To advertise on this page, email info@tigertom.comThe Penultimate Quake & Quake 2 Online Deathmatch Guide http://www.tigertom.com last update: 5th June 1999. Online Quake and Quake2 LAN deathmatch gaming in hints tips tricks and strategies.
This guide contains advanced Quake tips, two personal configuration files, and an associated 'speed up your modem page ', as a fast connection is essential to worthwhile online play. Important Quake tips are in dark blue Why Penultimate? Well, there's no such thing as an Ultimate guide - there's so much that can be done to improve your skills in Quake, and the game is constantly evolving, so why lie ? :) 16th May 1999. New free download. Tom's latest config. scripts for Qizmo, NFProxy, Cheapo, TeamFortress, Quake and Quake2. The zip includes a standard and an altered gren.wav file for TeamFortress, so it's a bit fat. This isn't the Holy Grail of Quake online, but you should find something helpful in there. 16th May 1999. Now trying the NF proxy. It's not bad at at all, but the fact that I can connect to a Qizmo server and compress my connection a little, and get server lists, makes Qizmo the proxy of choice for me. TeamFortress fans however, (of which I am one) should try it out, as it has some interesting options for that mod. 6th June 1999: Also out at the same site is the Nitro2 proxy for Quake2. It's a good 'un ! 2nd April 1999. I've recently been using the Qizmo proxy. It's a lot like Cheapo. It now operates for 50 minutes before shutting down in the un-registered version, despite what you may read on the Qizmo website (the previous version only worked for 15 minutes). It has lots of nice features, including a more reliable server browser than GameSpy. If you've used Cheapo the same .cfg file (see below) will work with Qizmo. 11th December 1998. I've just been using the Cheapo proxy. It's a program that sits between qwcl and your internet connection and allows you to fiddle with how the game appears on your screen. It can get rid of even more irrelevant detail - gibs, flashes, blood - and enables you to put the skin of your choice on your opponents: no more hiding in shadows or wearing camo skins for them! The lack of detail also means that your game will run even more smoothly, but still be playable. You can make up your own proxy.cfg and put it in the id1 directory in Quake 1, just like the .cfg files below. CLICK HERE for Cheapo author's site. IMPORTANT: Do not download this program from anywhere else. Some versions have been known to contain viruses. Also, save the information page at this site, as the program doesn't come with a readme.txt file. 6th February 1999. Here's my personal proxy .cfg file - say .fps 4 2 2 1 1 2 2 1 say .color 1,1 0,0 say .skin ttbase drone Substitute the skin names here for ones in your own QW 'skins' directory. The first one is your own skin, the second is a (nice and bright!) skin your opponents will appear to wear. [A confession: A lot of the material here I copied from other sites and altered to fit. My excuse? It would take an age to write all this material out from scratch, and I wanted to get a head start keeping up with all the new wrinkles in Quake and Quake 2. Also, pages come and go, and I didn't want to put up yet another 'dead' links page to sites which cover incompletely anyway the topics below.] NEWBIE TIPS: Do not run any other programs while you are connecting to the internet or when Gamespy is refreshing/starting up. Otherwise your connection may slow down. BETTER YET, reboot your computer when you want to connect to the internet to play Quake - it's the easiest way in the long run, believe me! Connect to the internet and run Gamespy first thing after booting up your computer. Checking for e-mails or running other programs first can interfere with the speed of your connection. Enable the auto-aiming, cl_nodelta and cl_predictplayers options in Gamespy. Conversely, auto-aiming may be a problem if you've got a good connection and you're experienced at playing - type 'noaim 1' at the console and see what happens. Go to Start>Settings>Taskbar>Start Menu Programs>Remove. Click on StartUp and click 'Remove' for FindFast if it's listed. This program can start searching your hard-disk whilst you're online, cause your game to 'lag' momentarily. If you want to free up RAM, remove other non-essential programs as well. Start Quake or Quake2 with a command line that includes the command -heapsize XX000, where XX is the number of megabytes of RAM you can safely allot the game e.g. c:\quake\qwcl.exe -heapsize 24000 or c:\quake2\quake2.exe -heapsize 32000. You can put this command in the command line in GameSpy for convenience if you want. When in a game, aim where your opponent is heading, not where he is. (Players can be very predictable - heading for powerups or portals). Lag, and the time taken for your shot to travel will make you miss if you don't. Practice with Bots before you go online If you've got enough rockets, fire them where an opponent may appear. If you wait 'til you see him he'll probably gib you before you can react. This is a good way to get some lucky frags. Fire rockets at an opponent's feet or at any wall he's near. The 'splash back' will damage him each time. Don't behave in a predictable fashion i.e. going for the same portals and powerups and weapons at the same pace all the time. and Get the Quad Get the Quad Get the Quad! General note: Try to get your system set up so that you never access the hard-drive during a game, and that you have the best internet connection possible. Your ISP should be able to tell you what you need to enable and disable to get the best possible connection (see modem page), and if you reduce graphic detail as much as possible you shouldn't have disk access occurring. This is where the fov 120 command comes in. Along with the mipcap/mipscale commands in my personal Quake1 .cfg (and the cl_ ones in my Quake2 .cfg) below I can play the game in a small window in software video mode with reduced detail and still see all I need to. I have a 200 Mhz Pentium MMX cpu and 48 Mb of ram, an old monitor and no 3dfx card. Pretty pictures won't make you play better, and I 've heard 3d graphics cards can bring another level of awkwardness to the game - set your maxfps to something the server, your computer and your connection can cope with. To start off, I'll give you what you won't find on any other site - my personal .cfg files. The more unusual binds and commands here are to do with reducing detail in the graphics so as to give smoother gameplay, and also to speed up your movements in the game - turning, swivelling, aiming up and down etc - in so as far as Quake allows you to do this in DM mode. I'm not a top player, but you will probably find some useful binds here. Cut and paste them into a text editor like Notepad, save in the id1 directory in Quake, or the baseq2 directory in Quake2, as yourname.cfg, then type exec yourname.cfg at the console when in the game. I'm a keyboard-only player, so you won't find any binds for the mouse. However, we keyboard-only players need all the little tricks we can muster, and you'll find a fair few here. Note: Always try out new commands in a personal .cfg file, rather than by typing them at the console in the game itself. If you do the latter the bind or command goes into the config.cfg and autoexec.cfg files, and can be hard to find and remove if you don't like it.
Rocket firing One shot kills anyone without armor, two/three shots for everyone else. IMPORTANT : Rockets are also good for proximity damage. Shoot at an enemy's feet - you may not hit him directly, but the 'splash-back' from the rocket explosion will damage him, and you damage and disorient him with each shot. If you do hit him direct at his feet you can propel him into the air, which also disorients him, and gives you a chance to mark where he's going to land and put a rocket there. If you get good at this, you can also propel him into a lava pit, especially in DM4. Also shoot at any wall he's near. If opponents are running across your line of sight, aim for a spot where they will be, not where they are. Again, aim for the spot on the ground, if you can. An odd thing - in DM3 one cannot aim precisely into the RL room from the parallel walkway opposite targeting with the crosshair - you need to aim a little lower than you think. I put crosshair 2 on, as 1 blocks out what's immediately in front of you. If you practice with bots on your own pc you may need to adjust for online play, which will seem tardier. Fire then duck for cover. If there is something nearby to duck behind, try strafing out, firing, then strafing back into cover. You don't need to be watching your rocket for it to work, and once it's fired, watching it won't help it reach it's target anyway. If you have lots of rockets, fire them where opponents might be heading to or from - e.g. down corridors. You will get some lucky frags this way. This is an especially good tactic on a crowded level. Defensive maneuvers against a rocket launcher: Run away! (but not in a straight line!) Run away backwards keeping your eye on your opponent's rockets, and avoid them. Put an obstacle between you and the rocket wielder. Stand still until they fire, then dodge. Arcing (moving in semi circles 'round an opponent), if you time it right If you know you've had it, move as close as possible and make them take themselves down with you, depriving them of the frag they would otherwise get, if he's also using the RL. A sign of a very good player is that he switches to another weapon like the LG or the shotgun when you do this! Rocket-jumping Rocket jumping is essential in Quake DM. The basic concept remains the same: Run forward, look down at your feet, jump, and then launch a rocket directly into the ground beneath you -all at the same time. You should bind one key via an alias to both firing and jumping - it'll give you maximum height in laggy play (see my Quake .cfg file above). You can also turn your back to the direction you wish to jump, and then jump/fire, for further flight and less damage to oneself. Angle it correctly and you leap great distances. Because this move will hurt you, be sure to load up on health and armor. You can rocket jump to essential power-ups, or to otherwise inaccessible places (like overhead girders), to snipe on an opponent. Or just to confuse a less experienced opponent. Practice in single-player mode with the 'god' command on, especially in the DM levels and, next most important, the E1 levels in Quake 1. A good laugh can be had on DM3 if you get the RL, the Quad and the Pent in quick succession - you can bounce around like a madman with impunity! Variations of the rocket-jump include the grenade-jump (hopping onto a live grenade) and the barrel-jump (shooting the explosive barrel beneath you). Extreme variations include the grenade/rocket-jump (rocket-jump in tandem with grenade-jump) and barrel/rocket-jump (rocket-jump combined with barrel-jump). The other type of rocket jumping is to jump over your opponent's rockets, if he's on the same level as you. You can avoid them completely, or if he's aiming at your feet, you get propelled into the air, take less damage, and maybe you can fire back down at him Psychological Tricks. Many Quake tactics carry over well into Quake II. Always cover your retreat. Run backwards facing you opponent so you can keep your gun on your pursuer. Toss grenades to discourage pursuit. Think twice before picking up weapons or items that you don't need. A clever player will notice missing items and may be able to track you . He will also hear you and guess where you are, as each type of item has a distinct sound. Quake II adds the ability to selectively drop items. Most players have an uncontrollable pack rat habit of collecting any weapon or item in sight. You may drop one of the less powerful weapons (or a big one that's out of ammo), and then hide in a vantage point with one's crosshairs trained on the item. As soon as someone attempts to scoop it up, you can gib him. To the veteran, noises reveal much information. Indeed, the hardcore insist on wearing headphones to better identify and pinpoint telltale noises. Jumping into and out of water alerts everyone within earshot as to exactly where you are and what you're doing. Water: if chased into the water, jump in and immediately back out. 9 times out of 10 if your opponent jumps in after you, he'll end up in front of you with his back to you. A neat trick in Quake 1 - if you hold down your jump key while jumping into water you make much less noise. Also, you should have a key assigned to "+moveup" (swimup); used in tandem with your 'down' key - moving up and down - while swimming underwater you don't get the 'glub-glubbing' noise when you're running out of air. Or just surface every three seconds. While running makes you harder to hit in a firefight, running - in Quake 2 - when there's no threat of attack is a bad idea. The din from your scurrying feet can give away your location and direction of travel. However, you can also use noise to fool others. When no one is in sight, jump once or twice. When others hear the grunting but can't get a fix on your position, they may be confused into thinking you're somewhere that requires jumping. Similarly, fake a ride on an elevator or lift. Simply step on to activate it, then quickly step off and hide somewhere to ambush the person who intended to ambush you. Conversely, in DM2, practice jumping over that pesky elevator between the yellow-armour-teleport-spawn-point and the RL -plus-rocket- pack- recess lower down to the left, so you don't set it off. It can be done. You can also draw someone into an ambush by feigning lack of ammo. Switch to the feeble blaster/ shotgun, and fire enough shots at the target to convince him that your better guns are out of ammo. As the victim comes in for the kill, switch to something with clout and shoot. This tactic, of course, requires good timing, due to the delay in weapons switching. Never run in a straight line, especially if running away. Why make yourself an easy target? If you run in a straight line, it's easy for your opponents to keep a bead on you. And if they're directly behind you, they can hit dead-center the whole time. Most good players can aim and hit an intersect shot with a straight line almost as easily as hitting a stationary target. Wiggle a little in your movements. Unexpected paths are also a good idea as players often depend on correctly guessing on where you are going. For example, doubling back so that you briefly pass face to face with your opponent is an occasionally viable strategy. It also throws the auto-aiming and player -prediction programming off. You are human - don't move like a robot going straight for the teleport or the power up. Strafing - moving from side to side. This is most important. As well as evading your enemy's shots it helps throw off Quake's prediction and auto-aiming features. "Camping" is not a really great strategy, because most good players can always maneuver into a good attacking position against any stationary target no matter how well they are placed. Remember that if you can see them, they can see you. And you get much fewer frags and annoy people. BUT, I think you should in DM6 in the RL/100H room if you are in a FFA with a bunch of LPB's! Don't ignore your health/defence status. You're going to get hit eventually, so you must do what you can to survive an enemy barrage. Go for health first, then armor. When fully loaded, don't hesitate to attack people even at point blank range your rockets. Conversely, always have a route of retreat in mind even in the thickest of the fighting. Remember that the game doesn't take into account the number of times you die, but rather the number of times you frag your opponents. So it can pay to be overly adventurous and attack, even if it is not clear who will win. Playing too defensive a strategy, is in fact the worst way to play Quake, since you wont score that way. If you mutually self-destruct with someone, that usually means that your weapon packs will still be lying there, so head quickly back to them if you respawn anywhere near them. Use dark areas to hide in. When you do so, switch to the axe, as the other weapons' tips glow in the dark. Be sure you know how to use the bonus powerups effectively - The Quad damage is best used with either the super nail gun if you want to play it safe, or the rocket launcher for long distances. Too many players mistakenly equate the Quad Damage with Invulnerability, and act accordingly. Although Quad Damage can make you more lethal, it does not offer extra protection. If your opponents shoot back, you can still die. If your opponent has the Quad Damage, you can still fight it out... just be extra careful to avoid getting hit, because it will hurt a lot more. A better strategy is to either hide and wait until he passes you then smack him from behind, or just hide from him until you hear it wearing off. You can be very irritating in a FFA by concentrating on getting the Quad and then your power-ups, especially if 'Quad-stay' is turned off on the server i.e. if you get gibbed and it doesn't remain for someone else to scoop it up. Always grab the Quad Damage - you can quickly get five frags at a time with this powerup active. Go for it every 60 seconds so you're the only player snagging it (time when it respawns). If there's more than one on a level, alternate between them. The silent Quad trick. To execute this trick, you basically exploit a bug in the Quake sound code where the "uh" sound made by falling is played on the same channel as the Quad pickup sound, thereby overriding the Quad sound. All you have to do is make sure you jump on it cleanly so that you make contact with the Quad before your feet hit the floor. It's very simple, especially in DM4. Your opponent will be completely unaware that you have the Quad until he sees your glow, or you make your first shot. You can RJ onto it if can't jump from the necessary height. You can also muffle the sound of picking up the 100 health in DM4 if you scoop it up at an angle so as to grab it AND the rocket pack beside it at the same time. This takes practice Invulnerability is great with the RL (if you've got lots of rockets.) In DM3, in combination with the LG, you can have fun in the water zapping opponents with impunity, but only if they are in your line of sight and not too far away. Otherwise use the time to get as many power-ups as you can e.g. run to the RL room and get it. Invisibility is good, but with your eyes visible, its far from 100% effective. Invisibility doesn't last very long so run to a crowded area as quickly as possible, and simply attack as normal. It works best for you as an extra defence, though it does have surprise value for those that are not alert. NOTE: When flying though the air from a RJ, or jumping a great distance your eyes are invisible also, in this mode. You might announce your presence by shooting at an opponent with the single shot gun, stop, then turn around and run. Then when you round a corner, switch weapons to your rocket launcher and and let them have it when they come in pursuit. Doubling back when you pass through a dark area can be quite an effective surprise against the unprepared pursuer. Be familiar with the weapons. The single shotgun and nail gun are inferior to their obvious counterparts. The double shot gun is best used at very short range, or from behind, but its long reload time makes it ineffective against a wiley opponent who can dodge well. It is however a very good weapon in Quake2, especially if you are a poor shot with the RL. The Super Nail Gun is a great weapon for unbalanced fighting. A continuous two-second stream will cut through anyone's armour. It's an effective choice when your opponents are using the rocket launcher but don't aim too well. Arcing 'round a slow player when he's in a corner or against a wall is also most effective. IMPORTANT- don't do this mindlessly: watch where he's aiming/turning, and watch your own damage. If he gets a bead on you move quickly to the side, back and forth, while constantly firing on him. This is a good tactic to use with the single shotgun or weaker nailgun as well, if you're up against a poor player. The Grenade Launcher. You can use this weapon to lay a minefield while retreating, however it's a good offensive weapon against enemies that are trapped in, or compelled to stay in a single area. If you are in a small room, the greater the chaos, the greater the effectiveness of grenades (flailing people are more likely to run over randomly dropped grenades.) Also good for lobbing into a crowded area from on high, or bouncing grenades 'round a corner, off the wall(s), at a lurking enemy. Lightning-gun - Pretty straightforward; against stationary targets this weapon needs precise aim, against moving targets use it like the Super Nail Gun, swaying back and forth, but you should keep the swaying as tight as possible. The weapon is better for hitting opponents when you are chasing them from behind, than if they are heading straight towards you. Its' range is limited, and if fired from dry land it does not electrify an opponent underwater unless it hits him directly, so save your cells. Winning FFA's (free for all's) Critical to winning one on one melee's against good players is picking up health during the melee itself. This gives you more effective health than your opponent at a time when they may not be considering their health as closely as they should. You must know when you are about to lose a melee and have an escape route in mind. Denying your opponent frags is an important part of the game. When you are outclassed, usually the best thing you can do is frustrate your opponent. Play very defensive, avoid conflicts, and rather than seeking them out try to hide and avoid the common areas of each maze; turn the pace way down. The idea of course is that they will get frustrated and eventually make mistakes when trying to pursue you. It is then your job to take advantage of these weak moments when you see them and go into attack mode. Don't fall into a fixed pattern of map traversal. Especially don't restrict yourself to small sub sections of a map. If a strong opponent knows where to expect you, they can plan against it. Surprise and unpredictable moves are as much a part of defense as they are an offense. Even if a large circle is the most logical path, and you are successful with it, try running the circle backwards every once in a while. You'll be surprised how many more encounters you will have this way. Stick to your target. No sense beating 90% of the life out of someone and then leaving them for someone else to finish off (or letting them restore health). Finish the job, even if it means dodging several other players that appear in your path -- those other players are probably much more healthy than your first target, and probably more healthy than you at that point. Run toward the sound of gunfire, not away from it. Where there is gunfire, there are weakened players. Weakened players are easy to kill. If there is an ongoing scuffle between two players, stay just out of the way and fire on the both of them. If you don't get both of them, you'll very likely get the winner at least. Don't be too concerned about picking up backpacks and powerups. Doing this slows you down from finding other frags, and interrupts the flow of your travels, making you an easier target. If you have done your homework finding adequate weapons, you won't need the backpacks anyway. And health is really the only powerup that's abundant enough to make an effort for without distracting your main mission -- getting more frags. Circling: there are lots of variations of circling, but they all require being able to strafe to one side while turning to the other. This allows you to keep a bead on your opponent while constantly moving out of his line of fire. Variations of circling include: Overshoot circling: if the player you are circling is also circling you, it becomes necessary to aim a bit ahead of their position in their path of travel. This is because of the finite time delay between your fire event and the server's recognition of it. This pretty much applies to any shot you take at a person who is running across your line of sight. All things being equal, this usually determines who comes out of the death spiral a winner. Arcing (described previously). Figure eights: if your opponent catches on to your circling, try reversing the direction frequently, creating seemingly-random curvy motions. This really annoys people and is very rewarding when effective. Get good at running backwards. Running backwards gives you the advantage of retreating and shooting someone simultaneously. If you happen to be wielding the grenade launcher this is especially useful. Also, if you are running backwards when fighting, you have the first opportunity to pickup health (assuming you can blindly run over it without looking). Quake II adds new features and, thus, new wrinkles. Among the first things that players notice is the ability to crouch. While crouching is often required to scoot into tight spots to retrieve weapons and other goodies, it's not as good for evading attack as you might expect. It slows down your rate of movement. Using the mouse: Anyone who wants to maximize his or her mousing pleasure should get a quality pad . It will vastly improve mouse-tracking accuracy. No more of that dreaded mouse stutter or skipping that will get you killed in the heat of battle. Hoard Weapons When you kill an enemy, immediately take his backpack. Head for the most powerful weapons and artifacts on the level, so killing the enemy will be even easier the next time. If you've got full armour on (and it should be the most powerful one on the level) and you pass it again, blast the wall so as to damage your armour a little and scoop it up again, so depriving your opponent. Know Your Enemy Watch your enemies to see if they have a pattern of movement within a level. Learn the pattern and break it. Hover Near Hot- Spots If there are a lot of people in the DeathMatch, hover near the "hot spot," where everyone is killing each other, and drop grenades or shoot rockets in the middle of the firefight. Don't stay too long. Red Armor Always get the red armor if it's on a level. Time your movement so that you are grabbing it every 60 seconds, which will prevent your opponents from taking it. Always grab armor if you're near it. DM4 In DM4 the best place to camp, if you're powered up, is the stairs leading down to the ramp in front of the Quad recess. You overlook everything, and can't be snuck up on, and can stafe up and down the stairs making you a difficult target. There's health behind you, and a yellow armour a teleport away. The classic strategy here is to lob grenades into the respawn points based on where you hear your opponent moving towards. Know the Level You should familiarize yourself with each level, where all the powerups, weapons an respwn points are, down to the exact sounds made in certain areas. You'll have an incredible advantage over you opponents if you are able to tell where someone is just by listening. Most important are the respawn and teleport sounds. Needless to say, USE HEADPHONES, for the stereo effect. One hour spent praticing with bots by yourself is worth five online running around like an idiot and getting gibbed by players who practice. RJ out of a lava pit. One of the most useful maneuvres you can practice. If you manage to find yourself in the deep lava pit, you can actually do a rocket jump type move to get yourself back out and on the walkway. You need a decent amount of health/armour to survive this trick. As soon as you fall in, spin around so that your back is facing the ledge you want to land on. Point your rocket launcher all the way down to the floor. Then use your back key to get yourself accelerating upwards. As you are going upwards, fire your rocket into the floor, giving you that extra push out of the lava, and make sure you keep holding back while you are flying out of the lava. It's very difficult to do at first because of the very precise timing you need . Fire your rocket too early, and you won't have gained enough speed from backing upwards. Too late, and you won't get enough push from the rocket blast. Practice with god mode on, obviously. If you have a key bound for +moveup, and have been clever enough to change your CL_UPSPEED to a high value, then you can use that key instead of using the back key. You get much greater height this way. You still need to press the back key once you are airborne, to push you back onto the walkway. In DM2, you can get out of three of the four lava pits by going to the nearest lowest protruding ledge, lip or groove, and using your jump key to push you up. This includes the two-lid pit in the corridor - the groove is on the right facing the RL . In the pit on the spiral stairway, you have to RJ out. The infamous u-turn jump of DM2. (This one is confined to mouse users - keyboard players can't do it. However, if you have enough armour you can do a quick jump in and out of the lava if desperate.) It occurs where you normally have to push the button on the wall to make two platforms join together so you can cross over to get the RA/MH. The idea behind this jump is that you don't need to use the platforms to get over to the other side. While you're in the air in Quake, you do have some degree of control of where you are moving, for instance, if you've tried strafe jumping, and in mid-air you press the opposite strafe key, you'll stop moving in the original direction. Or even if you just jump straight up and then press forward, you'll move forward a little. Run out towards the lava and jump before you get too close to the edge. The critical part is to keep holding down your forward button, and as soon as your feet get off the ground, flick your mouse so that your crosshair is pointing at the dividing wall. The most important thing is that you keep holding down forward, and you continually adjust your aim (pointing to the dividing wall) throughout the entire jump. You won't give away your location by making the platforms make sounds. If you are being closely chased and you need to get away quickly, you won't have to stop to press the button. And if the chaser can't do the u-turn jump, he'll have to stop and press the button, giving you those vital extra seconds.
And that's it. I hope to update this page regularly, as additions occur to me. Thanks for stopping by! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
