Need For Madness Multiplayer

Need For Madness Multiplayer (or sometimes incorrectly labeled as Need for Madness 3) is the latest Need For Madness game. Like in previous versions, this one was completely developed as a Java Applet.

Testing

The official announcement.

Testing of Need for Madness Multiplayer has officially been announced on the Facebook group wall. {C TEST #1 occured on March 27, 2011 from 5:00 PM GMT to 7:00 PM GMT. See the image on the left for details or go to this link.

TEST #2 occurred on April 3, 2011. Only Facebook members could play.

TEST #3 occured on April 17.

TEST #4 was on May 19.

However, to be able to play indefinitely, users must pay a price of $11 ($10 prior) per year. Thus, this has attracted many complaints and refusals to play the game any longer.

Omar's response to a person concerned about a car creator.

HACKER in need for madness multiplayer

Release

Need for Madness Multiplayer Beta was officialy released on 12th September 2011. It had several features like Car Coloring and Player Invites, with the player's selection of the 27 stages that could be played (from both Need For Madness games)

Issues

Hacking

There were many reports of hackers, due to the game being downloadable and hackable. Thus, certain players were able to alter many elements of the stages, with one infamous person known as Bob/BADASS (or B.o.b.) is known to make his cars invincible and instantly win without notice. It was also noted that Bob had the ability to change stage names, laps and the amount of players for a game. This has laid to many more complaints and problems. However, Omar Waly has since improved security for the uploaded content, which diminished the hacking controversy.

Impersonation

As many users are not registered or unable to register, other people may impersonate others as wanted. From the above, many players are often impersonated, the most popular being the more famous people on the community. However, the cases of impersonation has been significantly less presently.

Leaked Accounts

Another problem reported in Multiplayer are leaked accounts. This means that the original owner of the account had their password leaked in the game or through other sites. As a result, unregistered players were able to play using these accounts giving place to some problems with the cars and stages uploaded through such channels. With leaked accounts, even more than one person can use these accounts, with some letters being capitalized to avoid confusion or conflict with the same name. Many of them are currently expired or their passwords have been changed.

The usual main cause of these public accounts to occur is if the original author of the account let someone else borrow his/her account. But rather than using it in a suitable manner, the borrower of the account 'leaks' the password of the account, which in return can be used by other people in a matter of seconds.

Trial Accounts

The inclusion of trial accounts with one game per day has sparked some controversy. It is not known when the change was made for Trial Accounts as they formerly had the ability to play multiplayer games (exception of games with custom stages) without limitations. Some players have expressed that the game would lose its Free 2 Play privilage.

Steam Release

The anticipated Need For Madness Multiplayer release on Steam opened to mixed reviews. Many Steam players have expressed their dissatisfaction towards the payment process of registering as many thought the pricing for yearly and permanent membership was too steep, especially regarding the implication of Trial Accounts and the 1-game per day access. Other users noted the developer's inability to accept criticism and how he handled the situation. On March 2nd, the game has been taken down due to a violation of Steam's terms and agreements as it did not implement the Steam mechanism for the in-game purchase of the game. This was because payment is processed through the official website and not through Steam. Omar has stated that he is working on the implementation and hopes to get the game back on Steam.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/343330/discussions/0/617329505855653154/

Updates

As the game gets constantly updated, more and more features get added. Here is a list of them.

Note: All dates are listed in Date/Month/Year (DD/MM/YY) format in reverse chronological order.

26/02/15: Steam release

• Need For Madness Multiplayer has been released on Steam.
• On March 2nd 2015, the game has since been taken down due to a violation of terms and agreements as it did not implement the Steam mechanism for the in-game purchase of the game. Omar has stated that he is attempting to correct this and get the game back on Steam.

22/01/15: More Sountrack Formats and Anti-aliasing

• More soundtrack modules have been supported, with the game supporting .xm and .s3m files, which can been used for custom stages.
• The Antialiasing option has been implemented to make cars look smoother. This can been toggeld on/off with a checkbox.
• The interface graphics has been revamped slightly with a new logo and background images.

22/12/14: Unlimited Account Cars & Stages

• Users can now have unlimited cars and stages into their account, effectively removing the restriction of 20 cars & stages per account.
• Players in clan wars have the ability to redo the previous game.
• The game's music player has been improved to play more effects from sound files. (Credits: DragShot)
• Minor fixes to improve game connectivity when displaying interactions/private messages.

08/11/14: Wars World Championship

• The game has been updated with a championship for the clan wars
• This championship is designed to be never ending, every clan has the opportunity to challenge, claim, defend and reclaim the championship title.
• Awards are still under construction, however.

02/10/14: Specific Clan Games

• Players in clans can now create games with specific requirements.
• Racing only - a clan can only win by racing
• Wasting only - a clan can only win by wasting.
• Racers VS Wasters - one clan has to race while the other clan has to waste
• These options are present when creating a scheduled clan war or battle in the multiplayer room.

24/09/14: Multiplayer Stat Monitoring

• At the end of each multiplayer game, the monitoring system displays the player who did the Fastest Lap, who was the Deadliest Waster and who did the Best Stunt in the game.

31/08/14: Radar, Map & Speed Indication

• A mini-map/radar is been implemented to display the stage's track layout and the other car's locations in the stage. This is displayed on the top left hand corner of the screen and can be toggled on/off using the S key. Below the minimap is a speed indication displaying KM/H and MPH.
• A preview of the minimap can be seen here: http://multiplayer.needformadness.com/web/radar.jpg

20/08/14: MacOSX Fixes

• A minor fix was made specifically for the MacOSX to stop some screen flickering that was occurring on some Mac versions.

14/08/14: One month of free access

• Users can obtain a month of free access by posting online about the game in effort to help it gain more popularity.
• This feature applies mainly to those who need to upgrade/renew their account but are unable to pay for it.

23/07/14: Clan Members Online + Fixes

• The game has been updated with the ability to see which members of a clan are online at any given time through the clan's page.

25/06/14: The Major Update

• This was considered to be the largest game update since its release, mainly emphasizing on the Clans feature.
• Users can now add their own cars and stages to their clan. Any member in a clan can add a car or stage as long as it was published by the original author. Only the clan's admin or the member that added the car/stage can remove it. There is no limit on how many cars/stages a clan can have.
• Users can also have clan based conversations/interactions. Conversations between 2 clans, includes all members of both clans at once and single clan conversation for the members of one clan. These conversations are defined as "Interactions" in the game because through them users can also organize wars and battles not only have discussions.
• A clan can declare war on another clan through interaction and both clans get to choose their stages & options of each game in the war. These stages can be played through practice before the war, which can be helpful if the war has clan based stages should other users are unfaimilar of. Clan wars consist of 9 games, the first to win 5 games wins.
• Similarly to the way wars are organized, clans can start a battle between each other, consisiting of 5 games, the first to reach 3 games wins. These battles, however, differ from the conventional wars because they're played over clan cars or stages. When starting a battle, clans wager a car or stage of the other clan to battle over. The winning clan takes the wagered car/stage from the opposing clan.
• A clan chat is available during gameplay. A chat that only clan members whether watchingor playing can access during a clan game. This can be used to discuss plans privately during in-game.
• The "Share a Relative Date" option can be used to help players organize wars, battles and meetings times accurately. This allows users to share a date and time that automatically gets converted to the local time of any person previewing it.
• A Game News box has been added to the front page of the multiplayer dome, showing which can won against which in the last 5 recent clan wars or battles. The Game News also shows all clan related activity including actions taken by the clan members and also gives a shout out to the latest 4 players that have registered the game.
• Motion effects have been implemented with a check box next to the full screen buttons that toggles it on/off.
• The single player downloadable game has been merged into the multiplayer download package. There is now only one Need For Madness download containing everything. Users with the single player download will not be required to re-download it, the game will update itself with the multiplayer features.
• Users can now pay for a lifetime account. Unlike the yearly registration, the lifetime account will never expire, an account with permanent access for avid players. This comes with a cost of $32.

20/02/14: Clans

• Users can now create their own Need For Madness clan to be able to play clan based multiplayer games and multiplayer can wars.
• This update allows players to create their own clan, organize players in it and personalise their clan page.
• An example of a clan page is shown: http://multiplayer.needformadness.com/web/clans.jpg

7/01/14: Multiplayer Game Creation Notification

• A minor feature was implemented that informs the user when a new game has been created anywhere else in any server/room.

20/12/13: 8 Player Games, Unlimited Rooms and Fullscreen mode

• In preparation for the clan based games, the game has been updated to accommodate 8 players in a game.
• The restriction of players in a room has been removed. A room can have unlimited players as long as there is one game per room.
• A fullscreen mode has been implemented.
• An automatic self-updater has been included, so the user does not have to download the latest update every time an update occurs.

27/11/13: Add Friends and More!

• Users now have a friend system, where they can add friends.
• Users can preview other player's cars in their account via the "View Cars" in the profile page.
• A notification system is put in place informing if the player has a new message or a friend request.
• The weekly and monthly top 20 stages can now be accessed directly while creating a new multiplayer game in the room, this to show up the top 20 stages more and to be able to play on a top 20 stage directly without adding it to the user's account first.
• The top 20 car lists have been update with a semi-annual an annual top 20 list replacing the all time top 20, this is to give a chance for newer and better cars to be shown and shine in the limelight longer! (However, the annual top 20 stages have been removed)

07/11/13: Private Messaging System

• Players can now send private messages to other players in the game.
• Players can also share their own custom cars and stages through this system.

02/10/13: Free Trial Accounts

• Players can now register with free trial accounts that allows players to play games with no limitations (no limit on multiplayer games and LAN games per day)
• However a full account is required to publish and play custom cars and stages as well as utilising the multiplayer features in the dome.
• This was an experimental update, to which it may revert back to 5 games per day if the servers got overloaded.
• This update has since been revoked to one game per day. (Exact date unknown)

12/09/13: Multiplayer Profiles

• What is considered to be the game's birthday update, players can now edit their own for their own persona for the game.
• A logo and avatar can be added to personalise user profiles as well as a brief text about the player themselves.
• A Racing vs Wasting bar has been included to signify the player's preference in winning games.

21/08/13: Multiplayer Dome

• A Multiplayer dome has been added to house all of the future features that will come into the game.
• Users can view other user's profiles, edit their own profile and send private messages.
• The Global Chat allows players to communicate with others all at once, regardless of what server/room they're in.
• The Players Online feature displays the players online connected to the servers.

16/07/13: NFM on Steam

• The game has been added to the Steam Community for Greenlight review

27/06/13: New Multiplayer Options

• Multiplayer has been updated.
• Players can now create private games where only specific players are allowed to join.
• Players can now create games where there is a limit of how many times a player can fix for each player, or even no fixing at all.
• Players can now create games with the option to disable trees and dirt piles present in the stage.
• Players can now create games based on the type and class of car to use, on a much broader scale.
• Mode of play is now available in the downloadable version.

13/06/13: Server Upgrade & MacOSX Improvement!

• The game has just moved to a faster and more powerful server.
• The game's main server, Dominion, has been upgrade 4 times more powerful.
• The version for MacOSX has been updated to a proper Mac application that works perfectly.

01/06/13: NFM1 & NFM2 Modes!

• The game has been updated with an NFM1 & NFM2 mode of play.
• This mode of play is for players who are new to the game for them to experience unlocking the cars and stages in playing NFM1 & NFM2.
• The mode of play is also for those who would like to play NFM1 or NFM2 with the new game graphics.
• This update only applies to the online version, but will be available in the downloadable version in the next major update.

23/05/13: Graphics Update

• Graphics for the game has been improved, which includes Mountains in the background of a stage and clouds at the sky.
• The screen resolution has been increased from 670x400 pixels to 800x450 pixels.
• The 'Bad Landing Glitch', which involves a car flipping over to a 'bad landing' position even though landed perfectly has been fixed.
• 'Overpowered' cars have been curbed down to not be as invincible and destructive as they have been, making Multiplayer gaming more fair.
• Improvements to game's memory comsumption has been done to not take up as much memory as it has, reducing the chances of the game freezing.
• Sparks have been included in gameplay.
• The appearance of the car wheels has been updated, from 8-point wheel to 16-point.
• New decorative track pieces have been added to the Stage Maker which includes Trees, Palm Trees and Cacti. The stage walls has been revised for the graphics update.
• The ground 'polys' have been enhanced for the graphics update.
• The memory consumption has been doubled to make room for the decorative parts and also provides the ability to make larger stages.
• The original track pieces have side lights and white road strips along the middle, with some ramps having a warning sign at the rear. Checkpoints have small warning signs at the lower sides.
• If 'lightson()' is enabled on a stage, stars on the sky appear.
• A new tab on the Stage Maker has been added, the 'Scenery' tab has been added to adjust the frequency of Mountains. Clouds can be adjusted by the height from the ground and its colours.
• Drop down bars have been updated to function more efficiently.

22/02/13: Gift Purchase!

• A new purchasing mechanism is now in place that allows you to buy account registration for someone else as a gift!
• Now you can buy a gift code that can be used to create a new account or renew the registration of an existing one.
• You can buy an account for someone or receive one yourself as a gift!
• The gift code purchasing form: -click-

03/02/13: New Stage Parts + Multiplayer Stages!

• The game has just been updated with new stage parts for you to use in the Stage Maker.
• New parts include a flying rollercoaster road which checkpoints can be attached to, new parts also include a tunnel like ramp that cars flip around in while driving forwards!
• (The new stage parts have been created mostly for the multiplayer game so the computer AI has not yet been trained to handle some of these new parts, however it will be in the future.)

22/12/12: New stage parts on the way!

• Here is a collage of some of the new stage parts created for the game.
• More parts have also been created and others are in the process, but we will surprise with what else has been created in the game's next updated!
• The next update of the game will have the new stage parts plus 5 new stages specially designed for the multiplayer game with the new parts.

13/10/12:Top20s and Improvements!

• A new Top20 system is now in place that shows the more recent top published cars and stages!
• Now there is a weekly, a monthly and an all time Top20 list. The top published cars and stages are detriment by how many players have added them to their account.

• Other improvements have also been made to the game to make it work faster and smoother (will be most noticed by players with slower computers)!

15/09/12:Stage Publisher!

• The maddest game in the world has just been taken to whole new level of madness!
• You can now publish your created stages to your account and into the multiplayer game through the Stage Maker.
• You can also add other created stages by other players to your account.
• There are no more limits to amount and type of stages that can be played in the game, you make it!

05/09/12: Edit account option!

• Now people can edit their accounts themselves by changing the password,their username and to pay for another year. it also tells them when their account will expire.

16/08/12: Checkpoint Bug Fix!

• Fixed bug which caused the Checkpoint order of some stages to be incorrect.
• Added Rearrange Checkpoints option to the Stage Maker.

13/08/12: Stage Maker - Complete!

• The Stage Maker is released. The Publishing option has been under construction since then.

18/07/12: Stage Maker

• The Stage Maker has been added to the Development Blog of the website.

17/05/12: Mac OS X (Improvement)

• Music quality was fixed so it was better quality on Mac computers.

07/05/12: Top 20 Lists + Import Car Option

• The game has now been update with the Top 20 Lists that show the most added public cars created by the players. The lists are based on the car class.
  Browse the top 20s to add any car you like to your account to play with it!
• The game's Car Maker has also been updated with the Import external 3D models option.
  Now you can use other 3D programs to create your car then import it into the Car Maker to add it to the game.

03/05/12: Car Maker Homepage + Forums

• The Car Maker's homepage has been created, ready for all your car making needs.
  It includes the official Car Maker forums which are dedicated to car making!
  It also includes links to other related external sites and forums.
  Visit it here:
• The page will still be updated with more car making information and tutorials. It will also serve as the Stage Maker's homepage in the future, when the Stage Maker is complete.

19/04/12: Fixes + New Option

• There was a glitch in the game causing it to lag a bit when switching between the Car Maker and the Game a few times, the game now should work a lot more smoother.
• Other modifications have been made to the Car Maker so now it will not create or publish cars with overly sized wheels and other errors.
• The 'Game Cars Only' option for Multiplayer games has been included. This option will restrict custom cars from a game and will only allow the Original NFM cars to be used.

11/04/12: Car Publishing and Editable Laps

• The Publish Option for the Car Maker has been released. Those who are registered can now be able to publish their own custom cars into Multiplayer.
• The ability to change the number of laps in a Multiplayer Game has also been added.
• Game has been updated to Beta Version 1.4

05/03/12: Car Maker RELEASED!

• The Car Maker is released.
• A glitch that caused players to lag by freezing the game for a short time is fixed, decreasing the amount of reasons for lag.
• Game disconnects no longer count as a loss of one of 5 games for unregistered users.
• Overcoding limit is now decreased.

17/12/11: Sneak Peak!

• The Car Maker is said to be under progress. Despite this, though, it has raised many responses from the Facebook page, due to Omar's quote explaining that only registered players can play the created cars in Multiplayer.

1/11/11: Car Classes

• Car Classification has been made.
• Created an option to have one type of car only in a game
• Change Car feature now has a color change including the brightness and darkness.
• Game has been updated to Beta Version 1.2

20/10/11: Downloadable Version

• Added the Downloadable version of the game.
• Registration price increased from $10 per year to $11.
• Fixed glitch which caused some LAN games to not play
• Sound playabillity for Mac OS/X has improved
• Other technical updates which made the game smoother to play

05/10/11: LAN Bots and a Fix

• Added LAN Bots which allowed AI cars to be placed in LAN mode.

• Fixed a glitch which, when watching a game, the cars appeared on fire

29/09/11: New Features and Fixes

• A Change Car feature has been made in the Multiplayer Room.
• Pressing the directional arrow for cars will now see all car's stats (instead of the top 3).
• Updated the Chat Filter which removes curse words from the Chat Bar.
• Game has been updated to Beta Version 1.1

19/09/11: New Feature

• Added a No Fixing feature which removed all the fixing hoops from a stage.

15/09/11: Fixes

• Fixed a M A S H E E N glitch which constantly made it extremely easy (or prematurely) to waste.
• Fixed an glitch which occurred when trying to watch a 7-player video.
• Added a new server named Ghostrider