ProPinball: Big Race USA - Head To Head Mode
--------------------------------------------
Author : Andreas 'Ante' Grabher
E-Mail :
[email protected]
www :
http://www.tmt.at/ante/
ICQ# : 46919744
Version: 1.1 from 3. Feb. 2000
Translated to English by Jens Göring (
[email protected]).
"Thank you Jens, for the very fast work !!!"
History
-------
1.0 - First version, 18.10.1999 (German)
- Translated into English by Jens Göring, 20.10.1999 (English)
1.1 - update from 3. Feb. 2000 updates marked with (*)
The following updates are done
Update airbag/trunk section
Additional info to Human vs. CPU/Internet mode
Update of the Bugs section
New: Head 2 Head League
Availability
------------
The latest version of this rulesheet is always available at
http://www.tmt.at/ante/pinball/brusa/ or via email from
[email protected].
Disclaimer / Copyright
----------------------
All trademarks mentioned in this rulesheet are property of their
actual owner. I allow everybody to publish, copy or translate this
rulesheet as long as I am mentioned as Author and I am informed about
it.
This Rulesheet is based on version 1.18 from 2.12.1998 of Big Race
USA (BRUSA). If you do not have this version of the game, you can
download a update at
http://www.empire-interactive.com/propinball/brusa/admin/updates.
Please let me know, if this rulesheet contains any bugs or if you
found out how to play BRUSA over LAN. I'll appreciate any other
comment, too.
Contents
--------
1. Introduction
2. H2H-modes
2.11 Human vs. CPU (Offline or Internet)
2.1.11 Offline-matches
2.1.21 Internet-matches
2.21 Human vs. Human over Internet
3. The Game
3.1. Round 1
3.2. Round 2
3.3. Round 3
3.4. Bugs
4. Head 2 Head League
1. Introduction
---------------
The Head to Head match (H2H) is a game played by one player against
another opponent (either human or CPU).
The goal of the game is reaching a higher score than the opponent at
the end of the game. One match is devided in tree round in which you
can achieve different amounts of points.
2. H2H-modes
------------
There are three different possibilities to play H2H-matches:
- Human vs. CPU - Offline or Internet
- Human vs. human - Internet
- Human vs. human - LAN (as far as I know, nobody ever got this to
work), direct connection (seems to work perfectly with a serial
link)
2.1. Human vs. CPU - Offline or Internet
----------------------------------------
2.1.1. Offline-Mode
-------------------
You can activate the offline H2H mode by holding the launch button
(default: RETURN) in the attract mode (that is directly after startup
or between games). You can select the difficulty level with the
flipper buttons. Available options are 'Easy', 'Normal' and 'Hard'.
The match starts after pressing the start button (default: 'S' or
'F1'). See 3 for the rules. The program returns to attract mode after
the game finishes.
2.1.2. Internet-Mode
--------------------
To play over Internet, the player has to create a userprofile (name
and password) in the Pro Pinball Online Clubhouse first.
http://www.empire-interactive.com/propinball/brusa/admin/users
It is possible to play over Internet and get into the official
highscore board with this username. After creating this profile, you
can start the program, open the menu with 'Escape' and select
'Head-to-Head'. Now you have to enter your username and password to
get into the BRUSA-lobby. In the lobby, it is possible to play
against some computer players, challenge other (human) players or
chat.
There are always three computer players present (CPU-easy, -normal
and -hard). You can start a match against a computer player by
clicking his icon (blue arrow down). The match starts immediately.
See 3 for the rules.
When the match finishes, a new one gets automatically started. You
can always abort the game by pressing the 'escape' key. Doing so
returns to the lobby.
(*) On the upper right side you can see a 'LOBBY' logo, which starts
to blink if someone has entered the lobby.
2.2. Human vs. human - Internet
-------------------------------
Same as in 2.1.2. except that you have to click on the icon of
another human player instead of a CPU player. If you do so, you'll
see another chat window, where you can chat privately with your
opponent, but normally you'll start the match directly by clicking
on the 'Play' button.
As a difference to the other modes, the winner will be the best out
of three games, that means that the player that wins two games first
is the winner of the match.
See 3 again for the rules.
After the match, the resulting games and the winner are displayed.
A match is valid as soon as one player wins two games - if the match
is aborded before that (broken connection, etc.) the match will not
change the rating in the ladder.
By pressing the escape key you get back to the private chat window,
where you can chat with your opponent after the match. To play
another match, you have to close this window with 'disconnect'
(you'll get back to the attract mode) and restart the H2H mode with
the menu.
3. The match
------------
And now to the important thing.
One game is divided in three rounds. Each of these rounds lasts 100
seconds at max and there are different modes active in each round.
You can't tilt, but you loose 50 points for each lost ball. You can't
reach less than zero points - negative scores are not possible.
The mode of action of the airbag is the same in all three rounds,
too. You can activate the airbag by completing the TRUNK-targets. If
all off them are hit, the targets are reset and the airbag gets
activated. The airbag of the opponent gets de-activated, but his
TRUNK-targets remain unchanged. (*) You take the TRUNK-targets and
the activated airbag from round to round.
3.1. Round 1
------------
In Round 1 both players try to travel 10,000 feet. At the beginning
of this round, both players have zero points and the same velocity.
The following targets are flashing yellow (left to right):
- Open the Trunk
- left orbit
- left ramp
- U-Turn
- Police Car Scoop
- Mini Loop
- upper left ramp
- Taxi
- upper right ramp
- Big loop
- right ramp
- right orbit
If a player hits a yellow target, he scores 20 points and the target
starts to flash green. The same target on the opponents table starts
to flash red.
Additionally, the velocity of the first player is increased and the
velocity of his opponent is decreased, which means that you are
faster if you see many green targets and slower if you see many
yellow or red targets on your table. (I don't know yet about how much
you get faster or slower)
Hitting a green target scores 100 points, but it remains green for
the hitting player and red for his opponent. The speed remains
unchanged, too.
Hitting a red target scores 10 points and the target starts to flash
yellow for both players. The hitting player gains speed and his
opponent is slowing down.
If a player reaches 10,000 feet, the taxi opens and all other targets
are deactivated. Hitting one of these doesn't score anything and
doesn't change the lights on the opponent's screen. If this player
hits the taxi, he wins this round and scores 1,000 points. His
opponent looses this round and scores no additional points. If
neither player hits the opened taxi in 100 seconds, the round ends
in a draw and no player scores additional points.
3.2. Round 2
------------
In round 2 both players have to travel 10,000 feet. Unlike the first
round, the players are in two different playing modes, which can be
exchanged by hitting certain targets.
The winner of the first round starts the second round in mode A and
the looser in mode B. If the first round ended in a draw, both
players start in mode B and the first player who ends this mode
switches to mode A (although I'm not quite sure about this).
Mode A
------
Mode A is the same as round 1 except that you switch to mode B if the
opponent hits certain targets.
Targets you hit up to this moment (the green ones), are not displayed
for the opponent (as red) until he completes his mode B. Scoring is
the same as in round 1. If one player has reached 10,000 feet and
mode A is active, he can finish round 2 by hitting the now open taxi.
He is awarded by 2,000 points and his opponent scores no additional
points.
Mode B
------
Mode B is a 2 ball multiball, where the goal is to hit one of the
following combinations of two targets:
- Open the Trunk -> Hot Rod
- left ramp -> Sports Car
- right ramp -> Monster Truck
- right orbit -> Mini Bug
Hitting one of the first targets (i.e. the left ramp) scores 100
points and the according car appears (sports car in this case). In
this way you can open more than one car for 100 points each, but the
goal is to hit one car (for additional 100 points) to switch the mode
to mode A. At this moment your opponent gets to mode B.
If a player reaches the finish line (distance 0 feet) while playing
in mode B, he has to activate mode A before he can finish round 2.
3.3. Round 3
------------
The third and last round is the Big Race (see also Erik Mooney's
Rulesheet or Michael Weigert's german translation of it).
The starting position depends on the second's round results. The
winner of round 2 starts on third position, the Hot Rod is open and
the Sports Car, Monster Truck and Mini Bug are closed. The looser of
round 2 starts on fifth position, the Hot Rod is closed and every
other car is open.
If the second round ended in a draw, both players start on fourth
position. On the player's table that finished round 2 in mode A the
Sports Car and the Mini Bug are open and the Hot Rod and the Monster
Truck are closed. On the other player's table it's the other way
round.
If you hit a car, you score 200 points, the car closes (holding the
ball) and opens on the opponent's table. If you hit every open car,
the taxi opens. If you hit the taxi, you are the winner of the third
round and score 5,000 points, the opponent nothing. If the opponent
hits a car before you hit the taxi, the taxi closes and the car your
opponent has hit on his table opens on your table, releasing the ball.
The scores for different results of the third round:
Player 1 - Player 2 - Points player 1/2 - # of open cars player 1/2
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st place - last place- 5,000 / 0 - taxi hit / all cars open
2nd place - last place- 4,000 / 0 - taxi open / all cars open
3rd place - 5th place - 3,000 / 1,000 - 1 car open / 3 cars open
4th place - 4th place - 2,000 / 2,000 - 2 cars open / 2 cars open
5th place - 3rd place - 1,000 / 3,000 - 3 cars open / 1 car open
last place - 2nd place - 0 / 4,000 - all cars open / taxi open
last place - 1st place - 0 / 5,000 - all cars open / taxi hit
After finishing the third round, the player with the better score is
the winner. If a match ends in a draw (both players have the same
score), the game is invalid and a new one starts (only matches
against human opponents).
3.4. Bugs
---------
There's a bug in round 2, which occurs if the following conditions
are true:
- You are in mode A
- You already played mode B at least once, which means that a second
ball is held in one of the cars.
If your opponent hits a target for the second time, this car opens
and releases the second ball. If you hit this car with a ball before
it closes again, you end with two balls in mode A (this happend more
times to me (*)).
(*) This bug is also possible, if you are first in mode B. You end
with 3 balls in mode B (but don't ask me, how I have done this
exactly - cause this happend only once to me) !
'Internet-Bug'
--------------
Some more 'bugs' can occur during internet matches agains other human
players.
For example:
- the taxi doesn't open when a distance of 0 feet is reached (round 1
and 2) or when all cars in round 3 are hit
- both players win round 1 (and score 1,000 each)
- In round 3 there's the possibility to win the race (and score
5,000 points), and the opponent gets more than 0 points, that is
1,000 points.
These 'bugs' occur especially if the connection is slow or bad. You
can recognize this if the distance decreases not smoothly or not at
all. In this case it is better to abord the game with escape and
arrange to end the game with your opponent. Eventuelly you can
restart the game or even reconnect to the internet to improve the
connection. If this doesn't help either, it is better to try it again
at another time or to discard the game totaly.
3.5. Calculation of the Ladder
------------------------------
The Pro Pinball ladder is based on the Glicko System of Prof. Mark E.
Glickman from the Boston University.
This system is quite similar to the ELO-system in chess or the world
rating system in tennis. It is already used for example in FICS (Free
Internet Chess Server).
The system tries to calculate his playing strengh by looking at the
results of already played games.
Two values are of great importance: The rating and the deviation.
To get the score you have to use the following formula:
score = (rating - deviation) / 100
If a player starts at the ladder, he has a scoring of 150,000 and a
deviation of 35,000. If this player wins a match, his rating is
increased depending to the rating and deviation of his opponent and
his own. The rating of the opponent is decreased. Additionally, the
deviation of both players decreases.
Since the ladder is re-calculated after every single match, the
deviation of all players that have not played is increased by a
certain amount. The rating remains the same.
If a player reaches a deviation of 35,000, he is not displayed in the
ladder anymore, but his rating and deviation remains saved. If he
plays again, these values are taken to calculate his new rating.
Since the calculation of the rating and the deviation is quite
complex, I can only sum up how these values change.
A player who is playing a lot has a small deviation, since his
playing strength can quite exactly be estimated from the results of
his many matches.
A player who is rarely playing has a high deviation, since his
playing strength can not be estimated from only a few games.
Therefor, the ratings of players with high deviation are changing a
lot after each game, which means that the rating increases a lot
after winning a game, but also decreases a lot after loosing a game.
It's the contrary for players that play a lot. Loosing doesn't
decrease your rating a lot but winning doesn't increase it a lot,
too.
Winning against a player with high deviation doesn't increase your
rating as much as winning against a player with low deviation.
(*) Regularly you can say, winning against a player with a high
rating, increases your score more, than winning against a player
with a low rating.
Otherwise, of course, it's 'better' to loose against a player with a
high rating :-)
A few Examples
--------------
Player 1 - Player 2 Player 1 - Player 2
rating/dev. - rating/dev. Result rating/dev. - rating/dev.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
180000/1000 - 180000/35000 2:0 180019/999 - 162500/24663
180000/1000 - 180000/35000 0:2 179499/999 - 197499/24663
180000/1000 - 180000/1000 2:0 180028/999 - 179971/999
180000/15000 - 180000/15000 2:0 185075/13975 - 174924/13975
180000/35000 - 180000/35000 2:0 196221/29023 - 163778/29023
4. Head 2 Head League
---------------------
In the middle of january 2000, the first Head 2 Head league has
started. This league is played additional to the normal ladder.
You find more information on the following homepage:
members.tripod.de/ByteDoc (Pro Pinball page)
You can also ask me, if you need more information.
Short description:
In the moment the first league has 12 players. But we are always
looking for new players.
In the future it should be possible, to make more leagues, similar
to soccer leagues, or maybe different divisions. There are many
different possibilities.
Credits:
--------
Autor: Andreas 'Ante' Grabher (
[email protected] )
Spellchecking: Michael 'Mic' Weigert (
[email protected] )
Translation: Jens Göring (
[email protected] )
