How to aim better
Hugh
CameramanSan Francisco, CA Join Date: 2010-04-18 Member: 71444NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
CameramanSan Francisco, CA Join Date: 2010-04-18 Member: 71444NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Onos, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts
<div class="IPBDescription">Share your knowledge!</div>Hi everyone!
Anyone that has watched a few NS2HD videos will know that aim is not my strong point. I'm sure that for most casual NS2 players, aiming at a fast moving object like a Skulk is very tricky. Especially if you have just come out of a game of Call of Battlefield. I want to learn to aim better, and I want to tell my viewers how I got better. So, in this thread, I implore all of you clever competitive aimers to give me some tips?
How much does a good mouse matter? Big mouse pad or small? No mouse pad? Full arm movement or fingertip? Dot crosshairs or standard? Low sensitivity or high sensitivity, or somewhere in between? Just like when aiming a firearm in real life, are their ways of looking at your target that are better? E.g. look at the target and draw the crosshair onto it, or look at the crosshair and draw the target in from peripheral vision? Does doing figure eights during play help keep your aim warmed up? Got other tips? Share them, and help make me and other players better!
Love
Hugh
Anyone that has watched a few NS2HD videos will know that aim is not my strong point. I'm sure that for most casual NS2 players, aiming at a fast moving object like a Skulk is very tricky. Especially if you have just come out of a game of Call of Battlefield. I want to learn to aim better, and I want to tell my viewers how I got better. So, in this thread, I implore all of you clever competitive aimers to give me some tips?
How much does a good mouse matter? Big mouse pad or small? No mouse pad? Full arm movement or fingertip? Dot crosshairs or standard? Low sensitivity or high sensitivity, or somewhere in between? Just like when aiming a firearm in real life, are their ways of looking at your target that are better? E.g. look at the target and draw the crosshair onto it, or look at the crosshair and draw the target in from peripheral vision? Does doing figure eights during play help keep your aim warmed up? Got other tips? Share them, and help make me and other players better!
Love
Hugh
Comments
Also, the largest effin mouse pad you can get, and non of that gel crap that gets in the way, or anything reflective.
Standard crosshairs because you never know how strict a tourney will be for a game.
One you forgot and a golden rule of rocket prediction or railgun strategy: Wait for optimum moment in your target's trajectory to fire, i.e. the peak of a jump or JUST as they land - the slowest moment, and always aim center mass. (unless its CS) Train yourself for trajectory patterns by starting off with always tracking your target with your crosshair.. until every trajectory possible is something you can predict.
Helps feel more immersed get to the point of kinesthetic projection more easily, also if you see something you want to shoot, you just press fire immediately.
That said my aim in NS2 often sucks ;), this method was trained with games like CS where you can fire 1 or 2 shots to kill an enemy, it might not be optimal for the high amount of tracking required in NS2.
Look at target
Full arm movement from shoulder (aliens) or Arm movement from elbow (marines)
Which loosely translates into: 180 = 15-20cm, 360 = 25-30cm
^mostly personal preference of course, but lower sensitivity tends to give you more control and less strain on micro muscle movement (anti-RSI)
MX518
I'm more of a twitch aimer though... So the shotgun and pistol (and axe) are my forte, the rifle not so much with that tracking stuff. I can definately track my targets, but I prefer twitch aiming... Also the reason why the biting bit on aliens is more up my alley...
Game is not all about aiming though, on both team positioning is a very important part. Know where you enemies come from and anticipate their hiding spots. Not to mention that reload management and energy management are a key to playing as well. Do NOT reload every time you kill someone while you still have loads of bullets in your clip, which is automatic behavior from most other games. There might be another alien just around the corner hearing your reload shenanigans :P
The mouse you get depends on the type of grip you have.The mx 518 is not the greatest claw mouse. I use to have it and had trouble aiming until I switched to the g9x. Sensitivity usually depends on the way you hold you mouse as well.
But then I got a G9, and right now the successor G9x...love it, especially the custom weights and DPi switches.
Combined with a big Sharkoon mouse pad, they give me all the freedom to perform those swiping Skulk moves and bites.
Therefore I voted "...from elbow".
Ingame, mouse sensitivity set to pretty low (about 1/5th of the scale), mouse-smoothing Off, Raw input On...I prefer to do the settings on my mouse itself.
I will say that focusing on your target and not your crosshair is important, and also using game sense and good awareness to keep track of nearby enemies even if they are not visible, which allows you to better predict their attacks and movements.
As for getting better the best practice is bootcamping against other skilled players, generally that's a more worthy investment of time than sensitivity and positioning tweaks.
You can greatly increase your aim in ns2 just by positioning yourself well and learn how to dodge. You can increase your aim even more with experience and good awareness.
In the end its just practice.
most people who use my computer find my sensitivity way too high.
-looking at the <!--coloro:#9ACD32--><span style="color:#9ACD32"><!--/coloro-->target<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> and adjust your crosshair
-and <!--coloro:#FFFF00--><span style="color:#FFFF00"><!--/coloro-->fingertips<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> (a little bit of wrist when turning) for maximum precision. Whole arm movement is just too clunky.
always a <!--coloro:#FF00FF--><span style="color:#FF00FF"><!--/coloro-->dot crosshair<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> with a VERY distinct color (I use<!--coloro:#FF00FF--><span style="color:#FF00FF"><!--/coloro--> magenta<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> and there are mods in the workshop, too. Try the one by ?neoRussia?)
everyone can agree that the regular EXO crosshair is a nightmare
the "pad" is very important, too. there are smooth pads for fast movement and harsh surfaces for precision. (Due to "slippage")
I recommend a <!--coloro:#00FFFF--><span style="color:#00FFFF"><!--/coloro-->smooth surface<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> due to reaction time. and <!--coloro:#00FFFF--><span style="color:#00FFFF"><!--/coloro-->no refelction.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
Furthermore it should be <!--coloro:#00FFFF--><span style="color:#00FFFF"><!--/coloro-->large<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> and <!--coloro:#00FFFF--><span style="color:#00FFFF"><!--/coloro-->stuck to the desk<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->. (no use ofr a slippery mousepad)
PS: always have warm hands.
always use the same "work" posture
in <!--coloro:#FFA500--><span style="color:#FFA500"><!--/coloro-->conclusion<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->:<!--coloro:#FFA500--><span style="color:#FFA500"><!--/coloro--> always<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> use the <!--coloro:#FFA500--><span style="color:#FFA500"><!--/coloro-->same settings to play<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->.
edit: I use the logitech mx518, too
fits my hand.
and no mouse pad (smooth wooden desk)
Greetings
And sometimes it's game to game... When you get in the right rhythm you feel like you can hit everything and anything and not die. This is usually when you're super focused on the game and your muscle memory is spot on. In the end it all comes down to personal preference with setting like sensitivities and grips, because in the end it's all muscle memory (aka practice).
Best tips I could give you:
1. Sit in the upright position (good posture)
2. Focus on the target, which should have a dot on top of it :)
3. Use whatever sensitivities feels right... (use "setsensitivity #" in command console until you can track without over shooting or under shooting)
4. Trajectory patterns are your friends. (If the skulk is bunny hopping make your crosshair do the same or just bunny hop a long with him)
5. Never press "s"!!!
6. Conserve ammo unless you know you can hit it
7. Practice.
I will say that focusing on your target and not your crosshair is important, and also using game sense and good awareness to keep track of nearby enemies even if they are not visible, which allows you to better predict their attacks and movements.
As for getting better the best practice is bootcamping against other skilled players, generally that's a more worthy investment of time than sensitivity and positioning tweaks.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo(post=2066146:date=Jan 24 2013, 07:52 PM:name=Grissi)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Grissi @ Jan 24 2013, 07:52 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2066146"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The questions don't really give accurate info how to aim better. Its very diverse between players. There are really good players that use low and high sense, low and high fov, use the whole hand or just the wrist. Most of these things also has its positives and negatives.
You can greatly increase your aim in ns2 just by positioning yourself well and learn how to dodge. You can increase your aim even more with experience and good awareness.
In the end its just practice.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'd have to agree with xDragon and Grissi. There isn't a single solution that will work for everyone. I'm a medium sensitivity player myself. The only comment I could really make on sensitivity is that if your sensitivity is so low that you have to reposition the mouse on the pad while playing then your sensitivity is too low - because you're definitely going to get caught in combat while lifting the mouse up to reposition it. I would recommend using a mouse with at least an 1800 DPI, turn on Raw Mouse Input, and then adjusting the sensitivity in-game to whatever feels good for the particular player. Higher DPI on the mouse can be good due to less interpolation but I think anything over 1800 DPI is not really that noticeable despite what all the gaming mice manufacturers would have you believe. I currently use a Logitech G500 and a Mionix NAOS 5000 and leave them set to 1800 DPI while gaming. Previously I was using the trustly 'ol MX518 but I sold it after using the G500 because I like my mice as light as possible and the MX518 has a built-in weight whereas the G500 uses interchangeable weights which you can opt not to use if you don't want to.
BTW, I didn't bother filling out the poll because there was no option for medium sensitivity and sensitivity is subjective anyway.
...or just get a bigger mousepad
you're thinking in extremes. if your sensitivity is so low that it takes you significantly longer (as in it makes a difference) to get to a persons head, it's too low, you yourself are too slow, or there's some kind of physical drawback (mouse/mousepad/w.e).
in the FPS's i've participated in and viewed competitively, at high levels the sensitivities are typically within the 8-14 inches per 360 range. i'm likely wrong, but I think it's pretty rare to find a person actually good at tracking with a high sensitivity (4" or less, i'd say.) i've dipped into a few (4?) NS streams and all I can think of is why they have such a high sensitivity as marine. They were consistently having difficulties killing pub skulks, but they're apparently good players otherwise. great skulks, not so with the rifle, but probably better with the shotgun.
or they're just commanders in which case they don't need to be too great with marine anyway.
I generally try to face where my enemies <i>might</i> come from, so that if they do attack, I'm already aiming in roughly the right direction. It's about doing yourself as many favours as you can before the fight starts: Taking that corner as widely as possible can give you an extra meter or two of distance between you and the skulk. Aiming at vents as you walk past them means you only have to tap the trigger on those rare occasions when an alien actually is in there.
It also helps to try and think about what direction a skulk will be travelling in when it enters the room you are in. If you can position yourself so that they'll either be running directly towards or away from you, you wont have to move the mouse very much at all to keep a bead on them.
Lastly and most importantly, keep a healthy distance between you and your team-mates. If your buddies get attacked, the distance will mean you wont have to move your mouse as much to keep them on screen. If you get attacked, then your buddies get that benefit and will have an easier time saving you.
Let me quote my old NS1 advanced marine tutorial:
"Aiming is all about making good shooting angles and you make shooting angles by your movement and positioning. You have to sync your movement with your aim. Everybody does this, but only few are aware of it and better the aimer, more he uses his movement for his favor. By use of strafe, jump, or crouch you can easily see who is a good aimer and who is not."
<a href="http://www.ensl.org/articles/598" target="_blank">http://www.ensl.org/articles/598</a>
And to add to that, obviously, aiming is prediction. You try to predict your targets movement pattern and that is hard in NS2 because of unpredictable walljump.
I use a logitech g9x and a razer goliathus speed edition mouse pad.
I control my sensitivity using the dpi settings. 2000 is a good point, but it's more about what's comfortable. Be sure to turn off mouse acceleration in windows.
Another huge thing to consider is mouse lag, I remember when I was recording ns2 using fraps, I was puzzled that my framerate would get locked to 30 (29.97) even if I had that open disabled. Very strange I thought, the worst part was the fact that this locking of framerate caused annoying, noticable mouse lag that affected my aim.
You're going to have to replace fraps Hugh if you're still using it. Probably best to simply get a capture card, but a program called Gregion is free, has the same video quality of fraps and doesn't lock framerate... this will help you play better while recording. On top of that, Gregion doesn't have a 4GB file size, it'll just keep recording to the same file, so dunno if that's useful or not to you.
in the FPS's i've participated in and viewed competitively, at high levels the sensitivities are typically within the 8-14 inches per 360 range. i'm likely wrong, but I think it's pretty rare to find a person actually good at tracking with a high sensitivity (4" or less, i'd say.)
or they're just commanders in which case they don't need to be too great with marine anyway.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Of course I am exaggerating, because I am making a point.
You need to be able to aim at the enemy in a split second.
And you should never lift the mouse.
it takes me roughly 7cm (3") to make a 360° turn.
most people who are on my computer find the mouse too fast to navigate.
greetings
low enough so you are no longer overcorrecting or jittering and high enough to instantly 180 as many times as you need
mousepad
<a href="http://www.artisan-jp.com/all_eng.html" target="_blank">http://www.artisan-jp.com/all_eng.html</a> these are really awesome, most other cloth pads are pretty similar (qck+, goliathus, puretrak), but these guys are really quality
mice
+ zowie am is probably the best mouse I've used
+ steelseries xai / sensei are good but I think some people complain about accel, I've never experienced it myself or it's too minor to notice so it doesn't matter. a lot of top players are starting to use a minimal amount of acceleration regardless so it's not quite as bad as it seems
+ MX518 / G400
+ IME 3.0
+ Deathadder is the only quality mouse from Razer
I've played dozens of other FPS and I usually have great aim but in NS2 I'm still having lots of trouble for a few reasons in no particular order:
- lifeforms in this game move more unpredictably than most other games... aliens can instantly 180 at top speed, the animations are very jerky and unsmooth, lots of visual noise
- quite difficult to find a comfortable middle ground sensitivity between playing alien and marine
- performance
- as mentioned above, ammo conservation and reload timings, and the possibility for aliens to outplay you with regards to that
above all play however is most comfortable and consistent. especially considering this! <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEudl_2Dc4I" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEudl_2Dc4I</a>
some other stuff: <a href="http://www.funender.com/quake/mouse/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.funender.com/quake/mouse/index.html</a>
If you want to frag like a beast you need to understand Tane's advanced marine guide and then develop gamesense. That's it. Everything else is practice after you do that.
These games are decent for working on your consistency if you can't play a game to do it. <a href="http://aim400kg.ru/en/" target="_blank">http://aim400kg.ru/en/</a>
Osu! is retarded and doesn't help you practice anything meaningful before you try it.
i find that aiming in ns2 is similar to playing guitar hero. you need to 'read' your opponent and almost aim in advance, then track the movement while gently press mouse button (gently opposed to panic smashing the button and jerking your aim off target).
this technique is surprisingly easy to execute with AR against skulks because the AR is so consistent, a calm AR is like a hot knife through butter.
I'd say most of aiming is great gamesense. Its about knowing how the enemy works and predicting it. Things that look like godly hand-eye coordination can be many times just predicted and practiced patterns of enemy movement. And to get gamesense you actually need to get good (or better) at the game. To get better at the game, play with the best (you can), play against the best, and learn from them. Watch how they play, observe how they think. This is how I improved my aim. You'll never get good by playing against bad or medicore teams or players. Comfort zone is not where the growth happens, its outside it.
There's one shortcut to improve your game in NS2 and that would be getting good at some oldschool game. Best would be obviously NS1 but there are only public servers left and you are going nowhere on public. Most of old games are dead but Quake Live is around. I would say go play Quake Live for aim. Warsow is great for movement. It pushes your reflexes to the extreme and forces you to do things you don't do in modern games. You'll be forced to play and think at much faster pace. Don't stick to public but try to find some competitive games. Try it for a a few months, not much to lose, and come back. Fana and Tane are great in NS2 because they mastered a game that was much more demanding on dexterity, reflexes and intelligence.
I don't think focusing too much on sense or aiming style is productive. I have done that and can't say I got much out of it. Get something that is comfortable and stick to it. I can say though, turning sound off and looking at the crosshair with 100% focus produced the best hitscan aim for me but its not really practical and not usable for reflex weapons like shotgun.
As for the (useless) periphrals, I'd recommend Razer deathadder, some fast cloth-pad and fast 120hz screen. That combined with decent frame rate will make some difference compared to horrid fps, slow LCD screen, and laggy mouse/mousepad, but don't get carried away; it can give you one time boost but most of the work is on your part. I have played with good and bad combination of above and especially the screen does make a difference, but its not a silver bullet. Depends what you have though.
This is speculation but I think aiming is fundamentally something like language or music. By doing some sports or music at 4-7 age, your brain gets wired for coordination skills. This is why people who pick up and dedicate themselves to sports as kids can pick some instrument quite well later in age. Genetics no doubt play a role here, especially how much you need to catch up. If you start without this kind of advantage, you'll be always behind them but by tedious practice you can get much much better than you think. Just like with langauge, music or sports, you need to be constantly pushing yourself out of comfort zone to make progress.
I don't know about these "aim practicing apps". I have not used them so can't say much but I doubt playing against machines will ever improve your aim as much as playing against real people. Maybe some the technical hand-eye coordination is improved but aiming is about playing against real players and developing FPS skills. The old games are best for that just like playing classical music makes you a great musician whatever you happen to do later in life.
That being said I have heard that NS2 puts much more emphasis on gamesense than NS1 ever did, and FPS skills start to pay dividends only after you get NS2-specific gamesense right. This is second-hand knowledge so caveat emptor.
I have no doubt that you can improve your aim, but the better question is if its worth it. You need to put some serious hours in.
Agreed. Anyone looking to do streaming seriously (as Hugh does) should dump host based software solutions such as Fraps, Dxtory, etc, and go buy a decent capture card like the Black Magic Intensity Pro (PCIe version) and build a dedicated streaming PC. A streaming PC would be very inexpensive as it would need a low-end proc, <b>no </b>dedicated GPU, 4 GB RAM, and a decent HD and that's it. Then you clone your desktop on your gaming PC so the second output goes into the streaming PC and it records everything so you can run full framerate on your gaming PC.
I asked a lot of competitive players about their aim-settings
and what i know so far.
You can do 3 things:
=== 1. Hardware:
If your mouse is not as good, get a better one.
I have a G9x + 4HD Mousepad for fast precise tracking.
=== 2. Adjust your windows mouse settings:
1. (maybe) install <a href="http://donewmouseaccel.blogspot.de/2010/03/markc-windows-7-mouse-acceleration-fix.html" target="_blank">MarkC Mouse Accelaration Fix</a>
2. Adjust your Settings:
* Accelaration: Off
* Speed Setting: 6/11 (1-to-1)
===3. Test your Settings:
1. start your own NS2-Server (maybe with password)
2. open console and enter - get the game running:
cheats 1 - starts a game without players on both sides
autobuild - powernodes and structures are instant built
tres 200 - gets your team 200 res
pres 100 - gets yourself 100 res
3. open console and enter - spawn things to position where your crosshair is:
bind F10 "spawn marine" - spawns marine at crosshair location
bind F11 "spawn skulk" - spawn skulk at crosshair location
spawn armory - spawn armory as marine to reload, buy weapons (without using the command chair)
4. Test settings:
* as skulk: press F10 to spawn marine at location and try out attacks
* as skulk: try to attack with leap, turn around 360 degree around marine while attacking him
* as skulk: adjust your mouse movement speed "console: setsensitivity value"
* as marine: spawn skulks on different location, angles (with F11-bind)
* as marine: try to shoot them (buy weapons on armory, maybe shotgun etc)
* as marine: adjust your mouse movement speed "console: setsensitivity value"
BTW:
as i know, everybody has to find out his/her own sensitivity settings.
you should at least be able to do a 180 degree mouse movement in both directions to be able to turn 360 degree around yourself.
you should know the behaviour of the game (see something like: tanes advanced marine guide)
All this bull###### about hardware and the like is crap, people in SK in 2002-3 had better aim with ball mice or laser mice with tape on the bottom on ice mats at 640x480 resolution then what most players do nowadays in most games despite having 1920x1080 with 4k CPUs running 100 FPS with 4800 DPI mice.
Game sense was mentioned above ties into it, marine movement is just as key to marine aiming and simply eliminating mistakes in moving around the map or putting yourself into bad positions in game will help your score/aim so much more than any hardware change. Constant FPS is obv a must but the rest is gravy, it sucks a bag of ######s we still do not have first person spec in 2013 but when we do it'll do wonders to watch how the better players move and react in different situations.
I used to think ramboing into alien territory endlessly would improve my aim faster/adjust to NS2 better, I mean how couldn't it, I'd almost constantly be under attack but I had completely forgotten about the point Tane made and what made me such a good marine in NS1, positioning. All the aim in the world wouldn't have saved me in most situations because I was simply out numbered and didn't make enough space or was shooting at such awkward angles that favoured aliens.
It then struck me what most of the better players were doing, they were never ramboing into areas like that, they were always sitting around choke points in the map and either predicting or reacting to things happening, they never put themself in a position to get ######ed if they could help it and by sitting in key areas like choke points or on multiple entrances/exits into tech points they were a problem and aliens had to come to them, not the other way around. Some obscene amount of accurate aim % comes from simply knowing the most likely enemy approach will be, it's why you see so many prediction rockets pick offs or nano second rails in quake or wall bangs in CS, same applies in NS2.
Flick/track aim is important in all FPS but positioning is so much moreso in NS2.
edit: Low sens, cursor to target (focus Xhair), pivot elbow (so forearm/wrist max, proper posture with monitor eye level so you aren't leaning in and un######ing your gaming desk/computer area), surprised you didn't mention difference between palm and claw grip but either one will come to you naturally especially with todays girl mice, get microsoft intelliexplorer 3 and murk kids.
If you are not using a pirated version of FRAPS, your framerate is no longer locked and filesizes are not 4Gb ;). (Me leaping to the defence of an underrated Australian developer! :D )
Thanks for all the tips everyone, keep them coming! Articles and videos shall be made based on all of this.