How to improve your aim

[AceOfThumbs]

Here are some tips that may be useful for beginners that are trying to improve their aim:

- Experiment with your video settings to try and get 100 frames per second or better. If the screen updates too slowly you will be shooting where your target used to be instead of where he is.

- Set the video resolution as high as possible so you can see more in the distance. Then you can see more detail without having to zoom in.

- Brighten the scene if some areas are too dark (but be aware some of these controls can lower your frame rate)

- Experiment with your mouse sensitivity. Lower sensitivity gives you more precise control, but means you have to move the mouse further to do a 180 degree turn.

- Use strafing (sideways movement) to make small adjustments to your aim instead of moving the mouse. It usually makes smaller, more controlled adjustments than mouse movement.

- Take into consideration the speed of your weapon. For example, the rocket is slow so you have to aim where the enemy will intersect with the rocket instead of where the enemy is when you fire.

All you sharpshooters out there, feel free to add to this list.

[esteel]

Basicly i just would add this: http://forums.alientrap.local/viewtopic.php?t=1344
At least the part with the mouse and aiming

[Ed]

Experiment with your video settings to try and get 100 frames per second or better.

I would disagree with this. That's unnecessarily high and many people will have to sacrifice resolution to achieve this.

I would also suggest not to go mad with the fov settings. It may give you a larger field of visibilty but gives you worse depth perception. Try detonating rockets at the right time with fov 150 and you'll find it hard.

[AceOfThumbs]

Sorry esteel, I should have given credit to your post. That is where I learned about strafe aiming and mouse sensitivity.

[esteel]

Oh cool, my guide was useful for someone.

What might also help with aiming is the crosshair. For me a crosshair has to combine the following aspects: it has to be big so its easy to concentrate on it in the heat of a match, it should not cover too much of what i'm aiming at and it should be possible to aim with pinpoint accuracy.
Some of the crosshair like 1/2/7 do not allow the last one as they do not have marks right in the center. Some like 9/10 are just too much and make it hard to 'see whats under the crosshair' or the opposite 2/6 are too small for my taste.
But i know it comes down to taste.. after all i added crosshair 7 even though i like others better. For me 8 was the perfect one, in Nexuiz 2.4.1 i added number 11 which is a multicolor version of 8 which should help with light/dark maps.

[Red Dragon]

Here is what I know about aiming

Lowering your sensitivity is in most cases a very efficient way to improve aim (and you don't have to buy a new mouse with 2000dpi with a low sensitivity. Keep your old one HIGH sens needs high dpi!)

There are two ways for aiming (with mouse of course, maybe there are people who use a joystick, touchpad or touchscreen ). You can use your wrist or the whole arm. I have asked many players how many centimeters they need to do one turn in nexuiz to get more experience.
Armaimers seem to have about 30-40cm / 360degree (I know only one player with 40cm thats kojak )
Wristaimer are around 15cm / 360degree

But there are some very weird exceptions:
Most of us who play minsta know pat. He told me he is a wrist aimer, has about 30cm/360 and fov 90 (it was 80 in the 2.3 times iirc). I have no idea how he can play with these settings. But this nonstop zoom and extreme low sensitivity seem to work, even without moving the whole arm.
Another exception is Bundy. A 1on1 player and 6cm/360. As 1on1 player your fov is usually somewhere around 120. (His mouse has 2000dpi. as i already said: "high sens -> high dpi")

My aim has become a lot better after lowering my sensitivity (from 2cm/360 to about 16cm/360 ) but i'm not satisfied with it. Compared to those guys above my aim is still terrible weak.

The last thing I want to mention are reflexshots (or flickshots, thats how bundy calls them). In some situations in the game, you just move your mouse as fast as you can and press fire. Somehow these shots are hitting surprisingly often. The more normal way would be moving your crosshair with your mouse onto your target (no strafing). This is where I have some question myself.

Which is the best way to aim?
1. Doing hectic reflexshots and wild mouse movements as much as possible?
2. Trying to aim like a aimbot, so that your crosshair is always on your target?
3. Wait (which maybe hard in a battle) untill your target moves onto your crosshair?

Atm I'm doing mostly 1. Sometimes 2.
Somehow 3. doesn't feel like aiming to me. But I suppose 3. is the best method, even if it feels very ugly.
Any suggestions how to get advanced aim?

[Komier]

I get about 7.5 360s to 10 inches. I would suggest massive amounts of minstagib playing if you really want to improve your aim. A good way to improve without changing settings.

I do only "flickshots" and strafe-aiming when I need to hit things in the distance.

[GreEn`mArine]

I can confirm that lowering the sensitivity helps a lot. I lowered mine from 8.5 cm to 17.5 cm for 360°.

I usually aim with my wrist as I am used to this for years, however, I have my whole arm on the table, and I can easily use my arm if needed, e.g. for 180° turns and the like.

What I found out to be a convenient method to find the best mouse speed is to find a sensitivity with which you will make a perfect 180° turn (and the movement of your arm or wrist needed for that still feels natural, as well as repositioning the mouse after this manouver has to feel natural). Doing this helped me finding the sensitivity I have now.

About my aiming: I only let the enemy "run into my crosshair" in a situation where I have nexgun, and only when I already know where he is and I am sure that he will go from place a to b. Otherwise I usually aim by doing flick-like mouse movements. It is important to get a feeling for this, as ping really influences this kind of aiming (I don't trust antilag anymore ). What really works for me is to aim a bit ahead of my enemy, but only so little that I actually aim on the edge of the playermodel. This is especially important when using the machine gun (I don't hit anything if I really aim on the middle of the body of my enemy).

[Bundy]

Your equipment is the first step for good aiming. Without a good mouse + mousepad, you will never be able to play with your best aiming.

Here are 2 examples to check if you are comfortable with the sensitivity:
1.) Try to move your mouse exactly around an item and see if you have troubles doing it (like painting the border of it).
2.) Try to hit an item while doing a 180" turn, just to see if you are accurate on a none moving target.

[Psychcf]

Make sure your mouse sensitivity is /just/ fast enough to catch up to enemies, but slow enough to actually aim.

Also get the cable out of your way as much as possible, it can drag on things. Also try and reduce friction.

Lastly, don't make fine adjustments with your whole arm. Hold the mouse with just your fingertips and use your thumb and ring finger to make the fine adjustments. You could use your wrist, but I find that it is painful after a while.