Dodgeball: Ballistic Mayhem

Dodgeball: Ballistic Mayhem is a fast paced arcade style ball dodge game. This involves going up against competitors to gain the longest time on the hill without getting assassinated, shot with needlers till you are fired into a kill ball, or of course, the most likely way to die: an endless wave of golf balls being hurled at high speeds through a fine tuned feeding system that provides non-stop entertainment in small bite size chunks.

Development:
The original idea came from a bowling map, which had a clever feeding mechanism using shields and Mancannons.
From this, I developed 3 previous systems before I cracked the final one:

Version 1: Dodgeball

1. The original feeding mechanism involved using a stairway placed on its side to push the soccer balls into the feeding mechanism. They were then fired up a gravity lift, past a teleport which had another gravity lift on top. They then are deflected off of a shield and fired down the ramp.
2. I placed shields along the edges of the ramp back down to the bottom, which deflected it from flying off the edge, but as I found, boosted the balls speed. With the use of a gravity lift to boost the ball up another hill, the system was reliable, but slow.
3. The Mancannons are positioned so that the balls fly forward, as shown below in the design. This method also accelerated the balls to the point where when they hit the player, it killed them.
Overall, this version was very clumsy with the design, only roughly outlining what would become the high efficiency system that is DBM. Players camped on the stairs and hid in the corner so that the balls didn’t hit them. Also, the gravity lifts could occasionally raised the footballs up too early, causing jamming, along with the painfully slow mechanism. Regardless of this, the legacy was there, and I knew that it was possible to create a feeding system, and it could only get more efficient.

Version 2: Dodgeball V2

1. For the second version, the original feeding system was duplicated, creating a dual feeding mechanism. Meaning that removing the original stair system was possible. This fed the balls a lot faster, and if one blocked, another could still work in backup.
2. As with the dual boosters, a dual ramp system had to be developed to ensure that the balls ran at a faster speed. This involved increasing the height of the ramp so that it could roll further. Along with this, I placed parallel shield doors along the ramps to speed up their progress rapidly, rebounding several times off each shield before they landed.
3. As for the Mancannon system, the system remained the same, only altering the back ramp that they ran down to increase their speed. The teleport system remained the same since the previous version: Players that tried to escape via the gravity lift would be teleported back, giving the teleport a dual use. Along with this, it stopped the players from getting too far forwards within the arena to the extent that they could dodge the balls completely.
This version was basically version 1 with large alterations done to its system, and while this was an improvement on the original, it wasn’t even close to what I wanted. The system still jammed on the tubing and people still could hide behind the gravity lifts. Also, they simply defended the front corners in which the balls rarely reached. The large ramp system was sluggish and still nowhere fast enough to match what I was wanting.

Version 3: Dodgeball Arena

1. Version 3 took a significant step in the right direction by dumping the original design of a massive arena, focusing more on quality rather than quantity. For this version, I used an alternate method of firing the balls in the according direction; providing them with a 45 degree angle to place the Mancannons on. This could be changed accordingly to what direction I wanted the balls to go in, and worked very effectively, especially on a more compact level.
2. As the distance was decreased that the balls had to travel, there was less need for ramps to cover distance, so only a set of gravity lifts and the boost of the Mancannon was needed.
3. The players in this version since the distance on which they travelled was reduced was more of a fatigue based game, in which players when pushed backwards were boosted out of the side using a gravity lift and a teleport. This constant smashing of footballs hitting the player if they didn’t dodge slowly wore down their health until they collapsed in an exhausted heap.
This version of it was the beginnings of the Dodgeball that exists today, but this was for me the final version on this map pack, as it lacked the features to improve the map with. Key features such as what to do with the players once they went through the teleports couldn’t be solved with the resources available. Players were able to hide at the front of the map and avoid the footballs easily, which despite its effectiveness lacked power behind the balls to make one hit kills.

Version 4: Dodgeball: Ballistic Mayhem

Dodgeball Design

The Mythic Map Pack provided the massive breakthrough that I had been waiting for. The ball system for this version was completely re-designed for the Mythic Map Pack, incorporating revolutionary design features which made impossible designs previously plausible; such as the killball.

Ball System Mechanism

1. The ball system was redesigned, taking inspiration from all 3 previous designs. Here is how it works:

1: The balls begin the process at the gravity lifts at on the second floor, and are fired towards the killball over a ramp, avoiding the Mancannons on the opposite side of the wall (see key).

2: Balls roll down the ramp and into the Mancannons, firing the ball at a high velocity at the players.

3: The Players are hit by the barrage of balls flying at them, balls maintain speed either killing the players on impact or pushing them into the teleports.

4: The Balls roll past the teleports and are fired up a gradient ramp using a Mancannon and merged ramp types.

5: The Balls rebound off of the shield and are fired forwards.

6: If the Balls slow down at this point, they roll down the ramp and are bounced along the floor shield and back to the gravity lift. If they are too fast, the shield at the far right end stops them and rebounds them onto the track.

2. Another feature that was fixed was the teleport system. By placing a killball within the map, it solved several problems:

1: The players hiding at the front of the map; the killball stopped any attempt to reach the front of the map.

2: The players going backwards up the Mancannons; any players who went into the teleports behind them were teleported into the killball, meaning there is no escape.

Weapon dispenser mechanism

3. Dispensing weapons; the plasma sword, the only other weapon on the map would’ve previously been lost if I had kept the original killball system, in which I placed it in an external location. When I placed it on the map with the receivers within the killball facing the players, a sword recycling method occurred:
1: Player Picks up plasma sword from centre of map.

2: Player is hit by ball, pushing them back into the teleport.

3: Player is teleported inside of killball, and dies. Their body and weapon is fired forwards by the force of the ball, and their weapon and body are dispensed onto the map, for a practical and hilarious effect.

This version of the map was clearly made a lot easier to function by the improvements of the new mythic map pack, such as the rate of dodgeballs, the huge budget and the ability to kill players in the killballs. The ball feeding system has been taken to an absolute optimum speed, a constant stream of unforgivably fast golfballs flying at the player, along with no place to hide, simply having to rely on what this map says on the tin; Dodge.
Here is the finished product.

DODGEBALL:Ballstic Mayhem (Side removed to show interior)

Screenshots
The gameplay itself is incredibly frantic, with some ridiculous rag doll effects happening as players are sent flying as they are pelted with high speed projectiles. Here are just a few of the hilarious and interesting screenshots I managed to collect from just two 3 minute matches:

Catch! (As seen in Halo 2)

Congassassination!

Awkward landing: “Can you guys get this thing out of me!”

Panto: “What do you mean it’s behind me?”

Push!

Spartwheel: One Spartan makes some very evasive manoeuvres to avoid being taken out.

Takedown: One player is sent flying by one Golfball too many.

And now on more of a sensible note; a couple of gameplay screenshots showing gameplay rather than ragdolls in ridiculous splatter poses. Keep in mind these have also been collected from the same two 3 minute games.

Triumph: a player raises their plasma sword in victory at the end of the match.

Wipeout: A fresh batch of Spartans is flattened by a salvo of golfballs.

And these are just the tip of the iceberg with screenshots: my only limit was this thread maximum screenshots.

Explanation of the weapons -
The Needler: Despite you being invincible, the player, if shot with enough needles will explode in a certain direction. This proves especially effective aganst removing other players from corners, near the kill ball. A clip to the chest and you'l send them sailing into the kill ball.

Plasma Sword: Can be found in the centre of the map, the sword deals no damage, but provides a method of lunging at high speeds across the map. But its a double edged sword (Pun intended), as despite it taking you towards your enemy at a high speed, your enemy might be in the path of an incoming wave of balls.

Assassinations: As always, all deaths by players cannot be stoppped. Assassinations are the default method of killing players. Constant movement and being on your guard is key to not being assasinated. The a good method is to be the third player to enter an assasination battle. Whist one or two of the players are fighting, you assassinate the player facing away from you, leaving one player to kill.

Modes available to play with - At least one of the two modes must be played with the map for it to function properly, so make sure you download them too.

KingDodge (2-6):
KingDodge is a group game of King of the hill from 2 up to 6 people, in which you have a 3 minute match in which you have infinite lives, and fight against each other to score the most points by the end of the game. The scoring involves:
Off the Hill (Aka Dead) 0 Points
On the Hill (Contesting) 1 Points
On the Hill (In control) 2 Points
Killing your opponents in any way whatsoever results in no additional scoring, and suicides do not reduce score. The key to this mode is surviving for as long as possible, and if possible, killing off all opponents to gain those juicy score boosts.

SoloDodge (1):
SoloDodge is a variant of KingDodge, in which if a player is alone in a party, they can try to score as much points with 3 lives with in unlimited time. Once achieved, the player places their screenshot of the final score/Just final score/Film of it if you want on the rankings to see who can survive the longest successfully against the Dodgeballs. Depending on your skill, length on time lasts from a couple of minutes to who knows?

Improvements and Feedback:
I have had my map previously tested with the tester’s guild, who gave their opinion on the map (All issues have been fixed so only the positive feedback is relevant within it) so with the resources available; all problems with the map previously have been fixed.
Follow the link to take a look at what they had to say.
http://www.forgehub.com/forum/test-feedback/72557-feedback-5-25-a.html

Download DODGEBALL: Ballistic Mayhem here

Download KINGDODGE here

Download SOLODODGE here

Now that I have finished writing about it, I think its time you saw for yourself the map and modes, so download the map and modes here and enjoy the map!
Remember, your feedback would be greatly appreciated, as all of this goes towards my portfolio, but more importantly, I can improve it to make my map more fun for you all. Those of you who like the map, if you could recommend the map to either a select group of friends or your whole list, and tell them to pass it on, that would be fantastic.

All that’s really left for me to say to you all is:

Thanks and have Fun,

Twilight GN0ME.

Many thanks to:

The Tester's Guild (for helping me change the scoring system)
All my mates on Live (for trying their absolute best to break my maps so I can make them better)
The Moderators (for helping me get released right this time!)
And you lot (for downloading over 100 copies of the map and reading through this)
And of course Bungie (for making my maps possible)