Talk:Quake III Arena/Techniques

Techniques

Quake III Arena is a game that requires many skills to play well. The game physics allow players to make some trick jumps .

Main techniques

Aiming

• Leading - in an unmodified game of Quake 3 you aim by 'leading' your opponents, that is aiming ahead of them in the direction of their movement, with the lead distance dependent on your ping time to the server.
• Flick - quickly moving the crosshair onto a target and firing, usually the turn will be a large one, often to a target that is not in view at the beginning of the movement or has taken the player by surprise. The crosshair will generally only briefly pass over the target rather than attempt to track.
• Tripwire - the player will place the crosshair at an angle they think their enemy will appear or will move to and fire when the opponent crosses it with little or no mouse movement immediately before firing.
• Drag tripwire - similar to the tripwire technique but used mainly on a visible opponent, the player will place the crosshair at a height that will cross the opponent and use movement keys to draw it across the opponent, firing when it crosses them. This method minimizes the need for mouse movement to make aiming easier.
• Tracking aim - placing the crosshair on an opponent and keeping it over them with a continuously firing weapon.
• Spam - firing area effect weapons repeatedly without making an effort to aim individual shots.
• Prediction - a player shoots at a location before they see the opponent, unlike spam a prediction shot is carefully judged.

Basic Movement

You can run, walk, crouch, swim, jump and strafe. Walking is useful as you make no noise, allowing you to sneak up on an opponent. Crouching also makes no noise when moving in exchange for decreased speed.

Advanced movement

Strafe-jumping

Accelerates a player to high speeds if used correctly by combining turning with a movement key or keys in the right direction while jumping. Although strafe jumping is a technique that is difficult to master, it is very effective and is a necessity at intermediate and higher levels of competition. Strafe-jumping defines the gameplay of Quake 3 and sets it apart from most first person titles by linking player skill to movement speed. This adds to the depth of all gametypes and is a major part of Quake 3's enduring appeal to players.

Dodging

The movements used to avoid getting shot are extremely sophisticated and bear an uncanny resemblance to the movements used in sports to wrong-foot an opponent. They are analogue (movements can be larger or smaller) due to the dependence on player skill in utilising ground acceleration, the same acceleration effect as strafe-jumping to move faster, for comparison Unreal Tournament's dodging is based on the digital value dodge move (you will always dodge at the same speed). The need to use circle motions to dodge well creates a skillful tension between the needs of movement and aim. This is used to create patterns of expected movement, combinations of left, right or stay still, which are broken at critical moments to make the opponent miss.

Weapon jumping

Weapon jumping combines a jump with the knock-back effect of a splash damage weapon to jump higher or move faster than would normally be possible. This can be done with rockets, grenades, the plasma gun and the BFG. See Rocket jumping and Plasma climbing.

Item control

The art of taking items that make you more powerful or that your opponent needs, this is important in any item-based mode but is most important in duel games between two players where even a player with weaker aim than their opponent can win with this method. Any item in the level can be controlled, that is taken every time it spawns, with the most important items being armour and the mega health. The major player movement routes are usually determined by paths between these items, often known as 'armour running'. A player with complete control over the major items has a 'level-lock'.