Balls o' Det (aka "Balls of Death")

by vinylrake of Order of H'Pak (OoH)

Original Release date: 2005-11-24

Balls o' det' (BoD) are a collection of plugins for Myth II that replace the normal game balls used for net ball games (StB, BoP, etc) with unusual, generally destructive (and often fun) balls.

Cloudkill Ball

Make just ONE of these plugins active at a time and your Myth ball games will never be the same.

Balls in Set#1 of Balls o' Det:

  • Bloody Dorf Heads
  • Bloody Pus Balls
  • CloudKill Balls
  • Disco Inferno Balls
  • Dissapearing Balls
  • Gunpowder Balls
  • Invisible Bloody Pus Balls
  • Lightning Balls
  • Loco (-motive antigravity) Balls
  • Tribble Balls
  • Warlock Fire Balls
  • Where's Waldo's Balls?
  • Wight Balls
  • Wight Bouncy Balls
  • Wighty Wight Balls

Descriptions of the balls in BoD Set#1:

Bloody Dorf Heads replace netballs with dwarf heads that ooze blood when they are poked or jostled. They don't cause death, or do any damage, of give off a fancy pyrotechnics display they just leave a never ending bloody trail wherever they go. These are probably the most boring of the Balls of the Death unless you find the idea of kicking around a dorf head that never stops bleeding a lot of fun. o-kay... now that we have that out of the way, on to some perhaps more interesting balls.

Bloody Pus balls are full of blood and pus and when they are bumped they leave a trail of ... (wait for it... you'll never guess - ) blood and pus! If bumped around too much, Bloody Pus Balls will explode like a wight chunk thrown by a ghol. Obviously if you have a long trail of pus trailing behind the ball when it "detonates" there are going to be some serious consequences. (Bloody Pus Balls were originally just harmless Bloody Balls, but since MonsterTool (and a few other gore fans) were so fond of the bloody gore trail, I made them a bit more deadly and they became Bloody Pus Balls. Plus, I just like saying "Bloody Pus Balls".).

CloudKill balls are full of a toxic red gas. When they "detonate" they release a cloud of this deadly red gas. The gas cloud hangs around a while before dispersing.

Note: Because undead creatures do not need to breathe, poison gas has little or no effect on them. [Cloudkill balls are a perennial favorite at Casa de OoH]

Disco Inferno balls set the ground on fire as you move them around, and when they "detonate" they ignite the ground like the warlock "ring of fire" spell. It can be difficult to push this ball around when you are being roasted alive.

Dissapearing balls occassionally dissapear when bumped. They are still wherever they were when they turned invisible, it's just that you can't see them (hence the clever use of the term "Disappearing" in their name). The next time they are bumped they will usually reappear. Of course if your unit wasn't already targetting the ball it can be difficult to find it to bump it to make it visible (you can't click on things you can't see). These are fun to hide in shadows or areas of scorched earth where their shadow won't give away their exact location.

Gunpowder balls are full of gunpowder. They leak a bit and leave a trail of gunpowder when they are moved around. They aren't as flashy as some of the more over-the-top Balls of Death, but they are very deadly when they explode.

Invisible Bloody Pus balls are just like the Bloody Pus balls, except that the balls are invisible. The trail of blood and pus can help you locate where these balls are located.

Note: These aren't really very fun to play with because you can't click on the ball to move it, you just have to kind of click close to it then click on the other side of the ball and hope your unit brushes against it to move it a few inches in game space. How annoying is that? Very. But you have to admit the idea of an invisible ball is really cool.

Lightning balls are full of electrical fetch lightning energy. They shoot lightning that arcs out to strike nearby units when they detonate, but they aren't as deadly as Pus or Wight balls. [If you have problems with these balls crashing Myth, make sure you downloaded version 1b of the Balls o' Det, an earlier version was even more buggy].

Locomotive AntiGravity Fire balls (aka "Loco Balls" - 'Loco' is short for "Locomotive antigravity") are full of magical flammable energy. Once ignited they will travel in a straight line burning everything in their path, igniting satchels, dwarves carrying satchels, pus packets, etc. Once enough heat is generated the balls will float into the sky, then after burning themselves out they will gently float back down to the ground.

[This ball was recreated because Frum expressed interest in a ball I made accidently that once ignited - burned a swath across a map until it crashed Myth. I had to tone it down a bit but so far it hasn't crashed Myth. This ball also accidently acts similar to how TwoSaks described "Balloon Balls", e.g. I didn't intend it to have these balls levitate, but the effect is kind of kewl so I kept that "feature" intact]

Warlock Fire balls explode like a warlock fireball explosion. The blast is not quite as powerful as a normal warlock blast, but if you are the one standing alone next to the ball when it goes off you will be toast, and I guarantee you won't notice that it's not quite as strong as a regular fireball.

[note: This ball uses parts of new ball ideas suggested by Frumius Mob and MonsterTool]

Where's Waldo Balls? replicate themselves when bumped. The replicated balls inherit the color of whoever possessed the ball when it was created. The replicant balls are only magical illusions e.g. they can not be moved - but the replicants can be detected by testing their emotional responses to certain test questions. Er, I mean with fire or explosives.

Tribble balls are similar to Where's Waldo Balls, but each replicated ball itself in turn replicates, and then each ball tells two friends, and they tell two friends, etc, etc at a rate close to that of reproducing Tribbles. In a minute or two a small map will be covered with replica balls. Since only the original netball changes color when tagged this game is (barely) playable because while the replicated balls inherit the color of whoever possessed the ball when it was created and retain that color until they are destroyed, the "real" ball will continue to change color as it is tagged by a new player/team or contested. Replica balls are only magical illusions so they can not be targeted or moved by pushing them - the illusion can be destroyed with fire or explosives. One problem with this scenario of course is that once a map has been covered with replica balls the Myth game engine starts to run out of projectiles at which point you can't really use flame arrows or explosives.

[note: As you have probably realized by now, this ball doesn't really have any (re)play value, it's just included here to show you how extreme and unusable the rest of these balls could have been were I not to exercise so much restraint. You are free to admire and acknowledge my self-control and commitment to balancing extreme explosive death with gameplay that you can see in the the other Balls o' Det']

Wight Balls are full of wight gas that ignite when they are bumped too much. Wight balls' detonations are similar to a wight's though a little less powerful.

(Useless trivia you don't care about: Wight Balls are a greatly toned down version of a ball that was initially called "Rocket Pus Balls of Unstoppable Doom". You might think this name is a bit hyperbolic, but I assure you it was not.)

Wight Bouncy Balls are like "regular" Wight Balls but they fly (way) higher into the air and float gently down giving units a chance to regroup or kill each other before the ball returns to land.

Wighty Wight Balls are not really balls, they are indestructible wights that you can push around the map. They act like balls for scoring purposes, e.g. Steal the Bacon is now really "Steal the Wight", and "Balls on Parade" is now "Wights on Parade", etc. These wights are much mellower than regular wights, but even being basically non-violent wights, they will explode when pushed enough.

[The inspiration for this ball was Two Saks, who suggested it would be fun to have a wight that looked like a ball and I guess it was late when I was working on it or I just got confused and ended up creating the exact opposite. Oh well]

Contact Info

You can find this plugin and other myth things I have made and lots of other Myth related info & links at mything.org.Contact me with questions, cash or bugs at vinylrake@DIESPAMMERDIEyahoo.com.

More info and pix of the balls in action can be found at my downloads page