Trackball is a new minigame, the first one I have released. Conceptually it is not that different from Smashball by Graybes - in fact I owe him a huge debt of gratitude for discovering and sharing the scoring mechanism that makes both Smashball and Trackball work. But both games are about putting a ball in a goal to score. Where Trackball is different is in a few major details:

1. The ball used to score is confined to an oval-shaped track. Players can operate outside the track and move freely in and out of it, but the ball cannot.

2. It's an offense/defense game played in rounds. There are 8 rounds (max 2 minutes each, unless a score cuts the round short). Each team therefore has four chances to score.

3. It's as much about killing as about moving the ball. Both teams can kill each other and this is highly important to advancing the ball (on offense) or stopping the ball (on defense).

Video and screenshots

YouTube - Halo: Reach minigame preview - Trackball

Weapons and equipment

- 1 grav hammer
- 2 concussion rifles
- 1 grenade launcher
- 1 rocket launcher
- 1 spartan laser
- 2 sniper rifles
- 2 focus rifles
- 4 needle rifles
- 4 DMRs
- various grenades
- a ghost
- The "Golden God Ball": a custom power-up that gives you complete invincibility and faster movement... for 10 seconds only

Minigame particulars

- 8 rounds, up to 2 minutes per round (no sudden death)
- Starting weapons: DMR and AR
- Loadouts: sprint only
- Custom power-up: invincibility and faster movement/higher jumping for 10 seconds
- Spawn time 3 seconds (no suicide or betrayal penalties)
- Weapon pickup enabled
- Friendly fire on, betrayal booting off
- Suggested team size is at least 3 per side. Really the bigger, the better. The game is more fun when you pile on the players and the chaos.

You could also play team slayer in the Trackball Arena, but it would probably be pretty irritating. :)

Features

- Carefully chosen weapon locations to give the offense just enough of an advantage (but not allow them to score every time)
- Offense-only mancannons for launching into the field of play after respawn
- Twin sniper towers for offense/defense, and offsetting focus rifle locations on the sides
- An automatic scoring system using Stockpile (thanks again to Graybes and Smashball!)

Special thanks to everyone who tested this map over the last week, which was a lot of people. They found the places where the ball could get out of the track, and helped me figure out a couple of issues with my scoring mechanism as well; they also amazed me by scoring almost exactly as often as I had hoped (roughly 40-50% of the time), so I hope the game is as balanced as my play tests suggest.