Questions and answers about the game mods.
In the original game a strong player wins almost every round against beginners. Some mods even this out. The most important one is the handicap, because it is the only mod that treats the players differently. The other mods help beginners because they fix typical beginner mistakes or add some luck.
Hit points (handicap) give each player a number of hits they survive, set per player name. This is the most direct way to balance the game:
- Leave
DefaultHitPointsat 1 for the strong players and give beginners 2 or 3 in the handicap table. - After a hit the player is invulnerable for a while (
InvulnTimeMs, default 5 s). This is enough time to get away, keep it at 5 s or more. - Keep Show hit points above the players on, so everyone sees who still has extra lives.
- Adjust the table after a few rounds: if a beginner wins too often, take one hit point away.
In the hurry every hit is lethal. With a longer play time or infinite time (launcher: Game options...) the hit points matter for a larger part of the round, with infinite time there is no hurry at all.
A typical beginner mistake: placing a bomb in the start corner and locking themselves in. With glove at start every player can throw this bomb away until the first step. Strong players rarely make this mistake, so the mod mostly helps beginners.
Beginners usually die first and then only watch. With ghosts they keep playing at the border of the field and can come back into the round:
GhostMaxCount1 or 2: a player can come back once or twice per round.GhostMaxTimeMs0: the ghost has as much time as it needs.GhostFlameLen3 instead of 2: the ghost bomb hits more easily.
Strong players can become ghosts too, but as they die less often, they use it less.
Beginners pick up everything, also the disease items, while strong players avoid them. With the positive disease a part of the disease items makes the player invulnerable. So collecting everything is punished less, and the luck of the protection evens out the game a little. A chance of 30 to 50 % makes the effect noticeable.
Works like the positive disease: walk through bricks turns some disease items into a way to escape. It helps players who are trapped, which happens more often to beginners.
These mods reward precise timing and aiming, so strong players profit more from them:
- Boxing glove: stun the opponent, then place a bomb next to the opponent. Strong players use this as a combo.
- Stun on bomb landing: precise throws need practice. The stun also hits the thrower, beginners often stun themselves.
- Open borders and teleporters: more ways to escape and to chase. Strong players use them on purpose, beginners lose the overview.
- Flamethrower: easy to use, but strong players dodge the beam and hit more often. If it is on, a longer Time to kill (e.g. 3000 ms) makes it less dangerous.
White screen and white bomb are neutral: they add chaos for everyone, but a blind beginner is just as lost as a blind expert. Good for fun, not for balance.
Some options of the game (launcher: Game options...) help as well:
- Team play: put a beginner and a strong player in one team. Together with the handicap this works very well.
- Fewer wins to win the match: the fewer wins are needed, the more a lucky round counts.
- Longer play time or infinite time: less pressure from the hurry, and the hit points stay useful longer (see above).
A setup for an evening with two beginners (Anna, Ben) and some strong players, in atomic_mods.ini of the host (or the same values in the launcher under Mods...):
[Mods]
HitPoints=1
DefaultHitPoints=1
InvulnTimeMs=5000
ShowHitPoints=1
GloveAtStart=1
Ghosts=1
GhostMaxCount=2
GhostMaxTimeMs=0
GhostFlameLen=3
PositiveDisease=1
PositiveDiseaseChance=40
[Handicap]
Anna=3
Ben=2The player names in [Handicap] must be written exactly like in the game. A second player on the same PC is Name~2, see hit points (handicap).