ModNation Monday: UFG is Listening

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Hi, it’s William Ho here for the Pre-E3 ModNation Monday post. I’m excited to give you some updates about ModNation Racers and what’s been cookin’ at United Front Games.

I can’t believe it’s been a year since we announced ModNation on stage at E3, now it’s out in the world! It’s been exciting to see the massive amounts of Racing, Creating, and Sharing going on. Our dev team couldn’t be happier to see our supporters enjoying the product of two and a half years of love and labor. We enjoy playing ModNation Racers as much as you do.

Now while there a lot of people that love the game, we know there are some issues that are affecting the fun factor of ModNation, and we just want to say-

United Front Games is with you for the long haul.

I’m always asked, “what are you guys up to now?” The answer is always the same: job number one is actively monitoring and supporting the ModNation community.

We are amazed by your published creations every day. We’re enjoying online races with you. We read your forum postings and your tweets. We discuss all of your suggestions, no matter how big or small. We watch. We play. We listen.

We are working on multiple fronts to make your ModNation Racers experience even more fun. You’ve already seen some improvements in our online racing. Our friends at Sony San Diego Studio officially launched community.modnation.com so you can stay connected to the ModNation community from just about anywhere. And there’s much more to come.

With that said, I have something exciting stats to share with you. The ModNation community has exceeded the 500,000 creation mark! We worked hard to build the most accessible, freest, and deepest sandbox for you to play in. With a half million creations and counting, I think we achieved that goal. Here’s just a few of the half million awesome creations created by the ModNation community:

ModNation Racers - Glass-eye Phil

Mod: Glass-eye Phil, Creator: Reavyn1

ModNation Racers -Glass Eye Television Repair

Kart: Glass Eye Television Repair, Creator: Reavyn1

ModNation Racers - Modcoaster ModNation Racers - Modcoaster 2

Track: Modcoaster, Creator Name: hellstorm0157

Also, you’ve played more than 1,000,000 ONLINE RACES. That’s an amazing milestone for a community that’s only a few weeks young.

We can’t thank our fans enough for your support. We’ve appreciated your enthusiasm since we revealed ModNation Racers at E3 one year ago. We’re thrilled with all of the e-mails, forum postings, tweets, and fan sites, so keep ’em coming! We are dedicated to make the best possible Race, Create, Share experience possible and know we’re working hard on some rock-solid upgrades to ModNation Racers.

Look out for more information after E3, you’ll hear about it first on the PlayStation.Blog!

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255 Comments

44 Author Replies

  • My only complaints are:
    1.
    The load times can be annoyingly long sometimes.
    The opening intros should be skip-able. We already know who made the game,

    2.
    I hate when developers force us to watch these every time we start a game up.

    3.
    I hate having to re watch events after I finish every race, especially since they also take time to load. Even if they are skip-able, the load wait is a hamper.

    Other than that, I love this game. It is way better than M*rio Kart. :)

  • I’m surprised nobody made mention to the fact that we have circular towers as the top track, and it’s been there from the start. A good Idea is to have the options of choosing your 5 tracks in the top track series, i.e.: most dlownloaded , highest rating , most raced, and most importantly random tracks.

    Seems like it’s a chore to get your tracks raced, voted, downloaded.

  • I know everyone has complained about loading times, but I think a big part of the problem is the *perception*. I bet if you change the loading indicator to be a bar across the bottom of the screen it will feel faster because people will visualize the progress instead of seeing a counter which is a little more abstract than a progress bar. Even showing a kind of “pie slice” indication on the circle would be an improvement.

    Anyway, I love the game. Can’t wait to play some more, and would love to see a bit more variety in the top mods/maps – hopefully it is possible to tweak them so it shows (for example) the highest rated new creations of the last week. Maybe MediaMolecule have some ideas on that.

  • Other then 3d dot game heroes, this was my most anticipated game in may out of the 6 I bought. This is also the one that has been in my ps3 the least amount of time and I’m sad about that. Not because I don’t enjoy it, I find it a riot. The mechanics are super fun, the creation is amazing, the difficulty is fun, the little coins to collect in races are awesome. I really do love everything however the loading times kill it for me. Even before it came out I heard reviews bash it for the load times, and I really thought it wouldn’t matter to me, but there’s just far too much down time in this game.

    It’s like an unorganized pug raid where you find somebody for some reason has gone afk for a few minutes between every single trash pull and you have to wait for them to get back. Then you finally get to the boss only to have to explain it multiple times because somebody doesn’t know it, and after the wipe someone leaves angrily and you replace them with another player who doesn’t know the fight. Just too much waiting involved, just like this game.

  • Great Game!! So many creations that is never gets old!

    Few game updates would be nice though:

    1. Play through the SP Campaign with 2 people (even if the second person is not part of the story, just let us unlock the game with 2 people).

    2. Allow us to select a bunch of different tracks and make a circuit for MP split-screen, where is will keep track of how people finished (1st – 4st) on the different tracks, and give the results at the end of the circuit (I honestly cannot believe a kart racer shipped without this option).

  • Any word as to when and how the Hot Lap cheating is going to be stopped???

    • We’re trying out a fix now. We want to make sure anything we patch doesn’t need another patch in the future.

  • Change the 250,000 create trophy. Unless you were one of the first people to get the game and create some copyrighted character like Mario or someone, you don’t really have a chance of getting it.

    Also, if you can, reduce the load times. Or at least give us something to do during them like a really simple game like space invaders, pong, or something similar

  • We need more people voting on levels please include a vote option in the quick race section. It is very annoying having to go out to vote and can’t see why it was overlooked, unless I’m blind and it is there.
    Other then that love the game and can’t wait to see some new themes. I think a toyroom theme would be awesome with building blocks to make things with.

  • so when are we going to see all the mods, karts, and track that we all seen in the Artist Spotlight vids? and also when are we going to see all the pre-order DLC in the PS store?

  • I know it sounds kind of whiny, but there should be a way to tone the difficulty of the Career mode down. A lot of other kart racing games I’ve played had this, and I think even my personal favorite before ModNation Racers, Crash Team Racing, had it. I finished the game quite easily on the PSP. The PSP version also has a few flaws, such as not being able to move parts around your Mod or using stickers at all on the Mods. Sure you can use stickers on the karts, but you can only use them in prechosen positions. Lastly, you should be able to cross over in the track studio. I know it’s being picky, but if all of these problems are fixed I will enjoy ModNation much, much more.

  • CUSTOM SERIES PLAYLISTS!

    I want to be able to race a series on the maps I choose with the friends I choose….grand prix season style. Cannot believe this is not in the vanilla edition and therefore none of my friends have bought this game because of this missing option…

  • You should of let the players choose one of the three pre-order codes when they started instead of different one from different sellers.

    My kids wanted Ratchet and Clank and are too young for Gods of War, they were like who’s this guy.

  • This game looks great, but I’m holding back on buying it for one reason. I live in Hong Kong, and my family live in the UK; I also have friends in other countries.

    I really really really hope that you can allow us to at least invite people that we know from different regions into private races. I don’t mind there being lag, because it wouldn’t be an XP race and I choose to specifically invite friends and family that I know to play. I’m not sure how much lag there’d even be as many people are on 100+ meg connections here (although I’m only on 30)

    Please allow it, and you’re guaranteed at least three more game sales.

    • Thanks for sharing your suggestion, AnthonyTonyMagic. We’ll see if we can get those three game sales in Hong Kong!

  • You know that feeling you get when you made a good choice? Well that’s the feeling I have for getting this awesome racing game. THANKS!!! Just please give us some Shadow of the Colossus DLC goodies.

  • William Ho, I never got Drake with my game at Best Buy, and I really wanted that character! Drake’s Fortune was one of my fav’s for the PS3, and that was why I wanted him, but never got him?

    Can you help me out or what?

  • Just wanted to say great game. After I saw your website I got it the day it came out.

    Take the complaints somewhat as a compliment. They like the game enough to want to see it at its full potential. Keep up the good work. I know you are listening to us!

    • Thanks for the compliments, onextreeme. We at UFG are often our own toughest critics. There were so many more ideas we wanted to include in ModNation Racers to make it ginormous in scope, but we shipped a game that was merely huge. And like I said, we take all suggestions seriously to help us make ModNation the game all of you want it to be.

  • Good to hear about friends and XP races. Any chance of a party up feature?

    Is anything at all being looking at for the amount of xp received towards the 250k create xp trophy? Any word at all on this?

  • Bobby Lee! lol remember you from the Game Design Expo, loved your presentation!

  • I know I said I wasn’t going to give any suggestions… but… well, in response to something you said earlier about the Top Mods section, I just wanted to point out the “vicious cycle”. The Spiderman in particular isn’t even the best Spiderman up there, he’s just the “top mod”, and as such, he’s the one everyone sees first whenever everyone signs online.

    So the top mods will always get downloaded first by any new players, because they essentially have free advertising. So the mods downloaded the most are in effect assuring themselves more downloads…. vicious cycle, ya see?

    I’m not offering a solution, just trying to better phrase the problem. Like I said before, love your game!

  • Not many parts I hate about this game, so far it has been very sound, the loading times haven’t stopped me from playing and have completed near all of the trophies for the game.

    The only trophy I having problem with is the create xp trophy, to get 250k is almost impossible, out of everyone I believe only 50 people have it, I believe to make it easier and simplier is too lower the amount to 10k which is much more in peoples reaches.

    Other than that thanks for the great game and keep on the good work improving it, hopefully one day I can design a game similar to this as current I am a student games developer :)

    BTW: I played the Modcoaster track the other day in a casual game and came 1st on the first time playing it. ;)

  • Hey William.

    Loving the game, but more themes are needed! What do you say? :)

  • A very nice game. I’m a big fan of the PSP version and I would really like to be able to use my custom music on the PSP.

  • I love MNR but there is always room for improvement…

    1: AI balance is bad. Let us choose something easier. Towards the end of the career mode things are almost impossible
    2: No lag during matches is great, but long loading times make it unappealing as a great first-choice party game
    3: Flow: Select between career mode and casual racing, select driving options, etc. without having to return to ModSpot? (Or at least faster loading time, like test drive/race in track creation mode)?
    4: More options creating karts (like it is now with mods)?
    5: Save on my USB flash drive without having to worry about messing up my friend’s MNR trophy list? (Related: Design/upload/download Mods, karts, and tracks on PCs/online?)
    6: CreateXP is hard to get! Everybody is just downloading the most popular ones…

    Thanks!!

  • @NTone:

    1. The AI is good, it really feels like it challenges you, which I want in a game.

    2. The load times aren’t to bad, I suppose when playing a XP Series it is a time killer.

    3. Agreed, that needs to be accessible as easy as possible, same with the kart changing.

    4. Not sure what you mean, have you seen how easily stickers can make something okay to something amazing?

    5. You can save your save file to USB unless you mean individual mods, karts and tracks.

    6. Agreed. Needs lowing or give opportunity to gain tons more.

    • Thank you NTone and Super–Brad.

      We’ve gotten all kinds of feedback about the Career Mode tuning. Some appreciate the challenge involved in getting those rare unlocks, while others want a little easier time. Ideally, we want to cater to both types of players.

  • AWSOME game, just a couple of things that need fixing:

    -SPLIT-SCREEN ONLINE!!, this is an awsome feature, I just don’t think it was done as-well as it should be. Please allow us to Sign-in with 2 PSN accounts at once, I know this is possible as you can see in Resistance 2.

    -Also with split-screen online allow us to join XP races with split-screen, It is annoying when trying to level to have to go to casual to play with Split-screen online, this could be intergrated with above^

    – One last PROBLEM with split-screen online, and this is fairly big. You CAN’T join an invite with split-screen, this means that if I want to meet My 2 friends who are hosting with split-screen with my brother in split-screen I CAN’T. Lots of people I know are annoyed at this!

    And apart from the load times and some other minor things that I know will get fixed All is AWSOME!

    Can’t praise you guys enough. But Please take these split-screen issues seriously, you would be suprised at how many people play split-screen online!!!

    Thank you

    Curtis

    • Thanks for the comments, IXoTiCI!

      We’re really happy we squeezed in split-screen online, as it was one of the most common requests over the last year.

  • Absolutely brilliant work UFG! I will echo all previous requests and am so thrilled to hear from you on the Blog. I have yet to get my feet wet in the forums on the official web page but will be doing so soon.

    LOVE the game!

    • Thanks for the mad props, NoobianGod!

      There’s new ModNation news on PS Blog every Monday. And I hope to be back as soon as possible with news direct from United Front Games.

  • I would like to see the removal of the “press any key” pause screen at startup – to mitigate the long load, I usually go do something else, only to have to press a key and wait some more to get going.

    Maybe give it a timeout; proceed into the ModSpot after 30 seconds if you’re not able/willing to skip the load pause altogether.

    Thanks for a fun and innovative karter, UFG.

  • Add checkpoints to the hot lap tracks, should stop the glitchers.

  • 1. Load times, load times, load times.
    2. Get rid of the hub, I don’t understand the point with this. It’s laggy and slow, and it makes the game load too much, when going back and forth between the hub and the garage.
    3. MNR should be an easy to play, casual and fun experience. This game is not for children or casual gamers, it’s far to complicated and difficult.
    4. It should be easy and quick to play, but it takes far to long to start and it’s too complicated for casual gamers.
    5. It has a lot of potential, but it fails on the above mentioned points. This is what hinders this game reaching the masses. As it is now it’s for harcore gamers only.

  • When will Nathan Drake, Ratchet & Clank, and Kratos be available for download? I’ve got Kratos, but I still want the other ones. Even if you have to charge for them, I still want them. It’s kinda lame that you’d have to preorder from 3 different places to get them. On a similair note, you guys should just make as many different Sony racers as you can. Lots have already been made by the community, but I’d like to see the official Mods and Karts.

  • Let me just say that this game is awesome. I’m having a blast and have already put in about 120 hours into this game. It’s good to hear you guys are on top of fixing the loading times among other things, and I appreciate you letting us know whats up :)

    I’d like to take this opportunity, however, to share some concerns I have. This is in regards to the publishing system currently in place.

    One thing that really bugs me as a creator is the fact that currently you are unable to make a change or tweak to a creation and republish over it and keep that items’ stats. LittleBigPlanet was awesome in this regard. I probably republished my levels at least 10 to 20 times before I finally polished everything out. I understand that the file distribution system is completely different from LBP (in LBP you never actually download the levels, you stream them from the server) but there has to be a way for publishing to not lock out the creator’s influence.

    (more)

  • (cont.)

    Why not create a mail system that alerts everyone who downloaded your item that a new version is available? Or why can’t the game itself automatically check the server upon entering the modspot for any new updates to levels/mods owned by the player, and if there is any, a prompt could ask the player if he/she would like to download said updates? “Yes” would automatically download any appropriate updates at the convenience to the player so they wouldn’t have to physically search for each track or mod to redownload. And of course this wouldn’t add on to the download count, as that would not be fair.

    I really think being able to republish is a necessary addition. There are many mistakes on a track that usually can only be discovered once a lot of players play on it. You can’t catch every little mistake you made by yourself; this is why game testers are so important, and why you never have just 1 tester. It will also yield even higher quality tracks since they can constantly be improved upon by dedicated creators. I hope people can get behind me on this and I hope the developers will take my thoughts into consideration.

    (more)

  • I purchased (as in spent good money) on this game the day it released and have not been able to connect to the online game servers for more than 10 seconds, if at all. To say this is frustrating is a gross understatement!

    I read through all the previous comments and just got back from my PS3 where I once again tried connecting the game online. Guess what? Still a fail! I get my first disconnect notice as the ModSpot first loads then, after several attempts at connecting, I get disconnected withing 10 seconds still.

    So far I have been unable to run a single online race, download (or upload) any created content and, most importantly, have been unable to meet up with my friends who also have this game but have far less problems than me.

    What gives? How come others can connect and play but I can’t? EVER! I currently feel my money was ill-spent and have yet to come across a fix or any mention of what the problem is…

  • @82

    “How come others can connect and play but I can’t? EVER!”

    Sounds like a problem with your ISP and/or router set-up.

  • @83
    Neither. I am an licensed telcom technician who also runs a gaming website. I only say this to illustrate I know a thing or two…

    I have NO other problems except with THIS game. I was gaming online all weekend without so much as a hiccup, my troubles only occur with ModNation Racers. This is what has me so frustrated…

  • But then wouldnt everybody have the same problem?

    During the first week of the games release i had disconnections but since then no problems at all online.

  • Hi will (can I call you will?) fantastic game. Already completed career mode (all races, tokens, challenges grudge-matches, and spent the tokens). Will there be DLC maps? Also will there be DLC creation tools for tracks?

    • Hi, Perish_Song! Thanks for asking; most people call me Will.

      Our track designers are working on more tracks that showcase just how powerful and flexible the Track Studio is. I’m not sure when and how we’ll release them, but you’ll probably find out on PS Blog first.

  • **this is Leonidas2123’s other account. I thought my first post registered but it didn’t and was unaware about the 1 post rule. This is meant to go before my last post**

    I’ve spent around 115 hours into MNR and have been loving every minute; it’s a blast. I think it’s great that you guys are fixing the loading times among other things, and the fact that you keep us updated is greatly appreciated :) I’d like to take this opportunity, however, to share a concern I have.

    What really bugs me as a creator is the fact that currently you are unable to make a change or tweak to a creation and republish over it and keep that items’ stats. LBP was awesome in this regard. I probably republished my levels at least 10 to 20 times before I finally polished everything out. I understand that the file distribution system is completely different from LBP (in LBP you never actually download the levels, you stream them from the server) but there has to be a way for publishing to not lock out the creator’s influence.

  • This is why I would like some developer insight… it simply makes no sense and there MUST be some sort of reason for it.
    Maybe some port information for a possible forwarding solution? Anything…

  • @87

    One of the dev’s posted this on the forums….

    If you can’t connect at all, you probably have some firewall setting or something messing things up. Try to open the following OUTBOUND ports on their router:

    TCP 10000-11000
    UDP 50000-56400

    Link – http://tiny.cc/xeibp

  • Hi guys, I’m really enjoying MNR. This game is extremely fun, however, can you please allow us to play splitscreen online for XP. That would be awesome. thanks

  • are you guys considering patching the game to allow the computer to select your created/downloaded mods rather than the random characters it selects?

    i think that would make for a more enjoyable playing experience.

  • Thanks for the info, William, but what I’m dying to know is if/when we’re going to see some DLC for the track studio. New characters and karts are fine, but I want new props, new traps, and especially more themes than just the four. Anything in the works?

    • Thanks for the question, JEFFTMBG. We’re still figuring out our DLC plans and how we can best serve the creator community. When we’ve figured it out, we’ll let you know!

  • @87

    I posted some info but it says “Your comment is awaiting moderation.”

    So here it is again….(maybe it’ll work this time(!))

    One of the dev’s posted this on the forums….

    If you can’t connect at all, you probably have some firewall setting or something messing things up. Try to open the following OUTBOUND ports on their router:

    TCP 10000-11000
    UDP 50000-56400

  • Hey guys great game. I cant put it down. My only concern is the creation part. I would love it if we were able to put objects on the body besides stickers or clothes. You gave us the ability to put them on the head so whats the problem? Other then that keep up the great work. Oh and for those looking for fame on the mod spot podium, who needs it. If you know you created something cool then it should not matter. FAME IS NOT EVERYTHING PEOPLE!!!!

  • Is this going to be region free or not? (every 1 wants it to be)

  • @91
    Thanks for that info! I had my router set up for standard PS3 traffic (ports 5223, 3478, 3479) but not the settings you indicated. I will give that a shot and hope that’s the nugget of information I have been waiting for. Fingers crossed.

  • @95

    No problem.

    You should check out the offical playstation forums modnation section.

  • I think a casual series mode should be added. This way you can invite your friends into a casual series, pick your tracks in the order you want to play them (including downloadable ones), and then have a bunch of races back to back. This way you can keep score with your friends in-game rather than having to do it manually.

  • No luck. :(

    I got my standard “You have been disconnected from the game servers” msg upon entering the ModSpot and subsequent attempts to connect yielded the “Unable to connect to servers” msg.

    Guess it’s back to scouring forums again… thanks for the assist anyway though, good looking out.

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