saw when connecting to my Canyon account on a friend's computer that I could see my unofficial PBs. So they are registered somewhere in Nadeo's databases. And since it's really hard to do its best time in official mode and it's even harder to wait the Nadeo leaderboard on MX (just kidding ), why couldn't we see the unofficial ranking on each map, which doesn't allow player to won any SkillPoints. It could be for example, after World, Country, and Player's ManiaZone. But I wonder if it would be reliable, because of cheaters.

Uploading limit :
I got a really bad internet connection, and I often got upload errors after an official try. I can't even do an official time on E05 when my connection is at its best! So I wonder if it would be possible to do something about the maximum delay.

To Solo Players (or Hylis :p ) : Tell me if you want me to do a separate topic.

Ladder
The rank system in this game needs a serious overhaul. Trying to rank up after you have 60000 LP is a major pain, simply because not enough people play this game. Trying to find populated 60k+ servers is a challenge, especially for people in US timezones it seems. I know extremely talented players, players that should be ranked in the top 100, that are ranked around 5000 because they don't want to bother with finding populated 60+ servers.
In my opinion, a better ranking system would be something similar to Dedi, where you collect users lap times on maps across all servers, and then rank them based on how good their lap times are.
That way you don't need a full server to rank up, you just need to beat someone elses saved lap time.

ManiaPlanet Launcher
You need to revamp this launcher. Every time there is a compulsory update I have to update the launcher first, and THEN do another update for the actual game? And what is up with the amazingly slow update server? It takes me 10 minutes to download an 80MB patch? I have a 30Mb/s connection. This is ridiculous.
Also, this is a racing game which a ton of people use a controller to play with. How about making the launcher and the Trackmania2 menus a bit more controller friendly?

Good topic!

I agree with most of the mentionend things, the community rocks indeed , and after eyebo's excellent post, there's not much else to say, but since it's about "priorities" here I want to highlight some points and add a few I didn't see here (or I overlooked them). First of all I agree: Bug fixes before new features.

Not yet mentioned:
- "Hide too close" in Hot Seat doesn't work

- Please allow guest players (without an account) a "mini-profile": Just let them select a key/controller setting and a car skin (like in TMN or TMU), so they have more fun in Hot Seat or Split screen (and may decide "TM Canyon is a fun game, I will buy it to have full functionality!" ).

- Oh yes, and I wondered why nobody requested the water splash that is missing since the release of Canyon. This game has such nice graphics - as long as you don't fall into water


Priorities of already mentioned points:
- Like eyebo wrote: "Shadows need to be recalculated on all solo campaign maps to fix lightmap errors. Then the updated maps need to be pushed out to all clients without invalidating previous records."

- And yes: The highlighter around blocks you are placing is too bright when trying to create night tracks. That's really annoying.

- The file list is not visible when you first go to it.

- Properly working autosaves would be nice, too.

- And I agree: A quick-save button in the editor would be great, so we don't have to click through 4 or 5 menus (okay, that's a new feature, not a bug fix , but nothing complicated to program I think).

- Also true: When you calculate shadows and validate the map, the shadows are saved. If you calculate the shadows, save the map and close the editor without validation, the shadows aren't saved.

- Not everyone has a 16:9 screen. Please fix the eggformed icons for 5:4 screen owners.

One point where I don't agree: Changing the 5 minutes rule for official attempts. In my eyes it's good as it is now. I don't want to restart the discussion about that topic, it's only my opinion: I like this "Now it's for real"-feeling

Wishes
Some points from eyebo's post:
- Add the ability to create and delete folders as well as move tracks or replays into and out of folders.

- Two new sign blocks like 10-3-4. One with the sign off-center to the left and another one with the sign off-center to the right.

- A sign block like 5-1-4 but with the entire sign moved to the back of the block space so there is plenty of room to drive in front of it.

Oh, and I nearly forgot to agree: This coffee machine at the start line and some for planets, that's absolutely necessary

Thanks Nadeo for listening to us

AshsToAshs wrote:How about making the launcher and the Trackmania2 menus a bit more controller friendly?

eyebo wrote: - MEDIATRACKER -

Bug: "Preview ClipGroup" in "end game" mediatracker will always crash the game. This is a feature I used to use all the time to see how the replay cams flow together.

I'm pretty sure, I fixed that 2 or 3 weeks ago. Can you try again?

Already working on some bugs of your list (or already fixed for a future update). But that list is so long T_T

A couple more wishes of mine.

Advanced Video settings accessible in-game

There is a quite limited video settings in-game but it would be even more accessible if we had the advanced settings from the launcher in-game too. It would be way better than having to exit the game to set the graphics to lower or higher.

Map Overview in the solo campaign

I know that in the original TrackMania (at least the demo version) before playing a map, you could see it from the top similar to the editor mode (except that you can't place any blocks obviously). It would be nice to have this feature back, you can get an idea of what happens next in the track. For title packs this feature could be toggled on/off.

In Solo play:
I cannot see my personal best on a track, while I am racing it. Even though I can see the ghost of my PB, I cannot see the actual time of it. Please just add a time information on the top left as it was the case in TMUF.

Currently, we can only see our PB on the information screen on the right before loading the map

My priorities are:
- Fix skins cars.
- Since I live in Russia, I would like to see more high-quality translation. Not too like the word "maps", although it should be like this: "Карты/Карта"
- Can add effects, at the entrance to the water?
- Please adjust the shadows of some of the cars on the block. And then at some units are "stratified".
- Please make solo for offline mode.

wishes:
- Add new blocks of mountains and water. (medium size and small)
- Entrance to the tunnel with a double road. (To make it easier to enter)
- Another idea is the entrance to the tunnel. If there is no clear picture can show. : D (Remember the roads that run along the rocks (a canyon with water)?, So here. Why not make an entrance to a tunnel?)
No, I think without the picture is not clear.

- Please make 3d trees.
- More about the tunnels. How about a big (or not) to the caves? It is a large and beautiful space?

That's all. I hope I'm not too much I want.
Sorry for google...

Poutrel wrote: -What if, instead of a try every 5 min, the player had a fix amount of tries every day? To give 12 tries per day to a player would be like 1 h of hunting for example.

No thanks, I think this would be even more annoying than before on lucky tracks. Just keep the timer.

Poutrel wrote: I saw when connecting to my Canyon account on a friend's computer that I could see my unofficial PBs. So they are registered somewhere in Nadeo's databases. And since it's really hard to do its best time in official mode and it's even harder to wait the Nadeo leaderboard on MX (just kidding ), why couldn't we see the unofficial ranking on each map, which doesn't allow player to won any SkillPoints. It could be for example, after World, Country, and Player's ManiaZone. But I wonder if it would be reliable, because of cheaters.

I'd be okay with that, it would surely be an addition to the solo mode and also there might be more players motivated to hunt official tracks, because at the moment, only a few people are active in solo mode, what is a pity

Poutrel wrote: I got a really bad internet connection, and I often got upload errors after an official try. I can't even do an official time on E05 when my connection is at its best! So I wonder if it would be possible to do something about the maximum delay.

Yup, if it's possible to increase the delay time, it would definitely be awesome for people with slower connections, especially on long tracks like E05.