Developing Your Aim
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Join Date: 2003-10-06 Member: 21463Members
Join Date: 2003-10-06 Member: 21463Members
It seems a lot of people have what I call marine-phobia. Generally speaking, they can't play marines due to their poor aim. Some of these guys often happen to be great comms or alien players, but simply can't get the hang of marines. I've gone through the "OMG i cant aim" phase before, so here's a few tips I have to get out of it (and yes, I can aim, considerably well too <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->).
First of all, you gotta have your computer configured right. There are some things you can change which will improve your aim dramatically. Let's start with your windows mouse settings. On the mouse settings dialogue, click on the pointer options (the page w/ mouse sensitivity aka pointer speed). On most Windows OSes, there should be a part that allows you to select the level of mouse acceleration (or in the case of Windows XP, it's called "Enhance pointer precision"). Please note that this is just my personal preference, I've met people who play fine w/ acceleration on, EXPERIMENT! I don't know about most people, but I found turning mouse acceleration off helped my aim a considerable amount. It doesn't really matter what you set your mouse speed to, but avoid going too low or too high. I'm not gonna tell you what I set it personally because it doesn't matter.
The next config setting we'll change is in halflife itself. I'm not gonna explain how to change game variables, but if you don't know how PM me and I'll explain in detail. The first setting you'll want to change is your mouse sensitivity. <b>Please note that this IS related to your windows mouse settings, meaning if you change your windows mouse speed, your halflife sensitivity will be different! This is why you should NEVER set your sensitivity based on someone else! YES, I have tested this!</b> The variable is simply "sensitivity," so you can type "sensitivity 10" in the console to set your sensitivitity to ten for example. Experiment, and be sure not to set it too low on NS, as those skulks move fast. You sensitivity should be enough for you to make a 200+ degree turn with a 90-120 degree twist of the wrist. You should NEVER have to pick up your pad to turn around! On games like CS where tracking isn't so important as pure accuracy, sensitivity can be set lower (but then, I suck at CS so I wouldn't know), but on NS you want SPEED! Do NOT be afraid to experiment and NEVER set it based on someone else's settings.
There are two more software settings we'll go over -- m_filter and resolution. m_filter "smooths out" your mouse movements. I don't know about this, so experiment. Play a day or so w/ m_filter and another w/o m_filter (it takes some time to get used to new settings). I'm personally used to m_filter 0, and I'm too lazy to play around with m_filter 1.
Finally we'll get to the last, and most important setting yet, video resolution. Those of you with leeth4x $$$$ video cards that pump out 200fps w/ shadows really don't have to worry, but if you regularly get less then 40 fps, this will help (cl_showfps 1 to see framerate). Your first choice is to upgrade -- probably the best one as well. Otherwise, you need to increase your fps. I've found it considerably harder to aim with anything less then 35fps, but I don't think I'd be able to live w/o at least 45fps. You can go through the million tweaking guides on the net, which rarely work or help me any at all, or you can just go into your video settings and lower your resolution. I play on the lowest possible setting, 400x300 partly to get past the fact that my video card dramatically falls in fps whenever dynamic lights of some sort are used (flashlights, map dyn lights, welders, or phase gates.) If you're like me and have this problem, go into multiplayer->customize->Advanced Options and turn off advanced particles and dynamic lights. Currently it doesn't turn off flashlights and phasegates, but welders will finally be useable. Note that framerate is the #1 killer of aim so far! Trust me, lowering your resolution and increasing your framerate will help, a LOT!
One more thing before I move on -- hardware may be the source of your aiming problems. First of all, if you have a trackball, look at the underside and look for a lid or soemthing you can remove. Once you've removed it, take something and clean off those dirty dirty trackers! Most people know this already, but way back when, I could barely use my mouse with windows because I didn't know you could clean it! Other hardware stuff you should know include getting an optical mouse (helps a good bunch) and getting a better mousepad. I've never bothered spending $20 on a mousepad, so personally I don't know how well that would help. Perhaps someone reading this can vouch for those "superpads" they're selling over the internet.
-------------------
Whew, we're finally past the technical part. This part is somewhat simpler, and it'll cover basic field tactics, gun strategies, and ways to drill your aiming.
First of all, you've gotta learn to dodge. Those skulks are fast moving little critters, and can close the distance needed for those two bites very quickly. What you wanna do is get away from them, and obviously, running backwards isn't gonna help much. You can try to strafe around them, but most skulks will only take this to their advantage, turning around and scoring an extra bite. Instead, you have to strafe jump. It's simply really, strafe in the direction you want to go, jump, and turn your mouse in the direction or opposite the direction you're jumping towards (either one will work, but jumping "backwards" is somewhat easier). Essentially, this is a one hop bunnyhop. Because of the bhop restrictions placed on marines in 2.0, you can't do another jump until a second after. Try some tests and you'll notice this technique will get you a lot farther then a normal jump will. Once you've mastered the strafe jump, try holding crouch while doing it, to make your hitbox smaller and harder to hit.
This next part is a little more obvious, but you'd be surprised how often people forget -- ALWAYS CHECK YOUR ROOFS THOROUGHLY! It's best to strafejump into a door with your cursor aimed above you so you can get a fast lock on whatever might be waiting for you. Do this <b>every</b> time you go through a door. I've almost never been killed because I bothered to check the roof, because it's much more likely an alien will be waiting to ambush you there then in some obstacle ahead.
---------
Now let's talk about the weapons of NS. This is mostly obvious stuff that you've probably read somewhere else, but the guide wouldn't be complete without it.
Obviously, we'll start with the LMG, your basic weapon and the one you'll be spending the most time with. It's can carry 50 ammo p/clip and a total of 250 reserve (although you'll RARELY need that much, unless you're planning on shooting some buildings down. I suggest you get ~100-150). Those 50 rounds drain fast if you fire continously, so it's best to fire in bursts only when you have a sure shot on your target. If you're good enough to trace skulks, you can hold down the fire key to do some serious damage, but until then, burst fire.
Your secondary weapon, the pistol, can be just as useful. Note that I'm not the best pistol shot in the world (far from it in fact), so my word is not to be trusted here <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->. Anyways, the pistol is not automatic -- that is, you can't hold down the fire button to make it fire. You have to manually click fire each time you want the pistol to fire. The pistol can be used as a last hope close range weapon for when your LMG has ran out, or as a long range weapon to weaken your enemy at ranges where the LMG's spread will lower its damage. Don't drain your pistol ammo immediately, try to make sure each shot is sure, but don't take too much time on those skulks, when they get too close, pull out the lmg and finish em off.
The next weapon, the shotgun is a weapon for experts. Most people won't be able to do much with it, but experienced shotgunners can hold their own easily against skulks (if they're lucky). These are best used in groups, because one shot is rarely enough to kill a skulk w/o weapon upgrades. The shotgun has MUCH more spread then shotguns you're used to using in games like TFC and counterstrike, which means it'll rarely do the total 170 points of non-upgraded damage it is capable of p/ shot. Against skulks, it's best to shoot off some shots at medium range, then, when they're close enough get another shot in to finish them off. The best way to become a better shotgunner is through practice, and lots of it.
I'm not gonna bother going through the HMG, because it's very similar to the LMG (except in damage and duration) and the grenade launcher, which I rarely ever bother with myself.
---------
Woot, final section. This is short and easy -- drilling your aim. Think of drilling like piano practice, you can get it "ok," but not "perfect" without proper drilling. Drilling and constant practice can train a human to do almost anything, for example, walking on a inch of rope high above new york city, or taking down a skulk w/o wasting more then a 5 bullets. I've found that the best way to drill and find noticeable results (and by noticeable, I mean a 3-4x increase in kill ratio within a few days) is through practice with bots. Since we're talking marines here, you should consider using the alien only bot "whichbot," available at www.whichbot.com. Installation instructions are included in the download. If you have trouble or don't know how to get a game goign, feel free to reply here or PM me. Turn on mp_tournamentmode 1 (required if you want to play more the n 1v3) mp_drawdamage 1 (good to show you when and how often you're doing damage, turn this off when you've got a good idea) and sv_cheats 1 (allows you to practice w/ anything w/o having to worry about defending base, getting res etc.). Try playing a one on ten, or lower if you can't cope. If you can and know how (don't PM me about this, because I don't know how), setup a public server you can invite your friends to. It's more fun fragging with your friends <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->. Finally, the best way to drill yourself is to play with clans. Many clans will have practices in which you're pitted against players of decent to elite skill levels, and you'll learn much more then you ever will on a pub. Check out this forum's clan recruitment forum or #findnsclan on gamesnet to find recruiting clans.
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THERE! I'm done. Sorry if the quality of the post started going down around the second half, but I was trying to rush and get this thing done. I hope this post helps some of you guys with your kill ratios, and if you don't, keep practicing! That's all, Last out.
First of all, you gotta have your computer configured right. There are some things you can change which will improve your aim dramatically. Let's start with your windows mouse settings. On the mouse settings dialogue, click on the pointer options (the page w/ mouse sensitivity aka pointer speed). On most Windows OSes, there should be a part that allows you to select the level of mouse acceleration (or in the case of Windows XP, it's called "Enhance pointer precision"). Please note that this is just my personal preference, I've met people who play fine w/ acceleration on, EXPERIMENT! I don't know about most people, but I found turning mouse acceleration off helped my aim a considerable amount. It doesn't really matter what you set your mouse speed to, but avoid going too low or too high. I'm not gonna tell you what I set it personally because it doesn't matter.
The next config setting we'll change is in halflife itself. I'm not gonna explain how to change game variables, but if you don't know how PM me and I'll explain in detail. The first setting you'll want to change is your mouse sensitivity. <b>Please note that this IS related to your windows mouse settings, meaning if you change your windows mouse speed, your halflife sensitivity will be different! This is why you should NEVER set your sensitivity based on someone else! YES, I have tested this!</b> The variable is simply "sensitivity," so you can type "sensitivity 10" in the console to set your sensitivitity to ten for example. Experiment, and be sure not to set it too low on NS, as those skulks move fast. You sensitivity should be enough for you to make a 200+ degree turn with a 90-120 degree twist of the wrist. You should NEVER have to pick up your pad to turn around! On games like CS where tracking isn't so important as pure accuracy, sensitivity can be set lower (but then, I suck at CS so I wouldn't know), but on NS you want SPEED! Do NOT be afraid to experiment and NEVER set it based on someone else's settings.
There are two more software settings we'll go over -- m_filter and resolution. m_filter "smooths out" your mouse movements. I don't know about this, so experiment. Play a day or so w/ m_filter and another w/o m_filter (it takes some time to get used to new settings). I'm personally used to m_filter 0, and I'm too lazy to play around with m_filter 1.
Finally we'll get to the last, and most important setting yet, video resolution. Those of you with leeth4x $$$$ video cards that pump out 200fps w/ shadows really don't have to worry, but if you regularly get less then 40 fps, this will help (cl_showfps 1 to see framerate). Your first choice is to upgrade -- probably the best one as well. Otherwise, you need to increase your fps. I've found it considerably harder to aim with anything less then 35fps, but I don't think I'd be able to live w/o at least 45fps. You can go through the million tweaking guides on the net, which rarely work or help me any at all, or you can just go into your video settings and lower your resolution. I play on the lowest possible setting, 400x300 partly to get past the fact that my video card dramatically falls in fps whenever dynamic lights of some sort are used (flashlights, map dyn lights, welders, or phase gates.) If you're like me and have this problem, go into multiplayer->customize->Advanced Options and turn off advanced particles and dynamic lights. Currently it doesn't turn off flashlights and phasegates, but welders will finally be useable. Note that framerate is the #1 killer of aim so far! Trust me, lowering your resolution and increasing your framerate will help, a LOT!
One more thing before I move on -- hardware may be the source of your aiming problems. First of all, if you have a trackball, look at the underside and look for a lid or soemthing you can remove. Once you've removed it, take something and clean off those dirty dirty trackers! Most people know this already, but way back when, I could barely use my mouse with windows because I didn't know you could clean it! Other hardware stuff you should know include getting an optical mouse (helps a good bunch) and getting a better mousepad. I've never bothered spending $20 on a mousepad, so personally I don't know how well that would help. Perhaps someone reading this can vouch for those "superpads" they're selling over the internet.
-------------------
Whew, we're finally past the technical part. This part is somewhat simpler, and it'll cover basic field tactics, gun strategies, and ways to drill your aiming.
First of all, you've gotta learn to dodge. Those skulks are fast moving little critters, and can close the distance needed for those two bites very quickly. What you wanna do is get away from them, and obviously, running backwards isn't gonna help much. You can try to strafe around them, but most skulks will only take this to their advantage, turning around and scoring an extra bite. Instead, you have to strafe jump. It's simply really, strafe in the direction you want to go, jump, and turn your mouse in the direction or opposite the direction you're jumping towards (either one will work, but jumping "backwards" is somewhat easier). Essentially, this is a one hop bunnyhop. Because of the bhop restrictions placed on marines in 2.0, you can't do another jump until a second after. Try some tests and you'll notice this technique will get you a lot farther then a normal jump will. Once you've mastered the strafe jump, try holding crouch while doing it, to make your hitbox smaller and harder to hit.
This next part is a little more obvious, but you'd be surprised how often people forget -- ALWAYS CHECK YOUR ROOFS THOROUGHLY! It's best to strafejump into a door with your cursor aimed above you so you can get a fast lock on whatever might be waiting for you. Do this <b>every</b> time you go through a door. I've almost never been killed because I bothered to check the roof, because it's much more likely an alien will be waiting to ambush you there then in some obstacle ahead.
---------
Now let's talk about the weapons of NS. This is mostly obvious stuff that you've probably read somewhere else, but the guide wouldn't be complete without it.
Obviously, we'll start with the LMG, your basic weapon and the one you'll be spending the most time with. It's can carry 50 ammo p/clip and a total of 250 reserve (although you'll RARELY need that much, unless you're planning on shooting some buildings down. I suggest you get ~100-150). Those 50 rounds drain fast if you fire continously, so it's best to fire in bursts only when you have a sure shot on your target. If you're good enough to trace skulks, you can hold down the fire key to do some serious damage, but until then, burst fire.
Your secondary weapon, the pistol, can be just as useful. Note that I'm not the best pistol shot in the world (far from it in fact), so my word is not to be trusted here <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->. Anyways, the pistol is not automatic -- that is, you can't hold down the fire button to make it fire. You have to manually click fire each time you want the pistol to fire. The pistol can be used as a last hope close range weapon for when your LMG has ran out, or as a long range weapon to weaken your enemy at ranges where the LMG's spread will lower its damage. Don't drain your pistol ammo immediately, try to make sure each shot is sure, but don't take too much time on those skulks, when they get too close, pull out the lmg and finish em off.
The next weapon, the shotgun is a weapon for experts. Most people won't be able to do much with it, but experienced shotgunners can hold their own easily against skulks (if they're lucky). These are best used in groups, because one shot is rarely enough to kill a skulk w/o weapon upgrades. The shotgun has MUCH more spread then shotguns you're used to using in games like TFC and counterstrike, which means it'll rarely do the total 170 points of non-upgraded damage it is capable of p/ shot. Against skulks, it's best to shoot off some shots at medium range, then, when they're close enough get another shot in to finish them off. The best way to become a better shotgunner is through practice, and lots of it.
I'm not gonna bother going through the HMG, because it's very similar to the LMG (except in damage and duration) and the grenade launcher, which I rarely ever bother with myself.
---------
Woot, final section. This is short and easy -- drilling your aim. Think of drilling like piano practice, you can get it "ok," but not "perfect" without proper drilling. Drilling and constant practice can train a human to do almost anything, for example, walking on a inch of rope high above new york city, or taking down a skulk w/o wasting more then a 5 bullets. I've found that the best way to drill and find noticeable results (and by noticeable, I mean a 3-4x increase in kill ratio within a few days) is through practice with bots. Since we're talking marines here, you should consider using the alien only bot "whichbot," available at www.whichbot.com. Installation instructions are included in the download. If you have trouble or don't know how to get a game goign, feel free to reply here or PM me. Turn on mp_tournamentmode 1 (required if you want to play more the n 1v3) mp_drawdamage 1 (good to show you when and how often you're doing damage, turn this off when you've got a good idea) and sv_cheats 1 (allows you to practice w/ anything w/o having to worry about defending base, getting res etc.). Try playing a one on ten, or lower if you can't cope. If you can and know how (don't PM me about this, because I don't know how), setup a public server you can invite your friends to. It's more fun fragging with your friends <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->. Finally, the best way to drill yourself is to play with clans. Many clans will have practices in which you're pitted against players of decent to elite skill levels, and you'll learn much more then you ever will on a pub. Check out this forum's clan recruitment forum or #findnsclan on gamesnet to find recruiting clans.
-----
THERE! I'm done. Sorry if the quality of the post started going down around the second half, but I was trying to rush and get this thing done. I hope this post helps some of you guys with your kill ratios, and if you don't, keep practicing! That's all, Last out.
Comments
This is a small problem with NS. It should have locational damage... but no.
On topic: thank you very much for this guide <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> it's very nice.
Onos fighting can be done, even with a LMG (you need at least a shotty if you want a chance if your alone)... things you need:
-Quick feet
- Knowlage of the map
- LOTS of ammo
- Raised area or railing
- Pacience
- the ability not to panic
Now what your trying to do is keep that damn onos as far away from you as possible while firing at it. Almost every map has an "anti-onos" area... you just need to know wher eit is. On eclipse you may have past Station access, with it's ramp and railings... that is the perfect example of an anti onos area. Keep a little back from the rail (devour has a wonderfuly long range) and keep shooting... when he closes jump, keep switching up the directions of where your going... keep him constantly behind barriers he has to jump over (the slowest thing an onos can do) and your going to maximise your damage to him, and your life span (which is pretty short <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> )
GL HF
very nice.
Graphics cards are very seldom the bottle neck in NS.
No... I'm not anti-shotty. I'm simply not half as good with one as I am with a LMG.
red, the guide hasn't changed at all, must be just you <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->.
Something you forgot to mention in this guide is sound. A decent set of headphones is *essential* for ns - with a decent set you will instantly know where enemies are approaching you from, you can tell what type of enemy it is and you can prepare for them: when I can hear a skulk approaching me from around a corner, I often shoot slightly before the skulk is around the corner to ensure that he's being hit from the SECOND he comes around that corner. Every bullet counts when killing skulks, and if you can maintain a 100% aim they go down very quickly <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Another big part of killing skulks is to keep your distance, if they cant get near you then they can't bite you <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> Try to position yourself in hallways with good distances between you and any entrances, dont stand below vents, always check roofs, and dont go running at skulks! Let them come to you. When one does make it near you, simply do a flying jump wither to the left or the right, whip aroudn 180 degrees and blast him while hes turning around to find where you went <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Ammo is also important, all too often you see people using 50 bullets per skulk! I have a habit of keeping an eye for the "mercior killed (1)nsplayer" message in the corner so that I can stop shooting the *second* that skulk is dead - no ammo wasted. Try to reload your gun as soon as possible after killing a skulk (unless you can hear/see more), and try to do it at the end of a coridoor so you're going to have a chance if a skulk suddenly appears. If a skulk arrives mid-reload, a bind like ' bind q "slot2;slot1" 'can save your **** <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> That bind will switch to pistol and back to lmg very quickly, thus cancelling your reload.
Hope that helps y'all
Great bind idea, definately gonna put on something. Probably for z, being my q is for "moveup"(aka, staying on ceilings as skulkeh)
I see a skulk, I throw my guns down, and while he does the happy parasite dance, I either sneak up behind him with a knife or pick up my fully loaded LMG real quick. Only works once or twice though.
I've only got one thing to add. A skillful GL user is bloody deadly. Some people have the knack for aiming with that thing, most don't. It's such a fun weapon, you're missing out if you don't give it a go every now and then. I must say, the new GL model owns.
<---- 16 mb integrated. tell me it's not a bottleneck <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo-->
I've only got one thing to add. A skillful GL user is bloody deadly. Some people have the knack for aiming with that thing, most don't. It's such a fun weapon, you're missing out if you don't give it a go every now and then. I must say, the new GL model owns. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I don't like the new GL model much, too fat :\. Something slim and sexy, even if it is a GL would fit me better.
I have a question: is anyone drilling with bots like I suggested? This is probably the most important and helpful part of the post. Try it.
I have actually dropped to 4.0 fps during a welder rush before (it won't display lower than 4.0, so I was actually lower than that). I changed the one setting you mentioned about advanced textures or whatever it was, so welders shouldn't be a problem, but I am still screwed when there is a pg around (a lot worse than you Last, I think).
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You are insane! Optical mouses dominate ball mouses... Don't really know too much about cordless mouses, but I can assume they suck considering every cordless thing I've ever had was worse than hard line. In any case, I'll be killing that skulk while you die trying to clean the gunk thats restricting your movement off the mouseball.
Nice guide, I've always found hours of playing is all that really helps. I'd like to try the bots though, but I'd imagine playing against real skulks online is much better, because they have better reaction times and such.
Congratulations(comiserations?) you are one of very few using integrated video when a descent card that will pwn at HL and can play halo fully well (without most of the eye candy) costs something like 40$ <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->.
And if you have something as bad as 16 MB integrated video, the processor will hardly be all that great either, right? Have you tried actually increasing the resolution and seeing what happens to your framerate(using 'cl_showfps 1' or 'r_speeds 1' in conjunction with 'developer 1')?
Lowering the resolution allways helps alot if you are graphics card bound, 'gl_texturemode gl_linear_mipmap_linear' is allmost free on most non-antique cards. At low resolutions it might be quite redundant having high resolution textures, you can try gl_max_size 128 (no textures larger than 128 units, 512 is default in NS(256x256 textures are common, larger textures exist but they are few), you will need to restart the game or something for changes to take effect), I think it might help(again, if it doesn't, 256 is better looking and if it's free...).
b. a common mistake for skulking is to jump when you get mid-to-close range. This just puts you INTO the rines crosshairs. Instead try to side-jump onto walls, and when you ge tto the rine, only jump b4 biting if he hasnt got a lock on you. otherwise just circle-strafe his feet.
<!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo-->
------------ <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif'><!--endemo-->
<!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif'><!--endemo-->
but i do think your fps calculations are off by quite a bit. i have a gf4mx440 and i get a constant 90 fps with the resolution set to 1280x960 and 2xAA and 32bpp color. i could go higher than 1280, but then everything on the hud gets too small for my taste. but framerate does depend on your processor, to a point. i had the same card in a p3@550mhz and was getting around 18fps on the crappiest settings possible.
Hey it costs ~40$ and it is roughly an overclocked geforce 2 in terms of feature set <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->. That's not low end that's very low end in my book.
constant 90 fps in 1280x960 and 2xAA and 32bpp color?, I doubt that with 2x AA, you would probably get 90 fps _most_ of the time though.
When I say constant I don't mean most of the time, I mean _all_ the time, even in a firefight amongst a massive turret farm with 5 onoses(no not oni, onos does not end with 'us' <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->) and lots of umbra. I have a gf4 mx440 laying around and I have tested it quite extensively with a p4C 2.8 GHz(CPU bottlenck not too much of a worry), in order to get constant max framerate I had to back down to 800x600, it would occasionally(allthough seldom) dip down a bit in 1024x768.
AA takes a large performance hit on a gf4 mx440, and at that resolution I doubt you will see much benefit from it(unless you are really allergic to those jaggies, it is a matter of taste though, I'm much more allergic to framerate dips and frame tears from turning of vsync than almost anything else). Have you tried running with 2x AF instead of AA? At high resolutions texture filtering becomes increasingly important(as you are able to see more detail) and AA less important(as those jaggies get smaller) to see which one you like best? I hope you are using 'gl_texturemode gl_linear_mipmap_linear'...
I have actually dropped to 4.0 fps during a welder rush before (it won't display lower than 4.0, so I was actually lower than that). I changed the one setting you mentioned about advanced textures or whatever it was, so welders shouldn't be a problem, but I am still screwed when there is a pg around (a lot worse than you Last, I think). <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Turn off dynamic lighting, but phase gates can't be disabled yet. Multiplayer -> Customize -> Advanced Options -> Dynamic Lighting.
c0mplex: Letting them come too close and shooting works most of the time, but because of the huge spread of the gun, it's quite common for close range shots to not be able to kill the skulk. That's why I suggest weakening them some from medium range before waiting for a close range shot. That, and good skulks will move unpredictably and make it VERY hard to get a proper shotty lock on. Try leading (moving your cursor ahead of) those skulks. Your second tip makes a lot of sense tho <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->.
P.S. I own jek.
not trying to start something, but my computer is entirely different from yours. i think the fact that i have a 3200+, 512mb of pc3200 and the mx oc'ed to 321/445 play a significant role. but its only halflife, so its not like i need a 9800pro. i'll wait until (if) hl2 comes out to upgrade.