Many of you have already heard it over the past couple years, but it's finally time. A special new signature mode called "School Mode" has been released as of Openplanet 1.27, out today.
What is School Mode?
School mode is a new optional signature mode that prevents you from playing online and submitting records to official leaderboards (with a few exceptions, see the list of whitelisted maps on the trusted developer page). This allows you to use certain plugins that are made specifically for this mode.
For plugin developers this means that developer mode now also implies school mode. Exemptions are granted in certain situations, for example when playing maps in the Openplanet School campaign. See the developer documentation on school mode for more information.
Why do we need this?
There have been many discussions in the past about so-called "speed drift helper" plugins (that in some way indicate to the player what to do to hold a perfect speed slide), and similar tools. Ubisoft Nadeo's official stance has been that they don't see an issue with visual helpers as long as they don't change the gameplay - but the wider community has made it clear that these types of helpers can offer significant unfair advantages in competitive play. However, these plugins also offer value in accessibility and practice features that are currently not officially available.
Previously, outside of competitions, there was no adequate way for Openplanet to prevent players with Club access from running arbitrary plugins (including SD helpers) in any context of the game. Openplanet's school mode aims to offer an environment where these kinds of plugins can be used to practice maps and techniques without interfering with competitive integrity. The goal is to move these plugins out of a grey area and into a regulated mode that is available to everyone without impacting competitions and leaderboards.
Where do we go from here?
We will slowly start approving plugins made specifically for this mode. We will do this gradually while we monitor the mode's stability, and we'll be keeping an eye on user feedback. This is something we've been working on very carefully together with the community, and we intend to keep that collaborative effort going.
If you have any feedback or criticisms about school mode that you think should absolutely not be missed, please send an email to team@openplanet.dev.
