Class idea : Beginner intro to weapons

[Dokujisan]

I've been thinking of offering this as my first class. I think we need to get some of these beginner classes out first. There are players on Nexuiz public servers that still don't know how all of the weapons work. I see it all the time.

Keep in mind that this would be a beginner's class. Nobody here on NN would be a likely candidate for the class, so I would have to invite people directly from the public servers that I think needs help.

Hopefully, this will lead to creating more Beginner video turorials for Nexuiz (similar to what -Z- did with laser jumping/bunny hopping) If that happened, then perhaps we could convince the Alientrap people to place a link from their main page to a set of "beginner" videos on the NexuizNinjaz site. \o/ :-D

I've been thinking of how this class might work. I would really like to create some simple maps with plenty of weapons and ammo to go around. I would walk through each weapon's pluses and minuses, when to use them, when not to use them. Then I would go through a drill with each weapon so they would be able to practice the technique I'm showing them. I would overview the damage given by each item (using Dave's chart from the Nexuiz forum) and speed comparisons.

After going through each weapon, I would talk about how to counter each weapon with another weapon, or with a certain tactic. This would build up their strategy with weapons usage.

I would start with the basics of the [b]laser[/b] just to make sure that the participants understand the concept of laser jumping as it is used in combination with various weapons.

[b]Rocket Launcher[/b]
[b]Pros and cons[/b]: Slow, does high damage, has radius damage, can cause damage through walls/floors, can be used to propel you (rocket jump and rocket flying) can blow up in your own face, can hurt your teammates (if team damage is turned on), can cause your teammates weapons to blow up in their own face, can knock people off platforms, could knock yourself or teammates off platforms.

[b]Scenarios: [/b]

Enemies are in the same room as you (within 40 ft) but far enough away that you don't take damage yourself. You shoot toward their feet and pop them up in the air so you can hit them again to finish them off. Don't let them get too close to you.

Enemies are slightly further away (within 80 ft). Since the rocket is slow, you are at a disadvantage with this scenario if they have a faster weapon. But you can still fight them. The enemy will react to your rockets by moving out of the way (usually strafing). The best tactic is to launch a rocket and cause them to strafe left or right, and then start running toward them to close the distance. As you are running, launch another rocket in the other direction to make the enemy move back the other way. Each time you fire, you aim closer to the middle so the enemy is eventually stuck in one spot. Then you close in on the enemy (within 20 ft) and finish them off. Bunny hop while doing this and it makes it more difficult for them to hit you back, while also increasing your speed toward them.

Against Snipers. A rocket be used to slowly pick off snipers who camp a lot. Launch the rocket from far away toward the camping sniper. It moves so slowly that the sniper doesn't see it coming. Better launch two or three of them in a row in case the sniper doesn't die from the first one. Launch them a couple feet apart in case the sniper moves to the left or right to avoid the first one.

In very close range. Not ideal scenario. usually this is what people do to counter the rocket launcher. They rush at you and cause you to kill yourself. Best thing to do here is shoot over their head and right click your rockets so the explosion only hits them and doesn't hit yourself. Alternatievly, you could use the RL in combination with laser jumping by jumping over the enemy and shooting down on them.

I would then cover some prediction techniques. I would basically stand about 40 ft away and strafe left or right and they would have to launch the rocket to connect with me at a given point. I would compare it to throwing a pass in football/soccer/basketball. You have to predict where the person is going to be a second later and aim there.


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[b]Nex gun[/b]

pros and cons: fast firing (virtually instant hit), slow reload, strong push, but can't be used to propel you (nex-jumping), right click to zoom, disadvantage for close range fighting.

I would talk about some good techniques to improve the nex aiming, which would involve utilizing strafing a lot to smooth out the mouse movement. When picking off snipers, I tend to zoom in, aim the target, then let go of zoom and I fire while it is zooming out. This tends to stabilize my mouse movement and keeps the aim on target. I'll experiment with this to make sure this is really what is happening and it's not just in my head :-) it's something I've been observing and experimenting with lately.

I would then go into minstagib and we would do some drills.

I would talk about nex weapon switching to increase reload time. This is something I don't currently do, but I know how to do it. I'll have to practice it a bit before teaching it.

I would cover how to adjust mouse sensitivity to refine the nex aim.

One drill I would have them try is to laser jump up and fire off the nex at the top of their jump.

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[b]Electro[/b]
pros and cons: Fast shooting, but not instant hit, fast reload time, radius damage, can shoot through thin walls and floors, can use combo hit to detonate the electro balls, can use the electro balls to clear out a room, can cause self-damage and team damage.

I've used the electro successfully to counter snipers because it's relatively fast (difficult to dodge) and it has radius damage. On some maps (depending on the colors) it's difficult to see an electro shot coming at you.

You can aim at people's feet to bounce them up and stop them from running, keeping them in place so you can hit them again. The electro refires so quickly that you can often stop a person in their tracks and hit them a few times within seconds.

Secondary fire uses. You can clear out a room full of enemies. You can shoot the electro balls with your primary fire to create one big explosion. The explosion of the electro balls can cause other people's weapons to explode in their face (including your teammates...be careful!). This is particularly why you DO NOT FILL UP YOUR OWN BASE WITH ELECTRO BALLS if you have other teammates in the room with you. :-) (pet peeve alert)

In close combat (aka dog fighting), you can fire off one electro ball at the enemy and shoot the enemy with your primary fire. The radius damage will cause the electro ball to explode as well to increase the overall effect of the electro attack. This is a very good technique to use regularly with the electro because it ends up being more powerful than people anticipate. You're essentially doubling the power of the electro, making it a good weapon to counter most other weapons, including the rocket launcher.

Combo up in air. This is a really cool technique for attacking people perched above you, or even people who laser jump over you. You shoot a couple electro balls in the air and shoot at the balls, making a big air explosion.

This would be followed up with some practice drills.

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[b]Crylink[/b]

Nearly worthless at far distances because the spread of the shots is too wide. Close distance, the crylink becomes useful. I would recommend using the crylink's secondary at close range. The secondary fire shoots out 6 bolts at at time. When you land that at very close range (within a few feet) then all 6 bolts land at once and cause LOTS of damage.

This weapon has a slight bit of radius damage (though less than the electro) so it can cause self-damage and damage to teammates in close combat.

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[b]Machine gun[/b]
The bane of Nexuiz :-)
This weapon is obnoxious primarily because it is difficult to avoid (due to instant hit scan) and also because the push of it can make it difficult to move, effectively causing someone to be stuck in place.

The secondary fire actually makes a great long range weapon. It can be used to pick off enemies from a distance, similar to the nex but with less power and much faster reload. Some people find this easier to use than the Nex for long distance attacks.

This weapon is planned to change to have less push than previously, reducing the "stuck in place" effect when being attacked.

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[b]Shotgun[/b]

Hit scan weapon. Simply put... use close up and use secondary fire a lot. It can be used long distance if absolutely necessary, though the spread of the shot makes it difficult to land.

We'll practice some 1v1 drills so that people get an understanding of the best techniques for applying the shotgun. For example, if it's just me and an enemy and we both have shotguns, then I sometimes try to jump over them and shoot them in the back at close range. If they are standing in place, then I try circle-strafing while shooting inward toward them.

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[b]Mortar[/b]

A very misunderstood and underutilized weapon. This weapon is one of the most powerful weapons in Nexuiz, as demonstrated to me (or rather, on me) by a couple advanced players once upon a time. From that point on, I decided to learn the mortar.

It's a fast-traveling projectile weapon with quick reload and a good blast radius. It shoots with an arc, so it is difficult to learn to aim it. That is tihs weapon's only downfall, and the primary reason why people don't use it more often. Once you understand how to aim this weapon, it becomes a more powerful and useful rocket launcher alternative.

The most useful technique is to "juggle" an enemy by shooting at their feet and popping them on the air. Then you continue to shoot at their feet when they land and so they never hit the ground. If you are lucky, you can pop someone up against a wall and then you shoot the wall and the blast radius hits them again while they are up in the air (that way, you can hit them in the air without needing to have perfect aim).

By habit, you should aim at a person's feet with the mortar.

Since this weapon will arc, you can use this to attack an enemy at a distance and over an obstacle.

The secondary fire is not that effective, but it has its use. The secondary mortar is very slow, so it is easy to dodge, but you can use this to control the enemies' movement to setup the primary mortar shot. It can be used to cause people to come out of hiding places, or rooms. If you are about to attack someone in a room, you can fire the secondary mortar into the room. When they come out of the room, then you hit them with the primary mortar. Since the secondary mortar isn't used very often, many people don't notice it.

The biggest use of the mortar is to counter the rocket launcher. Since the mortar fires so fast and it has a radius damage, it is dangerous for someone with a rocket launcher to fight against a good mortar user because the mortar will cause their own rocket to blow up in their face. You can aim at their body or at the ground in front of them, or at a wall near them. If the rocket is caught in that blast radius, it will explode. This is even better when there are two or more enemies close by one another. Then I can sort of remote detonate one of their rockets and it affects multiple enemies.

I've used the mortar effectively to counter snipers because it fires so quickly and has a bigger radius than the Electro. These two elements make it difficult to dodge.

The mortar is also underestimated by many players because most players don't know how to use it properly. So if you have a mortar, people will tend to rush to attack you without concern. If you know how to use the mortar, you can pop them up into the air and keep them from rushing at you.

Combining this with laser jumping is a great method of attack. It fires so quickly and you can often fire off two shots while up in the air before the opponent can figure out where you are. Additionally, the mortar has more force than the electro, so it will cause the enemy to bump around like a pinball game while you are flying over them.

There are multiple drills for this, including practicing to counter the rocket launcher and also juggling an enemy with multiple mortar hits.

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[b]Hagar[/b]

The weapon that does the most damage per second...but only if you can aim it properly.

This weapon is mostly useful for hitting a traveling target. It also is good for countering the rocket launcher because its blast radius will detonate a rocket in someone's face. Since this weapon fires so many projectiles at once, they tend to blind the enemy whether they hit directly or land close by them. As a secondary effect, due to the number of projectiles, this weapon is known to cause extra lag for people with slightly older computers. Often, when someone is hit by the hagar, they get stuck in place (similar to the machine gun) and can't seem to move away from it.

I haven't found much use for the secondary mortar fire yet. I've only been able to use it by reflecting it off a wall into a room with enemies inside. This makes it similar to the secondary mortar or secondary electro.

This is a great weapon to use with the strength powerup because it can spread to hit a large area very quickly and kill a whole group of enemy players (not to mention detonating any enemy rockets)

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That's all I got for now. I imagine it would be a 2 hour class.

[-z-]

This is a great idea. I think we need to create a giant map called 'the dojo' for all these ideas. Different weapon rooms, different technique rooms and so on and so forth.

I don't have time to create the map now... but maybe in a month O.o.

Or maybe I can do piece by piece.

We can run this map on the dojo server 24/7

It just makes sense :).

[AceOfThumbs]

I like it! If you want to try some test runs of the class, I can play student.

I think I'll have the message generator's save feature working today and you can use it to generate a weapon teaching menu config, so you don't have to type out all of that information during the class.

I remembered a feature in Nexuiz that might help and did a little looking on the wiki. You can tell Nexuiz what weapons to start with. For example, type "g_start_weapon_laser 1; g_start_weapon_shotgun 0; restart" into the console and you start off with a laser. When you are ready to talk about the nex type "g_start_weapon_laser 0; g_start_weapon_nex 1 ; restart". These commands could be put in the message menu also, so you just scroll and select them.
Check this section out for the full list of weapon commands:
[url]http://www.alientrap.org/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.GameTweaks#g_start_weapon_crylink[/url]

A dojo map sounds good too. It's like Mr. Bougo's classroom idea from da kitchen. Please don't hold up the class for the map though. You can pick from existing maps and use the weapons teaching menu to start with the right weapons and to give out the lesson. Here is an example:

Scroll to the laser menu and select the "start with laser" option. The map restarts and everyone has a laser only. Scroll and select "laser is for movement" message, then jump around a bit. Select "laser pushes too" message and show that...Scroll to the shotgun menu and select "start with shotgun" to restart the map with shotguns only. Select the shotgun messages and demonstrate, etc...

[Dokujisan]

ok, let's put all of these ideas together and come up with something modeled around this class topic.

How would it all work? What commands would I need to run and in what order? in what order would I do the drills? Let's create an outline for the curriculum so practically any of us could teach the class by following the steps.

[Mr. Bougo]

AceOfThumbs Wrote:I remembered a feature in Nexuiz that might help and did a little looking on the wiki. You can tell Nexuiz what weapons to start with. For example, type "g_start_weapon_laser 1; g_start_weapon_shotgun 0; restart" into the console and you start off with a laser. When you are ready to talk about the nex type "g_start_weapon_laser 0; g_start_weapon_nex 1 ; restart". These commands could be put in the message menu also, so you just scroll and select them.
Check this section out for the full list of weapon commands:
[url]http://www.alientrap.org/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.GameTweaks#g_start_weapon_crylink[/url]

Oh man... Thank you [url=http://www.nexuizninjaz.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=116&pid=586#pid586]for inspiring me[/url] (3)

[AceOfThumbs]

Brainstorming is cooool!

Dokujisan, I can make a config for the weapon control. Sounds like Mr. Bougo might incorporate that into his teaching mod, too, but either way that shouldn't be a problem.

Your original post covers the outline pretty well. If you want to break that into segments and put it in the generator, you'd have a lesson plan at the tip of your finger. Give it a try and be sure to save it as a preset. The action defaults to say_team, but you'd want to use say, so everyone can see your messages. Then we can add in the weapon control and even map changes if you want.
[url]http://training.nexuizninjaz.com/mwheel_cfg_gen.html[/url]

[AceOfThumbs]

I don't know if you've heard about this yet, but Mr.Bougo is just about done with a teaching mod that will take care of the weapon control and other issues. Shaggy is working on a player model for the teacher. I suggested just adding an arrow over the marine model to make it clear who to look at. I'm making a wheel menu preset that will integrate with the teaching mod. I think all of these resources will be ready within just a few days.

[AceOfThumbs]

Well, I went ahead and made a rough version of the teacher preset. Keep in mind that the weapon commands in the menu won't work unless you have the teaching mod, but the other menus will work. You can check it out to see what is in the works.

I also put an exec menu at the bottom to let you switch between different menu presets in-game if you name your config files a certain way. Right now it just has options to switch between the school and the ctf presets. Read the instructions in the preset descriptions for more details.

[SoulBringer]

all the ideas i've heard so far are excelent, and i really love AoT's wheel menu this is an ideal application for that. i've been following the posts for awhile now and have decided to put my 2 cents in.
has anyone started on the "Dojo" map yet? if not i could start one, if the instructors could give me some input on the features they would like...

[-z-]

SoulBringer Wrote:all the ideas i've heard so far are excelent, and i really love AoT's wheel menu this is an ideal application for that. i've been following the posts for awhile now and have decided to put my 2 cents in.
has anyone started on the "Dojo" map yet? if not i could start one, if the instructors could give me some input on the features they would like...

I started one but it's not worth posting. I've made a lava pit with some pillars a player must know how to laser jump to get up. Concerning the layout of the dojo. I would like to have a central 'hang out' room with hallways to 'classrooms'. When you enter a 'classroom' I'd like an image posted on the wall with the name of that room and instructions for that particular room.

I was also considering adding flags so players could time themselves if they'd like. but no added pressure if they'd rather not.

I was considering this to be a collaborative project that could be expanded as new techniques are created/explored.

If you would like to head off the 'dojo project' you are welcome to :).