Xonotic Quick Cup #7 (Duel/Beginners only)

Yeah, uh, if the match stops it'll record your menu until you run out of disk space or you wake up

Oh god, really?! I have to resort to something like "sleep 240m && pkill xonotic-sdl" then

The end of your video file will be corrupt then

It would be nice to have some sort of hook in the engine to stop recording when the demo ends...

The end of your video file will be corrupt then

Well I don't care about the end as long as the rest of the video is okay. Anyway, I found another solution now. (Thanks halogene! )

It would be nice to have some sort of hook in the engine to stop recording when the demo ends...

+1 !

Can you explain the other solution?

Can you explain the other solution?

Haha sure, it's not really a solution though - I just asked halogene if he could capture a video of my demo

<facepalm> ;-D

I think none of the real noobs in the tournament were able to time items. And even without the need to time items it would be hard enough, as you can see from results like 14-0. Why not put spawn timers on the mega health and armor next time, like for power ups? That could close the skill gap a bit.

Can you add 20+30? If your answer is yes then you are able to time items in Xonotic. There is no magic behind this.

100 health / 100 armor / 50 armor / 25 armor: 30 seconds respawn time
Weapons: 10 seconds respawn time
Everything else: 15 seconds respawn time

Timing the 30s items will be fine for most players and that's something everyone can do.

BUT: We can give it a try if you want. Could make it voteable on one of my servers. I'm just unsure if it would promote bad habits.

I think the deal with beginners is that they are too busy running around, not getting fragged and mabe even getting some frags in than to count or watch the time on screen. But your definition of a beginner is probably different than mine.

I think you underestimate the players who took part in the beginners cup. There are newbies who try to time items, and I don't really want to punish them by nullifying their efforts. Xonotic duel already is very aim heavy.

I think the deal with beginners is that they are too busy running around, not getting fragged and mabe even getting some frags in than to count or watch the time on screen. But your definition of a beginner is probably different than mine.

Full ack! I can only talk for myself, but for me it's true what you said: Normally I can time at least some of the important items, but when I play against people that are far better than me I'm too busy dodging rockets, not getting lost on the map and trying to guess where my opponent is than to watch the clock in between. Additionally I don't know all the routes and item positions on the map yet. That means I not only have to time them, I also need to find my way through the map to grab them.

But both skills hopefully improve over time, at least I think I'm doing a better job now than at the beginning

I would recommend not to look at the clock for timing items. Just try to estimate when the 30 seconds are over. It's usually that you run away from the mega once you took it, visit one or two places of the map, do a little bit of fighting and get back to the mega. If you've done that a couple of times, you'll start to feel it in your guts slowly. Like you run around the map and suddenly some little voice in your belly starts saying "uhm remember that yummy mega you/your opponent took? Let's have a look if it is already respawned.". Just listen to that voice, and you'll be fine. You need to train it a bit of course. But you'll have troubles getting that right if you only look at the clock I believe.

I would recommend not to look at the clock for timing items.

Of course, I didn't really mean "looking at the clock", I meant more like being diverted enough so I can't remember which item respawns next. But like you say, with more practice on the maps it should become more natural to me =)

When I'm winning easily the megas are always up when I think they are, always.

And if I play against a very good player all megas just seem to not spawn at all...

That's just how it feels for me.

Maybe the spawn timer even helps to get a feeling for the timing. Hard to say, Xonotic is the only game that features such an indicator. It would remove some complexity that could be added later when fighting gets better. Some noobish aid for the noob cup.

Isn't it also a bad habit to just press jump to gain speed, instead of pressing jump and wiggling around with left+right+mouselook like a pro?

Left right mouselook movement is just because it looks.and feels awesome, it doesn't give all that much advantage if you can do that (I have it but I'm a noob in duels).

And a spawntimer wouldn't help all that much, timing is already easy enough, I don't think you would really watch the timer
But if you want to learn timing, listen to Halogene's advice.

And a spawntimer wouldn't help all that much, timing is already easy enough, I don't think you would really watch the timer

You can't ignore a huge waypoint.

Well, if we get the same sort of timer for megas as the quad that is true. But I wouldn't learn anything from it.

And it would take away my excuse to suck at dueling

To be fair, you seem to rarely practice duel at all Micha. If you want to play a new mode (I think you come from minstagib?) you should at least try to learn it and not demand changing it for everyone so quickly. Duel is the formula 1 of Xonotic and there are also plenty of modes where one doesn't need to time items.

you should at least try to learn it and not demand changing it for everyone so quickly.

You only need to learn to time one megaarmor/health that already helps quiet a lot.

What might still help a newbie to get the feel of timing an item without too much diversion (yep, sometimes it can take away precious attention if you look at the clock) is to enter the hud editor, and move the clock right next to your hp/armor counter.

What might still help a newbie to get the feel of timing an item without too much diversion (yep, sometimes it can take away precious attention if you look at the clock) is to enter the hud editor, and move the clock right next to your hp/armor counter.

having learned duel from the most basic level just a few months ago, i found i had a much easier time (haha) after my clock was moved and enlarged. my hud pretty much matches srkdy's: http://www.srkdy.com/wp-content/uploads/...-17-95.png