Infantryman’s Guide To The Jetpack
Ratfire
Join Date: 2003-03-31 Member: 15091Members
Join Date: 2003-03-31 Member: 15091Members
<div class="IPBDescription">The 9 credit wonder</div> This first part of the guide goes over both the basics of using a Jetpack, and some of the more advanced usage tactics that are availible. The second is all about engaging Khaara while using a jetpack.
<i>Jetpacks</i>
Jetpacks are researched through the prototype lab, and can only be dropped in the vicinity of the lab. It takes a full 167 credits (IP, armory, arms lab, prototype lab, JP research) so don’t be asking for one within the first four or five minutes of the game.
Once the commander has researched and dropped jetpacks (9 credits each) and you pick one up, you are restricted to JP use (I.E. cannot use heavy armor) until you die. Unlike weapons, when you are killed, the jetpack does not drop to the ground for others to pick up, so every jetpacking marine killed is worth at least 9 credits. When moving, the JP makes a distinct “fire” noise, and leaves a short trail of blue flame behind you. While not a major drawback, it is something to keep in consideration.
<i>Basics</i>
You activate your JP using your jump key. While using a JP, you will have a white energy bar in the lower right hand corner of your HUD. This bar indicates the amount of energy you have left in your jetpack, and although it regenerates fairly quickly, if the jump button is held down, the energy will drain away. That means the best way to use the jetpack is in bursts. TAP (1sec or less) the jump button to get a quick jump burst, PRESS (1-3sec) the jump button periodically to fly down a hallway, or HOLD the jump button to accelerate across a ceiling or through a vent. To take off, you have to employ a tap-tap or tap-press tactic. This means you tap the jump button once for elevation, then right after you peak your jump, you tap/press the jump key again while walking forward, to gain forward motion. Once you are in the air, you continue to burst your JP with tap’s or press’s, depending on the environment, in order to move about the level. This is the basic tool for using a jetpack.
<i>Turning</i>
In order to turn in the air, you need to use your strafe keys along with your mouse. The strafe keys apply directional force, and the mouse applies the directional control. For example, to turn left around a corner you would hold down the right strafe key, and pull your mouse to the left side of your mousepad, then once you've turned the corner, you would press forward and the left strafe key to finish the turn. The vector of the turn is determined by how far you move the mouse, although there is a limit to the turning radius while in the air. If all else fails, and you just can't get the hang of this, you can always land for a second, turn, and then run forward and take off in the direction you want to go.
<i>Landing</i>
Especially if you are high up, you have to be very careful when landing with a jetpack. This tends to be a soft point for many people, and it would not be surprising if at least 25% of all JP fatalities occurred in landing accidents. If you are moving very quickly forward, and are landing at a slight drop, you have to make sure to try and decelerate yourself, or you may end up taking more than normal falling damage. These cases usually aren’t fatal unless you already have low hitpoints. The fatal cases occur when Frontiersman gain altitude with the jetpacks and then fail to land correctly. When you are high in the air with a JP, be sure to always watch your energy. You should almost always be bursting to get up high, never hold down your jump button for too long. When coming down to land, don’t drop at a “safe” looking distance, always tap yourself down. Fatal falls can occur from seemingly harmless drops with the JP.
If you find yourself falling, meaning you have already gained downward acceleration without any jetpacking, you will need to tap-press your jetpack to slow your decent. Whether it’s a bug or just a feature, if you are falling and you hold down your JP, chances are it won’t stop you, and you’ll still fall for damage. However, if you quickly tap let go, then press your JP, it is an easy and safe way stop your fall.
<i>Ceilings</i>
This is by far, the MOST important thing to look at when jetpacking. Whenever a marine has a jetpack, they should be expected to look and be aware of any obstructions in their path that would interfere with direct flight. By far, the best areas for jetpacking are clear-cut, flat, ceilings, no beams or obstructions to hit. This allows for fast, continuous movement, without anything to hit forcing you to stop or land. In rooms where there are beams, obstructions, or hiding places for skulks, jetpackers have to be extremely careful. Unless you are good, if the room is too cluttered, take to walking. A skulk can cut down a jetpacker who is disoriented, and stuck in a wall going nowhere. To prepare yourself, when coming to an overhand, or doorway, or other obstruction, slow down, and if you have to land, land. Because of the nature of the ceilings and level design of Natural Selection, never assume you will be able to outrun a skulk, you may just get caught up on the wall, slowed down too much to move. Also, if you have a jetpack when building a Frontiersman structure, or attempting to kill a Khaara structure, take the extra few seconds to look up and evalutate what kind of ceiling is above you. This knowledge will help you make the correct split second decision as to whether you have to boost out of danger along the ceiling, or jump-boost up in the air and land firing.
<i>Vents</i>
Vents represent to jetpacking marines, the perfect engagement zone. First of all, the only Kharaa that can easily enter a vent are the skulks and lerks. Second, vents are the example of what a perfect ceiling for jetpacking should be, a clear flat surface, perfect for extended holding. Vents also offer the advantage of no escape distance, which allows for marines to use their superior ranged firepower to its fullest extent. If possible, jetpack users should get to know the vents on the map like the back of their hand, as they are one of the greatest resources they have.
<i>Advanced</i>
-Contiguous movement: This means not touching the ground at all. This is by far the fastest way to move in the game. A combination of tapping and pressing the jump key to keep yourself elevated, and directing yourself around the map, over obstacles, and enemies. The main thing to remember here, is strafing. You can control your direction in mid air with the strafe keys, and they are the best directional control you have, when it comes to the obstructions you will find in hallways and ceilings. Timing is a big issue here, since you have to drop your elevation for aerial obstacles. If you keep your speed down in heavily cluttered areas, and continually tap, instead of holding the jump key, it is possible to move around the entire map, never touching the ground.
-Backward sweep: This tactic, isn’t amazingly useful, and almost requires a long hallway with a straight ceiling, however, if you boost forward in the air, then quickly turn around. The jetpack continues to boost in the original direction, meaning you can move backward through the air, covering your own ****. <Hrm always thought that was a 3 letter word...
-Emergency boost: Not a very advanced tactic, but quite effective in open areas. If you see an enemy coming, or more likely feel the first bite, immediately hold down the jump key. Hopefully, you will boost out of danger into the air, allowing you to spin, acquire, and kill your attacker. The one major issue with this is skulks have the ability to ride marines. This means, if a skulk is facing up at you while attacking you, he will basically walk on you while your boosting up, and still get the kill.
-Skiing: This have little combat usefulness, but is pretty cool if you can pull it off. Anyone who has played the Tribes series knows that skiing means activating jumpjets when sliding down hills to gain speed. This function works much the same way in NS with jetpacks. On inclined ramps, if you have a slight forward motion in the air, and then drop down onto the ramp, duck and hit your JP the second after you touch down, and boost you can effectively slide very fast down the ramp, and a little along the ground afterwards.
-Jumpjet: This tactic mainly applies to the custom maps that have larger outdoor areas and walkways. Jumpjetting is a way to move about the level safely, and without draining any energy from your JP, thus saving it for an engagement or attack on a hive. Jumpjetting is a fairly simple tactic that basically entails bunny hopping with the jetpack. Marines tap the jetpack each time they land for mid range jumps, that leave them out of attack range, let them move slightly faster, and also gives enough time for the energy bar to max out between jumps, allowing them the full use of the JP during a fight.
-Hive Assault: This is one tactic that’s used fairly often on public servers. Marines with jetpacks and HMG rush in to assault the hive from the air. Especially when there’s still only one alien hive, this can be a devastating attack, as the aliens have almost no way to take down a flying marine. A few things marines should remember when employing this tactic: 1. Always Tap/Press your jump key, extended bursts of the JP only drain your energy giving you less time in the air. 2. Strafe, keep moving, although you’re not in direct danger of attack, some O towers, Gorges, and especially Lerks will be able to hit you. 3. If you need to land, try landing on top of the hive. This is a harder location for some aliens to get to, allows you to continue firing at the hive, and also can shield you from alien attacks.
<b>Enemies</b>
<i>Skulks</i>
These creatures become the least dangerous to a prepared soldier with a jetpack. The biggest threat here is when the aliens have two or more hives and skulks have the leap ability, but they still can't maneuver as well as a JP equipped marine. Some other things to remember when engaging skulks, is stay off the walls the skulk wall walk ability cancels out your JP benefits if you're on a wall. You're best off engaging one in a long, flat-ceiling'd hallway, or a tall wide open zone that gives you the most use out of the JP
<i>Lerks</i>
These tend to be the bane of JP'd soldiers on many maps, but they really shouldn't be. For one thing, they are only effective when upgraded. Without defense chambers, they are quite weak. And without adrenaline they have a hard time matching their flying with attacking since they are both linked to alien stamina. The best thing to remember when fighting a lerk is to never stop moving. Many lerks can't compensate for their own movement, or track a frontiersman who is quickly moving through the air. Use this to your advantage by continuing to move, and slightly changing elevation.
<i>Gorge</i>
Lil'Mr. Fat dog builder guy is a joke unless the Khaara have more than one hive. Gorge spit is the slowest projectile weapon in the game, and unless you really get stuck somewhere there's no problem. The only dangerous weapon that Gorges possess is Web. Web is deadly to jetpackers. If you get webbed in mid air, prepare to plummet. And even if you do survive, you're slow moving, grounded butt is easy target for spit at that point. When engaging gorges with web if he's good, stay low, you want to be moving forward as fast as possible to avoid webbing shots, but make sure you don't go above falling damage level. If it's an untalented gorge that can't aim in between you stay high, and pick him off.
<i>Fades</i>
Fades may be the most dangerous opponent to a jetpacking soldier, only because of their Acid Rocket attack. This wouldn't be so bad, since it is a delayed projectile weapon (thing nailguns from TFC), but the splash damage makes it quite effective. In addition, the large amounts of HP and armor make the fade a hard opponent to kill. Your best bet with a JP is to run. Hopefully the fade isn't your main objective, and since it is considerably slower than you are, you should be able to get away. If you are forced to engage a fade, do so in an open area. Places like Viaduct Hive on ns_nothing or Maintanence Hive on ns_eclipse are perfect for engaging fades as they give you large open spaces to dodge the acid rockets.
<i>Onos</i>
Onos are an absolute terror on the ground, nearly unstoppable, and even with jetpacks, it's pretty much a sure sign that you've lost. However, engaging onos with jetpacks is a fairly simple task, seeing as they only have one ranged attack, and it's ROF is quite slow. Paralyze is the thing to watch out for with onos. However, that weapon too, is a delayed projectile on par with the speed of the lerker spike attack. If you keep moving, the ROF and projectile speed mean you probably won't get hit. This means that you can really stay at any height level, if you're good. If you do happen to get tagged by a paralyze attack, it's exactly like getting webbed, except you can't move at all when you hit the ground. The only thing you can do once you hit the ground, his HOLD YOUR JUMP BUTTON. It won't take energy from your JP until the paralyze wears off, and when it does wear off, holding down the jump button means you immediately take off. Hopefully before the onos has reached you.
Ratfire
<i>Jetpacks</i>
Jetpacks are researched through the prototype lab, and can only be dropped in the vicinity of the lab. It takes a full 167 credits (IP, armory, arms lab, prototype lab, JP research) so don’t be asking for one within the first four or five minutes of the game.
Once the commander has researched and dropped jetpacks (9 credits each) and you pick one up, you are restricted to JP use (I.E. cannot use heavy armor) until you die. Unlike weapons, when you are killed, the jetpack does not drop to the ground for others to pick up, so every jetpacking marine killed is worth at least 9 credits. When moving, the JP makes a distinct “fire” noise, and leaves a short trail of blue flame behind you. While not a major drawback, it is something to keep in consideration.
<i>Basics</i>
You activate your JP using your jump key. While using a JP, you will have a white energy bar in the lower right hand corner of your HUD. This bar indicates the amount of energy you have left in your jetpack, and although it regenerates fairly quickly, if the jump button is held down, the energy will drain away. That means the best way to use the jetpack is in bursts. TAP (1sec or less) the jump button to get a quick jump burst, PRESS (1-3sec) the jump button periodically to fly down a hallway, or HOLD the jump button to accelerate across a ceiling or through a vent. To take off, you have to employ a tap-tap or tap-press tactic. This means you tap the jump button once for elevation, then right after you peak your jump, you tap/press the jump key again while walking forward, to gain forward motion. Once you are in the air, you continue to burst your JP with tap’s or press’s, depending on the environment, in order to move about the level. This is the basic tool for using a jetpack.
<i>Turning</i>
In order to turn in the air, you need to use your strafe keys along with your mouse. The strafe keys apply directional force, and the mouse applies the directional control. For example, to turn left around a corner you would hold down the right strafe key, and pull your mouse to the left side of your mousepad, then once you've turned the corner, you would press forward and the left strafe key to finish the turn. The vector of the turn is determined by how far you move the mouse, although there is a limit to the turning radius while in the air. If all else fails, and you just can't get the hang of this, you can always land for a second, turn, and then run forward and take off in the direction you want to go.
<i>Landing</i>
Especially if you are high up, you have to be very careful when landing with a jetpack. This tends to be a soft point for many people, and it would not be surprising if at least 25% of all JP fatalities occurred in landing accidents. If you are moving very quickly forward, and are landing at a slight drop, you have to make sure to try and decelerate yourself, or you may end up taking more than normal falling damage. These cases usually aren’t fatal unless you already have low hitpoints. The fatal cases occur when Frontiersman gain altitude with the jetpacks and then fail to land correctly. When you are high in the air with a JP, be sure to always watch your energy. You should almost always be bursting to get up high, never hold down your jump button for too long. When coming down to land, don’t drop at a “safe” looking distance, always tap yourself down. Fatal falls can occur from seemingly harmless drops with the JP.
If you find yourself falling, meaning you have already gained downward acceleration without any jetpacking, you will need to tap-press your jetpack to slow your decent. Whether it’s a bug or just a feature, if you are falling and you hold down your JP, chances are it won’t stop you, and you’ll still fall for damage. However, if you quickly tap let go, then press your JP, it is an easy and safe way stop your fall.
<i>Ceilings</i>
This is by far, the MOST important thing to look at when jetpacking. Whenever a marine has a jetpack, they should be expected to look and be aware of any obstructions in their path that would interfere with direct flight. By far, the best areas for jetpacking are clear-cut, flat, ceilings, no beams or obstructions to hit. This allows for fast, continuous movement, without anything to hit forcing you to stop or land. In rooms where there are beams, obstructions, or hiding places for skulks, jetpackers have to be extremely careful. Unless you are good, if the room is too cluttered, take to walking. A skulk can cut down a jetpacker who is disoriented, and stuck in a wall going nowhere. To prepare yourself, when coming to an overhand, or doorway, or other obstruction, slow down, and if you have to land, land. Because of the nature of the ceilings and level design of Natural Selection, never assume you will be able to outrun a skulk, you may just get caught up on the wall, slowed down too much to move. Also, if you have a jetpack when building a Frontiersman structure, or attempting to kill a Khaara structure, take the extra few seconds to look up and evalutate what kind of ceiling is above you. This knowledge will help you make the correct split second decision as to whether you have to boost out of danger along the ceiling, or jump-boost up in the air and land firing.
<i>Vents</i>
Vents represent to jetpacking marines, the perfect engagement zone. First of all, the only Kharaa that can easily enter a vent are the skulks and lerks. Second, vents are the example of what a perfect ceiling for jetpacking should be, a clear flat surface, perfect for extended holding. Vents also offer the advantage of no escape distance, which allows for marines to use their superior ranged firepower to its fullest extent. If possible, jetpack users should get to know the vents on the map like the back of their hand, as they are one of the greatest resources they have.
<i>Advanced</i>
-Contiguous movement: This means not touching the ground at all. This is by far the fastest way to move in the game. A combination of tapping and pressing the jump key to keep yourself elevated, and directing yourself around the map, over obstacles, and enemies. The main thing to remember here, is strafing. You can control your direction in mid air with the strafe keys, and they are the best directional control you have, when it comes to the obstructions you will find in hallways and ceilings. Timing is a big issue here, since you have to drop your elevation for aerial obstacles. If you keep your speed down in heavily cluttered areas, and continually tap, instead of holding the jump key, it is possible to move around the entire map, never touching the ground.
-Backward sweep: This tactic, isn’t amazingly useful, and almost requires a long hallway with a straight ceiling, however, if you boost forward in the air, then quickly turn around. The jetpack continues to boost in the original direction, meaning you can move backward through the air, covering your own ****. <Hrm always thought that was a 3 letter word...
-Emergency boost: Not a very advanced tactic, but quite effective in open areas. If you see an enemy coming, or more likely feel the first bite, immediately hold down the jump key. Hopefully, you will boost out of danger into the air, allowing you to spin, acquire, and kill your attacker. The one major issue with this is skulks have the ability to ride marines. This means, if a skulk is facing up at you while attacking you, he will basically walk on you while your boosting up, and still get the kill.
-Skiing: This have little combat usefulness, but is pretty cool if you can pull it off. Anyone who has played the Tribes series knows that skiing means activating jumpjets when sliding down hills to gain speed. This function works much the same way in NS with jetpacks. On inclined ramps, if you have a slight forward motion in the air, and then drop down onto the ramp, duck and hit your JP the second after you touch down, and boost you can effectively slide very fast down the ramp, and a little along the ground afterwards.
-Jumpjet: This tactic mainly applies to the custom maps that have larger outdoor areas and walkways. Jumpjetting is a way to move about the level safely, and without draining any energy from your JP, thus saving it for an engagement or attack on a hive. Jumpjetting is a fairly simple tactic that basically entails bunny hopping with the jetpack. Marines tap the jetpack each time they land for mid range jumps, that leave them out of attack range, let them move slightly faster, and also gives enough time for the energy bar to max out between jumps, allowing them the full use of the JP during a fight.
-Hive Assault: This is one tactic that’s used fairly often on public servers. Marines with jetpacks and HMG rush in to assault the hive from the air. Especially when there’s still only one alien hive, this can be a devastating attack, as the aliens have almost no way to take down a flying marine. A few things marines should remember when employing this tactic: 1. Always Tap/Press your jump key, extended bursts of the JP only drain your energy giving you less time in the air. 2. Strafe, keep moving, although you’re not in direct danger of attack, some O towers, Gorges, and especially Lerks will be able to hit you. 3. If you need to land, try landing on top of the hive. This is a harder location for some aliens to get to, allows you to continue firing at the hive, and also can shield you from alien attacks.
<b>Enemies</b>
<i>Skulks</i>
These creatures become the least dangerous to a prepared soldier with a jetpack. The biggest threat here is when the aliens have two or more hives and skulks have the leap ability, but they still can't maneuver as well as a JP equipped marine. Some other things to remember when engaging skulks, is stay off the walls the skulk wall walk ability cancels out your JP benefits if you're on a wall. You're best off engaging one in a long, flat-ceiling'd hallway, or a tall wide open zone that gives you the most use out of the JP
<i>Lerks</i>
These tend to be the bane of JP'd soldiers on many maps, but they really shouldn't be. For one thing, they are only effective when upgraded. Without defense chambers, they are quite weak. And without adrenaline they have a hard time matching their flying with attacking since they are both linked to alien stamina. The best thing to remember when fighting a lerk is to never stop moving. Many lerks can't compensate for their own movement, or track a frontiersman who is quickly moving through the air. Use this to your advantage by continuing to move, and slightly changing elevation.
<i>Gorge</i>
Lil'Mr. Fat dog builder guy is a joke unless the Khaara have more than one hive. Gorge spit is the slowest projectile weapon in the game, and unless you really get stuck somewhere there's no problem. The only dangerous weapon that Gorges possess is Web. Web is deadly to jetpackers. If you get webbed in mid air, prepare to plummet. And even if you do survive, you're slow moving, grounded butt is easy target for spit at that point. When engaging gorges with web if he's good, stay low, you want to be moving forward as fast as possible to avoid webbing shots, but make sure you don't go above falling damage level. If it's an untalented gorge that can't aim in between you stay high, and pick him off.
<i>Fades</i>
Fades may be the most dangerous opponent to a jetpacking soldier, only because of their Acid Rocket attack. This wouldn't be so bad, since it is a delayed projectile weapon (thing nailguns from TFC), but the splash damage makes it quite effective. In addition, the large amounts of HP and armor make the fade a hard opponent to kill. Your best bet with a JP is to run. Hopefully the fade isn't your main objective, and since it is considerably slower than you are, you should be able to get away. If you are forced to engage a fade, do so in an open area. Places like Viaduct Hive on ns_nothing or Maintanence Hive on ns_eclipse are perfect for engaging fades as they give you large open spaces to dodge the acid rockets.
<i>Onos</i>
Onos are an absolute terror on the ground, nearly unstoppable, and even with jetpacks, it's pretty much a sure sign that you've lost. However, engaging onos with jetpacks is a fairly simple task, seeing as they only have one ranged attack, and it's ROF is quite slow. Paralyze is the thing to watch out for with onos. However, that weapon too, is a delayed projectile on par with the speed of the lerker spike attack. If you keep moving, the ROF and projectile speed mean you probably won't get hit. This means that you can really stay at any height level, if you're good. If you do happen to get tagged by a paralyze attack, it's exactly like getting webbed, except you can't move at all when you hit the ground. The only thing you can do once you hit the ground, his HOLD YOUR JUMP BUTTON. It won't take energy from your JP until the paralyze wears off, and when it does wear off, holding down the jump button means you immediately take off. Hopefully before the onos has reached you.
Ratfire
Comments
i don`t know if i missed it but have u mentioned that u should always crouch when jetting, it gives so much better handling.
flying around siege is really fun!
also, skiing rules! ski for victory! tribes totally rocks!
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=20&t=28577&st=15' target='_blank'>http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...0&t=28577&st=15</a>
Ratfire
Vents represent to jetpacking marines, the perfect engagement zone. First of all, the only Kharaa that can easily enter a vent are the skulks and lerks. Second, vents are the example of what a perfect ceiling for jetpacking should be, a clear flat surface, perfect for extended holding. Vents also offer the advantage of no escape distance, which allows for marines to use their superior ranged firepower to its fullest extent. If possible, jetpack users should get to know the vents on the map like the back of their hand, as they are one of the greatest resources they have.
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Don't forget to also mention it makes a wonderful place for great hitbox troubles that virtually make the marine all but invincible!!! Yay hitboxes!!!
Mid air strafe jumping - gives extra speed and better cornering.
Edit: Oops you do mention strafing, not sure if you actually mean strafe jumping i.e. like mid air bhoppin, or just strafing.
If you mean "stickied" then I second nominate. VERY GOOD GUIDE btw
1. In console, type "fps_max 100" Do not include the quotes. Also note that the number 100, can be replaced with any number, but many cards only support up to 100.
2. If you're still having framerate issues, go to your video accelerator card settings, and look for vertical synchronization (v-synch, Vertical synch, etc.) Turn this feature off.
-Example- I'm running an GeForce4 on Windows XP. The way that I find this setting is: Display properties -> Advanced -> GeForce4 Menu Tab -> Open GL Settings -> Vertical Sync
If you do this, and your system can handle it, you should be running at around 100fps
Ratfire
He was trying to help new players. Dont flame. <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif'><!--endemo-->
I'm sorry... the purpose of this board is to make marine players worse and the aliens win more. Take a glance at the title of this board... "Frontiersman Strategy." Ya know... a board like this is meant to help marines and this post helps people learn how to use the jetpack. Aiee.
And actually it's webbed on these boards. But stickied, webbed, no matter.
See Litany's post below.
Ratfire
Ratfire, I'd say add the enemy info to the original post. This def needs to be stickied.
Ratfire
For assaulting a hive, the marine should set up a tent on top of the hive, because, the worse thing that could happen is that you run out of ammo. Camping on top of the hive makes a lot of your shots count. I think lots of people disagree with the camping on top of the hive, because it makes the marine more vulnerable to attack because he(or she) isn't using the jetpack.
Please read more carefully before you start personally attacking people, trajectory refers to the angle of the shot. Lerks do have hitscan attacks with a projectile animation, however especially at range, there is a noticeable drop from the crosshairs and the actual point of impact of the Lerk attack. Hitscan refers to the fact that it hits instantaneously, trajectory refers to the path that it takes while it hits. Although this patch for the Lerk attack is instantaneous it still drops lower than an initial target point. Thus the phrase in the guide about Lerk attacks having to compensate for a drop in trajectory.
Ratfire