Bombing Run
Encyclopedia : B : BO : BOM : Bombing Run
Short Synopsis
Bomging Run (abbreviated BR) can best be described as Unreal-style football where the player gets the ball and has to take it into enemy territory and score in the enemy forces goal. Players can pass to other teammates. The ball carrier drops the ball when they're killed. If you manage to run through the goal, you'll get 7 teampoints, and if you throw the ball in the goal, you'll be rewarded with 3 teampoints. If you get the ball, and get attacked by, for instance, a shock rifle hit, your life will decrease with 45 points - the shock rifle primary fire damage - and if you keep the ball, your life will regain with 3 life per second. It won't go above the standard life of 100 hitpoints though. This however, is only a shallow viewpoint.Overall
Bombing Run as described by the masters of the genre, is an all out simulation of a generic team vs. team ball game. BR-Football is just one map in this genre which simulates football. It is a symmetrical map with 2 goals on either side of the field. This is not one of the standard maps packaged with the game.
In general, BR maps are geometrically symmetric with a single axial plane of symmetry. This need not always be the case. Bombing Run maps need to have good open fields to pass; good ledges and platforms, etc. to perform good and nice tricks; quite big maps, so you can retreat to defend your own goal; and good weapon emplacements, so the defenders need get a good and effective weapon to kill the ball carrier - shock rifle, rocket launcher are favourite in BR - which is near to the goal, although it can get quite "spammy" around the goals, but this seems to be inevitable in BR. The standard Bombing Run maps are most played in the nwBR (normal weapon Bombing Run) version of the gametype, this shows how hard it is to make a good Bombing Run map. In the iBR (instagib Bombing Run) version, more custom-made maps are played, tactis aren't used much in instagib games, because 1 hit with the Super Shock Rifle (the instagib weapon) kills.
The same dynamics that are felt by football players, basketball players and other team vs. team ball game players everyday in real life, can be simulated and felt while playing Bombing Run. And this includes the adrenaline rush. However, because it takes a lot of effort to master the genre, it has not gained much popularity and Epic Games plans to drop it in Unreal Tournament 2007. People didn't seem to like the quick and agile side of the gametype. Good BR-players retired BR, according them there were coming to much 'noobs' to the BR-scene. Most of them were going to play CTF instead. There have been several attempts to revive BR, with new servers which had better ping than the oldschool jolt server which was, unfortunately, the only BR server for a long time in UT2004. BR is havings a revival at the moment, the jolt BR server isn't as popular as it used to be, but there is a new BR server which is called UUTF & Friends public BR server.
Unlike any other unreal genre, the score in terms of points in Bombing Run does not reflect the success of the player all the time. For example, one common strategy in Bombing Run is to commit suicide when the ball is with the enemy heading towards your goal and you are in enemy territory. Obviously, the UT2004 point allocation system would mark you negatively for a suicide, but in certain maps, such as BR-Colossus (perhaps the most popular map in the genre), this strategy works well against a fast but amateur player.
Ball handling and point system:
If you manage to get the ball, you can do several things with it. You can walk with it, and try to dodge every shot. It's very dangerous, but if you can manage to score this way, you will get 10 points for it if you run through the goal. If you throw the ball in the goal, you'll only get 4 points. Other teammates won't get points. Only the teamscore will increase. You could also try to get the ball and pass it to a teammate. If the teammate manages to walk through the goal, you'll get 5 points and your teammate 10 points. Everyone who had the ball, before a goal is scored by walking through the goal, gets 5 points. The goal scorer gets 10 points. If the goal scorer scores by throwing the ball in the goal, het gets 4 points. Anyone else who had the ball before the goal falls, gets 2 points. However, if the ball drops, and the other team manages to take the ball the counting starts all over again.If you kill the ball carrier, you'll get 3 points for killing him, and you'll get adrenaline for it. You can also get 25 adrenaline for making a goal. Or just take the adrenaline capsules which are worth 2 adrenaline each. Normal kills also result in adrenaline, in BR it is 2 adrenaline per kill, but in DM it's 5 adrenaline per kill. If you got 100 adrenaline you can use it for: speed, invisibillity, booster or berserk.
There are a lot of key skills that a BR master has that no other genre inculcates:
- Fast translocation (there also is a non-trans version of BR, but it died since the switch from UT2003 to UT2004)
- Superior Dodging
- Ball Running
- Kill fast or Die fast
- Good passes
Bombing Run Playing Styles
- The standard style, this is the style most players choose for. Getting the ball, passing, teamplay, and killing ballcarriers and opponent defenders.
- DM, this means that the player who is playing this style is getting as much kills as possible during a match, in the jolt version there are 20 minutes of playtime with a score limit of infinite, some people managed to get 100+ kills, which is extremely good. Trained DM-style players should be able to get 50+ kills. Really good players should be able to get around 75 kills. Players who are DMing in BR, will use their adrenaline several times for doing speedruns to the goal, or use it for booster, which is selfish, because the team doesn't get any benefits from it. Because you are really hard to hit when you got speed.
- BR only or Ballrunning, which is about getting the ball, getting the ball and getting the ball and passing it to teammates. Players who play this style don't kill much, and if they kill, it's in most of the cases a 'telefrag'. Jacob - a famous BR-only player - made this style very popular among the other BR players.
- Camping, just camping near your own goal, and kill every individual which is getting in your base.
- Ball Laming, just 'spam' the ball with rockets, shock combos or flak balls.
- Assrunning or Hunting, trying to kill someone which is dangerous for your team, like Ballrun-only style players. However most assrunners prefer to kill DMing BR players, so the DMers will lose their spree.
Bombing Run Maps
Popular nwBR Maps
The most played nwBR (normal weapon BR) maps
The most played BR maps for nwBR (normal weapon BR) are (alphabetically):
- BR-Anubis
- BR-Colossus
- BR-Disclosure
- BR-Icefields
- BR-Skyline
- BR-TwinTombs
iBR Maps
Basics of an iBR (instagib)mapThe iBR (instagib BR) maps are very much alike. Basically a very large room, with in the middle, the ball. And on both sides a goal. The main tactic is getting the ball as quick as possible, and shooting it with the super shock rifle, so it gets a boost and flies to the air very fast. When you are lucky, or just have a very good ball feeling, you can score this way. And it's rewarded with the aforementioned 3 teampoints. If you get enough adrenaline, you can try a speedrun to score in the other team's goal.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.