1·on·1 is fun! | Technical Stuff The Basics 1·on·1 is fun! |

Keep on runnin' Use the mouse, Luke Shoot at the floor Circle strafe Lead your shots Never pass up armour Fake it A decent config

Keep on runnin' |

Run or die. It's as simple as that. Go to options and turn on Always Run. New: Go and read this article called "Zig-zagging through a strange universe" written by one of those amazing guys (sorry, I forgot who in particular) at Quake Done Quicker. Anyway, it goes into detail about quirks in the Doom, and more importantly, Quake engine. Make sure you get down to the part about the zig-zagging manuevre and the bunny-hop. They are both ways to exceed the sv_maxspeed limit, which is the maximum speed a player can run. They probably don't work over modem, but they should work fine on a LAN (although I haven't tested that yet).
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Use the mouse |

The keyboard is the worst control device you could possibly choose for aiming. It is far too slow. IMHO, don't even bother with joysticks, 360o orby things, steering wheels, whatever. The first time you use a mouse, it will feel awkward. But trust me (and all the Quake people that r0x0r [I learnt that word on irc btw. I think it means 'rock', but I'm not sure.]), it will be well worth the effort of getting used to it. Also make sure you turn on mouselook permanently (+mlook in the console, or in your .cfg) and learn to control your mouse without auto-centering. It will also feel awkward the first time you have permanent +mlook on, and you will probably spend your next few Quake sessions looking up-and-down-and-up-and-down-and-etc. But if you can get used to it, you will r0x0r! I personally endorse the Logitech MouseMan '96 (not Pro, not cordless). So far I have managed to convince five of my fellow Quakers to switch to this mouse, and even sCary uses one. It has three buttons, very nice finger and thumb grooves, and is shaped very nicely to pivot around the wrist*. It's also an excellent Windows mouse, and IMHO of much higher quality than an MS Mouse 2 (although Thresh uses and MS Mouse 2, but what does Thresh know about Quake? :P). Word on the streets is that Logitech are coming out with a four button mouse, which I'll definitely be looking into. * Surgeon General's Warning: If you want your wrist to last more than a few years, do not move your mouse with your wrist. Use your whole arm instead. Its okay if the wrist pivoting is Quake related though. :)
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Shoot at the floor |

Learn to shoot at the floor next to your opponent, or better yet, at the wall if they are near one. Shooting directly at your opponent means that all he has to do is strafe a bit and your rocket will fly right past him (unless they are standing next to a wall, which I mentioned before). If you shoot at the floor next to your opponent, you may not do as much damage as if you had hit him directly, but at least you will do damage for the blast which your opponent cannot as easily avoid. If your opponent is standing near a wall, then aim for the wall next to him. Basically, the idea is to damage with the blast that will hit him, as opposed to the rocket which may miss altogether. Oh yeah, this brings up the point of not standing next to walls. Try and keep that in mind while you are playing.
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Circle strafe |

Definitely the most integral part of face to face combat. It just involves strafing left (or right) and turning right (or left) at the same time, the idea being that you circle around your opponent while keeping aim on him. Thus, it makes it alot harder for your enemy to hit you. It actually comes quite naturally once you learn to use the mouse. And then you can apply it to going around corners. Technical Note: You wanna be using one key for each of strafe left and right, as opposed to having that silly key that changes your turn key to a strafe key while you hold it down.
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Lead your shots |

A somewhat unnatural thing to do, not shooting at your opponent, but shooting where they will be in a little while. This only applies to NG, SNG, GL, and RL. I guess most people have heard of this concept before, and if you have played any type of flight sim, you would probably have used it already. Note that nails and rockets travel at exactly the same speed. Something to keep in mind to simplify leading: if you see your opponent heading for an item, shoot at that item. Let your opponent run into your fire. If you see him running towards a small opening, like the entrance of a corridor, shoot down that entrance. Let your opponent run into your fire.
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Never pass up armour |

Never ever pass up an opportunity to get armour. Before I go further though, don't go out of your way to get armour if you are really low on health. If you have 5 health, getting red armour won't be any use to you as it still only takes 25 damage to kill you. Get health first, and then: Never pass up armour. Armour is essentially extra health. When you have full red armour, you have 300 health, and that's better than 100, right?
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Fake it |

There are two main things to fake in Quake. What weapons you have, and what rocket jump you've just done. The basic idea with faking weapons is to show your opponent that you've run out of rocket ammo, and are left with only your shotgun. The way you use it is very dependent on the situation, but I'll describe one way of doing it. For instance, on DM4, say the both of you are in the DBSG room, you are close to the stairs and your opponent is closer to all the ammo. You shoot a rocket or two towards him, and then switch to shotgun (or use your quick-shotgun alias) and fire off one or two rounds of buckshot. Your opponent thinks, "Haha! He's run out of ammo!". Run up the stairs to the single player start room and head through the tele, hopefully with him following. When you come out of the tele, immediately strafe left (or right) and move back abit so that you are on top of the green armour. Point your rocket launcher to the ground just in front of the tele, and pop him as he comes through. If you don't kill him, you'll hopefully have flung him down the corridor, and he won't have a clue what just happened, and you can make your escape back through the tele. If he is really persistent, he might come through the tele again, where you'll be waiting for him. Faking rocket jumps is a bit on the iffy side, because the only way to do it properly involves damaging yourself, like a real rocket jump. See, if you don't get the rocket launch sound and the rocket explosion sound very close together, it'll just sound like you've fired a rocket into a wall, rather than done a rocket jump. Where would you want to use a fake rocket jump? After picking up the RA, you might wanna fake it so your opponent thinks you're gonna come out the top, leaving you free to go through the tele.
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A decent config |

Configs are a personal thing really. What works for one person don't necessarily work for another. One general tip that I can give you though, is that you should have your important weapon selection keys close to your movement keys. You do not wanna have to move your hand away from your movemnt keys in the middle of a fire fight, should the need arise to change weapons. Here is my main .cfg file for you to look at/steal from. There are not comments and stuff. I use a 3-button Logitech Mouseman 96 (AVOID THE CORDLESS LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!) with mouse speed at max and acceleration at none, and my left hand on the numeric keypad. Most people seem to use the wasd combo, but I just can't hack the wierd angle that you have to force your fingers to adapt to. Plus it increases the chances of smacking that horrid Windows key.
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1·on·1 is fun! | Technical Stuff The Basics 1·on·1 is fun! |