Match

A screenshot of a multiplayer Match netgame.

Match is a multiplayer gametype in SRB2. It is a variation of a typical first-person shooter Deathmatch game with Sonic elements. It is played in first-person view on an exclusive rotation of maps designed specifically for the gametype. The players throw rings at each other to score points. Since rings fly considerably slower than projectiles and players are much faster than in regular shooter games, SRB2's Match mode plays differently: Players must anticipate the movement of their opponents and aim rings ahead of them to successfully hit them. The objective is to score the highest amount of points in a specific time (10 minutes by default) or to be the first to reach a specific number of points.

Team Match is a variation of Match in which the players are divided into two competing teams that fight each other. Match mode is enabled for a map by adding the keyword Match to the TypeOfLevel parameter of its level header.

Gametype format

Spectating

When joining a Match game, new players spawn in spectator mode. Spectators are invisible and intangible and cannot participate in the game. Therefore, they are not listed in the score overview when pressing the Tab key, but their names are displayed in a separate line below the score overview. While spectating, players can move around freely without being bound to gravity. Pressing Jump will make them float and pressing Spin makes them sink. They can also watch one of the other players by pressing F12. Pressing the Fire button will make them enter the game.

During the game, you can always switch back to spectator by typing changeteam spectator into the console or selecting the "Spectate..." option in the pause menu. Beware that this will reset your current score to 0, even if you join again in the same round. The server and game admins can force players to spectate or play by typing serverchangeteam [player name] spectator/playing into the console. The console variable allowteamchange can be turned off to prevent spectators from playing and players from spectating.

By default, only spectators may change their character, while active players may not. This can be changed with the restrictskinchange console variable.

Scoring

Each shot lowers the ring counter of the shooting player by one. If the ring counter hits zero, they cannot shoot anymore until they collect new rings. Hitting a player with a ring or a shield attack rewards the scorer with 50 points. If multiple players are hit from the same shot or shield attack, 50 points are awarded for every hit player. Additionally, the rings and weapon panels that the hit player(s) carried will be dropped for anybody to collect, until they disappear after a few seconds. If the hit player has ammo for a weapon but not the panel, the ammo is dropped instead. If the opponent is hit while not carrying any rings or a shield, they die and the scorer receives 100 points. If a player dies, either from a stage hazard or from enemy fire, 50 points penalty are subtracted from their score.

The objective of Match is either to score the most points in a specific time or be the first to hit a certain point limit. By default, Match rounds last 5 minutes and the player with the most points wins afterwards. The objective can be modified with the console variables pointlimit and timelimit or in the Options menu. The former sets the point limit, with "0" turning it off. The latter sets the time limit in minutes, with "0" turning it off. Both limits can be enabled at the same time, in which case the game ends once the first of the two limits is reached.

If the game is played with a time limit and two or more players share the highest score after the time runs out, the Star Post sound will be played and "OVERTIME!" will start to flash at the bottom of the screen. The round will then continue until one of the players scores another hit and the tie is broken. This behavior can be turned off by disabling the overtime console variable.

An alternative scoring system can be enabled with the matchscoring console variable. If it is set to Classic, the 50 point penalty is disabled. Additionally, hitting a player that is equipped with a shield will only award the scorer with 25 points. Sudden Death mode can be activated with the suddendeath console variable. If enabled, all players will die after being hit once, even Super players.

Weapons

Apart from the default red ring, there are seven special weapons available in the game. Their availability can be turned on or off with the specialrings console variable, but they are enabled by default. To use one of them, the player must collect the appropriate weapon panel. This allows the player to select that weapon and fire it. The player can carry all weapons at once, but they can only fire one type of weapon at a time.

Weapon usage is restricted by ammunition. Each shot of a weapon ring, apart from depleting the ring count by one, also subtracts one ammo item for the weapon that was fired. If the player does not have rings but still has ammo, the player can continue firing the weapon at the cost of two ammo items per shot. If the ammo count hits zero, the weapon cannot be fired until more ammo is collected. This can happen either by collecting the panel again or by picking up one of the stand-alone weapon rings scattered around the stage. Without a panel, these weapon rings don't allow the player to fire the weapon, but their ammo is saved until the player collects the panel. If a player is hit, they drop all their panels along with their rings and the ammo for weapons for which they do not have a panel.

The weapons are as follows:

Weapon	Icon	Description
Match Ring		Default weapon, cannot be dropped. In a team game, the red team will fire red rings, blue team will fire blue rings. No other weapons are affected.
Automatic Ring		Fires a rapid stream of 17.5 rings per second. To that effect, it quickly uses up the player's rings, but also increases the chance of hitting a target.
Bounce Ring		Will bounce off solid surfaces for a short period of time. Useful in small tunnels or cramped quarters.
Scatter Ring		Fires a cross of 5 rings which slowly spread apart as they fly. At close range, it can launch the opponent extremely far.
Grenade Ring		Fires a grenade-like projectile onto the ground which will automatically detonate after 6 seconds.
Explosion Ring		Fires a projectile that explodes on contact with surfaces or other objects.
Rail Ring		Fires an instantaneous shot that instantly hits any opponent in its path.
Infinity Ring		Replaces the match ring as long as the player has ammunition for it. Infinity Rings have the same properties as red rings, but they do not deplete the player's ring counter.

In a typical Match stage, each weapon tile is placed once on the map in a distinct-looking spot to make sure players can remember its location. This forces Match maps to be asymmetrical, diverse and fairly large to host all the required weapons and ammunition.

Random monitors

Additional power-ups are distributed through randomly respawning monitors. Apart from several Super Ring Monitors that are scattered across the stage, there are one or two Strong Random Monitors and two to four Weak Random Monitors on each map. These spawn different items with different likelihoods to make sure the item distribution is fairly weighted. Along with the weapon tiles, these monitors frequently serve as focal points for multiplayer stages, as they are the only way of obtaining shields and other powerful items.

The monitor behavior can be controlled with the matchboxes console variable. Normal is the default behavior, in which SRMs and WRMs handle the respawn behavior. Random replaces all monitors with non-weighted Random Monitors. Non-Random causes SRMs and WRMs to always respawn with the same item and removes any non-weighted Random Monitors. None removes all monitors from the game.

Emeralds

About one minute into the match, Chaos Emeralds will start to spawn in random locations in the map and will continue spawning until there are seven in the stage. Players can collect these by picking them up. Getting hit will cause a player to drop all the emeralds they've collected. If a player collects all 7 emeralds, they are awarded 20 seconds of both invincibility and increased movement speed. Afterwards, the emeralds re-scatter themselves on the map.

Chaos Emeralds can be turned on or off with the powerstones console variable. They are enabled by default.

Pity Shield

Upon spawning, players are equipped with the Pity Shield, which is a basic shield that protects from one hit and has no other properties. This is done to prevent players from scoring easy points by killing other players who have just spawned or respawned after dying. The Pity Shield is also involved in a mechanic that helps weaker players, hence its name: Each time a player is hit by another player with a higher score, they are awarded one pity point. Once a player reaches three pity points, they receive a Pity Shield and their pity points are set back to zero. An exception is if they are already wearing another shield when they receive the third pity point, which is possible if they were hit while wearing a Force Shield. In this case, they keep their current shield and the pity points are held over until the next time the player is hit.

Team Match

Team Match is a variation of Match in which the players are divided into two competing teams that fight each other. One team is red and the other is blue. All players are forced to have the skin color of their teams and the rings they shoot have that color as well. It is automatically enabled for all maps that support regular Match mode. The scores from each player of the team are added together to form the cumulative team score. However, the 50 point penalty for death is only subtracted from the player score, not the team score. If a player leaves a team, their points achieved until then are still counted in the team score. Otherwise, Team Match works just like regular Match, and the team with the higher cumulative score wins.

Players are automatically assigned to a team if they enter the game. However, they can choose a team of their liking with the changeteam command or the "Switch Team..." option in the pause menu. The server and game admins can reassign players to different teams with the serverchangeteam command. The console variable allowteamchange can be turned off to prevent players from changing their teams. Players have the option to chat only with players of their respective team by using the sayteam command.

The server and game admins have the option to scramble the teams with the teamscramble console variable. When set to Random, the teams are randomly scrambled; when set to Points, the teams are scrambled according to the players' points. The same option is also available in the pause menu as "Scramble Teams...". scrambleonchange is identical, except that it automatically scrambles the teams each time the game advances to the next map.

See also

• Match strategy guide
• Level Design 101/Match and Capture the Flag