GAME AND MENU NAVIGATION

With the left Mouse click you get to the menus or activate buttons. With the right or left mouse button you can change the settings. to leave the menus, click on the < Arrow in the lower left corner of your screen.

MAIN MENU

TRAINING
If you want to play a match against the Clusterball AI pilots (bots), choose the training, but remember: the real competition can only be found online.

-SETUP-
Here you define your training conditions.

WORLD: Set the landscape you want to fly in here.

TIME LIMIT: Set the desired playing time.

POINT LIMIT: in addition or as an alternative to the time limit, you can also set a point limit for the game. this can force you to change your game tactics, because a higher point limit naturally means longer games. if a player comes close to the point limit or the value of his ball chain is sufficient to exceed the set limit, a corresponding warning appears on the interface (screen).

Respawn time: (Return time) Set the desired return time for balls and equipment here. The respawn time is the time between the balls being delivered to the ring, or the equipment being picked up, and their reappearance. A slow respawn time may be suitable for matches with few players, while "fast" is generally better suited for many players.

Respawn type: (Return type) Here you set the desired respawn type for the equipment. "Fixed" means that all equipment will respawn in exactly the same place every time. In the "Random" setting, the equipment will respawn randomly.

MAX PLAYERHere you can set the number of players who can participate in a Clusterball match with a maximum of eight players.

LOS: Click on this button to start a training game against the bots.

BACKTakes you back to the previous menu.

-PILOTS-
in this menu you can choose which pilots you want to compete against. the pilots have different behaviour and skills. if you choose pilots with a higher level of difficulty, this also means a harder competition.

PILOTDetermine the order of the pilots, i.e. which pilots (depending on how many players you have hired) will be set up first. Pilot one will also be set up first in training.

NAME: Pick the pilots you want to race here.

STRENGTH: Displays the playing strength of the selected pilot.

DESCRIPTIONA brief introduction of the selected pilot, with his or her history and behaviour.

GAME HOST
Dial Hosting a game to host a multiplayer game. in order to play online, you must be registered as a Clusterball user (see Online Game Registration).

HOST NAME: Enter the name of your host here and other players will see this name when they search for available games.

WORLD: Define the landscape in which you want to play. (Egypt, Stonehenge, etc.)

GAME TYPE: decide which game you want to play, 'Free for all' i.e. each player individually, or in a team. there are different team game variants. you can host a regular 2-team game or a match with several teams and decide whether the teams are divided by team color or name (see Game types).

TIME LIMIT: Determine the desired playing time. Longer Internet games also result in more ranking points (see Ranking).

POINT LIMIT In addition or as an alternative to the time limit, you can also set a point limit for the game. This can force you to change your game tactics. Higher point limits mean longer games and more ranking points for internet games (see RankingIf a player comes close to the point limit or the value of his ball chain is sufficient to exceed the set limit, a corresponding warning appears on the interface (screen).

Respawn Time: Set the desired respawn time for balls and equipment - slow, normal or fast.

Respawn Type: Set the preferred respawn type for the equipment, fixed or random.

MAX PLAYER: Here you define the number of participating players. In a Clusterball match a maximum of eight players can participate.

GO: Click this button to start your host or a multiplayer game.

BACK: Takes you back to the previous menu.

JOIN THE GAME
Dial Join the game to join a multiplayer game. you can join a game that is in chat room mode (OPEN) if there is a free starting slot, or go to the waiting room of a running game (to join the game as soon as it is back in chat room mode). you cannot join a running game.

Choose a host from the list and click GoWhen you enter a host, the first thing you do is enter a chat room (see chatroom), where you can talk to your fellow players, see their statistics and the settings for the next game. To play online, you must be a registered Clusterball user (see Online game registration).

-LAN-
Select this tab if your computer is part of a LAN and you only want to list the games hosted within this network (e.g. if there are many online hosts) All participating computers should have Internet access (either directly or via a hub) so that the individual user accounts can be identified.

-INTERNET-
Select this tab if you are looking for the global Clusterball competition, provided your internet connection is active (otherwise you will see only an empty list here). The list shows names, game type, the current world, ping, number of players and the status of each host. An asterisk (*) in the game type column means that this host is password protected, an asterisk (*)in the world (venue) column means that a mapcycle is running on this host, i.e. the venues change automatically. Clusterball is designed to run well even with bad connections and low bandwidth.

SORT BY: You can choose to sort the hosts by pings, alphabeth or waiting time.

RENEWAL: (Update) Click here to update the list.

STOP: Stops updating the available hosts.

GO: Click on Lot to join an open game ( host ) or to enter the waiting room of a running game.

BACK: Takes you back to the previous menu.

-CHAT-
if you want to meet players who are not in the middle of a game, this is your tab. the player list shows all players who are in the join menu, but are not yet in the game on any host. so you can see who is in the chat with you, there are colored squares next to the names of these players. the chat is a good place to meet for a game.

CHATROOM
When you host or join a multiplayer game, the first thing you do is enter a chat room where you can discuss the next or previous game with other players. Once the hosting player is on Lot clicks, the game begins.

-NEXT GAME--
Here you can find the settings for the next match. Only the host player can change these settings. Click on the Go button to let your teammates know that you are ready for the balls (the letter 'R' for 'ready' will appear next to your name).

-PLAYER-
By clicking on this tab, you can find out more about your fellow players, such as their rank, score, internet connection and ping.

-TEAMS-
This tab is only available in team games and contains information about the teams.

-INDIVIDUAL-
In team games you can check your own performance in the game here.

-POINTS-
After the game, the scoreboard shows the game results. When you have activated your rank, you play for ranking points (see RankingIf the final result in the game is the same, the player who achieved it first will receive the higher ranking.

LEAVE: Click on this button to leave the chat room and the server.

SAVED GAMES
Dial sp. Games(Remember to set the Aut. Save Game option in the Setup menu to YES if you want to record your online games) Highlight the match you want to watch and click ShowIf you want to delete one of the games, select it and click on Delete.

If you have received a saved game from another player and want to watch it, save it in the 'Saved games' folder in your Clusterball folder so that it appears in your list of saved games.

While watching the saved games, you have different camera perspectives at your disposal. e.g. you can follow different players and choose which scenes you would like to see. here are the different possibilities (with the F-keys you can change the perspective):

F1: Follow: Player, Best Player or All
F2: Playback speed: normal, fast or slow
F3: Scenes: general, fights, points, ball scenes or chase
F4: SV: Fast forward
F5: SSV: advance by 30 sec
F6: RS: Return by 30 sec

With Point of view change (see Options) you can follow your own ship in the third person view, where you can use the 4, 5, 6, 8, + and - keys of your numeric keypad to change the camera angle.

The game runs in an infinite loop, press Esc and leave the world to end your video session.

SETUP
Dial Setupif you want to Control system, Game settings, Player Info and System settings ...to change. Control system is set to Keyboard by default. In Options you can take your Control settingsAdjust mouse sensitivity, force feedback, etc.

-PLAYER-
Here you make your player details.

NAME: Enter the nick you registered with here, so that your points in internet games can be added to the ranking.

PASSWORD: Enter here your password to your nick, so that your points in internet games can be added to the ranking.

TEAM NAME: Enter your team name here. In the team game mode "join by name" you join your team in the game or create a new team with this name (see Game modes).

COLOR: Choose your favorite starting color for your glider, and you will get this color (and your glider if you haven't already skinned it) whenever you enter a host and no other player on the host has this color.

TEAM COLOR: Choose your favorite team color. In the team game mode "join by color" you join the team with this color or form a new one. In "two teams" mode, the team colors are determined by the first two players to enter the host. (see Game modes).

RANG HOLEN: Click on this button to get your rank and log in to the rank server.

BACK: Takes you back to the previous menu.

-OPTIONS-
This menu allows you to make various settings for the game.

TARGET CROSS: If the target cross should always be displayed, ALWAYS select this option; if it should only be visible with guided weapons, select NOT FIXED.

USE JOYSTICK: If you play with a joystick, gamepad or similar you can set this here.

FLIGHT CHARACTERISTICS: choose your preferred flight settings. choose between Beginner, Normal, Advanced, Semi Pro and Pro. choose Custom 1, 2 or 3 and press Enter to adapt one of these existing features to your personal preferences. this requires some experimentation, as the flight behaviour of your glider is greatly influenced by your settings.

STANDARD VIEW: You can choose between cockpit or the view behind your glider.

PILOTNAME: If you want to see the names of the other players during the game, set this to YES.

EQUIPMENT RECORDING MODE: Here you can set the EDU (Equipment Delivery Unit) switch, choose between NEVER (manual switching), ALWAYS (switches to the last recorded weapon) or PRIORITY (Fixed weapon sequence: 1: Ball Snatcher; 2: Inverse Control; 3: Backdraft; 4: Gravitator; 5: Inflator; 6: Spaghetti String; 7: Tractor Beam; 8: Shockwave; 9: Smoke Puffs. Changes can only be made in the config.cfg file located in your Clusterball folder).

CAR CHANGE EQUIPMENT: If YES is set here, your EDU will automatically switch to the next available weapon when the currently set ammo is used up.

MOUSE SPEED: Set the desired sensitivity when playing with the mouse.

CHANGE VERTICAL AXIS: YES swaps top/bottom on your game controller or keyboard, giving you that familiar flight simulation feeling.

FORCE FEEDBACK: Set this option to ON if you want to play with Force Feedback, if your game controller supports this feature.

FORCE STRENGTH: Set the desired strength of FF.

AUTOM SAVE GAMES: Set this option to ON if you want to save your multiplayer games for later viewing or showing them to other players.

QUICK CHAT MESSAGE (1-10): text messages to all your teammates, because it's bad typing during a fight. by default the texts are stored on the F1-10 keys, but you can edit them accordingly (see also control).

-CONTROL-
Everyone has their own favorite controls and key mapping, please change the default settings according to your habits.

TO THE LEFT/RIGHT (LEFT ARROW/RIGHT ARROW): Controls the glider to the left or right.

UP/DOWN (ARROW UP/DOWN): Controls the glider up or down.

ROLLING (E): Makes the glider roll around its longitudinal axis.

ACCELERATE (W): Hold it to accelerate.

BRAKE (S): Decelerates the glider.

SUPERBOOST (RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON): Activate the Superboost - to drastically increase the speed of your glider for a short time.

FIRE (LEFT MOUSE BUTTON): Press this button to fire the selected weapon, for continuous fire press and hold the button.

NEXT / PREVIOUS EQUIPMENT (D/A): Switches the existing weapons forwards or backwards.

CHANGE DESTINATION (Q): Use this button to change the destination in automatic destination search.

DECOY BALL (SPACE BAR): With this key you drop a so-called decoy ball (a bait, see also Balls) to repel automatic guided missiles fired at you.

GAME CHAT (ENTER): Here you can activate the in-game chat, just type your message to the other players and send it with ENTER off.

CHANGE POINT OVERVIEW (T): Turns the score display ON and OFF during the game.

CHANGE VIEW (V): Changes the view, cockpit or exterior view behind the glider.

FAST EQUIP (1-9): You can also use these hotkeys to switch to any available weapon:

1. smoke poufs
2. Inflator
3. ball snatcher
4. Spaghetti String
5. Backdraft
6. inverse control
7. tractor beam
8. Shockwave
9. Gravitator

Quick Chat Message (F1-F10): Using the F-Keys you can quickly send premade messages to other pilots during the game.

-SYSTEM-
Here you can make audio, video and network settings.

AUDIO: Set whether your computer is equipped with a 3D or 2D sound card; if you do not want sound, set to OFF.

VOLUME: Adjust the volume here.

MUSIC: Here you can switch the music on or off.

NEWS: If you want the onboard computer to alert you acoustically when messages from other players arrive, set this option to ON.

GRAPHIC QUALITY: Set the graphics quality here according to the performance of your computer, a lower resolution will result in higher speed in the game.

EDU VISIBLE: Set the visibility of the EDU to NO to increase the playing speed.

GRAPHIC MODE: Set 3dfx (GLIDE) or OpenGL according to your graphics card.

RESOLUTION: Set the resolution according to your computer performance or preferences, a lower resolution increases the game speed.

NETWORK GESCHW: Choose your network connection to optimize your data transfer for internet games.

USE PROXY: If your computer is behind a firewall and you have trouble contacting the Clusterball Masterserver, you can open your proxy and port by setting this to ON (determines the proxy through the system registry).

PROXY: If necessary, you can enter the proxy number here.

PORT: If necessary, you can enter the port number here.

END
If for some unknown reason you really don't want to play anymore, click on End and you return to Windows.