<DNA> Help Thread (Quake Live tips and tricks) (Read 4,292 times)

[deathstarg]

I think it would be worth posting questions and answers here, about how to improve at Quake Live, or how to react in different scenarios in QL, or... anything related to playing better in QL, maybe.

One thing I've noticed frequently in DNA threads is CA... weapon accuracies, teamwork, and so forth. I'm not the best at describing what to do for teamplay in Pub matches, but I can offer a couple of tidbits about weapons...

1) Rocket Launcher: This is the easiest gun. It's also one of the hardest to use. It's best applied in close/mid range fights. Try to bounce enemies around with this gun, as doing that will prevent them from aiming too well (unless they're used to it, which I'll describe in rail gun/lightning gun). A good strategy is to bounce the enemy in a line, and keep them bouncing until they die. This can be hard to do, but if you can do it, it'll a very quick frag for you. Try to aim for the enemy avatar's ankles as a general rule of thumb. If you aim only at the floor/walls around them, there's a chance the splash damage won't be maximized, which may make it harder for you to kill them. Aiming at the knees/ankles will help you maximize splash damage if they dodge, or even land direct rockets. Where should you use rockets? When they come UP bounce pads (fire when they're almost at the top), flat surfaces, corridors (for spam, or if they're close), and any confined area where it's hard to dodge splash damage. Try to hit them right when they switch directions, and when they're about to hit the ground after a jump. Overall, this weapon is very dangerous if used properly.

2) Lightning Gun: This is a pretty simple gun, but it's also really hard to hit good accuracies with. It's hitscan, with a ridiculously high fire rate. What you want to do, ideally, is keep your crosshair on the enemy's hitbox for as long as you have your fire button held down. This is easier said than done, however. The difficulty lies in the "lock-on" phase of firing the gun. You need to get a steady stream of fire locked onto your enemy, and keep it there. Once you've established contact for a couple of seconds, you should be good to keep tracking. When tracking, you also need to dodge. This is where long-strafing and short-strafing comes into play. You should strafe side-to-side in seemingly random patterns to throw off your opponent's aim while hitting a high accuracy. Mix long strafes with short strafes. It should looking something like this if I'm typing it out (assume "A" and D" as strafe keys): aaaaaaaaaaadadadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddaaaaadaddadddddddddddaaaaaaaaadadadadddddddddddddddddadadaddddddddddddddadadadddaaaaaaaaadddddddddaddddddddddddddadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddadddddddddddddddddddddaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddddddddddadadddd
As you can probably see, there are few patterns to this movement of insanity, and hopefully you'll be able to keep your crosshair on your enemy while doing this. When should you use LG? When they're dropping down from a high surface, when they're in the air, on flat surfaces. If you're good with this gun (hitting 30% accuracy or over, regularly), then you could use it against rockets, in corridors, and from a high vantage point. The trick is to dodge rockets or rails while doing this, so you'll need a fairly high accuracy and unpredictable dodging pattern to get a frag.

3) Rail Gun: This is a pretty simple point-and-click gun. Unfortunately, the fast reactions required of Quake Live make it slightly harder to use than many think. So, you need to predict which way the enemy's about to go, adjust, and click. Use it for long-range fights, when you need to make a really quick shot that a Rocket Launcher or Lightning Gun cannot make, and when they're in the air. It should be a staple gun for nearly any map. If you get really good with it, you can use it at LG range, and do a lot of damage at once. When fighting at range against RG, make sure to dodge behind obstacles, and take advantage of the 1.5 second cooldown between shots to escape. 

4) Other guns are less-popularly used. Plasma Gun and Grenade Launcher are better used for mid/close range spam (corridors and jump pads/doorways, respectively), the shotgun is great for figuring out how low on HP your enemy is, or finishing them, and the machine gun is a poor man's substitute for the Rail Gun (best used when they're low on HP). These guns are harder to use effectively, but if you can use them right, they can be very deadly.

[swampy]

good idea..  

[deathstarg]

Updated my original post to cover RL, LG, and RG usage and general positioning. For several specific maps, I can discuss some strategies for each weapon, if people want. Feel free to correct me on anything if I've missed it/messed it up, and if you have anything more to say, please post

[Gangland]

AWESOME POST!

I guess I could put my .02 on some of the "less used" weapons. Shotgun, Plasma, Grenades.

These are most likely my 3 favs. I have Shotgun bound to mousewheel up, and Grenades to mousewheel down. These 2 alone can be your best friend.

Shotgun, At point blank range this delivers 100 damage. It's great if you are the last man standing and are creeping around corners silently. It's much harder to dodge than a rocket, and doesn't buzz like a LG or RG. Never go against LG with a SG unless your sure your enemy is weak.

Grenades, 100 damage for direct hit. Crowd Control. Lots of splash damage. If you have enemys camping in a room, these will clear it out quickly. Locks down doorways. The MAIN THING i see new people doing wrong with these is not knowing whos are whos. I bound all my team colors to white, including rail and grenades, and I bound all enemy colors to green including rail and grenades. That way I see that if there is a green rail or grenade, its an enemies. I suggest all do this!!

Plasma. The weapon with the highest damage per rate of fire. It's a prediction weapon, and best used to "lane". So if you want to lock down an area you can basically draw a line of plasma through it. Also, for locking down doors, or wide swaths of area. Sweep it like a garden hose and you can cover alot of real estate. But make sure that you "Lead" your opponents if facing them with it. Otherwise you will be shooting behind them. Always use smooth mouse movement too, because if you break the stream of plasma your opponent can walk right through the door. You can break someones stack with 2 seconds of direct hits If your following someone that doesn't know your there, you can kill them quick.

Also, to add to Rail. Set railtrailtime to 1500. This is the reload time in milliseconds for the railgun. That way if your enemies rail trail is still hanging in the air, they are reloading. You can use this to your advantage so that maybe if you peeked around a corner and he shot at you, you know almost exatcly how much time you have to shoot him.

[deathstarg]

I didn't know about the rail trail time, could we get the command for that on here, please?

"Plasma. The weapon with the highest damage per rate of fire. It's a prediction weapon, and best used to "lane". So if you want to lock down an area you can basically draw a line of plasma through it. Also, for locking down doors, or wide swaths of area. Sweep it like a garden hose and you can cover alot of real estate. But make sure that you "Lead" your opponents if facing them with it. Otherwise you will be shooting behind them. Always use smooth mouse movement too, because if you break the stream of plasma your opponent can walk right through the door. You can break someones stack with 2 seconds of direct hits If your following someone that doesn't know your there, you can kill them quick."


Completely agreed with this. I'd like to add that I've seen decent success with plasma in tight corridors or by doorways, and instead of spamming, I trap them with close-range plasma aimed at their feet. It's much easier to aim and land a lot of shots, and even a full stacked CA player will go down in a few seconds. Of course, it only works well if they're not using rockets/grenades. It's much easier when they have Rail Gun or Lightning Gun out (listen for the buzzing/humming sound, or predict based on what you last saw them use (or what's more logical to use in that scenario)), as they can't bounce you around while dealing a ton of damage. 

[Gangland]

/cg_railtrailtime "1500"

Also, I'll dig out the team colors for weapons and what-not out of my config and post it here. Was also gonna create a "post your config/hud" thread when I get back home from "work". That way people can try out each others stuff and pick/choose what they like. Mine is pretty stripped and optimized for performance. 

[deathstarg]

Ah, I thought it'd be one of the cg_ commands! I've got the team colours thing set up in a similar way, but I still need to eke out a few more FPS while recording... I keep dropping to 230 FPS and rapidly fluctuating up to 250 and back down...

[Gangland]

Id set back to 125. 250 is bugged if you can't hold it solid, and useless with <144hz lcd or crt. Footsteps and packet loss issues, as well as acceleration issues. /

Check out Yakumo , Hearless, Flashsoul thread here,

www.esreality.com/post/2584139/the-perfect-ql-config-imho/#pid2584157

[deathstarg]

Many thanks for the link and info! I'm definitely going to try a few matches with framerate set to 125, then play around a bit if I feel unsatisfied. 

Also, I think it'd be nice for DNA members to maybe write up descriptions of popular maps, good strategies (for CA at least), and such?

[terrorj]

Not sure how good our dna side already is,but i would start with putting al weapon keys around your movement keys.
As for the rocket launcher,dont go for splash damage but try to do full rockets on the body.(2 will do the trick in ca)
Another good way is to jump on someones head with a rocket and shoot him 2 times on the head.(but make sure he doesnt have the lg in his hands)
And dont use rockets when they come up at bouncepads!!!Lg is way more effective for that!Before theyre up theyre already dead.
For the lg,dont make the dodging to difficult,just go the oposite way and keep moving,and keep in mind that right handed people have more trouble aiming to right then left.
But first get your aim good,the dodging wil come by itself when youre an pro player.The experience wil learn ya.
The rail is an awesome weapon Damage your enemy from a distance with 1 rail and go finish him with lg or rocket,but never forget to put away the rail after shooting,not go trough doors and stuf with rail.So far for the weapons,make sure youre movement is good!Finish al 3 practice halls,and download razorstrafe map to get your speed up to 1200 and more.Being fast is very important to run away or to surprise your enemie.Any more tips or help needed just ask

[Bl1ndlight]

Fundamental rock paper scissors: Rocket - close range, LG - med range, Rail - long range
hence, if someones on you with one of those weapons at the appropriate range you either need to use the same weap or get to a different range or sometimes use a counter weap. plasma can be a good counter to pull out if you can back up just out of lg range or spam it into railers so they cant see. moving in on LGers and hitting rockets is the easiest range-change to do, likewise when using LG keep them at range dont let em move in on u with rox.

movement:
aim is only half if even half of using weapons well. being in the right spot and aware of your enemy makes a huge difference. theres always a few set choices on the map of where to go next and you can usually get a good idea from the persons health, attitude (+forward +back type, pro or noob movement), and sound queues. The better you can move, the better you can chase and get places before them, or if you are running, get to places from diff routes. For example on theatre if you can move really fast you can cycle between the doorways from outside taking potshots at ppl on the top while they are still waiting for you to pop out at the same spot.

1. LG
watch cat's vids: 
most sensitive to ping. drills you can do with 2 ppl, dueling and holding each other up in the air, pushing straight up or while they strafe to either side. try to just use strafe to aim with mouse correction only if you have to. try to catch people and frame them when they are moving straight towards you or away from you (i.e. jumppads) 30% is fine, everyone tries to hit 40 or higher but its more important to get the frags than get the accuracy in the end, sometimes anticipating a bit around corners is ok, in CA anyway where ammo is no concern.

2. Rocket

stop rocket jumping up in the air, or anytime without good reason, habit from T2 that will get you fried later. you can't move as well in the air and enemy will be able to shoot you at landing spot. Dont use at long range, sometimes you get that delayed frag but its not worth it. stay calm when getting LGed, 3 full hits on them with rox and you can win. Go for the full hit not splash, actually aim hard at *landing spots* (air rox is not a strategy.), jump onto their head etc. up to T4 a lot of people will almost always be bunnyhopping around without any reason so you almost always know where to aim if you try. people moving on the ground are the hardest to hit, try to get em moving towards a known point or straight forward/away from you.

3. rail
much more about spatial awareness and knowing where people are going than the actual aim. people tend to just strafe side to side to dodge so dont chase em just hold the sight still and wait for them to cross it. set your zoom scale to instant unless it makes u sick and dont set it too high or low, most maps dont need huge zoom. its harder to make adjustments up and down so frame people in spots where they can only move on one axis. in fastswitch servers set rail to something you can hit easily so you can do the LG>rail combo

4. plasma
also a ping-sensitive weap. with some practice leading it can be quite powerful. for narrow hallways and anytime someone is going +forward on you just let em chase and turn on em with PG, theyll take way more dmg if u get them running into it or if you are running straight in on them with it. side to side is not as effective but if someones just going to one side or going for an item you can get em with good leading. for spamming, if someones come out of cover, aim between them and the cover to catch them going back in. anywhere where someones route is restricted, plasma can be a nasty surprise.

5. nade
for some reason theres a temptation to switch to em right before you get killed which isnt so good. like plasma you are going to more often than not be aiming them at parts of the map rather than ppl. theres some angles like Rocket platform in campgrounds down off the column to the left or right that are effective. like rail its much more about spatial awareness. so if you dont have any idea where someone is or is going spamming is just gonna make you audible. the other way to use it is in combo with other weapons, baiting them to take a hit from either. spamming teleporter is wellknown.. do it when you know someone is coming, duh

6. shotgun and MG
ppl generally know how to use shotty to finish a round, but sometimes forget MG is just as good from far away, think about maps like theatre of pain. if a server has headshots enabled, MG can be MUCH more powerful

I have 2 buttons on my mouse where I have a button for SG and a secondary bind for rail for doing lg combo. I set LG to Q Rockets to E, gaunt to Z, plasma to x, nade to C, rail to R

[deathstarg]

Campground (DM6): Clan Arena.

I'll explain locations in terms of where items are in the Duel gamemode (Red by stairs, Yellow by jump pad, etc)

First off, this is looking at different team modes of Clan Area: 3v3, 4v4, and 5v5.

Good weapons to keep in mind: Lightning Gun, Rail Gun, Rocket Launcher, Grenade Launcher.
Secondary weapons: Plasma Gun, Shotgun.

Important locations to hold in any of the teamsizes: Bridge/ Rocket Launcher, Pillars/Yellow, positions around Mega

When you're on the Bridge (leading from the Rocket Launcher), you want to keep the Lightning Gun and Rocket Launcher as your main weapons. It's a very nice location for Lightning Gun vs Lightning Gun duels (if you and your opponent(s) are longitudinal in relation to the Bridge), and if need be, you can bounce them off the edge of the Bridge with Rockets. If anyone tries to rocket jump up, you should be able to catch them mid-air with Lightning Gun and deal a ton of damage. Beware of Rail, Plasma, and Grenade spam coming through the doorway leading to Rocket/Pillars, and from the stairway coming up. It's a good idea to spam back if your team holds the location, but also beware of enemy team members coming from a low position (from the stairs, from the Red Armour, from the mid-level platform straight above Mega). Also beware of anyone spamming from the Rail Gun Bridge. In most cases, a well-placed Rail shot, Rocket spam, or Lightning Gun action will end up dissuading them from attacking your position directly. It's a good idea to be able to do the Bridge-To-Rail circle jump, as you can move around without wasting Rocket ammo (and being loud). This is one of the better locations to hold and defend but you also need to be wary of the need to pull back from this location. It's not always the best location to deal damage from (and get frags from), so you should be prepared to take the offensive and move towards a different position.

When you're on the Rocket Launcher position (coming up from the jump pad by Mega), you need to be very, very careful. There are three angles that you can be attacked from (arguably, I could say four angles), so everything you do from this position needs to take this into account. This is a very good position to spam Grenades and Rockets at the enemy team if they're holding the Bridge, and you can deal a lot of damage from here if you time your shots right. Beware of getting railed from below (the middle level just above Mega), and of Rocket spam (same location). Furthermore, some people may attempt to Rocket Jump up here and attack you, which can be surprising and deal you a lot of damage. If the enemy is hiding around the corner (doorway leading to Pillars/Yellow Armour), spam Grenades for a short while, then make sure to keep an eye on the lower position (doorway leading out from the Pillars, out to the middle level, right above the Mega). If people come up the jump pad, have Lightning Gun ready (TerrorJ, this is for you), or hit them quick with Rockets. Either should be just fine- but only if you manage to land direct body shots with Rockets (and if you manage to suspend them long enough in the air with Lightning Gun). Watch out also for lots of spam- you can take a lot of splash damage from Grenades and Rockets from this position, so be ready to ditch and run. Nevertheless, it's still a good position to deal a lot of damage from. Keep Grenades, Rockets, Lightning Gun, and Rail Gun ready at this position. You can catch a lot of people moving through the map with these guns (after all, this is very close to the centre of the map, and offers a height advantage). Rail/Rocket spam at people who are at lower locations, Rocket/Grenade spam at people through doorways, spam Grenades down at lower doorways, and prepare to use Lightning Gun against people coming up jump pads. Word of caution: always be ready to move away from this position. There's a few good escape routes here: go through either of the high doorways, drop down to the middle level and take one of several further exit routes, or drop down low to Mega and go through either of the doorways. Try not to hold this position for too long, as the effort it takes to defend it well can distract you from pushing an aggressive offensive, or falling back to avoid multiple enemy team members.

The Pillars/Yellow Armour is a really interesting location to play. It's a highly defensive location, and you'll find yourself wanting to push an offensive. Situate yourself by the jump pad and have Rail Gun ready, and have at least one teammate on a Pillar close to the jump pad with Lightning Gun ready (if any should come up). If you're on the Yellow Armour platform then you should look to Rail from a distance and dissuade anyone from Rocket Jumping up. If you're close to the doorway leading to Bridge, then you should look to spam Rockets/Grenades and prevent anyone from coming through (either from the Bridge, or from the lower doorway). Try not to camp in this location for too long- the fact that the other team can also Rail from a distance means that you need to be very careful about positioning yourself. Be prepared to drop down to the Lightning Gun position and move towards Mega, Shards, or go up through the stairway; or drop to the middle level and Lightning Gun/Rocket Launcher/Rail Gun any enemies in sight; or go through the doorway towards Rocket Launcher and expand your movements to a primarily offensive intent (search and destroy all enemies). It's a good idea to be able to Rocket Jump horizontally at high speeds to avoid enemy Rails, and to be able to "skip" over the Pillar closest to the jump pad, land on the Pillar closest to the doorway, and keep Strafe Jumping. This position is really only advisable if you have at least four members on your team who are in that location. You could hold it with less (I have managed to hold it with just one other teammate against four), but if you have less, consider running and forcing the enemy team to chase you. 

General areas around Mega tend to follow similar strategies. Lightning Gun will be really deadly if you're not too out-numbered, Rockets are good for bouncing people around and killing them quickly, and Rail is good if they take the jump pad. I prefer to hold the Lightning Gun position, as there are many ways of escaping if you get overrun (towards Pillars, towards the jump pad, towards Shards, towards the stairs). Of course, the main danger in that position is that you get surrounded by Lightning Gun/Rockets, as that will definitely kill you in a matter of seconds (or if you're too outnumbered, killed in less than one second). When you're at the middle level, try to stay away from getting Railed from a distance (especially from the Rocket Launcher position or Bridge, or the Yellow Armour). Instead, either Rail from a distance, move the Rocket Launcher, drop down to Shards/Shotgun and attack, or take the jump pad towards the Rail Gun position and chip away at the enemy team's health with Rails, Rockets, and Plasma. 

Overall, on this map, you should have a strong sense of when to attack from a close range, and when to attack from a long range. The mid-range Lightning Gun is almost always a nice choice on this map, so be ready to dodge Lightning Gun fire, no matter where you are. Make sure you can move quickly about the map, as you want to avoid getting railed from a distance, and so you can get yourself in the right position for the right shot. Rocket Jumps will be fairly common, so learn some of the jumps here (experiment and figure out what works for you). Strafe Jumping, as always, will be key to moving around quickly.

Good Luck and Have Fun on this map. A lot of people love playing this map, as I do, and I hope you do as well!

[Bl1ndlight]

oh yeah and LG and Rail make NOISE doofuses!

[lowlife]

Someone should tell Ganglandoneup about that!! He thinks he is a Grasshopper..

[Gangland]

Whatever do you mean?? ))



Tip of the day. Teleporters are fun if you go through them with a friend. Just make sure he's on the other team.