Mod Ideas/UnrealBallPool

Description

The object of this game is to have more spheroids in your team's ball pool than the other them when the time runs out. There is no score limit in this game, and extra time will not be allowed so draws are possible.

At the beginning of the game 21 (make it odd you fool) balls are spawned randomly across the map. Each team must collect the balls and carry them back to their "ball pool". For the purposes of this mod the ball pool can either be a CTF FlagBase, a Domination ControlPoint (since there are now only two) or, a custom "BallPool" zone/object. In the case of a Domination map the owning team's control point is determined by the first team to deposit a ball at a control point.

Players may only carry one ball at a time, and the behaviour is similar to the bombing run game. There are two main differences.

1. Players do not have their health regenerated while carrying a ball.
2. Players can switch to other weapons while carrying a ball although they cannot pass the ball without switching to the "ball gun" (or whatever the things called).

If a player is killed while carrying a ball it is dropped where the player died (plus a bit of a random kick to make it interesting). Balls are picked up by simply running over them. Balls can be stolen from the opposing teams ball pool simply by running through a ball within the enemy team's pool. It is not possible to pick up balls in your own pool.

If a team manages to get all of the balls into their pool then they automatically win the game.

Under consideration: Abandon the idea of using DOM and CTF maps as the basis of the mod and use a custom ball pool volume. Once this has been done force payers to actually "fire" the ball into the pool. Then track the enter and exit volume events to add and remove the team's points.

Under consideration: You could have certain balls with letters on them say E-M-P-T-Y, which when you get all of those balls in your ball pool the opposing team's pool is flushed of balls. This would require the time limited ball carrying idea.

Under consideration: Allow the use of DD, CTF, and BR maps by keeping the BR "goal" on BR maps and spawning them on CTF and DD maps. Balls are "deposited" for scoring by shooting it through the hoop a-la-Bombing Run. As soon as a single ball is deposited it appears on the ground in front of the scoring hoop. This can then be picked up by the other team. When it has been picked up, if there are any more balls left within the team's "ball pool" then another ball is spawned at the same place. Remember - only one ball can be carried at any one time.

Interested Scripters

If you are interested in developing this mod for UT2003 then add your name to the list. Once you start development you should indicate that below (and hopefully include a link to a journal page). Before you start development you should also check this section to see if anyone else has started.

• EntropicLqd – I may actually do this. Someone else has done the single flag CTF mod.

Discussion

Birelli: Sounds cool, just a couple suggestions on it though. First off a pointless note that there is no need to limit this to two teams, 3 or 4 would be fine too as far as I can see if the maps were there for it. I'm not sure about the technical aspects (I suppose at this point no one is), but for domination you could just disable the normal code and set the point to be as if one team was "controlling" it (only it would then be static). Another interesting twist would be in domination maps whoever gets a ball to either control point first gets that control point and then the other team is immediately assigned the other one. Finally, the games for this will be waaaay to quick if it's just gather up the lose balls and bring them in. How about something where if a player from the opposing team occupies your "ball pool" for, say 2-5 seconds, (whatever balances well), then they get one ball from it and can then dash it away to their base. Adds a bit of defensive strategy and longevity to the game. Also, because the game will still be very quick, it would probably be a good idea to treat each collection as a sort of "cap" (you probably were already thinking that, you just didn't mention it), and then respawn everything, first to a certain limit wins.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to learn the new engine code but if I can I'd be interested in designing this, although it might take the help of a modeller for some gametype-specific objects (like the pool itself).

EntropicLqd: Thanks for the comments – much appreciated. I've updated the description of the mod to more closely resemble my ideas for it. As you can see, there is no cap limit as such, this is purely a time based game. I did consider having players stand in the enemies ball pool for a while in order to steal a ball but felt that it might slow down the action a little too much and make it too hard to steal balls from the enemy. I chickened out and went for the CTF pace basically. I liked your suggestion of setting the owner of the Domination control points based upon who touches which one first. I wonder if it could lead to some interesting race conditions ....

DJPaul: Really really REALLY really like this idea. I was working on a similar sort of gametype in my notebook; guess i'll have to go back to it!

EntropicLqd: I've noticed a definate convergence of ideas over the last few months which is a little worrying as that implies a lack of creativity on the "mod scene". I'd been thinking about this one for a few months before I put it on the Wiki page. It feels like a really good idea, I just don't know whether it will really play that well. If it looks like I'm going to be a while getting around to it I'll let you know.

ZxAnPhOrIaN: The ball should be picked up by crouching, not just running over it.

Phantasmagorium: This sounds really cool. I especially like the idea of emptying your opposition's goal, but do the balls return to the playing field or directly to your goal, or what? I think that the original gametype you have planned (from what I gather by reading), and one with a very small number of balls where dumping goes directly into your goal, (like shooting a regular shot into your opponents goal instead of collecting the EMPTY balls to cause the drain) dumps the balls into your goal, and is therefore slightly more combat-oriented, would be nice.