Maniaplanet Forum

Cerovan wrote:how it's the best way to make a multi-environment server without annoying too much (or not at all) the players who don't have Valley (or another Title)?

If a player is on a server and does not have the enviroment, he gets kicked.

Players usualy remember which enviroments they have and which they have not. So they will pick servers that play only the enviroments they have installed.

( Also, you will probably sell more copies of each individual enviroment this way )

100% agree with Zarexz

Hylis wrote: You just have to understand that it is a complicated question and that our answers will come in a timely manner. Multiple environments titles are to be expected, so are multiple environments servers. I just don't want to commit to things that we have not done yet since there are sometimes surprises and negative players around to tell us how slow we are to do things, even if we are working on so many topics at the time.

Hey Hylis,

negative player here ^^

Thanks for the reply to my topic ( even though it is in a different thread ^^ ). Sorry for the sometimes slightly impatient tone of my posts. I like to hear that multi envi servers are planned. I am not too happy about the timing of it, I realy thought that you would have it ready when additional enviroments come out. But I know that there is not much I can do about it ^^

Added the comments from TRACKMANIA² Stadium - Your Opinions regarding this issue.
Is it possible to keep the discussion about this in this thread?

Of course it is.

And thanks Cerovan for the answer: it is really comfortable to realize we are listened. If your only problem is about the players who don't have all the environments, i think it shouldn't be a no-go, there is for sure a solution that can satisfy everyone.

Tcq's idea of a filter that would hide the servers you don't have all the titles to play on is good, in my opinion.

Players could have the opportunity to remove this filter through a discret button, and then join servers that run titles they can't play. Then, as Smigles suggested, they would be kicked if they don't get the title of the current map. While disabling the filter, they could get also a warning message such as "Caution: while disabling this filter, you'll access servers that run titles you didn't buy. If such a map is played, you will be auto-kicked of the server", so that peoples are warned about what is likely to happen. Maybe better explained.

An advertisement for the last title the player didn't bought could be joined to the warning message (could be habile ).

Maybe your concern is also to be sure they'll be enough players/servers playing each title separately, so that the gaming experience is satisfying even if they don't buy the other games. I think the distribution of servers will actually follow the distribution of players. For instance, if players that bought only Canyon have very few servers, because almost all servers are Valley+Canyon, they'll join the few crowded Canyon only servers. But if they are not stupid, they'll quickly understand their community needs more servers and they'll build them. Reversely, if Canyon only servers are empty, the only reason possible is that there are very few Canyon-only players. Then, their gaming experience might be a bit less interesting, but several things are to highlight:

1. The number of players we're talking about is then low.
2. It is a good manner to encourage them to buy other titles.
3. It have allways worked like that. When i bought TMS, it soon have been left for TMU, and i had to buy TMU to follow the whole community. Nadeo didn't feel forced to maintain TMO and TMS separated in order to avoid people that have got only TMO or TMS to feel alone...

Anyway, when a "single-environment only" community is large enough, they used to build their own servers with only that environment. Coast and Island servers on TMU proved that it is likely to happen even if multi-environments servers are open as well. And lots of players actually play both types.

All in all, i think the pros are more powerful than the cons... I hope i convinced you ^^

PS: Some people say multi-environments server would need to create a title that merges all the environments, and that low performances PCs couldn't handle such an heavy title. Do you confirm this hypothesis?

thought of another possible solution... people are allowed to join any server. when a track with title not owned by player comes, he's forced to spectator mode. you might ask "but he doesn't have that title to even be in spec?..". answer - let everybody download all titles. not for playing, only for spectating. not owned titlesshouldn't be shown anywhere (in main menu, etc), they should just exist to allow spectating. and seeing an enviro but not being able to play the track might be a good avdertisement too ^^

Sounds crackable imo

That too^^ But I also wouldn't want all that "unused" data on my pc.

I also think having locked & unlocked environments, with the locked ones restricted to spectate only, is the nicest solution, and is likely to result in a lot more people unlocking (buying) additional environments. The security or 'cracking' concern of letting environments be downloaded in a locked status would need to be addressed, but if it can be, then its a solution I have always favoured.

I am quite sure however, that Nadeo will have considered this a long long time ago, even in relation to TM1 environments.

How about being sent to some sort of manialink or something.. maybe even a small room to mess around with the canyon car, while still being able to chat with the people from the server.

CrAzYdriv3r wrote:How about being sent to some sort of manialink or something.. maybe even a small room to mess around with the canyon car, while still being able to chat with the people from the server.

Nice idea in a way but don't you think it's just silly to sit and wait until "your environment" comes up again?
What if it takes 2 or 3 rounds before you can drive again?

The playlist could be displayed: if the player see there are lots of maps in the environment he doesn't have, he may decide to leave...