Hylis, the Nadeo CEO, has given information about the Maniaplanet Update # 3 on the maniaplanet forums.
The schedule would be the following one:
- In March, one update based on making the existing game & system more solid, quick fixes updates after and starting the beta for the Action maker.
- In April, for the first anniversary of Shootmania, release the universal demo maniaplanet.
The update content should be the following one:
- most popular titles listed & simply downloadable
- a better navigation interface (quick overlays on all station & calling the stations menu from anywhere)
- improved Maniaplanet UI (buddies, loading time, quit/minimize shortcuts)
- mixmapping & new blocs for Shootmania
- action maker & improved AI capacities
- NetVision, a layer over the netcode to have maximum speed of vision of other players in Shootmania
- a small innovation into Shootmania gameplay that can ask some more skill to master
- a simple new mode for TM2, made for the only multi-environment title that will support Maniaplanet 3 atm.
- more capacities for items (lights, checkpoints)
- more capacities for scripting (playsound, minimaps, optimizations)
- universal demo (basically play 1 hour of SM per day for free or 3×20 mn of TM2, but that may change over time)
The goal is really to empower the players and to open the access to Maniaplanet to increase the number of players.
You can read the full message of Hylis on the maniaplanet forums and share your feedbacks on the forums.