Server Selection and Server List

[www.e-gekko.net]

Hi all,

i wanna suggest a thing that can be good for the mania planet (as will be a planet).....and not only for TM.
Please don't flame, is in the interest of all server admins!!

Do you know the spinning GLOBE you see when TM start?
Ok lets put on this 3D Object the various country.
Using a gradient color from Yellow to Red we can notice how much busy the country is.
As the Globe spin, we could see all the servers in the world, so we don't have to turn pages (much players hate to click mouse to turn pages, i hate them).
In this way we are not limited by the pages list of 9/10 servers that limit the players to go always on the same servers.
On the country Nadeo can write Total players, Total servers, LP skill, what he want.

Any other suggestion for this are welcome.
Thx all.

[tcq]

Assimung that we have a globe again in maniaplanet (at least the logo looks like this) i have to assume that this idea is really nice.
Adding a selection for the different game modes and a mouse over, which shows the ten server with the 10 most active players on it and the option to join directly.
But if you select a country, then i would like to see the list again, because it's just way faster if you search for a server with less players which you know, but which isn't well visited and you don't have it in your favs.

If we stay to the normal list system, then please make it bigger. So that you can see for example about 25 servers on one side.

[www.e-gekko.net]

Yes of course mate, the features must be developed by Nadeo.
We only give a suggestion to help who have always empty server, and to stop the obsolete (old) way they are using now.
The TOOLTIP feature on MouseOver you suggested is also great.
Anyway after we click on a country we can see a list, a little list, that show much servers.
Thx for the answer.

Edit : I want the game can be played also by Chinese and Japanese, and all the other peoples we don't see too much.

[Trackmaniack]

LOL Well I don't know how to get the chinese, Japanese, and others into this racing scene, but on your idea in general, I think it's AWESOME! +1000000 to you. But I wanna take it a step further. How about going from green to yellow to red? Green can be low-level, fading to yellow for somewhat active servers, and red for the high-level/full ones? Or the other way around? And then, even better, if you zoom in on a country, it'll show where the servers are by area (generally) and again by activity. Eh? I think it's a baller idea. And then, you could zoom out to, say, "solar-system" view, where there are other "Planets" in the "Mania-Galaxy" that contain like the carpark, the TMX, or other games entirely. Maybe you'll be able to load all 3 games from one interface. I'm rambling now, just gettin' my ideas on paper, but do you think that could work, gekko? Especially since it's your idea.

[www.e-gekko.net]

Yes, it can work very well.
And your suggestion is a great feature.
Also the entire world zooming is a great idea, is the easiest way to use a 3D Object like the Globe, and using camera zoom in and out.
But, warning, this can work good only if Nadeo don't divide LP ranking.
If they divide us again (0-60, 60-70, 70-80, etc), the system is not usefull, and they have to delete the LP players system they use to show a server.
Example (how it is now) :
TM server list don't show your server until some LP skilled players aren't in.
WRONG!!!!!
We need to use the feature Trackmaniac suggested....

Example (how can it be):
I see the Globe, it spin, i look around, i see Europe in red color, if i pass the mouse over i see the tooltip:
- Players Online : 321563
If i click the mouse right click it zoom into europe, if i pass the mouse over germany i see the tooltip:
- Germany Online : 13400
And i see some cities.....
And so on....

Too easy!! Too fast!! Players know where to go!! And is connected to all maniaplanet games!!!

I know is a great work to do this, but, Nadeo have graphic designers, and coders, don't tell me that is too long to code?????? They can apply a new texture or LOAD the right texture based on the country code.
If they need how to do i'm here. But i think they are ok.
They use Manialinks to do the menu in the game, so is not that hard thing.
Better they use the DirectX/C++ (or what they use) code directly this time on the globe, and not the manialink in the main menu of the game.
I say this cause the time excuse is not enough. Maybe they are thinking to another kind of server choosing, but better if they give us some news, cause this can be a great way to get into the game MUUUUUUUCH players of the entire world.

[www.e-gekko.net]

I done a screenshot to do an example :

[Trackmaniack]

We just need a more accurate globe then if we were to do that...

[Knutselmaaster]

+1 on this idea, in the days of 3d it's kind of stupid that we are still navigating with 2d text interfaces.
It's like piloting an aeroplane by sticking an oar out of the window....

[www.e-gekko.net]

Added some other ideas for the shape can be used. Like the PIN to tell where are the skilled players, or the sight to localize the servers position.

[Romain42]

Good idea, e-geeko. Let's dream:

If you click on a country that have states/regions (such as California in USA, Scotland in UK and so on), the camera focuses on the country and you can now see the different subsections (states/regions) with their respective colours (i.e. if they are crowded or no).

Assuming a worldwide commercial developpement for TM2, the result may seem to this map (photography of the world by night ^^):



You may have also some checkboxes somewhere with wich you can filter some types of servers : rounds/team/TA, with/without password, crowded/empty, with only one environment/multi/with a specified set, with/without friends, and so on...

Of course, i'm dreaming... ^^