An open letter to Nadeo.

[Ozon]

Hi,

I am just another player of maniaplanet. I play maniaplanet alot and I know what things are going on currently; almost none. I had many hopes in Maniaplanet 3. Most of my wishes have been fulfilled, others - more important ones - have been just discarded due to a rejection of Nadeo's side.

I wanna talk about the game itself; about the very roots of this game.
As someone who plays your games since 7 years, I concluded I really don't like the direction your game is heading to. I tolerated alot, I welcomed alot of the changes. But I feel like you dedicated too much time on relying on your own community and that's what will make this game kill itself. Can you tolerate more players to be leaving this game?
I have the feeling that the most important aspect of gameplay itself - FUN - got replaced by utter adaption to the games' ideas. The Trackmania multienvironment titlepack came too late and was not even a standard. People who got the MP3 update probably didn't even see that this is now possible. A shame. Don't get me wrong, the store is a great thing in this update, but the ME-Pack IS Trackmania and so should it be a default for everyone who posesses all Trackmanias. Same goes for Shootmania Combo and other default gamemodes.

The game itself feels far from finished. I gonna list some examples:
- TM Multienvi servers need >30 seconds to load the next map (maniaplanet is running on my SSD)
- https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/872 ... tmania.JPG -> in shootmania
- The new server browser is worse than the previous one. A mixture of both would be great.
- A lot of small little bugs that increase the feeling of unfinishedness
- TMUF is still more popular than TM² ME, Canyon and Valley together (servers are more populated)
- Menus feel like outdated and old. While I welcome the new maniahome, I dislike the old menus in all the titles. 3D buttons + rolling intro maybe?
- Shootmania movement got really random. It made one of my TA maps almost unplayable due to the progressive jumps and new edges on blocks that just randomize the movement and decrease speed to 0 (like a little stone)
- North America suffers a lot. People who really want to play the game can't because there are almost no servers.
- The maniascript seems to be flawing alot. Players have created awesome stuff so far. One of the examples is Tiggs: Why does he create so much testing modes and scripts, but not release all of them to the public? Because he obviously needs your help: His scripts will never be done if you do not implement little things he and others need.

Map editor; great. Mediatracker; great. Other tools; great. Ok now you heard all the good things in maniaplanet so far. I still play more TMUF than TM² in general. Explanations:
- 7 Environments
- Alot of (populated) servers
- A simple game
- Minor bugs inbetween


I feel like the ideas of Maniaplanet are from 2006. The concept of maniaplanet is really cool, but the title system, the complexitivity of many simple actions and the "relying on the community" concept just ruin what once looked like an ambitious project. I still look positevly forward...but not as positevly as 1 or 2 years ago.

Thanks for reading; regards.

These are my 2 cents. Feel free to reply on this thread and maybe raise your points. It's not about "rescuing nadeo" or "the community", it's more about giving them an idea in which direction they should go rather than doing the same stuff over and over again. Please try to stay positive, rather than expressing hate or disrespect. Thanks.

[Boo425]

Yes, I do believe that you have addressed almost all the flaws in maniaplanet and issues within the community. And as I have stated several times, the title pack system is what is dragging the game down. Players are dispersed everywhere within it leaving the impression that the community is almost gone completely from that game.

And TMUF is still alive due to Nations forevers presence as a free game. I think maniaplanet needs one aswell.

[Hylis]

Since 2003 Trackmania success relied on solo demo. It's simple: you can download and play when you want, and tell a friend to do so when he wants. What you are saying about the server browser is obvious and it's just because it's being prepare for the demo, as well. How do you think a game can have success without either a demo or communication?

For me, it was not ready enough to make the demo earlier, on one side, and even if we intend to release it in July now, I still think it's early. It's just because there is some lack of patience that I think it's better to release it. TMUF was not made in a day, and TM2 neither is. If the step of this year is not enough, then there is another one next year etc. The competition is strong, but Maniaplanet is still here, even with all the flaws that you are talking about. So, there is really little reason to think it's gonna go away once we fix this.

The title system is the best of what could have happened to Trackmania. It's just so ambitious that it takes time to have it run smoothly, but stunter, wtc, tm rpg and others are just great stuff. We are making it for the community, and we are not relying on it.

You made a great post in reddit, and I believe it's just patience that you may lack here. But this patience is probably what will make Maniaplanet such a long lasting success. We are making a platform for amateurs to create and to share. When I look at the screenshot of meuh, I just think how right it is. And when I look at your video as well.

The team is at the best of it's shape, and I see time as a great ally, since like you say, TMUF is still hard to beat. The concept is so valid, that it's difficult to think that we are building on fragile ground. And I think the same about Shootmania, just by seeing how much some players are playing, regardless of all the troubles they had to go through and the lack of other players to make it as good as it could be.

So, next step is in July. Until then, I would be curious to know if you think that Trackmania did what it did in the past without a free access to some solo demo part. The demo, even before Nations, was downloaded by millions. I can not tell it will happen with the Maniaplanet demo, but at least we will have the setup required for players to be capable to talk about it, or us.

[Omnixor]

1. earlier TM demos were released together with the game release, right? so there was double hype. now everybody who was interested in TM2 but didn't buy it knows it's a flop and won't care any more; those who didn't care earlier won't care now either. you really hope you'll attract thousands of players with a demo released two years after the game? nah. if you do, I'll be genuinely surprised.

2. titles system is "great" (as you say) because those projects (stunters, wtc, rpg) are great, NOT because titles system is a good concept. if you managed to make such things possible simply in the main game, those projects would still be as good, BUT there would be 10x more people who'd bother playing it. to sum up, titles + community = good projects, no popularity; everything together + community = good projects, everybody plays.

and you keep talking about "it takes time"... three years and going? when are you going to finish?

[Akbalder]

Right now, it's almost impossible to have players on our jailbreak server.
I think that it is because of the the server browser and because of the lack of players.
I hoped that the demo would solve it so it's a bad news that we have to wait until July.

[kripkee]

Well, TMUF connected everything with everyone - here in Maniaplanet, you have for each kind of thing an own system, an own ladder, own serverbrowser [...] I will wait until the demo before I give feedback^^

[meuh21]

I will wait until the demo before I give feedback^^

Strange topic just before the beggining of the universal demo Everybody (Nadeo and the community) say now : we need players. And the Nadeo strategy is the same since the Maniaplanet begining :"demo is the way to have more players and demo will arrive when the game will be ready". So we have to be patient. It is a long way but there are now a huge amount of features compare to the begining And it takes time to learn how to use these features. So it is easy to be patient. CQFD

My only small doubt is about communication and the community management by Nadeo (or Nadeo Live). I think the demo will be like a new start. And my opinion is : we will need Nadeo create activity (like contests, blog article, etc). July is maybe not the best period to do that. But I hope september will see events. Nadeo events or community events with Nadeo help (especially for visibility). If TM² was ready just at the launch, it wasn't necessary (because of TMU players, community, knowledge) but now it is. Even if it's mean a lot of work for Nadeo team. The demo will provide players. This events is a way to say that players : stay with us because there are many things to discover in Maniaplanet and in communities Nadeo did that very well for the 10 years anniversary. So i am confident

Right now, it's almost impossible to have players on our jailbreak server.
I think that it is because of the the server browser and because of the lack of players.
I hoped that the demo would solve it so it's a bad news that we have to wait until July.

"Casual players" event around titles (Maybe a Nadeo post like the "title of the week") could be a good opportunity. I would be happy to play jailbreak sometimes but of course it need players (and bad players because i am a noob ). Of course you still have to be patient. Maybe you can still improve your title (is jailbreak a title ?) during this time (like a special mod for example)

[Pedal]

I discovered trackmania and Nations TMN Winter 2006 from a journalist who did a rave Review of the game and i was also blown away by it. It also made me buy TMUF later the same year and i have been playing it almost Daily until a couple of months ago. That's almost 8 years. I am not playing TMUF anymore and (certainly) not MP/TMS2.

One of the things i find "wrong" for me in MP is the integration of games that do not interest me at all. Options, infos and promotions for Shootmania, Canyon and Valley that i will gladly do without, no offense to the games or their players, i am simply not interested.

I thought TMN was something groundbreaking, general gameplay was good, bugs you could live with and the technology was quite actual for the time, and most importantly; lot's of players. My impression of MP/TMS2 is that it is a version where you simply have put some cheap make-up on the original, old game and re-launched it.

Also, i see some of the same "complaints" go on, on and on again, update after update, f.ex opinions on poor design of the UI/menus and the hitboxes of SM (with the integration of titles it's impossible to miss the information lol).

With humble honesty i really don't Think your paying customers share the same patience as you and that you need to be more listening to your Community (customers). Right now, following these forums, hoping for info on fixes that will make me able to play the game again, my impression is that Nadeo is strongly claiming that their way is the only and correct one and everybody, regardless of what their complaint/view is, it is the wrong one.

Well, with less than 1000 Active players for ALL titles the last week, i personally would have asked myself i the track i have chosen for this project is the correct one..........

I am afraid that the people here now will not be here in a year if this continues or if a combination of more players and important issues aren't beeing fixed within a short period of time. Right now it seems all focus is beeing put on the demo for relase in july. This again will mean the effects will first be seen sept/oct as July/Aug is vacation time in Europe with time to "adapt" afterwards.

Why not make a monthly list, for the Community to vote on, containing 3-5 issues/things they want improved/changed/implemented and that you actually put a serious consideration to this and maybe do a update shortly after?

I Think what will be important/appriciated right now is that many players here, get some kind of rekognition and proof that they are actually Heard and listened to. I belive there's a limit to how many times one put of with hearing "nahh, your wrong, that won't work, we cannot do that, this is much better" and so on and so on....

With hopes for a Bright future for Maniplanet and especially TMS, as for right now it looks very, very, very dark.....

[meuh21]

I think you miss the wishlist : http://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=27872

And some people complain about titles but i think they don't even know how many things you can do with. And if you understand the possibilities you can see it is the only solution (you can't integrate so many things in the game). Like often, angry people post more than happy people.

And if you read well Hylis post, you can see constructive post, like killaprod one, are listen

[kripkee]

Well, TMUF connected everything with everyone - here in Maniaplanet, you have for each kind of things an own system, an own ladder, own serverbrowser [...] I will wait until the demo before I give feedback^^

I got a private message - I will extend my text^^

In TMUF you have everything in one, you can play stunt, stadium and others envis in one. TMNF/UF have one Serverbrowser. In Maniaplanet you have splitted everything - here for example Shootmania => Royal, Elite, Joust, Heroes [...]. What will happen with the main-title of the game, if you remove everything in seperate titles? Like nadeo did with siege?
I won't complain, I just spectate this^^

I don't say that the titles are bad, which other players/authors did. The RPG-titlepack is great -yes. But the stunter-titlepack - for me as TM1 player - is useless, cause I have to start an extra title instead of play this in the maingame from Trackmania, and it was in since TMO extended edtion /TMS. The Author itself did a great job too, but the system of this is to detailed. [...]