Gameplay Reference

1. Game Modes

• Regular - Last player standing wins!
  • When you die, you are out of the round
  • Last player or team alive wins the round
  • First to win the specified number of rounds (default 3) wins the series
  • Killed players drop all collected power-ups onto random places on the level
  • New players may join in the middle of a series, they will spectate until the next round begins
  • Defeated players can influence the game through Ghost Bombers (if not disabled in game options), racking up kill count and speeding the round to its end
  • Power-ups and Viruses are destroyed if hit by flame
• Mount Control - Grab an EGG powerup to gain a mount. Score increases while mounted. First to 100 wins.
  • When you die (unmounted), you immediately respawn somewhere randomly on the level - players are never eliminated from the game
  • Killed players drop half of their collected power-ups
  • As in all modes, if a player is hit by a flame while on a mount, they lose their mount and become invincible and unable to pick up power-ups for a short period of time
  • When a player loses their mount, their egg powerup immediately spawns nearby (unlike other modes, where it is lost)
  • When a player is mounted, their score increases continuously, requiring 1.5 minutes (by default) to win
  • When a player causes his own death, his score decreases slightly (5 seconds worth of points)
  • When a player is mounted, their speed is decreased
  • Play is for a single round (no multi-round series), the player whose counter reached 100 wins
  • Power-ups and Viruses respawn elsewhere if hit by flame

2. Power-Ups

With default options on most levels, at the start of a match, each player has 1 bomb (allows for one bomb out at any point in time) and a flame size of 2 (explosions will cover the tile upon which the bomb was placed and 2 additional tiles in each cardinal direction).

Standard Power-Ups (available in most levels)
	FLAME - increases flame size by 1
	GOLDEN FLAME - increases flame size by infinity
	BOMB - increases number of simultaneous bombs allowed by 1
	LINE BOMB - enables dropping of all bombs at once by double-tapping the drop bomb / primary action button (note: this does not change how many bombs a player has, so does nothing unless combined with a BOMB powerup)
	SPEED - increases player speed slightly, about 8% of the base speed, 12 of these will effectively double a player's speed
	KICKER - allows players to kick placed bombs by walking into them (note: to kick one of your own bombs, you must place a bomb, walk off it into an adjacent square, and then walk back into it) (additional note: your own kicked bombs can be stopped by pressing the secondary action button)
	REMOTE - gives a single remote bomb which can be detonated at will with the secondary action button (note: this can also be configured to Unlimited which gives unlimited remote bombs with one powerup, or One simultaneous per powerup which lets you have one remote bomb in play at any point in time, per remote bomb powerup picked up)
	EGG - gives players a mount which will protect them from a single hit (note: in the Mount Contrl game mode, this also enables accumulating points)
	VIRUS - probably bad, always infectious, gives one of the following possible effects for 8 seconds (less time if caught from someone else): Bomb fuses are shorter (1 second instead of the normal 2 seconds) Bomb fuses are longer (3 seconds instead of the normal 2 seconds) Player is forced to lay a a bomb if standing in an empty space and they have a bomb available Player is unable to lay any bombs Player moves very fast Player moves very slow Player movement is inverted Bomb flames are reduced to length of 1 Bomb flames travel much slower than normal

Advanced Power-Ups (available only if "Advanced Power-Ups" is set to "ON")
	PIERCING BOMB - explosions will pass through soft blocks and power-ups
	SQUARE BOMB - will create a square-shared explosion instead of a cross The width of the explosion will be smaller than a regular bomb (but possibly fill more squares with flame) Square bombs will be 3x3 if you have no flame power-ups (regular flame size of 2), and then increase in size (to 5x5, etc) at flame sizes 3, 8, and 15 To form the square, the bomb sends 4 flames out in the cardinal directions, and each of those sends an additional two flames out perpendicularly at each tile (which may be blocked according to the usual rules) These bombs are known as especially dangerous because they can hit you around a corner
	BOUNCY BOMBS - after getting this powerup, all bombs placed will be bouncy. When kicked, a bouncy bomb will bounce off of obstacles instead of stopping. A bomb is visibly shown to be bouncy in that, when charging, it will wobble side to side instead of growing and shrinking.
	DASHING STRIKE - allows a player to knock a bomb flying, over obstacles, to a distance of at least 3 squares After getting the powerup, to perform a Dashing Strike, double-tap your movement key or button in the direction you want to send a bomb flying You can strike a bomb in the square you are standing, or in an adjacent square in the direction you dash, allowing you to both throw a bomb immediately after placing it or knock a bomb out of your way Flying bombs will bounce off of the sides of the level and return in the direction they came Flying bombs cannot land on soft tiles, hard tiles, or tunnels If a bomb takes too long to find a place to land (relative to level size), it will fizzle out

3. Initial Power-Ups and Drop Frequency

With default settings, the power-ups players start with, and the frequency at which particular power-ups drop when destroying soft blocks, are specified by each level. Most levels use the defaults of starting with 1 bomb and 2 flame size, however some, such as Polo start you with additional power-ups like a kicker and a mount. Similarly, there is a default set of drop frequencies determining which power-ups will drop during gameplay, but some levels, such as Pandemic, override this, for example to greatly increase the rate of virus power-ups dropping. Information about what power-ups players start with, and which power-ups will be dropping more or less often during gameplay, is shown in the lower right during the few seconds of "warm up" after a new level is chosen before the game begins, as well as in the upper right of the pause menu.

Additionally, when configuring a series of rounds, the room leader can customize power-up options, overriding the per-level settings, specifying the player start with more initial power-ups, or even a smaller initial flame, as well as modifying the drop frequencies so that particular powerups occur more often, less often, or not at all.

Per-series Power-Up Options menu:

4. Controllers

Any number of controllers is supported (up to OS limits - virtually unlimited on Windows, 4 on PS4, plus a keyboard can be used for an additional 2 players). No in-game controller configuration is required, as there are only two main actions ("primary" - drop bomb, and "secondary" for pinging and power-ups) and all face buttons should automatically be assigned alternatingly to those two actions, however buttons can be remapped in controller options for additional customization. Since getting as many people playing Splody at one time, in one location, as easily as possible, is a primary mission of Dashing Strike Games, if you have an odd controller which is not functioning properly in Splody in any way (but is visible/functioning in the Windows "Game Controllers" control panel), please contact us through the Steam forums or email and we will work with you to resolve your issue.

Some Steam options interfere with controllers working in Splody (and other games), especially if you have more than 4 controllers - Steam will disable all but 4 with these options enabled. If you have problems getting controllers to work please check the following:

• In the Steam client, go to Steam | Settings | Controller | General Controller Settings, and ensure none of the three "Configuration Support" boxes are checked
• If you need these options enabled for some reason, you can disable them specifically for Splody by launching Splody, opening the Steam overlay, opening Controller Options and setting Use Steam Configuration for Non-Steam Controllers to Forced Off. You will need to restart Splody for these changes to take effect

Xbox 360 controllers are highly recommended, as they are quite common and work trivially with Windows. The wireless receivers are great for ease of use. When setting up large numbers of these we've learned the following things which may be of use:

• A single Microsoft wireless receiver for Xbox 360 controllers will support up to 4 wireless controllers, so it is pretty easy to get a couple of these and have any Xbox-owning friends bring over their own controllers, but one receiver will be needed for each additional 4 players.
• The controllers only have 4 lights, so controllers connected after the 4th have no lights on, which causes people to think they're turned off and press the power button unnecessarily (which might bring up the Steam Big Picture UI or something, depending on settings).
• There are unofficial receivers out there - when I purchased 4 receivers, 2 of them were labeled "Microsoft" and 2 were labeled "XBOX360", the latter were generic clones, and I had to do some manual tweaks with driver files to get them to work on Windows 7, and have been unable to get them to work at all on Windows 8, so I highly recommend buying only Microsoft branded receivers, or highly reviewed alternatives.
• Since one receiver handles up to 4 controllers, when turning on 16 controllers, it's best to plug in one receiver, sync 4 controllers, and repeat. If you turn everything on at once, some controllers will sync to some receivers they were last talking to, and you'll probably be left with 1-2 controllers not synced to any receiver and no way to know which receiver is not yet at 4 controllers.
• I ran into issues with having more than 1 or 2 receivers on each USB root hub. On my laptop, I can only get 2 receivers to work in any USB hub I plug in, so if you only have 2 USB ports, you might need 2 USB hubs to get 4 receivers working. That might be an issue with the crappy non-Microsoft receivers or with particular laptops, but it's good to be aware of if you're setting up a large installation.

By default, all controllers have the ability to control game menus, however sometimes young children (or "friends") like disrupting gameplay by pausing, etc, a little too much, so this may be changed under Settings | Controls | Controller Interface Mode to one of the following modes:

• All Controllers - All controllers have control
• One Controller - Only one controller has control - this will automatically be the controller which was used to change the setting, though will reset to "Controller 1" upon restarting Splody or if that controller is disconnected
• "Konami Code" - Any controller which enters the "Konami Code" takes control, so you can freely pass controllers around to your "friends" and still maintain control regardless of which controller you are using

5. Room Leader, Custom Levels, Level Lists

• The first player to enter the "ready" area is assigned as the Room Leader, and can choose a specific level or level list, and the game mode.
• If the host of a server connects to their own server (through "localhost", the default if you start a server through the Launch Dedicated Server menu), then the host will always be assigned as the Room Leader.
• If a user creates a New Custom Game, they are always assigned as the Room Leader.
• If on a server allowing UGC, when choosing a Single Level, it uses the version of the level on the Room Leader's client. Therefore, they can choose custom levels which do not exist on other clients (or on the server!).
• When choosing a level list ("small", "medium", or "large"), it uses the levels tagged for that list on the server, even if the players do not have those levels.
• To add new level, "Example.lvl" to a level list, create new text file in Splody/user/data/levels/ named "Example.LevelTags" and fill it in like this (to add it to both the "small" and "medium" level lists):

  LevelTag
    Level "Example"
    Tag "small"
    Tag "medium"
  End

  For online multiplayer, this will only affect dedicated servers you host, not games you join.

6. Audio Option: Steam Playlist

Tired of the music tracks in Splody? Use Steam's music player to select your own music!

1. In Steam, set up a playlist - relevant settings are under Steam | Settings | Music (choose where your local files are), and then View | Music Details to configure a playlist.
2. In Splody, change the Music option in the Audio menu to Steam Playlist
3. Enjoy!

7. Ratings, Rankings, and Leaderboards

Most online games played will affect your Rating, and the people with the highest Rating are ranked at the top of the leaderboards, both on the web and inside the game (accessible from the Play Online menu). Where do you stack up to the competition?

Ratings FAQ

• Which rounds affect ratings? The following must be true for a round to be counted towards ratings:
  • Played online
  • At least two unique player accounts played in the game - note that Bots count as a different account, and a single account may have multiple players
  • The Team Mode is Free for All
• How are ratings calculated? Ratings are calculated using a variation on the Elo rating system, adapted for games with more than 2 players. In general, you gain rating points when you win, and lose points when you lose. Someone with a higher rating will be expected to win more often against someone with a lower rating, so the person with the higher rating gains fewer points when they win (the expected result) and lose more points when they lose (the unexpected result). The "K-factors" used determine the maximum number of rating points that can be earned or lost in a single game, and Splody uses the following values:
  • 20 as a provisional (not yet ranked) player
  • 5 when playing against a provisional player (experienced players, though their ranking is higher, will not lose a ton of rating when losing to a brand new player)
  • 40 as a regular player (not provisional, Rating < 1100)
  • 10 as a senior (Rating > 1200) player
  When playing against multiple opponents, various K-factors will be used against each opponent, resulting in the final rating change.
• What's the difference between Rating and Rank? Rating is the value that changes whenever you play a round, based on who you played against. Ranking is how you compare to all other players, so your ranking will change even when you're not playing as other people gain or lose Rating and get ahead or fall behind you.
• Will I be penalized if I quit before finishing a series? Though the total for all rounds are shown at the end of a series, rating is only adjusted on an individual round basis, so you can safely quit after any round (or when you're already dead). Additionally, if all human players disconnect in the middle of a round (regardless of whether there are bots left), no ratings are adjusted, so it's safe to quit in the middle of a round against only Bots.
• How can I see exactly how my rating changed? All rating changes for players in the current round are logged to your chat history and you can inspect that at your leisure between rounds or after the end of the series.
• What is a "provisional" rating? New players, and players who have not played in two months have only a "provisional" rating until they have participated in 10 rounds. While provisionally rated, they will not show up on leaderboards (will not be ranked), and their ratings (and the ratings of those they play against) are not affected as much as with a regular player.
• I just won the series, but my rating went down! That's not a question, but I understand your frustration. If your rating is significantly (about 100 points) higher than your opponent(s)'s, it's possible to win a series yet lose rating over the course of the series because, effectively, your high rating predicted you should have lost fewer rounds. Ratings are adjusted after each round and you will never lose rating from winning a round. As an example, if your rating is 1200, playing against a player with rating 1000, the Elo algorithm predicts you should win about 75% of the rounds (i.e. the points you gain from winning 3 rounds will approximately equal the points you lose for losing 1 game, keeping your respective ratings the same). If you're playing "first to 3 wins", and you win 3 and your opponent wins 2, you have underperformed what your ratings predicted, and your rating will go down more from the 2 losses than it goes up for the 3 wins (and your opponent's will rise accordingly).
• If I have multiple local players, how will that affect my ratings? Your ratings will be adjusted for each player who participated and scaled down according to how many players you have in the game, so if you have 3 local players, and they all lose, your rating will go down the same amount as if you were playing without additional local players. However, the increase will also be smaller when you have multiple local players (since some of them lost), but that should be balanced out by the fact that you (or one of your other local players) will be winning more rounds! To other players, it will be absolutely no different than if they were playing against 3 unique online players.
• What's the fine print? The rating algorithm may be adjusted and ratings may be recalculated at any time. Any rounds played on suspicious servers or with players caught cheating will not count towards ratings, or will be counted as a loss for the relevant parties. Abuse of the system will disqualify you from ratings and ranking entirely and may result in an ban from online multiplayer. In the future, additional constraints (such as requiring play on an official server) may be added to participate in ratings.