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N00b help request

redphyve

n00b
Joined
Jun 9, 2004
Messages
13
Hi

I'm the guy lying on the floor in anyone of the HL2 Deathmatches you have just played, or the stain on the wall, or the crumpled piece of flesh wearing a radiator, or...nevermind, you know me now.

I'm new to this whole online deathmatch thingy and tend to spend my life spawning and finding a new place to get killed and an interesting way of wearing debris sent my way by a gravity-gun-wielding killer.

Now, my question is, is there a safe place (server) where I can practice without getting to wear a toiletbowl aound my neck or receiving a radiator enema and getting killed every few seconds? Do I have to set up a server myself? I take it that if I read the manual I would find out how, and populate it with bots? Should I do that or are there public newbie arenas where I could get to play for more than a few seconds?

Is there any help out there? Any suggestions from fellow forumites?

Please help...this toilet-bowl round my neck makes it difficult to breathe.

Red
 
Your best bet is to find a friend or two that aren't very good and play on a private server.

Also, play through the single player a little more aggressively. I imagine you play through the game very cautiously so you avoid most of the frantic action. Kicking it up a notch in SP should help you in MP.

Happy fragging ;)
 
^^ what he said:

practice practice practice... trust me, I played Quake II Rocket Arena for many years, and even though I'm not the best, I can still hold my own.

I just can't run HL2 yet...
 
I know it's really tough for a person new to FPS multiplayer to get started. Quite often you'll be going up against people who have played for many years. Deathmatch does not scale difficulty, it's the luck of the draw.

I've recently had a friend want to start playing CS:S. He got smoked hard core. Most of it was due to not being familiar with the controls. I gave him some ideas to get started.

First, the controls have to be something you don't have to think about. When I want to throw a grenade, I don't think about the key to push, or even having to move my hands. I just think grenade, and it's like a disasociated part of my brain does the commands to my hands to hit the right buttons. It's weird. Then again, I've been playing FPS's since the Doom days.

What I suggest you do is master the keyboard and mouse controls. Play single player over and over. Learn to move and aim. Learn to use in-game sounds for clues. Do it until you don't have to think about it anymore. After a few weeks, you should be improving. There is no quick road to getting decent. You'll be playing people who have done it for years, and it will take months until you can hang with somebody like that.

Equipment is important too. You have to have a quality computer that will give you solidly high frame rates. You have to have a good mouse and pad that is comfortable for you. You have to have a decent sized monitor, at least, so you can see what's going on.
 
There is a school of thought that suggests playing against better opposition will teach you quicker than any other way. In at the deep end, so to speak. Personally I think that's rubbish - if the gulf is too large, you will get killed too quickly to learn.

I just went on HL2DM for the first time ever and the standard wasn't particularly high, but the gravity gun seems to be a bit of an equaliser at the moment. There will be HL2DM servers out there where you don't get utterly pasted - just try a few till you hit one that's not too intimidating.

There are certain rules that apply to any fast paced first person shooter that you don't always learn in the single player version:

- never stop moving
- strafing and shooting are not mutually exclusive - learn to move left and right while keeping your cursor on the same spot.
- when face to face, running straight at someone while shooting fast will get you killed 9 times out of 10.
- concentrate all the time so that your crosshair doesn't drift downwards to foot height when running about.

EDIT - also, the cutthroat nature of deathmatch doesn't make it ideal for the beginner. With any luck there will be a team based version of HL2, where the inexperienced can learn by watching and following their more skilled team mates and you can also get a few confidence-boosting kills by getting the last shots in on a weakened opponent.
 
Thanks to all you guys, I knew I would get some ideas and help.

Thanks and keep on posting here if you have any more ideas

Red
 
HL2DM is not for the beginner.

Not only do you have extremely fast paced, cramped deathmatch, it's dealing with physics which everyone is trying to get used to. It's a new concept which is difficult for any newbie to grasp.

Bots haven't made their way in to HL2 yet, but i'm sure that will change soon.

I'd recommend Quake3 or Unreal Tournament2k4 for the newbie deathmatch player. That will hone your skills sharp enough to the point where the action won't seem so fast paced anymore.
 
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