If you asked me to sum up DeathBall in a sentence or less, I’d say “Bombing Run on a football field”. Boring you say? Not Exciting enough you say? Well I say you are sadly mistaken. While the concept behind DeathBall is relatively simple, it inspires a level of team play unmatched by most of the tactical assault mods out there. And as for the excitement, when you are playing with decent players, the game takes on the anticipation and thrill of a World Cup final.
It has been said, and I agree with this, that DeathBall is a combination of football (soccer) and hockey. The gameplay mirrors football almost exactly. Each side needs a keeper, and passing is a must. The scoring system is a bit more complex, but each goal scores one point for your team. The violent edge of hockey manifests itself in the fact that you can gib the ball carrier with your (modified) shieldgun. However, if you aren’t carrying the ball, and if you aren’t in the enemy’s penalty box, the shieldgun deals no damage. Instead, it knocks you back considerably far. So basically, you don’t hurt the other team, you just knock them around with the shieldgun. On the other hand, if an enemy enters your penalty zone, you are invincible, but you can instagib him and vice versa. As the ball carrier, you can survive one hit with the shield gun, so make sure you pass.
Unlike standard Bombing Run, there are only two weapons in DeathBall. The first is the shieldgun. Unlike the original shieldgun, you can't charge this one, and the firing rate is a bit slower. The MomentumTransfer is set higher so that you can effectively bat away the enemy. In version 1.1, you can also use the shield gun to knock the ball away just before it hits you. The shieldgun’s alt-fire is replaced with a signal button. When you hit it, your team beacon flashes, indicating to your team that you want them to pass the ball to you. The bots don’t understand the pass button yet, but work is being done on the bots to hopefully make their actions more human. The only other “weapon” in DeathBall is the modified ball launcher. Again, no alt-fire, but the pass-locking is automatic. The primary fire is similar to the Assault Rifle’s alt fire. The longer you hold the button, the further you will throw the ball. Be careful, though, as soon as the gauge hits full, the ball is launched.
In the first version, you (personally) would get points by scoring goals. Well this sucked for the defense and the keeper, so Team Vortex decided to tweak the scoring system a bit. In version 1.1 you get “1 point for a frag, 2 for fragging the [carrier], 3 for a goal, 1 for playing a successful pass, 1 for intercept an enemy pass, -5 for [scoring on your side], [and] 5 for catching a ball as keeper” (DeathBall v1.1 Readme). This is great news for everyone not scoring. Now the keeper gets the recognition he deserves, if he performs well.
In terms of maps for DeathBall, only two are shipped with the mod itself. Actually its really only one map, but one is a smaller version of the other. Again, nothing fancy, just a football field , goals, and fans on the outsides of the field. Team Vortex recently released a DeathBall Mapping Guide for anyone interested, in hopes that fans of the mod will begin crafting their own creative playing arenas. I haven’t seen anything good yet in terms of user created maps, but I know that some are in the works for the next version of DeathBall.
I’ll tell you what, if you haven’t played DeathBall yet, you’re really missing out. It may sound too simple, but Team Vortex shows us that sometimes the simple things bring the most joy. I guess you could say DeathBall isn’t something you play just to score points and win, rather, you play it for the experience. Already DeathBall has been highly praised on numerous fronts. Guess I’ll add my praise as well.
-Dade
P.S. To play multiplayer, go to server browser, open console, type in "summon deathball.load", hit enter, and the tab should appear.
