I have been really busy this last week, so apologies for the fact I haven’t had any time to write up any content for you all. But fear not, I will try and get something up soon.
I will also use this opportunity to quickly tell you quickly about m0re’s configuration files. I am sure a lot of you have some kind of FPS config, but if you haven’t heard about m0re’s configs then I recommend you have a look. I find they have the perfect balance of settings to fit my tastes, m0re has a really unbelievably good knowledge of the settings.
He has a high and a highhigh version of his configs, I personally use the highhigh version but with mat_filtertextures set to 1 to turn off the pixilation effect you get (although if you are really struggling for FPS this will give a considerable boost). Also make sure to edit some the settings in the file such as FOV, sensitivity and HUD elements to how you want them. There is also a nice custom HUD which he has developed so you can check that out too if you are interested, you can find his website here, and I have added a permanent link to his site in the links box on the right.
Peace,
nub
30/04/2009
22/04/2009
Map skills, TF2 Mentor Project
Before I get started I have one important thing to say, I want to make a really big shout-out to the guys at the TF2 Mentor Project who can be found here. Kind volunteers from the community sign up to help out lower skilled teams by imparting their knowledge and helping out with tactics etc. I would also like to say to my fellow div 1 and 2 players if you have any spare time to help out with this project you may be able to help out lower div teams more than you realise.
I have a lot of good things planned for the future guys, so when I have the time I hope I can get some really good stuff posted up here. For today though I am going to cover a small topic, but one of high importance: moving around maps and the different “jumps” available to scouts.
I often take the time to run around a map by myself, just jumping on things without any real purpose, just experimenting and seeing what I can find. I find running around an empty map like this helps open my mind to new jumps and new ways of doing things.
It's easy to get into a routine where I get stuck doing the same stuff: the same few key jumps I use each time, the same routes I take etc. This is bad for a few reasons: one it stops me being creative and approaching things from a new perspective, and secondly I end up becoming predictable for the enemy team.
Don’t jump to conclusions too quickly that spending time on some empty map practice is a silly or useless exercise. For example, something which has happened to me far too many times...
I have a soldier right in my face and I am just about to make a neat jump to avoid his rocket, up I go towards a little ledge where safety awaits me and then hopefully a fast retreat. As I climb through the air in what feels like slow motion, I suddenly begin to realise I’m not going to make it, and I slide back down onto the floor just in time to meet his rocket, damn. Making a neat unexpected jump can often buy you a couple of seconds, sometimes this will enable you to escape, at other times those two seconds will allow you to finish off an enemy medic who would have otherwise survived and could change the outcome of the round.
Other than just running around experimenting on empty maps, another purpose for being there is to practice and perfect specific jumps. I will now go over a few of my favourite jumps, some you may not know and some will be classics that everyone should know...
I will start off with an essential one, from my last post lots of people got back to me asking how to make this jump:
The trick in making this particular jump is hitting the rock on the right at the correct moment when crouched. You double jump off the ramp, not right at the top, but as you have just begun to run down it. Then you want to hit the rock and slide round onto the roof. This jump can be quite tricky, I spent quite a bit of time not understanding how to make it until I got it down consistently.
The next jump relates to my last post as well, being as it is another essential gravelpit one:
The key to making this jump is not trying to jump onto the actual wooden platform: what we are aiming for is the little wooden block which slightly extends from the side (I shoot at it with my pistol at about 10 sec in the video). Once you know that it should be a simple matter of practicing for a little while until you make it, you can easily refer to the video and watch how I do it again if you have any problems.
This jump here is without a doubt the hardest jump I know, and one probably the least number of people will know:
I really can't say how to make this jump, as I can't make it consistently. To be confident at a jump I would say I would want to be able to make it 19 times out of 20 at least. If anyone can pull this jump out in a clan war and make a kill or escape because of it definately let me know and I may post it up here on the blog.
OK, this next jump isn't such an interesting one, but it is a very important one:
To get onto the crate is easy, just make sure you are jumping off of the capture point itself as it's up higher than the floor. Then making it from the crate to the balcony is the hard part. It involves jumping as late as possible, jumping forward and twisting up right on the first jump so you are looking at where we want to be. Then crouch jumping to the ledge on the second.
This next jump is relatively well known now, but I had to put it in because I just love it. I also must shamefacedly admit that it took me ages to get this one perfected:
Practical uses for this jump? Well, it may be harder nowadays because it is so well known, and now I have posted it here it will be even better known. A while back I used to use it when defending: I would go straight to A before the round started and get up top and camp there as the enemy team capped A beneath me. Once they had finished capping and began walking off towards B I would jump off the roof and go for a medic kill. It was surprisingly effective, and even if the medic didn't die I would force uber.
This next one is another of my favourites, again posting it here is going to reduce it's effectiveness, but I hope the ones I have shown you will inspire you to find new and less known jumps ;]
I don't often use this jump, but the times I have used it I have caused even very high skilled players to become extremely confused. I then proceed to do absolutely no good at all because I always laugh too much to be able to aim anymore ;D
Alright people, that is it from me today, I hope you enjoyed this post.
Peace,
nub
I have a lot of good things planned for the future guys, so when I have the time I hope I can get some really good stuff posted up here. For today though I am going to cover a small topic, but one of high importance: moving around maps and the different “jumps” available to scouts.
I often take the time to run around a map by myself, just jumping on things without any real purpose, just experimenting and seeing what I can find. I find running around an empty map like this helps open my mind to new jumps and new ways of doing things.
It's easy to get into a routine where I get stuck doing the same stuff: the same few key jumps I use each time, the same routes I take etc. This is bad for a few reasons: one it stops me being creative and approaching things from a new perspective, and secondly I end up becoming predictable for the enemy team.
Don’t jump to conclusions too quickly that spending time on some empty map practice is a silly or useless exercise. For example, something which has happened to me far too many times...
I have a soldier right in my face and I am just about to make a neat jump to avoid his rocket, up I go towards a little ledge where safety awaits me and then hopefully a fast retreat. As I climb through the air in what feels like slow motion, I suddenly begin to realise I’m not going to make it, and I slide back down onto the floor just in time to meet his rocket, damn. Making a neat unexpected jump can often buy you a couple of seconds, sometimes this will enable you to escape, at other times those two seconds will allow you to finish off an enemy medic who would have otherwise survived and could change the outcome of the round.
Other than just running around experimenting on empty maps, another purpose for being there is to practice and perfect specific jumps. I will now go over a few of my favourite jumps, some you may not know and some will be classics that everyone should know...
I will start off with an essential one, from my last post lots of people got back to me asking how to make this jump:
The trick in making this particular jump is hitting the rock on the right at the correct moment when crouched. You double jump off the ramp, not right at the top, but as you have just begun to run down it. Then you want to hit the rock and slide round onto the roof. This jump can be quite tricky, I spent quite a bit of time not understanding how to make it until I got it down consistently.
The next jump relates to my last post as well, being as it is another essential gravelpit one:
The key to making this jump is not trying to jump onto the actual wooden platform: what we are aiming for is the little wooden block which slightly extends from the side (I shoot at it with my pistol at about 10 sec in the video). Once you know that it should be a simple matter of practicing for a little while until you make it, you can easily refer to the video and watch how I do it again if you have any problems.
This jump here is without a doubt the hardest jump I know, and one probably the least number of people will know:
I really can't say how to make this jump, as I can't make it consistently. To be confident at a jump I would say I would want to be able to make it 19 times out of 20 at least. If anyone can pull this jump out in a clan war and make a kill or escape because of it definately let me know and I may post it up here on the blog.
OK, this next jump isn't such an interesting one, but it is a very important one:
To get onto the crate is easy, just make sure you are jumping off of the capture point itself as it's up higher than the floor. Then making it from the crate to the balcony is the hard part. It involves jumping as late as possible, jumping forward and twisting up right on the first jump so you are looking at where we want to be. Then crouch jumping to the ledge on the second.
This next jump is relatively well known now, but I had to put it in because I just love it. I also must shamefacedly admit that it took me ages to get this one perfected:
Practical uses for this jump? Well, it may be harder nowadays because it is so well known, and now I have posted it here it will be even better known. A while back I used to use it when defending: I would go straight to A before the round started and get up top and camp there as the enemy team capped A beneath me. Once they had finished capping and began walking off towards B I would jump off the roof and go for a medic kill. It was surprisingly effective, and even if the medic didn't die I would force uber.
This next one is another of my favourites, again posting it here is going to reduce it's effectiveness, but I hope the ones I have shown you will inspire you to find new and less known jumps ;]
I don't often use this jump, but the times I have used it I have caused even very high skilled players to become extremely confused. I then proceed to do absolutely no good at all because I always laugh too much to be able to aim anymore ;D
Alright people, that is it from me today, I hope you enjoyed this post.
Peace,
nub
12/04/2009
Intro and Gravelpit
I thought it would be nice to help some people by imparting some of my experience, and in the process give me a chance to think about my own game and try to understand why I make some of the decisions I do. I am starting off by giving a quick overview of scout tactics on Gravelpit. I chose this map to begin with specifically because this map can be really strange for scouts. Sometimes I feel utterly useless on the map, but at other times I feel the map can really give our class some special opportunities. I will give some basic and relatively standard tactics, with my most important aim being to try and explain why we make certain decisions as I think just giving out instructions for people to follow is useless.
Coming from C is particularly good when the enemy team has a sentry on the ramp, which is a very cookie cutter position [Shown below].
The benefits of coming from C opposed to other routes I will now discuss. Coming from the right side of B spawn is of course suicide, you won’t be able to get out of the tunnel until the sentry has been destroyed. Coming from the left of B spawn or from the A-B connector is a more viable option, but you are still fighting against a team who has high ground (soldier on the roof, the house just by the connector [the left house in screenshot below]). Your visibility is also rather restricted coming this way: the wooden palisades and the house narrow down your view considerably.
With these things factored in, coming from C seems like the best option a lot of the time. When coming in from C though, it is important not to rush in, if you aren’t sure where the sentry is don’t be caught off guard and come rushing in to meet a sentry behind the house, placed towards C or anywhere else unexpected. Check out the video below as an example of what may be the unexpected (This same sentry spot was used by Dignitas in their UKESA game vs Crack Clan):
You have two entrances to choose from coming from C: the left and the right, always be aware for cleverly placed sticky traps exiting either of these doors. If the sentry is placed behind the house going left is going to be useless until it is taken down.
Going right you can get on the roof quickly, this is a viable option, but is highly dependent on the enemy team not spotting you until you have got up there. If it is timed right, when the rest of your team is pushing in, it is possible to get up on the roof without the enemy team noticing or being able to react to it in time to stop you. When up on the roof you have a lot of options, don’t underestimate how much damage you can do from up there. Soldiers will find it difficult to deal with you; even if they jump you can knock them down again a lot of the time. Not only the damage but the pressure you create from up on the roof combined with your heavy classes pushing should overwhelm the enemy quickly. The demoman will most likely be the most able class to deal damage to you up on the roof throwing sticky bombs up there, or even hitting you with a nade... >.<
Most teams have their entire team behind the house, coming from the right means you will face less spam, which can be useful depending on what you are doing.
Coming from the left C entrance means you will get spotted right away by their team behind the house, but this doesn’t matter and is actually desirable if we are playing it right. Our positioning up on the left with our team pressuring around the rock area means we have tactical and psychological advantage over the enemy team: our positioning means their weak players can’t fall back towards us without risking being picked off by us. Also being pushed from two sides like this creates a lot of stress and can panic teams which can cause them to make bad decisions, having to pay attention to the front and back at the same time will inevitably lead to looking the wrong way at some point.
OK, so attacking C gives us five ways of entering the point area. If it is played right, with good decision making and timing, I think this area can really be a nice arena to play in as a scout.
There are many height levels; there is the ground, the first level where most of the entrances are at, the second level coming up to the point and the point itself. What is special about this area opposed to many areas is that the players up top aren’t always at the advantage. The area lends a lot of cover, like the two walkways which extend to the first level of the tower, which means we aren’t at the mercy of soldiers above us firing rockets down at us.
You can use your speed and double jump to really enjoy a high level of survivability; all the while you should be trying to deal large amounts of damage and confuse the enemy team by “disappearing” with some clever movement and jumps.
If you are walking up to the point, and you come across a heavy or a demo in your face, you can easily just get a shot off as you jump off. For other classes jumping off the point means taking much longer, or taking damage from sticky/rocket jumps to get back up. This is not the case for us scouts, so use it to your advantage and disappear if a healthy soldier is in your face, and look for someone with low health or someone who hasn’t seen you and is vulnerable to a full shot in the back.
I can’t emphasise enough that you need to stay alive when attacking this point. As a scout you are one of the most important classes when attacking C because of your double jump and x2 when capping the point. Like I have said, you really don’t want to be rushing heavy classes and getting yourself into trouble, just play it safe and stay alive until a good opportunity arises e.g. your team calls a weak player who has fallen down.
It is quite common to run a sniper when attacking C, particularly when the enemy team is running a heavy. If the sniper is taking the place of one of you scouts then it can be a nice option to sit round a corner behind the sniper and wait, there is a high probability the enemy team will send one of their scouts to kill the sniper, so you can be ready to surprise and take out the scout who rushed your sniper.
The timing of your entrance into this point can be one of two ways. Your two scouts can go in ahead of the team, cause a distraction so the rest of the team can uber in when the enemy is “looking the other way.” If you are going in first like this then it is best to go in a different way from the main team so as many players as possible won’t notice the uber until as late as possible.
The other way to time your entrance is the complete opposite. Enter the point area after the main team has ubered in, so you can get in undetected and pick off any players who are weak or have fallen off the point. It is quite common for the enemy team to run a sniper who will sit by the spawn; this may be a good opportunity to rush him also. When doing this type of attack, the bottom entrance [video below] is going to be your friend. If the enemy team isn’t allocating the resources to cover this area (it can be quite hard to spot because of the walkway just above this exit) you can slip in unseen and position yourself somewhere unexpected.
I hope some of you scouts out there will find this useful. Hopefully it will have given you some new ideas, and make you think about your game.
Feel free to leave comments and feedback, if I get a good response and feel like people found this useful then I will continue posting about all things scout.
Also special thanks to Player Thirty-Two, Renegade26 and Scary for their help with this post.
Peace,
nub
Attacking B
Coming from C is particularly good when the enemy team has a sentry on the ramp, which is a very cookie cutter position [Shown below].
The benefits of coming from C opposed to other routes I will now discuss. Coming from the right side of B spawn is of course suicide, you won’t be able to get out of the tunnel until the sentry has been destroyed. Coming from the left of B spawn or from the A-B connector is a more viable option, but you are still fighting against a team who has high ground (soldier on the roof, the house just by the connector [the left house in screenshot below]). Your visibility is also rather restricted coming this way: the wooden palisades and the house narrow down your view considerably.
With these things factored in, coming from C seems like the best option a lot of the time. When coming in from C though, it is important not to rush in, if you aren’t sure where the sentry is don’t be caught off guard and come rushing in to meet a sentry behind the house, placed towards C or anywhere else unexpected. Check out the video below as an example of what may be the unexpected (This same sentry spot was used by Dignitas in their UKESA game vs Crack Clan):
You have two entrances to choose from coming from C: the left and the right, always be aware for cleverly placed sticky traps exiting either of these doors. If the sentry is placed behind the house going left is going to be useless until it is taken down.
Going right you can get on the roof quickly, this is a viable option, but is highly dependent on the enemy team not spotting you until you have got up there. If it is timed right, when the rest of your team is pushing in, it is possible to get up on the roof without the enemy team noticing or being able to react to it in time to stop you. When up on the roof you have a lot of options, don’t underestimate how much damage you can do from up there. Soldiers will find it difficult to deal with you; even if they jump you can knock them down again a lot of the time. Not only the damage but the pressure you create from up on the roof combined with your heavy classes pushing should overwhelm the enemy quickly. The demoman will most likely be the most able class to deal damage to you up on the roof throwing sticky bombs up there, or even hitting you with a nade... >.<
Most teams have their entire team behind the house, coming from the right means you will face less spam, which can be useful depending on what you are doing.
Coming from the left C entrance means you will get spotted right away by their team behind the house, but this doesn’t matter and is actually desirable if we are playing it right. Our positioning up on the left with our team pressuring around the rock area means we have tactical and psychological advantage over the enemy team: our positioning means their weak players can’t fall back towards us without risking being picked off by us. Also being pushed from two sides like this creates a lot of stress and can panic teams which can cause them to make bad decisions, having to pay attention to the front and back at the same time will inevitably lead to looking the wrong way at some point.
Attacking C
OK, so attacking C gives us five ways of entering the point area. If it is played right, with good decision making and timing, I think this area can really be a nice arena to play in as a scout.
There are many height levels; there is the ground, the first level where most of the entrances are at, the second level coming up to the point and the point itself. What is special about this area opposed to many areas is that the players up top aren’t always at the advantage. The area lends a lot of cover, like the two walkways which extend to the first level of the tower, which means we aren’t at the mercy of soldiers above us firing rockets down at us.
You can use your speed and double jump to really enjoy a high level of survivability; all the while you should be trying to deal large amounts of damage and confuse the enemy team by “disappearing” with some clever movement and jumps.
If you are walking up to the point, and you come across a heavy or a demo in your face, you can easily just get a shot off as you jump off. For other classes jumping off the point means taking much longer, or taking damage from sticky/rocket jumps to get back up. This is not the case for us scouts, so use it to your advantage and disappear if a healthy soldier is in your face, and look for someone with low health or someone who hasn’t seen you and is vulnerable to a full shot in the back.
I can’t emphasise enough that you need to stay alive when attacking this point. As a scout you are one of the most important classes when attacking C because of your double jump and x2 when capping the point. Like I have said, you really don’t want to be rushing heavy classes and getting yourself into trouble, just play it safe and stay alive until a good opportunity arises e.g. your team calls a weak player who has fallen down.
It is quite common to run a sniper when attacking C, particularly when the enemy team is running a heavy. If the sniper is taking the place of one of you scouts then it can be a nice option to sit round a corner behind the sniper and wait, there is a high probability the enemy team will send one of their scouts to kill the sniper, so you can be ready to surprise and take out the scout who rushed your sniper.
The timing of your entrance into this point can be one of two ways. Your two scouts can go in ahead of the team, cause a distraction so the rest of the team can uber in when the enemy is “looking the other way.” If you are going in first like this then it is best to go in a different way from the main team so as many players as possible won’t notice the uber until as late as possible.
The other way to time your entrance is the complete opposite. Enter the point area after the main team has ubered in, so you can get in undetected and pick off any players who are weak or have fallen off the point. It is quite common for the enemy team to run a sniper who will sit by the spawn; this may be a good opportunity to rush him also. When doing this type of attack, the bottom entrance [video below] is going to be your friend. If the enemy team isn’t allocating the resources to cover this area (it can be quite hard to spot because of the walkway just above this exit) you can slip in unseen and position yourself somewhere unexpected.
I hope some of you scouts out there will find this useful. Hopefully it will have given you some new ideas, and make you think about your game.
Feel free to leave comments and feedback, if I get a good response and feel like people found this useful then I will continue posting about all things scout.
Also special thanks to Player Thirty-Two, Renegade26 and Scary for their help with this post.
Peace,
nub
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)