i thought about remaking terminal with the killball as the train but the killball is too big and doesnt match the aesthetics of terminal
I think it's a shame you can't edit the size of the kill ball, I think it's a bit on the big side which makes it hard to incorporate neatly. In answer to your question, as long as you've tried your hardest to make it a balanced, competitive map, you should post it in competitive. You've tried to make your map a bit different from the rest, which some people might called a gimmick but others would call a hook. Just be aware that some people will always complain about the kill-ball usage.
Kill ball=lag=not serious Fine for minigames but there is no reason any competitive map should ever have one.
Man, that didn't take long. I am hoping the infrequency of the ball spawn, the high speed of the ball, and the short duration of the ball on screen, will lessen any lag to a tolerable minimum. My play tests have shown this to be the case so far.
You hope that making the killball move really fast will reduce lag? Since when did making things move faster reduce lag? Or do you mean just reduce the duration?
i think your map can still be competitive with a kill ball, it just depends on how you use it. if it's to integral to the map then the map becomes more casual. If the ball is more in the background, out of the way, like the train in Terminal, then the map still has the possibility of being competitive. Good question dude. EDIT: the bigger problem is the lag though, like others have said.
I know you have released your map for comment, and it looked interesting. But I want to address the general question this thread raised, and not how you used kill balls on your map. I think the question in and of itself is worth exploring further. I was reading an article on level design theory, a really good read for any forger here, entitled No More Wrong Turns. On page 4, it talks about Weenies. And as I contemplated the various means of creating Weenies on my latest map, I thought about the kill ball. On my map, I have a large platform with a red base goal at one end. The map is entirely asymmetrical, so the red base goal in and of itself IS the goal of the game for flag and bomb. So how would one construct a Weenie? And that was when I thought of shooting kill balls up into the air and having them fly out to sea. This would be something visible from most nearly any place on the map, attract players' attention, and be otherwise useless for game play. It is just a marker that is visible and clearly interesting - it will attract. Much like the white balls that flew up from the structures on Valhalla.
I say Kill ball your map the heck up! It is definitely a valid hazard IMO and I think can be taken seriously if just thrown out there. If you make a big deal about it and act like it can be taken the other way though, people will take it the other way.
Killballs always struck me as something the deisgners put in there to show how awesome they are, this cool fun thing they made, it's not something to enable you to create awesome things yourself. Usually a kill ball seems to assume the same role as a death pit.
No. Absolutely not. It may look cool, but it's really a pain in the ass to any competitive player. Sure, it's possible to create a competitive casual map (like Terminal), but not a competitive competitive map. But even most casuals won't like a rolling killball killing 'em.
I would agree with your comment regarding kill balls as part of the play ground. What about as a Weenie (see my last post), something that is high in the air as a means of attracting players' attentions to the goal on the map?
Something static would be better than a kill ball flying up and down in the air. I say this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, only new players will need "weenies". Once you're familiar with a a map you don't really want a bright ball flying in the sky; it's distracting and not needed. If you're designing a competitive map you want the least amount of noise on a map as possible. Secondly, due to the killball's connotation with casual or 'bad' maps it's just not good publicity. You might lose a few downloads right of the bat.
As a remake of Terminal, I think it's a really good Idea. If you tuck it underneath properly, and don't make it look to obvious, I think it would be a pretty good Idea. I have a competitive map that uses kill balls as a lava type theme.