SOC - Ball Handling C - C. Bob - 1 player, hostiles training

  Code:

SoccerGameType 1 99
LevelName Ball Handling C
LevelDescription A training level
LevelCredits C. Bob
Script
GridSize 255
MinPlayers 1
MaxPlayers 1
Team Blue 0 0 1
BarrierMaker 50 1.7 1.3  2.4 0.9  4.9 0.9
BarrierMaker 50 0.1 0.1  0.1 3.1  6.1 3.1  6.1 0.1  0.1 0.1
BarrierMaker 50 3.7 1.5  4.9 2.3
BarrierMaker 50 3.6 2  1.6 2.4
SoccerBallItem 0.8 2
Turret -2 3.3 1.9  1
BarrierMaker 50 1.1 0.7  0.6 1.2
Spawn 0 0.4 0.5
Turret -2 2 0.2  1
Turret -2 3.7 3  1
GoalZone 0 5.5 1.3  6 1  6 2  5.5 1.7
Turret 0 6 1.5  1

It's implied in the other levels that you should avoid just shooting down the turret to score, since it tries to avoid killing you.

Here, feel free to shoot down the hostile turrets -- they have no problem with killing you, after all. In the absence of bot design ability, these turrets exist to try to kill you and knock the ball around, the same as a real player would.

Same deal as in the last levels; score as many times as you can in one minute. Try to score through each route, if you can.

[karamazovapy]

With all three of these...I get it, but I don't get it.

I made the first one as a way of improving my ball handling abilities, then added more elements to the next two, to provide more challenges (though I suspect it can actually be easier to score in B than in A).

In the process of making them, I figured they were good enough that it'd be worth posting them up here, so someone else might be able to get some value out of them.

On a side note, it seems that soccer could have support for one-team play, so I might try to make a real map, based on that feature.

[karamazovapy]

B is way easier than A. On each of these, especially C though, I found myself going for the standard soccer "smash through" technique because of the turrets. I didn't play each more than a couple times, but is it actually possible to "ball handle" past a turret that's drilling away? It was the corners that gave me the most trouble. If you don't get the ball moving fast enough, the turret at the end will stop it before you get all the way to the back of the level. If you keep it moving fast, then you have to do something to redirect it toward the center once you get near the corner. Then the turret starts hammering you anyway. In either case, I found I had to just force it rather than use any kind of nuanced ball handling. And, had it been a game with either a player or a turret in the goal, I would've been better off eliminating the threat to make my goal scoring attempt easier.

Which is to say I "got" the motivation behind these levels, but I didn't "get" the lesson I was supposed to get out of it.

If there's any consistent way to use finesse to get through a turret barrage, I haven't mastered it yet. Scoring''s all about the ball's speed; you have to come in fast, and make it in before the turret starts firing. If the turret gets a read on the ball, it becomes much harder to get a point. Forcing it is pretty much standard strategy.

In the end, though, the levels aren't supposed to teach any specific scoring lesson. They're just intended to reflect BF soccer well enough so that you can practice it.

The "ball handling" part comes from the implied first step, which is to move the ball from its starting point over to the area the goal is in. You can move the ball around well and still not be a great scorer, but some people can have problems with just getting the ball there to begin with. I think these levels, and the extra challenge of scoring off of every route at least once in a minute's time, can help with that; it should help you get an idea for how the ball moves, and how you maneuver it around walls and all of that.

[karamazovapy]

Makes sense. I'm with ja.