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Subject: IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS - must read!! Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:49 pm
Introduction
“I know how to shoot, you just press the left mouse button!” Well, no, you don't. Know how to shoot, that is. Jump in your pub of choice and you will find that many—if not most—players are completely ineffectual with their guns. To be fair, maybeyouknow how to shoot, but you just aren't doing it, and could use a reminder. In any case, aiming and shooting (note the differentiation) are not particularly hard concepts, so I'll take a stab at writing a guide about how to properly operate your assault rifle.
Your goal when engaging an enemy is to deliver as much damage as possible, as quickly as possible. Drawn out firefights waste ammo and leave behind crippled players. You want to live, but you have to get greedy and make it a goal to live a productive life after firefights. The longer a firefight goes on, the more damage is dealt, and being severely wounded means you have to wait for a medic or play cautiously. Dying to get full health is rarely the best idea, so you need to shoot proficiently enough to not only kill more than you die, but to end firefights quickly without taking heavy damage.
The process of killing someone with your gun consists of two parts: aiming (acquiring your target and keeping a bead on them as you shoot) and shooting (making bullets leave your gun in a controlled fashion so as to manage recoil and spread). Aiming is easy; you've been doing it for years. Every time you click an icon or select a form field, you're using aim. Tracking a target is not something you do much every day outside of gaming, but it's really just acquiring the target over and over, and/or moving your crosshair at mostly the same speed as your target in order to stay on them. This is very easy to do, but much harder to do quickly and precisely. Improving your aiming ability takes practice, and there's no way around it. We will discuss how to remove as many barriers as possible, but at the end of the day, if you need to improve your aim, you have to put in the hours.
You also have about a 200 ms delay between seeing a target and your fingers responding. This is known as your reaction time, and isn't something that you can improve all that much. What your reaction is carries much more importance than how quickly you can react. Flailing your mouse wildly accomplishes nothing, while a smoothly controlled snap to your ambusher's head will definitely not result in the scene they imagined. Smart play can make even the slowest reacting player a dominate force, and really, being capable of split-second snaps gets you only so far. This idea of calm, controlled play is something I want to take care to emphasize. It is the foundation of being an efficient killing machine in almost every FPS game.
Shooting is the main thing we're going to focus on. I simply can't tell you how to aim because you already know and your only path to improvement is practice. You might have bad habits, you might have a Fisher Price mouse, you might be playing with settings that are crippling your natural ability; I can tell you how to become aware of those things and fix them. But I can't write words that make you faster at snapping to center mass or unerring in your tracking of a flag runner. Aiming is largely muscle memory. You play and play and play and one day realize you aren't thinking about what you're doing, but are consistently landing on center mass with your crosshair before you even realize you've processed what's going on. You're probably at that stage already; it doesn't take long for the brain to adjust to using a mouse on a computer screen, and FPS games draw on the same parts of the subconscious brain for muscular movement. In the same way age brought speed and consistency to your printing or fluidity and confidence to your walking, you will become faster, smoother, and more accurate with aiming the more you play. Still, there are definitely things you can do to make this process much easier.
Before we get into the actual guide, I'll do a quick breakdown of the contents: Introduction What you just finished reading.
Aiming Where to aim, how to optimize the aim you have right now, and tips for getting the most out of practice time.
Shooting -- Why? Why you need to control your shots. Accuracy and the impacts of deviation and recoil.
Shooting -- How? How you control your shots. When to control your shots.
Setup -- Hardware Some advice on mice and mousepads.
Setup -- Urban Terror Sensitivity, mouse accel, DPI.
Closing Some final words and credits.
Aiming
There's not a whole lot I can write that makes you better at aiming. You'll either be good enough at aiming that you will benefit a lot from learning to shoot properly, or you'll need more practice with aiming before you see a significant difference. The number one tip I can give any player is the following: When you aim, you should be watching your crosshair, not your target. Focus your eyes on the crosshair, not your target; more specifically, focus at the exact center of your crosshair. Focusing on the target is, I believe, a sort of default for most people. If I am not consciously telling myself to watch the crosshair, I revert to not really noticing the crosshair. Depending on how strong your aim is, it's not going to make a huge difference, but there are definitely moments when focusing on the crosshair will be the difference between missing a shot and getting the kill. For players trying to improve their aim, I consider it essential to watch your crosshair at all times. For players working on their shooting, it's also essential, because you want to concentrate on fire control techniques without worrying about your aim being less than its best.
Quote :
pro tips Consistency is important; find a sensitivity you like and stick with it. -GlaD-solitary
I want to touch briefly upon sensitivity (/sensitivity in the console), but only due to its absolute importance in aiming. I will discuss the finer points (as well as closely related topics like DPI) under the “Setup -- Urban Terror” section. What I will discuss right now is adjusting sensitivity to correct bad habits. Bad habits are things you consistently do that cost you time in acquiring your target. Many of these things can be suppressed through practice, but you can immediately eliminate most of the common problems by raising or lowering your sensitivity. The most common I have seen are: overshooting, undershooting, and unsteady aim. Playing back your demos (especially with fractional values for /timescale) can be immensely helpful in identifying flaws in your aim.
Overshooting can be recognized by your crosshair passing its target before reversing direction. This is caused by using too high a sensitivity and/or mouse acceleration. When I use a high sensitivity, I notice I tense my hand more than is comfortable; you may also do this. Lower your sensitivity until you can comfortably snap to a target without flying past it.
Undershooting is the opposite—your crosshair moves less distance than you intended. It can be corrected with the opposite prescription: a higher sensitivity.
Difficulty staying aimed at a stationary target is caused by your hand moving when it shouldn't be. It may be an unconscious habit or perhaps you've had too much caffeine, but you can correct this to some extent by decreasing sensitivity. Train yourself to hold your mouse still when you're engaging a target. If clicking causes your mouse to move, the mouse may be too light.
I can't emphasize enough that you should not constantly change your sensitivity and other mouse settings. It's difficult to develop muscle memory when what you are trying to “remember” is constantly changing. Furthermore, I'd estimate it takes at least a week or two of playing several hours per week to adjust fully to a large change to your mouse. Having a string of off days is also a routine part of any activity, and when you're trying to fine tune your game settings, you want to limit the variables. Pick something and stick with it until you're certain it is or isn't working.
A common topic of discussion is what part of the body to aim at. Head? Torso? I like a balance of both: upper chest. Aiming for the head is hard because it's a small target. It's also a one-shot kind of deal—miss a few rounds and you'll need to let your recoil and spread drop before firing another burst. Aiming at the chest gives you a nice, meaty target that will be in your sights for a much longer duration of full-auto fire, but you're going to be doing a lot of vest and arm shots. Aiming at the upper chest combines having a large target with the chance of “random” helmet and head shots as your spread increases under sustained fire. Recoil works for you as well: your crosshair inches upward as you hold the trigger down. I would estimate approximately 10-20% of my shots land on the helmet, and I do not try to aim for it. If I aimed for the head, perhaps I'd be hitting more headshots, but how many more shots would I miss?
Quote :
pro tips Have a rough idea of your reaction time so that you can lead shots around corners without having to adjust your mouse too much when the enemy comes into view. -iCu*tarquin
Even when you're not engaging an enemy, you need to be conscious of where you're aiming. I see a lot of players who run around, looking at the ground. This is a bad habit that needs to be broken. Not only do you limit your view (even if you're only missing out on a bit of sky), but you also add extra distance to every snap you make. If an enemy pops out from a corner, you have to look up and move to aim at him. The more directions you have to move your mouse, the more miscalculations you can make. Keep your crosshair at eye level. You should be preaiming at possible points of ambush as well. This guide isn't about game sense and awareness, but it bears mentioning. Smoothly sweeping between doors, windows, and boxes is an important part of mouse control.
That's all good advice, but what is the best way to practice? You're looking for one thing: lots of targets. TDM and CTF are the best, since you get to respawn. FFA isn't bad, but you spend a lot of time dead from people spawning behind you, and there's also the nagging issue of a complete lack of FFA servers. CTF servers tend to have higher skilled players, but there are more TDM servers and TDM players out there. Make it your goal to just run around and kill people without regard for your score. Don't be afraid to try something new; nobody cares about your score. This advice applies for practically anything gun-related you want to practice.
Shooting -- Why?
Now that we've covered aiming, it's time to address the second part of the killing equation: fire control, or “shooting.” I call it shooting because that's what you're actually doing. Whatever you call it, it involves controlling the release of bullets to keep a lid on spread and recoil (climb). Put simply, don't spam. Spread and recoil are collectively referred to as deviation, since bullets will deviate from your intended target. More than lousy aim, poor shooting is the number one offense of bad players. Think of every shot as carrying a probability of striking its intended target. Each successive shot decreases that probability. Chain too many shots together and you might as well be going “pew pew pew” behind your monitor for all the damage you'll do.
So what exactly are spread and recoil? Spread is the measure of the circle your bullets will land in when you shoot your gun. Aside from the sniper rifles, no gun in Urban Terror is perfectly accurate. When you fire a bullet, the game will randomly place it within a circle. The radius of this circle is unique to each weapon, but most weapons share a similar trait: the radius of the circle grows with every successive shot. That means your bullets will land, randomly, in a bigger area. Your target is a relatively constant size. As the circle grows larger, there is more area in the circle that doesn't contain your target. The circle's size also scales with distance, so a far away target is harder to hit, all else equal. A circle's area grows at twice the rate of its radius: double the radius, quadruple the area. Spread is impossible to compensate for due to its random nature. You just have to make sure it stays at manageable levels.
Recoil is the vertical climb your weapon experiences as you hold down the trigger. Recoil is the lesser of the two evils, and is easy enough to compensate for by dragging your mouse downward as you shoot. It seems to only work in one dimension, so it doesn't introduce any deviation to the left and right. That's not really important, though, considering any amount of recoil where this would be an issue would be accompanied by significant spread. An interesting side effect of recoil is that bullets have a very high tendency to land above your crosshair with sustained fire. Keep this in mind for situations where spam is necessary.
Recoil and spread both decrease with time (“cooldown”). They appear to decrease at a constant rate down to a minimum level (recoil to zero, spread to a very low, but non-zero, value), so simply letting off the trigger is the fastest way to get your gun accurate again. There is no timer before either begin to decrease, so you aren't penalized for firing your gun as quickly as possible (beyond the normal increases in spread and recoil). Crouching decreases the minimum spread, spread added per shot, and recoil added per shot. Jumping and sprinting increase the minimum spread, but I do not believe they affect per-shot increases. Cooldown rate does not appear to be affected by stance. Most guns appear to have a maximum spread they can achieve, and all guns are limited to 90 degrees upward recoil.
Controlling your spread and recoil is all about controlling probability. A tight spread circle and low recoil mean you're sending more bullets where you want them to go. Keeping distances low also keeps effective spread low. What you are going to be developing is the instinct to control the timing of your shots to control spread and recoil. Different ranges call for different timings.
Shooting -- How?
Knowing you need to keep a lid on bullet deviation in order to actually stand a chance of hitting something is all well and good, but how? That is a difficult question to answer definitively, so I want to instead teach you techniques that will allow you to judge how quickly you should be unloading your magazine in a given situation. First, though, we need to quickly cover some basics. Firing one bullet at a time, allowing for a pause (however slight) between shots is referred to as tapping, since you are just tapping the left mouse button. Bursting refers to firing multiple bullets with one pull of the trigger before letting go and allowing a pause. This has nothing to do with the “burst” firemode on most weapons; automatic is the only setting you should ever use. Spamming is shooting without regard for deviation, and typically involves very long bursts, beyond what would be considered an efficient use of bullets.
The following is a video demonstrating each technique.
As you can see, each has its uses. Up close, spamming (sometimes called spraying) is more than capable of mowing down a fleshy target. You'd be suicidal to try tapping out shots at such a close range. Tapping will always be the most accurate (although not perfect, as demonstrated in the video), but you are making a trade between speed and accuracy that may not always play to your advantage. Spamming is often derided as an unskilled action, but that's only because too many players make it their main method of attack. Knowing how to time your shots, and when, is the mark of skill.
You may have already worked out a rough idea of what sort of control certain distances require, but now is the time to really examine what's going on with deviation and distance. Using a crosshair that shows spread is essential. No crosshair perfectly represents the size of the circle your bullets can land in, but we're just looking to observe the general pattern. Pull down your console and enter/cg_drawcrosshair “7”. This crosshair will expand as you continue firing, giving you an idea of how much spread your bullets are subject to. I find the inner area of the crosshair is a relatively good predictor of where your bullets will land, but don't rely on it. Instead, use feedback from how well you are landing hits to decide when it's time to let off the trigger and wait for the deviation to decrease before firing again; the spread-responsive crosshair is there solely as an aid to this process.
What you are really trying to do is to develop an instinctual feel of when to let go of the trigger. This isn't something that's easy to do, so you should also be paying attention to what the game is telling you. When you land a hit, a message appears in the top left, and you will hear a bullet hit sound if you're not really far from your target. This sound changes based on the enemy's health as well as where you hit them. Arm shots sound different from vest shots, for example, and a nearly-dead enemy makes a distinctive sound. These sounds also give you feedback about how to handle the situation in terms of aggressiveness; a lone enemy who sounds low on health is a prime candidate for rushing, but that's beyond the scope of this guide. This auditory and visual feedback—or the absence of it—is one of your best ways to know when you're hitting and when you're all of a sudden not hitting and need to back off.
While every piece of computer hardware affects your gameplay, we are mainly concerned with the mouse and its oft-paired friend, the mousepad.
Mouse Your mouse is the most critical piece of hardware when it comes to gaming. The goal is complete familiarity with your mouse; a mouse you don't even realize is there is doing its job perfectly. To this end, the mouse needs to be responsive enough to not suffer from skips, jitter, and really just any sort of imperfection in its translation of physical movement to cursor movement; predictable behavior is crucial. Any decent “gaming” mouse will achieve this, although reading reviews is not optional. Laser versus optical depends on your surface; optical mice require a mousepad to perform their best, while laser mice work well enough on almost any surface. DPI is mostly marketing hype, although as such, you are unlikely to find decent mice in the sub-2000 range these days.
The most important aspect of a mouse, besides sensor quality, is its layout and physical size. A mouse that is awkward to use will never be something you fully adapt to, and therefore will not become, effectively, an extension of your hand. I strongly recommend strolling into a local big box computer store and trying a variety of mice (particularly ones you might be interested in buying). Prices are generally much better through online retailers, but you're buying blind. Your grip style determines what size of mouse you need. There are three grip styles I have identified after some research.
The palm grip features fully extended fingers with the palm in firm contact with the rear part of the mouse. This style is suited to large mice and, perhaps, small hands; my fingertips contact the mousepad when I try this with my Logitech G5, and that isn't the daintiest of mice. I am not sure how practical this style is or if it's even widely used. Nevertheless, “palm grip” is a widely known term, perhaps used when referring to what should actually be called...
The fingertip grip could be likened to a palm grip minus the palm. The mouse is held with fully extended fingers, with the option of light pressure from the base of the thumb and little finger for better control. Your palm has no contact with the mouse, allowing for a considerably lighter feel, and hence much quicker movement. I would consider this to be the “natural” way to hold a mouse, particularly since most people's first experience with mice involves those tiny 3 button mice, which lend themselves perfectly to this style. The fingertip grip works comfortably with almost any mouse. The base of your hand rests on the mousepad and does not move, which could make this style unsuitable for players who prefer very low sensitivity.
The claw grip is a contracted palm grip, with the fingers poised over the mouse buttons in a clawed stance. The advantage of this is a tensed stance for better reaction times, and a full range of control as your hand is not serving as a pivot (a la the fingertip grip). I find this style horribly uncomfortable, but for a low sensitivity player, it is superior to the palm grip, since smaller mice can be used and, subjectively, less downward force is exerted on the mouse.
Your style of grip is a personal preference (and obviously one that can change), which is why I recommend testing mice in person. Reviews are helpful to find out common flaws with a mouse, but there is a severe lack of professional, in-depth mouse reviews, and an even severer lack of ones that are actually useful. Brands to look at include Logitech, Microsoft, Razer, and Steelseries.
Mousepad “Mousepads? You mean those tiny plastic squares that went out of fashion 10 years ago?” Yes, mousepads. Although modern optical and laser mice work fine on the vast majority of surfaces (save for glass) without a mousepad, a mousepad is designed to be what your desk was not: uniformly reflective. Optical mice especially do not like shiny surfaces, and will not track at their best on the typical laminated desk. Laser mice are less fussy, but as suitable mousepads can be had for around $10, there really isn't a reason to not have a mousepad.
Mousepads come coated with a variety of materials, with aluminum, plastic, cloth, and Teflon being the most common. Typically cloth mousepads are soft and flexible, while aluminum is necessarily rigid. Plastic tends to be reserved for cheap garbage from Walmart, although “plastic” is hardly a well-defined category. Aluminum (and other rigid materials) pads offer a smoother surface than cloth, and there are even a few with a Teflon coating for next to zero friction (especially when combined with Teflon mouse feet, a common feature on gaming mice). So why consider a cloth pad? Price. Fancy aluminum pads can run $40 or more, while a large cloth pad like the Steelseries QCK can be found for under $10.
Is a $10 mousepad good enough? I think so. A glance at Razer's site shows they sell an aluminum pad with a super smooth surface designed for “high precision,” but positioned next to it is a “roughened up” mousepad with a crystallized coating for “enhanced pointer precision.” Clearly there is no “best” design for a mousepad, so why buy into a game of marketing? A cheap cloth pad gives you a more uniform surface than most desks and will reduce friction.
Setup -- Software
We will focus on two areas: operating system tweaks and Urban Terror.
Operating System Whether you run Windows, OS X, or Linux, there is present an insidious force, scheming to make your mouse unpredictable and uncontrollable: mouse acceleration. Mouse acceleration takes the form of a non-linear response curve for your cursor in relation to the physical movement of the mouse, which causes cursor's on-screen movement to scale with velocity. Essentially, if you move your mouse 5 centimeters in 5 seconds, your cursor will move less distance on-screen than if those 5 centimeters were covered in 3 seconds. Many, if not most, gamers find this an unnecessary feature, and counterproductive in developing muscle memory. It's better for your muscles to “map” cursor displacement to one dimension rather than two.
How to effectively kill mouse acceleration depends on your mouse (specifically, the drivers) and operating system. Most gaming mice have driver software that includes an option for completely disabling mouse acceleration.
Windows users can also use what is popularly known as the “CPL Mouse Fix.” The CPL Mouse Fix replaces the default mouse response curve with an almost linear one; apparently it's difficult to create a completely linear curve with Windows. Download CPL Mouse Fix Note the Windows 7 fix depends on your text DPI (Control Panel -> All Control Panel Items -> Display). I could not find a Vista-specific fix, but I recall the XP fix worked well enough on Vista. Ensure you are using the “6/11” sensitivity setting, which is the default. Do not enable enhanced pointer precision.
Under OS X, mouse acceleration can be disabled with the following Terminal commands: defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1 defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.trackpad.scaling -1
How to go about disabling mouse acceleration under Linux depends on what version of X you are using, and I recommend simply Googling “disable mouse acceleration linux” to find a working solution.
Urban Terror Settings The most relevant commands are /sensitivity and /cl_mouseaccel. The latter is quite obviously mouse acceleration, and should be set to 0. Sensitivity, on the other hand, is perhaps the command that varies the most between players. I gave /sensitivity a brief treatment in the Aiming section, and all that I said there still applies. /sensitivity should be adjusted to fix problems with aiming at a target, and afterwards left alone; it's not a command to change just for the fun of it, at least if your goal is to get better at slaughter.
Although not inherently bad, the default /sensitivity of 5 may not be optimal for your mouse. I said /sensitivity should be changed only if you have a problem with it, and that again holds, but changes in /sensitivity are relative; the absolute value, and therefore the “range” of values available for you to use in dialing in an ideal final value, should be set according to your mouse's DPI. Most, if not all, gaming mice are marketed either exclusively or primarily on their DPI, so finding your mouse's maximum DPI should prove easy. Users of non-gaming mice can turn to Google and perhaps find an answer, but typical office-use mice are in the 400 DPI range.
“Hold on a minute! What is DPI?” DPI, occasionally written as PPI or CPI, stands for dots per inch, and is a measure of how many pixels your cursor moves when the mouse is moved one inch. Some modern gaming mice claim upwards of 6400 DPI, and if you really analyze what that means in relation to your monitor's resolution (a typical 24" monitor is 1920 pixels across), you see how impractical that would be—moving from one side to another of said 24" monitor would require a mere 0.3 inches of movement, or around 7.62 mm, which is, coincidentally, the diameter of an AK-103's round. How is this solved? With a software setting known as sensitivity, which is not unique to Urban Terror; Windows has it, as does almost every game ever made.
Urban Terror's actual calculation of mouse movement involves several variables, but I will first explain why a higher DPI is good, why it's irrelevant in Urban Terror, and therefore why it's permissible to skip discussion of those aforementioned variables. A high DPI is good because it allows for greater levels of mechanical precision in a practical amount of space. Holding sensitivities fixed, the lower your DPI, the greater the distance you must move your mouse to move the cursor a given distance, and thus the greater your accuracy will be. I'm using accuracy in a general sense here—reaching a target, and not necessarily a virtual soldier in Urban Terror. As with most things in life, the slower you do something, the less mistakes you'll make. The problem is that a low DPI requires more physical movement of the mouse to traverse the screen, which means you need a lot of desk space.
The thing with DPI is that it's theoretical. No, the sensors work just fine and probably are able to detect movements as small as 1/6400th of an inch in order to allow you to stop on any of the 6400 pixels the cursor will flip through in that inch of mouse travel. The problem is actually getting it to stop on exactly the right pixel. I am confident in saying that there is no person alive with the manual dexterity to achieve such a task. Making the mouse's response coarser, either by reducing the DPI or lowering sensitivity, allows for greater precision, despite the loss of mechanical precision. After all, computers follow the mandate of “garbage in, garbage out.” Feeding your 6400 DPI sensor rough movements will give you rough aiming if you don't tune the mouse for more human levels of performance.
My advice? Set your DPI so it's comfortable for every day tasks without adjusting your OS's mouse sensitivity setting. If you have drivers that allow application-specific DPI, set DPI as high as you can, adjust /sensitivity in Urban Terror to something that makes crosshair response reasonable, and go from there in fine-tuning to correct for bad habits. At the end of the day, remember that you're not a pro gamer, and that Urban Terror rarely presents single-pixel-wide targets. Extreme mechanical precision just isn't necessary in Urban Terror. High DPI is good, but I suspect it has very little importance in Urban Terror, and indeed I follow none of my advice. Take this advice, and my guide as a whole, as just that—advice. Advice serves merely to validate those who proffer it.
But wait, there's more! That thing—the crosshair—that we have been so focused on dragging over targets can also be customized. Urban Terror offers several crosshair styles through the menu and also allows for different sizes (scale) and colors. Size can be adjusted with /cg_crosshairsize “x”, where x is a number. Color can be changed with /cg_crosshairrgb “x x x x”, replacing each x with a number between 0 and 1. The fourth value is opacity, and should be left at 1. The first three values correspond to amounts of red, green, and blue. Setting all three to “1” produces white, while all three at “0” produces black. Remember that a value of “0” is the absence of that color, so “1 0 0 1” produces red, while “1 0 1 1” produces purple, and “0 1 1 1” produces yellow, for example. Finding a distinctive color that stands out on all maps and player colors isn't easy; remember, you can use more than one color!
10 TIPS TO INCREASE YOUR ACCURACY Accuracy is crucial in FPS and Urban Terror is no exception, especially with such a fast gameplay. You will increase your accuracy as long as you play but here are some tips wich might be very helpful if you are a beginner but also you can find some intresting tips also if you are a more experienced player. Let’s get some more headshots! 1. CHANGE YOUR CROSSHAIR SETTINGS Your crosshair is very important. Many players will tell you to choose the dot and to choose it as small as possible. Unfortunatly the dot can’t give you feedback about the accuracy of the weapon you are carrying, especially when you are shooting. Choose instead a crosshair that resizes its arms depending on the current accuracy. Refer to Don’s post about hud settings to choose the correct crosshair. 2. SHOOT IN SMALL BURSTS If you use a crosshair that gives you feedback about the current accuracy you will notice that almost every weapon looses accuracy even with a very small burst. The longer the burst the less accurate it will be. Also you have to wait a bit after shooting to let your aim recover as you will notice by your crosshair. 3. TRY SEMI-AUTOMATIC ONCE IN A WHILE Another training method is to play once in a while with semi-automatic. This means you will shoot just one bullet every time you click the fire button. This will make your shoots more accurate but also will force you to adjust the aim more often, just like when you shoot with the DE or the Beretta. When you will get back to full Automatic you will naturally make shorter bursts and you will adjust aim more often and fundamentally hit more bad guys. 4. ADJUST YOUR AIM SETTINGS We didn’t covered them up yet but there are a lot of aim settings that you can set via console and configurations files. If you aren’t familiar with them just consider sensitivity for now. Try lower the sensitivity as far as you can. To see how high is your current sensitivity just type \sensitivity in the console. It will give you back the current value. I used to play with a drammatically high value and i lowered it a lot. I lowered it about 7 or 8 points less than what I had previously and helped me a lot. By doing that you will make more wide movements with your mouse to let’s say turn corners and walljumping but you will have more control on both moving and still targets. However a post about aim settings is coming, so don’t worry. 5. USE THE REMINGTON SR-8 I can’t tell you how much the Sr-8 helped me to increase my accuracy. Not with the Sr-8 itself but with all the other weapons. Why? Well if you are a beginner with the Sr-8 you will find yourself hitting rarely and being killed a lot. Fail will help you. One of the fastest way to take down a sniper is to rush on him as Tarquin pointed out in his post. If you see somebody rushing on you you will likely pull out your secondary weapon or your sidearm. As we pointed out secondaries are not that accurate and sidearms are quite hard to use. Using the Sr-8 will force you to use both secondaries and sidearms a lot and since they are not so accurate you will adjust your aim more often to take down some bad guys. Probably this will get you a bad score but don’t worry. When you will get back to autos you will naturally have a better aim and also you will learn to use perhaps one of the most powerful weapons in Urban Terror wich is the Sr-8. 6. AIM AT CORNERS AND HIDING SPOTS When you walk don’t point your weapon at the floor. Not even right in front of you. You should always point your gun at where you think that enemies will come out: corners, hiding spots and so on. This is very important since you will spend less time adjusting your aim to shoot at enemies. This ability will come along as you get familiar with the maps and as you play. 7. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING Be councious of what you are doing. When you face an enemy not just shoot but mentally stop for a second and think. Counciously think: «Ok I’m facing an enemy, I must look for an headshot/I must shoot at his torso». Aim for the torso or head (better). Also consider your opponent’s equipment. If you see that he has helmet and no kevlar just aim for the torso instead of trying the headshot. If you are getting too much legs shots that means that you are aiming too low. Being aware of what you are doing will make you focused. And with better focus comes better aim. 8. TRY THE COUNTER-STRIKE METHOD As explained in this post, the Counter-Strike method will help increase your accuracy and creativity. 9. WATCH YOUR MOVEMENTS To avoid bullets often players tend to jump sideways. This might be helpful but especially when you are out of stamina or you have your legs bleeding this might be very hard. Try instead to move sideways randomly. Also depending on your weapon consider moving towards your opponent to have better shots (for example you have to be at point-blank distance to deal high damage with the SPAS). 10. TRAINING Aim is one of those things that will come along with time. If you are very talented (or you have a lot of time to waste play) you might get this skill very quickly. In other cases it might take time, but the more you play the more you will increase your accuracy and skills. Have some more tips? Tell us in your comments! These comments might go in a future post about some more tips about aim and accuracy!
6 TIPS TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR RADIO
The team radio in Urban Terror is fundamental to coordinate between teammates and is crucial to achieving victory in possibly every game mode. We already discussed it and we talked about useful radio binds, but today we are going to take it a little bit forward. Here are a few tips to improve your binds to make sure you get the maximum effectiveness possible. 1. USE ONLY NECESSARY BINDS Use only the fundamental binds. Do not confuse your teammates with unuseful binds. To make sure you have the proper binds at the right moment, consider making two or more configurations depending on the gametype you are going to play (eg. one config for Team Survivor and another for CTF). For example in TS things like “Enemy Spotted” and “Enemy Heard” are fundamental, consider things like “Flank ‘em” and “I’m Flanking,” but pass on binds like “Stick with me.” In CTF binds like “Flag Exiting…” is very useful but “Enemy Spotted” isn’t. 2. DON’T WRITE UNNECESSARY THINGS Don’t write things that are not necessary within your radio calls. The voice is already telling the command (like I need a medic) and most of the time knowing how much you are hurt isn’t necessary. Also I couldn’t care less about how many rounds are left in your magazine or where the hell you are. Less is more. For example, never use $location in your binds. Your current location is already sent in every radio message in white. Or again if you have to use “Enemy Spotted” just bind $crosshair, so the voice will say “Enemy Spotted” and your teammates will see on video just their location. Don’t be redundant. 3. UNBIND THE FUNNY STUFF Don’t waste keys to bind “Nice One” or “Good Job Team.” You can just write “n1″ in the team chat. This will also feel more personal and boost the morale in the team. Also in Clan Wars don’t waste time with “Thanks” or “Sorry about that” or “No problem” or whatever… mistakes can happen and healing somebody is just ordinary business. 4. HAVE THEM AT YOUR HANDS Some binds should as near as possible to WASD so you can use them without thinking. I’ve binded my radio calls from 1 to 0 (since I bound the weaponselsewhere). 5. USE COLOURS Use colours to increase readability. Remember: the less time you take to decrypt a message, the faster you will come back to thinking about shooting. Don’t make a rainbow. Only a few colours. (Example my “Enemy Spotted” has the $crosshair in red). 6. AGREE TO BINDS WITH YOUR CLAN Take your time to open up a topic in your forums and to make a lists of binds that are absolutely necessary to everybody and to explain what to do if somebody is giving an order using the radio. For example agree with your clanmates that “Incoming” means: “Everybody get here asap.” Got more suggestions? Share them in the comments! Do you use the radio or you prefere Mumble or Teamspeak? Tell us why!
KEY MAPPING BASICS
There are a couple of things that you should do as soon as possible. One is to bind some radio messages, and we’ll talk about this in another post. The other is to map your keys effectively. I found the basic configuration a bit frustrating and very uncomfortable, also it doesn’t look like any other configuration from the modern FPS. Luckyly you can change it. The following is my key map. I found it to be very good. It can be a good starting point to you to improve it further and further. (I have also big hands so you might wanna do some changes if you have small hands.)
Click to enlarge
If it isn’t clear here are the keys: W,A,S,D: Movement Q: Healing E: Action (like open doors) R: Reload F: Gun (or Pistol) G: Grenade Z: Knife X: Firing Mode (like switching to burst) C: Crouch V: Toggle Primary/Secondary weapon (you have to manually bind this). -: Drop Weapon +: Drop Equipment I left out all the radio binds and message binds, since there will be a whole post about it. What is your configuration of keys? Share it with us in the comments! 10 TIPS TO BECOME THE PERFECT MEDIC
I’M NOT A DOCTOR… BUT I PLAY ONE IN URBAN TERROR! One of the most unique things in Urban Terror is the medkit. Since this item takes up a slot in your inventory that could be used for armor or add-ons for your weapons… why do many people choose to take it? The ability to quickly heal your teammates to nearly their full health in a couple of seconds can make the difference between winning and losing the game. This article will give you some guidelines for how to be a good field medic and be the MVP of your entire team. A few basics about the medkit. The medkit is an item that is always active when you have it equipped. It allows you to bandage faster on others as well as yourself, about twice the normal speed. With the medkit you can restore a teammate’s health to 90% of maximum rather than the 50% that you can without. Because of the faster healing, you are also more likely to survive massive damage by bandaging more quickly to stop blood loss. Also, if you have a medkit and someone else doesn’t, they can still medic you to 90% just as if they had one, albeit slower. But there’s more to being a great medic than just slapping on a medkit. Being a good medic as well as being a good patient takes skill. So here is a list of things to think about when playing doctor.
Be aware of your surroundings. This is probably more important for the medic than any other player. You not only have to watch where you are, the enemies are, but keep an eye on where your teammates are and what their health is. Whenever you hover your crosshairs on a teammate you will see their name and a bar showing their health. A good medic shouldn’t have to get a call for help to know when a teammate is wounded. If you are in a safe location and they have low health, a medic call symbol over their head, or you see them limping and bleeding… heal them by going over and holding the bandage key.
Medding makes a lot of noise. Be aware of this. A good opponent with headphones on will be able to pinpoint the sound of a medic working a mile away. This can be an easy double kill for someone and they will usually hunt you down. If you are in a bad situation, do a series of smaller meddings. Run up, tap bandage, and back off to take a look around putting; some distance between you and your teammate. This will keep enemies from easily hitting you with spray and pray fire or catching you in the blast radius of a grenade. You can do this a few times and still heal them fully.
Med and run. A good medic can med someone without stopping. If just got out of a firefight, there is a good chance you and your teammates are limping. The bandaging will stop limping even if you don’t fully recover. Run up and tap bandage for someone and they will be able to run for cover at full speed so the opponents don’t have time to regroup and find you as easily… especially if they’re following that big trail of blood you’re leaving behind. If it’s just you and one other person, you can actually run behind them while holding the medic key and heal them without having to ever stop moving. If there are several people that are hit, make sure they can all run by bandaging as many as need to stop bleeding then everyone head for cover and regroup.
Don’t bandage in their lap. You can actually bandage from quite a ways away from your patient. Don’t hug them while you do it because both of you might need to move quickly and if you’re blocking them in some corner… there is a good chance you will both be toast if spotted.
Get to the choppah!! Get to cover. A quick med to stop bleeding and limping might be necessary… but if you plan on fully healing, get behind a wall or a box or a tree or anything solid. You don’t want to be rewarded for your efforts getting picked off by a sniper.
Duck and cover. I’ve heard this position called many undignified things. The best way to med is facing your teammate with you crouched down in front and them standing up. The reason this is so important is that from this position you can see behind them and they can see behind you. Not only that, but if someone does come out quickly; they can shoot without blasting you in the head. They have a full 360 degree firing arc over your head and you are protected by their body. Not always possible… but usually it is and it is the ideal position for protecting each other.
Take turns and play nice. Unless you’re somewhere relatively safe, like back in spawn… take turns bandaging. If you are hurt and so are they. Heal them while they guard and vice versa. The problem is that while you medic, you put your gun away and it takes about a second for you to complete that action and pull the gun back out. That’s about a second too long if someone whips around a corner with barrels blazing. If one person has their weapon ready and is guarding, the chance of returning fire and surviving is much higher. If nothing else… you are more likely to only lose one person instead of two. In a team game, this can mean winning or losing.
Listen for the call. If you hear the “I need a medic”… take a look at your minimap. The position of the radio call will flash on the map. If you are close to them, try to reach them. It’s not always feasible if you are half the map apart, and that’s the luck of the draw. Look for the caduceus (what the heck is that? oh… that’s the name of that snakey doctor symbol thingy) over their head in game… they’re the one that called for help. Some people are afraid of the doctor. If someone is running away from you over and over… let them go. They might not want help or maybe they see an enemy you don’t. I have a custom radio call I made for “medic on the way” that says “I’m trying to get to you, fall back and cover Me”. If you’re using ventrilo / teamspeak / mumble / whatever, calling out “Hey, I’m behind you _____” works pretty well too so a teammate knows you’re there to med them and fall back.
Strike and fade. The medic is a ninja. I don’t wear kevlar because I need to move fast. I can swoop in, medic, and swoop out without slowing down or taking fire. I’ll even tap the bandage button as I am power sliding past someone on My way to drop a grenade off somewhere. It’s about a bullet in the arm worth of healing. One more hit they can survive and I haven’t even slowed down.
Loose lips sink ships. Don’t give away sniper positions. This goes back to being aware, but while a sniper might be hurt and deep behind enemy lines… the last thing they want is for you to give away their position with loud bandaging or waving a laser around. Take into account what is going on and make a judgment call. Low health is better than no health.
That’s it for now… part 2 will talk about what to do if you are the one that is wounded and being mediced.
RADIO AND MESSAGE BINDS YOU SHOULD USE
There are a couple of messages you must be ready to send to your teamates anytime. Using the radio manually is almost impossible, so it is crucial to bind some radio messages. I feel that having the F1-F10 keys for this is quite uncomfortable. If you have read my previous post about key binds you should know that I have scattered my weapons all around WASD and left the keys 1 through 0 free. I used them for radio binds and let’s see what they do. TWO CRITICAL BINDS The two most important radio binds are “Enemy Spotted” and “Enemy Heard”, wich means that you have seen an enemy or heard some noises from probably an enemy. I binded “Enemy Spotted” on the key number 3, right over WASD, so I can quickly inform my teamates of where I am and where are the enemies. In fact thanks to a little keyword, it communicates the position of both you (since is a team message) and your crosshair. I binded “Enemy Heard” on the tilde key, right over TAB, so if I hear something i just look at the minimap and if there are no teamates near, it means that it must be an enemy. THE OBVIUS BIND The obvius radio bind is calling for a medic. I binded “I need a medic” on number 5 right over R so I can easily call for help if I’m badly wounded. HOW TO BIND A RADIO CALL To bind a radio call open up the console (with tilde key on Windows, with SHIFT+ESC on Mac) and write the following:
Team Pandora hope I've done a good job explaining how to properly operate your automatic weapon. It takes a lot of time and effort to become a good gunner, but that's the only way it will happen. I can tell you how to shoot your gun and give you tips to improve your aim, but you have to be the one to put them to use. Good luck!
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Med and run. A good medic can med someone without stopping. If just got out of a firefight, there is a good chance you and your teammates are limping. The bandaging will stop limping even if you don’t fully recover. Run up and tap bandage for someone and they will be able to run for cover at full speed so the opponents don’t have time to regroup and find you as easily… especially if they’re following that big trail of blood you’re leaving behind. If it’s just you and one other person, you can actually run behind them while holding the medic key and heal them without having to ever stop moving. If there are several people that are hit, make sure they can all run by bandaging as many as need to stop bleeding then everyone head for cover and regroup.
Listen for the call. If you hear the “I need a medic”… take a look at your minimap. The position of the radio call will flash on the map. If you are close to them, try to reach them. It’s not always feasible if you are half the map apart, and that’s the luck of the draw. Look for the caduceus (what the heck is that? oh… that’s the name of that snakey doctor symbol thingy) over their head in game… they’re the one that called for help. Some people are afraid of the doctor. If someone is running away from you over and over… let them go. They might not want help or maybe they see an enemy you don’t. I have a custom radio call I made for “medic on the way” that says “I’m trying to get to you, fall back and cover Me”. If you’re using ventrilo / teamspeak / mumble / whatever, calling out “Hey, I’m behind you _____” works pretty well too so a teammate knows you’re there to med them and fall back.
It takes a lot of time and effort to become a good gunner, but that's the only way it will happen. I can tell you how to shoot your gun and give you tips to improve your aim, but you have to be the one to put them to use. Good luck!
