As the years ends, I collected some useless facts for this year:

- DeathBall won MSU Phase 1 (duh)
- DeathBall is according to GS stats still the #1 played mod for UT2003
- The website produced about 2300 GB Traffic this year o/
- More than 1000 players and 100 teams registered for the league by now, over 750 matches have been played
- We had a very hot summer (important!)
- A lot of people took out a mortgage to purchase their 1st house but they continue to play Deathball

I would like to say thanks to all players and all supporters who made that possible!

Have a good year 2004 all ;)

I'll be gone for one and a half week, my first break from Deathball in 14 months ;)
I cannot help you with any files as usual, tho I can check my email and answer questions.
As for Servers, if you need a Deathball server ask Bazzi in ICQ or IRC.
Ok, see you then, I wish you a happy new year,
bye bye.
-David

PS: I added Tinman's bio on the teampage, he's our new modeler.
And you might have noticed that Jero is back on bord again.

A community Deathball map pack put together by Armagon has been released. It contains 17 maps for DB, Tennis and DBW by 12 different level designers.
You'll get the download link and lots of screenshots here:
http://www.pcgamemods.com/3583/

Update: I've mirrored the files of both Ownage Mappacks as exe setup and zip install here on db.net; go to "Downloads" and scroll down to "Community Files" to get them! - Bazzi

We have a kick ass modeller now, so this spot is closed. We hope to show you some stuff soon.

But not a single coder request yet, guys c'mon! :)

And we could need some 2D-skillz to get a completely new menu!
So you know where to email if you are interested.

Deathball is currently looking for 3 more coders.

For Deathball 2.0 we plan to include a large and extensive, interactive tutorial which will cover all aspects of Deathball. We hope that this will make the game more accesible and enjoyable for new players. The design of the tutorial is finished.

We'd also like to enhance the offline experience by improving the AI.

Lately new Deathball releases include 2 new gametypes: Deathball Warfare and Deathball Tennis. We're looking for someone who is willing to work on these two gametypes.

If you would like to work on either one of those contact me (jeroen@mysticgd.com). You will be working closely with DavidM and me.

We hope to hear from you!

We made first place in the 1st phase of the "$1,000,000 Make Something Unreal Contest" held by Atari, nVidia and Epic Games.
What does this mean to you? Nothing I guess. Just go on playing and don't download the version on the contest page, they have an old version up there (which doesn't work online). I hope for them to fix this.
You can check the other winners here: http://www.unrealtournament.com/ut2003/contest_winners.php

[img]http://www.unrealtournament.com/images/contest_logo_live.gif[/img]

I got word that Deathball was selected 2nd best Modification in Sweden's biggest gaming magazine "Super Play".
This is NOT about UT2k3 mods, it's mods in general.
Trying to get a scan at the moment.

What Greyfox translated sounded like "DB is what BR should have been and it's a cool mix of Football and Action"

Catalyst is doing a great job recoding the weapon.
Now it's actually one weapon (instead of 2 weapons that look the same).
So no more weapon change lag (experienced players know what i mean), should fix shoot bug problems too, bounce will be better too.

New HUD is being done too, just too incomplete and fucked up to show pics ATM. :)

I want to add a sound for the shaketime.
The shaketime is the time in which your shot will be "shaken" after you got hit by an enemy. It should be 0.9 secs long. I have no idea about the style, its a difficult thing, but I think people shall be able to hear it. It's not good idea to hide it.
So if you got something please send it to davidm

Who wants to skin the new ball?
Here's your chance:
http://www.deathball.net/temp/Ball.zip

4 files in that zip:
The .dds is to paint the skin on (will most likely be rescaled to 512x512)
(need the Photoshop DDS DXT plugin) http://udn.epicgames.com/pub/Content/TextureSpecifications/DXT_TOOLS.zip

3 jpgs: 2 pics of the ball model and 1 concept sketch.

Feel free to email it to davidm

We'll use the best one.

EDIT
Here is the .max model, so you can test your skins.
http://forums.gameservers.net/attachment.php?s=&postid=92755

The DBA will be restarting as of today. It's basically a place where newbies can learn how to play DB and make the learning curve a little more shallow - come to #dba in quakenet and ask me (Catalyst) or any of the other ops if you want to join (this is intended for new players).

Also, if you know of any new players who could use some help, or anyone who hasn't played before and wants to try DB out, this is a friendly place to learn and hopefully a place where new people can have some fun.

Looks like Deathball got elected as "Super Mod" again in German PC Action
Here what they had to say:

http://www.deathball.net/stuff/pca01.jpg
http://www.deathball.net/stuff/pca02.jpg

We need people with quite some free time on their hands, this is important.
And most important, professional quality work!

-We need a Lead Coder and some other Coders (no easy jobs for them tho)
-Modeler + Skinner + Animator (preferably all in one person)
-We are always in need of quality maps!

So if you are interested drop a mail to davidm, and please name or show previous work, so we have a clue about your work's quality.

I've mirrored GibBall 2.1, a 3rd party add-on for DeathBall.

GibBall is a "volley-only" mod in a very gibberish way.
I know some of you like such crazy shit, that's why I announce it here!

http://deathball.net/Downloads/GB21.zip

There's a public server up: unreal://195.157.35.93:17977

Just for your info, our servers (TV1, TV2, DBL1, DBL2 and DBL3) are now all updated to V1.9

It's done! Go to "Downloads" and grab DB 1.9!
If you got mirrors mail them to davidm or to bazzi

Major Changes: (Check versions log for detailed info)
Deathball:
-No more "broomstick" move and "hovervolley" possible (as people call them).
-Replays of goals shown (after goal and all goals again after match)
-Deathball Voicepack added
-LOTS of other small fixes and changes

Tennis:
-Real Tennis scoring
-Tourney Mode, lots of players on server, only 2 playing, rest in line waiting for their turn to play.

Warfare Beta 0.5:
-Initial release; a turn based shooter inspired by "Worms"

[img]http://www.deathball.net/images/m00.jpg[/img]V1.9 (31.10.2003)

Deathball:
Gameplay:
-No more pass lock on players that are being boosted (by enemy and friend) to remove the "broomstick" move
-Deflection: teammates always catch it; deflect power reduced to 70%
-Fixed: Keeper got his multijumps removed when he tried to dodge in midair
-Selfvolley power reduced to 1500 max (this only works with more than 6 players! with less players it's just like before: means no reduced self volley power)
-Fixed: Pass curving
-Fixed: Bounce goals now work with "volley only" mode
-Keeper no longer slowing down after low powered shot or pass without target
-lowered volley aimcone from 75 to 60
-Overload/shaken shot distraction increased and power reduced
-Bounce AND volley possible at the same time (hole altfire to disable your catch radius and volley at the same time; this is to avoid accidental catching)

Other:
-Deathball.exe ought to tell you to download the latest UT2k3 patch if its not available (not working properly with older ones)
-Replay of goals shown (not shown when 'short wait time' is on), when all players click fire it gets skipped (bug: when you are shooting the ball in replay the camera is jumping back to the point where you catched it for a millisecond)
-Added Deathball Voicepacks
-New radar options screen (in the settings now, no more ingame menu) + more options
-Cameras optimized
-Camera will always have ball in view
-Camera rotation is delayed (causing a better effect)
-Player can now see himself in the screens
-Shortname shown in F1 screen
-Enhanced Spam protection
-"Missed shots" renamed to "Missed chances"
-Renamed "Homerun" to "Touchdown"
-Banana mode by default on
-In Controls setup "walk" moved to deathball tab and renamed to "sprint"
-Fixed: When you score while sprinting you had no trails in the celeb phase
-"Remaining Jump" Number at beacon by default on
-A dead player's beacon vanishes as soon as he dies (no more accidential passing to dead players)
-Added "detail" option for "ball smoke trail" (that golden trail)
-Beacon: Health number now with color indicator, if red =>health is lower than 60
-Health number on hud changes color (like beacon health)
-Radar options in Settings (instead of ESC screen)
-Added bounce off sound when ball bounces off of a player
-Somersault animations dissabled (because it looks fake when you are doing one while volleying the ball, especially weird looking in replays)
-When ball control swaps a sound is played (upward octave when you get the ball; downward tritone when your team loses it)
-Fixed pass hero award definition (fault passes now have a harder effect)
-All beacon options on by default
-Fixed: falling back to ut2k3 menu

Maps:
-Goal Volumes fixed in DB-Curve, DB-Cube, DB-November, DB-Smallcube, DB-Icedemon, DB-Greenbaize and DB-Chill (sometimes keeper catched the ball before it crossed the line, but it was a goal tho)
-DB-Smallcube back to 1.6 + the new features like post sounds and cameras
-DB-Curve brighter
-DB-Icedemon:no more slippery ground in penalty zones, signs on ground in blue half now blue (red in both halfes in last version), tweaked performance in low map detail
-DB-Greenbaize, removed balls from pitch, improved performance
-DB-Cube ambient lighting less blue; added 3 'eggs' ;) ; several small fixes; Pbox is slightly smaller, the lines are the same, just the volume is smaller, it was too large compared to the lines earlier.
-Added DB-Hole, a primitve map with a kinda new gameplay (for 5on5 or 4on4)

Tennis:
- Real Tennis scoring, 0, 15, 30, 40, deuce, game, set, match.
- Tourney Mode, lots of players on a server, only 2 players playing, rest is in line waiting for their turn to play. winner stays, loser goes back in line, next player in line plays.
- Tourney Mode - Taunts, you can have 5 custom taunts that will show on the scoreboard when you are playing. Go to the settings to configure them.
- Tourney Mode - Reset timer, when the ball doesn't get hit within 30 seconds, next round starts.
- Smash announcer.
- Kinda new scoreboard.
- New stats.
- Hit sound only occurs when the ball is hit.
- Players aren't blocked anymore when the server releases the ball, not when the ball crosses the net.
- Boosting Weakened.
- Map updated.
- Fixed the bug that if you shoot the ball out of the stadium you score.
- Speed-o-meter works 100% now.
- Deadly Ball is enabled by default.
- Anti server idle protection, when the server holds the ball for 30 seconds it resets.

Warfare:
First Release, beta 0.5

Click the link below. Keep checking it. Will be updated over and over probably.
Happy testing!

V1.9 Beta page: http://www.deathball.net/news.htm

I added stuff to the "stuff" page :P
3 pics so far. Whenever you have something funny or interesting Deathball related, feel free to email me.

Rens2Sea is starting Tennis betatesting, here's the file:
www.deathball-tennis.com/downloads/Tennis1.0.zip
You also need beta1.zip and beta2.zip from DB1.9 for it! (look in news post above)

Server IP: unreal://62.212.74.122:7777

Click 'news details' for the changes list.

Deathball betatesting should start tomorrow....I hope!- Real Tennis scoring, 0, 15, 30, 40, deuce, game, set, match.
- Tourney Mode, lots of players on a server, only 2 players playing, rest is in line waiting for their turn to play. winner stays, loser goes back in line, next player in line plays.
- Tourney Mode - Taunts, you can have 5 custom taunts that will show on the scoreboard when you are playing. Go to the settings to configure them.
- Tourney Mode - Reset timer, when the ball doesn't get hit within 30 seconds, next round starts.
- Smash announcer.
- Kinda new scoreboard.
- New stats.
- Hit sound only occurs when the ball is hit.
- Players aren't blocked anymore when the server releases the ball, not when the ball crosses the net.
- Boosting Weakened.
- Map updated.
- Fixed the bug that if you shoot the ball out of the stadium you score.
- Speed-o-meter works 100% now.
- Deadly Ball is enabled by default.
- Anti server idle protection, when the server holds the ball for 30 seconds it resets.

Short info: we'll probably start beta testing 1.9 tomorrow (tuesday), estimated release is thursday or friday (but only if you help testing)

The next season is gonna start on November 1st.
The team submission ends on sunday, so:
-sign up your team
-get 5 players
-activate the team
-join the according league (euro, NA etc...)

http://deathball.net/db-league

In 7 hours (cet) from now, it's Deathball's first birthday. Version 0.9 was released on October 24. last year :)
Feel free to join teh birthday parteh at irc.quakenet.org #deathball ;)

Catalyst made a DB players guide for n00bs.
I didn't read it, but I know he knows what he's doing play-wise. :)

Part 1: http://www.btinternet.com/~streat/DBPlayerGuide.html

He's already planned 2 and 3.
Part II - Basic positioning and tactics: explain what the different positions you can play on the pitch are and how to play them (ie keeper, sweeper, mid, attack, etc).

Part III: Advanced stuff (little tricks and things that are useful in-game).

Since the Contest phase 2 submission deadline was moved back to Oct.31 we'll take the time and use it :)
So expect a release on 30th or 31st..

The UT2003 master server seems to have serious problems at the moment. It might happen that you only see a few DB servers, if at all, don't worry, we hope that it's just a temporary problem.

If you are server admin, you can solve the problem, which is spamming the server with master server heartbeat requests, by temporarily disabling Uplink to UT2003 Master in the INI.

There have been rumours on IRC and the forums.
Time to officially announce it.

We'll be adding a new game type to DB 1.9. It will be a beta and gameplay-only thing. Making the maps pretty is a difficult thing, because every detail could kill the gameplay, still not sure how to add stuff.

Well, this might sound harsh, but I'd describe it this way: "Worms 3 + gameplay" (yes, I was highly dissapointed by the worms 3 demo).
You play it in a symetric map. One team on each side.
It's round based, but it's always the turn of 1 player of each team.
So it's player1 of red team and player1 of blue team at first, when their turn is over it's player2 of red and player2 of blue team's turn.
One turn takes up to 20 seconds. In your turn you can move several meters and fire one of several different weapons (no move movement after you fired). The goal is to kill all enemy players (surprise...). Not a sports thing this time, but it does the name justice, 'cause you shoot with deadly balls :)
In our beta tests it proved to be pretty addictive, and I found us playing for 4 hours in a row or so.
It can be played 1on1 but also 5on5. 1on1 is just as fun as playing with more people, and it's pretty ping-independent.
So far...

The team signup script at the official Deathball league is working again.
http://deathball.net/db-league/
You can now signup a team, the next season will start in about 3 or 4 weeks.
If you are new to this: you need 5 players to be allowed for the league (it's being played 5on5).
Soon we'll also have a 2on2 league, but so far only 5on5.

Sorry, DB development has been dead lately, since Jero has been doing something else and didn't come online. He told me he would be there again tomorrow. I'll cut down the todo list to the necessary things, so we can release 1.9 to the 2nd contest phase (Oct 20.). It's all done mapping wise, just the coding....

Something else, if you've played the latest beta you'll notice that we added a bounce off sound, its just a temp one and sounds really ridiculous. Does anyone have a better one, or can anyone record one and give it to us for free?
Contact me if so....

Btw. Deathball Development started on Oct 14. last year, and first release was Oct 24, so we got a birthday soon.

-David

V1.9 beta

Required files:
18. Sep. 15:00h http://www.deathball.net/Downloads/beta1.zip
deathball.u (\system) - 500Kb

18. Sep. 15:00h http://www.deathball.net/Downloads/beta2.zip
*.utx (\textures) db.cube.ut2 (\maps) - 13.5Mb

Server TV2: 62.212.73.30:7777

Beta5 18.Sep 15:00h
Bugs:
-Can no more jump after having the ball one time
-F1 screen fucked up
-Computer locks up when you look down at the ball, or look down and shoot

Updated the Changes Log. You'll find all current 1.9 changes under 'details/comments'.
BTW. 1.9 is still a good bit away from being done, there are lots of small fixes we have planed.Gameplay:
-Bounce off: teammates always catch it; deflect power reduced to 70%
-The higher you are the lower the volley power is. Up to 256 its normal, above it starts getting lower. 0 is the keeper startpoint. This is supposed to prevent some lame moves.
-Fixed: Keeper got his multijumps removed when he tried to dodge in midair
-Selfvolley power reduced to 1500 max (this only works with more than 6 players! with less players it's just like before: means no reduced self volley power)
-Fixed: Pass curving
-Fixed: Bounce goals now work with "volley only" mode
-Keeper no longer slowing down after low powered shot or pass without target
-fixed goal volume bug: when you are in the goal volume and you get the ball passed, it doesnt recognize it as goal, you have to re-enter to make it count it

Other:
-Replay of goals shown (not shown when 'short wait time' is on)
-New radar options screen (in the settings now, no more ingame menu) + more options
-Cameras optimized
-Camera will always have ball in view
-Camera rotation is delayed (causing a better effect)
-Player can now see himself in the screens
-In F1 shortname shown next to normal name
-Enhanced Spam protection
-"Missed shots" renamed to "Missed chances"
-Banana mode by default on
-In Controls setup "walk" moved to deathball tab and renamed to "sprint"
-Fixed: When you score while sprinting you had no trails in the celeb phase
-"Remaining Jump" Number at beacon by default on
-A dead player's beacon vanishes as soon as he dies (no more accidential passing to dead players)
-Added "detail" option for "ball smoke trail" (that golden trail)
-Beacon: Health number now with color indicator, if red =>health is lower than 60
-Radar options in Settings (instead of ESC screen)
-Added bounce off sound when ball bounces off of a player (argh temp)
-Somersault animations dissabled (because it looks fake when you are doing one while volleying the ball, especially weird looking in replays)
-Changed the Vincinity radar icons a little.
-The red/blue ball trail is twice as long now.
-Stats fixed:"Ball in Half" was active during breaks and even when the match hasn't started. And it's no more counting for once side when the ball is at the spawn point.

Maps:
-Goal Volumes fixed in DB-Curve, DB-Cube, DB-November, DB-Smallcube, DB-Icedemon, DB-Greenbaize and DB-Chill (sometimes keeper catched the ball before it crossed the line, but it was a goal tho)
-DB-Smallcube back to 1.6 + the new features like post sounds and cameras
-DB-Curve brighter
-DB-Icedemon:no more slippery ground in penalty zones, signs on ground in blue half now blue (red in last version), tweaked performance in low map detail
-DB-Greenbaize, removed balls from pitch, improved performance

Tennis:
- Real Tennis scoring, 0, 15, 30, 40, deuce, game, set, match
- Tourney Mode, lots of players on a server, only 2 or 4 players playing, rest is in line waiting for their turn to play. winner stays, loser goes back in line, next player(s) in line plays
- Tourney Mode - Taunts, you can have 20 custom taunts that will show when you win a round or a new round is starting with you in it
- Smash sounds
- New stats
- Hit sound only occurs when the ball is hit
- Players aren\'t blocked anymore when the server releases the ball, not when the ball crosses the net
- Boosting Weakened
- Fixed the bug that if you shoot the ball out of the stadium you score
- Speed-o-meter works 100% now
- Deadly Ball is enabled by default
- Anti server idle protection, when the server holds the ball for 30 seconds it resets

Fixes:
-first wait 3 seconds after match until the replay starts
-End Game replays seem to work good now.
-end game replay pretty much normal speed
-player should no longer be able to shoot ball in replay

http://www.deathball.net/Downloads/deathball1.9beta.zip
TV2: 62.212.73.30:7777

Usaar's fixes list:
-Talking bubble shows in replay
-end of match replays work
-score during replay now shown
-Fixed other end of match related bugs
-Replay skips when all players hit fire.
-webadmin crap should be fixed
-replay zoom definitely works correctly
-should have fixed wrong team color issue in multiplayer replay.
-Crouching *might* work now in multiplayer replay
-just for kicks, changed title screen to say "deathball 1.9 beta 3"
-In summary, multiplayer replay support is about as good as it's going to
get (I'll investigate lag improvement techniques.. but frankly, there aren't
many).

http://www.deathball.net/Downloads/deathball1.9beta.zip
TV2: 62.212.73.30:7777

Ever tried the "League" link yet? If not, you should do so.

Some people lately complained that the team signup is broken. I will temporarily signup teams manually, please send an email to bazzi@bazzinet.info containing the following data:

- Your player name (you have to signup as player first)
- Your player email
- Teamtag + Teamname you wish to use
- Country + Continent

Greets, Bazzi.

P.S.: Do you like the new "Downloads" section? :)

-fixed fireworks inverted thing
-spectator should jump back to old cam when replay is over
-no more ball trail left over
-replay amount now visible in F2

http://www.deathball.net/Downloads/deathball1.9beta.zip
TV2: 62.212.73.30:7777

It's probably nothing like the final version, but here is a 1.9 beta. You can see the replay in action at least.
http://www.deathball.net/Downloads/deathball1.9beta.zip
I've got a 3on3 smallcube server running here:
TV2: 62.212.73.30:7777

You'll have to backup your
Deathball.u (system)
DB-Smallcube.ut2 (maps)
DeathBallGFX.utx (textures)

Known bugs:
-F1 screen is bugged (only shows your own name)
-Ball trail stays after replay, so you got lots of blue and red dots flying around
That's all mayor problems, rest isn't worth mentioning.

For all changes check the "Changes log" in the menu bar.

Bazzi remade the Deathball page, now it's much easier to use, you can comment on news, news always show up (no refresh required this time), applies to your desktop resolution etc etc.