Quake Weenie Website - Other Tips

Bots
Breadcrumbs
Controllers
The Golden Rule of Quake Strategy
Grenade flailing
Hot foot
Kamikaze
Lava 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)

Breadcrumbs

Use items as breadcrumbs. Wondering where your opponent went? If you know the level and its items, notice when items are missing. If it's a weapon or ammo, you know someone's been in here in the last 30 seconds. If it's armor, within the last 20 second. If you were hot on the llama's trail, you can use this to figure out which turn he took. So follow them breadcrumbs and go frag Hansel.

Blue (aka Steve Heaslip), submitted from Blue's Doom Deathmatch Strategy Guide

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.

Grenade flailing

If you want to rack up some "casual frags" and have the grenade launcher, just start lobbing in a few grenades wherever you know or suspect there are people, and then move on. No need to wait and see the results. Whip around enough of these suckers and sooner or later you'll accrue some easy kills.

- Hear someone firing at something just around the bend? Lob in a grenade as you're passing by, maybe you'll get lucky and nail them.
- See a heated battle in an open area? Lob in a few grenades and move on, maybe someone will be running near one when it goes off.
- Suspect someone's heading this way? No need to wait for them yourself. Drop a few grenades to say "hello!" for you, and high-tail it out of there.

You can also use this technique with Rockets if you've got a few to spare. Heading into a room? Fire a rocket just as you come around the corner, before you even have a chance to see whether there's someone in there waiting for you. At best you'll frag them, at worst you'll surprise them.

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.

Kamikaze

If you're short on weapons and health and someone's shooting at you with the rocket launcher, rush in at them with your shotgun. The rockets will probably take you out, but at close range there's a chance the blast radius will take out your attacker too.

What if your attacker frags you without fragging himself? Since you switched to your shotgun before rushing in, you won't be leaving behind anything but a bunch of shotgun shells for the hoser.

jEnS "STARK" Wessling

Lava Hot Foot

A special-case variant of the Hot Foot principle. If you see someone negotiating a ledge or walkway above a lava pool, immediately switch to your rocket launcher and wail one at them. Possible outcomes:

1. Your rocket frags them. Cool, and you get frag credit.
2. Your rocket doesn't frag them, but you hit them or something near them. Odds are good that the blast radius will knock them off of their perch and into the lava. They're unlikely to survive the lava. Cool, even though you don't get frag credit.
3. You miss. Although this brands you a first class Weenie, if you're shooting at another Weenie they'll probably panic, spaz, and fall off anyway. Less cool, but darned fun.
4. You miss. Your opponent stays level headed, jumps off the ledge away from the lava, and frags your sorry butt. Uncool. Man, are you a Weenie.

If you don't have a rocket launcher, but are playing against a Weenie, any old weapon will do. Weenies panic (and spaz) easily. Go for outcome #3.

Mark (PeeblE) Sawyer

Addendum: don't trust the lava to finish off your opponent if you use the above tactic. Someone with good health will flail in lava for a second or two, enough time for you to fire in another rocket to finish them off. Not only do you have the fun of seeing them bob in lava, but you get the frag credit that you so richly deserve.

Torben Giesselmann (who learned it from Reaperbot!)

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.
www.weenie.com