ProPinball: Big Race USA - Head To Head Modus
---------------------------------------------
Author : Andreas 'Ante' Grabher
E-Mail : ante@tmt.at
www : http://www.tmt.at/ante/
ICQ# : 46919744
Version: 1.0 from 18.10.1999

Translated to English by Jens Göring (goering@bigfoot.com).
"Thank you Jens, for the very fast work !!!"

History
-------
1.0 - First version, 18.10.1999 (German)
- Translated into English by Jens Göring, 20.10.1999 (English)

Availability
------------
The latest version of this rulesheet is always available at http://www.tmt.at/ante/pinball/brusa/ or via email from ante@tmt.at.

Disclaimer / Copyright
----------------------

All trademarks mentioned in this rulesheet are property of their actual owner. I allow everybody to publish, copy or translate this rulesheet as long as I am mentioned as Author and I am informed about it.

This Rulesheet is based on version 1.18 from 2.12.1998 of Big Race USA (BRUSA). If you do not have this version of the game, you can download a update at http://www.empire-interactive.com/propinball/brusa/admin/updates.

Please let me know, if this rulesheet contains any bugs or if you found out how to play BRUSA over LAN. I'll appreciate any other comment, too.

Contents
--------
1. Introduction
2. H2H-modes
2.1 Human vs. CPU (Offline or Internet)
2.1.1 Offline-matches
2.1.2 Internet-matches
2.2 Human vs. Human over Internet
3. The Game
3.1. Round 1
3.2. Round 2
3.3. Round 3

1. Introduction
---------------
The Head to Head match (H2H) is a game played by one player against another opponent (either human or CPU).
The goal of the game is reaching a higher score than the opponent at the end of the game. One match is devided in tree round in which you can achieve different amounts of points.

2. H2H-modes
------------
There are three different possibilities to play H2H-matches:
- Human vs. CPU - Offline or Internet
- Human vs. human - Internet
- Human vs. human - LAN (as far as I know, nobody ever got this to work), direct connection (seems to work perfectly with a serial link)

2.1 Human vs. CPU - Offline or Internet
-------------------------------------------------
2.1.1. Offline-Mode
-------------------
You can activate the offline H2H mode by holding the launch button (default: RETURN) in the attract mode (that is directly after startup or between games). You can select the difficulty level with the flipper buttons. Available options are 'Easy', 'Normal' and 'Hard'. The match starts after pressing the start button (default: 'S' or 'F1'). See 3 for the rules. The program returns to attract mode after the game finishes.

2.1.2. Internet-Mode
--------------------
To play over Internet, the player has to create a userprofile (name and password) in the Pro Pinball Online Clubhouse first.

http://www.empire-interactive.com/propinball/brusa/admin/users

It is possible to play over Internet and get into the official highscore board with this username. After creating this profile, you can start the program, open the menu with 'Escape' and select 'Head-to-Head'. Now you have to enter your username and password to get into the BRUSA-lobby. In the lobby, it is possible to play against some computer players, challenge other (human) players or chat.

There are always three computer players present (CPU-easy, -normal and -hard). You can start a match against a computer player by clicking his icon (blue arrow down). The match starts immediately. See 3 for the rules.

When the match finishes, a new one gets automatically started. You can always abort the game by pressing the 'escape' key. Doing so returns to the lobby.

2.2. Human vs. human - Internet
-------------------------------
Same as in 2.1.2. except that you have to click on the icon of another human player instead of a CPU player. If you do so, you'll see another chat window, where you can chat privately with your opponent, but normally you'll start the match directly by clicking on the 'Play' button.

As a difference to the other modes, the winner will be the best out of three games, that means that the player that wins two games first is the winner of the match.

See 3 again for the rules.

After the match, the resulting games and the winner are displayed. A match is valid as soon as one player wins two games - if the match is aborded before that (broken connection, etc.) the match will not change the rating in the ladder.

By pressing the escape key you get back to the private chat window, where you can chat with your opponent after the match. To play another match, you have to close this window with 'disconnect' (you'll get back to the attract mode) and restart the H2H mode with the menu.

3. The match
------------
And now to the important thing.

One game is divided in three rounds. Each of these rounds lasts 100 seconds at max and there are different modes active in each round.
You can't tilt, but you loose 50 points for each lost ball. You can't reach less than zero points - negative scores are not possible.

The mode of action of the airbag is the same in all three rounds, too. You can activate the airbag by completing the TRUNK-targets. If all off them are hit, the targets are reset and the airbag gets activated. The airbag of the opponent gets de-activated, but his TRUNK-targets remain unchanged.

3.1. Round 1
------------
In Round 1 both players try to travel 10,000 feet. At the beginning of this round, both players have zero points and the same velocity.

The following targets are flashing yellow (left to right):

- Open the Trunk
- left orbit
- left ramp
- U-Turn
- Police Car Scoop
- Mini Loop
- upper left ramp
- Taxi
- upper right ramp
- Big loop
- right ramp
- right orbit

If a player hits a yellow target, he scores 20 points and the target starts to flash green. The same target on the opponents table starts to flash red.
Additionally, the velocity of the first player is increased and the velocity of his opponent is decreased, which means that you are faster if you see many green targets and slower if you see many yellow or red targets on your table. (I don't know yet about how much you get faster or slower)

Hitting a green target scores 100 points, but it remains green for the hitting player and red for his opponent. The speed remains unchanged, too.

Hitting a red target scores 10 points and the target starts to flash yellow for both players. The hitting player gains speed and his opponent is slowing down.

If a player reaches 10,000 feet, the taxi opens and all other targets are deactivated. Hitting one of these doesn't score anything and doesn't change the lights on the opponent's screen. If this player hits the taxi, he wins this round and scores 1,000 points. His opponent looses this round and scores no additional points. If neither player hits the opened taxi in 100 seconds, the round ends in a draw and no player scores additional points.

3.2. Round 2
------------
In round 2 both players have to travel 10,000 feet. Unlike the first round, the players are in two different playing modes, which can be exchanged by hitting certain targets.
The winner of the first round starts the second round in mode A and the looser in mode B. If the first round ended in a draw, both players start in mode B and the first player who ends this mode switches to mode A (although I'm not quite sure about this).

Mode A
------
Mode A is the same as round 1 except that you switch to mode B if the opponent hits certain targets.
Targets you hit up to this moment (the green ones), are not displayed for the opponent (as red) until he completes his mode B. Scoring is the same as in round 1. If one player has reached 10,000 feet and mode A is active, he can finish round 2 by hitting the now open taxi. He is awarded by 2,000 points and his opponent scores no additional points.

Mode B
------
Mode B is a 2 ball multiball, where the goal is to hit one of the following combinations of two targets:

- Open the Trunk -> Hot Rod
- left ramp -> Sports Car
- right ramp -> Monster Truck
- right orbit -> Mini Bug

Hitting one of the first targets (i.e. the left ramp) scores 100 points and the according car appears (sports car in this case). In this way you can open more than one car for 100 points each, but the goal is to hit one car (for additional 100 points) to switch the mode to mode A. At this moment your opponent gets to mode B.

If a player reaches the finish line (distance 0 feet) while playing in mode B, he has to activate mode A before he can finish round 2.

3.3 Round 3
-----------
The third and last round is the Big Race (see also Erik Mooney's Rulesheet or Michael Weigert's german translation of it).

The starting position depends on the second's round results. The winner of round 2 starts on third position, the Hot Rod is open and the Sports Car, Monster Truck and Mini Bug are closed. The looser of round 2 starts on fifth position, the Hot Rod is closed and every other car is open.

If the second round ended in a draw, both players start on fourth position. On the player's table that finished round 2 in mode A the Sports Car and the Mini Bug are open and the Hot Rod and the Monster Truck are closed. On the other player's table it's the other way round.

If you hit a car, you score 200 points, the car closes (holding the ball) and opens on the opponent's table. If you hit every open car, the taxi opens. If you hit the taxi, you are the winner of the third round and score 5,000 points, the opponent nothing. If the opponent hits a car before you hit the taxi, the taxi closes and the car your opponent has hit on his table opens on your table, releasing the ball.

The scores for different results of the third round:

Player 1 - Player 2 - Points player 1/2 - # of open cars player 1/2
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1st place - last place- 5,000 / 0 - taxi hit / all cars open
2nd place - last place- 4,000 / 0 - taxi open / all cars open

3rd place - 5th place - 3,000 / 1,000 - 1 car open / 3 cars open
4th place - 4th place - 2,000 / 2,000 - 2 cars open / 2 cars open
5th place - 3rd place - 1,000 / 3,000 - 3 cars open / 1 car open
last place - 2nd place - 0 / 4,000 - all cars open / taxi open
last place - 1st place - 0 / 5,000 - all cars open / taxi hit

After finishing the third round, the player with the better score is the winner. If a match ends in a draw (both players have the same score), the game is invalid and a new one starts (only matches against human opponents).

Bugs:
-----
There's a bug in round 2, which occurs if the following conditions are true:

- You are in mode A
- You already played mode B at least once, which means that a second ball is held in one of the cars.

If your opponent hits a target for the second time, this car opens and releases the second ball. If you hit this car with a ball before it closes again, you end with two balls in mode A (this happend only once to me).

'Internet-Bug'
--------------
Some more 'bugs' can occur during internet matches agains other human players.
For example:
- the taxi doesn't open when a distance of 0 feet is reached (round 1 and 2) or when all cars in round 3 are hit
- both players win round 1 (and score 1,000 each)
- In round 3 there's the possibility to win the race (and score 5,000 points), and the opponent gets more than 0 points, that is 1,000 points.

These 'bugs' occur especially if the connection is slow or bad. You can recognize this if the distance decreases not smoothly or not at all. In this case it is better to abord the game with escape and arrange to end the game with your opponent. Eventuelly you can restart the game or even reconnect to the internet to improve the connection. If this doesn't help either, it is better to try it again at another time or to discard the game totaly.

Calculation of the Ladder
-------------------------
The Pro Pinball ladder is based on the Glicko System of Prof. Mark E. Glickman from the Boston University.
This system is quite similar to the ELO-system in chess or the world rating system in tennis. It is already used for example in FICS (Free Internet Chess Server).
The system tries to calculate his playing strengh by looking at the results of already played games.

Two values are of great importance: The rating and the deviation.

To get the score you have to use the following formula:

score = (rating - deviation) / 100

If a player starts at the ladder, he has a scoring of 150,000 and a deviation of 35,000. If this player wins a match, his rating is increased depending to the rating and deviation of his opponent and his own. The rating of the opponent is decreased. Additionally, the deviation of both players decreases.

Since the ladder is re-calculated after every single match, the deviation of all players that have not played is increased by a certain amount. The rating remains the same.

If a player reaches a deviation of 35,000, he is not displayed in the ladder anymore, but his rating and deviation remains saved. If he plays again, these values are taken to calculate his new rating.

Since the calculation of the rating and the deviation is quite complex, I can only sum up how these values change.

A player who is playing a lot has a small deviation, since his playing strength can quite exactly be estimated from the results of his many matches

A player who is rarely playing has a high deviation, since his playing strength can not be estimated from only a few games.

Therefor, the ratings of players with high deviation are changing a lot after each game, which means that the rating increases a lot after winning a game, but also decreases a lot after loosing a game.

It's the contrary for players that play a lot. Loosing doesn't decrease your rating a lot but winning doesn't increase it a lot, too.

Winning against a player with high deviation doesn't increase your rating as much as winning against a player with low deviation.

A few Examples
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Player 1 - Player 2 Player 1 - Player 2
rating/dev. - rating/dev. Result rating/dev. - rating/dev.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
180000/1000 - 180000/35000 2:0 180019/999 - 162500/24663
180000/1000 - 180000/35000 0:2 179499/999 - 197499/24663
180000/1000 - 180000/1000 2:0 180028/999 - 179971/999
180000/15000 - 180000/15000 2:0 185075/13975 - 174924/13975
180000/35000 - 180000/35000 2:0 196221/29023 - 163778/29023

Credits:
--------
Autor: Andreas 'Ante' Grabher ( ante@tmt.at )
Spellchecking: Michael 'Mic' Weigert ( michael_weigert@donau.de )
Translation: Jens Göring ( goering@bigfoot.com )