• When using the mouse, you should be able to look 180 degrees simply by turning your hand at the wrist.
• Avoid moving your entire arm since it's hard to get the entire arm moving, hard to get it stopped, and you'll tire quickly.
• Use the fingers to pull the mouse into your wrist or push it out to look up and down.
• When you shoot with MOUSE1, especially at long distances with the railgun, don't stab down at the button, gently apply pressure until you shoot. If you hit it too hard, you're most likely pushing your mouse back towards you and throwing off your aim.

• Once you've perfected your mouse flick, try running forward, jumping, mouse-flicking to execute a 180, then simultaneously shifting to running backwards.
• You can use this technique when you run into alcoves to pick up items so that you never present your back to your opponent.
• This is also useful when you are being chased. Often times your opponent is so intent on chasing you that he becomes an easy target.

• With practice, you should be able to execute a perfect 90 or 180-degree turn every time.
• Practice in a map with plenty of running space and try a 180-degree mouse-flick then fire when you land (or when you complete the 180).
• Adjust the sensitivity of your mouse to the point where you can control your crosshair easily but still have the range of motion to execute a 180.
• Next, try running backwards then use a mouse-flick to turn around while you simultaneously change to running forwards.

• Try not to do this too much in tight 1 vs. 1 games, because it will give your position away most of the time. However, during larger FFAs, this is a vital tactic.
• Strafe bunny-hopping is important when trying to beat opponents to certain locations such as the quad, and can help you jump larger distances.
• To get the timing of this, you have to develop a rhythm. Begin bunny hopping in a straight line, and then after a few hops press and hold one of your strafe keys immediately after you take off from the ground. Then get ready for your next one, and jump off as soon as you get off the ground, while pressing and holding the opposite strafe key. Keep doing this, and try to get a constant rhythm.
• This is useful when traveling down hallways or beating people to spots/items, but try not to use it around railers.

• Find an object to shoot at in a map/room with plenty of space to move around.
• Strafe left or right while using your mouse, to move your crosshair in the opposite direction. The effect will be that your crosshair stays on target while you circle around him. Keep firing while you do this.
• Try strafing in the opposite direction. Now try to alternate between strafing left and right while keeping your crosshair on the target. If you're doing this correctly you should be pumping a steady stream of fire into your target while staying constantly on the move.
• Another technique is to move closer or further away from your target while your circle strafing. This is especially effective against rocket launchers aimed at your feet since it's harder to predict shots in 2 dimensions than 1.
• However, make sure you don't develop a pattern in this as well. Try to randomly go inwards and outwards of the circle, it will be harder for your opponent to predict where you will be next.

• Start a solo skirmish game (e.g., no bots) and choose map Q3DM2.
• Grab a rocket launcher (duh!), some armor, and top off your health.
• Drop off the interior bridge into the water.
• Face one of the platforms, look at your feet, then simultaneously jump and fire your rocket launcher. You'll have to play with the timing of these two actions a little to get it just right for you.
• With luck, you will have launched yourself up in the air.
• Immediately look up and air control yourself as best as possible onto a platform. Play around with this until you've got it right.
• When you can consistently get yourself onto a platform, start from the tunnel and see if you can rocket jump from a run.

  Here's the start of the rocket jump. I look down almost directly at my feet then hit jump and fire in rapid succession		The blast blows me high up into the air. At this point, I should look slightly up and air control myself to the platform. Note the hit I took to my armor and health

This trick is best demonstrated on Q3DM5. A good spot to learn is in the rocket launcher room. See the little pillars with the rivets just outside the Rocket Launcher niche? That's where we'll be learning. Use the one on the left (from the point of view of outside, facing into the niche). Start out looking almost all the way down, and hold your forward key, to run against the wall. Start firing, jump, and strafe right, all while still holding the forward key. Keep on trying this until you can master it.

Once you've done this, there are some other spots you could try in this level, such as the shotgun area (going from the ledge with the shells up to the higher level), in the plasma gun room (going from the barrel onto the ledge), and another spot in the RL room, the wall right beside the red armor ledge.

• Have one person stand still and try to circle-strafe around him. Do this again but shoot at him while he moves. Can you hit him? Now switch places.
• Learn how to do the basic rocket jump. Go to Q3DM2 and see if you can jump from the water to the platform or bridge. There's enough armor and health there to practice a couple of times.
• On the same map, stand outside by the yellow armor, have your friend run around and listen for the audio cues. Can you guess which of the three exits he will come from? Have him try to surprise you. Can you surprise him?

• Audio clues
  • Power ups
  • Water
  • Doors
  • Bounce pads
  • Other items

• Weapon and armor locations. Where are these items and what are the most efficient paths that takes you to all of the key weapons, armor, and power ups.
• Dead-ends. The last thing you want to do is to get accidentally trapped in a dead when you're hurt and the other dude has a big friggin' gun.
• Deadly spaces (red fog and space). I lose more points simply because I fall off into 'bad places'. I'm really getting tired of it. At the same time, if you have any weapons that bounce people, these 'bad places' can be a great asset. Aim for their feet and bounce them into oblivion. While you might not get credit for the frag, it will take a point away from them.
  • This is particularly important on space maps. While it's pretty clear where the space is, you also have to keep in mind how close to the edge you can get before you put yourself in danger of getting blown off the side by a close by rocket launcher hit.

• If you're going to play on a new server, get all the maps then run through them in single player skirmish mode just to get a sense for how they are laid out. Whenever we play Friday Night Frag Fest (FNFF) and there are new maps, I'll download them, and then give each one a quick walk through so I know where everything is.

• Hitscan weapons, point damage, rapid fire. Typically shoot a large number of projectiles that individually do a small amount of damage but only at the point of impact. In the case of machineguns, the bullets may hit in a circular pattern around your crosshair. These are easy weapon for beginners to pick up and make great finishers when hunting down a badly wounded target.

• Hitscan weapons, point damage, slow fire. Usually deliver damage slowly but in large quantities. You have to exercise patience and wait for the right moment to take each shot. Practice is key because the weapon won’t shoot very fast and you have to make each shot count. Rail guns and sniper rifles are good examples. They take a lot of practice, but in the right hands, they provide one shot-one kill capability.

• Hitscan weapons, area damage. Shotguns are the weapons that typically fall into this category. It appears to have all the advantages of hitscan and area effect. The downside is usually a slower rate of fire and poor performance at large range. At close range however, they are deadly and also make good finishers.

• Area effect weapons, line of sight. Unlike point damage weapons, area effect weapons explode around the point of impact. Typically, a direct hit causes the most damage with lesser damage being inflicted depending on how far away from the center of blast you happen to be. This makes these the weapons of choice when shooting at groups of targets or trying to get people behind cover. The offsetting disadvantages are self-damage if you’re not careful and typically some time to flight, which gives your target a chance to dodge.

• Area effect weapons, non line of sight. The weapons that typically fall into this category are grenades and grenade launchers. They have many of the same advantages and disadvantages of their line of sight brethren.

• Other. This category encompasses melee weapons and other special cases (shuriken guns that bounce blades off walls) that are too extensive to list here.

• Railgun. They deliver excellent damage per hit and the beam is nearly instantaneous -- no dodging rail shots. However, the long reload time, easy to spot rail trail, and lack of splash damage means that in order to use the railgun effectively, you have to learn how to hit your target.
  • Don't keep your fire button depressed. With the long reload period, you have to conserve your shots and only take them when they count.
  • Keep your cool, especially when you are getting railed. First, backtrack the rail trail to find out where the railgunner is. Get used to how long it takes for the railgun to reload because this gives you a grace period (short) to line up your own shot. Make sure you don't stand around for too long though.
  • Keep moving, even if you have a good spot. A good sniper realizes that sooner or later, people are going to figure out where he/she is and nail 'em. Keep your targets guessing.
  • When people jump, they follow predictable arcs. Don't worry about tracking them on the way down. Instead, place your crosshairs where you know this arc will pass. Shoot as soon as they pass through your gun sight.
  • The same principle works when you are jumping. Instead of tracking a target mid target, try to place your crosshairs where you think it will pass over a target. Keep your crosshair stable then shoot as soon as your target passes through your crosshairs. This takes some practice and patience.
  • If you are playing the Corkscrew Mod for Quake 3, it adds a twist to the railgun - bounces. Learn how to use this to your advantage. You can get people from around corners or bounce a frag off the floor. When I play Corkscrew with bounces, I generally aim at the feet or just in front of the target since I know the bounce will catch them.
  • Lastly, practice, practice, and practice.

• Rocket launcher. If you get a chance to watch some of the auto-aimbots work, you'll notice that they are deadly with hitscan weapons like the Railgun and Shotgun, but have a more difficult time with the Rocket Launcher and Plasma Gun. This happens because they shoot at exactly where your target is. The problem with this is that rockets and plasma bolts take some time to reach the target and can be easily avoided by an alert opponent. By the time the rocket reaches the target, the target may no longer be there.
  • Learn to lead your shots with the rocket launcher - load up some bots and practice shooting them at different distances, circle strafe around them and learn how to predict where they will be next. Make sure when leading your shots to not only think of where they are, but where you can hit them with splash damage.
  • Shoot ground meaning that you want to aim at the feet of your target. Because rockets move so slowly, it is easy for your target to dodge them. If you aim directly at them, a successful dodge means that you miss completely. A shot at their feet however, means that they even if you don’t get a direct hit, they will probably be caught in the blast area and still take some damage.

• Machine Gun and Plasma Gun.
  • I like to use these as suppression weapons if I need cover. They fire fast enough and can saturate an area, which makes them ideal for finishing someone off or providing cover so that you can get out of an area. When shooting these guns, try to "wiggle" your mouse back and forth to spread the blast radius damage and have better chances of hitting your opponent.
  • The high fire rate also makes them nice overrun weapons. I use these when assaulting other players' positions. Their cone of fire means that I don't have to be as dead-on accurate with say a railgun. Additionally the psychological effect of oncoming plasma is often enough to cause your target to shift concentration from shooting back to dodging.
  • After hitting a target with the railgun or rocket launcher once or twice (assuming they're not already down), switch to the machine gun or the plasma gun to finish them off.

• Shotgun.
  • Great weapon for tight maps with lots of short-range engagements. This is where the shotgun excels and using a rocket launcher might be hazardous to your health.
  • Shotguns also make good finishing weapons since damage at medium range is still respectable and covers a large enough area to catch a fleeing target.

• Grenade Launcher.
  • Grenade launchers are best employed when you have a height advantage over a chamber where combat tends to concentrate. This way, you can lob grenades into a melee and the walls will bounce the grenades back into the fray.
  • Grenades are also useful from masking your exact location. With just about any other weapon, if I am taking damage, then I can probably see you. With grenades however, I can bounce shots around corners, arc them over walls, etc enabling me to damage you without exposing myself to your return fire.

• BFG.
  • The BFG is the most powerful weapon in Quake 3. Not only does it do a lot of damage, but the projectiles move quickly and have some area effect.
  • There is not much of a downside to the BFG except that ammunition is usually limited and only available in small quantities.
  • Map makers tend to balance this by placing the BFG in hard to reach, exposed places – to make it dangerous to obtain.

• Gauntlet..
  • Not very useful as an actual weapon, but load up some bots, and practice fragging with the gauntlet, moving all around them, keeping them in your sights at ALL times, and then moving in for the kill. This helps improve you skills tracking opponents and you will find that as a result of this practice, you will find your opponents in your rear 180-degree blind spot less often.

• Hook. While most people never think of the hook as a weapon, it can be used creatively as a defensive tool or to enhance the effectiveness of your other weapons.
  • The hook itself does a little bit of damage and can be used in a pinch, especially if all you have is the gauntlet.
  • If someone is shooting at you with an area effect weapon, you can use the hook to latch onto him or her. This forces them into a decision, continue using the weapon and take splash damage themselves, or switch weapons.
  • If you have a good short-range weapon like the Gauntlet or shotgun, use the hook to close the distance quickly and latch onto your target while you pummel them

• Hooks. Hooks can be very useful to help you get to places faster or otherwise inaccessible by jumping. Keep in mind that when you use the hook, you are basically telegraphing to the entire world where you will be going. One counter measure is to release the hook just before you hit the wall and let your momentum carry you to your destination. A series of short hooks is generally more effective than one long hook.

• Quad Damage. Anything that gives a player more offensive power (4x damage in the case of the quad, invulnerability from splash damage for the battlesuit) will probably cause a shift to more offensive tactics. If you are the owner of the new power up, think about what weapons maximize quad damage yet don't pose additional risk to yourself. Good candidates might be the plasma gun, machine gun, and shotgun. Rocket launchers are effective to but could result in a self-kill if used in tight areas. If someone else gets the quad, your reaction will be different depending on whether you're playing a 1 v 1 or FFA. In 1 v 1, I play guerilla and try to stay away from the quadded opponent while taking opportunistic shots. Rockets and grenades are very useful here. In a FFA setting, I want to stay close enough where I have a good shot at collecting the quad when the quadded player gets fragged.

• Battlesuit. The battlesuit protects you from splash damage. If you get it, this means that you can use rockets in tight settings and rocket jump with impunity. It gives you the flexibility to close with your opponent with some pretty powerful weapons. If my opponent gets the battlesuit, I can expect him to come after me. Given their immunity to splash damage, I'll switch to a hit scan weapon like the shotgun or machine gun. If there is enough room and space to maneuver, the railgun is a good choice. By inflicting enough damage, you can force them to be a little more cautious and give up some of their ability to dictate the fight.

You want to control the game by getting your strategy going or by preventing the other player from getting into his rhythm. This can be done by controlling key weapons, items such as power ups, or forcing your opponent to constantly react to your moves.

• The important thing to remember is that the game lasts for 10 minutes (or whatever the server admin sets the time/frag limit to ... so you should figure this out). If you're playing for score, then the number that counts is what you have at then end.
• Don't get flustered by a string of quick kills then and run around stupidly trying to make up your frag deficit.
• Think rationally about why you got tagged so quickly so many times. It might have been luck, or you might have been caught respawing a few times in a row. You might be showing some hesitation because it's an unfamiliar map.
• Adjust your playing style as necessary to compensate. On new maps, I adjust to play more defensively and watch what other people do.
• Avoid getting angry when playing. You may think this will help fuel your fragging, but it will make you more jittery. You need to stay calm so that you can maintain your aim and keep thinking straight.
• Continue to kick ass.

• Are they hunters or campers?
• If they are campers or tend to stay in one area, you have a lot more freedom to plan how you want to take the fight to them.
• If they are hunters, then you constantly have to be on guard lest they surprise you. This may mean that any rest or listening breaks are done seldom and finished quickly.
• The best way to learn any game is to play against people who are better than you. Play against them as often as possible and watch their technique. If they're really cool, they might even share some of their tips with you.

• Don't always run in straight lines. Zigzagging as you run, even when you think you're alone is permitted.
• Don't circulate the map or portions of a map in the same pattern. I still find myself doing this and it's easy to get stuck on a set route you use to navigate a map. A smart opponent will pick up on this and be able to anticipate where you will go and therefore wait for you on his terms.
• Don't circle-strafe in the same direction all the time. The point of circle strafing is to dodge fire. But if you're going to keep moving in the same direction, it's easy really easy to lead you. Change it up every now and then.

• Run away when you no longer have the advantage in a firefight (e.g., when you have a smaller weapon and are nearly out of life).
• Sometimes you will want to run away even when you have ammo:
  • Run away and immediately double back. If your opponent is chasing you, thinking that you've run out of ammo, you may surprise him and gain the upper hand.
  • If your opponent has guessed that you are trying to get behind him, he may have doubled back, trying to cut you off. He may have turned his back to you, giving you the chance to catch him unaware.
  • This is also a part of not being predictable. If you run away even when you have ammo, especially after pulling some really good ambushes, your opponent is more likely to not immediately try to chase you down when you run. This gives you valuable breathing space when you really DO NEED to run away because of low ammo, you're hurt, or he has the upper hand.

• When running away, try to run backwards, but ensure you still check your back often. This allows you to run away while preserving your ability to return fire. Keep in mind that you sacrifice speed for security. In large FFAs, you might be better of paying more attention to where you're going.

• Look behind you every now and then. I can't count all the times that I've followed someone around the map and they never noticed I was there.
• When you cross corridors, take a quick look left and right.
• Listen for audio cues to discern what items have been picked up, where the other player is and where he is going.
• Keep tabs on when key items respawn
• Don't get so focused on chasing down one person that you lose track of other people who may be gunning for you.

• Does he move predictably? For example, do he always strafe-left or circulate the map in a clockwise direction? On Q3DM2, do he always make a right after exiting the Rocket Launcher room? Picking up on these patterns will enable you to anticipate where your buddy will be and therefore get yourself in the best position to frag him.
  • I'll use Q3DM3 for an example. From the interior courtyard, you can see someone going up the stairs towards the grenade launcher. If they always exit the grenade launcher corridor from the opposite side they entered, it is a fairly easy to cut across the courtyard and launch a rockets into the opposite entryway. If your opponent is running at full speed, your rocket should arrive at about the same time as they exit the corridor.

• Are audio cues followed by predictable actions? On Q2DM2, if you hear the door open, can you expect to find your opponent inside the rocket launcher room? Or, when you hear the water splashing, can you expect them to come out of the middle tunnel?
• Does your opponent always chase you, only pulling back if he is out of ammunition?

• There is nothing worse than getting killed for a small health or for some ammo that you plain did not need.
• Don't make a habit of picking everything up. It gives away where you are and where you've been.

• Doors are natural choke points because they're narrow and restrict your ability to move and dodge. From the shooter's perspective, it's easy to concentrate fire into a doorway, especially with splash-damage weapons and gain easy frags.

  Simply stepping through a door leaves you exposed to fire from the entire room.		Starting from the oblique enables you control how much of the room you want to expose yourself to at any given point.

• The audio (door opening) and visual (door opening) cues are a dead give-away that someone is at the door, and gives your opponent that split second advantage.
• There are a couple of counter measures that can be used individually or in combination:
  • Shoot at the door to open it before you hit the entryway. If you open the door with your body, you'll be forced to hesitate for a moment while it opens for you, exposing you for a few moments.
  • Jump through doorways. If your buddy is shooting area affect weapons at you, jumping will save a little bit of your health since you're further away from the impact.
  • Run close enough to the door to make it open but take a step back or to the side. Often time, someone will shoot at a door as soon as it opens, expecting a body to come charging through. Stepping back makes them waste that first shot and alerts you to the presence of a baddy.
  • Approach the door from the oblique. This means that you're standing off to the side and looking through the doorway at a 45-degree angle. This gives you a view into about 1/3 of the room while hiding your from the other 2/3. This has most of the advantages of taking a step back, but gives you a better field of fire into the room. You can take in the remainder of the room by circle-strafing left or right, attack by going straight on or button-hook around to the opposite side.

  In this example, your opponent has just run into the rocket launcher room and isn't coming out. How are you going to take him out? I begin my approach to the room and use one shot to open the door. If he reacts to the door opening by firing, I'm not actually there.		The door opens and I get a view of part of the room. If he is hiding in the alcove directly ahead of me, I can engage, but he cannot engage me if he is anywhere else in the room.
  I then circle-strafe right, scanning the room from outside, letting me take in the second third of the room.		By the time I actually enter the room, I've already swept 2/3s of the space. If he is in the left-most alcove, I still haven't entered his field of fire.
  I continue into the room using a combination of forward and strafe-right, still sweeping my weapon from right to left.		I finished with my back to the wall and have been able to engage him if he was anywhere in the room.

• Standing directly in front of or in doors and windows silhouettes you perfectly for anyone who wants to return fire.
• Door and window frames make you vulnerable to splash damage.
• Instead, take a step or two back from the door. It's still as easy for you to shoot into a room and actually reduces the area inside the room from which people can see you. Plus you retain your peripheral vision to see people coming down the hall.
• Stepping back will most likely put you into more shadows.
• It also gives you a little more room to maneuver to incoming fire or if you get surprised.

• This technique is probably most applicable in one-vs-one or small group (3-4 player) games.
• Every now and then, it makes good tactical sense to stop, take a break, and assess your current situation.
  • Find a place that offers a good field of fire and protects at least your back and one side.
  • Stop and listen. When you're running around and shooting up the world, it's hard to hear what else is going on around you.
  • Listen and take note of what sounds everyone is making, what audio cues the map is giving you, etc.
  • Taking a short break is good for your nerves and arm muscles too.

I've selected this ambush spot in Q3DM2. It gives me a good field of fire, I'm protected from three sides, and I can see my opponent regardless of which exit to the courtyard he takes.

• Once you've selected a position, set up your ambush. Listen for the audio cues of someone approaching your position and get ready. When they appear blast them. Hopefully you've surprised them and will gain a couple of moments as they figure out where your fire is coming from and react. That's all the time you have to frag them.
• Corollary. If you get ambushed, have an immediate action drill that gets you out of the kill zone and returning fire as quickly as possible. As you move though a map, you should be giving thought to where you can go if you get shot up.
• Once you've concluded your ambush, immediately move. One of the biggest mistakes is staying in the same spot hoping to repeat the ambush again and again. A smart opponent will know you're there and kill you every time.
• Another benefit of the ambush is that it forces your opponent to take a more cautious approach to fighting against you, slowing him down, and hopefully giving you more control over the game.
• Eventually they'll learn all the ambush spots in a map, but then you'll just have to get a little more creative.

• Opponents are most vulnerable when they respawn.
  • They give off distinct visual and audio cues that they're respawning and It takes a couple of moments to get oriented and take action.
  • When you hear the sound of a respawn it means they're nearby. If you don't immediately see them in your front 180 degrees of vision, execute a mouse-flick and look behind you.
  • Odds are, you will see the golden glow of fresh meat respawning into the game.
  • At this point, you have just a fraction of a second to put the beatdown on this person and make them respawn somewhere else.

• You have to listen for sounds. Sometimes with all the noise of weapons firing and people yelling back and forth,, it can be difficult, but stop every now and then or concentrate on the noises of the game and you will gain an appreciation for how much information you can collect simply by listening.
• Audio cues also alert you to how badly hurt YOU are. Some people turn off their HUDs to improve FPS and rely on the sounds to tell them when they need to find health. Even if you don't turn off your HUD, these cues allow you to focus on gunning down your buddy instead of constantly looking at your health. Likewise, learn the pain sounds of the people you play against most often. These will tell you how hurt they are.
• Just as audio cues can give you away, you can use audio cues to deceive your opponent.
  • Open doors but don't enter.
  • Launch a rocket down a corridor you have no intention of entering.
  • If there are 4 armor shards, pick up 2 of them (if there is another place with 2-3 shards).
  • Hop into the water then quickly get back out.
  • In Quake 2, you can step onto then off of an elevator to activate it.

• If I think someone might be coming around the same corner, you can surprise him or her with a rocket. Since they have no idea that you are around the corner, they probably won't have the opportunity to dodge out of the way.
• If someone is waiting to ambush you, the suppressive fire can cause him or her to break ambush early, thereby saving your skin. If the person simply happens to be coming down the same corridor, it could cause them to hold up and try to figure out where you are shooting from which buys a couple of moments to gain the advantage.
• Sometimes, I will also fire a rocket, plasma ball, or grenade down a corridor I have no intention of going down just to make a little covering noise and keep people guessing where I'm coming from.
• Naturally, the benefits of this should be weighed against the disadvantage of potentially giving your position away.

• Always keep your crosshairs centered on the corridor, door, or path that you intent to use.
• As you approach the opening, circle-strafe left or right so that your crosshairs stay on target, but your model is swinging around in alignment with the door.
• Once you're lined up the way you want and you're convinced the coast is clear, make your entry.
• This ensures that you are always ready to shoot if someone pops out of the entry.

• This is especially true in FFAs where you might have 4-8 people exchanging rocket fire back and forth across a courtyard. Why would you want to be in the middle of that? Stay on the periphery of these areas and shoot into and across the kill zone.
• By staying on the edges and keeping your back to the wall, you only have to keep track of your left, right, and front. If you're in the middle, you have to keep track of all 360 degrees.
• You become less of an easy target. People will typically shoot at the easiest kill. You just don't want 8 people to see you as the easiest kill.
• By staying back, you can also keep better track of what's going on thereby letting you play smarter with your ammunition and shots. Watch who is getting hurt and go for the easy kill (though be mindful of frag-napping - this really depends on the game and who you play with).

• Hugging walls makes you an easy target for splash-damage weapons. It's a lot easier for me to shoot and damage you if I can get cheap damage because my rockets can hit anywhere near you and catch you in the blast radius. Just like you would jump to minimize splash damage from a rocket aimed at your feet, maintain a little bit of space to minimize splash damage from rockets aimed at walls near you.
• Hugging walls reduces your mobility. No only is one direction completely blocked, but you're more likely to run into something and get hung up - not good when someone is getting you lined up in his or her sights.
• Sticking to a wall makes it a lot easier for someone to rail you. If I am near a wall and someone is coming down the same wall at me, it's much easier to line up my rail shot. All I have to do is shoot down the side of the wall and I have a pretty high probability of a hit.

• Stop moving. For some reason, a lot of people seem to keep pressing movement buttons once they get phone-jacked, as if that will miraculously fix the problem. The result? Quake remembers all of your keystrokes and tries to execute all of them when your connection goes live again - potentially making you move randomly and uncontrollably.
• You are better off stopping in place and waiting for your connection to come back. When it does come back, you won't be as disoriented as will be more prepared to take on whoever has show up since you were in limbo.
• At the same time, you should be thinking about where you want to go once you connection goes live again. You've been standing still, so expect that someone is coming after you. Get out of the area.

• Are you playing on new maps
  • How well do you know the maps?
  • Are you spending more time thinking about navigating the maps than you used to?
  • Are you playing on maps that you simply don't play well on? Personally, I do very poorly on space and very vertical maps.

• Have new players been introduced
  • Has the total number of players increased? In large FFAs, especially on small maps, this may put a lot of additional pressure on people who are used to having that extra moment to line up their shots
  • How good are the new players? How can you adjust your game style to compensate? What techniques do you need to work on?

• Are you playing on a new server?
  • The mod might be different or the way the mod is configured may be slightly different than you are used to. Has anything significant changed?
  • Is there new weapons or equipment being used?
  • How does the ping and lag compare with your regular server? Have you compensated yet?

• What else has changed?

References

• Official Quake II Strategies & Secrets
• Prima Guide to Quake III
• Planetquake Quake III Game Guide
• FM 90-10-1, An Infantryman's Guide to Urban Combat
• FM 21-75, Combat Skills of the Soldier

Contributors

• Ifurita (editor)
• Cottser
• D-Dogg
• Jedi Master
• M4TT5T3R
• SC0Re!PIO~*