CarBall Quickstart Guide
Thank you for choosing to try out the Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3) mod CarBall 3. This Quickstart Guide should be enough to get an experienced UT3 player started. Please see our Detailed Guides for more information on specific topics.
About CarBall 3
CarBall is a user modification (or mod, for short) for Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3) that introduces a new gametype involving vehicles and a giant ball in a soccer/football like competition where players drive vehicles. Your team must score points by knocking a giant, bouncing, indestructible ball into the opponent's goal area. The team with the most goals at the end of the match, wins. Vehicle acrobatics and power-ups bring excitement and fun to every moment of the game! Please see our Introduction Page for more general information about CarBall.
Installation
Once you have installed a full retail version of UT3 with the latest patches and other updates on your computer system, you can install CarBall.
NOTE: If have an earlier version of CarBall3 (3.0 RC3 or earlier) on your computer, please remove it prior to installing the latest version. For details, please see the Detailed Installation Section. :)
You can download the full CarBall 3 installation package from the CarBall 3 Files Section. The download package is available in ZIP or RAR formats. Expand the ZIP/RAR archive into your user Unreal Tournament 3 folder of your Unreal Tournament 3 installation. This folder generally resides under your "My Documents" folder (or "Documents" folder on Vista) under "My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\".
After a successful installation, you must run UT3 with the -mod switch using "-mod=../CarBall3". CarBall should appear as an entry in your "Game Type" list and can be selected just like you would select an Warfare, Capture the Flag or an Deathmatch game. Using the -mod switch allows you to have CarBall3 specific keybinds, that will not interfere with other UT3 gametypes.
Our Detailed Installation Guide provides troubleshooting information, tips and hints, especially for those on alternative platforms, and other information such as where to find CarBall related files.
Game Play
Gameplay is simple in theory: players use vehicles to attempt to place a ball into the goal area of an opposing team. The team that scores the most number of goals at the end of a match is the winning team. In practice, that is easier said then done and that is where the fun comes from.
Power-ups are available to enhance a vehicle's abilities. Drive over a power-up and it is added to your inventory . You may hold up to three¹ power-ups at any time and activate them when you wish.
All CarBall vehicles are capable of acrobatics -they can do wheelies, jump, and air control.
Our Detailed Gameplay Guide thoroughly describes all of the available power-ups and acrobatics, however, they are also briefly described below.
¹ The number of available inventory slots can actually range from 1 to 6 slots depending on the server settings.
Power-Ups
Invisibility
Makes it much more difficult for your opponents to see your car for a limited amount of time.
Acrobatics
Jump
Jump straight up into the air. Jump is bound to the Duck command. Longer you hold the Duck button (Default C), the higher you jump. Please see "Configuring Controls" below.)
Spin
While jumping you can spin left or right by holding down the Turn Left or Turn Right buttons. The longer you hold down the button, the further you will spin. Please see "Configuring Controls" below.)
Wheelie
Pop the front wheels of your car into the air while the back wheels remain on the ground. The wheelie command is bound to the Feign Death command. Please see "Configuring Controls" below.)
Air Control
While in the air, hold down the Duck command (default C) and the nose of your car will point down. The longer you hold down the button, the further the nose of the car will point down. Similarly, if you hold the Jump Key (default SpaceBar ), the nose of the car will point up.
While in the air, hold down the Strafe Left command (default A) and your vehicle will spin to the left. The longer you hold down the button, the further the vehicle will pivot. Similarly, if you hold the Strafe Right Key (default D), the vehicle will spin to the right.
Hold the Translocator Key (default Q) to change the functionality of the Strafe Left and Strafe Right keys to instead perform a barrel roll. When held, Strafe Left will perform a left barrel roll,and Strafe Right will perform a right barrel roll.
Please see "Configuring Controls" below.)
Upright Vehicle
Press the Use Key (default E) to upright your vehicle if it has been knocked upside down or on its side.
Combining Stunts
Combining acrobatics and power-ups allow for many stunts and tricks to be performed. Our Tricks, Tips and Techniques Guide does explain many of these tricks in detail, however practice and experimentation is what you need to do in order to master these techniques.
An example; drive towards the ball, start drifting, then jump into the air, point the nose of your car down, then use the Rocket Boost power-up. If your car hits underneath the front of the ball, the ball will fly into the air over the heads of your opponents.
Vehicles
Currently, the only available vehicle is the Spectre. Future versions of CarBall will allow you to select different vehicles.
Controls
Driving your vehicle is similar to driving a Scorpion in UT3. Move Forward drives forward, move Back applies reverse/braking force to the vehicle, Strafe Left turns the car left, Strafe Right turns the car right. Defaults are W, S, A, and D respectively.
Moving your mouse will cause your view to change. That is to say you can use your mouse to "look around" while driving.
The Charged Jump command is bound to the Duck button. Default is C.
A Spin Jump can also be performed. Strafe Left and Strafe Right will act as the spin left and spin right buttons respectively while a jump is building up. (Defaults are A, and D respectively).
While in the air you can perform Air Control by using the Duck (Default C), Jump (Default SpaceBar), Strafe Left (Default A), Strafe Right (Default D), and Translocator (Default Q) buttons. See the Air Control section for more details.
The Flip command is bound to the Use button, and will upright the vehicle. Default is E.
The Fire activates the primary mode of a Power-Up. Default is Left Mouse button.
The Input Modifier command is bound to the Translocator button, and will alter the behavior or certain buttons. Default is Q. While this button is depressed, the following buttons are modified:
- The Mouse Wheel Up and Mouse Wheel Down will alter the camera zoom.
- Alters the Air Control so that Strafe Left (Default A) and Strafe Right (Default D) will perform a barrel roll (providing your vehicle in the air).
The Mouse Wheel Up and Mouse Wheel Down can but used to select items in your inventory. Scrolling down selects the next item, and scrolling up selects the previous item. You can also press the numeric keys to select a specific inventory slot.
Configuring Controls
We have not yet figured a way to assign our own keybinds for CarBall specific commands, so currently CarBall3 specific controls are bound to existing UT3 keys:
- The Wheelie command is bound to the Feign Death key bind.
- The Input Modifier is bound to the Translocator key bind.
- The Ball Cam toggle is bound to the Melee key bind.
Since the Melee command isn't bound by UT3 by default, you will have to manually hook it up in your INI file. We hope to eventually be able to do this from the CarBall mod configuration UI.
Sample of the input section of CarBall3's UTGame.ini:
[CarBall3.CB3_PlayerInput] CBWheelie=GBA_FeignDeath CBCameraToggle=GBA_ToggleTranslocator CBViewBall=GBA_ToggleMelee ... Bindings=(Name="GBA_ToggleMelee",Command="CBViewBall | OnRelease CBViewSelf",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False) Bindings=(Name="LeftControl",Command="GBA_ToggleMelee",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)
Customization
Vehicle customization will be possible in a future version of CarBall.