1·on·1 is fun! | Knowledge is Power! The Basics 1·on·1 is fun! |

Know the level Know the items Know the sounds Know the weapons Know the teleporters Know your maneuvres Know your status Know your enemy

Know the level |

Ask any decent Quake player and they'll tell you the same thing. Nothing will improve your game like inside-out knowledge of the level you are playing. This, of course, applies to any level of Quake (or any other game for that matter). You want to learn the map so well that you can comfortably run around the level backwards and strafewards. This way you can beat a hasty retreat while keeping an eye on your opponent. If you learn all the neato jumps and rocket jumps you can do on a level, you will save yourself a heap of time getting to items, or cutting off your opponent. You'll also want to know the tricks that can be done on the level, not only so you can use them, but so you know that they can be used against you. Your level knowledge should be so good that you can visualise the enter level in your mind, along with all it's item locations...
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Know the items |

Learn where every single item on the level is, and learn the shortest way to get from any place to any item. IMHO, the best way to do this is with some low skill reaper bots. Playing against high skill bots, to me, is abit silly if you're trying to learn a level, 'cos they just kill you far too often and you end up spending more time trying to avoid certain death than learning the level. With a few low skill reapers, you'll use up a decent amount of ammo, and get your health pecked down, which will force you to learn the ammo and health locations, both of which you might overlook if you're only practise was in single player mode. Another extremely critical thing you must know is the item respawn times. For normal Quake, these are the times in seconds: Weapons: 30 Ammo: 30 Armour: 20 Health: 20 Mega-Health: 20 after its been used up Quad: 60 Biosuit: 60 Pentagram: 300 Ring: 300 However, its a very good idea to get a feel for that 60 second Quad respawn time. If you get it right, you can keep your opponent from getting the Quad, and be Quadded up for 50% of the time you're playing (Quad lasts 30 seconds and respawns every 60, ie. 30 seconds with, 30 seconds w/o, 30 seconds with, etc.). On levels which have Ring and Pent, I often use the +showscores thingy to check the exact time that I (or anyone else for that matter) pick it up. Then I keep checking the time when it comes close to being five minutes later so that I know exactly when to head for the Pent/Ring.
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Know the sounds |

If you have the item locations down, then the next most important thing to learn is to listen for the pick up sounds made by different items. All the super elite Quake players will tell you that knowing what sounds are made in what areas of a level will give you possibly the greatest advantage you can have over your opponent, and that's knowing where he is the vast majority of the time. Using headphones instead of speakers will greatly enhance the stereo effect in Quake, making it even easier to know where your opponent is. Don't just listen for the distinctive Quad and Mega-Health sounds (which won't help you anyway, if the other guy knows the silent Quad and silent Mega-Health tricks), but listen for the very distinctive sets of sounds made by collecting several items close together. For instance, on DM4, two or three "ughs" an armour pickup sound, a weapon pickup sound, and a tele sound means that your opponent has red armour, a rocket launcher, and is now somewhere on the bottom level. If there is no tele sound about 4 or 5 seconds later, he's gone into the Mega-Health room. Set up for a lava pop. If you can quickly think through all the possible sounds and sound sequences, you can quickly track down, or at least narrow down, where he is on the level. Learn the sounds made by doors opening, and lifts going up and down. Subtle things like how long the sound lasted, and whether you heard a shotgun go off (indicating a shootable trigger) before the sound, will help you figure out where he is. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention to notice that the 15 health and the 25 health make two different sounds. 15 has this kinda gurgly rumble sound, and 25 has a brighter, game-show-buzzer type sound. Keep that in mind as it will often help to confirm the location of your opponent, when otherwise the normal item sounds aren't distinctive enough. Ooh, and another thing. There are two possible sounds that can be made when someone drops from a high to low area. If I remember my QC correctly, if you land with a vertical velocity of greater than -350 (a short drop), you will produce the standard "ugh" sound. But if its less than -350 (a big drop), you will make the squishy landing sound, the one accompanied by 5 points of damage. So if you hear the squishy sound, you know that they must be somewhere fairly low on the level. For instance, on DM4, the only way your opponent can make the squishy sound is if he falls from the very top level, to the very bottom level.
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Know the weapons |

Make sure you know the abilities of the three main weapons you will be using, the grenade launcher, rocket launcher, and thunderbolt. On most other levels, the only useful weapon is the RL. But on DM4 the GL and TB can be put to good use. The GL is excellent for flushing out people in the red armour room, and can travel surprisingly far into the Mega-Health room when thrown at the right angle from outside. It's also good if you're expecting someone to come through a tele, just lay out a few as a welcome mat. They are also good sources of delayed noise. Fling them into different rooms to confuse your opponent. You never know, it might even hit the other guy. Also use grenades to force your opponent into moving in certain directions. For instance, if you are in the single player start room, and your opponent is below you in the DBSG room, bounce some grenades off the wall and down the stairs, and run out towards the thunderbolt but stay on the top level. More than likely, he'll come running out right underneath you. The GL is an excellent defensive weapon on DM4. The thunderbolt is also much more useful on this level than on the other DM levels, because of the tight corridors. If you are shooting lightning down the middle of a corridor, its pretty hard not to hit the other guy, and remember that the amount of damage per second for the TB is twice that of the RL. And since there is a Quad on the level, you wanna be sure to choose the TB when you are in close combat and Quaded up. The RL, well you know about the RL. It's the best general purpose weapon in the game. Oh, and if you're wondering why you still suck with the RL, maybe its because you aren't shooting at the floor.
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Know the teleporters |

This is mainly a DM4 thing, 'cos the tele's are so critical to gameplay on DM4, but of course applies to any level with teles. Learn where all the tele's take you AND which way they point you when you get there. Knowing the tele's is vital not only so you can take shortcuts around the level, but so you can predetermine where your opponent is going to appear on the level if you see him heading for a tele. Then you can set up an effective attack. The point about knowing the direction you end up pointing is so that, should you be using the tele to quickly get close to your opponent, you don't wanna go through if you are gonna end up right in front of him with your back facing him. One tip to remember with tele's is about chasing through them and being chased through them. If you are being chased through a teleporter, quickly spin around after you have gone through, and keep your crosshair pointed on the ground as you continue to back away. Even if you don't kill the guy as he comes through, you'll take off a serious chunk of health easily, and make him think twice about chasing you through tele's again. For this reason, if you are doing the chasing, you should think carefully about whether or not you want to run through.
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Know your maneuvres |

Know your maneuvres. What I mean is, always be aware of all the possible maneuvres you may need to use in any given situation, and be ready to modify known maneuvres as the situation changes. Mainly, these are your jumps and rocket jumps, as well as your lava pops.
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Know your status |

I don't know how many times I've asked my friends this when I watch them play: "Do you know how much health you have?". For some strange reason, people like to give chase because they have an RL and 100 rockets, but don't factor in the fact that they only have 5 health left. And since I brought it up, don't attack just because you have an RL, you need a healthy amount of ammo too. No use starting a rocket battle if you've only got two shots and the other guy has 10 or 20. In general, you wanna be checkin' that status bar every few seconds. Always know what weapons you have, ie. it will prevent you from trying to do auto-rocketjumps when you don't have a rocket launcher, trying to use quick-grenades when you don't got no GL, etc. Keep tabs on how many rockets and cells you have, to avoid the situation mentioned above. And always, always know how much health and armour you have. It's even more important to check your health status during a fire fight, so you can retreat if need be.
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Know your enemy |

Ahh, the old Sun Tzu thingy. Learn how your enemy plays and what skills he has got. Figure out patterns that he likes to run, or places he likes to hide. It's a fairly obvious point, but it needs to be said. Let me elaborate abit. If you know your opponent can't rocket jump for squat, then you know that it greatly reduces the amount of possibilities you have to cover. For instance, on DM4, if they go into the RA room, then they have to come out the RA tele. If they went through the RA tele, they have to get off the bottom level by going through the GA tele. You get the idea.
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1·on·1 is fun! | Knowledge is Power! The Basics 1·on·1 is fun! |