Byte o'Uniball

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What is uniball?

have it explained here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc7DmmWCI2o
but i would recommend you watch the following videos for the actual gameplay footage:
http://ub.geekeffect.com/?sectionid=16

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Skip to a section of the guide:
Checklist

How to improve yourself quickly

what games and maps should I play in?

How to do the SuperBoost Trick (very important)
Flopping (important skill)

How to change direction 5x faster
juking (cool skill)

Defence

How to catch the ball easier

Bouncing (important skill)

how to talk in game

Drak's SWMer's guide to uniball (cool moving diagrams)

Checklist (are you ready to read this section?)

before reading new player help you should have read:
how to use br chat (it tells you how to sign up for Uniball gaming network), and also you should hang out in the improve channel (type /join improve) when on br chat.

you should have also optimised your uniball setup

How to improve yourself quickly

practice driving
before you bother trying to bounce or play, make sure you can drive well. use breaks when turning sharply
if you can drive well you will be able to catch the ball more,you will get better 10x faster.

DOWNLOAD AND USE THE DEMO RECORDER!
watching replays of yourself getting scored on in slow motion, you can see what you could have done differently to defend the situation. the option of slow motion playback is an easier way for new players to learn the game. Also watch the parts where you turn the ball over, what could you have done to keep the ball? I use the demo recorder a lot myself.

practicing bouncing or any skill indivudually will get you better alot faster.
TRAINING MAP CREATED BY ALIEN: http://ub.geekeffect.com/?postid=55 i recommend new players having a look at that link.

The information that follows will be edited soon:

new players often say it is really hard and that everyone is really good.
this isnt true. players that have been playing only a week will look alot better than someone playing 1 day.. but the player thats been playing 1 day will think they will never be that good.
new players can get good a just a few days by remembering:
your ship is a space ship, not a car.
pressing the "turn" button will spin/rotate your ship, but you will keep going the way you were going unless you press forwards.
the thing is, driving is actually really easy.. you just need to practice it for about 2-3 minutes.. i remember when i was new i played for about 3 months and slowly got better, but the new players that specifically practice driving alone (rather than learning to drive through playing games) get good really fast (at driving) the same goes for all other skills.

think about it.. if you are concentratining on where the ball is the whole time.. you're not going to get better at driving very fast.

the same goes for bouncing.. bouncing the ball off the walls looks really hard.. but once you realise you have to press breaks to control the "shooting" kickback, you get the hang of it really fast. ONCE AGAIN.. the players that try learning bouncing in game while there are a whole lot of players trying to get the ball from them will take a while to learn how to bounce, where as the players who make their own game and try bouncing for 5-10 minutes will get good instantly.

i played this game 4 months and never attempted bouncing as i thought it was impossible. how was i to learn to bounce if i didnt try?
so one day i made my own game.. and learnt to bounce in about 20 minutes ;p (note i wasnt pro at bouncing straight away.. but i was able to do it).

once you can drive, you will get the ball much more in games and get better much faster.

remember use breaks when turning sharp corners or if someone tries to block your ship out the way.

always ask people if they want to give you some tips.. 95% of people will be happy to help.

practice the boost trick and perfect it (boost trick explained further in this section and in the racing section).

the hard things in uniball are the things you cant easily see.. like how to create passing lanes for team-mates by dragging defenders away from ball carrier/cutting back, or how to optimise your defence.

what games and maps should I play in?

1. If there aren't any good games up:
maybe you are trying to play at the dead of night on a week night, but usually there are LOTS of games up, just try connecting to the server at different times and you will get a feel for when everyone plays.
sometimes there is a whole lot of new players on, sometimes there are only elite players on.

2. What are the right games for me to join:
If you are a new player, the best thing is to make games and practice while waiting for players to join, this way you are in control of the game.

if you want to join another game, look for a game that is of your skill level (as it will be more fun). The way you can tell if a game is right for you is by the game title or map type. Usually it will be called "new players" or "3v3 mini" or "come play"... if the game is called "pro's only" or "hockey" then its probably best you don’t join.

3. the best maps for new players:
not hockey (unless you host the game)
3v3 miniball is almost always played by new players.. you should feel free to join any miniball game.

remember 2v3 is unfair.. so if you join a game with 4 people, its best you sit in the goal out of the way until a 6th player has joined.

How to do the SuperBoost trick (very important)

The boost trick
Speed is a very important aspect of uniball, the fastest player always wins the 50/50 balls.

the boost trick helps your boost last longer.

take finger off forwards, boost, as soon as you hit top speed (1/5 of your boost), take your finger off forwards, glide for about .2-.5 of a second, tap boost again (.4-.6 second) just before your speed goes down, then glide again.

its worth practicing this with a good player until you are as fast as them.

video clip: coming soon in the racing section.

i highly recommend you check out the racing section as there is a link to an excellent driving guide

flopping (important skill)

youtube clip of flopping:


originally called fumbling, flopping along side bouncing and passing is one of the most importent things you can do with the ball. Unfortunatly only about 30% of players flop the ball, and the other never bother to try it.

so what is flopping?
flopping is when you have the ball, and you let another ship hit you. after the collision, you and the ball will be knocked in one direction, while the ship that hit you will slow down.
now.. here is the fun part.. if you drive in the direction that you were knocked, you can overtake the ball, and just as you overtake it (the ball is now behind your ship).. you then slow down a bit by taking your finger off forwards/boost.. ). the ball will go into the back of your ship. so now you still have the ball, but you are 3-4 ship-lengths in front of your defender.

Flopping is very useful when there are no walls to bounce off, or if the player behind you has enough boost to intercept your bounce.

note: if the collision is hard and the ball is moving fast, you only need to overtake the ball and then take your finger off boost/forwards.
if the ball is moving slowly, you need to overtake the ball and then break to let the ball back into your ship.
if the collision is really weak, then you should probably stop and let the ball overtake you instead. this is because the defender could otherwise steal the ball by accelerating into it before you manage to overtake the ball and re-catch it.

if you don’t understand this..you can always ask a vet to show you in game what flopping/fumbling is.

How to change direction 5x faster

10 second video clip comming soon :P

but.. for now.. just imagine a car taking a hairpin corner or doing a u-turn on a street. in uniball, you could turn your ship the same way, but that is slow.
The fastest way in uniball is:

1. you are moving in one direction but decide to turn around.
2. first press breaks and backwards at the same time to slow your ship down.
3. now just before your ship stops, release break and keep holding backwards
4. as soon as you are going backwards at full "backwards speed", spin your ship so that you are able to boost the way you are going.

during the spin you should release backwards about 45 degrees into the spin, and then start pressing forwards about 135 degrees (out) of the spin. try to learn to make this spin as fast as possible.

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juking

juking is when you get past someeone or keep hold of the ball without letting the defender hit you. you do this by making them think you are going to go one way but then going the other way. this is useful if there are no walls to bounce off, or if they are expecting you to bounce, or if you are waiting for a teammate to get back for a pass.

the way to juke is to spin in different directions using backwards and forwards.
here is an example of me juking one of the great uniball players called meisarch:

Basic Defence

Defence is probably the hardest thing for a new player to learn, this is because they don't know what they are doing wrong, and it isn't obvious how to do good defence.

the most importent thing is to stay goalside (dont let them past you).

this means dont rush at them, because they may get past you.. and then it will be a goal.

The best way to defend is to cover all their possible shots (cover the goal).. but stay as close to them as you can while doing so.

if you dont pressure them at all.. they will have too much time to think.. and wont make mistakes (which is how you rely on getting the ball).

the easiest way to get the ball is to concentrate on covering the goal and wait for them to make a mistake, rather than actually going for the ball.

If they are close to a wall.. dont go close to them as they can just bounce.. just wait for them to come out.

as you get more experianced at defence, you will learn where you can rush at the guy with the ball safely and still recover in time if it dosnt work.

once you can do this basic defence, you are probebly ready to learn about man to man defence, where it is safe to rush the ball holder, when it is safe to let your out the back door, and how blocking is importent. (this will be posted in the medium players section)

How to catch the ball easier

dont have time to write this properly right now but

basically dont point your ship directly at where you are expecting the shot to come from instead aim diagonally pointing away from the shot, leaving more of a gap infront of your ship than behind (this is because you can boost infront of you to get it).

How to bounce easily

BOING
Bouncing seems really hard as a new player. its not.
once you can drive your ship well, start practicing it, if you dont try it you wont get good at it.

my suggestion is try in a game by yourself, just bouncing off the walls. at first hold breaks the hole time and stay close to the wall, then just vary it.

when bouncing you dont usually have to worry about where on the wall you aim, just try aiming directly at the wall, if you are moving, dont change your aim, as your momentum will make the ball go slightly forwards anyway, therefor you will catch it.

often when bouncing, you drive your ship slightly towards the wall, and just hold forwards. each time you bounce the kickback will keep you away from the wall. This is the best way to bounce. if you drive directly parallel to the wall, each bounce will move your ship further away from the wall.

i will definatly update this section in the future, but this will do for now ;p.

Different ways of talking in game.

if (team) appears before your text, then you are talking to your team. use ' infront of your text to make it team or non team chat.

alot of new players join a game as observer and no one in the game can hear them.

there is also a teamspeak server you can connect to, you need a mic to talk though.

with the new uniball, sometimes you need to press spacebar or t before typing.

This is a SWMer's guide to uniball worth looking at.

Great diagrams at:
http://www.uniball-central.net/articles/ubguide.php
also http://www.starshadow.com/~ataqer/uniball_files/playbook/

a great guide made by drakling, although it is about 6 years old, most of the tips still hold true until today.

not to be confused as a "swimmers guide" (thx riley ;x)