What is skill on quake2, what is lack of it, and why must we always fall down the same hole? Well, I don't like to think of it as skill, I more prefer the terminology style. Now I know what some of those reading might be thinking, and for the bulk of you, it will be this bogus line "If only I had a connection like that, I would be amazing too!" A nice thought for you, but I am afraid it is just not true. Connections bad to the point of locking up your computer I can understand, but if your connection lets you move, you do NOT, I repeat, do NOT have a valid excuse. One might ask, "If it is not the ping, then what is it?" It is the technique and style you use to play.
ICanWin "But Deadzergling, how am I supposed to use a good style if I am lagged 2 or 3 seconds behind, it makes me take 2 or 3 seconds to fire every time!" DeadZergling "You use good style 2 or 3 seconds ahead of time, you compensate for it. If you cannot do that, you need to learn how to."
I will stop with the short stories for the time being, the focus of this is for me to go over what I know about playing these games, hopefully some of it you will pick up on. I will begin with my first # basic rules to learn.
Rule One, Always move. Its quite self explanatory, and so so many people have trouble doing this. Move immediately after spawning or teleporting, move while on the elevator, I don't care if you are waiting for armor to spawn, you should be doing laps in the little armor area. I don't care if you are never able to aim again, you should be moving, always. ICanWin "But Sir, what if I am in a lava filled area with very little space" DeadZergling "Don't BUT me private, I expect you to jump around, crouch, and if you fall in, you will continue moving until you burn to death!" ICanWin "Bu,.(grumbles to himself)... UMMM sir what if I can't even move an inch and I'm trapped." DeadZergling "Talking about my BUMMM now private? You are lucky we don't use personal thoughts in here, or I would have you give me ten planned drownings right now. If you are in that tight of spot, I expect you to twist around in circles, jump, crouch, hoot or something, but you WILL move." There will come a time when there may NOT be a need to move, but at this point in time, it is best that you always move. Now onto Rule Two.
Rule Two, Know the map. What does this mean? Well, it means you should know all the secrets, tricks to the map, and of course, where all health, armor, powerups, and weapons are located without thinking about it. You should be able to tell where you are going to end up merely by heading in that direction without even seeing it yet. ICanWin "Sir, what if it is an all new map I don't know anything about?" DeadZergling "Well private, if you had BEEN listening, this wouldn't even be an issue, you will move around the whole map and explore it, and learn it quickly that way. It shouldn't be so hard if you are true to Rule One, they don't make maps very big normally." ICanWin "Uh Sir, what if I am completely lost and confused in the map?" DeadZergling "I see that I must explain EVERYTHING JUST FOR YOU PRIVATE. EVERYONE ELSE HAS FIGURED IT OUT BUT YOU, DO YOU KNOW THAT PRIVATE!!!???" Deadzergling calmly looks at the ground and then looks back up at the now frightened private, "No map is so bad that none of it is feasible in your mind, find one spot you can identify, be familiar with, and learn what surrounds it. If this does not work, I will be happy to send you to the fourth floor of the Military Hospital, the Psychiatric Ward."
Rule Three, Know Your Controls. ICanWin "Oh sir, I got this one, up is forward, down is backward, left is turn left, right is turn right, ctrl is fire, space is jump, and c is duck!" DeadZergling "Are you finished? Didn't forget anything?" ICanWin "Umm, NO SIR!" DeadZergling "What about strafing?" ICanWin "Umm, Whats that?" DeadZergling "That would be walking sideways private." ICanWin "Oh yeah, I knew that. Strafe left is umm [ and strafe right is errr....], they are hard to reach though so I never use them. Kind of useless though, nobody needs them." Deadzergling "Is that a fact?" ICanWin "YES SIR!"
*DeadZergling throws a rocket launcher and ten rockets by ICanWin's feet. Deadzergling yells in a steady tone "Try and shoot me private, you get nine tries!" ICanWin fires a few shots straight at DeadZergling, straight at where he WAS!. ICanWin curses and fires six more rockets in the same six seconds with no luck. Deadzergling again yells at ICanWin, "You will give me that rocket launcher NOW PRIVATE!." With a mad look on his face, ICanWin throws the rocket launcher at DeadZergling vengefully. DeadZergling points at an open area, telling ICanWin to stand right there facing him.*
DeadZergling "I want you to do your best to dodge this shot private." ICanWin "Yes Sir!"
*DeadZergling throws a body armor at ICanWin. A bit confused, ICanWin puts the armor on, appearing to now be scared as well. Without any hesitation, DeadZergling yells "READY!?" In a faint voice, ICanWin sounds off with an "Umm, yes sir!" DeadZergling smiles and slowly says "Are you nervous private?" ICanWin shakes his head no, now sweating. DeadZergling fires straight at ICanWin's head, the rocket soars right into the side of ICanWin's head, as he tries to turn and move.*
DeadZergling "So tell me private, what do you think went wrong?" ICanWin "You cheated, thats what. There is no way you could move that fast, its no fair, the controls take too long. You must be using a bot program or something sir." DeadZergling "Is that so, you are sure it isn't me KNOWING my controls?" ICanWin "Umm, that could be it."
Yes, knowing your controls is more than knowing what does what, being able to do it quickly is what makes the difference. So how do you know your controls, you practice, you change your controls if necessary, you use what is good for you. Until you can easily jump across a ledge, do a 180, aim upwards, duck, and fire at the same time, you do not know your controls well enough as far as I am concerned. Where can you begin if you need to change your controls though, that is up to you, think of what would work for you, and make sure it could all be done extremely fast. I will give you my control setup if you wish to use it, it as follows:
Q "Use Item", W "Previous Item", E "Drop Item, R "Next Item, T "Messagemode1", U "Messagemode2"(teamplay), A "Strafe Left", S "Fire", D "BackWards", F "Strafe Right", X "Center View", C "Duck", V "Jump, Space "Kill", Right Mouse button "Freelook", Left Mouse Button "Forward", and game settings Freelook Off, Invert mouse on, Lookspring on, Always run On. This setup leaves the keys Z, B, N, M, G, H, J, K, I, ALT, CTRL wide open for other commands for conversions and such, or just text messages if you decide that. You can set it up however you like, but you need to be able to do it all fast, and do not expect to get used to new controls right away, it takes time and practice.
Rule Four, Know your demise. ICanWin "Sir, what kind of rule is that, know how I am going to die! I die enough without knowing about how I am going to." DeadZergling "Well private, if you know how you are going to die, you can learn how to avoid it, and better yet, you can learn how to cause your opponent to die" ICanWin "Uh Sir, I was under the impression me shooting people caused them to die, not knowing how they were going to die" DeadZergling "How they ever died to you is a mystery in itself private," Cough, Cough "Ahem! Now private, being able to know how you are going to possibly die means you know how to possibly avoid it." ICanWin "I don't understand still" DeadZergling "WELL PRIVATE, WE ARE GOING TO UNDERSTAND YOU RIGHT NOW! YOU WILL JUMP IN THAT LAVA NOW!!!!!! ICanWin "It looks hot though"
DeadZergling rolls his eyes, muttering "Blah it", and shoots a rocket at the private to knock him right in, slowly watching him incinerate and die. ICanWin respawns and runs back to DeadZergling, looking quite frightened.
DeadZergling "Well private, do you understand why you should know your own demise yet?" ICanWin "Umm, so you don't get mad and shoot everyone in the lava?" DeadZergling "NO PRIVATE, SO YOU CAN AVOID IT AND COUNTER ATTACK EFFECTIVELY" ICanWin "Oh yeah, so I can shoot people more!" DeadZergling "I am going to go up a rank on putting up with you private, a medal of patience and not giving into anger." ICanWin "Umm, I am honored sir" DeadZergling "Very good private, now get away from me before I kill you."