(09-10-2010, 08:33 AM)Duke Wrote: The expert vs newbie problem should be addressed through basic player education, not nerfing the weapons or movement which reduces game depth. Perhaps, we need a list of "Top 10 Things" you need to know to be a good player...and have it appear everywhere.
The parts which you can learn relativly fast to be a good player only by practicing:
- Aiming
- Timing
- Movement
- Positioning / Map knowledge
Things which come from experience:
- Decisions: I think this is one of the hardest parts. At the beginning of the map you allready have to make a decision how to get the most of your startspawn while keeping in mind where your oppenent could be and what he should do. Time to make a decision, while you have a lot options. There are always decisions to make withing seconds. Is it better now to have a better position on the map or to hide now? Should you defend your own flag now or attack the enemy flag? Is it good to fight head to head for the powerup or should I stay back and spam the spot to do at least damage to the enemy. Is it OK to take these armor shards (+5armor) to boost your own stack while giving away your position to the enemy (the sounds). A good player will always choose one of the better decisions he could make and rarely a bad one. Everthing below are part of decision making.
- Be one step ahead of your enemy (i.e.: if he knows that you go always that route to get the next powerup, but you also know that he knows it, you take this time another route to surprise him)
- Knowing your enemy Health/Armor pool. (especially for 1on1 and 2on2) Is it worth fighting or better to camp a bit in the current situation.
- When to attack: Is it a good spot to chase him? This also comes to the position, as he might do on average 200dmg to you while you only make 130dmg to him to get the frag. The decision now to make is if it is worth the frag in exchange for the damage you get. Sometimes it is also OK to suicide when you do a lot more damage to your opponent and therefor get the opportunity to fight for the next big powerup which will spawn in the next seconds (so called timing attacks).
- What is the weapon of choice at the current spot. You will always be in situations where you have some weapons. As an extreme example, it is of course not the best idea to use the rocketlauncher on a very open part of the map where your oppenent is far away, even worse would be to try it with the shotgun secondary
. But there are a lot of spots on maps where you can put out a bit more dmg on average with one weapon over others. Here is the next decision to make. Always use the best or second best weapon at that position. The choice of weapon will definitve get better with experience and mapknowledge. It also depends on your aiming. When you just cant hit with the nexgun, then it would be better to use the MG(secondary) or Rifle for that fight, because it is the best weapon for you in that situation.- Knowing your enemy weapon pool. When you know what weapons your opponent got, you can also chose the perfect spots to fight him.
- Know about your enemys weakness. Are you better on longrange fights (Nexgun/Rifle) or in head to head fights with projectile weapons against this opponent.
And about "in-game depth". I think that it is always limited by the gameengine (weapons, physics, movement, trick/laserjumps) and maps (rooms, corridoors, edges, chokes, entrances etc.). The word limited is not bad in any means, otherwise there wouldnt be any tactical advantages. But there are also maps with to much limitation, i.e. eggandbacon. There isnt to much depth in it.
I think I missed a lot of other things which are very important. But thats something to start with.
