If you want to get advanced skills in the game, there are not a lot of articles around that can teach you these stuffs, and there are even less articles that are concise and actually intelligible.
Here is an excellent tutorial on Quake 2 and Quake 3 (but the advices work for both Quake 2 and Quake 3 except for the turbo jump) that covers a LOT of avanced skills:
http://www.revilla.nildram.co.uk/tips-play-intro.htmThis tutorial is mainly aimed to win the DM gametype, but most of the advices can also be applied in CTF and Tourney.
This is pretty much a padawan into jedi howto guide. I was pretty amazed while reading most of the advices: they are very useful, quite advanced, and very concise.
Here are some interesting excerpts, but if you are interested in progressing in your game skills, I really advise you to read the full guide.
Respect
One thing a lot of players do as they improve is begin to get over-confident and disrespectful of other players' skills. This can make you charge people down as if they haven't got a chance of hitting you, you the quake-god
. I think this affects most decent players to some extent, including me. The way to overcome this and vastly improve your scores is to treat every opponent as if they're Fatality or Zero4 or Thresh or someone. This needs more concentration as you need to play with your best skills in all situations. However, the upshot is that playing your best will become the norm and turn you into a far better player.
Note: use a Handicap if you want to play to the fullest of your abilities with an opponent which has a big level gap with you. Using a Handicap both lowers down the life and armor you starts with and maximum you can have and grab at any time, but it also lowers the damages you do by the same percentage (handicap of 90 = all your weapons hits will do 90% of your normal damages).
Tripwire
One advanced technique to master is the tripwire method - used by players like Immortal. Watch his demos and you'll see that he relies on the tripwire method more than placing the cursor bob on the target. The trick to this is making the enemy walk under your crosshair rather than having to aim directly at him.
Use the Scenery
Remember to actually use the features of the map to your advantage. Hide behind walls or crates or statues. If you're weak then try to keep objects between him and you. Expertise at this comes with experience of the maps.
Sound
In-game sounds are very important and is one reason why I hardly ever play to music like many players do. Sounds will tell you if your opponent is hurt, and how badly. You may have noticed that there are are different pain sounds depending on the severity of the enemy's injuries. This should help you to decide whether to pursue to the death or retreat.
So vital is sound that it is the intention of top players to try to trick you with it - collecting things they don't need or letting doors open without going through, with the sole purpose of deceiving you. Watch some of the duels on my demo pages and you'll see top players using these tricks, which you should copy.
Jumping
Jumping is key to many shortcuts in the game. Stairs, for example, are slow to climb but you can cut out some of the distance by jumping up to the third step, then running on. You should jump to the fifth or sixth step on every set of stairs you find.
Patience
All players at some point make the mistake of trying to make slick snap shots like they're [MM]Scion or something. These kind of shots will rarely hit and only serve to reveal your location. The trick is to hold off, pause and make sure the shot will hit home. Just allowing a split second or so to actually aim the shot before firing will increase your accuracy immensely.
Armour
A lot of players underestimate the importance of armour, but it really is vital. An armoured-up player can survive a point blank rail shot and will also suffer far less damage from explosions.
Crowd Dynamics
In the Awareness section I discussed hot-spots. I was simplifying this concept a lot, though. There's far more to this than simply knowing busy areas. You will learn with experience how games develop and learn about how strong/weak players react to different situations. This is the key to dominating a server.
Prediction/Counter-Prediction
I mentioned this in the Aiming section and it is another vital part of combat. Half-decent opponents will try to track you and lead their aiming on you, as you would to them. To counter this you need to set them up and be as unpredictable as possible. Forsaking vital health packs or armour, standing still for a second, doubling back and running straight at a tooled up opponent, anything to surprise him and hopefully keep you in control.
An advanced technique is predicting your opponents prediction
. This can help you to be tricky. One trick I use sometimes is where I see my opponent out of the corner of my eye but I don't turn to face him, I just continue on my way. He tends to follow or head you off but you'll be ready for him.
Know when to Retreat
It's tempting to go running into every combat situation with a carefree attitude, as if you're invincible, but you *must* try to overcome this. It's something that we all do but great players know when the odds are too slim and when to make a retreat to tool up and grab health.
Herding
When you're in a one on one combat situation and you think your opponent may be about to leg it - try to herd him in by firing at his exits and gradually firing closer and closer to him.
Fire and Hope
This perhaps isn't a skillful tactic
but it does demonstrate an understanding of the map. For example, on the Edge players are continually running to get the lower rocket launcher. If you fire at the entrance from up near the megahealth room for example, you're likely to hit someone on a busy server. So, whilst you haven't aimed and hit them you've strategically calculated a likely hit. Hehe, that's one way to explain away spamming
.
Lagged Players
If you can see a lagged player, two things go through your mind. On the one hand you know that shooting a defenseless player is cowardly and unsporting, but on the other hand you know that if you don't take the easy frag then someone else will. Some players get really annoyed about this but personally, when I was a HPB, I didn't expect to still be alive when I finished lagging, it's just hard luck I'm afraid. Try not to if you can help it but if it's a busy server, or if you can't get past (hehe) - put them out of their misery. <evil laugh continues>
Be Cool
I don't mean in a Fonz kind of way (if he can still be called cool
/ ). Rather, I mean be decent with people and try to not to use the shield of your online anonymity as an excuse to turn into a foul-mouthed yob. You get some players who come on a server venting all their life's frustrations. Swearing at players, accusing them of cheating, generally being a spoilt brat. It's a game. Don't take it too seriously. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose - Live with it and realise that you there's always someone better than you.
I would add one more important advice in addition to this guide: try to play as many different gametypes as you can, even if you are rubbish in some of them. Each gametype will focus you on learning a different set of skills, that you can use to your advantage in other gametypes.
For example, in DM you will learn how to gun fight against a lot of enemies at once. In Tourney you may learn how to manage items (armors, health, weapons) and how to read your opponent's mind. In CTF you may learn crowd dynamics, team gaming and how to retreat and evade. All of these skills can then be mixed up and applied to any gametype.
In the end, all gametypes will require the same big set of skills to be a great player, but each gametype will allow you to focus more on one set of skills at a time.
