Ball

Chinese version / 中文版:	球

This page is about the ball that can be directly controlled by the player by pressing down buttons on the keyboard, not the Prop ball, which is a module and used as a type of props.

The appearance of three types of ball (from left: paper ball, wooden ball, and stone ball).

Ball, or called the player ball, is the core of Ballance and the only element that can be controlled by the player directly. The mean diameter of every type of ball is 4 meters (0.8 units): while the shapes of wood ball and stone ball are perfectly round, the paper ball is irregular, with its maximum width being 5 meters (1 unit). By using transformers the current ball type can be changed.

Types

Wooden ball

The default type of ball when the player starts at Level 1–12. It has a mass of 1.9 tons, with a brownish-yellow wooden texture. It is made by gluing and splicing wooden strips with some green spots and scratches.

Lightweight and flexible, it has the most balanced feel among the three types of balls. It can push all kinds of objects, but it needs a certain run-up; when encountering a large number of objects (such as a large number of boxes), it seems powerless. In addition, it can be lifted by a minimum of 6 stacked ventilators; theoretically it can cross an infinite number of tilting blocks (requires high skill level).

Stone ball

The default ball type on start of Level 13. It has a mass of 10 tons. The appearance is generally turquoise, with a large number of pits on the surface. It has great strength and can push various mechanisms without a run-up; and cannot be easily blocked with sandbags; but its inertia is huge and it is not so easy to control. However, this can also be used in custom maps with a "rollercoaster" design. In fact, levels 9 and 13 have this design. It can also break suspension bridges. In addition, it can be lifted by a minimum of 32 stacked ventilators; in theory it can straddle 3 tilting blocks (requires high skill level).

Paper ball

The paper ball weighs 0.2 ton. There does not exist any paper transformers in Level 1, and paper ball also cannot be used there. Its appearance is an irregular white sphere made of several newspapers glued together, with sharp edges and corners; it is very light, can be blown by a ventilator, and will not press open a tilting block, but it cannot push most objects (the walls of the elevator can be pushed away by a paper ball; Bascule bridge can be pushed away under certain circumstances; Box can be pushed away with great difficulty; Turnstile can be pushed away easily). Also, because of its uneven surface, it can't be aligned with a monorail, even with rails or poles.

Physical parameters

Below are parameters of three types of balls (bold denotes difference from prop balls):

Type	Diameter of hitbox (meter)	Friction	Elasticity	Mass (ton)	Linear damping	Rotational damping	Force (at 1x speed)
Stone	4.0	0.5	0.1	10.0	0.3	0.1	0.92
Wood	4.0	0.8	0.2	1.9	0.9	0.1	0.43
Paper	Mean 4.0, maximum 5.0	0.5	0.4	0.2	1.5	0.1	0.065

Note: "Force" is the force on the ball when it is made to roll by the player pressing down the keyboard; as a result, it is meaningless to the prop balls.

For references, below are parameters of prop balls:

Type	Diameter of hitbox (meter)	Friction	Elasticity	Mass (ton)	Linear damping	Rotational damping
Stone	4.0	0.7	0.1	10.0	0.2	0.1
Wood	4.0	0.6	0.2	2.0	0.6	0.1
Paper	Mean 4.0, maximum 5.0	0.5	0.4	0.2	1.5	0.1

Effects

• Balls can activate checkpoints.
• Objects are only loaded when a ball comes near it; otherwise they are "frozen".
• Stone ball can break down suspension bridges on contact, regardless of its mass (if changed by modifying Balls.nmo); however the prop stone ball will not do so.

Did you know

• The shapes of the wood ball and the stone ball are perfect balls with the diameters of 4 meters (0.8 units), which are fixed in scripts, which means that only the appearances, not the hitboxes of wood/stone balls can be changed by modifying Balls.nmo; the shape of paper ball is irregular and its hitbox can even be modified in Balls.nmo.
• Though the paper ball has a elasticity 4 times of the stone ball, 2 times of the wood ball, modifying Balls.nmo can increase the ratio, and and when the Bouncy Ball is produced, the apparent elasticity of the stone ball is higher than that of the wooden ball, and the apparent elasticity of the wooden ball is higher than that of the paper ball. It is speculated that this may be caused by the difference in air resistance among the three.
• Paper balls can be blown by ventilators while prop paper balls can't.