|
Quake 3 Hook Tutorial
Written by Grish
www.grish.6x.to
1. Introduction
1. Offhand Hook
2. Better Connection and Fov
3. Cluster Grenade
4. Rocket Turret
2. Game without enemy
1. First Steps (Hook training)
2. The Gatherer (Health, Armor & Ammo)
3. The Sounds of Quake (Headphones)
4. The Hunter (Go get him!)
5. Hook Control (Advanced techniques)
3. Game with enemy
1. Eye contact (Do the aimbot!)
2. Where does speed come from? (Save yourself!)
3. Tactical Op's (Never follow!)
4. Right weapon to the right time (Weapon switching)
5. Hook & Shoot (Advanced techniques)
4. Game with multiple enemies
1. Chaining (2-3 enemies)
2. How to dodge The Bullets, baby! (Full server)
3. Where to shoot (Focus!)
5. Accuracy
1. Rail
2. NoHook
3. Practice, practice, practice
6. For the PROs
1. Motivation
2. How to stay in a good shape
3. Switching styles
4. Know the enemy
5. Fool the enemy (Advanced 1vs1 strategy)
7. Appendix
1. List of Rules: Dos and Don'ts
2. List of Servers: Rule 'em all!
3. The difference between servers
4. ZZZ's and CFG's
1. Introduction
1. Offhand Hook
Quake 3 with (fast) hook is one of the FASTEST video games ever.
Hook is like a spiderman rope. You can shoot it on a wall and
it drags you towards it. It looks like the lightning gun on
most mods, but it's not a weapon. You can bind it to any key
on your keyboard or even your mousebutton.
But first you need to go to the CONSOLE. You get there by
pressing the key UNDER the "ESC-key" to the LEFT of the
"1-key". Your screen is now SPLIT: on the top half you see the
console, on the bottom you see whats goin' on in the game.
To get the hook workin' you need to type:
/bind [any_key] +button5
Replace [any_key] by a key of your choice, for example:
/bind mouse2 +button5
or
/bind SHIFT +button5
or
/bind e +button5
OK, once you have done this you can return to game by pressing
the console key again. Enjoy hook!
If you still dont know how to install the offhand hook, visit the Offhand Hook Tutorial Website: www.q3hook.6x.to.
Its translated into 19 languages at the moment.
2. Connection & FOV
You have already learned how to get to the console, now you can
also try a few other cmds. These are ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY (you
will get a BETTER PING):
/snaps 30
/rate 25000
Or try this one (you get to see more of the quake environment):
/cg_fov 120
(default is 90)
3. Clustergrenade
To bind your remote button for the clustergrenade open your console (the console button is under the 'esc' button) and type "/bind x +bang" to bind the remote button on button 'x', but you can choose any other key "/bind {key} +bang".
The Cgrenade can be destroyed by all weapons that have splashdamage (e.g. Rocketlauncher, Plasmagun, BFG).
4. Rocket Turret
The turret is an unmovable rocket station marked with a flag. It will shoot automatic rockets on the enemy.
The score belongs to the player who spawned the turret.
It takes damage by explosions. The turret can be destroyed by all weapons.
2. Game without enemy
The first part is supposed to set the groundwork of this
tutorial. As of yet, combat strategies are neglected.
2.1 First steps (Hook training)
After you tried hook yourself you can now begin to use hook
professionally. The BIGGEST MISTAKE beginners make is to use
too long hooks. If you hook a long way other players can
actually see where you are going and shoot you right from the
spot.
The big thing about Q3 HOOK is to use hook to SAVE your LIFE.
When you use LONG HOOKS you RISK YOUR LIFE, it's simply dumb.
So USE ONLY SHORT HOOKS, which is much faster and harder for
your enemies to get ya.
You need to learn a few things as a beginner. Firstly, DON'T
hang on the walls! Camping is a NOOB style of game, and it's
very EASY TO FRAG you from the wall. Especially with weapons
that have splash damage.
Secondly, when you hook somewhere on the wall you need to TURN
ARROUND quickly so you don't face the wall. Practice that a lot
as a beginner! Try it on q3dm1! Hook on one of the statues and
turn arround. Then hook to the other statue. Try to do that as
fast as you can.
After all, DON'T hook too fast in the beginning! If you see
professional players hooking as fast as shit, DON'T imitate it!
You can do that later, when you get better. Try learning to HOOK
very ACCURATE at first!
2.2 The Gatherer (Health, Armor & Ammo)
Hook is also a strong tool to reach places in the map which are
far away from you. BUT you still have to use short hooks. Try
to use a lot of short hooks instead of 1 long hook to fly
through the map.
With hook you can be anywhere in the map in a few seconds. Use
this to COLLECT Health, Armor & Ammo. If you collect it all you
will get a BIG ADVANTAGE in game because you get stronger and
your enemy gets weaker. Why? Because you steal everything and
he can't take any if he really needs it.
When you have your Health & Armor full you can take more hits.
They will be shootin' ya, but you just won't die. Kill 'em and
survive, then go and collect new Health & Armor. And if you
survive a long time in game, you will probably run out of ammo.
So make sure that you always pick up the weapon your enemy
drops when you kill him.
The best way to collect a lot of health and armor is to know
the best route through the map. Try to find all health and
armor in a map and then think about how to collect it all in a
short and fast way.
2.3 The Sounds of Quake (Headphones)
Listening to where the enemy hooks, runs and picks up
collectables is essential in Q3. According to ZEXX, HEADPHONES
ARE 50% OF THE GAME. In fast hook situations you often can't
see anything (cos it's just too fast). USE THE SOUNDS you hear
so you don't get confused and SHOOT WHERE YOU HEAR THE ENEMY
HOOKING.
To train your headphone skills, try to make no sounds yourself.
In other words walk without sound (SHIFT by default) or crouch
and don't use hook too much. Listen to the sounds of quake and
try to figure out which door your enemy will burst out from.
In some servers you can also rail through walls; a big part of
successfully railing through walls is listening.
If you like to listen to music during play, I suggest you to
turn the volume down a lil so you can still hear the sounds of
quake.
2.4 The Hunter (Go get him!)
Once you know how to succesfully use the sounds and to fly
through the map in mega speed, try to focus on FINDING VICTIMS
TO FRAG as fast as you can.
Sometimes you respawn on places that are empty. All you can do
is pick up some collectables. But what you really want to do is
to frag people. So use the hook and the sounds (and your
MEMORY, cos you probably know WHO fragged you and WHERE) to get
to a place with some victims to kill.
2.5 Hook control (Advanced Techniques)
It is very important that you DON'T hook at random places
otherwise you might get stuck. The right hooks you can only
find by experience (playing & spectating), but also try to
THINK about it; you need to evaluate a feeling for the map.
Use the map the best you can. Anyway, I'd like to explain to
you two nice techniques:
Sling Shot
The Sling shot is probably the best way to hook (except you
play a rail monster on a rail map). It works like that: Hook
somewhere and LET GO off the hook BEFORE you get pulled the
complete way. When you do it correctly you will be FLYING
through the air.
You can do it in every map, but to train it I suggest you
q3dm17. Just hook on the edges of the platforms and then fly.
After that you can try to sling shot on walls in all maps.
Hook Jump
I guess you know what the Rocket Jump is: a shot on the ground
and a jump at the right time and you jump much higher than with
normal jump.
Hook Jump is similar to this. But you don't jump high with
this, you jump VERY FAST and VERY FAR. Just do this: HOOK on the
GROUND a little bit AHEAD OF YOU and right after that JUMP and
LET GO off the hook (like with the sling shot).
Hook Jump is a nice way to enter a room because the other
players won't even notice you coming in: you are too fast.
It can also be used for HOOK SLIDES. An introduction to hook
slides can be found on my website in the "piece of art" demo.
The good thing about sling shot and hook jump is that you
don't give yourself away with the hook. with normal hooks
everyone can see your hook and shoot you. but when you don't
complete the hook and let go before you are pulled to the end
it is more irritating]
Some more advanced techniques that also involve other players
will be explained later.
3. Game with enemy
Of course the gameplay changes drastically when you run into
an enemy. This part deals with the basics of 1vs1 games (which
is also basic knowledge for games with multiple enemies).
3.1 Eye contact (Do the aimbot!)
Maybe you have already spectated an aimbot. What does an aimbot
do? An aimbot keeps the enemy in his crosshair no matter what
happens. Try to do that as well. It's very hard and of course
nobody can do it as perfect as an aimbot, but it's very
important that you try to shoot your enemy in every situation.
No matter what happens, you always need to know where your
enemy is (use the sounds!) and keep eye contact. Try to get a
"feeling for the space and the enemy" (as SNOOP says).
3.2 Where does speed come from? (Save yourself!)
In the first steps I told you not to hook too fast... NOW we're
going to get FAST. A lot of noob hook players just keep
pressing their hook button and hook like they are crazy. That's
NOT what we want. You DON'T have to use hook that much
actually.
If you hook fast it's good for your defence. But you also want
to be an aggressive fragger (see above chapter). How do we
combine these two things?
Well, if you spect an experienced player you might notice that
from his perspective it doesn't look that fast. It looks
relaxed and accurate.
The secret is to do the aimbot (like explained above), relax and
aim. THEN, when you shot one or two times, hook away to save
yourself IMMEDIATELY AFTER YOUR LAST SHOT!
Q3 is a "fire & forget" game. This means when you have fired your
rocket, stop thinking about it and focus on your defence!
Only stand still while aiming!
Also, the place where you hook to be safe should be not too easy
to turn to for your enemy. Maybe you don't hook just once, but
two or three times to irritate the enemy a little bit. When he
is also hooking he might get easily confused.
Then, turn to your enemy as fast as you can and start shooting
again before you start saving yourself again. All of this
happens in only a second, this game is about reaction time!
It is a lil bit like an F1 race. Although the cars are speeding
like hell on the straight sectors, they still have to slow down
when they are taking curves. So, SLOW DOWN to aim and then
INSTANTLY INCREASE your speed to save yourself!
It takes A LOT OF EXPERIENCE to know how long you can stay in
the same place without getting hit and it depends from enemy to
enemy.
3.3 Tactical Op's (Never follow!)
This is a lesson SNOOP and I learned by FLUFFY{PnP}, on old
PnP Death Hook server:
There are two possible situations in general Q3 games. Either
you are in the same room as your enemy, or you are not. If you
are aware of this you can play with these situations to get an
advantage in the game.
Let's say you are in a battle situation and suddenly your
enemy hooks out of the room, maybe after you have hit him. Most
players (NOOBs) would go right after him, because he could try
to find some health or armor, right?
BUT if you go after him, you might find yourself in a TRAP.
Your ENEMY HAS MULTIPLE OPTIONS to find a position to frag you.
When you enter the room, he could be ABOVE THE DOOR or BEHIND
A STATUE or maybe even in the NEXT ROOM trying to hook through
the whole map in a circle to come from BEHIND YOU!
The message is: DON'T follow your enemy, when he runs away!
What you CAN do:
- Go the other way (IF there is another way)
- Follow him, BUT without hook and without making sounds and
BE AWARE that it could be a TRAP
- Stay in the room, collect health & armor
- Stay in the room, set up your own trap
- If railing through walls is possible, try it!
So next time, when you are in a battle situation think about
this chapter.
Try to run and set a trap, or be aware if your
enemy runs away.
3.4 Right weapon to the right time (Weapon switching)
I first saw the weapon switching used to gain advantages when
I played VS MISZAG[XP]. He was using rockets most of the time
but in some situations he switched to grenades which led to my
death.. However, if you wanna see the weapon switching
performed perfectly I suggest you watch GOTASSJUICE on
GOTASSHOOK server.
What's most important is that you switch to the RIGHT WEAPON TO
THE RIGHT TIME. Rocket launcher is an allround weapon, so if you
are not sure what do to, you should just switch to rocktets.
If you have good accuracy you can also take railgun as your
standard weapon.
If your enemy is flying in the air a lot, making use of sling
shots, you should switch to rail gun. If he is on the ground a
lot or hanging on the walls you should use a weapon with splash
damage like rockets (or bfg).
When you are close to your enemy and he is not hanging on the
walls, use shotgun. If the server supports usual grenades
without specials, use these when you and your enemy are in
seperate rooms with a door in between.
If you can get rewards when you kill with specific weapons and
you already have hurt your enemy, use one of these weapons!
Anyway, you need to learn when to use which weapon by trying
it out in different situations. But DON'T switch your weapon
too often when this confuses yourself.
3.5 Hook & Shoot (Advanced techniques)
Although your main technique should be "shooting as long as
you are safe, then hook away" (II.2), there are some techniques
that can be very effective. Here are three of them:
XP Style
I call this XP style, because in the old days most XP players
used this kind of offence. They used hook to get close to the
enemy and shot at the same time.
Hook ON your enemy and FIRE at the SAME TIME. You have to learn
when exactly to shoot, so you don't hurt yourself (this also
depends on server settings!). Usually you fire a lil bit later
than you hook, because your hook doesn't have to be 100%
accurate. But when you shoot, be as accurate as you can! When
you shoot a few msecs after you hook, it is often more accurate.
ADVANTAGES: You don't lose track of your enemy and your
accuracy is high, because hook & shot focus on the same place.
Also it's a good defence against other players because you are
always moving.
DISADVANTAGES: You can easily hurt yourself and your
enemy can spot you easily. If he stays in the same place until
he sees you, he just needs to shoot straight in front of him to
hurt you. This attack is USELESS against PRO RAILERS.
It is not always a good defence against other enemies, because
when another player aims at the same victim, he might kill you
instead of your victim, or even both!
All in all you should only use this kind of attack when your
victim is not far away, in front of (or hanging on) a wall (to
make use of splash damage) and not looking in your direction.
Baracuda Style
This is a variation of the XP style which I saw for the first
time while spectating BARACUDA[XP].
You start similar to XP style: Hook ON your enemy, shoot at the
same time, but then, BEFORE you get drawn all the way to your
enemy, turn left (or right) while using one or more side-hooks.
So your shot is going straight ahead, but you are going in a
curve.
You can then turn arround (maybe hanging on the wall) to find
your enemy and start hooking & shooting again.
ADVANTAGES: You can use this also when your enemy is a
lil bit far away, your first hook can even be long, because you
will use one or two other hooks (which should be short).
This technique is a nice combination of the usual XP style and
the "Safe Yourself!"-technique (II.2).
DISADVANTAGES: You lose track of your enemy during hooking and
turning arround. When you ONLY use THIS technique, your enemy
might notice it and find a way to use it against you.
Your hooking causes attention to other players who can frag you
easily when you stop hooking.
I think this is a good technique that you can make use of from
time to time in all maps except space maps. It works very well
against crazy speed-hookers, because you can use their hook
sounds to locate them after you have used this technique.
Reverse-Baracuda Style
Here you use a side-hook before you start shooting. Hook on a
wall/floor/ceiling in the direction of your enemy, somewhere he
is not looking at. THEN use normal XP style, or simple shot.
It is important that all this happens in ONE MOVEMENT, maybe
you do not even complete the side hook before you use the XP
technique. Like ronaldinho in football, you make him think you
go right, but you don't - all in one move!
ADVANTAGES: Good defence and you do not lose track of your enemy.
The advance is you KNOW where you are hooking, so you can
IMAGINE where you have to aim, before your side-hook is
complete. But your enemy has to watch where you go and then turn
to you.
DISADVANTAGES: When your enemy makes use of hook during this
technique you WILL lose track. Your shot is not as accurate as
normal XP style, because after your first side-hook, you need to
aim again.
When your enemy stays in his position it is a very effective
technique. You cannot use it against players that hook too much,
because they will be gone after your side-hook and the
advantage that you can imagine their position is not available
anymore.
4. Game with multiple enemies
In the Hook & Shoot chapter I already mentioned some things to
be aware of when facing multiple enemies. In this part I will
explain some useful techniques for crowded games.
4.1 Chaining (2-3 enemies)
When you are in a situation with only a few enemies, you can try
to remember all positions of all enemies. This is important to
use the chaining-technique. Let's say there are only two
enemies. When they are shooting each other, you can stay in a
position where they both cannot frag you, but you can frag them.
THIS is the SITUATION that YOU WANT.
The reason why I call this chaining is that in games with a few
enemies there are often scenarios like that:
Player A shoots at player B, who shoots at player C, who shoots
at player D, etc..
So it is a CHAIN OF PLAYERS shooting at each other.
In games with only a few players you need to MAKE SURE that YOU
ARE at the END of the chain and NOT in the middle. In other
words: everyone is shooting at (and getting shot by) another
player except you. You only shoot at a player but do not get
shot at. Get it?
So in order to use chaining and always to be at the end of the
chain you need to know the positions of all other players in the
map, so that nobody can surprise you from behind.
This is a good defence strategy but only possible against a
small amount of enemies.
4.2 How to dodge The Bullets, baby! (Full server)
When there are more enemies you cannot remember all positions.
So you need another strategy in order to survive a massacre.
Let's analyze a situation where a lot of players are in a room,
all hooking and shooting.
Everything is happening very fast and noone has time to think.
In this situation it is all about reflexes and instincts.
One instinct of human beeings is that they tend to pay their
attention to things that are moving.
So if you move (= hook) too much it is more likely that one of
your enemies pays attention to (= frags) you. The same happens
when you use only a few but too long hooks (which was the first
thing I mentioned in this tutorial).
What happens when you do NOT hook at all (camping)?
At first you have time to aim, but when you stay in the same
position all the time, it is very likely that one of the other
players notices you and then you get killed easily, because as
a Q3 player he has the reflex to frag you as fast as possible.
So now you know what NOT to do, what CAN you do?
The key is to find a combination of hooking a lot and not
hooking at all. When you are in a good shape and maybe in a FLOW
it is LIKE CAMPING, but IN FACT you are moving VERY FAST.
You need to try to dodge the bullets with SHORT SIDE-HOOKS, only
some SMALL MOVEMENTS to the RIGHT TIME, like Muhammad Ali. Then
turn, aim and shoot, but RIGHT AFTER your last shot: side-hook
again. Only take time aiming, after your shot: don't lose time!
And DO NOT FORGET that this game has 3 DIMENSIONS: You can go
right-left, up-down or back-forth.
Maybe you already played on rail servers. Defence is similar
there. Everybody goes right-left-right-left so it is hard to get
them. Find a way to "translate" this defence to hook servers!
4.3 Where to shoot (Focus!)
When I was in a full server hook game for the first time I was
overwhelmed by the situation. Everybody was hooking so fast and
shooting! I could not see what was going on because it was just
too much happening at the same time. I just did not know WHERE
TO SHOOT.
The key is to FOCUS ONLY ON ONE TARGET, especially when you are
not using rail. This TARGET can be A PLACE in the map or A
PLAYER. For NOOBS it might be easier to find out which place in
the map most players hook and then always shoot there to get
some frags.
Of course it is more effective to concentrate on a player. When
you get in the room, PICK A PLAYER and SHOOT. When he hooks
away, KEEP TRACK of him! You see where he is hooking, aim THERE!
Do NOT focus on a second player, ESPECIALLY when you already
have caused the first target some damage!
Of course this doesn't concern you when you are using rail and
MAYBE SOMETIMES it can be useful to switch to an easier target,
BUT you will LOSE CONTROL of the situation if you do it. Anyway,
everything happens very fast, you will have no time to make
those kind of decisions. Use your intuition!
ANOTHER WAY is to wait until you see a (medium or long) hook and
shoot there. This is useful when you hook a lot, or used the
baracuda technique. But it is useless when your enemies use
sling shots and short hooks.
5. Accuracy
One of the biggest secrets of becoming a pro is to get a killer
accuracy. So I decided to include a part that exclusively deals
with accuracy.
5.1 Rail
The best way to gain more accuracy is to play on rail servers.
Maybe you like servers with fast rail, like on most hook
servers. Then you must NOT shoot too fast! Get your enemy in
your crosshair, THEN shoot. Do NOT shoot all the time! You want
to build up accuracy!
When you are good on rail servers, try hook & rail servers.
There you learn to be accurate AND use hook to safe yourself,
plus you learn to be accurate with players flying all over the
map pretty fast.
When you play on rail servers with no unlag-mod and you have a
high ping it is good training for rocket or bfg accuracy.
When you are good enough in hooking and railing at the same
time go to normal hook servers and play only with rail!
It is different from hook & rail servers, because your enemies
use a different defence.
5.2 NoHook
Another good way to build up more accuracy is to play without
hook...on HOOK SERVERS!! When you do not use hook you need to
focus on your OFFENCE, on KILLING other players.
Watch the other players and especially their hook, try to find
out where they WILL BE in the next second and shoot THERE.
Of course you will get killed more easily, but your accuracy
gets better! It is GOOD training.
Also, when playing without hook, you might notice some
situations where it would have been better to use JUST ONE
LITTLE HOOK to get away before you got killed. That is exactly
what was described in 2.2.
By NOT using hook you can learn how long you can stand still
without getting hit.
5.3 Practice, practice, practice
Of course the only way to get more accuracy is to keep
practicing. This means when you are playing, don't shoot when
you don't have a target. When you just shoot everywhere hoping
that one of your shots will be a hit you will NOT get better!
Always look for your enemy and only shoot when you are sure.
It is normal that you will get killed a lot and lose a lot in
the beginning. Don't get disappointed by that! You have to play
against better players to get better!
If you follow this guide and never give up you will notice that
you are getting better!
6. For the PROs
Hence this tutorial should be of use for all kinds of players I
decided to include a part that is adressed to experienced
players. Maybe you find some points that you didn't think of
yourself yet...
6.1 Motivation
This is maybe the MOST IMPORTANT PART of this tutorial. A lot
of games are lost because of this. Imagine two players that are
equal in terms of reflex, accuracy, speed and strategy. In a
1vs1 game, who do you think would win?
Of course the player that had a BETTER DAY!
If YOU are HIGHLY MOTIVATED and ABSOLUTELY HAPPY you can win
against a better player, IF only HE has had a BAD FURSTRATING
DAY. So your mental strength plays a BIG ROLE!
When you are up against a player that you never have beaten, you
might probably think "Omg, I can never beat him, so why should I
even try?", but THAT's the way you will LOSE FOR SURE.
Maybe when the game starts you do not think like that. You have
played a few good games with other players before and you think
"Maybe this time I will get him". Then the game starts, maybe
you even frag him once or twice, BUT THEN he takes the lead and
YOU START TO DOUBT that you can win. AND THAT'S WHY YOU LOSE!
OR maybe it is 25:23 for him, which means you are ONLY TWO frags
behind. Which is no problem, BUT THEN you get fragged two times
and you hear "Three frags left!". You start to get NERVOUS, you
will DESPERATELY TRY to win now. But THAT's the way to lose.
In the end it's 30:23 and it looks like a clear win for him.
So, if you wanna win, you will have to BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN WIN!
DON'T let your feelings get involved in the game!
DON'T get disappointed when you die!
Always RELAX, be SMART, THINK about how you can win and DON'T
GIVE UP TOO EARLY!
If you play poker you maybe know what it means to be ON TILT.
The same can happen in Q3, so don't let it happen to you.
I can only give you these advices but it is hard to actually do
it, I know by experience ;-)
6.2 How to stay in a good shape
It is needless to say that if you play a lot you will stay in a
good shape, but I'd like to give you some tips that can maybe
help you.
Try playing on a HIGH PING server BEFORE you start playing on
your favourite server. With a high ping you have to think about
what will happen in the future, because your game is delayed.
After some games, if your mind got used to thinking ahead in the
game, connect to your favourite server where you have a better
ping. It will feel a lot easier and you will play better.
Also try to play equal times on servers that need accuracy and
those that need speed.
If you play only with noobs, you will become a noob! It's true,
you need to PLAY AGAINST other GOOD PLAYERS, players that CAN
BEAT YOU. Not only to learn, but also to stay fit. You NEED big
challanges to be a pro.
If you plan to play a longer session, go to spect sometimes and
relax. When you play non-stop, it is normal that you will get
TIRED and lose after some time.
6.3 Switching styles
In 1vs1 games it is very important that your enemy can't predict
your moves. This involves both strategic and battle situation
movements. If you can surprise the enemy 30 times you win the
game. Of course it's not that easy..
So if you want to be unpredictable it is necessary that you
SWITCH YOUR STYLE of playing. Maybe start off by hooking like
you are crazy, then don't hook at all and walk through the map
in stealth mode. If you spot him, shoot and safe-your-life, run
away and set a trap. Run away again, then return immediately and
use only the XP technique, then maybe throw in some rocket
jumps (if your enemy doesn't use railgun ;-).
You get the idea. If you play always the same the enemy will get
used to your style and maybe find a way to beat you. But if you
always switch your style he never knows what is going to happen
next.
6.4 Know the enemy
When you see an enemy it's always useful to identify him first.
Especially in games with more than one enemy. I'm going to list
up some typical player categories:
The NOOB
Easy to identify, most of them don't use hook, or camp with hook
hanging on the walls. They have bad reaction time so there is NO
NEED TO HURRY. Relax and frag him accurately and with routine.
XP technique works very well.
The crazy hooker
Easy to identify, he is hooking very fast but his hooks are not
accurate. He frags only with luck, but it is hard to frag him.
So if there are other players, FRAG THE EASIER TARGETS FIRST.
But when you HAVE to frag him: DON'T use hook too much and
relax, watching his hook. He has to stop somewhere and there you
get him. He NEEDS your hook to find you, so resist the urge to
hook TOO much.
Weak defence, good offence
If you find one of these players you should definetly try to
FRAG HIM FIRST. If you don't, he will only steal your victims.
Do NOT use XP teqchnique against these players.
Progressing amateur
Don't underestimate this kind of player. It is good when you
relax and play with routine, BUT it's possible that he beats
you when the server is full AND you don't pay attention. If it
is 1vs1 you should be aggressive at first. Because if he gets
killed a lot in the beginning, he doesn't believe in winning.
The PRO
The best you can do is to play the best you can ;-) Use all of
your tricks and all of your accuracy. Don't be an easy target.
If you know this player from recent games, maybe you know what
he is playing like. Try to collect some facts about all the PROs
that you play against, so you can use it against them.
6.5 Fool the enemy (Advanced 1vs1 strategy)
This last chapter deals with the psychological aspect of 1vs1
Q3 hook games. And psychology plays a role in the game, it's
almost like poker. Anyway, all of this is pretty much worthless
on space maps.
When you are playing 1vs1 against a PRO you have to expect that
the combat scenes are pretty short. This is because he kills you
whenever he senses your position. So either you kill him first
and QUICK or you get killed.
So because the fight sequences are short there is more time that
you and your PRO opponent spend in SEPERATE ROOMS of the map. In
almost all rooms of Q3 there are two or more ways to get to your
enemy. Try to use this to your advantage!
Let's say there are only two ways, left or right (i.e. inside of
q3dm1). In the beginning of the game your opponent might not
realize you are playing a psychological game. So when you shoot
a few times through the door of the left way and then hook AS
FAST AS YOU CAN taking the right way, you might surprise him
from behind as he is only paying attention to the other door.
Of course he will not let you fool him a second time, right?
WRONG! When you notice that he expects you to come from the way
that you did not shoot through, start coming from where you have
been shooting!
Or maybe he will try to outplay you with his hook speed. Like
this: You shoot right and go left. But when you enter the room
he is not there, trying to go through the map to come from
behind you (like you were trying). If you happen to play against
a player that tries to beat psychological games with hook speed,
try this: shoot left and hook to HIDE ABOVE the same door. Now,
when he tries to come through the door, he is an easy target for
a part-time-camper ;-) Sometimes the fastest way to move trough
the whole map in a circle, is NOT to move AT ALL.
Of course these were only a few examples. But the point is that
you have to put your enemy in a state of mind in which he just
doesn't know where you could be coming from OR where you could
be hiding. In other words you have to judge what he is expecting
you to do and then doing the opposite. Because if you surprise
him, you win the fight, without a fight.
So use anything you can think of to be as CUNNING and INSIDIOUS
as you can be. This is sometimes more valuable than hook speed
or even reflex.
7. Appendix
7.1 List of Rules: Dos and Don'ts
DO use short hooks, DON'T use long hooks
DO relax and hook accurate, DON'T hook like you are crazy
DO collect health, armor and ammo, DON'T lose too much time on it though
DO use the sounds your enemies are making
DO search for victims, DON'T wait until they find you
DON'T hang on the walls all the time
DO keep track of the enemy's position AT ALL TIMES
DO relax when you aim, DON'T lose time AFTER your shot
DO use the appropriate weapon for the situation
DON'T get caught in the middle of two players
DO use small hook moves to dodge the bullets
DO concentrate on only one target at a time
DO practice a lot on your accuracy (also hook accuracy)
DON'T shoot when you don't have your target in your crosshair
7,2 List of Servers: Rule 'em all!
To get better it is important that you play on different
servers! If you can handle all the different styles you will
have a big advantage. Notice that some IPs may change... Always try to find new
servers to play on!
7.3 The difference between servers
Since there are a lot of different Q3 servers which all require
different strategies I decided to include a few thoughts on how
to rule on different styles of hook ;-) Doing this I start with
the easiest servers and end up with HG1, the supreme discipline
in my opinion :P
Shotgun Hook
The easiest type of hook servers. All you need to do is: see the
enemy FIRST. Shotgun is so fast and strong that you just need to
keep fire pressed when you see an enemy or suspect that arround
the next corner might be one. Because of that HEADPHONES are a
great advance. You DON'T need hook very much, it is just needed
to find enemies fast. Hook can't really be used to safe yourself
from getting killed. So the best defence is OFFENCE here.
Most shotgun servers have spawnprotection invisibility so a cfg
with which it's possible to see invisible players might be of
use. This crap bbox won't, cos most of the servers are pure :P
BFG + Hook
A little harder but still easy. It has similarities to shotgun
hook because the BFG is also a strong weapon. But as opposed to
shotgun it is much harder to hit someone who is in the air. So
BFG JUMPS work very well here, especially BFG jumps that are
executed upon a JUMP PAD.
Another difference is that you are able to USE HOOK FOR your
DEFENCE, you shouldn't overuse it though. It is better to use
just a few short accurate hooks every now and then. Try to get
in positions in that your enemy doesn't know where you are and
kind of CAMP until he sees you, THEN use a few hooks again. But
if you are a real camper you will get easily fragged due to the
splash damage of the BFG. Still, offence is the best defence, so
be a "MOVING CAMPER".
And finally the last difference: on shotgun servers you always
should keep fire pressed, but on BFG it's better to fire single
shots as your accuracy will be better. You only need to hit your
enemy two or three times so there is no need to keep firing when
you don't know where you are or where your opponent is.
The last thing I want to mention is that you can use the BFG as
a kind of "radar system". If you are in a room without enemy you
can just fire on all doors to check if there is someone. If you
hit anything keep shooting there to block the entrance or maybe
frag him.
PL Chaos Hook
What's characteristic for these kind of servers is that hook is
pretty fast. Most players overuse it and become "crazy hookers".
When you happen to play on a server in which all other players
are crazy hookers, there is only one intelligent thing to do:
CAMP! Most of the enemies will be hooking up on the walls and
most of them will hook to the same places. So you should stay on
the ground and SHOOT ON PLACES rather than players on these
servers. Use hook only to find enemies or to safe yourself when
a player sees you camping until you've found a new safe place to
stay. Remember NOT to get caught up in their fast hooking.
--------------------------------------------------
This can also be understood as a GENERAL MESSAGE:
THE MORE YOUR ENEMIES HOOK THE LESS YOU SHOULD!
AND VICE VERSA:
THE LESS YOUR ENEMIES HOOK THE MORE YOU SHOULD!
But in 1on1 this is not always true...
--------------------------------------------------
Hook + Rail
Well this is obviously a harder type of servers because you will
need a lot of accuracy. Stuff like XP technique: USELESS! If
rail jumps work, in combat situations: USELESS! Everything that
involves you falling: USELESS (except maybe space maps, but make
sure to get back on the ground before your enemy notices you)!
USUAL RAIL DEFENCE like on normal rail servers works pretty ok,
but the opponent could use hook to end up in a position which
destroys your defence. So you do the same: if the enemy goes
left<->right, hook NEXT to him so that you are on the SAME LINE.
Hook can also be used to get yourself out of the situation when
multiple enemies are shooting at you.
Hell Gate 1
Ok it is REALLY HARD to become good on this server. It has a lot
of specials and it takes a long time to learn how to use it all
efficiently. The hook strategies and techniques needed are
exactly what I have described in this entire tutorial. So I will
not go into detail about hook use now.
I want to focus on REWARDS. On hg1 you can get rewards for some
difficult actions:
Excellent: For an excellent you get a cluster grenade. If you
get one, you should immediately switch to grenade launcher and
place the nade somewhere. Good places are SPAWNING POINTS
because if somebody walks over it, it will most likely kill him.
Other good places are CROWDED PLACES. You can detonade it by the
/bang command which can also be binded, i.e.:
/bind x bang or
/bind shift bang
After some time the grenade will explode by itself if you have
not detonated it yet or if you have no bang bind :P
Impressive: For this you will get a turret. It's basically a
flag with a rocket launcher which will shoot at victims for you.
It spawns where you have done the impressive hit. If you are
good with rail (which you should be otherwise you have not much
of a chance) you should always try to GET IMPRESSIVES. How do
you get impressives on purpose? Try this: just switch to rail
and try to hit someone in whatever way you like. When you have
hit a victim this way STOP shooting and WAIT LONG with the next
shot! Because this one should be very ACCURATE. After that shot
you can switch to your usual style again until you hit a target
again.
Special Weapons: If you manage to kill somebody with gauntlet
you will get BFG & plasma bombs and with MG you will get vortex
rockets. BFG & plasma bombs work very easy just place them
somewhere and when anyone gets near it, it will hurt him. After
some time it will explode by itself. Good places are the same
as with grenades. Vortex rockets are very cool. When you fire
it, victims will get drawn towards the rocket, so that they
can't escape easily.
Enough introduction, on to strategy:
I have already told you the main strategy in the chapter of
switching weapons. You should try to hurt your enemy first with
the rocket launcher or the shotgun and then switch to MG or
gauntlet to finish him off and receive the rewards. Try to get
a feeling of how much hp and armor the enemy has left and switch
to MG when he is low on health.
A mean combo is this: when you have managed to get some vortex
rockets, search for a victim and shoot a vortex. If he gets
killed, good. But if he survives, and this happens often, you
immediately switch to MG again and finish him to get more vortex
rockets ;-)
A noob combo is taking quad to get easy MG kills... :P
Just one last thing concerning RAIL-THROUGH-WALL in addition to
what has already been said in the sound-chapter. Railing through
a wall is actually not so difficult! With usual rail you have to
predict the position of the enemy in the future so you can
follow him and then pull the trigger. It doesn't really matter
if, in the last few msecs before you fire, your enemy disappears
behind a wall.
7.4 ZZZ´s and CFG´s
A lot of good players prefer to play with ZZZ models. ZZZ models
are models that can easily be seen. Maybe they are green or pink
or whatever color you like. On my website you can find the
collection made by HuXX. Just choose one and try it out. These
obviously won't work on pure servers.
Download ZZZ Models Collection
But on NoGhost pure servers it is still possible to change the
colors of your enemies to whatever color you want.
It works like this:
Download the NoGhost client. This is a .pk3 file that you have
to put in your baseq3 folder. After that you have to type the
following commands in your console:
/cg_forceModel 1
/cg_enemymodel keel/pm
/cg_enemycolors 2222
This will make all your enemies look like green keels. If you
choose other numbers you will get other colors. The numbers are
the usual Q3 color-numbers just like with names or chat
messages.
You can also create a file called "autoexec.cfg" in your baseq3
folder and put the commands there. Then of course without the
"/" in the beginning.
Speaking of cfg's: With cfg's you can do a lot of things. There
are a lot of commands that make it easier for you to see enemies
or not to get distracted by too much details. On my website you
can download two cfg's.
The first one is an old one and was done by ZEXX. It turns Q3
graphics very low so that you can concentrate only on your
enemies. With these low graphics it's also possible to see
players that have taken invisibility. The second one is the cfg
I'm using right now. It's basically a rail cfg which I got from
ATROX. But I have changed it a little bit so that it works better
on hook games.
Download zexx.cfg
Download grish.cfg
If you want to try one of the cfg's just extract the zip in your baseq3
folder, start Q3 and execute it with:
/exec name_of_cfg
Of course you can also put the command into an autoexec.cfg!
Download Mod Binds Autoexec.cfg
|
