Foreword: Mushi made me do this. (SCRAP THAT: HE FORCED ME TO DO THIS, HE HAS A SCARY KNIFE).
I suppose instead of making a thread just about "me" because I am nothing spectacular, I'm your bog-standard QuakeWorld player that you'll imagine only plays FFA and goes -30 in duel (Darn Volcano God!). So I'd like to open this thread to the beginners out there, tell us what you found difficult about QuakeWorld, why it was difficult and your main goals on how to break into QuakeWorld.
For example. Mushi made me wrote this (No, not at gun-point. The QW scene is too friendly for that).
Movement in Quakeworld and CPMA came to me quickly due to it's extreme similarity to Counter-Strikes movement (A or D strafing). But gameplay was and still is hard to get used to, timing items, learning to control the map and analyzing what your opponents are doing (If they're being passive and camping an area etc). Sometimes even when you know about gameplay mechanics such as these basics, you still forget to do them so practicing is important. In theory you could have the greatest aim but what's the point in having such great aim if you can't use it because you havent touched your mouse for six years? You'll be rusty and probably wont be able to compete at all if you're a player that relies on having great aim. And I'm saying that outside of my Quake experience. That being said; regular practice and understanding and acting on gameplay experience is important, but perhaps not as important as your settings.
They're personal, they should never leave you. I always hated the idea of playing on someone elses PC because they'll have a different mouse, a different keyboard and different settings of which could perhaps be the complete opposite of my own. It's just unnatural to be playing on foreign set-ups. Which is why I always make my own config suit how I want it to be, including the Heads up Display (HUD), by editing my hud's config as well as creating crosshairs that I find easy and attractive to use. Whenever I make a small change to my config that I prefer over the old settings, I instantly save my config by bringing down console and typing /cfg_save. But when it comes down to the physical stuff such as mice & monitors. I suppose you'll just have to make do.
And finally I feel as though Quakeworld, as a game, is hard to break into now then any other game due to how small the scene is. Whilst the game has one of the comfiest, caring and wonderful scenes where almost everyone does his part to help provide input into helping the game become better. I just can't imagine the game being good when the skill level is too high because of players who have been playing the game for years and have attended every QHLan event since the dawn of time (A bit of an exaggeration). I suppose the most important thing ever is to find people of whom are around your skill level that you can play against and have an actual good game against. Now whilst I believe that to improve at something, you have to play against the best and learn to beat them, but sometimes you just need a friend that you know very well and play with that friend, learning together and keening it. This is probably the hardest thing to do, because it's not just you who has to commit but also the other person. Only recently have I actually managed to find people such as this, such as a Quake Live player that I taught a bit of QuakeWorld to called NukeProof, and a CPMA player that I know called HellTiger.
Edit: He also made me add a conclusion too!
So all in all, I find it important to kind of stay on top of what you want to become in the game (In my case, it's to enjoy the game and gradually get better at it whilst still enjoying myself). You can't call QuakeWorld a great game until you've seen every aspect of it. The good and the bad. To help me propel myself towards that point in my game-life, I always held these things valuable to me: Settings, friends, practice and knowledge. If you can actually load up the game and play it then that's a start, but theres no point in playing a game that no-one plays, fortunately QuakeWorld is a game that has a scene, it has players. Even if they're nocturnal half-men half-demons that still rock it out on Windows 98 and use a trackball-mouse with no middle mouse button that will click on your head with their LG before you even loaded up the map, at least they keep practice - putting themselves in the shape that they want to be in. If you can practice then so can you, always practice to be better. Practice will help you understand the game. Be wide open and be ready to embrace a whole lot of knowledge.
I suppose instead of making a thread just about "me" because I am nothing spectacular, I'm your bog-standard QuakeWorld player that you'll imagine only plays FFA and goes -30 in duel (Darn Volcano God!). So I'd like to open this thread to the beginners out there, tell us what you found difficult about QuakeWorld, why it was difficult and your main goals on how to break into QuakeWorld.
For example. Mushi made me wrote this (No, not at gun-point. The QW scene is too friendly for that).
Movement in Quakeworld and CPMA came to me quickly due to it's extreme similarity to Counter-Strikes movement (A or D strafing). But gameplay was and still is hard to get used to, timing items, learning to control the map and analyzing what your opponents are doing (If they're being passive and camping an area etc). Sometimes even when you know about gameplay mechanics such as these basics, you still forget to do them so practicing is important. In theory you could have the greatest aim but what's the point in having such great aim if you can't use it because you havent touched your mouse for six years? You'll be rusty and probably wont be able to compete at all if you're a player that relies on having great aim. And I'm saying that outside of my Quake experience. That being said; regular practice and understanding and acting on gameplay experience is important, but perhaps not as important as your settings.
They're personal, they should never leave you. I always hated the idea of playing on someone elses PC because they'll have a different mouse, a different keyboard and different settings of which could perhaps be the complete opposite of my own. It's just unnatural to be playing on foreign set-ups. Which is why I always make my own config suit how I want it to be, including the Heads up Display (HUD), by editing my hud's config as well as creating crosshairs that I find easy and attractive to use. Whenever I make a small change to my config that I prefer over the old settings, I instantly save my config by bringing down console and typing /cfg_save. But when it comes down to the physical stuff such as mice & monitors. I suppose you'll just have to make do.
And finally I feel as though Quakeworld, as a game, is hard to break into now then any other game due to how small the scene is. Whilst the game has one of the comfiest, caring and wonderful scenes where almost everyone does his part to help provide input into helping the game become better. I just can't imagine the game being good when the skill level is too high because of players who have been playing the game for years and have attended every QHLan event since the dawn of time (A bit of an exaggeration). I suppose the most important thing ever is to find people of whom are around your skill level that you can play against and have an actual good game against. Now whilst I believe that to improve at something, you have to play against the best and learn to beat them, but sometimes you just need a friend that you know very well and play with that friend, learning together and keening it. This is probably the hardest thing to do, because it's not just you who has to commit but also the other person. Only recently have I actually managed to find people such as this, such as a Quake Live player that I taught a bit of QuakeWorld to called NukeProof, and a CPMA player that I know called HellTiger.
Edit: He also made me add a conclusion too!
So all in all, I find it important to kind of stay on top of what you want to become in the game (In my case, it's to enjoy the game and gradually get better at it whilst still enjoying myself). You can't call QuakeWorld a great game until you've seen every aspect of it. The good and the bad. To help me propel myself towards that point in my game-life, I always held these things valuable to me: Settings, friends, practice and knowledge. If you can actually load up the game and play it then that's a start, but theres no point in playing a game that no-one plays, fortunately QuakeWorld is a game that has a scene, it has players. Even if they're nocturnal half-men half-demons that still rock it out on Windows 98 and use a trackball-mouse with no middle mouse button that will click on your head with their LG before you even loaded up the map, at least they keep practice - putting themselves in the shape that they want to be in. If you can practice then so can you, always practice to be better. Practice will help you understand the game. Be wide open and be ready to embrace a whole lot of knowledge.