Tips for UT newcomers

Welcome to the UT2004 community!

Here is an accurate list with many tips for newcomers. It shall help you to become more skilled and to understand a lot about theory in UT. Of course you should try to practise these things mentioned in this list -you won't become better by theory only.

Commands & gameplay tips:
Commands:
General commands:
(These are default keys only. If you changed them already, you'll probably have to look up this part if you read the rest of the list because it may refer to the default keys)

W, A, S, D and arrows = movement keys (like in every other shooter)
You can switch weapons with 1 2 3 4 etc, of course you need to pick them up first.
Left mouse button=Fire
Right mouse button=AltFire
Scroll=weapon switch
E=use (press use to enter a vehicle or to enter a turret)
T=say command
Press and hold C or Shift = crouching
Space = jump
Press a movement key twice in a direction = dodge (fast jump to that direction). This way an enemy can't hit you so easy
Press jump at the peak of a jump = double jump (useful when you want to get on a higher place)
Dodge and in the middle of a dodge press jump = dodge-jump (very useful, you move much faster)
You can switch through the seats of your vehicle with 1 2 3 4 ...
Tab = open command line
% (on the German keyboard it is the key ö) = open console
F1 = Scoreboard
F2 = Chat log - useful if you missed an important message in a team gametype or couldn't finish reading it before it vanished
F3 = Personal (match) statistics (switch through the stats of other players/bots by pressing F8)
F4 = simple behindview/3rd person view, aiming does not work then. You shoot on the same "line". It's not enabled on all servers

Commands for team based gametypes:

Q=switch to Translocator; once you shot a Translocator disc you can watch through its camera by pressing Q again
Press Fire and AltFire at the same time to switch back to your previous weapon when using the Translocator
R=teamsay command
While in a flying vehicle you can fly up with the jump key (space) and you can fly down with the crouch key (c) while in a flying vehicle (works for the Manta very similar: jump key = jump; crouch key = quickly fly down (good for squashing people))
Pressing space in vehicles like the Hellbender, Scorpion and the SPMA = handbrake
You can use commands for bots in Instant Action / Single Player: Press V and press the numbers for the actions in the menu that pops up to navigate through it

Gameplay tips:
How to work as a team:

The most important thing is teamwork! Without it you will lose team based gametypes like (v)CTF, WAR or TDM. This includes:
- If you play TDM, do not try to do things on your own. Stay with your team else you will be a victim and enemies will kill you and score!
- Always cover your flag carrier/teammates
- Always tell the others where the enemy flag carrier is when you play (v)CTF
- Use teamsay for locations of your flag. It wouldn't be good if the enemy would know where the flag is
- Press \ (= ^ on th German keyboard) to throw your weapon. This is good for teamwork. If a teammate needs a weapon you just picked up you can give it to him. When pressing this key your character will drop the currently selected weapon.
- If your vehicle is heavily damaged and being shot (or if it can be destroyed by a single shot of weak weapons) get out so you can continue to survive afterwards. Take caution when doing this however if in an important vehicle; you don't want the enemy stealing and healing it.
- If a teammate's vehicle is damaged, heal it with the Link Gun beam (AltFire).
- If your teammates have a Link Gun equipped the team colored arrow will become a green arrow and the name will become green. With the Link Gun you can link to your teammate so that he can deal more damage to enemies. However, when doing so keep in mind that it will drain your ammo too.
- When enemies abandon their vehicles, try to hijack them for your team instead of destroying them. This is especially important if it is an important vehicle (like the Leviathan).

How to move in UT:

How to walldodge: jump or double jump and when you touch the wall, press a movement key twice in the opposite direction. This way you can even move faster through the map and the enemy can't hit you as easy as before. Keep in mind that you can't walldodge after dodge-jumping.
Never ever stay at one place! Move and jump as much as you can or you'll die within a few seconds! You should also try to jump and dodge as much as possible even when you fire at someone! This will make it harder to hit you.
The liftjump: When the lift you are using moves up, press jump in the exact same second when it stops moving up. This way you'll perform a liftjump and you will jump very high. This is useful to reach higher/secret places above the lift (like in DM-Rankin).
In CTF you should try to use the Translocator (Q) wisely. You have only a limited number of shots. The module will reload itself after a while.
In vCTF, AS and ONS you can use the AVRiL to "boost" yourself to cover long distances. When you try to reach a place and it takes just too long, perform a dodge-jump and while you are in the air you turn around 180° and shoot the AVRiL. Its recoil will "boost" you. However, do this only if it's urgent, e.g. when a node/your core/your objective/your flag is under attack since it drains ammo you may need later.

Some information about vehicles and how to destroy them easily (or how to take out the player who uses it):

While in a vehicle you can switch to first person mode and back by pressing F4. You should keep in mind that it's not always useful to be in first person mode, especially in the SPMA, Scorpion and the Hellbender (the Hellbender's glass is pretty dirty and it's hard to see your environment through the small windows).
The Hellbender is a vehicle that is made for at least two people. Don't use it alone! If you're on the first seat of the vehicle can't do anything except for using the vehicle's horn and driving, this horn will tell friendly bots/teammates next to you to enter it though. You can do the same with the H key in other team based vehicles like Goliath and Leviathan.
The Hellbender turret is a charge weapon. Instead of rapid-firing at enemies, it is usually better to hold the fire button to fully charge it and then release it. It deals massive damage and can even flip Scorpions and other Hellbenders or make them fly! You can zoom in with AltFire.
If you are using the second seat of the Hellbender you can shoot skymines (fire) (the projectiles which look like shock cores) with the Hellbender's beam (AltFire) to create a shock combo-like explosion. The beam will automatically lock on the nearest skymine. If there is a chain of skymines and you shoot one of them, you'll start a chain reaction and every single skymine will explode. You can also shoot an enemy skymine to destroy an enemy Hellbender. But in this case the beam doesn't automatically lock on the skymines. You need to aim well to hit the chain of skymines
You can shoot down a AVRiL missile with a well placed shot. If you are in a Goliath and nobody is on the second seat you should switch quickly with 2 to the Minigun turret and shoot the AVRiL missile down. When you are in a Hellbender you can destroy an AVRiL missile very easy when you shoot a few skymines and shoot them with the beam.
While in a Cicada you can lock on a target with the AltFire. Hold the button to load missiles and release it to shoot them.
The Cicada has a second seat. A turret. It's very mighty. You can switch to it if nobody uses it. The Cicada won't fall to the ground if it has no driver, it will just stop to move and start to hover in midair.
You can try to kill an incoming Manta with the Shock Rifle when you've good reflexes. Its knockback will keep it at distance or stop it, you can continue shooting at it and damaging it.
You can headshot someone out of a Manta with the Sniper Rifle/Lightning Gun.
Ever heard of a "taxi"? The Manta is a perfect taxi, it's fast and it can carry teammates on its wings (it can also dodge attacks quite well)! Especially in multiplayer this can be an important tactic to win a match of AS/vCTF/ONS. When playing vCTF you can tell some other players to jump on your wings and hover above the flag, one of the players on your wings should pick it up while passing the enemy flag (without having to jump off your Manta, no need to stop!). This is useful for a quick flag run! In ONS you should use the Manta to carry teammates to neutral nodes/nodes that are under attack/your core/the enemy core. In Assault it's useful to get to touch objectives very fast or to carry teammates to an objective that's currently under attack. Before using this tactic, be sure that friendly fire is disabled (or it will end with plenty of accidental teamkills...).
The Leviathan's turrets are very useful. However, if friendly fire is enabled they can damage you.
To deploy the Leviathan use the AltFire. You cannot deploy it when you are moving. Once it's deployed you can shoot a laser that will create a big explosion (similar to the Ion Cannons/Ion Painter's/Redeemer's explosion). After shooting the laser and creating the explosion there is a delay of about 3 seconds and in this time you are open to attacks (and especially to Mantas, Cicadas and Raptors). Keep this in mind!
You can jump on a Goliath's turret (you should try do jump on it from a bridge like those in ONS-Urban though) and shoot with the Flak Cannon at it. The Goliath can't hit you unless it uses the minigun turret (seat 2), if you destroy it it is quite possible that you can die by the explosion.
You can destroy a Goliath with a Manta by orbiting it. Just stay out of the way of its barrel and it can't hit you. If the Goliath driver (seat 1) has a gunner (seat 2) or changes to seat 2 then you should consider to escape. The gunner can spin very quickly and its instant hit bullets will be able to hit the Manta without much difficulty.
You can destroy a Goliath with a Raptor very easily, just hover above it in a good distance and shoot at it. If the minigun turret starts to shoot at you you should consider to escape though.
The Raptor's missiles lock onto other flying and hovering vehicles and start to chase them.
The probably best weapons to destroy flying and hovering vehicles are the Shock Rifle and the AVRiL.
Vehicles can be damaged by water. This can be useful if you want to get rid of a vehicle but you don't want the enemy to hijack it. Just drive into water and get out of the vehicle.
If used correctly the SPMA is very mighty. You can shoot a camera with the AltFire and stop it in midair with Fire. With the movement keys you can control a circle that indicates where you shoot. If it's red you can't hit the target on this place, if it's green you can shoot it. To shoot press Fire. It deals massive damage up close and is a good vehicle to attack nodes and other vehicles from the distance or to keep the enemies away from your nodes/base/flag. It has a second seat that can be used by teammates. It shoots skymines.

How to use weapons correctly:

To kill somebody with the Shield Gun's shockwave, holf Fire to charge it and walk towards an enemy and touch him. The weapon will automatically release the shockwave and damage/kill the enemy.
You can use the Shield Gun's shield (hold AltFire) to reflect shots without being hurt (a lot).
If you fall from a high ledge and you think you wouldn't survive it, take your Shield Gun, activate the shield and aim at the ground.
You can steer a Redeemer missile when you shoot it with AltFire but keep in mind that you can't see what's going on at your location then. Everybody could kill you. You should hide well. You can make it explode with Fire.
Press Fire while loading missiles (AltFire) in your Rocket Launcher to switch between two firing modes: the spiral and the regular shot. The spiral is useful when an enemy is close to you. If you keep your crosshair long enough on a person it will lock on. You have to have good aim though. The missiles you shoot then will chase the enemy.
You can destroy a Translocator disc to kill an enemy. Just shoot it. When the enemy teleports he will be "telefragged".
Never use the Translocator when you've seen that the disc has been damaged unless you want to die
Pressing Fire after firing the Translocator disc calls it back. This is not possible when it is destroyed though.
You can "telefrag" a person when you walk through a teleporter while a person stays in it or when you shoot a Translocator disc at a person and you teleport yourself in the same moment when it touches that person.
After using the Ball Launcher in Bombing Run you cannot use the Translocator for a few seconds. It has to recharge itself first after a delay of about 3 seconds.
You can shoot around corners with the Flak Cannon. This can be quite useful.
You can shoot a shock core (AltFire) with a shock beam (Fire) to create a so called Shock Combo. It's very powerfull and can instantly kill someone. You can also use a Shock Combo to push enemies over the edge.
The Assault Rifle's grenades are very useful and can deal much damage if you hit the enemy directly. You can charge them with the AltFire, the bar in the lower right corner will start glowing and when you release it it will fly faster and further.
Double Assault Rifles can be very mighty as well, you can also carry twice as many grenades then (but it would be nonesense if you couldn't).
The Minigun is good at distance when you don't have a Sniper Rifle/Lightning Gun or Shock Rifle. The Minigun's AltFire is very precise but not as fast as the regular fire mode.
Weapons can be very mighty in combination with the Berserk combo (more information in "Additional gameplay info") and/or the Udamage.
You can heal vehicles with the Link Gun's AltFire and link to other teammates. If you stick with the beam to the head of an enemy you deal much more damage and with the team's color sticking to you, a symbol of two circles that are linked with each other will appear on the screen and your shots will turn yellow. All the people linked to each other in this manner will receive a big power boost, making it a great tactic for healing things, shooting nodes and shooting enemies.
Use the AVRiL's AltFire to let a missile quickly lock on onto an enemy vehicle. A well known tactic is that you have shot at a vehicle and when the AVRiL is about to reload you switch to another weapon, shoot at the enemies and switch back to the AVRiL when it's done with reloading (you'll hear the AVRiL reloading sound even if you switch to a different weapon). Another well known tactic is that you don't lock on on the enemy directly after shooting but wait for some time and lock on it a bit later with AltFire to surprise the enemy. You can also make the missile lock on the enemy when you keep the crosshair on the vehicle.
You can lock on the the SPMA camera. Shoot a missile and when the AVRiL missile reaches it (you still have to be locked on it) , you get the message "SPMA target acquired" and the AVRiL changes course to hit the SPMA even if its not in your FOV. (After you got the message you don't need to be locked on it)
If someone destroys the AVRiL missile when you shoot it and it's too close to you, you can be killed by its explosion (suicide. You get -1 in score). Of course you can use this tactic against the other players. When you see that they want to fire an AVRiL missile at you, take your Minigun and shoot at him.
When using the Bio Rifle be careful! You can get killed by the goo on the floor since it will remain for a while, even if you killed your enemy. You can charge the Bio Rifle by holding AltFire but keep a distance to your enemies before you shoot, the goo will "explode" and deal massive damage to everything that is too close to it!

Additional gameplay info:

Always listen to your surroundings! Footstep sounds are useful if you want to know where an enemy is
Headshots can be avoided when you have the shield.
In UT2004 there are Adrenaline pickups scattered all over the maps (for more information see the link). One adrenaline pickup gives you 2 adrenaline points. By killing enemies you automatically gain adrenaline, by suiciding you lose adrenaline. You can perform adrenaline combos that improve your "skills". The movement key combinations for the combos are:
- ↑↑↑↑ Speed (default)
- ↓↓↓↓ Booster (default)
- ↑↑↓↓ Berserk (default)
- →→←← Invisibility (default)
  - ←←←← Pint-sized! (bonus)
  - →→→→ Camouflaged! (bonus)
Camping with the Hellbender twin beams and sniping on foot will improve your aiming skills and is an effective way to take out flag carriers and incoming enemies from a (big) distance. Torlan (ONS map) is a perfect example how to do it since it features a big and open environment.
Udamage gives you 2x as much damage as before for a short period of time. Try to get this pickup when it appears. Used with the right weapons (Rocket Launcher with 3 missiles loaded for example) it can be really deadly.
The invisibility combo can be quite useful when you try to capture the enemy's flag for example but once you got the flag every one knows where you are because they hear the alarm and the announcement and see the flag walking around.
Play offline to learn how the maps look like and play online to become better. Players are way better than bots (at least most of them).
For better performance and a better ping you should lower your grafics settings if you don't have a computer that can run UT2004 well at max. details.
You should have a good mouse pad and a good mouse. Play a bit around with the mouse sensitivity until you have a result you like. If you like to play with low sens., it has its advantages as well because you have to move and jump a lot to hit your target. It's good to practise it. On the other side you won't be able to quickly look up into the air to hit someone. Every player prefers different mouse settings (depending on your mouse and your mouse pad as well) and different controls. Change the controls so that you can play best with it and so that you like it.
You can make friends in UT2004. If you have made friends you can check if they are in a game and follow them.
Try to use every weapon and learn when you have to use them at the right moment! (you can't describe it well, that's why I think you should try to figure it out by yourself e.g. Flak Cannon's AltFire for distance and Fire for close range combats but sometimes it's quite useful to shoot someone a Flak shell right into his face when he's a bit closer. This may be an instant kill if he has no shield or not 199 health)
Pay attention to chat messages! They are an important feature in team based gametypes! Communicate with your team to have better teamwork! (When talking to your team you should use the teamsay command)

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Others:
Other tips:

You should try to stick to the server rules (if there are any). At least if you want to play on specific servers. Some admins are strict and might kick or even temporally ban you if you don't do so.
Don't argue with people, try to stay cool, even if the enemy is better than you and if he wants to argue. This is only a game. There's no reason for raging. You should try to keep this in mind. If you're raging you become worse because you are not as concentrated as before. This will result in more anger and you'll be p***ed off.
If you play against better players you'll improve your gaming skills. Same goes for teams. If you play against a better team you'll learn better teamwork and this might improve your skills as well.
Don't leave a match only because you're losing it. Try to play until the end. This will help you to improve your skills.
Pay attention to the tips that are displayed at the loading screen of a map. They are quite useful.

What to do when you spot a cheater and you're sure that this player really cheats?

If this player is currently on this server, first try to contact the admin.
If the admin couldn't do anything against him/her either report him/her to Epic directly or post here at this forum. People may be able to help you (e.g. by posting alternatives to servers where the cheater is usually on).

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Optional things:

You should response to "Hi" and "Bye"
Practise good sportmanship! This means as much as: Give the enemy, especially newcomers, a chance. Treat newcomers with respect, do not own the ever living you know what out of them just because you can. You were a n00b once as well, and they should be given the chance to have fun. This translates into not locking down a server full of players beaneath your skill level. Leave after you win 1 or 2 matches. Apart from that there are situations when taunting can be used (if you are playing against somebody who is on about your skill level or higher) and situation where it just offends the weaker players!
If you are playing a team-based gametype and the teams are uneven but nobody switches to the smaller team you should do it to "balance" the match. It's also part of good sportsmanship.
If someone killed you with an incredible shot you can say "nice shot" or "ns" -the shortform of nice shot.

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And the most important thing:
Have fun while playing!

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If you have anything to contribute to the list, please post in this thread.

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