The Dojo

Original Link: http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/ind … pic=102099

Why am I writing this?
I collect information and store it all in my vast and mighty brain cavity. While I do not have mad skills, I am very adept at over-complicating things and I'm told I'm overly pedantic. This is a good combination for someone to have if they're writing a tutorial. By the way, to be pedantic means to have a teaching nature.

Who is this guide for?
Mostly for people who are starting to get into the competitive NS scene. Even if you're experienced you might find a few things you didn't know. Some of the information is general enough to be useful for other gamers, too.

Why is it called a Meta-Guide
Because I tie a lot of other guides together and point you in the right direction more than I go in depth. It also sounds cool.
. Preparation
.:: Hardware
.:: Software
.:: Client Customization

. Skills
.:: Listening
.:: Moving
.:: Aiming

. Clans
.:: Tactics & Strategy
.:: Drills

. Tips
Preparation

Hardware
Headset - Communication and listening are essential. Get a good pair of headphones and a microphone. A friend, using a cheap headset, could never understand what I meant when I told him to listen for skulks and was always getting rushed from behind. He bought a 70 dollar headset (Wahh!!) and played for about 1 minute before turning to me and saying "It's like a totally different game." He was also a lot harder to sneak up on.

Mouse - A good, optical, scroll-wheel mouse with 1600+ DPI is only around 20$. DPI stands for Dots Per Inch and it's a measurement of how many dots per inch of surface the mouse can detect. The higher the DPI, the higher the accuracy, smoothness and sensitivity. Some say that you only want high DPI if you use a high in-game sensitivity, and a low DPI if you use low in-game sensitivity. All I can vouch for is what I've experienced myself. When I went from a 800 DPI to a 1600 DPI mouse, the movement felt a lot more fluid, but it was also more sensitive. It also didn't lock up when I moved it very quickly, but this may be because I patched my USB refresh rate (more on this later). I would advise against buying a "gamer" mouse because they're usually just over-priced and tout features that sound good but translate poorly into actual in-game ownage experience. One good feature though is a mouse that actually uses a laser and not an LED light. They can usually be used on all types of surfaces, like a flat desk, which comes in handy when you don't want to buy a big mouse pad.

Mouse pad - Some suggest playing with a very low sensitivity, but it's entirely personal preference. Having a big mouse pad is more important if you have low sensitivity and use your arm to move the mouse and not your wrist. The majority of the time a medium-sized cloth mouse pad is fine and I would suggest against buying a gigantor "gamer" mousepad unless you're rich.
Software
Ventrilo (Vent) or Teamspeak (TS) - In-game voice sounds like crap on match servers and most pubs. Ventrilo and Teamspeak use more bandwidth and better quality encoding so you can actually understand what people are saying most of the time. Unless they're raging. With Ventrilo (and maybe Teamspeak) you can record conversations which is especially useful if someone says something embarrassing, because you can make a clever YTMND with the sound clip.
http://www.ventrilo.com/
http://www.goteamspeak.com/

Sometimes it's hard to tell who is talking, and it's not possible to alt+tab and see who's in the channel with you, so there's this nifty plugin that will overlay that information on the screen for you. Check it out:
http://www.voice-overlay.info.ms/

Gamma Panel - NS maps are dark. Aiming is easier when it's not dark. Gamma Panel is a small utility that allows you to setup brightness profiles so you can easily switch from bright to normal with some keys. Load it up before NS and configure your profiles and turn it on when you game. I use ctrl+alt+shift+b for bright, and ctrl+alt+shift+n for normal. Give the profiles cool names like "Shazam!" or "Flame on!". This program is also helpful if your monitor is just dark. My girlfriend's monitor is super dark so I just keep this running with the gamma slightly bumped up and it works great. You'll also want to tweak your gamma in-game, which is in most scripts, including mine and the ones in nL Hack Pack (see Preparation:Client Customization).
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Gamma_Panel_d2796.html

Video Card Gamma - Instead of using Gamma Panel, if you use a decent video card you can usually turn up the gamma in the software that comes with it.

USB Refresh Rates - For some strange reason, the PS2 drivers in Windows allow you to change the refresh or polling rates for your hardware, but with USB it's locked at 125Hz. ONLY 125Hz!! That's such a small number compared to 1000Hz! Download the link and read the documentation. It's not necessarily "bigger is better", start with 250Hz and play around with it. The higher the Hz, the smoother the movement. You'll also have to adjust your in-game sensitivity. If your mouse locks up when you move it very fast, try using 250Hz+ and see if that fixes the problem.
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/USB_M...er/1105183690/1

x64 Users use this:
http://files.filefront.com/64+bit+USB+Mous...;/fileinfo.html

Mouse Acceleration - Windows has this thing called Mouse Acceleration, which makes your cursor movement horribly inconsistent. The longer you move it quickly the faster it goes. It works OK for navigating around an OS but for games you want consistent cursor movement. If you disable it your cursor will always move at the same speed. If you're already used to it being on (or you've never heard of it), try disabling it and playing for a few days and see if you like it. In my opinion, it's simpler to track if your movement is consistent. To turn it off for all of Windows, use this:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/in...hp/t405363.html

Alternatively you can turn mouse acceleration off for just NS by adding this to your NS launch properties in Steam:

-noforcemparms -noforcemaccel -noforcemspd

For more information on mouse configuration:
http://www.gotfrag.com/cs/story/29319/

Disable V-Sync - You're going to want to disable v-sync to really hit the high FPS. You want an FPS of 100, generally. It makes timing jumps easier, for bunny hopping, and it makes the game play smoother. Disabling v-sync is different for each video card, and is also not very hard to figure out. ATI and nVidia cards come with control panels and you can change it in there. Usually there's a slider or something saying "Let the application decide". Uncheck that box and force it to off.

You can read some interesting stuff on FPS and how it affects game play/time-space here:
http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index....c=97790&hl=
Client Customization

nL Hackpack 1.3 - This thing has just about everything you'll need, except the newer versions don't have the cool installer with the awesome MIDI music, so you'll just have to deal with boring old files. It's got custom cross hairs, HUD replacements, small fonts, removal of ambient noises and configurations that have some good ideas. Download it and check it out, everyone else is, and you want everyone else to think you're cool too, right?
http://www.ninelegends.com/files/index.php...ackpack_v13.rar

For more information on the pack, check out their site:
http://www.ninelegends.com/

Scripts - It really shouldn't be called "scripting". I think the label has caused a lot of unnecessary FUD. It's just binds. Also, never just grab someone else's scripts and install them without looking over every single line and understanding it, changing it and making it yours. Some things are personal preference, like which button is your in-game voice, or Ventrilo talk button, etc. but some are really helpful like using mouse2 for +movement and mwheelup and mwheeldown for +jump. Here is my script-set. It's more complex than most (not necessarily better), so strip out what you don't like and keep what you do.
http://files.filefront.com/tek+scriptsrar/...;/fileinfo.html

You should note a few things my scripts do that I haven't seen a lot of others do. One is the fps_max is set at 76 and it's increased to 200 when jumping. This is something I'm playing with and testing. It may all be in my imagination. My gun seems to fire faster at 76 FPS, and I even see the "glitch shot" from my pistol script that I don't see at 100 fps. I seem to jump up inclines easier and go farther with 200 FPS. The link above about interesting effects of FPS on game play will explain more.

When you toggle out of console, it releases all +aliases, so that means if you have the generic pistol script, your weapon will fire whenever you go out of the console. I do some tricky stuff to unbind everything and rebind it all whenever I toggle out of console so I don't have that problem.

The medpack and ammo request keys attempt to drop ammo and meds, and cl_showspeed 1 is on but sv_cheats 1 is required for either to actually work. Having cl_showspeed 1 on is an easy way to be able to quickly identify if the server has cheats on.

Depending on your ping, there are different rate configurations you can use. There's a low, medium, high and LAN. For ~30 ping, use low, for ~60 ping use medium and ~90 ping use high. LAN games, of course, should use LAN. This is how:

exec rates-medium.cfg

A healthy understanding of rates and net code is good for your brain meats. For more information read these:
http://www.readyroom.org/forums/index.php?...&#entry1768
http://ensl.zanith.nl/index.php?view=articles/rates
http://www.gotfrag.com/cs/story/30057/

One annoying thing you should be aware of is that the console key wont work on mp_blockscripts 1 servers. Press F11, which is my backup toggleconsole key, and run this code, then press escape:

exec noscripts.cfg

You should also keep in mind that my scripts change weekly, and I might not update this guide every time I change my scripts.
Skills

Listening
Never ignore your ears. Love them. Tell them how much you missed them when you wake up in the morning or if you were wearing ear-muffs. Use them almost as much as your eyes. They will tell you where the marine/skulk is coming from. You should never get jumped from behind without firing off a shot, yet this is a common occurrence on many public servers.
Moving
It takes ~5 seconds to tell if someone is pro just by watching how they move. As an alien you must be able to bunny hop and as a marine it really helps to be aware of wall and wiggle walking, double and strafe jumping and the limited bunny hopping marines can do.

Bunny Hopping - The suggestion I give people totally new to bunny hopping is start off in co_faceoff, with sv_gravity 0. Strafe left and slowly turn left, then strafe right and slowly turn right. Do this until you can figure eight all around the ceiling. Once you've got the hang of that, download ns_bhop and turn on sv_cheats 1, cl_showspeed 1 and bunny hop around until you can easily stay at 400 units. After you get good, you'll be able to hit 400 units in 1 or 2 jumps as alien. As a marine, you cannot bunny hop unless you double jump or your previous jump was lower than your current jump, so you can bhop up inclines and off of railing.

For more information on bunny hopping:
http://fidosrevenge.com/bhop/

Wall walking It's possible for aliens and marines, and it's easy to practice on ns_bhop. Just walk up to a wall, and strafe into the wall as you walk forward and look slightly at the wall. Play with it until you find the best speed. Aliens will want to bhop unless they're in a vent or something and can't.

Wiggle walking is possible manually, but a lot faster if scripted. Basically you wiggle left and right really fast as you move forward. You go slightly faster, and you may even get banned from a few pubs if you make a big deal about it. I don't see it done manually very often, but I include it here for completeness.

Here's an example of scripted vs manual wiggling:
http://files.filefront.com/WiggleHaxavi/;8...;/fileinfo.html

Strafe jumping is when you turn really fast on the ground to pickup speed and then jump. It's also easy to practice on ns_bhop. Just run forward and then quickly look to the left or right and then snap back forward and jump. It will take a lot of practice and watching your speed indicator to get the timing down, but it's worth it. It gets you used to jumping all the time as marine, which is what you'll want to do when attacked. Whenever you're being attacked and you're in the air, you will probably get launched backwards, which puts distance between you and your enemy. It's also how you should start off your bunny hop. Standing still do a strafe jump into bunny hopping and you will eventually be able to go from 0 to 500 in a few jumps. It may take a few months or a year, but you'll never go back to being a walker skulk again once you're addicted to the speed.

Double jumping requires you to run and then crouch for about a second and then jump, then let go of crouch and make another jump. If you do it correctly, and you wait long enough but not too long, your first jump will be silent, and you can make another jump and keep your momentum. Basically a double bunny hop. This is super useful when you're trying to bait skulks out from behind a door or you're trying to get around a corner in a hurry.

Download Maps - You'll want ns_bhop, ze_marinebhop and other maps with "jump" or "climb" in the name. Check out these tasty links:
http://twilight-eclipse.com/~te/Seti/NS%20stuff/maps/
http://downloads.guns4back2school.com/my_nsp/maps/
Aiming
For marine, if you're alone: Start a server with WhichBots installed, and configured to not evolve past skulk or get any upgrades except celerity, and start by adding about 4 or 5 bots. It takes something like 9 LMG bullets to take down a skulk, and realistically about 12-13. So you should be able to kill at 2-3 skulks with your LMG, maybe even wound a 4th, and then kill the 4th with your pistol, maybe even kill/wound a 5th and take him out with your knife. Doing this against bots is one thing, but doing it against players is another, so once you get bored with 4-5 skulks, add a few more until you can't handle it.

If possible, if you have friends, get 3 or 4 of them to rush you in co_faceoff as a skulk. You can do it a lot of different ways. Once is to just rush in and be as aggressive as possible, no ambushing, just killing you and biting your chair. See how long you can last. Once the round is over switch to someone else and see how long they can last. It's a good way to compete and it's an excellent way to improve. I've had friends that could not shoot skulks turn into decent NS pubbers in a few days playing against bots and getting rushed on co_faceoff. You can also just have the skulks run in, kill you and get out, and keep the round going for the full time limit. Whatever you decide, make sure everyone knows what to do. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is for some people to understand such a simple concept.

As a skulk, there is really not a whole lot you can do other than play a lot of combat with friends. Put it on a small co map, and only get celerity and resupply. If you play pubs, don't get a lot of upgrades and stay skulk instead of going ONOS. Many people I've watched tend to get tunnel vision once they're a skulk and they tense up as they approach marines. If you're one of those people, try relaxing, and slowing down. Take your time to line up your shot and make it count. The attack cone for bite is unusually far and wide so take some time to figure out your bounds too.

When you're playing on a pub, try and hold off getting upgrades for as long as possible.
Clans

Tactics & Strategy
Read all guides. Read every guide for every life form, being the commander, etc. Even if you're not going to ever play the lerk, you should at least know what the lerk SHOULD and SHOULD NOT be doing, and the same applies for all the other roles. Here are some good guides/websites:
http://nslearn.readyroom.org/?doc=irc.php
http://ensl.zanith.nl/
Drills
Really do help, is the end of that sentence. Drills aren't hard to think up, just think of a situation that's the most like what you want to practice and do it. Most of the time you'll want to practice early-game drills like skulks setting up ambushes for important choke points for maps, a fade and a lerk versus the pressure team, 1 fade vs 1 shotgun. Usually the aliens only get celerity or nothing at all, and marines may get armor 1 or nothing at all. Since you probably wont have a comm to watch over you and med you as a marine, you'll want to set sv_cheats 1, and bind two keys to these commands:

give item_health
give item_genericammo

Tips

Communication and Organization - Have only one established form of communication that everyone uses to organize scrims. Either Ventrilo/Teamspeak or IRC. Don't have one guy on IRC, two guys on Steam and three or four guys on Vent.

Being Active - The most important thing about joining a clan is being active. Don't wait to join a clan because you don't think you're good enough. You'll never get good enough playing pubs, but you'll get good super fast if you play against and with people way better than you.

Being Cold - Never play cold. Always warm up before you scrim/match. Get everyone together and drill until you have enough for a scrim. If the room you are in is too cold, consider wearing a hat and socks. Most heat escapes your human flesh-bodies from your feet and your head.

Watching the Game - Watch lots of demos of people and teams that are good. Try to hook up and scrim with them whenever your team is not on, or even spectate their scrims/matches. If possible, get on their Vent/Teamspeak server so you can learn how they communicate and call strats.

Ringers - If you can't get six, don't be afraid to get a ringer. If you're a new clan, they'll probably be better than you but they will be happy to just be playing so they wont rage at you as hard. You might learn something from them, too. Don't give them any important roles like straight fade or comm though. It's uncouth, and you want to be as couth as possible.

Be Ready To Play Anywhere - Keep a backup of your scripts and sprite folder online so you can have it wherever you are, just in case you need to play somewhere new.

Net Graph Detective - It's important to know the network frames per second rate of data flow (or tickrate) of a server you're going to play on. Type net_graph 3 in console and your average "in" kbps is the tickrate. Most servers are around 30, 60 or 100. You'll want at least 60, because less than that usually equates to bad reg. For HL1 engine, the tickrate is determined by the fps_max. If you're going to host a server you should know at least that, and you should read other guides as well.

For more info on being a net_graph master:
http://www.gotfrag.com/cs/story/30057/

Map Rotation - If people are moving around choppily, you're getting bad reg or the phase gate looks glitchy, you need to "rotate the map" by quitting and restarting the server. If you let a server stay on the same map for many hours it will get stale and most of the time, clans have private servers that sit on the same map all day. It's a good practice to just rotate the map or ask for it to be rotated if you're not sure when the last change was.
If any of these links goes dead e-mail me and I'll help you find it, and correct the guide. If you find any errors, you are probably wrong, but go ahead and tell me anyway. If you are right, I'll fix the guide and deny it ever happened, but secretly thank you.