Open Letter
to Nadeo and the Trackmania Community: Protecting the Integrity of Our Game

We, the undersigned active players, content creators, and community members of Trackmania, are releasing this open letter because we love this game deeply. Trackmania has been a major life’s part for most of us, and we feel scared of losing what could be considered the game of our life. We didn't want to reach this point, but considering the current state of the game, we are forced to speak out: Trackmania is in danger.

The absolute soul of Trackmania is the leaderboard. As a semi-solo game, you are constantly comparing your precision, your lines, and your time against others. That is what makes TM so intensely competitive, addictive, and enjoyable. But this competitive nature naturally attracts human flaws: some players cheat simply to feel like the main character, chasing the pride of the top rank without earning it.

Cheating is an issue in every competitive genre, but in Trackmania, it shatters trust. It creates deep frustration, invalidating thousands of hours of genuine effort, and gives the community the painful impression that developers are leaving the game unprotected. Cheating has existed in TM for two decades, but it has never reached this scale. It is now omnipresent in community discussions.

But how did this issue develop through the years? What could have possibly given cheaters the opportunity to rise their members and now be that much of a problem we need to ask for explanations from the game developers?

We have to talk about one of the most important features of the game, OpenPlanet.

Legally and technically, Openplanet edits Trackmania's code via injection. Strictly speaking under Ubisoft's Terms of Service regarding code alteration, it is strictly prohibited.

Yet, we owe everything to it. Openplanet is the absolute lifeblood of Trackmania. It keeps the game alive through essential mapping tools, quality-of-life features, and community plugins that Nadeo never implemented. Without it, the game would have stagnated and could have died years ago.

However, when it used to be “QoL”, it clearly shifted into something else. You only have to check OpenPlanet’s latest uploaded plugins and see by yourself: “Shush” (cuts the ghosts’ engine sound) or “Delta Split” (creates a split visualizer continuously, not just only at each checkpoint). Those are literally the two latest uploaded plugins as of writing this letter.

OpenPlanet includes a “School Mode”, that makes some plugins unavailable on official maps and servers. The plugins you can find in School Mode are considered the most dangerous ones, as it gives clear advantage and a false sense of security. As any injected software, its safety features can easily be bypassed, especially with the latest AI models accessible to anyone.

However, this creates a dangerous paradox. Because Nadeo has maintained an absolute vacuum of communication and refused to set clear boundaries on what is authorized or forbidden, Openplanet has progressively and undeniably drifted.

Some plugins now offer unfair gameplay advantages (such as advanced telemetry, non-vanilla visual indicators, and predictive overlays) that cross the line into cheating. When Nadeo developers do not set clear rules, the ecosystem enters a gray market. This gray market is a catalyst of newcoming cheaters as it opens the Pandora’s Box of modifying the game to get at first small changes in gameplay, to later dive in clear advantaging features.

Here is an unexhaustive list of the main OpenPlanet “trusted” problematic plugins:

• Unclaimed Checkpoint Indicator (shows unclaimed CP’s and finish through walls)
• Modless Skids (changes the texture of the car’s skid marks, making them more visible)
• Auto Enable PB Ghost (allows PB ghost to be shown on server)
• Buffer Time (shows the gap between you and the last safe player in KO mode)
• Better Texture Mod (makes ice and gray plastic different shades to avoid confusing them with road)
• Dashboard (shows current state of the car, like RPM or percentage of wet or iced wheels)

Among many more.

And obviously, plugins aren’t available to console players, inducing an unfair advantage for a cross-platform game.

Because texture modifications could be done directly through the game files instead of plugins, this also should be forbidden as modifying textures creates an unfair advantage for PC players compared to console players.

The OpenPlanet’s team has worked on a way to set profiles on servers to restrict access to some plugins, defined by the server owner.

We’re not asking for OpenPlanet to be shut down, but it needs a rework and should only give access to mapping tools and minigames (such as Bingo or Roguemania). Any other tool shouldn’t be available on server or solo, as it would affect the leaderboards.

We cannot talk about this crisis without mentioning recent events, notably Tick TAS. It has built-in anti-cheat features, but they can easily be bypassed. Moreover, we can observe a correlation between Tick TAS’ release and the proliferation of confirmed cheated records on official maps, thus leading to bans. These tools push manipulation to a whole new level, threatening the absolute integrity of world records and competitive leaderboards. If we do not draw a line now, records will lose all meaning.

We call upon Nadeo to step up immediately:

1. Release clear, official statements defining what is permitted and what is strictly forbidden in terms of plugins, modifications, and game interaction.
2. Take a firm stance on game integrity to protect leaderboards and world records from advanced exploitation.
3. Engage with the community to bridge the gap between necessary modding tools and unfair advantages.

The blame is shared: a lack of framework from developers combined with unchecked drifts in plugin usage. But the solution lies in transparency and action.

We love Trackmania. Help us protect it.