Evasive Maneuvers & Patterns
Sarisel
.::' ( O ) ';:-. .-.:;' ( O ) '::. Join Date: 2003-07-30 Member: 18557Members, Constellation
.::' ( O ) ';:-. .-.:;' ( O ) '::. Join Date: 2003-07-30 Member: 18557Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">increase your survival ability</div> One of the most common ways to die for a Kharaa life-form is running in a straight line towards or away from an enemy. Many people are guilty of doing this - even the pros, not that they don't know better, they just forget sometimes. But then there are people who simply don't realize that they can increase their chances of survival if they only changed their movement patterns.
<u>The Classic Zig-Zag</u>
Can be used by: any species
Range: any
Difficulty: simple
So named because the pattern resembles the letter Z and because of the to-and-forth motion from either side, this pattern involves moving erratically from left to right to left. Don't be predictable and don't try to make a smooth pattern. This is perhaps the most common evasive maneuver and the easiest to master.
<u>The Spiral </u>
Can be used by: skulk, lerk
Range: medium-near
Difficulty: complex
This pattern involves rotating your model around a fixed point. For the skulk, this can be achieved by making circles with the cursor while moving. This is not very easy to achieve and can be disorientating - but it can drive the marines insane if used in combination with other maneuvers. For the lerk, this can be achieved by varying your altitude with flaps while moving left and right. Also difficult to master.
<u>Circle-Strafing</u>
Can be used by: any species
Range: near
Difficulty: average
Circle-strafing attempts to confuse the enemy, while making it more difficult to get a lock on you with the cursor so less bullets connect. The ideal situation is when you see the back of the enemy at all times. An important thing to note about circle-strafing - and a mistake often made even by experienced players - is that you have to switch directions from clockwise to anti-clockwise. Also, try to change altitude while circle-strafing so that the enemy has to adjust not only around the horizontal, but also along the vertical axis.
<u>Fakes</u>
Can be used by: any species
Range: any
Difficulty: average
Fakes include many patterns - the common element being that a certain motion is suggested to the enemy, whereas the Kharaa performing the fake has no intention of completing that motion. Escape fakes lure the enemy into thinking that you are running and injured - inviting them to chase you, in which case you can promptly turn around and deal out the punishment. Movement fakes involve turning the body of the Kharaa to go in one direction and then sharply changing course, fooling the enemy. It is important to master faking, as it can often be the difference between survival or ending up on the enemy's mess hall tables.
If you have other patterns to suggest, add them here.
<u>The Classic Zig-Zag</u>
Can be used by: any species
Range: any
Difficulty: simple
So named because the pattern resembles the letter Z and because of the to-and-forth motion from either side, this pattern involves moving erratically from left to right to left. Don't be predictable and don't try to make a smooth pattern. This is perhaps the most common evasive maneuver and the easiest to master.
<u>The Spiral </u>
Can be used by: skulk, lerk
Range: medium-near
Difficulty: complex
This pattern involves rotating your model around a fixed point. For the skulk, this can be achieved by making circles with the cursor while moving. This is not very easy to achieve and can be disorientating - but it can drive the marines insane if used in combination with other maneuvers. For the lerk, this can be achieved by varying your altitude with flaps while moving left and right. Also difficult to master.
<u>Circle-Strafing</u>
Can be used by: any species
Range: near
Difficulty: average
Circle-strafing attempts to confuse the enemy, while making it more difficult to get a lock on you with the cursor so less bullets connect. The ideal situation is when you see the back of the enemy at all times. An important thing to note about circle-strafing - and a mistake often made even by experienced players - is that you have to switch directions from clockwise to anti-clockwise. Also, try to change altitude while circle-strafing so that the enemy has to adjust not only around the horizontal, but also along the vertical axis.
<u>Fakes</u>
Can be used by: any species
Range: any
Difficulty: average
Fakes include many patterns - the common element being that a certain motion is suggested to the enemy, whereas the Kharaa performing the fake has no intention of completing that motion. Escape fakes lure the enemy into thinking that you are running and injured - inviting them to chase you, in which case you can promptly turn around and deal out the punishment. Movement fakes involve turning the body of the Kharaa to go in one direction and then sharply changing course, fooling the enemy. It is important to master faking, as it can often be the difference between survival or ending up on the enemy's mess hall tables.
If you have other patterns to suggest, add them here.
Comments
<u>The Altitude Boost</u>
Can be used by : skulk , lerk , fade
Range : medium-near
Difficulty : simple
Marines generally have a hard time at keeping their lock on small enemies swiftly moving vertically. They can target pretty fast on the horizontal plane , but not on the vertical one. It is just because most FPS are based on horizontal fights , with Z axis fights kept to a minimum.
Because of this , you can evade most marine's aim just with a sudden altitude change. This just requires a relatively high room , as a skulk stick to a wall and aim upwards , as a lerk just tap "jump" 5 times to reach the ceiling , as a fade blink to the ceiling. The higher the ceiling the better.
It is way less complicated than spiralling , just reach the ceiling and look down to the marines you left on the ground , trying to aim up. You can brutally drop on them , or keep flying high to further mess up their aim.
This maneuver is invaluable when you have a teammate on the ground... one of you <i>will</i> own the marines.
Used by: skulk
Range: Medium-Near
Difficulty: Moderate
Accomplished in long halls and choke points. Run towards AND up a wall of your choice, then jump off at mid or near top towards the oppsite wall. Repeat untill you reach the target. Works wonders on marines that can barely aim and I even find myself not able to track movements like this well.
Medium-near
As a skulk, you generally will see people that will leap past a squad of marines to land behind them and start biting them in their backsides. However, this is many times countered by doing a backwards jump and 180 by the marines. So as a skulk, leap past them the first time, then back past them. Each time they jump, their maxspeed is slowed a bit, and thus, their ability to evade is diminished each time. If you make him waste two jumps in the first half second of a fight, his feet will eventually not be leaving the floor with speed, making them easier prey. I only suggest this with adrenaline, though maybe celerity, as two leaps can get a bit hefty on the energy drain otherwise. This move plus celerity baffles marines to an amazing extent.
cl_sidespeed 1000
in your autoexec
Yes if you're observant enough to notice, here's the explanation:
Halfway through the 2.0 betas, Flay added proper walking code, that allowed marines and skulks to walk without making footsteps. The walk code relies on the value of cl_forwardspeed and cl_backspeed to determine your speed while walking, the current implimentation needs forward and back speeds to be set to 1000 in order to give you the correct walking speed.
In regular HL and in 1.04, the default value for cl_forwardspeed and backspeed was 400. Flay simply changed the default for 2.0 to get his walking code to work correctly, so your forward speed now defaults to 1000. What he seems to have forgotten is, by changing cl_forwardspeed without also changing cl_sidespeed, he's mucked up the ratio of forwards to sideways motion when you run forwards and strafe at the same time. In otherwords if you have the 2.0 defaults of 1000 for forward speed and 400 for sidespeed, when you run forwards and strafe you will move at a different angle to the angle you moved in 1.04.
To fix this, you have to set forwardspeed and sidespeed to the same values again. You can set cl_forwardspeed back to 400, as many people may have done without thinking if they moved their 1.04 configs across, but doing this will prevent the walk command from working correctly (you'll move at snail speed). Or you can set sidespeed to 1000, to match forward speed. However, halflife doesn't seem to want to store cl_sidespeed in the general config.cfg, which means you have to add it either to your command line, or to an autoexec.cfg to get it to work.
This doesn't make you strafe faster, it adjusts the ratio of forwards to sideways motion when you press forwards and strafe together. If anyone uses the word 'exploit' in reply to this i will whack them with my giant nub mallet.
Actually, if I recall, it's considered a temporary bug-fix.
It does NOT increase ur strafing speed, and in fact, if your used to the current system,will make your movement worse, as all it does is make you strafe more when pressing forward+ strafe.
I recommend ppl woh are used to the current system not to change back to cl_sidespeed 1000.