Dodgeball

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Think fast, chucklenuts! Click to listen — The Scout on reaction time

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Dodgeball is a gameplay mod for Team Fortress 2 which was originally developed by Voogru as a private Metamod extension. It was then made into a public Sourcemod Plug-in by Asherkin. It is played on maps that have been purposely created or altered for the game mode.

Gameplay

In Dodgeball, everyone plays as the Pyro uses it's Compression blast ability to reflect rockets or nuclear bombs. Rockets and nuclear bombs are fired from a determined spot in the map.

These projectiles are designed to follow one targeted player until it has been deflected by an airblast. When the projectile is airblasted, its affinity and color changes and it targets a random player on the opposite team, gaining speed with each deflection, until the projectile explodes, damaging or killing the target. The rocket can also be reflected into the ground and allow the player to survive and reset the rocket

Gameplay continues until one team is eliminated entirely. Players are usually continuously supplied with ammunition via the map or a custom Flamethrower.

There are two types of projectiles used: the rocket and the nuclear bomb. The rocket looks like a standard Soldier's rocket. The "nuke" rockets tend to be larger, slower and usually appear in the form of the bomb attached to most Payload carts. These bombs can have devastating effects if the player fails to successfully deflect them, often killing multiple nearby players, leading them to be the primary focus of a team when reflecting.

The design of Dodgeball maps can differ greatly in theme and style, though is often centered around a large open area with a gap or obstacle separating the two teams. Some maps will allow the teams to interact more closely, though this can lead to players juggling opponents or blasting them into environmental damage, something which is generally frowned upon.

Servers running maps which allow opposite teams to reach each other will often change the Flamethrower's properties to negate any burn damage players may attempt to cause. They may often restrict players to their primary weapon for the same reason.

Variants

There are multiple variants of dodgeball on servers. Settings can both be server side or map side and can have vastly different effects on gameplay.

Speed Dodgeball is a major variant of the original multiple rocket dodgeball. In Speed Dodgeball, there is only one rocket in play, and it speeds up at a much faster rate than normal. This results in much faster, focused gameplay, typically seen only towards the end of normal Dodgeball matches.

Some servers may also limit the number of rockets in play at a time. E.g. 2 rockets active, etc.

Other servers and maps may allow players the use of all of their weapons, in which case the Flare Gun can also be used to destroy rockets and nukes.

Rockets are most commonly dispensed but occasionally nukes come into play. But some maps provide nuke or rocket only gameplay.

Strategy

• 'Orbiting' is a technique where the player moves in a tight circle as rockets approach, causing them to 'orbit' the player. This allows players to manage multiple rockets and reflect them back at a more strategic moment.
  • Depending on the server/map, the nukes deal self knockback but not damage. If this is the case, you can airblast an orbiting nuke into the ground for a massive jump across the map, known as a nuke jump.
• Be wary of rockets approaching you from behind and to the sides.
  • Rockets may suddenly change paths if the teammate it was going towards died. Just because it was going a different direction doesn't mean it will necessarily continue to.
• Good control of airblasts is a must! Airblast too early, the projectile isn't reflected, and an airblast won't ready before collision. Airblast too late and it will collide. This is especially important for high speed or multiple rockets as controlled airblasting is needed to survive.
• Stay away from your teammates as much as possible. Nukes have a large splash damage radius; if they miss, you're dead.
  • Try to help your teammates out. You can deflect rockets/nukes heading towards your team, no matter who they're targeting.
• On some maps you can airblast opponents off the edge, but be careful of impending rockets.