Quake Tips Menu || Intro || Setup || Movement || Aiming || Combat || Attitude
Aiming 1. Sensitivity As mentioned in the Setup section, you can alter the sensitivity of the mouse so that your mouse movements correspond to faster or slower turns on screen. The faster you can turn, the more manoeuverability you'll have, but the harder it'll be to aim. When you have a low sensitivity it's easy to place your crosshair on the target precisely but if he's very mobile you won't be able to keep up and you'll also be restricted movement-wise. Many of the advanced trick jumps require a higher sensitivity to execute. You need to find a happy medium. The sensitivities I use are 6.55 in Quake 2 and 13.1 in Quake 3, this is with a Logitech USB Optical with middle sensitivity setting in WIndows. Incidentally, Quake 3's values are double those of Quake 2 for the same sensitivity. Unfortunately, the precise value for you depends on your mouse and other factors, so you will need to find your own. To change it, type the following: Quake 2: Type "sensitivity <value>" eg. "sensitivity 6.55" Until XS Reality disappeared off the net I was linking two articles here by Thorian. He came up with a sensible way of setting your sensitivity for any mouse. The idea was to find a fixed point and turn so that was at the periphery of your display on the left. You then make what feels a natural movement to move this fixed point to the right. Adjust your sensitivity until the fixed point lands on the right hand side of the screen. This takes into account your fov and in theory gives you a good feel for where the mouse will finish. I used it to set mine so give that a try. Another thing to consider is mouse acceleration which is set in Windows. There's also an in-game command in Quake 3, cl_mouseaccel "0.5". Some people play really well with acceleration on because, in theory at least, it gives you the best of both worlds with the speed of movement and the slowness when you need it for precise aiming. However, the arguments against it are that the rate of movement is not consistent and this unpredictability leads to mis-aiming. I've never used it with any success personally. CS^Jay has written a brief article discussing acceleration here, which is worth a read. I also strongly recommend his railing guide here. 2. USB/PS2 Mice As I also mentioned in the Setup section, USB mice have a higher sampling frequency than other mice, which means that they detect your movements more smoothly. This is obviously better for aiming. PS2 users need not despair, though, because you can download a program called PS2Rate, which will increase your frequency from the Windows default of 40Hz, right up to 200Hz. The URL can be found in the "Extra" section on the resources page. Btw, if you're not sure which you have - the USB has a thin rectangular connector, the PS2 has a circular one with 9 pins. If you're using a Serial mouse (wide connector with 15 holes) then, erm, sorry. :) 3. Leading/Prediction When aiming, make sure that you aim ahead of a player's position. You should be aiming at the point where the player will be when the shot hits. With a slower firing weapon like the rocket launcher this can mean aiming well ahead of a player, but you even need to do it with the railgun. The amount you lead depends on how good/poor your connection is. On a LAN you can aim directly at the opponent with the railgun. On a modem, you may need to lead as much as an inch in front of the opponent. You can see the effect of lag when you play. You'll hit the fire button but there's a noticeable delay before the weapon actually fires. It's this that you're compensating for by leading ahead. It perhaps isn't as vital in Quake 3 as it was in Quake 2 because in Q3 the client prediction is better so that the game is already anticipating where your opponent will be when your actions have an effect, so in theory you shouldn't need to lead very much at all! This is very complicated and I tend not to start thinking about the prediction aspect of the game because it gives me a headache. Are they where they appear to be? Is that where they were? Is that where they will be? Aaargh :). In Q3 the shotgun is slightly lagged so it's worth leading that. The rocket launcher, though faster, still needs leading to some degree, which obviously increases with distance. A weapon like the GL also needs some prediction unless you're just spamming pills randomly, in which case - carry on soldier! Generally speaking you need to learn to predict players' movements to improve your skills at this. In particular, aim at weapons or health packs, as this is probably the target player's destination. 4. Splash Damage When firing rockets (or the BFG), try to aim for players' feet. Otherwise, you risk shooting the rocket straight past them. At least if it's at their feet they'll get splash damage. In fact, it can also be useful to fire at walls or doorways near your opponent. You are far more likely to hit the wall or floor than the player so it's a good habit to get into. 5. Tripwire One advanced technique to master is the tripwire method - used by players like Immortal. Watch his demos and you'll see that he relies on the tripwire method more than placing the cursor bob on the target. The trick to this is making the enemy walk under your crosshair rather than having to aim directly at him. The skills needed are similar to leading above. You place your cursor ahead of the opponent and try to keep it fixed in place. You then TIME his crossing under the crosshair. This is easier than it sounds and much better than trying snap-shots that rarely hit. What most players do is aim roughly where the opponent is, making sure the crosshair is at least on a level vertically. Then strafe left and right (he'll be doing the same) and fire the instant you think he'll cross the crosshair. This is also very useful when you're faced with an opponent who keeps strafing. They keep changing direction so simply place your cursor in the middle of his path and wait for him to switch and cross under. On a modem you will have to have excellent timing skills to accomplish this. For example you might place the cursor in the middle and then fire when he appears to reach the edge of his strafe. By the time the weapon actually fires he'll be back in the middle. Practice, practice, practice :). 6. Strafe-Aiming When aiming at a distant enemy who's moving sideways on, it often helps to strafe in the same direction so that your crosshair is automatically moving ahead of his position, then you only need make a small adjustment for your lag and make your shot. In fact, strafe-aiming is important at all times because it keeps you on the move (so you're no sitting duck) and I find that it also keeps my crosshair and mouse more flexible and ready to aim at the next target because it never stays still. 7. Patience All players at some point make the mistake of trying to make slick snap shots like they're [MM]Scion or something. These kind of shots will rarely hit and only serve to reveal your location. The trick is to hold off, pause and make sure the shot will hit home. Just allowing a split second or so to actually aim the shot before firing will increase your accuracy immensely. 8. Config/Setup Tweaks Centralising your weapon makes aiming much easier. Tweak your mouse sensitivity as mentioned above. You need to experiment with this yourself. Field of Vision - I discussed this in the Awareness section. You have to experiment to find the best trade-off between aiming ease and all-round visibility. The higher you set your "fov", the more you'll see, but the more difficult distant targets will be to hit, and vice versa. In Quake 2 try using the "m_filter 1" command (In Quake 3 you type "/seta m_filter 1"). This smooths out your mouse movements and will certainly help if you're using an older mouse. I have it set to one even with my newer USB mouse.
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