How to play on Lan mode and a fix for "missing campaign" when trying to select tracks.

[Iron Phoenix]

Problem 1 - Hosting Local Network games - The new script based user interface introduced after the latest mania planet update is difficult for many to use and understand when compared with the older straight forward menu based methods in used before the last Maniaplanet update.

Problem 2 - For many, myself included, the official campaign tracks seem to be unavailable when hosting Local Multiplayer games. Attempting to add a track to their playlist causes "missing campaign data" error messages and may point a browser to game files on their system but reports nothing being found.


The Rant - What I will share below is primarily a guide to getting a local multiplayer match going.
It should be simple and straight forward (as it once was) but apparently now that is not the case for many.
To be honest, it took me a while to figure it out and I often saw the same questions popping up.


I will also post a solution to the missing campaign data error that people experience including myself.
Combined with the new design of the interface I actually found it hard to tell if it was another bug, or bad design, or user incompetence that I could not select a bunch of tracks and host a lan game.
And that is the stupidity of the whole thing.


I hate the current "new scripting system" which I have to work through to host a basic Lan game now.
I am not stupid nor computer illiterate, but It is convoluted and feels broken and unfinished to me - unlike before the recent mania planet update where I could simply select a few simple menus and just get on with the race.

I and my friends only play Lan and we gave up for ages since it really was not obvious how to get it working.
And it didnt help that certain files were missing.


Now that being said, and apologies if it is obvious to others who play Lan modes like hotseat and rounds etc I have finally found a fairly straight forward soloution.


/ End of rant


Tldr; I am going to post a guide to get a basic Lan game going with the menu interface and also a workaround for the "missing data" errors when adding new tracks to your playlist for those interested.

[Iron Phoenix]

Steps to host a Local Network game


Ok, so first I will post the process to host a Lan game.
Some people will know how to do this anyway but if they are anything like myself they are probably frustrated by the new process.

Now this should get you going in your desired game mode but if you encounter errors with track selection, particularly if you removed a few of the default selection and want to add some others instead - thats my next post - sorting out the "no appropriate media found" type errors and being unable to "browse" to any new track selection.


Its also worth noting that you need to select your tracks first, and then choose the appropriate "script" afterward, not the other way round.

It may be possible to do it the other way round but in my experience if I choose a game mode or "script" first, and then the required tracks (which I assumed was the correct order), my selection gets wiped and I have to start over.

I also use a mouse to navigate the menus. Using a 360 pad is possible, however it actually feels more awkward in the deeper menu levels for me although this is only my opinion.
Also the last few times I tried, I found that if using a pad to navigate menus, the option to press the yellow "Y" in order to create a game actually did nothing!
I recall the blue "X" working at that point but it was obviously mapped out wrongly though it may have changed by now.

But I digress.



So to how to host a Lan game. This would obviously apply to Canyon, Stadium and Valley and the newer Lagoon as well.


In game and at the main menu. Click Local Play - Local Network - Create.
The next step is to select the tracks you want, and you may already be offered a default selection.

The tracks have thumbnail images on the right hand grid, and can be removed with the little "x" or
the playlist re ordered with the arrow.


At this point you "should" be able to add tracks by clicking on the "+" in a blank tile.

My own preference is to remove all the tracks listed and make my own play list consisting of the official tracks.


However, like myself, you may then encounter the error about no media found which prevents you from adding tracks.
The reason being the campaigns themselves (remember the old White, Green, Blue, Red, Black track selections of increasing difficulty?) - these campaigns for some reason have been removed by mania planets update in a sense for lan play it would seem.
That is the root of the missing media error and the purpose of my next post.


Moving on, if you are happy with the selection you do have available, click on the "game mode" box on the upper left.
You will see a list of "scripts".

These scripts are basically pre defined groups of advanced settings specific to the desired game mode you wish to play your track selection in.
As an example, a 50 point rounds based match would have different match settings to a laps based or hot seat mode.
Again before the update, these were all in convenient easy to use menus and quite obvious.


Assuming you have successfully chosen a bunch of tracks, you now need to select the game mode.
If that is not the case see my next post about the media error and try again.

At the start of this script sub menu you would need to select "trackmania" rather than shootmania for obvious reasons and it will present you with the available scripts accordingly.
So for a rounds based game, you would select the "rounds script.txt" or similar, and like wise for other modes like hotseat etc.


When you select next, all being well you will be presented with the actual settings specific to the desired game mode allowing you to customise the race with password protection, time limits, point limits, laps and all that good stuff.

Then simply choose create and the game should begin accordingly, and your friends should be able to join all being well.
If they cant, check the fire wall settings.

[Iron Phoenix]

Fixing the "no campaign data / media not found" error on local network track selection:


The problem:
So, as previously mentioned, it may be your painful experience that when you attempt to create a local network session on Canyon, Stadium or Valley, you actually find yourself unable to add or otherwise select new tracks because of an error along the lines of "no campaign data found, or media not found" etc.

Something along those lines that basically prevents you from hosting a game with your mates as you see fit.

Indeed the game may even prompt you to browse to a location on your pc using explorer, but it still doesnt detect any usable data where ever you point it to.
What a nightmare.

I eventually found a work around / solution that should enable you to play the (official campaign) tracks you want and allow you to properly host your local network game.



For what ever reason, the official campaigns (white, green, blue, red, black) are not available for lan play since the latest mania planet update and so need to be downloaded and copy / pasted into the appropriate folder which enables their selection in game.

I will link to a server update file from the Nadeo forums although Lagoon is not currently included in this file.
This server update does allow official campaign track selection in Canyon, Valley and Stadium.

[Iron Phoenix]

The Workaround / Solution:


1. Download the zip file from this trackmania forum link.
The download link is the second comment from the top, posted by PapyChampy and
contains amongst other things, the official campaign tracks for servers.

https://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=27848

2. Create a new folder on your desktop, call it something like Trackmania campaigns.

3. Extract / unzip the downloaded zip file to your new desktop folder.
The extracted folder will be called "ManiaPlanetBetaServer_latest".

If the files are not unzipped, they will still be detected in game, but trying to start the race with them will cause a tonne of error messages and you will need to kill the game with task manager or something as it will freeze.

Anyway, this folder will contain a bunch of things, but the only thing we are interested in is the Campaign directory.

4. Browse to the freshly unzipped folder called "ManiaPlanetBetaServer_latest".

5. Next, within this folder, browse to User Data > Maps > Campaigns.

You will see 3 folders. There is one for Canyon (TMCanyon), one for Stadium (TMStadium), and one for Valley (TMValley).

Keep this window open so you can easily see these three folders.



Now you will need to browse via a seperate window to the location of the track data files for the actual game. Its important to note that this is not kept in the game directory itself, but instead lives in your documents folder.

6. Click on My Computer, and browse to Documents > Mania Planet.

7. From the Mania Planet folder, browse to Maps > Campaigns.

Keep this "game" campaigns window open so that you can easily see it's contents, alongside the newly downloaded and extracted "server" campaigns window.


You should have two explorer windows visible on your desktop. The first has a path of User Data > Maps >Campaigns.
This is the window containing the downloaded and extracted campaign files.

The second, which you just opened most recently has a path along th lines of Documents > Mania Planet > Maps > Campaigns
This is the window containing your campaign data that Trackmania wants to use in Lan games.
In my case these particular files were empty, hence the error when hosting local multiplayer.


8. So finally, as you may have guessed, you just need to copy the contents of each folder over in turn.

9. Its a simple process, but in my case I chose to right click on the "window 1" canyon, and
select copy followed by right clicking a space in "window 2" and left clicking on paste.
If the computer asks would like to over write the files then just say yes to proceed.

10. Repeat step 9 for Valley and Stadium accordingly.

[Iron Phoenix]

Now Launch Trackmania Canyon, Valley or Stadium again, and try once more to host a local network game with the steps in my first post.
You should find that on clicking the "+" to add a new track, you will be given the option of selecting all the official campaign tracks once more.

And not only that, but you will be able to select them according to their campaign difficulty colour too.

Good luck.


Sorry if it was long but once you have done this it should be good from then on.
And I dont like to assume that everybody has the same level of computer knowledge, hence breaking it down into simplified steps.


As a long time Trackmania player from the first release, I still think alot of the menu ui is bad design choice including the script selection.
I hope they can change that soon, but hey its a work around that means I can play Lan again and hopefully some of you good people will be able too again.