A little more in-deph guides/tutorials/tips/hints on being awesome at the game?
Annoctatio
Finland, Tampere Join Date: 2015-06-01 Member: 205131Members
Finland, Tampere Join Date: 2015-06-01 Member: 205131Members
Hello!
So, my question regards to the a little bit more in-depth quirks of this game.
For example, I just today was reading old posts about the mechanics in the game, and I happened upon a Moderator/Developer post that mentioned "Lerks take less damage if you hit them in the wings", which was completely new information to me.
After further reading about more info about the inner workings of this game, I saw the old video that told me that as a marine, you move slower depending on what weapon you're using, and what you're carrying.
Now, I am not a pro player, but whenever I play anything I like, I strive to be at least good at it. To be good, you have to fully understand how stuff works, and knowing all the tidbits and small niche strategies can make a world of difference (see StarCraft II Blink Stalker projectile evasion, Zerg Extractor trick, Warp Prism / Medivac micro etc.) and generally help you become better easily.
So, I'd like you to post all sources of information, whether it be your own info from game experience, developer posts, patch notes or YouTube tutorials/guides. Anything goes.
If I get enough responses, I'll probably edit most of the information on an informative post, which I will be reserving right below this one.
Thanks in advance!
~Annoc
EDIT:
I thought I should give some starter points for people to explain the current metagame of the game.
Last night, I was playing a game as a Marine. I heard our commander speak about certain strats, and if the Kharaa did this or that, we should do that or this. However, he said something that stuck to me quite hard. "If they are really rushing shade tech, they're doing a great disservice to themselves." then, a couple minutes later we found some shaded Skulks. The question is, "Why is rushing Shade a bad strategy?" The obvious answer is, "Because it delays their other tech" but I'd like to know what tech is essential for the early/midgame of the Kharaa, if Shade isn't a viable tech?
Another one; As a Commander, what are my main priorities when choosing "build order" (I don't really believe that is a viable term in NS2, but I'll use it anyways) on either side, Kharaa or Marines? I've seen most Commanders on Marine side rushing Weapons #1, but I've seen a couple Commanders rush Armor #1. Which is more commonplace, or generally stronger, and why is it stronger? (Again, I am aware "If you can't hit shit, then armor is better", but I'm looking for specifics. Weapon damage tables, Skulk damage tables, ie. "With Armor #1 you survive X amounts of Skulk bites, whereas with no armor ups you survive only Y".)
I hope I am making sense here, as I am reading my own text I seem to be confusing myself as well.
So, my question regards to the a little bit more in-depth quirks of this game.
For example, I just today was reading old posts about the mechanics in the game, and I happened upon a Moderator/Developer post that mentioned "Lerks take less damage if you hit them in the wings", which was completely new information to me.
After further reading about more info about the inner workings of this game, I saw the old video that told me that as a marine, you move slower depending on what weapon you're using, and what you're carrying.
Now, I am not a pro player, but whenever I play anything I like, I strive to be at least good at it. To be good, you have to fully understand how stuff works, and knowing all the tidbits and small niche strategies can make a world of difference (see StarCraft II Blink Stalker projectile evasion, Zerg Extractor trick, Warp Prism / Medivac micro etc.) and generally help you become better easily.
So, I'd like you to post all sources of information, whether it be your own info from game experience, developer posts, patch notes or YouTube tutorials/guides. Anything goes.
If I get enough responses, I'll probably edit most of the information on an informative post, which I will be reserving right below this one.
Thanks in advance!
~Annoc
EDIT:
I thought I should give some starter points for people to explain the current metagame of the game.
Last night, I was playing a game as a Marine. I heard our commander speak about certain strats, and if the Kharaa did this or that, we should do that or this. However, he said something that stuck to me quite hard. "If they are really rushing shade tech, they're doing a great disservice to themselves." then, a couple minutes later we found some shaded Skulks. The question is, "Why is rushing Shade a bad strategy?" The obvious answer is, "Because it delays their other tech" but I'd like to know what tech is essential for the early/midgame of the Kharaa, if Shade isn't a viable tech?
Another one; As a Commander, what are my main priorities when choosing "build order" (I don't really believe that is a viable term in NS2, but I'll use it anyways) on either side, Kharaa or Marines? I've seen most Commanders on Marine side rushing Weapons #1, but I've seen a couple Commanders rush Armor #1. Which is more commonplace, or generally stronger, and why is it stronger? (Again, I am aware "If you can't hit shit, then armor is better", but I'm looking for specifics. Weapon damage tables, Skulk damage tables, ie. "With Armor #1 you survive X amounts of Skulk bites, whereas with no armor ups you survive only Y".)
I hope I am making sense here, as I am reading my own text I seem to be confusing myself as well.
Comments
In my opinion to become better in NS2 you don't need to know all the details about numbers, techpathes and so on. I have played in top premier division teams and I honestly admit, that without playing the game right now I don't know:
- how much health/armor the lifeforms/marines/structures have
- how much dmg the weapons exaclty do
- how long it exactly takes to research certain upgrades or build certain structures
Those are just some examples and I think stuff like that is what you are searching to improve. I honestly think this is all theory crafting and will not help to improve until you have reached the highest level of play, where every little single thing can make a difference (like losing one more stalker when playing PvP in SC2).
If you really want to improve, work on your gamesense, mapawareness and positioning. Learn the role of the lifeform you are playing at different times/situations of a match. Every time you die ask yourself what you did wrong and try to focus on not making the same mistkes again. I don't know how many hours you spent with the game, but to become really good it needs some time and experience. And that you just get from playing.
You trade either extra speed or health/regen (which gives you a direct combat advantage with any lifeform through evasion/taking more bullets/healing or simply not having to go back that often) for either silence (& "invisibility", unless you're playing comp mod), or aura.
Aura is pretty much obsolete in the early game. Marines can't turn invisible, and if you have your lanes covered and your skulks using parasites then there's likely no marine movement on the map at all which you're not aware of anyway. Plus having that fancy little health indicator which tells you if your target is low or not... skulks are pretty disposable, and you shouldn't do those engagements anyway when you could be munching on a resource tower instead.
Silence and Invisibility are easily countered by player skill and don't rely on the marine tech. Good marines aren't that easy to ambush, and even when being invisible, your movement makes you show up on the minimap to marine players or the marine commander.
Good read if u can stand the smell of cheese.
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/134339/kind-of-guide
(see OP / page 1)
I highly recommend lowering your sensitivity depending on where you currently are:
High sensitivity is about 2 to 4 inches per 360
Medium sens is about 5 to 9 inches per 360
Low sens is about 10 to 70 inches per 360.
You measure your sensitivity by placing a ruler on your mouse pad, going in-game, aiming somewhere you can remember, and measuring your mouse while doing a 360 degree turn. Using low sens, your arm rotates at the shoulder and elbow, resulting in more accuracy and less fatigue compared to mainly using your wrist and a high sens to do both broad and minute adjustments. You'll need a large mouse pad if you go this route and a quality mouse with a high polling rate (500 or 1000 hz) is a given for any sensitivity. In order to go low sens, I recommend taking baby steps at first so that you can get used to the increased strain on your arm. Make changes to either your in-game sens (console [opened by pressing ~] command is setsensitivity #) or your mouse DPI level when needed. I like to keep my in-game sens around 1, which is something I picked up from another forum member (possibly elodea). An extremely high or low in-game sens might adversely affect the engine's sensitivity calculations, but this is just a gut feeling I have rather than fact (would be nice if a CDT dev could check for us). Your mouse might have an "optimal" DPI level or it might not matter, so check online. Going low sens takes a lot of getting used to and may result in much frustration due to the new muscle memory that you're instilling. If you persevere, you'll eventually track skulks like a boss (30%+ accuracy as marine). Good lerks and fades are a different story due to their unpredictable movement and huge bursts of speed, respectively, but you should be able to track them well when they get lazy or during their retreats at the very least. If you've already reached low sens, you should probably stop lowering it once you have trouble keeping your crosshair on a target while running around it. Just for reference, my in-game sens is 0.86 and my DPI is 1400 on marines, and this results in a 13 in/33 cm per 360 sensitivity. I've gradually gone from high to medium to low sens over a number of years and I haven't looked back since.
As you gain experience in the game, challenge yourself by either finding servers with good players on it or play on increasingly larger servers. The former can provide you with direct examples of good play that you can emulate and you can ask the vets for advice. The latter can really hone your aim since the number of engagements increases. If you feel as if you can be an asset to your team by killing, then actively search out engagements and really grind that muscle memory in. Remember to open your map every few seconds or whenever you finish an engagement. Being a good player doesn't just mean having excellent aim, although it certainly helps (lol). You should never run out of something to do since the majority of people these days will neglect duties (welding, building, saving RTs, etc.) and smart play (re-positioning in order to pick off lit lifeforms, sniping upgrades, ninja PG, facing entrances while building, etc.) in favor of mindless pushing. If you keep these things in mind while honing your aim, you'll eventually pick up that game sense that tells you what to do and when to do it without always having to rely on the comm for orders.
Make sure to install NS2+ if you haven't already. It packs a ton of settings that you can happily customize to meet your needs.
Know that I spent like 30 minutes writing a reply to all of you, but after pressing "Post Comment" it didn't show up. It didn't even save as a draft.
Here's a TL;DR version of it:
Thank you guys so much for these answers! Playing the game yesterday seemed to yield a lot better results already. Adjusted my DPI (average accuracy increase ~5%), improved my awarness and general gamesense and lots of minor things (like thinking "Should I run to that corridor? There hasn't been any Marines around there for a while. Should I scout it?" etc.), read some strategies (importance of sound, general good strats on NS2_Tram (which should give me a bit of idea on what to watch out on other maps)...
Just overall a lot of minor improvements that seemed to give a major effect in my gameplay.
Again, thanks a lot guys!
That is where shade tech is strong and can easily make up for sacrificing other tech routes.
If a commander can cast (2 tres) multiple hallucinations on coordinating skulks exactly before they enter the room, it is often far more effective than level 1 regeneration. Goodluck pulling this off in an uncoordinated public match, however.
Other than that everything else that's been said regarding focusing on the big stuff, the meta game, the timing, positioning and awareness.. Is far more impactful and useful than knowing the hidden mechanics. (there is a old forum post titled hidden mechanics, should you still want that micro knowledge)
However this is a monumental and probably insurmountable task for volunteers. We might as well ask them to rewrite the rendering pipeline for Vulcan and add HMD/VR support while they're at it. Basically I just made a useless post that should have been saved for the ns3 forums.