| 30 |
|
"ManiaPlanet 3 is available to everyone!
After 9 months (almost 10) of work, we are happy to tell you that the biggest update ever on ManiaPlanet is finally out! A lot of things have been cooked and we’re now ready to give you most of them right now! Please note that this Maniaplanet 3 update is an early-release and all the content planned for this update will be fully released by end of June. Let’s see the major changes:
- ManiaPlanet as a better game operating system
- Improved user interface for news, buddies & servers browser
- A central store to easily explore & play user made titles
- Improved support for custom data like 3D objects
- Optimizations: CPU, GPU, loading times
- ManiaPlanet to allow more diversity for:
- Modes: Thanks to many features for the script
- Actions: thanks to a dedicated tool, the ActionMaker, including weapons fabrication
- Maps: Thanks to the ability to remove constraints from the editor (mix-mapping)
- Atmospheres: Thanks to mods or real time ambiance track
- TrackMania upgrades
- Multi-environments possible and a TrackMania 2 title with all modes (Canyon + Stadium + Valley)
- Car-mixing possible in multi-environments title: select any TM² car in Canyon or Valley
- Scripted mode all redone to open to even more custom modes
- Solo: add ghost & medals to custom campaigns
- ShootMania upgrades
- Netcode: major improvement thanks to an innovative netvision layer
- Gameplay: new freelook key (space key), progressive walljumps, more stamina, etc…
- Many more gameplay blocks: teleport, force field & gates, slides, sound blocker, etc…
- Many more visual blocks: for bunkers, fences, woods, stones, walls, signs, etc…
And it’s just a part of what’s coming for ManiaPlanet today, to read the full changelog, please go to the forum. We want also to thank all the beta-testers for their great work, you’re awesome!
Stay tuned for more surprises in the coming weeks ;)"
source: ManiaPlanet Blog
As bonus, here is some screenshots by the Community about the ManiaPlanet 3 update:
>> News Tools
|
|
|
One thing that I'm not sure I like about the new menu system is the way they put everything into very small and tiny icons that you barely can find. Especially in the buddy menu, you have to study real hard and hover the mouse over all the icons before you understand it. A minimalist and tiny design, but is it user friendly? Time will show.
My next hope for maniaplanet and trackmania is to get a properly working match making system that includes a database for rankings, results, tournaments and teams. For nearly 8 years, all our effort into performing in matches and tournament has just vanished. No records of the history, no ranking to refer to, no match statistics or history. In these days where E-sports and competition is one of the strongest growing markets, it is essential to build up a system that backs up historical moments, statistics and rankings. Without this, there will be a great lack of hype and prestige. Because of the very split community, especially within TrackMania 2 Stadium, the best way would be to separate the whole system and create a ranking list for every driving style, like TECH, SPEED, DIRT, etc. Having a ranking list that included all driving styles in TM2S would be pointless, just like the current LP system is quite pointless in regards to the players skill. It is all about playing in the correct servers, and play 24/7 to achieve a good LP.
Hopefully we will see a better use of the planet system as well. Personally I have many ideas for how to improve both a ranking and a planet system, but I'll save that for later.
EDIT: Maniaplanet.exe also seem to crash very frequently now. I also got many reports from players having performance issues, and now have problems playing the game at lowest settings.
And you have great ideas :)
1. We enable losing LP points in a title as an option
2. Players create a title for the style they want to compete (can enable multiple environment for example) and enable the loss of points and moderate their top ladder servers.
3. We provide an server API to adjust ladder points for custom titles, by owner of the title, if they want to make dedicated competitions strong contributions in LP.
But we can not make everything for everything alone, because there are too many tastes, desire, styles etc. This is why Maniaplanet is done. So, 1 & 3 should be in the wishes of players toward Nadeo, according that they think they could handle 2 & 3 as well.