Quake Tips?

[Ashy]

1)Find a mouse sensitivity which allows you to track decently AND move smoothly at the same time. I can not stress this enough: smoothly.
Bonus points if it allows you to do quick 180° turns as well. The default sens (4@400 dpi) is pretty decent to most people and offers a good start, but anything in the 15-30 cms/360 area is doable.

2) learn how to strafe and circlejump: don't play a single game until you're able to complete at least lines 1-2 of any strafe jump practice map (in QL: raztrainql_beta3 in Q3 defrag: tr1ckhouse_beta3, xcm_tricks2 and so forth).
In raztrainql_beta3, instead of doing strafe lines you could simply run from the wall of the 1st line to the wall of the last line: it's easier to check your mistakes, no downtime, and you should get a final speed of at least 900/1000 ups.
Use cg_speedometer 3 to check your speed.
Learn both single beat strafejump, double beat and half beat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeFRaG#cite_note-21

Good places in QL maps to train circlejumps:
-Campgrounds: from side to side of the Red Armor stairs (easy)
-Hell's gate: from a side to the central bridge above the void; difficulty changes depending where in the side of the map you start
-Almost Lost: from the "above central jump pad area" to the edge where Mega Health respawns (easy/medium)
-Vertical Vengeance: inside the central "building", on the level where the jump pad is (one level above the ground), from side to side (medium -)
-Furious Heights: in the Red Armor area, from the 50hp bubble ledge to the pillar in front of the bubble, or from the same edge to the Rocket Launcher pillar (medium+)
-Fatal instinct: in the central area, from one pillar to another. (very hard)

There are more places, find them out by yourself.

2b)
Rocketjumping.
I can't help you here, all it takes is practice.
(/Devmap campgrounds,/god, /give all, /addbot bones 5, play)

3) Once you're familiar with movements, and feel ok with your sensitivity, work on your cfg.
Find the settings that help you most,graphics, crosshairs and so forth.
Check "the ultimate quake live guide" for help.

Spend a day or two experimenting with different values for the cvars, find a combination that you like, stick with it.
Starting a cfg from scratch is technically better but harder, I'd suggest downloading Stermy's/Noctis'/Fox's cfg and start from that, or try other players' as well.
http://configs.eu/quakelive/

Bind everything. Every single weapon.

A good, clean cfg really makes the difference.


4)Now you're ready to play. Practice a lot. A lot.
A.
Lot.
It's normal to be bashed at first, everyone of us has been utterly destroyed in the first weeks of quake (and sometimes still is).
The correct mindset here is being grateful everytime you lose, since you have a chance to learn something new and improve,instead of having a futile ego burst.

Learn what Positioning means.
Always move, never stand still.
Focus on dodging instead of aiming. (This is very important, in warmups sometimes try to shoot as less as you can and instead focus on dodging everything).
Mix up your dodge patterns: alternate between small dodges with medium pattern dodges (left right leeeft right left riiiiiiiiiight left riight leeeft right left riiight leeeeeeeeeft etc)

Rocket Launcher: aim at the feet. Don't jump against it. Dodge with +back and +forward as well, instead of +left and +right only)
LG: dodge first (you'll see the enemy beam on the screen, watch its pattern and move accordingly), don't jump, don't take jumppads, abuse line of sight to your advantage
Railgun: wait for the enemy to go into your crosshair, not viceversa. Don't track the enemy directly, simply follow him with your crosshair until he changes the dodge direction and gets inside your crosshair.


Play different gametypes to hone different skillsets

Clan Arena: rocketjumping+aim (+positioning)+teamplay
Duel: timing, positioning, reading your enemy, movements
CTF: timing, movements
Instagib: rail practice
TDM: harder but better than CA, although you rarely find a server.


I have to go now,i'll finish this later

[Ashy]

///TIMESCALE///--------------------------------------------------



bind n "vstr timedown"
bind m "vstr timeup"



seta timeup "vstr time5"
seta timedown "vstr time3"


seta time9 "timescale 3.0;set timedown vstr time8;set timeup vstr time10;echo ^7Time ^1x3.0"
seta time8 "timescale 2.0;set timedown vstr time7;set timeup vstr time9;echo ^7Time ^1x2.0"
seta time7 "timescale 1.75;set timedown vstr time6;set timeup vstr time8;echo ^7Time ^1x1.75"
seta time6 "timescale 1.50;set timedown vstr time5;set timeup vstr time7;echo ^7Time ^1x1.5"
seta time5 "timescale 1.25;set timedown vstr time4;set timeup vstr time6;echo ^7Time ^1x1.25"
seta time4 "timescale 1.00;set timedown vstr time3;set timeup vstr time5;echo ^7Time ^1NORMAL"
seta time3 "timescale 0.75;set timedown vstr time2;set timeup vstr time4;echo ^7Time ^1x0.75"
seta time2 "timescale 0.50;set timedown vstr time1;set timeup vstr time3;echo ^7Time ^1x0.50"
seta time10 "timescale 100;set timedown vstr time9;echo ^2Time^1x100"
seta time1 "timescale 0.25;set timedown vstr time0;set timeup vstr time2;echo ^7Time ^1x0.25"
seta time0 "timescale 0.10;set timeup vstr time1;echo ^2Time^1x0.10"





Put this into your cfg/autoexec.

Watch your demos and use it to slow down the demo time, allowing you to analyze better.

Try playing some clan arena (use cg_drawfriends 1 to see where your teammates are), and watch those demos after.
Slow down time during fights, try to understand how you could have played better, try to notice where your mates were and how you could have helped them more.

Play some duels (it's going to be painful, don't worry about that and remember about that positive mindset) or just some 1v1 clan arena with a friend (the better he is, the better for you, try asking on irc or add me) and ask your enemy to give you his POV demo.

Watch it, slow it down during fights, notice how you are predictable whilst dodging, (or your routes in a duel).
Now watch your demo, and do the same.

After you've done this, go find some pro players demos. There's plenty of those.
Not videos on youtube but real demos, so you can slow them down.
You might find lots of duel ones, which isn't bad at all, since you'll be able to notice their positioning before/during fights, thetiming, the routes, and so forth.

Repeat the process. Analyze those demos.
When you watch a duel tournament stream (dreamhack incoming in a couple of days, you might want to check that out), try not watching the items respawn times, but do it in your head.

Join very difficult servers and spectate, notice how good players play.


And again, practice practice practice.
That's mandatory for quake and for everything else in this world in order to get better.
You'll feel frustrated at the beginning, but that's natural: generally speaking, if you manage to overcome the first weeks of quake, you'll be rewarded with countless hours, days, even years of fun, and automatically get better in every single other fps game there is.

Hope this helped, if you have any question feel free to add me in-game.

[eduguy]

Thanks Embrosio

[eduguy]

It forces you to predict where your shot should go before you shoot.

It causes you to be more familiar with your sensitivity since you are constantly comparing your turns with their intended target.

It helps you to focus on dodging between the reload time.

It helps foster an ideal mental approach to hitscans as the difference between them and the projectile weapon RL is felt in a unique way.

It gives your opponent less information to dodge your rockets with since you won't necessarily be looking where you are going to shoot in advance every time.

Are you still joking?

[eduguy]

Thanks for the comprehensive guide ashy.

[inertiacreeP]

Are you still joking?

nope, i don't think he is. those tips are valid.

[eduguy]

Should I do that or only for the first while?

[Cat]

If hitscan is what you want to learn, read my written LG tutorial and watch my railgun video. When you reach a more advanced stage and wanna go even further you might consider taking a peek at my LG video as well, though be warned as I didn't plan out that video very well and it drags.

[inertiacreeP]

take whatever advice makes you most excited to play and focus on that.

if you try to do everything everyone's telling you all at once, you'll have too much to juggle. master one thing at a time, or a few, and once they're automatic, move onto something else.

most important advice, have a good attitude. good advice for life in general, IMO.

""I appreciate a game where the guy who is 1% better than me can make me look like a nobody. And I appreciate that, me as a competitive gamer, when I lose that game, I appreciate the game being that demanding on skill every moment, that it entices me, it encourages me, and motivates me to want to play more because you want to see what you're capable of."

That quote is from 2GD, who was a pretty high ranking player.

[Cat]

If you want my advice, start by focusing on movement, then aim, then timing. Movement is the baseline required to compete at anything above a beginner level, so learn this first. Aim will let you win fights, so this is the second bit you wanna learn. Timing is what separates the amateurs from the pros, and it's also the thing that takes the most practice and dedication to learn due to the level of multitasking involved in keeping track of your opponent, aiming and doing arithmetic in your head, all the while you're desperately trying to keep the next item time from leaving your short-term memory, so leave that for last.