With the NDA lifted, I am now free to speak about (hopefully) the next ESPORTS FPS from Nadeo : ShootMania.
For those who do not know Nadeo at all, it is a small french studio that created Trackmania. The motto of this studio is to create fast paced, easy to learn, hard to master games. They have already acknowledged that Shoomania was develloped with ESPORTS in mind ( those who have assisted to the Ubisoft E3 presentation migth remember the small match that took place).
As for the game itself, as I stated earlier, it is extremely straigthforward. Only six button (up down left rigth shoot jump). One weapon at a time, no powerups (armor packs, health packs etc..). The weapon you possess depends on the block you are standing on.
Rocket launcher (standard weapon) : Launches energy bubbles, note that the splash do not damage, but will blow you away. Does 1 damage. You regain 1 ammo per second, up to a maximum of 4.
Rail Gun (available on rail platforms) : Deals 2 damage ( insta kill on most mods), 3 sec reloading time.
Nucleus (available underground): launches slow projectile that can attach themselfs to wall and will AOE detonate if someone comes close. Last 4 seconds.
Arrow : Cast a projectile with a big AOE on explosions. Think of it as a grenade launcher where the grenade exploding at the first obstacle it hits.
The game comes with a complete map editor ( extremely similar to the trackmania map editor), as well as a script editor which will allow you to create your own game rules. Here are the current Official modes mods in the game:
Mellee : Basic FFA. Each time you hit a enemy, you gain 1 point, most points wins.
Royal : Survival FFA. Last one alive wins. A pole can be captured which will create an offzone circle centered around the pole, that will become smaller as time passes. Simply Hiding wont work !
Joust: 1v1 mod. You start with no ammo, and you have to capture poles to regain some ammo. The capture is instantaneous, but ammo management is key here
Elite : 3v3. This is the current tournament mode. This is played as multiple 1v3 games, where the solo attacker is armed with a railgun and must capture a pole defended by the 3 player of the opposing team ( each defender having a 'rocket launcher')
Combo 2v2 : This mode is very different from the other as it is the only mode to feature item pick up as well as weapon switching . Each team start with 4 rocket ammo. Each time you pick up an item, your team gains one max ammo for the corresponding weapon ( Rail/Nucleus/Arrow). To win, both your opponent must be dead at the same time. EAch time you die, your re spawn timer increases.
Of course more mods will be created by the users.
I suggest discussing past and upcoming Shootmania tournament here too.
Last edit: 2013-04-16 09:03:00
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.
Torte de Lini Canada. June 20 2012 03:39. Posts 27048
Do you need to buy a Nadeo game to get a ManiaPlanet account? played older TrackMania versions a lot on LAN, not my fav, but was always cool to calm down with after more stressful games.
Pretty interested in Shootmania, but through the website it isnt obvious for me how i can create a ManiaPlanet account, signed up for info on the Shootmania beta on the Shootmania page, but haven't got any confirmation mail
From what I know, the game wont be free to play. It will most likely be around 30€, and you should be able to buy it using maniaplanet ( which will act a bit like steam for all nadeo games). This also means that the game will not be available on steam.
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.
On June 20 2012 05:52 Lokj wrote: Do you need to buy a Nadeo game to get a ManiaPlanet account? played older TrackMania versions a lot on LAN, not my fav, but was always cool to calm down with after more stressful games.
Pretty interested in Shootmania, but through the website it isnt obvious for me how i can create a ManiaPlanet account, signed up for info on the Shootmania beta on the Shootmania page, but haven't got any confirmation mail
You don't need to buy a game, you will receive a download link with your alpha key. At least that's what they did for me...
Looks interesting, unfortunately I'm TERRIBLE at Quake-style shooters, my precision is WAY too low. Watching the tournament vod, every single kill looked ridiculous, basically oneshots from a distance where you opponent is about a pixel big. I'd probably never get a kill.
On June 22 2012 05:25 Tobberoth wrote: Looks interesting, unfortunately I'm TERRIBLE at Quake-style shooters, my precision is WAY too low. Watching the tournament vod, every single kill looked ridiculous, basically oneshots from a distance where you opponent is about a pixel big. I'd probably never get a kill.
Actually, its not written anywhere but you cant hit a single pixel with the rail gun. If you play or watch a Vod, you'll notice that the railgun has 3 smal dots on the cross hair. The railgun actually lunches 3 rails ( but it looks like one because they are so close) and all three have to hit for the rail hit to succeed ( I'm not sure this is very clear ^^' ). So you wont be advantaged if you play with a better resolution
I'v updated the OP with the vod of the SOPA lan, and the link of the stream of this WE tournament : the Cyber Athlete Submit in Paris. Colwn and Millenium are the favorite Imho, but who knows what will happen.
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.
[17]Purple United Kingdom. June 24 2012 05:42. Posts 1878
They have already acknowledged that Shoomania was develloped with ESPORTS in mind ( those who have assisted to the Ubisoft E3 presentation migth remember the small match that took place).
As for the game itself, as I stated earlier, it is extremely straigthforward. Only six button (up down left rigth shoot jump). One weapon at a time, no powerups ( armor packs, health packs etc..). The weapon you possess depends on the block you are standing on.
these statements seem somewhat in conflict with each other
they are clearly not going for a CS style tactical shooter, so to completely throw out the mechanics of arena-style fps seems strange if they actually want to make an esport out of it
but i suppose if there's a scripting feature, you could rig up a proper duel mode. the problem would be getting the game's community to solidify around it, without a developer stamp of approval the community can only fracture
The game is pretty good, I have been playing it for a week now, and I enjoy it quite much.
But I am very pessimistic regarding the community, I had forgotten how bad a FPS community can be... Regarding FPS, I have been only playing Quake on and off for the last 5 years, which had a pretty nice community, but so far, it seems that every time I play Shootmania, I see people insulting each other.
The game is only in alpha, and for most games I have played pre-release, the community was always much better during alpha/beta stages compared to release, so I can't even imagine what it could be like for Shootmania, maybe some new monster worst than Counter-Strike and Call Of Duty combined ?
I don't know what Nadeo can do about it, I really have no idea, but if it stays like that, there is no way I'll be playing this...
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