Quake Weenie Website - Other Tips

Bots
Controllers
The Golden Rule of Quake Strategy
Hot foot
Run and Jiggle
Voyeurism

Bots

Having trouble finding people to play against? Phone bills getting you down? Or maybe you're just plain embarrased to get creamed in front of other people?

Try playing against Bots to practice up. Bots are programs written in QuakeC, a programming language that lets people extend the Quake environment. (Editor's note: QuakeC is one of several things that makes Quake a game like no other in the history of computer games.) These programs simulate other Quake players.

Let me be clear: we're not talking about a player who acts like a Grunt. We're talking about a reasonable simulation of a real player. Bots aren't as smart as people, but the better ones are fast, accurate, and merciless.

People generally agree that the Reaperbot is the best bot around at the moment. You can launch multiple Reaperbot opponents. At the lowest skill level, a Reaperbot will give a Weenie a good workout. At the highest skill level, even a Frag God will find a room full of Reaperbots highly annoying.

To get a bot of your own, visit the QuakeC Archives.

Chris Knowles (Daleth)

Controllers

Controllers and keyboard configurations are too broad (and too personal) a topic for me to cover completely here, or anywhere. The only real rule is that you need to find controllers and configurations that work for you, and use them.

That having been said, there are a few general principles that you may find useful:

- Don't use the keyboard by itself, you won't get nearly the responsiveness you need. Use the keyboard in conjunction with a mouse or joystick. By my own experience, and according to the vast majority of comments I've read and received, mouse/keyboard seems to be the best combination. Your mileage may vary.
- Don't use modifier keys (like shift, ctrl, or alt) to move into "sidestep" mode. Always map left and right step to their own keys, and place them near the forward and backward keys.
- Use `+MLOOK`. To do this, press the ~ key; the Quake Console will pop down. Now type `+MLOOK` and press return. Then press the ~ key again to exit the console. MLOOK lets you look up and down with your mouse, rather than moving backward and forward. Essential for surviving in Quake's true 3D environment, where opponents can be above you as often as they're behind you.

The Golden Rule of Quake Strategy

The next time you deathmatch, notice that some people play offensively while others play defensively, i.e.

- some people play to frag
- some play to avoid being fragged

This brings us to the Golden Rule of Quake Strategy: winning isn't about avoiding death -- it's about fragging. Your frag count doesn't go down when you get fragged (unless you frag yourself). To put it another way, playing defensively

- will minimize your humiliation
- may suppress your opponents' scores
- won't help you to win

Weenies sometimes think that avoiding humiliation is the best they can hope for. But hiding in the shadows won't get you the practice you need to become a Ruthless Frag God. When you hear a fire-fight, head straight for it.

Hot foot

If you have the rocket launcher, fire at your opponent's feet. You don't have to hit someone directly to frag them with a rocket -- you just have to catch them in the blast radius. If you try to hit your opponent directly, there's a good chance they'll be able to dodge the rocket and take no damage. But if you fire at the floor, a wall, or another nearby structure, there's an excellent chance that they'll taste at least a little bit of your rocket even if your aim isn't so hot.

Note that if your opponent is standing next to a wall, you're better off firing at the wall than at the floor. Due to line of site considerations, you're somewhat more likely to hit a wall than you are to hit the floor right near your opponent.

Run and jiggle

There's just no excuse for walking in Quake, ever. On the options menu, toggle "Always run" to "ON". Go do it now. I mean it. Flip that switch. You want to be a weenie forever or something?

There's also no excuse for running in a straight line in Quake, ever. Get in the habit of always zigzagging, jumping, jamming it into reverse suddenly -- in short, be erratic. Remember that Quake is fully 3D, so you can never be sure when someone's about to do a sniper number on you.

Ed Cope (submitted from his strategy page)

Voyeurism

Learn from the masters. There's a universe of Quake demos out there, so you can watch Frag Gods frag, and lowly Weenies get gibbed. Not only can you see how they do what they do, but you can see it without having it done to you. Visit Quake Demo Land and sCary's Quakeholio for a good selection of demos with ratings. Check out Quake Demo Land's Instructions Page for instructions and playing (and recording) demos.

Shane Guise a.k.a. William Wallace

Copyright © 1996, 1997 Andy Giesler. These pages appear on the Level Master V for Quake CD by permission of the author. URL - http://www.msn.fullfeed.com/~agiesler/quake