Ballmen Player's Manual

The HUD

1. Health and Energy Bars

The colored bars indicate the current health(red) and energy(blue).

2. Regeneration Icons

The icons under the health energy bars display which one is currently regenerating. The currently regenerating item's icon is brighter and more visible.

3. Weapon Selection

The currently selected primary(left) and secondary(right) attacks.

4. Active Effects

All the effects currently active on the player.

5. Weapon Rod

The rod inside the barrel of the gun changes to match the color of the primary attack

6. Scavenger Hunt Status

This is only visible when playing the Scavenger Hunt gamemode. It shows the number of stars both teams need to win.

7. Auto Wall Walking Enabled

When this icon is displayed, Auto Wall Walking is enabled.

Energy

Energy is the main resource in ballmen. It serves as the ammo for all the weapons, and is required for sprinting. Energy can be replenished by Regenerating it or with pickups such as the Energy Pickup or the Energy Regen Pickup.

Regeneration

In Ballmen, you can at any time switch between regenerating your health or your energy. When regenerating health, you recover 2 health per second, when regenerating energy, you get 20 energy per second. To switch regeneration from one to the other, simply press whatever key you have bound to the Switch Regen command. The currently regenerating asset has its icon highlighted under its bar on the HUD.

Effects

Effects include all the weapon powerups, all the pickups that have a duration and the slowing effect caused by the slow attack. All the effects currently active on the player are displayed as bars on the HUD. Holding Stars is also displayed as an effect, with the effect bar representing the number of stars required to commit them to the team. See the Scavenger Hunt section for more information about stars.

Movement Speed

Speed altering effects in Ballmen not only change your speed on the ground, but also your speed in the air, so when spriting, for example, you will run at two times the speed, but will also jump and fall twice as fast. This comes in very handy at times when you have to quickly get on the ground, such as when someone starts firing Flak balls in your direction.

Game Modes

Ballmen currently features three game modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Scavenger Hunt, which are further explained below.

Deathmatch

Deathmatch is a Free For All, with the winner being the first to get the required number of points. Players get a point for every kill and lose a point for every suicide.

Team Deathmatch

Team Deathmatch involves two teams, with the winner being the first team to get the required number of points. The team gets a point whenever a member of the team kills someone on the other team and loses a point whenver a team member suicides or kills another teammate.

Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Hunt is a unique gamemode in Ballmen that involves two teams collecting special pickups represented as Stars. The team's score is the sum of the stars collected by all the members of the team. If a player dies while holding stars, they are dropped at the location of his death. When a player gets four stars, they are committed to the team, taken away from that player, and cannot be lost when the player dies so it is in a teams best interest to have as few players holding stars as possible. The Star Passer can be used to pass stars to another player.

Wallwalking

Ballmen allows you to use any straight surface as a floor that you can walk around on freely. There are two ways of changing which wall you walk on: Automatic Wall Walking and Wall Attaching. Note: In general, attempting to walk on the "outside" of a level will result in death. Walking on the edge of a level is possible, but care has to be taken because the slightest slip can result in death, even though it might appear that you shouldn't have died.

Automatic Wall Walking

Automatic Wall Walking is the simpler of the two wall walking mechanisms, and can be toggled on or off with the Toggle Automatic Wall Walking command. When Automatic Wall Walking is on, an icon is displayed on the HUD, and the player simply starts walking on any wall he touches. While simpler than Wall Attaching this can be very dangerous if you end up switching walls randomly.

Wall Attaching

Wall Attaching allows you to switch walls from a distance. Simply press your Attach to Wall key when looking at a wall to switch to it, provided you are close enough.

Pickups

There are different types of pickups in the game that spawn randomly around the map. The pickups that affect the gun and its various attacks are listed in the Weapons section. The other pickups and their effects are listed below.

Energy

The energy pickup restores 50 energy when picked up. A new one spawns every 5 seconds if the limit has not been reached. The limit for the number of energy pickups is based on the number of players in the game.

Health

The health pickup restores 10 health when picked up. A new one spawns every 10 seconds if the limit has not been reached. The limit for the number of health pickups is based on the number of players in the game.

Energy Regeneration

The energy regeneration pickup restores the player's energy over time at a rate of 30 per second for 20 seconds, independent of whether the player is regenerating energy or health.

Health Regeneration

The health regeneration pickup restores the player's health over time at a rate of 3 per second for 20 seconds, independent of whether the player is regenerating energy or health.

Air Control

The air control pickup significantly increases the amount of control the player can exert over his movement in the air, allowing for very quick changes in speed and direction.

Speed

The speed pickup increases the player's movement speed by 50%. For an explanation of how speed altering effects work, refer to the Movement Speed section in the manual.

Doomsday

When picked up, the doomsday pickup begins a countdown, and marks the player who picked it up as the doomsday starter. When the countdown ends, every player who is an enemy of the doomsday starter gets heavily damaged and all credit for the damage and kills go to the doomsday starter. The countdown can be halted if the doomsday starter dies before the effect goes off. The length of the countdown decreases with the number of people in the game in order to give a better chance of survival to the doomsday starter. This pickup spawns once every eight and a half minutes.

Star

The star pickup is the central element of the Scavenger Hunt gamemode. They spawn at a rate of one per minute. Refer to the description of the Scavenger Hunt gamemode for details.

Weapons

There is only one gun in Ballmen. This one gun, however, is able to perform nine different attacks. Any of the attacks can be independently assigned to either primary or secondary fire, in effect making it the equivalent of 36 different weapons. All the attacks, aside from the star passer, require different amounts energy to fire, and they will be listed with the weapons below. Each attack can be powered up when the appropriate pickup is picked up. The manner in which each weapon is affected by its powerup is also described below. The pickup below powers up ALL of the attacks, as well as reduces their energy cost. Descriptions of the different attacks follow.



Nailgun

The nailgun has a moderate rate of fire, causes little damage, and pushes players it hits with moderate force. The nails it fires will track players in front of it, although not very well. The powerup for this weapon, pictured on the left, increases its tracking ability greatly. It costs 10 energy per shot.

Rocket

The rocket attack fires an unguided rocket, which does splash damage and pushes the players in its vicinity. The powerup for it causes it to have a much greater rate of fire and more pushback, making it great for rocket jumping. It costs 40 energy per shot.

Minigun

The minigun has a very high rate of fire, and when used correctly can cause significant damage. It costs 150 energy per second to fire. When powered up, it has almost no spread and the energy cost is significantly reduced.

Beam

The beam attack fires a beam that is guaranteed to kill. It has a long cooldown and a very steep cost at 350 energy per shot, so it should be used with care. The powerup for this attack greatly reduces its energy cost, making it very deadly.

Shotgun

The shotgun attack works like any shotgun. It costs 50 energy per shot. When powered up, its spread, damage, and number of pellets are all significantly increased, and at close enough range it will cause significant damage, and probably instant death.

Flak

The flak is one of the more interesting attacks and in the right hands it can make quick work of opponents. When shot, a ball is fired in a straight line that will detonate when either it hits something or attack is pressed again. Upon detonation, the flak ball does damage to all enemy players in the proximity of the explosion. The damage done does not fall off with distance, which means a player that was right next to the ball when it exploded will receive the same amount of damage than a player who is at the edge of the explosions effect radius. The explosion does only minor damage to players on the ground, but does significantly more to those in the air. 100 energy is required to fire a ball, detonation is free. When powered up, each attack causes three flak balls to fire in rapid succession, and subsequent presses of the attack button detonate the balls in order.

Slow

The slow attack causes a slow moving ball to travel in a straight line, slowing any players it passes by 50%. The slow ball disappears when it comes in contact with something, and a new slow ball can't be fired until the previous one has been destroyed. When powered up, the slow ball causes affected players to freeze completely in place for a short time before slowing them down by 75% instead of the regular 50%. Each attack costs 120 energy.

Puffer

The puffer is unique among the standard attacks in that its primary roll isn't to harm others. When fired, the puffer pushes the player in the direction opposite of his facing, providing much versatility in air movement. The puffer also propells any players in front of the shooter who are close enough away from from the shooter. This can be used to, for example, push a player off the map if he's close to an edge or to prevent a player from returning. Each puff costs 80 energy. When powered up the puffer's rate of fire is tripled and cost cut to 20, allowing the player to in effect fly around with relative ease and for little cost.

Star Passer

The star passer has no combat use. It is only available when playing the Scavenger Hunt gamemode, and can only be selected when the player is holding at least one star. In order to pass a star, the player must have another friendly player targetted(in the center of his screen). When fired, one of the player's stars is shot out at a low velocity, and always moves toward the targetted player. If this star hits anything besides another player, it is destroyed. The star will be given to any player who touches it, except the shooter, so it can be picked up by another player on the team besides the target, or possibly someone from the other team. Because of this, it's usually not a good idea to attempt to pass a star over long distances.

Ballmen and content © 2008 Ballmen Mod. Source engine by Valve Software. Site design by Ennui.