A hello and some questions

[EkimRis]

Hello everybody, just dropping in to introduce myself to the forum people and ask a question or three.

First, I've been playing the game online quite a bit in the past few days and have yet to find a server I like. I'd love to find a server where I can practice in and maybe ask a question or two without being ridiculed. If anyone can suggest one that'd be great.

Second, I've watched a few movies and noticed that the players usually don't have their weapon appearing, is there any obvious advantage to doing this aside from the small increase in visibility from the weapon model not being there?

And for my final question, I know that the shock rifle and lightning gun are guns that I need to get good with. The shock rifle doesn't suffer from this problem so much, but the lightning gun's hotkey is all the way across the keyboard along with the rocket launcher and flak, I was thinking about switching the hotkeys of my more frequently used weapons to hotkeys I can reach more easily, does anyone else do this and does it give a big enough advantage to be worth it?

From what I've read this forum community is much more helpful than that of some other games I've played and hope someone with more know-how than me can help out.

[»madMar†y»]

What gametype do you prefer?

2) Don't think so, I've also tried this in the past, but IMO it does'nt give you a real advantage. THe best way ofcourse is to try it out and see what differences it has. .For me it's always nice to see what weapon I use at that moment

3)Also tried to bind those weapons to special assigned keys, but for me it turned out that I don't use them.After this I assigned the "f" key with best weapon selection you have at that moment. This way when I'm all of a sudden in afatal situation and don't have time to scroll to the right weapon I push that button. Weapon priority is something you can change in the menu. Beside that I combine weapon selection with the scrollweel. For example when I want to select "flak" I select 8 on my keyboard (avril) and will scroll 1 time down to flak after that.

[fuegerstef]

Welcome. o/

Are you from Europe?

[ViperGrendal]

Do a forum search on "pipeswitch" that might help you out. It's a more advanced weapon switching strategy but it comes in handy when you learn how to use it.

As far as what keys to bind what weapons to, that's a personal preference for most.

[jehjoa]

Hey EkimRis, welcome. Even though you are a little late, you've picked a great game to start playing.

It can indeed be hard to get some tips ingame as most people are trying to win the match. If you like deathmatch, I suggest you play on a 1on1 server a few hours, it's easier for both players to 'take some time off' and chat. This is also a gametype where many skilled players play. This can be an advantage or a disadvantage for you. If you run into some friendly players they will certainly be able to give some tips. On the other hand, don't expect to win a 1on1 match for at least the first few weeks you play it. This is a fairly old game which means that many people have moved on to other games, and only the dedicated players remain.

About the weapon model showing, yes I advise you to turn it off. You don't need to see it to know which weapon your holding (you have different crosshairs for each weapon, you see the weapon name when you switch, and you have the weaponbar at the bottom of your screen). When turned on, it also blocks your vision for about 1/6 of the screen! I've also seen a movie that shows the shockrifle's primary fire going not through the crosshair exactly, but a little to the right in certain situations.

As for the weapon switching, don't use the numbers 1 to 0, and DEFINATELY don't use the scrollwheel. It is just way too slow. In this game, it's important to quickly switch to the right weapon for the current situation, and having to scroll past a weapon to get to another one takes valuable miliseconds. I, like most people, use the WASD keys on the keyboard to move. Every key around those, is for a specific weapon. So, for me, Q = rockets, E = Flak, F = Mini, 4 = Shock, X = Lighting gun, etc. You will probably need a few hours to get used to switching like this, but you'll notice that is a LOT faster, and more flexible. I use the scrollwheel for one thing, though. Scroll-down causes me to switch to the shieldgun.

Finally, if you are from Europe and want some deathmatching tips, I wouldn't mind showing you some. I'm definately no 1337 player though.

[BigJim]

Personally I *do* use thescrollwheel, but only for 4 weapons.

I use a pipedswitch so that up-scroll=Shock, and if I scroll up again, it swaps to mini.
ScrollDown = Flak, and once more = Rox.

Since I use the arrow keys to move, I then use Keypad1 for Link>Bio, Shift for LG>Sniper, Keypad 4 for Avrils, and Keypad2 for AssaultRifle>Deemer, and various extra mouse buttons to stuff like horn, sheild-jump, etc..

I use pipedswitches because I don't like using lots of keys, and I use the arrows for movement because wasd is unnatural.


Basically it's about as customisable as you can get, you've got the freedom to set it up in almost any way you want, so feel free to try out as many combos as you like.
Your UT2004/System/User.ini file contains the list of binds you're using (it's just a text file), so you can always back that file up & then modify the original to try out weird & wonderful set-ups, safe in th knowledge you can just replace it with the backup if you mess it up too much.

Best of luck.

[hal]

For me (and just about everyone else that I know) it is easier to play with hidden weapons. It's just a little less distracting, you have a larger play view, and (as mentioned above) there's the crosshair bug.

Absolutely bind your best weapon keys around your movement keys. There's no doubt that it makes a difference.

Here's a nice guide to weapon binding and lots of other often asked questions:
http://members.clanci.net/taleweaver/

Edit: Well, that one seems to be down at the moment. Here's a FAQ made by the author
http://forums.beyondunreal.com/showthread.php?t=157403

Edit 2: Seems someone hijacked Clan Ci's domain :/ you can still view it by adding the following to your Hosts file.

62.75.202.129 clanci.net www.clanci.net forums.clanci.net members.clanci.net mail.clanci.net webmail.clanci.net ftp.clanci.net files.clanci.net redirect.clanci.net

[Mitch Conner]

Second, I've watched a few movies and noticed that the players usually don't have their weapon appearing, is there any obvious advantage to doing this aside from the small increase in visibility from the weapon model not being there?

When you have your weapons showing they aim slightly off from the crosshair (excluding centre). When you have them on your right they fire a little to the right of the crosshair and when you have them on your left they fire a little to the left. People often choose to hide their weapons over putting them in the centre for 2 reasons:

1. You can see more and
2. when they are in the centre they look really stupid.

And for my final question, I know that the shock rifle and lightning gun are guns that I need to get good with. The shock rifle doesn't suffer from this problem so much, but the lightning gun's hotkey is all the way across the keyboard along with the rocket launcher and flak, I was thinking about switching the hotkeys of my more frequently used weapons to hotkeys I can reach more easily, does anyone else do this and does it give a big enough advantage to be worth it?

People often do this. Another thing they do is pipedswitching. When you press a certain key it switches to a particular weapon and when you press the same key while using that weapon it goes to another.If you're using the 'second' weapon and press the key it switches back. Here's an example:

F=PipedSwitchWeapon 4|PipedSwitchWeapon 8

This means that when you press F it will switch to the shockrifle and if you press F again it will go to the rocket launcher (or aVril if you have one). If you press F while using the rocket launcher it will switch to the shockrifle.

[EkimRis]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

What gametype do you prefer?

DM and TDM

Are you from Europe?

Nope, west coast USA, I've tried some servers based in Europe and I pinged over 200 =\

[Zoë(Co30)]

Check out our server 69.65.31.93:7777 and forums at www.co30.com. We get some good players, but it's a noob friendly server. Feel free to ask any Co30 or the regulars, and I'm sure you'll get some help. The server is located in Chicago. The ping shouldn't be too bad for you.

[SleightOfHand]

See also the ultimate FAQ guide at the top of this forum, there's good info in there.

Check this out for some nifty keybinds: http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums...hreadid=408970

I agree with the others about binding weapons to different keys, the default is good only for so long. The scroll wheel takes too long. If you have a multi-button mouse, you can use binds and aliases with it. You can do a combination of changing keys around your movement keys and using your mouse too. As an example, here's how my mouse is set up (Logitch MX510):

[shot]http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/6060/mx510sl3.jpg[/shot]

Flak/Rockets: This uses aliases in the user.ini file. Using aliases like this selects the specific weapons, so in this case you'll never get the AVRiL when you don't want it -

Aliases[36]=(Command="getweapon XWeapons.RocketLauncher | set input RightBracket CC1",Alias="CC2")
Aliases[37]=(Command="getweapon XWeapons.FlakCannon | set input RightBracket CC2",Alias="CC1")

then scroll down to "RightBracket=" and set it to
RightBracket=CC2
then just make sure your mouse button is set to a keystroke of "]", the right bracket.
(you can call it whatever you want, it doesn't have to be CC1 and 2.)

Shock/Lightning: this one is easy, just a pipedswitch -

LeftBracket=PipedSwitchWeapon 4|PipedSwitchWeapon 9

then just make sure your mouse button is set to a keystroke of "[", the left bracket.

Link/Mini: also a pipedswitch, good for finishing off people with low health -

PageUp=PipedSwitchWeapon 5|PipedSwitchWeapon 6

then set your mouse button as the page up key

Super Weapon: just set your mouse button to 0(zero) so you can whip out the deemer quickly instead of reaching across the keyboard.

Shield secondary, then switch to previous weapon: a little tricky. When you press and hold the button, your shield will come up until you let it go. So if you're falling from high up and want to minimize the damage, or you've just taken the flag and trying to dodge the Shock beams, it's pretty quick and useful. Then when you let go of the button, it goes back to your previous weapon you were using. -

H=SwitchWeapon 1|AltFire|OnRelease SwitchToLastWeapon

then just set your mouse button to H

The keys don't have to be the same that I chose, whatever works for you. Hope this helps give you an idea of what you can do. Cheers!

[EkimRis]

Thanks for the link and ideas, SleightOfHand. I used to use an MX510 but had to switch over to a Razer mouse because I'm left handed (Gasp!) and the side buttons on the MX510 are a bit awkward to hit with your pinky finger. Anyhow I like some of those ideas, especially the shield key.

[RoadKillGrill]

I also have a similar setup for the G5. Some ****** at logitech felt that a "gaming" mouse needed only one thumb button. Its been the biggest annoyance with this mouse but i still was able to make a descent setup.
[shot]http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i103/rahkogen/screen%20test/MyMouse.jpg[/shot]
The one thing that the G5 has that the mx510 doesn't have is tilt, I've bound those to key presses to make them useful in and out of game. The left tilt is key bound to the Home key and the right tilt is bound to the End key.

Yes, there are still weapons bound to the wheel, but with there only being two weapons in either direction all of them are available in two clicks

The also useless resolution buttons on the top are set to Page up and Page down, makes them basically like the old scroll buttons yet can be bound in any game as well. The Minus on the top is just out of reach typically and I really can't think of a practical use for it for ut.

All the binds are either stock or a piped switch so the links in the threadstart should allow you to get this setup.

[SleightOfHand]

Thanks for the link and ideas, SleightOfHand. I used to use an MX510 but had to switch over to a Razer mouse because I'm left handed (Gasp!) and the side buttons on the MX510 are a bit awkward to hit with your pinky finger. Anyhow I like some of those ideas, especially the shield key.

You left-handed freak! Just kidding. Cool, glad to be of help.

I also have a similar setup for the G5. Some ****** at logitech felt that a "gaming" mouse needed only one thumb button. Its been the biggest annoyance with this mouse but i still was able to make a descent setup.

Ha ha, true. That there is only one thumb button is one of the reasons I didn't buy that mouse. Your setup's not bad, I may consider upgrading my mouse sometime soon and just come up with a new setup that works for me.

[aTourist]

So I am one of those weirdos who use numpad.. 5123 for movement, 4 shock, 8 rocket, 9 LG, arrow down bio, + minigun, in mouse: scroll forward assault, backward link, press scroll = shield, first button left super wep, oh, and numpad 6 for best wep, which is (for historical reasons mainly) flak in my weapon priorities.

I feel pity for those of my friends who come visit and try to play scrolling the wheel finding suitable weapons..