04-02-2015, 08:37 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-08-2020, 01:59 AM by BuddyFriendGuy.)
Hi all,
What am I trying to do?
I'm using this thread to keep a list of things I (as a newbie player to Xonotic) learn about this game from various sources, including other generous players, folks in this forum, the internet, etc. I had only played one other FPS game (World of Padman) before, and have found that, many things that are obvious to experienced players, may not be so for me.
The idea is: the process of documenting my journey as a newbie may be helpful for the official documentation.
I'll probably write a new post to this thread here whenever I learn something new, but I'll try to edit this first post of the thread to include new information for your convenience.
There is the excellent Halogene's Newbie Corner, and it contains a ton of very useful information for a beginner to become a better player. Here I'm listing things that's either not in Halogene's guide or is misread by me (and is probably going to be misread by other beginners). I don't intend to replicate the existing documentation out there, but I'm sure there will be some overlap.
By the way, two other guides you shouldn't miss:
Hopefully at some point, these pieces of information can end up being included in the Wiki.
Where did I learn various things?
Weapons
Items
HUD
Movement
Hooking Techniques
@Luigi kindly and patiently showed me these tips and techniques on his server. It was very illuminating!
Game Modes
Specific Maps
General Game Playing Tips
Recording Gameplay
I found it very educational to record the gameplay for later reviewing. The best way for me so far, is to record all games as a demo file, and if there's a publish need, convert the demo into a common video format.
To automatically record every game play: Multiplayer -> Demos -> Auto record demos.
You can play the demos in this same menu. The demo files are relatively small (a 10-minute game produces a 5MB file for me). This wiki article has details on where the files go and how to convert them to common video formats.
Antibody also writes a blog post about compiling highlights.
Other Tips
What am I trying to do?
I'm using this thread to keep a list of things I (as a newbie player to Xonotic) learn about this game from various sources, including other generous players, folks in this forum, the internet, etc. I had only played one other FPS game (World of Padman) before, and have found that, many things that are obvious to experienced players, may not be so for me.
The idea is: the process of documenting my journey as a newbie may be helpful for the official documentation.
I'll probably write a new post to this thread here whenever I learn something new, but I'll try to edit this first post of the thread to include new information for your convenience.
There is the excellent Halogene's Newbie Corner, and it contains a ton of very useful information for a beginner to become a better player. Here I'm listing things that's either not in Halogene's guide or is misread by me (and is probably going to be misread by other beginners). I don't intend to replicate the existing documentation out there, but I'm sure there will be some overlap.
By the way, two other guides you shouldn't miss:
- Fisume's Xonotic CTF guide is another helpful one on how to be a good team player online.
- Halogene's Basic basics, or what I wish someone had told me half a year ago is a great example of me not RTFMing.
Hopefully at some point, these pieces of information can end up being included in the Wiki.
Where did I learn various things?
- First of all, there's an outside Wiki that has some very nice information that's not available yet in the official wiki. I've found it quite helpful. (See my discussion with Mr. Bougo about potentially porting the contents back to the official place.)
- Another great source is this forum itself. Well, you already know this since you are reading it.
- I actually learnd most of the things in the game from other players. A very special thank to -z- (and FireClaw and too many others to include) who warmly welcomed me and spent a lot of time answering my questions and showing me how to do things in the game.
- I heard that the QuakeNet IRC Network and freenode are where many experienced players hangout, but I haven't used IRC for more than 2 decades so I can't share much about it yet.
- -z- and other players had shared and exchanged a lot of valuable information in the Nexuis days. Much of it still applies to Xonotic.
Weapons
- Ammo: There are only four types of ammo in the game: shells, bullets, cells (think battery cells), and rockets. Different weapons can share the same ammo. For example, both Motar and Hagar use rockets as their ammo. It wasn't obvious to me because in the other FPS that I played, each weapon has its own specific ammo. The wiki page on weapon lists all the weapons and their corresponding types of ammo.
- Tuba: See this thread about the details. I like the humor here a lot. It affects the projectile -- I take it means the tuba's high amplitude and low frequencies would bend the air space so much that bullets cannot fly straight through it.
- Weapon switching: When two or more weapons occupy the same shortcut, pressing the shortcut switches among them. (For example, Tuba and Laser both use "1" as the default hotkey.)
- When pressing the bind key of the weapon that I don't have yet, its location will show in the HUD. (tip from -z-)
- Remember to try the secondary fire on weapons (tip from -z-)
- When other players start making sounds of pain, it means they are almost dead. Attack! (tip from -z-)
- When using Mortar, aim at the enemy's feet. It's mentioned in Halogene's Newbie Corner, but I didn't quite understand why. -z- and Freat explained to me that, ideally, I want the rockets to directly hit the enemy body, but since I don't aim well, by shooting the rockets toward the enemy's feet, even if I miss the feet, the rockets will explode on the nearby ground, still causing damage. -z- also recommends comboing, with an alt fire Mortar followed by a primary fire, to create more damage.
- Hook: @Splat showed me that you can shoot the hook at another player and drag that player around. That player can then use the laser to shoot at you to untie it.
Items
- Buffs are relatively new so they are still changing. Mario provided this doc for the SMB mod.
HUD
- The 6 icons in the spectate mode are useful to see what keys other players are pressing. See the picture for what they stand for. (thanks @Skiddzie)
spec_icons.png (Size: 114.42 KB / Downloads: 420)
- I had problem knowing which team I belong to in the beginning of the game, especially when the scoreboard has too many players. @sev pointed out that the info is right on the HUD.
Movement
- To climb a ladder, look up and go forward. I had tried jumping frenetically in vain.
- I noticed most players just keep holding the jumping key most of the time.
- -z- showed me how he uses laser to gain speed, with 3 very fast actions in a row: turn back, shoot on the wall (or the ground) in the back, and then turn forward again to continue. He uses this to outrun other players to compete for, say, a Mega Health item.
- One gets a bit of speed burst when doing a little turn and jump from a stopped position. (tip from -z-)
- Sl@va showed me to use the console command "slowmo 0.5" to practice movement at a slower speed. Super helpful!
- Gandalf showed me that an effective strafe movement requires smooth mouse movements. I was turning my mouse abruptly and that slowed me down.
Hooking Techniques
@Luigi kindly and patiently showed me these tips and techniques on his server. It was very illuminating!
- In CTF, you can laser shoot a dropped flag from under the surface. The impact of the laser will throw the flag up into the air. This is particularly useful when your flag is on the edge of some surface and you want to return it to the base by dropping it into the void.
- When you shoot your hook onto a wall, turn the mouse so that you don't face the hook itself -- instead, keep an angle between the hook/chain and the front view. For example, if I shoot my hook to a wall on my northeast, I want to face and move toward north. In practice, one shoots the hook to the northeast wall, let go of it, and then shoots the hook to the northwest wall, let go of it, and then shoots again on another wall on the northeast, while moving north.
- @Luigi also gave me a practice tip: shoot the hook at some high and thin tower, and practice moving around the tower by changing the front facing direction (by combing the mouse and the strafe keys).
- When landing, shoot the hook slightly in front of the landing point. That pulling keeps one fast and low.
- However, when using the hook to gain speed, remember to let go of the hook immediately. Otherwise, it slows one down. @Luigi described it as a .0000001-second hooking. In practice, his fast movement consists of jumping and many many 0000001-second hooking. The important part is to let go of the hook immediately.
Game Modes
- -z- recommends sharpening one's skill with a game of just two players. It's a more purer environment to establish one's hiding, moving, defending, and attacking strategies.
Specific Maps
- f4cing_worlds is a map remixed by -z- in Nexuiz days. It has 4 bases. When I played this map, there were only two teams, so each team has two bases to protect, and the enemy has two bases to steal from. I was very confused when I was watching the flag and my team kept scoring somewhere else. (thanks, -z-)
- gasoline_powered_3team is a map for a 3-team CTF in Xonotic. (thanks, -z-)
General Game Playing Tips
- -z- recommends keeping the health and the armor at least above 100 at all times. They can go up to 200 so whenever possible, stock up. He priorotize armor over health if he has at least 50 health points. For me, I deinitely need to have more than 50 to survive any encounter.
- -z- suggested that I think about how I move in a map. Move towards to an item that I want to have and don't want my enemy to have.
- Crouching and moving side-to-side is a good way to distract other players and make it harder for them to hit me. (tip from -z-)
Recording Gameplay
I found it very educational to record the gameplay for later reviewing. The best way for me so far, is to record all games as a demo file, and if there's a publish need, convert the demo into a common video format.
To automatically record every game play: Multiplayer -> Demos -> Auto record demos.
You can play the demos in this same menu. The demo files are relatively small (a 10-minute game produces a 5MB file for me). This wiki article has details on where the files go and how to convert them to common video formats.
Antibody also writes a blog post about compiling highlights.
Other Tips
- To call a vote, use the console command 'vhelp' to learn about various voting options.
- In chat, I can use TAB to autocomplete a player's ID. For example, if I type "-" and hit TAB, it'll become "-z-" (if he's in the game).
- The game stats website is a good place to see the history of each server, each game, and each player.
- BlaXpirit's Console Tips & Tricks has some advanced info on console commands.