Moving from basic to advanced play

Chickenbomb

Chickenbomb

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Joined
Nov 12, 2012
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326
I've been playing this game since it came out and I feel like I've hit a wall skill wise.

I know every unit and building, along with the hotkeys and I make a passable commander, but I can't seem to aim or bite with any amount of consistency... unless missing 90% of the time counts.

I understand that K/D ratio isn't as important in a game like this, but I still feel like having a negative ration makes people less inclined to listen to my opinions or advice.

Anyone here have any advice on how to improve my aim as either marine or skulk? Or should I just stick to gorge/commanding?
 
If it's aim I know in the BF series many players switched to single shot to improve accuracy. Getting the hang of single shooting multiple times in a row while moving your mouse is the difficult part and takes practice. Lot's of practice. Not sure if the same would apply to NS2.
 
As far as alien melee play is concerned, you need to train yourself to never left click unless the enemy is directly in the center of your screen. Most rookie players just hold down their left click while dancing around the enemy, and all that happens is they either miss or get glancing hits. You need to be cold and calculated, and never bite/slash unless you're positive its a full hit. Once you become adept at this and it happens subconsciously, the next step is to learn how to move. Never stand still, always sneak when you are near the enemy until you enter combat, and try to jump off of walls whenever possible while side strafing to make yourself a hard target. My flow for melee combat goes like this: Jump -> Full Damage Bite -> Land -> Pivot -> Repeat. If you're fighting more than one marine, hide behind a corner in between kills and let them empty their rifles, then rip em apart while they're reloading. Fade play is almost identical to skulk except you have some highpowered mobility so you don't need to hop around (therefore improving your melee accuracy), so use it to get in, kill, get out, and repeat. Onos are impossible to miss with so they are straightforward.

Marine aiming is a balance between twitch shooting and ammo conservation. You need a high sensitivity and deadly accuracy, no way to attain the accuracy without hours of practice. After you have that down you actually have to learn how to hit a moving target, and that involves even more rigorous practice learning their movement patterns and anticipating where you need to be shooting. If your enemy is moving and you are spending too much time getting a bead on them then your shot will miss because they are already at their next position. If you absolutely hit a wall with accuracy for whatever reason, then become a guerrilla fighter, keep your flash light off, stay silent, and set up kill zones around corners you expect the enemy to run past, you can usually take out 2-3 before they know what hit them, then move along because your position is blown.
 
0 ping doesnt help if u cant aim u can just watch urself die in time with the server rather than 75ms later :-P... But seriously im not the best shooter but ive found after 100 hours or so its been improving ive been working on controlled burat firing as a marine and its helping my control and accuracy in fights and my newest strategy for alien is aim for the balls its really helping me to not over bite and just land glancing hits
 
I still bite your ass off Drops :D, Crunch Crunch Crunch :D
 
Haha :D, you liked that marine strat i tried, i was so happy it worked :D, you guys had weapon 0 armor 0 most of early game, the turrets and arcs did the work.
 
Chicken,

Not to say im amazing at shooting, actually im a much better skulk then marine. But... The patients you take when shooting a skulk really matters, Look one step ahead of them all the time, find a spot where they are going to turn or give you an extra second to shoot. Thats when you burst fire, just take your time, Quick bursts at the right moment kill them. If you empty your clip its over.

*as skulk if i hear a marine empty his click, i stop dodging/biting and go straight to biting (we all know its over then)

Pause every 2 or 3 shots and establish your aim in front of the dam bouncing yellow death machine and fire again.

I find jumping helps A TON, you can jump over bites alot better in NS2 then in NS1 :D.

If you force yourself to slow down, and aim with your mouse and not wasd , quick controlled burst, eventually you will find your accuracy goes up, and your killing more.
 
Ido love ur marine strats im all about arc play... Much less work fo me... Standing around protecting arcs and turrets is my specialty im the king of the welder
 
I'm pretty average at shooting and skulking when actually good players are around :-P, but all I can tell you is becoming better just comes with experience.

You don't even have to shoot that well to be decent. You just need to spam "hot spots" and learn the ways skulks move on marine side. There's only so many things that a skulk can do to surprise you. They can wall-jump, leap, jump, and strafe. While a good player makes those reasonably unpredictable, you can still learn a few trajectories from experience, and when you get the timing right you can even start prefiring around corners based on predictions from what was seen on the map.

It helps to also learn how to switch to your pistol after depleting your AR mag. The pistol does reduced damage with armor, but huge damage without armor, and usually a skulk's armor will be down after you've finished your AR mag (unless you failed hard lol), so usually all you need to do is land 1-2 pistol shots to finish him off. Switching to pistol is much faster than reloading the AR, and is easily the difference between life and death in the split seconds of a fight.

Of course, learning to time jumps is extremely beneficial too, in the unfortunate situation when the skulk is next to you - and it helps your teammates see/shoot him better.

Generally you should also try to maximize the distance between you and the skulk. Unfortunately when marines are in a losing position, you HAVE to push, and that's when it gets ugly because you can then be ambushed :-) . Of course, try to always check the ceilings and corners when you go through a door.

1v1 is sometimes unavoidable, but it's not the ideal situation. You should usually if not always have at least 2v2; then you can do some things like learn how to put space between you and the other person, so you're not far enough that you can't see each other, but also so when you get attacked, you're not both huddled together. If you get it right, usually it's a matter of spamming around the other person's feet as he's jumping around :-D .

When you get jetpacks, it should be much easier, because you can kite everything - the backward movement is no longer restricted, so when a skulk is running at you just fly backwards as you shoot him. Same with fades, lerks, oni, etc. You just have to know the maps so you don't run into a wall.

Um, that's about everything I can think of right now I guess.

P.S. Oh yeah, as in any game, getting at least 45 FPS helps a lot. It's pretty hard to accomplish that in NS2; that's why people with better PCs generally do better...
 
I'm not pretending I'm any good but whenever I play as marine I find the most important factor in the battles I win are the distances that the skulk has to travel to reach me, I would saw awareness of where the enemy is and preemptive good positioning can give you a superior advantage and help you win most of your fights, even if your aim isn't that great, try to battle the twitchy "aimbot" players with some cunning and tactics (most of them rely on their wrists and not their brains).
 
Wow, thanks for all the tips. I'll keep all this mind as I play. Wanna get better, as I see myself usually scoring the lowest when we play together. Maybe I'll just keep to comming, since I'm Asian and all....
 
Use your pistol at long range to start or when surprising a skulk (ie) on an extractor). You'll more then likely kill it in a clip before it knows what's up.
Burst fire with your LMG.
Weilding your AXE makes your movement quicker.
Marines cover their buddies vs themselves when being attacked by multiple skulks (one on each marine). Distance makes it easier to hit vs your feet.

Close unneeded programs and services while playing. I use "Game Booster" (sometimes, cuz I run at 90fps even with other stuff runnning. SO its for scrimming/comp play).
 
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