unfair advantages

[Dokujisan]

This is something that was recently brought up in another thread, but I've though about this more and more recently.

There are natural differences in skill between players. Faster reaction time. Better hand/eye coordination. Better strategy. Quicker thinking. Memorizing the layout of the maps. All of these things are based on the skill of the player.

Then there are other advantages that come from knowledge about the game. Many of these things I still have to learn. But when I first started playing Nexuiz, I didn't know about all of the alternate fire techniques of each weapon. I didn't know about certain details of laser jumping. I didn't know that jumping made you move forward faster (just learned that a couple weeks ago). I didn't know the effects of tweeking your FOV and mouse sensitivity. I didn't know any special binds for setting up zoom for all weapons or laser jumping. I didn't even know that splash damage went through floors and walls. I didn't know you could shoot a rocket in mid air and cause it to explode.

These things make a HUGE difference in the gameplay, because some of these tricks are pretty powerful. Brand new players who have experience in other FPS games will get their asses handed to them because they are still trying to shoot rockets at the floor to kill me with splash damage while I'm right clicking the rockets next to their head. I remember my early days in Nexuiz getting killed and thinking "WHAT?!?! That didn't even hit me!"

I've played with some advanced players and gotten my butt kicked. I know skill plays a role. However, in an even one-on-one matchup with just a RL or a shotgun, I tend to hold my own. I do well on the mistagib servers where things tend to be more even. Where I lose is in regular DM or CTF when they do these tricks that I don't know how to do, like weapon combos or funky laser jumping. Often they do things in Nexuiz that I didn't know could be done. I know that there are more tweeks and binds and tricks that I still have to learn yet. I still need to improve my overall skill, but I also know that these little tricks play a role as well.

I'm on the fence with it. Probably because I'm in between the two perspectives. I'm "partially" an advanced player, but I'm still somewhat new to Nexuiz.

Two points of view:
1) these things are pretty cool to study and learn over time. In some ways, it sort of makes the game a little interesting because there seems to be a whole world of stuff to learn. I come from a martial arts background, and in some ways this is like martial arts where you learn little tips and tricks over time to become "advanced". However, in competition, you do compete within your belt level.
.
2) It takes away from the game because it's just not fair.The playing field is not level. A lot of these tricks are not documented, or not documented clearly. Ideally, this game should be a test of skill rather than a test of who has spent more time studying these little tips and tricks.

What are your thoughts?

I sorta already know what the advanced players are going to say. I'd really like to know what newer players think.

[:)]

The keys to improving your gameplay are:
Improve your aim through practice, with all weapons. They all can be devastating when used properly. (even the crylink)
Improve your movement through practice, and by watching others. Speed, trickjumps, and laser/rocketjumping will let you move smarter than your enemy.
Learn the timing of the items, especially armour, strength, and megahealth
Learn the maps, and learn where people tend to move on them. This helps with prediction and map control. Control the map and you will win.
Play stronger players, and you will become stronger.
Have confidence in your actions.
Deceive your enemy.

[esteel]

Well i'm currently about to prepare a new thread.. 'Basic basics aka stuff you should know'. I'm writing it first in plain text as it will be rather big and will touch different matters and i'm not sure yet about all paragraphs and how to present it, but here is what i have so far: http://esteel.planetnexuiz.de/nexuiz/misc/nexbasics.txt
But that thing with explosions though walls is a good point to add to it
And sorry that text looks bad in mozilla as it does not wrap it.. no idea how to change that. Best download it and open it in some editor

That being said i still think its pretty similar to what you said about your belts.. people have a certain skill and a certain knowledge and can compete on that level. Sure its harder to separate them but still it depends on the time you spend to learn those basic tricks to improve. I basicly see no difference.

[kozak6]

If you see something that blows your mind, feel free to ask about it.

I have helped a bunch of other players learn how to laserjump or use the RL's secondary.

[esteel]

Kozak6: i guess thats part of problem.. you first have to know what to ask for .As Dokujisan said, he thought at first those rockets exploded because they 'somehow hit me, no idea how.. maybe its a bad game'.. so he first would have had to know one can make them explode in mid air. And i guess then it would have been easy to think about mouse2

[Shoe]

What happened to the noob map project? That could clear up issues for a lot of new players.

[GunHammer]

The only things I consider to be 'unfair' with Nexius (at least so far) are some of the console modifications that aren't generally known. I'm not sure how many of them there are, but some seem a leetle shady.

[Dokujisan]

Dave makes two really interesting points that I had previously forgotten about.

Learn the timing of the items, especially armour, strength, and megahealth
Learn the maps, and learn where people tend to move on them. This helps with prediction and map control. Control the map and you will win.

I read a thread once talking about k0jak's techniques for winning 1-on-1 matches. He said something about controlling the map, and it had a lot to do with learning the timing of the respawn of resources. Interesting. The closest that I've come to experiencing that is when I'm defending on Facing Worlds. I tend to circle throughout the base collecting items. I have sort of a pattern that I follow because I can time the respawn of items. I'm also getting used to knowing when the strength rune should be available.

I also recently experienced the second point (learn where people tend to move) in a match against Dave. It was me and TVR and another person against Dave and two other guys (one of which was damn good). Our team was losing early on. Toward the end of the match I switched to defense. The base has three main entrances, and it dawned on me that they tended to take the middle path into the base. I was able to stop quite a few incoming attacks just by myself because of that.

[:)]

The only things I consider to be 'unfair' with Nexius (at least so far) are some of the console modifications that aren't generally known. I'm not sure how many of them there are, but some seem a leetle shady.

http://www.alientrap.org/wiki/pmwiki.ph ... GameTweaks

[Psychcf]

http://www.bosskey.net/q3a/tips.html

this may not be for nexuiz but it has the same concepts. Worth a read.