r5858 - in trunk/Docs: . htmlfiles
esteel at icculus.org
esteel at icculus.org
Thu Feb 12 06:06:07 EST 2009
Author: esteel
Date: 2009-02-12 06:06:06 -0500 (Thu, 12 Feb 2009)
New Revision: 5858
Modified:
trunk/Docs/basics.html
trunk/Docs/htmlfiles/basics.aft
Log:
bullets are hitscan again, change basics.html to reflect that and some more fixes and improvements
Modified: trunk/Docs/basics.html
===================================================================
--- trunk/Docs/basics.html 2009-02-12 10:48:32 UTC (rev 5857)
+++ trunk/Docs/basics.html 2009-02-12 11:06:06 UTC (rev 5858)
@@ -116,13 +116,13 @@
Once you're comfortable with your controls and your mouse, you should already find it easier to hit your opponents. And, if you've bound keys to each of the weapons, you can accurately pick which one to use. But to know which weapon to select, and to get the most out of it, you must understand the advantages and the use of each.
</p>
<p class="Body">
-When you use direct-hit (hitscan) weapons like the nex, you 'just' have to directly aim with the crosshair and hit fire. Obviously this can be much harder than it sounds, particularly when both you and your opponent are moving. Therefore, you should use geometry to your advantage, to reduce the relative movement between you as much as possible, so that you have as much time as possible to aim. When someone is moving from one side of your view to the other it is harder to aim at him than when is moving towards or away from you. In the latter case he will hardly change his position relative to yours, and this gives you more time to aim at him. In the former, his position is changing a lot, and so you have to react to how he moves very quickly and accurately to ensure a good shot. The same principle applies when your opponent uses a jump pad. He will prescribe a trajectory in the air, and at its highest point he will stop for a moment. It is easier to aim at him at this point than when he is accelerating off the jump-pad.
+When you use direct-hit (hitscan) weapons like the shotgun, machinegun, campingrifle and the nex, you 'just' have to directly aim with the crosshair and hit fire. Obviously this can be much harder than it sounds, particularly when both you and your opponent are moving. Therefore, you should use geometry to your advantage, to reduce the relative movement between you as much as possible, so that you have as much time as possible to aim. When someone is moving from one side of your view to the other it is harder to aim at him than when is moving towards or away from you. In the latter case he will hardly change his position relative to yours, and this gives you more time to aim at him. In the former, his position is changing a lot, and so you have to react to how he moves very quickly and accurately to ensure a good shot. The same principle applies when your opponent uses a jump pad. He will prescribe a trajectory in the air, and at its highest point he will stop for a moment. It is easier to aim at him at this point than when he is accelerating off the jump-pad.
</p>
<p class="Body">
In addition to using geometry to your advantage, when you're moving relative to your opponent it is sometimes easier to <em>not</em> aim with the mouse, but rather to leave it steady at the right height, and use the strafe buttons to move yourself and thus your cross hair onto him. If you have the advantage of his not seeing you, or being unable to shoot at you, or even if you simply have a health and armor advantage over him, you can even just aim at some point and wait for him to walk into your cross hair. However, always bear in mind that people will generally move unpredictably so as to lessen their chances of being hit - so unless you're sure of where he's going, don't sacrifice your own movement advantage for a hit that might never come.
</p>
<p class="Body">
-Using projectile weapons such as the shotgun, machine gun, mortar, or rocket launcher can be both easier and harder than using hitscan weapons. You must still consider the same geometric factors, but you also have to keep in mind that your projectile will take some time to travel the distance between you and your opponent. In that time they will continue moving! So it's absolutely no use to aim directly at them. It will take some experience with each weapon, and with getting used to how people move, but you should eventually develop a good instinct for where your opponent will be at the time when your projectile will land (and where the projectile itself will land), and thus be able to 'lead' him when you aim. If your target moves to the right, aim further to the right and press fire. Also consider that almost all projectiles will explode when they hit something hard, and that explosion will also cause damage to players nearby (splash damage). Now thats the part that makes projectile weapons easier to use. You can use splash damage to your advantage, so that rather than trying to predict the exact spot at which to aim your projectile (which is very difficult), you can aim at the general area of floor or wall where you expect your opponent to be and let the splash damage do its work. Along these lines, you'll find that it's much easier to aim at his feet and use the splash damage from the explosion on the floor than it is to hit him directly.
+Using projectile weapons such as the mortar, electro, hagar or rocket launcher can be both easier and harder than using hitscan weapons. You must still consider the same geometric factors, but you also have to keep in mind that your projectile will take some time to travel the distance between you and your opponent. In that time they will continue moving! So it's absolutely no use to aim directly at them. It will take some experience with each weapon, and with getting used to how people move, but you should eventually develop a good instinct for where your opponent will be at the time when your projectile will land (and where the projectile itself will land), and thus be able to 'lead' him when you aim. If your target moves to the right, aim further to the right and press fire. Just note how off your hit was and try to adjust next time. It takes a few matches to get the hang of this. Also consider that almost all projectiles will explode when they hit something hard, and those explosions will also cause damage to players nearby (splash damage). Now thats the part that makes projectile weapons easier to use. You can use splash damage to your advantage, so that rather than trying to predict the exact spot at which to aim your projectile (which is very difficult), you can aim at the general area of floor or wall where you expect your opponent to be and let the splash damage do its work. Along these lines, you'll find that it's much easier to aim at his feet and use the splash damage from the explosion on the floor than it is to hit him directly.
</p>
<p class="Body">
Also bear in mind that people try to evade projectiles; and it is even comparatively easy to do this at distance. If you fire to their left they will see it coming, and change direction to the right. You can use this to your advantage by boxing them in with explosions - just fire another one to their right. If you correctly place both projectiles, they will be unable to evade the splash damage from one of them. Either they will avoid the first and be hit by the second, or they will backtrack to avoid the second and be hit by the first. Or, even better, they'll not see the first one at all and be hit directly.
@@ -144,22 +144,22 @@
Among the items you can pick up are the weapons. Some of them are very unique to Nexuiz, and to get the most out of them you need to be familiar with every aspect of how they work - including the rate of fire, the damage per hit, the spread and speed of the payload, and so on.
</p>
<p class="Body">
-Almost all weapons in Nexuiz have two firing modes, so make sure you know both. You normally (depending on game-mode) start equipped with two weapons: the laser and the shotgun. You can bind these weapons to a key at the <em>settings/input</em> menu or in the console using the command <em>bind key "impulse <strong>n</strong>"</em>, where n is the number of the weapon, below.
+Almost all weapons in Nexuiz have two firing modes, so make sure you know both. You normally (depending on game-mode) start equipped with two weapons: the laser and the shotgun. You can bind these weapons to a key at the <em>settings/input</em> menu or in the console using the command <em>bind key "impulse <strong>n</strong>"</em>, where n is the number of the weapon.
</p>
<ul>
-<li>The laser is not often used as a weapon, as it does not do much damage - but it's a useful tool to move around the map, because it has a significant push. The 'explosion' from its projectile will push you and other players around a lot. The trick to using it to move around is to use this push to gain speed or to do huge jumps. For an easy start, take the laser, look down at the floor, and press fire. It will push you high into the air. If you press jump and fire at the same time, you will get even higher - but it depends on the timing, and, for more advanced jumps, also on the angle you fire at the floor, as well as how fast and in which direction you move. Play around with it, and watch others, and you will learn a very useful skill in Nexuiz. The secondary fire mode of the laser switches back to the last used weapon. The laser does not use up any ammo.</li>
+<li>The laser is not often used as a weapon, as it does not do much damage - but it's a useful tool to move around the map, because it has a significant push. The 'explosion' from its projectile will push you and other players around a lot. The trick to using it to move around is to use this push to gain speed or to do huge jumps. For an easy start, take the laser, look down at the floor, and press fire. It will push you high into the air. If you press jump and fire at the same time, you will get even higher - but it depends on the timing, and, for more advanced jumps, also on the angle you fire at the floor, as well as how fast and in which direction you move. For example if you just run forwards, look down and press fire it will catapult you forward with great speed. Play around with it, and watch others, and you will learn a very useful skill in Nexuiz. The secondary fire mode of the laser switches back to the last used weapon. The laser does not use up any ammo.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
-<li>The grappling hook is an other movement tool. The primary mode attaches itself to all sorts of solid objects and will pull you there to move through the map like spider man. You can get very fast that way or reach spots you would not get to by other means. The secondary firemode drops a small gravity bomb that will affect enemy players and also releases a lot of smoke which will make you harder to see and hit. The gravity bomb uses cell ammo.</li>
+<li>The grappling hook is an other movement tool. The primary mode attaches itself to all sorts of solid objects and will pull you there to move through the map like spider man. You can get very fast that way or reach spots you would not get to by other means. The secondary firemode drops a small gravity bomb that will affect enemy players and also releases a lot of smoke which will make you harder to see and hit. The gravity bomb uses cell ammo. There is also a mutator that adds a off-hand hook which can be used all the time, uses no ammo but only does the pulling part.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
-<li>The port-o-launch is the perfection of movement. The grenade it launches creates two portals. On first impact it creates the entrace portal, on secondary impact the exit portal. If you enter the first one you (or others and also projectiles!!) will be teleported to the secondary portal. As the first portal will teleport everything it can't be hit but the second portal is quite fragile and thanks to the used wormhole technology will take the other portal along if it lost too much energy. The wormhole is also the reason why the portals energy decays after some time. You can replenish the energy by simply teleporting something thru it.</li>
+<li>The port-o-launch is the perfection of movement. The grenade it launches creates two portals. On first impact it creates the entrace portal, on secondary impact the exit portal. If you enter the first one you (or others players and also projectiles!!) will be teleported to the secondary portal. As the first portal will teleport everything it can't be hit but the second portal is quite fragile and thanks to the used wormhole technology will take the other portal along if it lost too much energy. The wormhole is also the reason why the portals energy decays after some time. You can replenish the energy by simply teleporting something thru it.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
-<li>The shotgun is very similar to that of other games. It shoots several ballistic bullets with a high spread, so it does very high damage at close range, but becomes very inaccurate at distance. It is also very useful to knock opponents out after you already hit them hard with a rocket or other projectile, and subsequently closed to a distance where these are no longer as useful, because it's hard to miss with at close range. The primary fire mode fires once with a short reload, while the secondary fire mode shoots three very quick shots, but with a long reload afterwards. The secondary firemode also has a higher spread so the primary is useful for a longer distance then the secondary firemode. The shotgun uses pellet ammo which is not shared with any other weapons.</li>
+<li>The shotgun is very similar to that of other games. It shoots several bullets with a high spread, so it does very high damage at close range, but becomes very inaccurate at distance. It is also very useful to knock opponents out after you already hit them hard with a rocket or other projectile, and subsequently closed to a distance because it's hard to miss with the shotgun at close range. The primary fire mode fires once with a short reload, while the secondary fire mode shoots three very quick shots, but with a long reload afterwards. The secondary firemode also has a higher spread so the primary is useful for a longer distance then the secondary firemode. The shotgun uses pellet ammo which is not shared with any other weapons.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
-<li>The machinegun is also quite self-explanatory. It shoots ballistic bullets at a high rate of fire, and can do significant damage. The primary fire mode has a high spread and is thus quite inaccurate - but it fires very fast and deals more damage per second than most other weapons. It is therefore devastating when used at close quarters. One of the machinegun's unique features is that the first bullet after pressing fire does more damage than the rest - keep this in mind when using it. The secondary fire mode is much slower, but more accurate, and does even more damage per bullet, its the same as the primary modes <em>first</em> bullets. It is therefore very useful as an improvised sniper weapon for mid range kills. Like the shotgun, it is an excellent finishing weapon, but its effective use relies heavily on a good, steady aim. The machinegun uses bullet ammo just as the camping rifle.</li>
+<li>The machinegun is also quite self-explanatory. It shoots bullets at a high rate of fire, and can do significant damage. The primary fire mode has a high spread and is thus quite inaccurate - but it fires very fast and deals more damage per second than most other weapons. It is therefore devastating when used at close quarters. One of the machinegun's unique features is that the first bullet after pressing fire have less spread and does more damage than the rest - keep this in mind when using it. The secondary fire mode is much slower, but its the same as the primary modes <em>first</em> bullets. This firemode is therefore very useful as an improvised sniper weapon for mid range kills. Like the shotgun, it is an excellent finishing weapon, but its effective use relies heavily on a good, steady aim. The machinegun uses bullet ammo just as the camping rifle.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The HLAC (heavy laser assault cannon) is a similar gun but fires highly accelerated laser bolts at an insane refire rate. The bolds explode on impact and for some extra damage the secondary mode fires several of them at once. This is only gun that has reduced spread when crouching! Beware of your cell ammo (shared with electro, crylink and (minsta)nex), this baby eats it like crazy.</li>
@@ -171,16 +171,16 @@
<li>The electro is a rather underestimated gun. Contrary to its name, it does not deal electricity damage, but rather fires plasma - understanding this will help you to use it well. The primary fire mode shoots a plasma projectile which does quite high damage on impact. It also explodes rather like a rocket or grenade, and is quite comparable in use to the Quake 2 rocket launcher. The secondary fire mode spits out balls of contained plasma that will bounce like grenades, and deal similarly high damage. Those blobs have a short trajectory and so do not get very far - but they're useful for blocking a way, or for spamming around your opponent so that he is hedged in by them. If you use the primary fire mode to hit these contained plasma blobs, they will explode more violently then without, causing a lot of extra damage. This combo is very effective in corridors and small rooms. The electro uses cell ammo which is shared with the crylink, hlac and the (minsta)nex.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
-<li>The crylink is comparable to the shotgun but shoots slow plasma projectiles; so it's harder to aim but they also do more damage. The primary fire mode shoots several bouncing projectiles at a high rate of fire and narrow spread. Each bouce causes splash damage so try to hit the floor near someone for damage from the splash and the bullets themself. The secondary fire mode has a wider, horizontal spread and lower rate of fire. This mode does not bounce but also does more damage and is sometimes easier to aim. The crylink uses cell ammo which is shared with the electro, HLAC and the (minsta)nex.</li>
+<li>The crylink is comparable to the shotgun but shoots slow plasma projectiles; so it's harder to aim but they also do more damage. The primary fire mode shoots several bouncing projectiles at a high rate of fire and narrow spread. Each bounce causes splash damage so try to hit the floor near someone for damage from both the splash and the bullets themself. The secondary fire mode has a wider, horizontal spread and lower rate of fire. This mode does not bounce but does more damage and is sometimes easier to aim. The crylink uses cell ammo which is shared with the electro, HLAC and the (minsta)nex.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The nex is a powerful sniper weapon. Its primary fire mode fires a hitscan antimatter lance for significant damage, but requires a very precise aim, and has a relatively long reload time. The secondary fire mode activates zoom. The nex uses cell ammo which is shared with the hlac, crylink, minstanex and the electro.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
-<li>The minsta nex is the snipers wet dream. Similar to the nex but MUCH more powerful. One hit, one kill, no kidding! The secondary firemode is identical to the lasers primary shot. Back in the glory days this gun was used solely in Minstagib to train steady aim and fast movement, now this gun can spread fear in every gamemode. Cell ammo is also used by nex, crylink, hlac and electro.</li>
+<li>The minsta nex is a snipers wet dream. Similar to the nex but MUCH more powerful. One hit, one kill, no kidding! The secondary firemode is identical to the lasers primary shot. Back in the glory days this gun was used solely in Minstagib to train steady aim and fast movement, now this gun can spread fear in every gamemode. Cell ammo is also used by nex, crylink, hlac and electro.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
-<li>The camping rifle is a kind of mixture of a sniper rifle and an assault gun. It fires fast, medium-to-high damage, ballistic projectiles and is fed with bullets ammo. The primary mode feels very much like a standard sniper rifle but is harder to use than the nex due to the projectiles. The secondary mode can be used to empty the whole magazine of bullets in an quick burst. This firemode is less wall piercing and has some spread to it but is deadly at mid-to-close range. The magazine is reloaded automatically if you equip the rifle. Its also the only gun that can do headshots, which cause extra damage. The machinegun uses the same bullet ammo as the camping rifle.</li>
+<li>The camping rifle is a kind of mixture of a sniper rifle and an assault gun. The primary mode is quite similar to the nex but fires a bullet. The rate of fire is quite moderate. The secondary mode can be used to empty the whole magazine of bullets in an quick burst. This firemode is less wall piercing and has some spread to it but is deadly at mid-to-close range. The magazine is reloaded automatically if you equip the rifle. Its also the only gun that can do headshots, which cause extra damage so aim with care and this gun can out-perform the nex. The machinegun uses the same bullet ammo as the camping rifle.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The hagar can be compared to the plasma gun from Quake3. It has a very high rate of fire, with moderate damage, and some splash damage. The primary fire mode shoots small projectile missiles at high speed and an extraordinary rate of fire. The secondary fire mode shoots the same missiles, but at a slower speed and rate of fire, and without the instant trigger. This means that they will bounce once when hitting a floor or wall, giving you the opportunity to fire around corners, or double your chances to hit someone by spamming an area. The hagar uses rocket ammo which is shared with the mortar, TAG and the rocket launcher.</li>
@@ -189,14 +189,14 @@
<li>The rocket launcher is a little different from that of other games, in that the rockets move relatively slowly. The primary fire mode shoots a slow-moving, high-damage rocket projectile at a medium rate of fire. The secondary fire mode will explode all your flying rockets at once. This means that you don't need to hit your opponent directly - just get the rocket <em>near</em> him, and use the secondary fire to cause splash damage which will badly hurt him. The rocket launcher uses rocket ammo which is shared with the mortar, TAG and the hagar.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
-<li>The T.A.G. seeker is a unique weapon system. The primary fire mode launcher a small tagging device. <em>If</em> it hits someone it will automatically release several target seeking rockets that will follow the tagged target for quite a while. Its fun watching them run! The secondary firemode launches small rockets that explode after a few meters and thus create a sort of explosion shield that will severely damage everyone in its radius and also stops incoming tag-rockets. Rocket ammo is shared with the mortar, hagar and rocketlauncher.</li>
+<li>The T.A.G. seeker is a unique weapon system. The primary fire mode launches a small tagging device. <em>If</em> it hits someone it will automatically release several target seeking rockets that will follow the tagged target for quite a while. Its fun watching them run! The secondary firemode launches small rockets that explode after a few meters and thus create a sort of explosion shield that will severely damage everyone in its radius and also stops incoming (tag-)rockets. Rocket ammo is shared with the mortar, hagar and rocketlauncher.</li>
</ul>
<p class="Body">
-Now that you know all the guns you also have to understand that in Nexuiz each projectile can be set off by explosions. So its possible to blow up the rocket an opponent is shooting at you. A good strategy against someone with a rocketlauncher is to spam him with the hagar. Chances are high you make his own rocket explode shortly after he launched it and hurt him which his own weapons! This is also the primary way to make sure the T.A.G. seekers rockets do not hit you! Make them explode before they hit you by setting them off.
+Now that you know all the guns you also have to understand that in Nexuiz each projectile can be set off by explosions. So its possible to blow up the rocket an opponent is shooting at you. A good strategy against someone with a rocketlauncher is to spam him with the hagar. Chances are high you make his own rocket explode shortly after he launched it and hurt him which his own weapon! This is also the primary way to make sure the T.A.G. seekers rockets do not hit you! Make them explode before they hit you by setting them off.
Also note that some objects are affected / pushed by explosion like the keys in Keyhunt or the flags in Capture the Flag.
</p>
<p class="Body">
-A special feature in Nexuiz is that walls do not block explosions, so you can't hide behind them. Similarly, if you know that someone is on the floor above you, shoot at the ceiling, and with a little luck the explosion might hurt him. This <em>can</em> be changed by a server admin, but the default allows for more fun; and it's also nice to see how good people are at guessing where their opponents are. Furthermore the ballistic bullets are affected by gravity much like real bullets and can also pierce walls and enemies like real bullets. That enables you to hit several enemies or enemies behind walls/floors up to a certain thickness.
+A special feature in Nexuiz is that walls do not block explosions, so you can't hide behind them. Similarly, if you know that someone is on the floor above you, shoot at the ceiling, and with a little luck the explosion might hurt him. This <em>can</em> be changed by a server admin, but the default allows for more fun; and it's also nice to see how good people are at guessing where their opponents are. Furthermore bullets are ballistic, which means they are affected by gravity much like real bullets and can also pierce walls and enemies like real bullets. That enables you to hit several enemies or enemies behind walls/floors up to a certain thickness.
</p>
<!--End Section 2-->
<h3><a name="''Using Jumping Effectively''" id="''Using Jumping Effectively''"><em>Using Jumping Effectively</em></a></h3>
@@ -204,10 +204,10 @@
You will need to be able to get around the map quickly and efficiently if you are to hunt down your opponents, and collect items well. As already mentioned, the laser is useful for jumping and gaining speed - but you can use all explosive weapons for a similar effect. Other weapons, however, will cause (much) more damage to your health, and not all offer the same strong push as the laser. The rocket launcher will push you twice as far, but you will also take <em>lots</em> more damage. The mortar has the same push as the laser, but its explosion is bigger so the timing and the right angle are less of an issue. For this reason, the mortar is better for a beginner to learn these sorts of jumps.
</p>
<p class="Body">
-You should also know that you gain a bit extra speed moving forward simply by jumping. When you walk, there is friction from the floor which keeps you at a constant speed. If you jump as you walk, the amount you touch the floor is considerably less, and so the friction does not slow you down as much. The longer you jump, the faster you go. The most simple way to do this is to run forward, jump, and then while you are in the air release and repress/hold the jump button. Your character will jump again the moment you land, without you having to worry about timing hitting the jump key. Just repeat it a few times and you will notice you get faster and faster. Unlike other games, Nexuiz does not need you to do this with strange key combinations or even with circular movements of the mouse - trying to do these will generally make you slower. The only time that strafe-jumping (holding one of the strafe-keys while jumping) is useful is for the very first jump you make. This can increase your jump speed a little - although not by much.
+You should also know that you gain a bit extra speed moving forward simply by jumping. When you walk, there is friction from the floor which keeps you at a constant speed. If you jump as you walk, the amount of time you touch the floor is considerably less, and so the friction does not slow you down as much. The longer or rather more often you jump, the faster you go. The most simple way to do this is to run forward, jump, and then while you are in the air release and repress/hold the jump button. Your character will jump again the moment he lands, without you having to worry about timing hitting the jump key. Just repeat it a few times and you will notice you get faster and faster. Unlike other games, Nexuiz does not need you to do this with strange key combinations or even with circular movements of the mouse - trying to do these will generally make you slower. The only time that strafe-jumping (holding one of the strafe-keys while jumping) is useful is for the very first jump you make. This can increase your jump speed a little - although not by much and its complicated to learn.
</p>
<p class="Body">
-Another useful thing to know about movement is that if you run and jump, you can release the forward key and instead press the left or right key, and turn your mouse in the same direction. Doing so will turn or 'bend' your jump in this direction. This is a useful trick to get around corners, to become less predictable, and also to avoid having to stop jumping to change direction.
+Another useful thing to know about movement is that if you are flying/jumping, you can release the forward key and instead press the left or right key, and turn your mouse in the same direction. Doing so will turn or 'bend' your jump in this direction. This is a useful trick to get around corners, to become less predictable, and also to avoid having to stop jumping to change direction. After getting used to this you can get around maps very fast and maintain a high speed.
</p>
<p class="Body">
Both the speed jumping and the turning require a certain amount of practice, but they are easy to learn - especially compared to the trick jumping found in games like Quake 3 CPMA or Enemy Territory. However, there is another trick in Nexuiz that does not need any practice at all: the ramp jump. Just walk up a ramp or slope, and jump. That jump will get you higher and further than if you had jumped on flat ground. You can reach some interesting spots by doing this, and ramp jumps can be effectively combined with speed jumping to achieve some remarkable acrobatics which can be very useful for taking shortcuts and thus dominating a map effectively. It takes some time to learn the good spots were these four tricks can be used to the maximum effectiveness - again, experiment yourself, watch others, and ask around in-game or on the Nexuiz forums (<a class="link" href="http://www.alientrap.org/forum">http://www.alientrap.org/forum</a>).
Modified: trunk/Docs/htmlfiles/basics.aft
===================================================================
--- trunk/Docs/htmlfiles/basics.aft 2009-02-12 10:48:32 UTC (rev 5857)
+++ trunk/Docs/htmlfiles/basics.aft 2009-02-12 11:06:06 UTC (rev 5858)
@@ -39,11 +39,11 @@
**''Hitting Your Opponent''
Once you're comfortable with your controls and your mouse, you should already find it easier to hit your opponents. And, if you've bound keys to each of the weapons, you can accurately pick which one to use. But to know which weapon to select, and to get the most out of it, you must understand the advantages and the use of each.
-When you use direct-hit (hitscan) weapons like the nex, you 'just' have to directly aim with the crosshair and hit fire. Obviously this can be much harder than it sounds, particularly when both you and your opponent are moving. Therefore, you should use geometry to your advantage, to reduce the relative movement between you as much as possible, so that you have as much time as possible to aim. When someone is moving from one side of your view to the other it is harder to aim at him than when is moving towards or away from you. In the latter case he will hardly change his position relative to yours, and this gives you more time to aim at him. In the former, his position is changing a lot, and so you have to react to how he moves very quickly and accurately to ensure a good shot. The same principle applies when your opponent uses a jump pad. He will prescribe a trajectory in the air, and at its highest point he will stop for a moment. It is easier to aim at him at this point than when he is accelerating off the jump-pad.
+When you use direct-hit (hitscan) weapons like the shotgun, machinegun, campingrifle and the nex, you 'just' have to directly aim with the crosshair and hit fire. Obviously this can be much harder than it sounds, particularly when both you and your opponent are moving. Therefore, you should use geometry to your advantage, to reduce the relative movement between you as much as possible, so that you have as much time as possible to aim. When someone is moving from one side of your view to the other it is harder to aim at him than when is moving towards or away from you. In the latter case he will hardly change his position relative to yours, and this gives you more time to aim at him. In the former, his position is changing a lot, and so you have to react to how he moves very quickly and accurately to ensure a good shot. The same principle applies when your opponent uses a jump pad. He will prescribe a trajectory in the air, and at its highest point he will stop for a moment. It is easier to aim at him at this point than when he is accelerating off the jump-pad.
In addition to using geometry to your advantage, when you're moving relative to your opponent it is sometimes easier to ''not'' aim with the mouse, but rather to leave it steady at the right height, and use the strafe buttons to move yourself and thus your cross hair onto him. If you have the advantage of his not seeing you, or being unable to shoot at you, or even if you simply have a health and armor advantage over him, you can even just aim at some point and wait for him to walk into your cross hair. However, always bear in mind that people will generally move unpredictably so as to lessen their chances of being hit - so unless you're sure of where he's going, don't sacrifice your own movement advantage for a hit that might never come.
-Using projectile weapons such as the shotgun, machine gun, mortar, or rocket launcher can be both easier and harder than using hitscan weapons. You must still consider the same geometric factors, but you also have to keep in mind that your projectile will take some time to travel the distance between you and your opponent. In that time they will continue moving! So it's absolutely no use to aim directly at them. It will take some experience with each weapon, and with getting used to how people move, but you should eventually develop a good instinct for where your opponent will be at the time when your projectile will land (and where the projectile itself will land), and thus be able to 'lead' him when you aim. If your target moves to the right, aim further to the right and press fire. Also consider that almost all projectiles will explode when they hit something hard, and that explosion will also cause damage to players nearby (splash damage). Now thats the part that makes projectile weapons easier to use. You can use splash damage to your advantage, so that rather than trying to predict the exact spot at which to aim your projectile (which is very difficult), you can aim at the general area of floor or wall where you expect your opponent to be and let the splash damage do its work. Along these lines, you'll find that it's much easier to aim at his feet and use the splash damage from the explosion on the floor than it is to hit him directly.
+Using projectile weapons such as the mortar, electro, hagar or rocket launcher can be both easier and harder than using hitscan weapons. You must still consider the same geometric factors, but you also have to keep in mind that your projectile will take some time to travel the distance between you and your opponent. In that time they will continue moving! So it's absolutely no use to aim directly at them. It will take some experience with each weapon, and with getting used to how people move, but you should eventually develop a good instinct for where your opponent will be at the time when your projectile will land (and where the projectile itself will land), and thus be able to 'lead' him when you aim. If your target moves to the right, aim further to the right and press fire. Just note how off your hit was and try to adjust next time. It takes a few matches to get the hang of this. Also consider that almost all projectiles will explode when they hit something hard, and those explosions will also cause damage to players nearby (splash damage). Now thats the part that makes projectile weapons easier to use. You can use splash damage to your advantage, so that rather than trying to predict the exact spot at which to aim your projectile (which is very difficult), you can aim at the general area of floor or wall where you expect your opponent to be and let the splash damage do its work. Along these lines, you'll find that it's much easier to aim at his feet and use the splash damage from the explosion on the floor than it is to hit him directly.
Also bear in mind that people try to evade projectiles; and it is even comparatively easy to do this at distance. If you fire to their left they will see it coming, and change direction to the right. You can use this to your advantage by boxing them in with explosions - just fire another one to their right. If you correctly place both projectiles, they will be unable to evade the splash damage from one of them. Either they will avoid the first and be hit by the second, or they will backtrack to avoid the second and be hit by the first. Or, even better, they'll not see the first one at all and be hit directly.
@@ -57,17 +57,17 @@
**''Using Weapons Effectively''
Among the items you can pick up are the weapons. Some of them are very unique to Nexuiz, and to get the most out of them you need to be familiar with every aspect of how they work - including the rate of fire, the damage per hit, the spread and speed of the payload, and so on.
-Almost all weapons in Nexuiz have two firing modes, so make sure you know both. You normally (depending on game-mode) start equipped with two weapons: the laser and the shotgun. You can bind these weapons to a key at the ''settings/input'' menu or in the console using the command ''bind key "impulse _n_"'', where n is the number of the weapon, below.
+Almost all weapons in Nexuiz have two firing modes, so make sure you know both. You normally (depending on game-mode) start equipped with two weapons: the laser and the shotgun. You can bind these weapons to a key at the ''settings/input'' menu or in the console using the command ''bind key "impulse _n_"'', where n is the number of the weapon.
- *The laser is not often used as a weapon, as it does not do much damage - but it's a useful tool to move around the map, because it has a significant push. The 'explosion' from its projectile will push you and other players around a lot. The trick to using it to move around is to use this push to gain speed or to do huge jumps. For an easy start, take the laser, look down at the floor, and press fire. It will push you high into the air. If you press jump and fire at the same time, you will get even higher - but it depends on the timing, and, for more advanced jumps, also on the angle you fire at the floor, as well as how fast and in which direction you move. Play around with it, and watch others, and you will learn a very useful skill in Nexuiz. The secondary fire mode of the laser switches back to the last used weapon. The laser does not use up any ammo.
+ *The laser is not often used as a weapon, as it does not do much damage - but it's a useful tool to move around the map, because it has a significant push. The 'explosion' from its projectile will push you and other players around a lot. The trick to using it to move around is to use this push to gain speed or to do huge jumps. For an easy start, take the laser, look down at the floor, and press fire. It will push you high into the air. If you press jump and fire at the same time, you will get even higher - but it depends on the timing, and, for more advanced jumps, also on the angle you fire at the floor, as well as how fast and in which direction you move. For example if you just run forwards, look down and press fire it will catapult you forward with great speed. Play around with it, and watch others, and you will learn a very useful skill in Nexuiz. The secondary fire mode of the laser switches back to the last used weapon. The laser does not use up any ammo.
- *The grappling hook is an other movement tool. The primary mode attaches itself to all sorts of solid objects and will pull you there to move through the map like spider man. You can get very fast that way or reach spots you would not get to by other means. The secondary firemode drops a small gravity bomb that will affect enemy players and also releases a lot of smoke which will make you harder to see and hit. The gravity bomb uses cell ammo.
+ *The grappling hook is an other movement tool. The primary mode attaches itself to all sorts of solid objects and will pull you there to move through the map like spider man. You can get very fast that way or reach spots you would not get to by other means. The secondary firemode drops a small gravity bomb that will affect enemy players and also releases a lot of smoke which will make you harder to see and hit. The gravity bomb uses cell ammo. There is also a mutator that adds a off-hand hook which can be used all the time, uses no ammo but only does the pulling part.
- *The port-o-launch is the perfection of movement. The grenade it launches creates two portals. On first impact it creates the entrace portal, on secondary impact the exit portal. If you enter the first one you (or others and also projectiles!!) will be teleported to the secondary portal. As the first portal will teleport everything it can't be hit but the second portal is quite fragile and thanks to the used wormhole technology will take the other portal along if it lost too much energy. The wormhole is also the reason why the portals energy decays after some time. You can replenish the energy by simply teleporting something thru it.
+ *The port-o-launch is the perfection of movement. The grenade it launches creates two portals. On first impact it creates the entrace portal, on secondary impact the exit portal. If you enter the first one you (or others players and also projectiles!!) will be teleported to the secondary portal. As the first portal will teleport everything it can't be hit but the second portal is quite fragile and thanks to the used wormhole technology will take the other portal along if it lost too much energy. The wormhole is also the reason why the portals energy decays after some time. You can replenish the energy by simply teleporting something thru it.
- *The shotgun is very similar to that of other games. It shoots several ballistic bullets with a high spread, so it does very high damage at close range, but becomes very inaccurate at distance. It is also very useful to knock opponents out after you already hit them hard with a rocket or other projectile, and subsequently closed to a distance where these are no longer as useful, because it's hard to miss with at close range. The primary fire mode fires once with a short reload, while the secondary fire mode shoots three very quick shots, but with a long reload afterwards. The secondary firemode also has a higher spread so the primary is useful for a longer distance then the secondary firemode. The shotgun uses pellet ammo which is not shared with any other weapons.
+ *The shotgun is very similar to that of other games. It shoots several bullets with a high spread, so it does very high damage at close range, but becomes very inaccurate at distance. It is also very useful to knock opponents out after you already hit them hard with a rocket or other projectile, and subsequently closed to a distance because it's hard to miss with the shotgun at close range. The primary fire mode fires once with a short reload, while the secondary fire mode shoots three very quick shots, but with a long reload afterwards. The secondary firemode also has a higher spread so the primary is useful for a longer distance then the secondary firemode. The shotgun uses pellet ammo which is not shared with any other weapons.
- *The machinegun is also quite self-explanatory. It shoots ballistic bullets at a high rate of fire, and can do significant damage. The primary fire mode has a high spread and is thus quite inaccurate - but it fires very fast and deals more damage per second than most other weapons. It is therefore devastating when used at close quarters. One of the machinegun's unique features is that the first bullet after pressing fire does more damage than the rest - keep this in mind when using it. The secondary fire mode is much slower, but more accurate, and does even more damage per bullet, its the same as the primary modes ''first'' bullets. It is therefore very useful as an improvised sniper weapon for mid range kills. Like the shotgun, it is an excellent finishing weapon, but its effective use relies heavily on a good, steady aim. The machinegun uses bullet ammo just as the camping rifle.
+ *The machinegun is also quite self-explanatory. It shoots bullets at a high rate of fire, and can do significant damage. The primary fire mode has a high spread and is thus quite inaccurate - but it fires very fast and deals more damage per second than most other weapons. It is therefore devastating when used at close quarters. One of the machinegun's unique features is that the first bullet after pressing fire have less spread and does more damage than the rest - keep this in mind when using it. The secondary fire mode is much slower, but its the same as the primary modes ''first'' bullets. This firemode is therefore very useful as an improvised sniper weapon for mid range kills. Like the shotgun, it is an excellent finishing weapon, but its effective use relies heavily on a good, steady aim. The machinegun uses bullet ammo just as the camping rifle.
*The HLAC (heavy laser assault cannon) is a similar gun but fires highly accelerated laser bolts at an insane refire rate. The bolds explode on impact and for some extra damage the secondary mode fires several of them at once. This is only gun that has reduced spread when crouching! Beware of your cell ammo (shared with electro, crylink and (minsta)nex), this baby eats it like crazy.
@@ -75,31 +75,31 @@
*The electro is a rather underestimated gun. Contrary to its name, it does not deal electricity damage, but rather fires plasma - understanding this will help you to use it well. The primary fire mode shoots a plasma projectile which does quite high damage on impact. It also explodes rather like a rocket or grenade, and is quite comparable in use to the Quake 2 rocket launcher. The secondary fire mode spits out balls of contained plasma that will bounce like grenades, and deal similarly high damage. Those blobs have a short trajectory and so do not get very far - but they're useful for blocking a way, or for spamming around your opponent so that he is hedged in by them. If you use the primary fire mode to hit these contained plasma blobs, they will explode more violently then without, causing a lot of extra damage. This combo is very effective in corridors and small rooms. The electro uses cell ammo which is shared with the crylink, hlac and the (minsta)nex.
- *The crylink is comparable to the shotgun but shoots slow plasma projectiles; so it's harder to aim but they also do more damage. The primary fire mode shoots several bouncing projectiles at a high rate of fire and narrow spread. Each bouce causes splash damage so try to hit the floor near someone for damage from the splash and the bullets themself. The secondary fire mode has a wider, horizontal spread and lower rate of fire. This mode does not bounce but also does more damage and is sometimes easier to aim. The crylink uses cell ammo which is shared with the electro, HLAC and the (minsta)nex.
+ *The crylink is comparable to the shotgun but shoots slow plasma projectiles; so it's harder to aim but they also do more damage. The primary fire mode shoots several bouncing projectiles at a high rate of fire and narrow spread. Each bounce causes splash damage so try to hit the floor near someone for damage from both the splash and the bullets themself. The secondary fire mode has a wider, horizontal spread and lower rate of fire. This mode does not bounce but does more damage and is sometimes easier to aim. The crylink uses cell ammo which is shared with the electro, HLAC and the (minsta)nex.
*The nex is a powerful sniper weapon. Its primary fire mode fires a hitscan antimatter lance for significant damage, but requires a very precise aim, and has a relatively long reload time. The secondary fire mode activates zoom. The nex uses cell ammo which is shared with the hlac, crylink, minstanex and the electro.
- *The minsta nex is the snipers wet dream. Similar to the nex but MUCH more powerful. One hit, one kill, no kidding! The secondary firemode is identical to the lasers primary shot. Back in the glory days this gun was used solely in Minstagib to train steady aim and fast movement, now this gun can spread fear in every gamemode. Cell ammo is also used by nex, crylink, hlac and electro.
+ *The minsta nex is a snipers wet dream. Similar to the nex but MUCH more powerful. One hit, one kill, no kidding! The secondary firemode is identical to the lasers primary shot. Back in the glory days this gun was used solely in Minstagib to train steady aim and fast movement, now this gun can spread fear in every gamemode. Cell ammo is also used by nex, crylink, hlac and electro.
- *The camping rifle is a kind of mixture of a sniper rifle and an assault gun. It fires fast, medium-to-high damage, ballistic projectiles and is fed with bullets ammo. The primary mode feels very much like a standard sniper rifle but is harder to use than the nex due to the projectiles. The secondary mode can be used to empty the whole magazine of bullets in an quick burst. This firemode is less wall piercing and has some spread to it but is deadly at mid-to-close range. The magazine is reloaded automatically if you equip the rifle. Its also the only gun that can do headshots, which cause extra damage. The machinegun uses the same bullet ammo as the camping rifle.
+ *The camping rifle is a kind of mixture of a sniper rifle and an assault gun. The primary mode is quite similar to the nex but fires a bullet. The rate of fire is quite moderate. The secondary mode can be used to empty the whole magazine of bullets in an quick burst. This firemode is less wall piercing and has some spread to it but is deadly at mid-to-close range. The magazine is reloaded automatically if you equip the rifle. Its also the only gun that can do headshots, which cause extra damage so aim with care and this gun can out-perform the nex. The machinegun uses the same bullet ammo as the camping rifle.
*The hagar can be compared to the plasma gun from Quake3. It has a very high rate of fire, with moderate damage, and some splash damage. The primary fire mode shoots small projectile missiles at high speed and an extraordinary rate of fire. The secondary fire mode shoots the same missiles, but at a slower speed and rate of fire, and without the instant trigger. This means that they will bounce once when hitting a floor or wall, giving you the opportunity to fire around corners, or double your chances to hit someone by spamming an area. The hagar uses rocket ammo which is shared with the mortar, TAG and the rocket launcher.
*The rocket launcher is a little different from that of other games, in that the rockets move relatively slowly. The primary fire mode shoots a slow-moving, high-damage rocket projectile at a medium rate of fire. The secondary fire mode will explode all your flying rockets at once. This means that you don't need to hit your opponent directly - just get the rocket ''near'' him, and use the secondary fire to cause splash damage which will badly hurt him. The rocket launcher uses rocket ammo which is shared with the mortar, TAG and the hagar.
- *The T.A.G. seeker is a unique weapon system. The primary fire mode launcher a small tagging device. ''If'' it hits someone it will automatically release several target seeking rockets that will follow the tagged target for quite a while. Its fun watching them run! The secondary firemode launches small rockets that explode after a few meters and thus create a sort of explosion shield that will severely damage everyone in its radius and also stops incoming tag-rockets. Rocket ammo is shared with the mortar, hagar and rocketlauncher.
+ *The T.A.G. seeker is a unique weapon system. The primary fire mode launches a small tagging device. ''If'' it hits someone it will automatically release several target seeking rockets that will follow the tagged target for quite a while. Its fun watching them run! The secondary firemode launches small rockets that explode after a few meters and thus create a sort of explosion shield that will severely damage everyone in its radius and also stops incoming (tag-)rockets. Rocket ammo is shared with the mortar, hagar and rocketlauncher.
-Now that you know all the guns you also have to understand that in Nexuiz each projectile can be set off by explosions. So its possible to blow up the rocket an opponent is shooting at you. A good strategy against someone with a rocketlauncher is to spam him with the hagar. Chances are high you make his own rocket explode shortly after he launched it and hurt him which his own weapons! This is also the primary way to make sure the T.A.G. seekers rockets do not hit you! Make them explode before they hit you by setting them off.
+Now that you know all the guns you also have to understand that in Nexuiz each projectile can be set off by explosions. So its possible to blow up the rocket an opponent is shooting at you. A good strategy against someone with a rocketlauncher is to spam him with the hagar. Chances are high you make his own rocket explode shortly after he launched it and hurt him which his own weapon! This is also the primary way to make sure the T.A.G. seekers rockets do not hit you! Make them explode before they hit you by setting them off.
Also note that some objects are affected / pushed by explosion like the keys in Keyhunt or the flags in Capture the Flag.
-A special feature in Nexuiz is that walls do not block explosions, so you can't hide behind them. Similarly, if you know that someone is on the floor above you, shoot at the ceiling, and with a little luck the explosion might hurt him. This ''can'' be changed by a server admin, but the default allows for more fun; and it's also nice to see how good people are at guessing where their opponents are. Furthermore the ballistic bullets are affected by gravity much like real bullets and can also pierce walls and enemies like real bullets. That enables you to hit several enemies or enemies behind walls/floors up to a certain thickness.
+A special feature in Nexuiz is that walls do not block explosions, so you can't hide behind them. Similarly, if you know that someone is on the floor above you, shoot at the ceiling, and with a little luck the explosion might hurt him. This ''can'' be changed by a server admin, but the default allows for more fun; and it's also nice to see how good people are at guessing where their opponents are. Furthermore bullets are ballistic, which means they are affected by gravity much like real bullets and can also pierce walls and enemies like real bullets. That enables you to hit several enemies or enemies behind walls/floors up to a certain thickness.
**''Using Jumping Effectively''
You will need to be able to get around the map quickly and efficiently if you are to hunt down your opponents, and collect items well. As already mentioned, the laser is useful for jumping and gaining speed - but you can use all explosive weapons for a similar effect. Other weapons, however, will cause (much) more damage to your health, and not all offer the same strong push as the laser. The rocket launcher will push you twice as far, but you will also take ''lots'' more damage. The mortar has the same push as the laser, but its explosion is bigger so the timing and the right angle are less of an issue. For this reason, the mortar is better for a beginner to learn these sorts of jumps.
-You should also know that you gain a bit extra speed moving forward simply by jumping. When you walk, there is friction from the floor which keeps you at a constant speed. If you jump as you walk, the amount you touch the floor is considerably less, and so the friction does not slow you down as much. The longer you jump, the faster you go. The most simple way to do this is to run forward, jump, and then while you are in the air release and repress/hold the jump button. Your character will jump again the moment you land, without you having to worry about timing hitting the jump key. Just repeat it a few times and you will notice you get faster and faster. Unlike other games, Nexuiz does not need you to do this with strange key combinations or even with circular movements of the mouse - trying to do these will generally make you slower. The only time that strafe-jumping (holding one of the strafe-keys while jumping) is useful is for the very first jump you make. This can increase your jump speed a little - although not by much.
+You should also know that you gain a bit extra speed moving forward simply by jumping. When you walk, there is friction from the floor which keeps you at a constant speed. If you jump as you walk, the amount of time you touch the floor is considerably less, and so the friction does not slow you down as much. The longer or rather more often you jump, the faster you go. The most simple way to do this is to run forward, jump, and then while you are in the air release and repress/hold the jump button. Your character will jump again the moment he lands, without you having to worry about timing hitting the jump key. Just repeat it a few times and you will notice you get faster and faster. Unlike other games, Nexuiz does not need you to do this with strange key combinations or even with circular movements of the mouse - trying to do these will generally make you slower. The only time that strafe-jumping (holding one of the strafe-keys while jumping) is useful is for the very first jump you make. This can increase your jump speed a little - although not by much and its complicated to learn.
-Another useful thing to know about movement is that if you run and jump, you can release the forward key and instead press the left or right key, and turn your mouse in the same direction. Doing so will turn or 'bend' your jump in this direction. This is a useful trick to get around corners, to become less predictable, and also to avoid having to stop jumping to change direction.
+Another useful thing to know about movement is that if you are flying/jumping, you can release the forward key and instead press the left or right key, and turn your mouse in the same direction. Doing so will turn or 'bend' your jump in this direction. This is a useful trick to get around corners, to become less predictable, and also to avoid having to stop jumping to change direction. After getting used to this you can get around maps very fast and maintain a high speed.
Both the speed jumping and the turning require a certain amount of practice, but they are easy to learn - especially compared to the trick jumping found in games like Quake 3 CPMA or Enemy Territory. However, there is another trick in Nexuiz that does not need any practice at all: the ramp jump. Just walk up a ramp or slope, and jump. That jump will get you higher and further than if you had jumped on flat ground. You can reach some interesting spots by doing this, and ramp jumps can be effectively combined with speed jumping to achieve some remarkable acrobatics which can be very useful for taking shortcuts and thus dominating a map effectively. It takes some time to learn the good spots were these four tricks can be used to the maximum effectiveness - again, experiment yourself, watch others, and ask around in-game or on the Nexuiz forums (http://www.alientrap.org/forum).
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