watching comp play is helpful. just wish they'd give away their secrets!
"So, like, you 1-shot this lerk, then 2-shot this fade. Just make sure you don't miss while you jetpack around them while they're blinking. Also, you should aim to shoot at least 3 skulks with 1 mag, reloading is a waste of time."
Yes, me too.
thanks dawg... er, cat. I can now do that. top div 1 player.
I know a few players (not many) that do pretty damn well at this game playing at an 800x600 resolution so they can get decent fps. Not ideal, but it does not hold you back as much as people would like you to believe.
it doesn't help that much, but it is noticeable how it does. i went from 800x600 to 1600x something, with a 30 fps bump, shooting things got significantly easier. it's one of those things, you can get used to any set-up, but i certainly enjoy being able to see my res count now, and not being completely f!@#ed by camo.
also, @therius threw down some good advice. playing in pugs means hitting your shots, running in a pack, counting your aliens, calling out and covering your lanes, listening to your comm and playing more conservatively in general. the big difference is, you can depend on comm support, and the aim of your teammates, as well as flanking etc.
playing in pubs means, for me at least, running around killing everything i encounter on harvester missions and reacting to every attack on the map. I also spend incredibly little time entering rooms.
OP needs to ask himself what kind of skills he wants to improve, what experience he's looking for. is he going to pug, or is pubbing good enough?
know when you're the decoy, and embrace that role.
My advice for you - get a monitor with Lightboost or that Eizo 2421 with Turbo 240 strobing backlight. "Sample and hold" mode of most LCDs really throw off human eye movement tracking capabilities.
To benefit from it fully, you must have a computer that is able to push framerate as close to 120FPS as possible. It sounds strange, but that alone improved my play considerably. The movement is clear and fluid, and you don't lose track of your targets in heated close combat.
Download mods that give you an unfair advantage. Thats what most of these "good" players do.
Sorry? Which ones are you eluding to? Crosshairs? Transparent maps? Chud? Now you have dug yourself a hole. Let's see you talk your way out of it. Idiot.
As for improving skill. There's multiple ways. Watch fpv of players, old & new (eg eiss). Take notes on there room entries, positioning, hiding techniques & movement techniques.
Do you know every map inside out? Map sense is a skill very few players actually master.
Do you time? By this I mean timing lifeform popping from rts. How quick aliens & marines are able to move from room to room.
Most importantly is play against better players then yourself, after every engagement analyse how you could of done better or won that engagement. Even if you win the engagement you can do better next time.
Pugs are probably the best way to increase your skill. I've noticed a huge improvement since playing with higher level player. They are a great group of people and will help you with things like teamwork, positioning, and other things. However, don't expect them to go easy on you on your first game. So, be ready for it. You can also spectate if you don't picked for a game and watch how higher level players operate both as a team and in combat.
Sorry? Which ones are you eluding to? Crosshairs? Transparent maps? Chud? Now you have dug yourself a hole. Let's see you talk your way out of it. Idiot.
I Pitty you onosfactory and your outlook on life. A mod in this game mainly the ones I have named which is basically the only ones you can use in majority of the main comp servers are in every competitive game by default config commands eg: (cl_crosshair) or complete changing of your HUD in quake live.
Please don't argue about how these are such game changing mods that make the elite super elite. That argument has already been done to death.
1. Play competitively, and try to get as good as team as possible.
2. Play older shooters like QL and Warsow competitively. Completely underrated trick in the book.
3. Spectate better players and analyze what they are doing
4. Record and analyze your own game
"So, like, you 1-shot this lerk, then 2-shot this fade. Just make sure you don't miss while you jetpack around them while they're blinking. Also, you should aim to shoot at least 3 skulks with 1 mag, reloading is a waste of time."
This is partly a misconception. Great aiming is predicting enemy movement, which can only come with practice. But a lot of skill comes from positioning, movement and tactical intelligence. I have improved my skill (and aim) a lot. I think it is easy to hit a plateau in skill, and most of my gains came when I got to play with players a lot better than myself, mostly by accident, and actually put some focus on what I was doing. But there's no going around it, it will take time and focus. There will be skill ceiling you will probably not go above but it's probably a lot higher than you'd think it is.
Real question if if you are willing to pay the price.
As for gear, 120hz screen and solid FPS is nice. I couldn't aim with my current laptop mouse. I'd say DeathAdder is nice. It hardly matters, but there are shit mice there.
Is there a benefit in using mouse acceleration in NS2?
I know the overall consensus is turn off acceleration but in my old-gamer days like quake 1 & 2 there were guys who kept it on so they could do 180's fast but also have precise aim at low speed.
Are there goon NS2 players who use mouse acceleration?
Mouse accel is never a good idea. Unless you have robot arms and can move the mouse at the same speed every turn. Turning it on makes building muscle memory next to impossible.
Aiming in NS2 is quite different from aiming in other FPS. In counterstrike for instance you're occaisionally required to make fast turns etc but most of the time you're making small adjustments to get the pixel-perfect headshot- mouse accel makes sense for this kind of aiming, I suppose.
NS2 you are sometimes required to make small adjustments when aiming at distance skulks/lerks but there is quite a large proportion of 'tracking shots' where you keep your crosshair on a target as it moves across a wide arc in your vison. Also there are twitch shots with shotgun which are damn near impossible to master with mosue accel, as joshhh mentioned.
Mouse accel is never a good idea. Unless you have robot arms and can move the mouse at the same speed every turn. Turning it on makes building muscle memory next to impossible.
Disagree, in quake accel is awesome. Almost every pro player uses it too, I only know of 2-3 that don't. Muscle memory is as much about speed as it is about distance, so yeah you can build memory for it, but it takes a lot more time.
I guess I should have made my post more specific. It was more of a general tip to help players trying to improve their tracking. Quake, which I also used to play and did use mouse accel, is almost entirely twitch aim with a few exceptions (ie chain/lightning). Accel works fine there if you stick with the same mouse and dedicate a lot of time to getting used to the accel.
For new players, it is a lot easier to improve your aim with accel off. If you are a seasoned fps player, my post isn't directed at you.
Is there a benefit in using mouse acceleration in NS2?
I know the overall consensus is turn off acceleration but in my old-gamer days like quake 1 & 2 there were guys who kept it on so they could do 180's fast but also have precise aim at low speed.
Are there goon NS2 players who use mouse acceleration?
Some of the best NS1 players aimwise used maccell. The problem is that it is good only if you play really actively. If you take a week off you already forgot the feeling completely and it takes time to recover where you left off. If you don't use any maccell this takes considerably shorter time.
In NS1/2 there are quite variety of differently moving lifeforms so without maccell it might be really hard to find one silver bullet mouse settings for every situation so if you play really actively and feel like you're hitting a wall at aiming I see no reason not to try it out.
I used to play Q3 games, ns1 and starcraft 2 with mouse accel on. Turned it off for NS2 and it's fine once you get used to it, not much difference other than it's easier to run out of mousemat..
I get 1.5 turns of movement from left to right which sometimes hampers me and I wouldn't get this with acceleration on.
@OP
It sounds like the wall you have hit is the movement one. Practice untill it becomes second nature. Since you are still 'hitting walls', I suggest opening up ns2_summit or whatever and just walljumping around with cheats 1/debugspeed. Explore the movement and build your understanding of the air control and walljump routes.
Put it into practice and after a while doors will open as you start getting an intuitive understanding for how things flow. I.e. positioning, map awareness, prediction, and counting in your head specific timings about when other people will likely be where. Spectacting good players helps with that internalization process.
As Jiriki pointed out, aim is 99% predicting movement. Mastering movement before aim really cannot be stated enough. Quake and warsow is good for this as you build your ability to quickly adapt to new movement paradigms.
The game sense and teamwork aspect builds with time as long as you're actively thinking about it and using the c map, so i wouldn't really worry about that. First be confident with the movement so your mind is free to actually think about the strategic game. Just don't play pub all the time (like me), if you want to keep map sharpness.
Also, pugs will only get you so far. If you're serious about improving, join/make a team of likeminded individuals and scrim better teams on a regular basis.
I Pitty you onosfactory and your outlook on life. A mod in this game mainly the ones I have named which is basically the only ones you can use in majority of the main comp servers are in every competitive game by default config commands eg: (cl_crosshair) or complete changing of your HUD in quake live.
Please don't argue about how these are such game changing mods that make the elite super elite. That argument has already been done to death.
Maybe his comment was not very clever, making him look kinda stupid, but at least he was not acting like a butt orifice besides that.
You might have forgot that the majority of servers still allow textures cheats, and sometimes even on some servers that get recommended by the community.
Thank you again for so many respones in this thread. I have started to play 1-2 gathers every day and I am thinking about creating a competitive team in the lowest division.
I often do mistakes which could have been avoided but since I start to notice them, I believe there is room for improvement. Any time I perform a little bit better, I am really happy to have done so. It is the thing which keeps me playing games like Ns2 and I have started to love to play lerk even though I have just died because of 3 mines in Atrium.
[Well now I know that I should check the ceiling as well .... Blue!!]
Again thank you very much for all the feedback I have recieved here.
My favorite place for mines is the ceiling in the hallway of nanogrid if marines pushed out aliens early-mid game. Killed so many lerks there I've lost count.
escape vents. we won't talk about over helpful comma and getting bonewalled in with a marine with an axe either. it happens to the best of them, then it happens to the rest of us.
As someone who just upgraded my computer. Let me say I went from barely getting even scores(even with 800+ hrs played and being a ns1 veteran). To only getting high k:d ratios.
So saying computer specs doesn't matter is a load of bull.
And for the record. Yes I know k:d ratio doesn't mean anything, but winning every engagement does
I've been trying out high ping training recently. Join servers in regions far away (except argentina, it seems where there was a particularly rude admin). It is very hard: if you miss a bite or swipe or shotgun shot, you're dead. And often you're dead anyway just because you see things too late. It puts pressure on positioning and aim which I've found very helpful.
The downside is that you do warp a bit, which people don't like for obvious reasons, but you are the one at the major disadvantage anyway.
I've been trying out high ping training recently. Join servers in regions far away (except argentina, it seems where there was a particularly rude admin). It is very hard: if you miss a bite or swipe or shotgun shot, you're dead. And often you're dead anyway just because you see things too late. It puts pressure on positioning and aim which I've found very helpful.
The downside is that you do warp a bit, which people don't like for obvious reasons, but you are the one at the major disadvantage anyway.
Played on exclusively 230 ping on US servers for the asc lineup in the WC for weeks. If you're missing bullets, aren't positioned with a great sight line, don't get your life form out before you've even taken damage. You're dead.
I still wouldn't recommend it for getting good though. High ping is practically a different game. You have to play it differently, not necessarily the most optimal if your ping was low. Especially for shotguns and fades.
Best way to get good is to play against players better than yourself. Doing this in public at the moment is pretty much impossible. If you know which limb to use for your mouse you're probably better than everyone else on the server.
I've been trying out high ping training recently. Join servers in regions far away (except argentina, it seems where there was a particularly rude admin). It is very hard: if you miss a bite or swipe or shotgun shot, you're dead. And often you're dead anyway just because you see things too late. It puts pressure on positioning and aim which I've found very helpful.
The downside is that you do warp a bit, which people don't like for obvious reasons, but you are the one at the major disadvantage anyway.
I played w.o a mic or sound for three months. now that's training
Comments
thanks dawg... er, cat. I can now do that. top div 1 player.
it doesn't help that much, but it is noticeable how it does. i went from 800x600 to 1600x something, with a 30 fps bump, shooting things got significantly easier. it's one of those things, you can get used to any set-up, but i certainly enjoy being able to see my res count now, and not being completely f!@#ed by camo.
also, @therius threw down some good advice. playing in pugs means hitting your shots, running in a pack, counting your aliens, calling out and covering your lanes, listening to your comm and playing more conservatively in general. the big difference is, you can depend on comm support, and the aim of your teammates, as well as flanking etc.
playing in pubs means, for me at least, running around killing everything i encounter on harvester missions and reacting to every attack on the map. I also spend incredibly little time entering rooms.
OP needs to ask himself what kind of skills he wants to improve, what experience he's looking for. is he going to pug, or is pubbing good enough?
http://www.blurbusters.com/faq/oled-motion-blur/
To benefit from it fully, you must have a computer that is able to push framerate as close to 120FPS as possible. It sounds strange, but that alone improved my play considerably. The movement is clear and fluid, and you don't lose track of your targets in heated close combat.
Sorry? Which ones are you eluding to? Crosshairs? Transparent maps? Chud? Now you have dug yourself a hole. Let's see you talk your way out of it. Idiot.
Do you know every map inside out? Map sense is a skill very few players actually master.
Do you time? By this I mean timing lifeform popping from rts. How quick aliens & marines are able to move from room to room.
Most importantly is play against better players then yourself, after every engagement analyse how you could of done better or won that engagement. Even if you win the engagement you can do better next time.
Couldn't have said better.
Please don't argue about how these are such game changing mods that make the elite super elite. That argument has already been done to death.
The correct settings in the options menu can have a bigger impact than any recognized mod I've ever seen.
2. Play older shooters like QL and Warsow competitively. Completely underrated trick in the book.
3. Spectate better players and analyze what they are doing
4. Record and analyze your own game
This is partly a misconception. Great aiming is predicting enemy movement, which can only come with practice. But a lot of skill comes from positioning, movement and tactical intelligence. I have improved my skill (and aim) a lot. I think it is easy to hit a plateau in skill, and most of my gains came when I got to play with players a lot better than myself, mostly by accident, and actually put some focus on what I was doing. But there's no going around it, it will take time and focus. There will be skill ceiling you will probably not go above but it's probably a lot higher than you'd think it is.
Real question if if you are willing to pay the price.
As for gear, 120hz screen and solid FPS is nice. I couldn't aim with my current laptop mouse. I'd say DeathAdder is nice. It hardly matters, but there are shit mice there.
I know the overall consensus is turn off acceleration but in my old-gamer days like quake 1 & 2 there were guys who kept it on so they could do 180's fast but also have precise aim at low speed.
Are there goon NS2 players who use mouse acceleration?
NS2 you are sometimes required to make small adjustments when aiming at distance skulks/lerks but there is quite a large proportion of 'tracking shots' where you keep your crosshair on a target as it moves across a wide arc in your vison. Also there are twitch shots with shotgun which are damn near impossible to master with mosue accel, as joshhh mentioned.
For new players, it is a lot easier to improve your aim with accel off. If you are a seasoned fps player, my post isn't directed at you.
Some of the best NS1 players aimwise used maccell. The problem is that it is good only if you play really actively. If you take a week off you already forgot the feeling completely and it takes time to recover where you left off. If you don't use any maccell this takes considerably shorter time.
In NS1/2 there are quite variety of differently moving lifeforms so without maccell it might be really hard to find one silver bullet mouse settings for every situation so if you play really actively and feel like you're hitting a wall at aiming I see no reason not to try it out.
I get 1.5 turns of movement from left to right which sometimes hampers me and I wouldn't get this with acceleration on.
It sounds like the wall you have hit is the movement one. Practice untill it becomes second nature. Since you are still 'hitting walls', I suggest opening up ns2_summit or whatever and just walljumping around with cheats 1/debugspeed. Explore the movement and build your understanding of the air control and walljump routes.
Put it into practice and after a while doors will open as you start getting an intuitive understanding for how things flow. I.e. positioning, map awareness, prediction, and counting in your head specific timings about when other people will likely be where. Spectacting good players helps with that internalization process.
As Jiriki pointed out, aim is 99% predicting movement. Mastering movement before aim really cannot be stated enough. Quake and warsow is good for this as you build your ability to quickly adapt to new movement paradigms.
The game sense and teamwork aspect builds with time as long as you're actively thinking about it and using the c map, so i wouldn't really worry about that. First be confident with the movement so your mind is free to actually think about the strategic game. Just don't play pub all the time (like me), if you want to keep map sharpness.
Also, pugs will only get you so far. If you're serious about improving, join/make a team of likeminded individuals and scrim better teams on a regular basis.
You might have forgot that the majority of servers still allow textures cheats, and sometimes even on some servers that get recommended by the community.
Seriously...
I often do mistakes which could have been avoided but since I start to notice them, I believe there is room for improvement. Any time I perform a little bit better, I am really happy to have done so. It is the thing which keeps me playing games like Ns2 and I have started to love to play lerk even though I have just died because of 3 mines in Atrium.
[Well now I know that I should check the ceiling as well .... Blue!!]
Again thank you very much for all the feedback I have recieved here.
My favorite place for mines is the ceiling in the hallway of nanogrid if marines pushed out aliens early-mid game. Killed so many lerks there I've lost count.
So saying computer specs doesn't matter is a load of bull.
And for the record. Yes I know k:d ratio doesn't mean anything, but winning every engagement does
The downside is that you do warp a bit, which people don't like for obvious reasons, but you are the one at the major disadvantage anyway.
Played on exclusively 230 ping on US servers for the asc lineup in the WC for weeks. If you're missing bullets, aren't positioned with a great sight line, don't get your life form out before you've even taken damage. You're dead.
I still wouldn't recommend it for getting good though. High ping is practically a different game. You have to play it differently, not necessarily the most optimal if your ping was low. Especially for shotguns and fades.
Best way to get good is to play against players better than yourself. Doing this in public at the moment is pretty much impossible. If you know which limb to use for your mouse you're probably better than everyone else on the server.
I played w.o a mic or sound for three months. now that's training