Korin Hasegawa-John
- 2001.11.19
This is a continuation of my earlier
article on first person shooters. This article deals with
netiquette for shooters and improving your skills.
Netiquette
The biggest problem that most people have is "camping." Camping
is parking yourself at the end of a totally unimportant hallway
with a shock rifle, rocket launcher, or railgun. A camper will then
proceed to sit there without moving and shoot people who come down
the hall. It is very tempting to do this, especially if you are
scared of the people leaping around and hitting their targets while
moving. Try to avoid it, however, because people will not be very
happy with you. Being called a camper is considered an insult.
Sniping is similar. It's the same practice, although it involves
being parked above a strategic intersection such as the
intersection of three passages where there are a lot of weapons.
This is considered legitimate, especially in team games. It's not
so nice in free-for-all-games.
Swearing is also frowned upon in general. If you must call
someone a name, do it like this. "Die, %&@*$!" Also, whining
isn't very nice. Just because someone kills you, that doesn't mean
that they're a lame little hack of a camper or that they're
cheating or that they're a piece of lowlife. Everyone dies
sometimes.
Tactics
The best tactic is jumping. It makes you a harder target to hit,
especially with a single shot accurate weapon. It also makes it
harder for you to hit anything, but it's usually easier to aim at
someone when you know you are going to be jumping than it is for
the other person to get a good shot at you.
Strafing is also good. It allows you to move laterally (side to
side) without turning and screwing up your aim. If you see a bunch
of people having it out in a big mass, get a rapid-fire weapon such
as a minigun or plasma gun and strafe across while firing. It's a
good strategy. Also, you can strafe back and forth quickly to
ensure that you get more hits even if the person moves
slightly.
Don't be afraid to run. If you have an Enforcer or other weak
weapon and you're going against an opponent with a rocket launcher,
run like the wind. If you're playing a team game, call for backup.
Always try to use your teammates in a team game - and don't forget
to support them.
If you're in a team game and see one of your guys and an
opponent close together, unless you are using a very accurate
weapon pass up the opportunity. If you hit your teammates, they
won't be happy. They might even shoot at you in revenge. Also, if
you kill a teammate you get a negative point, which doesn't help at
all.
Coming up next: My choices for FPS games and some hardware
picks.
