[CA-T4] demo linked - please criticize. I want to improve.

[quiet_L]

If you've got some spare time, then please take a look at the following demo I recorded and offer some advice or criticism (or compliments?). This is my average, standard gameplay and performance in the higher ELO T4 matches.

I find myself trapped or cut off from teammates quite frequently, getting naded around corners, and am often just in a bad position.

At the start of the rounds I try to get to my teammates as quickly as possible before the round actually begins. A lot of the times I realize that I will not be able to make it to them before the round starts, and often have to take cover or "camp" - I don't like this. Is it a game design flaw? Map flaw? My own flaw? Is there an alternative rather than suiciding into 5 enemies from their backside?

My LG is usually a bit better than in this demo, but to my surprise my rail accuracy was above par for me on this demo. Rockets as well - I often have a LOT of problem with rocket fights. Always feels like my hitbox is larger than the enemy. Do player models really have different hitboxes? I don't even remember what my player model is.

Anyways, here's the link, any help is appreciated. Thanks

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/108111203/test.dm_73

[Lorfa]

Watched it twice superficially, here are some general things:

1. Your strafe jumping looks cumbersome and labored at times, it may interfere with your ability to get to ideal areas when spawning far away. It does interfere with your ability to get out of bad situations, as sometimes you found yourself too far into enemy territory and had to get out quickly and didn't move fast enough.

2. There's definitely a problem with your pitch movement. I might look like this if I used m_pitch 0.012. Your rockets very often overshoot (not low enough), and at one point I saw you not even trying to shoot the ground. Remember if you don't hit the ground or the side of the wall, your shot relies completely on being a direct hit, something you can't be expected to do on a regular basis.

Rocket jumps looked labored and ineffective.

It is likely that you are missing opportunities to do damage based on this pitch issue.

3. Dreadful weapon selection. When the game has many players you need to rely on general principles to get you through. Not entering a room with the rail out is a good one. A player would be close by and would cream you because at the very least your first rail shot would miss. I also saw you using the GL in an attempt to block an exit when the enemy was obviously way too close for this to work.

Your weapon selection is definitely too far biased towards the rail, and you struggle in situations that are better suited to other weapons.

Often times you left the rail or LG selected, giving off their telltale hums.

4. Atrocious awareness. On many occasions it was obvious to me where a nearby enemy was and some likely things they would do next, however you appeared not to know. As far as I could tell you had sound.

At one point you saw an enemy at small hallway, saw them move to the left out of view, and you immediately hopped over to tele exit to spam the area in front of it when they would have had to move extremely fast to get there and wouldn't have any reason to since it was a worse position for them. You still spent 3 rockets on the matter even though they weren't there :-P

However I was still happy to see this because it meant you were trying to predict what the enemy was doing when they were out of view, something you hadn't really done in the rest of the game.

So perhaps it is a lack of experience in terms of knowing how fast players are likely to move, what their likely routes would be, safe/danger areas.

5. Unhelpful to teammates. There were numerous occasions where it was obvious a battle was going on, but you did nothing to join in and help. Sometimes you tried to position yourself where you thought an enemy might escape to from the battle so that you could rail them. Often this was incorrect and so the time went wasted.

It seems like you might have an irrational fear of close/mid range battles. Not all of them are bad! You cannot hope to play well long range+rail only.

Always feels like my hitbox is larger than the enemy. Do player models really have different hitboxes?

No.

I don't even remember what my player model is.

Sarge (default).

[FunkyBendrinkin]

I want to apologize in advance because I don't want to hijack your thread but this thread finally got me wanting to learn about demos and how to watch them. I run Windows 8 and found the folder AppData/LocalLow/id Software/quakelive/baseq3. I downloaded the demo from the link in the first post and tried to copy and paste it into this folder. Then I go into the game, open my console and try to play the demo but it says it won't play. Then I go back to the folder and the demo is no longer in that folder. I found the folder to be marked as Read Only so I unchecked that box and clicked apply. It asked me if I wanted that to apply to all subfolders etc and I clicked yes. Then I click ok but when I check the properties for that folder it still says read only and won't let me paste the demo so I can watch it. What am I doing wrong?

[Lorfa]

I run Windows 8 and found the folder AppData/LocalLow/id Software/quakelive/baseq3.

Should go in: quakelive/home/baseq3/demos/

I downloaded the demo from the link in the first post and tried to copy and paste it into this folder.

What do you mean "tried" to paste it. It either pasted or it didn't, and if it didn't it would probably issue an error.

Then I go into the game, open my console and try to play the demo but it says it won't play. Then I go back to the folder and the demo is no longer in that folder. I found the folder to be marked as Read Only so I unchecked that box and clicked apply. It asked me if I wanted that to apply to all subfolders etc and I clicked yes. Then I click ok but when I check the properties for that folder it still says read only and won't let me paste the demo so I can watch it. What am I doing wrong?

There are plenty of resources online for such a problem, such as:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;256614

Google is your friend on this one, since probably a lot of people here don't have windows 8.

[FunkyBendrinkin]

I've been trying google and haven't had any luck. Trust me, I did all the research I know how to do before I came here asking questions. What I mean by "tried" to paste it is that when I click paste it shows up in the folder no problems. Then if I go to another folder and back again its not there. Or if I try to play the demo then check the folder it was pasted to, its no longer there. It looks like its pasting in just fine but it does not stay and gives no errors.

I apparently was in the wrong folder though. I went to the one marked home then baseq3 but there's no folder marked demo. Do I have to record one of my own first in order for the game to make that folder?

Anybody out there reading this forum who runs Windows 8 figure this out yet?

Thanks all.

[malk_]

yes. Record one or just create the folder demos.

[FunkyBendrinkin]

So it looks to me like I'm doing everything right except I need to figure out how to change the read only settings. Now that I know I'm on the right track I'll try to figure it out from here, thanks all. Sorry again for the hijack. Hopefully I can get this demo to play and maybe I can learn something from Lorfa's notes.

[quiet_L]

Alright Lorfa, I took your criticisms into consideration and then this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/108111203/two.dm_73
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/108111203/one.dm_73

as for your comment on my "m_pitch" - i have it at default. Although I could see how you might think I have altered it, since I had "Angle Snapping" on for my G500. (I've found this to be quite useful)

I use 1.60 sensitivity at 1000 dpi.

I have however, although I don't remember the correctly command or terminology, altered my "sway" from back and forth (not sure if this affects anything other than gun movement? please advise!) a long time ago when I saw the command in a chat. I used it, and used it, and noticed it was easier to LG, since strafing left and right had less of an impact on my crosshair.

also keep in mind i've downed a 1.5L bottle of wine tonight :|

[Cat]

as for your comment on my "m_pitch" - i have it at default. Although I could see how you might think I have altered it, since I had "Angle Snapping" on for my G500. (I've found this to be quite useful)

Turn it off. You won't be able to improve much with it on. Walking with a crutch may help you move when crippled, but once you're healed it's time to throw it away, because all it will do is hinder you.

[quiet_L]

Turn it off. You won't be able to improve much with it on. Walking with a crutch may help you move when crippled, but once you're healed it's time to throw it away, because all it will do is hinder you.

eh? all it does is help me move my mouse in a straight line easier. I can still do roughly 360 degree circles. It's been built into my muscle memory for years now