Pipeball Ultra

[The Asylum]

wise fwom your gwave

After a very long and confusing IRL ordeal, I'm finally back in the saddle again. And I come bearing news of Pipeball Ultra's revival.

Of course, I also have a brand new screenie. Ever wonder what happens when the score is tied when the main timer runs down? No, it's not just our favorite explode-you-on-contact black ball. This time around, its something a little more... arena-y.

"ya dun goofed!?"​

One thing people have requested of me since I first started these dumb things is to have an arena mode Pipeball. Well, here you have it. On Sudden Death, everyone respawns here, and our round black friend drops into a spartan enclosed arena. So that's a 4-rinked Pipeball map I'm making here. Well, three rinked, I guess, if you add the two half-rinks together. tldr its fuggen hueg.

THIS time, I'm going to have it done by April Foolsday. Assuming that's still a thing.

 

[The Asylum]

....so yeah here we are like four fucking years later and even then only the bonus room was testable at April Foolsday

I'm glad I could at least play part of it today. Thoughts?

 

[The Asylum]

oh heck

It's not 100% releaseable yet, but god damn is it close. We'll see once I'm finally able to get the goal defense map testing done.

 

[The Asylum]

bonus rooms more like shit rooms amirite

Finally got to see the bonus rooms in action under the initial 30s time limit. Yeaaaaaaaaaah, not one of my better ideas. It looked OK in Asylum Megamix, not so much on its own. Some ideas:

- Lengthen time to 1 min. 30 seconds is hardly enough time to get anything remotely resembling an offense going.

- Add more exits for the attacking team. I wanted to give the attackers a handicap and my idea worked.... a bit too well.

- Backrooms are useless. Maybe adding a conduit from the attacker's spawn to here might spice things up a bit

Still, it's a very good thing I got this tested before releasing the entire map.

Next one will be better. I promise.

ETA: Some progress:



Defenders are now limited to the bottom level. Behind that wall are some full health and ammo packs.



The goal defense pillars are gone



Also, to hint at the importance of not letting two consecutive bonus goals in, this warning light system keeps track of where your team stands in terms of sudden loss, as well as the HUD. Yes, there is a HUD.




RED will only be able to cap certain points, BLU will only be able to cap certain points.



And by complete accident, when the ball is served, it'll bob up and down into the air and back into the pipe. Totally unintended, but hey, why change it?

....oh yeah, you guys havent seen the sudden death arena yet, have you? Well here it is:



Yeah it doesn't look like much now, but soon. Soon. I'm really really really trying to restrain myself to not go super detail crazy like I usually do for pre-alpha releases. I are doing a smert.

Oh yes, the Black Ball is back. And he's not alone. What you don't see in that pic are his three other brothers. That's right! If you tie when time runs out, you get FOUR Black Balls whipping around at you.

As for further goal defense test maps? .... nah. I think we're done with that. Maybe I'll decide to test the Sudden Death round individually, maybe I won't. I'll finish up the suprisingly finnicky warning lights system, fine-tune the scoreboard trains, and get those ball cannons to fire just right before I'll consider finally, FINALLY, releasing the A1 build.

Any day now, my freinds. Any day now.

 

[The Asylum]

AND HERE WE GO!

.... kind of

A very special A0 build is right here for a very special pre-release test. The A1 build will be modified according to appropriate feedback, and finally see an actual release on July 1, aka Canada Day!