User:JoblessScout/Balloon race

“

This thing ain’t on auto-pilot, son! Click to listen — The Engineer driving the boat manually

”

Balloon Race is a TF2 mod. There are several versions for it, but the latest game of it is balloon_race_v3_t7. The other versions are balloon_race_v1, balloon_rave_v2, and balloon_rave_v3. Although balloon_race_v3_t7 is the latest map of the development, the other versions are played just as much because of different gameplay styles.

Gameplay

The game is similar to Payload Race, however, you use "boats" with weather balloons attached to the top. You start off in a resupply room station. The supply rooms contain a resupply locker, and to holes which will teleport you to the front or the back or underneath the boat. Outside the room, there is a giant balloon station with two colored balloons depending on your side. You are given 30 seconds to setup and get on the boat. In balloon_race_v1, there is a force field that will disappear after setup time, while balloon_race_v2 and on have a fence and will disappear after a while after the setup ends.

Goals

There are two goals in balloon race. The first goal is to capture all the control points. The control points are treasure island, which is an island surrounded by water, a rock on the cliff, which is land stuck out of a side of a mountain high above ground, the bird's nest, which is a marble stairway connected to another mountain, and another rock stuck out of the mountainside except it has a stairway with a control on the top. All the balloon race games have these locations, except with changes. In balloon_race_v1, the landforms are the same, in balloon_race_v2 however, the water is surrounded by two Ichthyosaurs from the half-life series, the first rock side has a building with a control point inside, and the fourth control point has a Hoodoo similar to the one in Badlands for the second and fourth control point. In balloon_race_v3, everything is the same except the first control point has minor changes, the third control point has glass walls and a roof on the pathway going down the bird nest on the sides, and the fourth control point is a building, but you still have to get to the top of it to get to the control point. In balloon_race_v3_t7, the water surrounding the island is toxic and will deal 1 damage for every second you are in the water, and an extra control point called the bridge which is towards the end of the race, there is a bridge between a canyon that has a control point in the center. In balloon_race_v1, for a team to win, they have to capture 3 control points. In balloon_race_v2 and v3, a team has to capture all four control points. In balloon_race_v3_t7, if four control points are captures, that team will win. The extra control point does not need to be capped if the four other ones are captured by the same team.

In balloon_race_v2, if the boat is 2 control points behind, there is a path in the mountain that the boat will go through to catch up. If the third control point is captured and the other boat is 2 control points away, it will go behind the bird nest and get to the fourth control point

The second goal is to reach the end of the map. In balloon race 1, if both team get 2 control points, the race will go on and you will have to control your boat to the beginning of the map. The boat will go through a canyon and back into the balloon shed and into the other team's side. In balloon_race_v2 and v3, if 3/4 control points a re captures, the race will go on. In this version, if a control point is capped, the balloons will get a speed boost and will have an increased speed when on the wheel. everything is the same towards the end of the race, except when the losing team doesn't make it, their boat will explode. In balloon_race_v3_t7, everything is the same except if 3/5 points are capped, the race will go on.

Balloon Boats

Each side has their own balloon boats with their color. At the front of the boat, there is a steering wheel which will let you drive the boat. The boat will go faster you stand near it. Its speed will lower if no one is near it. The sped goes up to five speed or maximum speed. The balloons fly in the air to go over lakes and air. You have to drive your boats to the control point areas and reach back to the balloon station. The balloons contains Dispensers to heal you during traveling in the boat. In balloon_rave_v1 there is a level 1 Dispenser which is your source of healing health and getting ammo. In balloon_race_v2, the Dispenser in underneath the boat. In balloon race v3 and balloon_race_v3_t7, the Dispenser is still underneath the boat, however it is a level 3 Dispenser. The boats have breakable windows to fire projectiles out of. In the first balloon race, the balloons have 2 windows on the back, in the balloon_race_v2 and v3, the balloons have 7 windows, 3 in the back, and 4 underneath, and in balloon_race_v3_t7, the balloon has 5 windows, 3 in the back, and 2 underneath instead. The boats in version 2 and onward will deal damage Overtime if anyone is near the boat. to get back on your boat, you can either walk onto the boat, use the ladder on the side of the boat, use the holes in the resupply rooms, or use the tele-porters to get back into it.

Gameplay Demonstrations

Note: This is balloon_race_v2.

Strategies

General

• Try to move around the wheel to avoid projectiles, especially Sniper's bullets
• Only go to the Dispenser is you really need it. Don't go to it to heal little damage or ammo.
• On the first control point, try to hind behind the treasure chest to avoid damage. Be careful about standing there too long, or else the treasure chest will open when captured, crushing you to death.
• At the third control point, you can jump onto the lower balloon when its moving. This can be useful to attack enemy players as they will have a hard time hitting or noticing you.
• Aim for the enemy(s) who are controlling the boat. Seriously wounding them or killing them can cause the boat to slow to a complete stop if the space in front of the wheel is vacant.

Scout

• Obviously, they can capture control points twice as fast
• With the help of Force-A-Nature or Atomizer, you can jump onto the enemy's boats and distract them as well as damage them. This technique is safer in balloon_race_v1 as you don't take damage from going onto their boats.
• They can be used to avoid damage while driving due to their speed

Soldier

• Their rockets can cause decent damage (compared to other weapons at far range) to the enemy players on their boats
• They can rocket jump onto enemy player's boats and cause serious damage to the enemy. Their high HP can be useful to survive the damage from the enemy's boats on v2 and v3.
• It is recommended to have the Pain Train to capture the control points faster.

Pyro

• Arguably the most devastating class in the mod, they can get onto the enemy's boat and burn everyone to death if they are quick at the beginning of the round. They can be very difficult to defeat if one were to infest the boat, especially in balloon_race_v1 due to the fact that they don't take damage on the boat and the border diving the boats vanishes instantly when the round starts.
• Their Flare Guns and Detonator can be handy to burn people from far range. Due to it having no damage ramp-up, they can be handy to do decent damage as well. The Scorch Shot is especially useful at range for knocking enemies away from the wheel of their boat or even better, knocking them clean off it, either hindering them or plunging them to their death.

Demoman

• Demomen can be very useful to reach far place quickly, especially with the Sticky Jumper. They can use the Sticky Jumper to gain a head-start on capturing control points. You can also use it to jump onto the enemy's balloon and destroy them with your Grenade Launcher without them noticing you
• Use the Pain Train if you have it, especially if you are using the Sticky Jumper trick.
• Your Grenade Launcher can be useful to let them roll onto the enemy's boat and explode them.
• Sticky jump to the second control point if things start to tilt in the enemies favour, use the Ullapool Caber and use it to ambush them at the second point. Despite being a suicide tactic, it can be useful to buy your team mates some time.

Heavy

• Heavy, like the Pyro, can also be devastating if they get onto the enemy's boat quickly at the beginning of the round due to their Minigun having high damage and high hit points to get through.
• The heavy's Minigun does very little damage at far range. Thus, it's best to use the Minigun when capturing the control points.
• Your Sandvich can be useful to heal you quickly without wasting time going to the Dispenser.

Engineer

• Engineers are only useful when capping control points. If they are quick, they can build a sentry to the enemy teams boat port or near a control point to make it harder for them to capture it or behind the wheel.
• It is useful to have the Gunslinger with you as you can survive more damage on the boat and you can build quick mini-Sentry Guns near capture points without wasting time building it.
• Through a glitch, the Engineer can have a big advantage by building things onto the boat. See bugs.

Medic

• Medics can help teammates driving the boat so they don't have to keep going to the Dispenser and focus on driving.
• If you have the Medi Gun, you can use its ubercharge to kill the enemy players trying to cap the control point.
• If you have the Kritzkrieg, you can use it on players to kill enemy players driving the boat. It's recommended to do it on players with weapons that don't have damage ramp-up at far range, such as Flare Guns or Revolvers.
• If you have the Quick-Fix, you can use it to heal your teammates effectively if they are starting to suffer when driving the boat.
• You can use the Amputator taunt to heal all your teammates on the boat without constantly switching your heal beam with other people.

Sniper

• Snipers are very vital in this map. Due to the map being very huge with a lot of wide open ranges, you can kill many enemy players at extremely far ranges.
• Be careful with he Machina as the tracer rounds can attract many Spies towards you.
• Their bullets are the most high damaging things at far range, so they can be useful anywhere.

Spies

• Spies aren't that useful in this map for couple of reasons. For one thing, the enemy players are usually on the boat. With your low HP and your real advantage of going near the enemy players, you are usually going to die when attempting to backstab people on the boat.
• If you do manage to Cloak yourself on the boat (especially with the Cloak and Dagger), be careful of uncloaking to backstab someone. With little space on the boat, you will be caught and trapped easily.
• If you are accurate, you can use their Revolver to get people from far ranges.