Starting ammo: 20
Ammo pickup: 20
Maximum ammo: 50
Primary fire: a single ball of goop that uses one ammo, holding the primary fire button releases
Secondary fire: a larger ball of goop between 1 and 10 ammo depending on how long the secondary fire button is held down
The bio rifle fires projectiles (it takes time for the fire to reach the target, as opposed to hitscan weapons which are instant) with a moderate to low speed and moderate trajectory, meaning that the ball "falls" in an arc or parabola. The secondary fire is heavier and therefore falls quicker, depending on how long the secondary fire button is held down. It takes around 2 seconds for the bio rifle secondary fire to fully charge. A fully charged "glob" uses up 10 ammo, and deals out 210 damage which is enough to kill all but the most juiced (health and armour wise) players.
Due to its slow speed and trajectory, it is quite difficult to aim the bio rifle accurately. Players must aim above their intended target and must also lead their fire significantly due to the slow speed of the bio rifle(unless their target is stationary)
The bio rifle is also the only weapon that sticks to any surface it lands on (for a few seconds) meaning that often players aren't actually killed by a direct hit, but by walking into the goo or by the mild explosion or pop that occurs after the goo has been on a surface for a few seconds. This makes up for the difficulty of aiming the bio rifle, however many players, use the bio rifle rarely, as it requires its own skill set.
The bio rifle is seen as one of the more controversial weapons in the game, due to its ability to stick to surfaces. Many experienced players ignore the bio rifle and use it rarely, myself included, however players who have mastered the bio rifle have an added advantage in battle and all players should learn at least the basics of aiming with the bio rifle for situations when the bio rifle is the only option (ie overpopulated servers with no weapon stay) The one shot kill nature of the secondary fire means that it is the preferred mode of fire for players online.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Assault Rifle
Starting ammo: 100/4
Ammo pack: 50/4
Maximum ammo: 200/8
Primary damage: 7
Secondary damage: 70
Primary fire shoots low damage bullets at a moderately fast rate of fire
Secondary fire is an attached grenade launcher. Grenades can be bounced off walls without exploding, however they explode when they come into contact with other players
The Assault rifle is the weapon that players are holding at the beginning of each battle, and after they come back to life (spawning) after dieing. It is unique in that it is the only weapon with two separate ammo reserves, one for primary fire and one for secondary fire, meaning that the gun can be out of bullets and still have grenades and vice-versa. The yellow bar under the assault rifle in the weapon bar shows the ammo for its primary fire, meaning that the only way to know how many grenades are left is if you are holding the assault rifle. This also means the assault rifle is the only weapon that can be switched to if its ammo bar appears empty.
The Assault rifle is also the only weapon that can be used akimbo style, meaning one in each hand. As assault rifles are rarely found on the map, the only way to get another assault rifle is to pick it up off a dead player, or even your own dead body, as when you die your weapon is dropped onto the floor for a few seconds for anyone to pick up. There are generally plenty of assault rifles on the floor as players are most vulnerable when they spawn as they only have two weak weapons and a fairly low amount of health compared to the maximum (199 health 150 armour)
Despite its unique characteristics and quirks, the assault rifle is one of the weakest weapons in the game, and should only be used if there are no other weapons available. Generally players will fire off all their grenades as they run for their first "real" weapon, as the grenades are the only remotely useful thing about the assault rifle, players know that as soon as they pick up another weapon any remaining ammo in their assault rifle will not be used, so why not chuck a few grenades round the corner, you might get lucky.
Ammo pack: 50/4
Maximum ammo: 200/8
Primary damage: 7
Secondary damage: 70
Primary fire shoots low damage bullets at a moderately fast rate of fire
Secondary fire is an attached grenade launcher. Grenades can be bounced off walls without exploding, however they explode when they come into contact with other players
The Assault rifle is the weapon that players are holding at the beginning of each battle, and after they come back to life (spawning) after dieing. It is unique in that it is the only weapon with two separate ammo reserves, one for primary fire and one for secondary fire, meaning that the gun can be out of bullets and still have grenades and vice-versa. The yellow bar under the assault rifle in the weapon bar shows the ammo for its primary fire, meaning that the only way to know how many grenades are left is if you are holding the assault rifle. This also means the assault rifle is the only weapon that can be switched to if its ammo bar appears empty.
The Assault rifle is also the only weapon that can be used akimbo style, meaning one in each hand. As assault rifles are rarely found on the map, the only way to get another assault rifle is to pick it up off a dead player, or even your own dead body, as when you die your weapon is dropped onto the floor for a few seconds for anyone to pick up. There are generally plenty of assault rifles on the floor as players are most vulnerable when they spawn as they only have two weak weapons and a fairly low amount of health compared to the maximum (199 health 150 armour)
Despite its unique characteristics and quirks, the assault rifle is one of the weakest weapons in the game, and should only be used if there are no other weapons available. Generally players will fire off all their grenades as they run for their first "real" weapon, as the grenades are the only remotely useful thing about the assault rifle, players know that as soon as they pick up another weapon any remaining ammo in their assault rifle will not be used, so why not chuck a few grenades round the corner, you might get lucky.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Shield Gun
Starting ammo: 100
Ammo pickup: no ammo pickup
Maximum ammo: 100
Primary Damage: 40-150
Secondary Damage 0
Primary fire is a melee (rather like a knife or baseball bat, or any hitting sort of weapon) attack, hold the primary fire to build up, and the shield gun will automatically discharge when another player is at point blanck range. It takes 2 seconds for the primary fire to fully charge
Secondary fire is a protective shield which can absorb damage, hold to activate the shield, let go to disactivate
The shield gun is unique in many ways. First of all it is the only weapon that does not have an ammo pack. Instead the shield gun replenishes ammo at a rather quick rate. Second of all, its primary fire is the only damage dealing attack in the game that does not use any ammunition at all, except perhaps for falling on an opponants head from a high altitude...
The ammo for the shield gun is instead used by its secondary fire, the shield, whenever the shield is activated, 15 ammunition is immedietly used, from then on the ammo will deplete at a rather fast rate until the shield runs out. It then cannot be used until it reaches at least 15 through automatic replenishment. It takes around 15 seconds for a shield gun with full ammo to become depleted, unless of course the shield takes damage, which it probably will considering that is what it is for. An empty shield gun takes around 19 seconds to fully replenish itself
The primary fire of the shield gun can be used to "shield jump" which is when a player jumps and then almost instantly releases the shield gun at their feet. The longer the shieldgun is charged, the higher you will go but the more damage you will inflict on yourself (between 20 or 53) The secondary fire is often used to prevent damage or recduce the amount of damage taken from falling, often from a flying vehicle, but sometimes also in multistorey maps. The secondary can also be used to "bio jump" in which the player fires a large glob of goo from the bio rifle on the floor and then activates the shield at their feet as they land on it and it pops, sending them into the air. It takes longer to perform then a shield jump but it prevents you from taking any damage at all.
Ammo pickup: no ammo pickup
Maximum ammo: 100
Primary Damage: 40-150
Secondary Damage 0
Primary fire is a melee (rather like a knife or baseball bat, or any hitting sort of weapon) attack, hold the primary fire to build up, and the shield gun will automatically discharge when another player is at point blanck range. It takes 2 seconds for the primary fire to fully charge
Secondary fire is a protective shield which can absorb damage, hold to activate the shield, let go to disactivate
The shield gun is unique in many ways. First of all it is the only weapon that does not have an ammo pack. Instead the shield gun replenishes ammo at a rather quick rate. Second of all, its primary fire is the only damage dealing attack in the game that does not use any ammunition at all, except perhaps for falling on an opponants head from a high altitude...
The ammo for the shield gun is instead used by its secondary fire, the shield, whenever the shield is activated, 15 ammunition is immedietly used, from then on the ammo will deplete at a rather fast rate until the shield runs out. It then cannot be used until it reaches at least 15 through automatic replenishment. It takes around 15 seconds for a shield gun with full ammo to become depleted, unless of course the shield takes damage, which it probably will considering that is what it is for. An empty shield gun takes around 19 seconds to fully replenish itself
The primary fire of the shield gun can be used to "shield jump" which is when a player jumps and then almost instantly releases the shield gun at their feet. The longer the shieldgun is charged, the higher you will go but the more damage you will inflict on yourself (between 20 or 53) The secondary fire is often used to prevent damage or recduce the amount of damage taken from falling, often from a flying vehicle, but sometimes also in multistorey maps. The secondary can also be used to "bio jump" in which the player fires a large glob of goo from the bio rifle on the floor and then activates the shield at their feet as they land on it and it pops, sending them into the air. It takes longer to perform then a shield jump but it prevents you from taking any damage at all.
Discussion of weapons
Ok we're starting to get into the detail now, for those of you who are new to the game, I now recommend you take a look at the deathmatch tutorial which can be accsessed via the community menu, it covers very basically the general mechanics of the game.
As most of you will already know, under normal circumstances (ie with no mutators or third party game types) players will spawn with two weapons, the Shield Gun and the Assault rifle. The Assault rifle will be, by default the weapon that players begin the game playing, with the shield gun in reserve, however these guns are generally weak, and players stand little chance without other firepower, allthough I will discuss methods to use these weapons to your advantage as much as possible if there are no alternatives. Viewing the "weapon bar" down the bottom of your screen will show you which weapons you currently have in your possesion, with weapons you don't have appearing as a shadow. The amount of ammo you have for each weapon is also graphically displayed as a yellow bar under the weapon, a full bar means that you cannot hold any more ammunition for that weapon.
The starting and maximum ammo of weapons differ, however no weapon begins with full ammo. There is a general rule that the faster the rate of fire is for a weapon, the less damage each individual round/ammo will cause and the more ammo the weapon will start with and can hold in total, however other factors such as the accuracy of the weapon and its speed or trajectory mean that weapons that seem to be statistically favoured, (eg due to higher possible damage per second) are not unbalanced.
Each weapon also has its own unique ammo pack, meaning that picking up ammo for the minigun will only give you ammo for the mini gun. These ammo packs also give a set amount of ammo depending on the rate of fire and damage of each round. If you pick up an ammo pack for a weapon you do not have, and then pick up the weapon some time later (without dieing of course) you will have a starting ammo equal to the normal starting ammo of the weapon plus the ammo from the ammo packs you have picked up, however if you have ammo for a weapon without the weapon, the yellow ammo bar under the weapon in the weapon bar remains empty, so there is no visual cue on the screen to recognise how much ammo you have for weapons you are not holding. It is important to memorise which ammo packs are for which weapons.
Furthermore, each weapon makes a unique sound when it is picked up, both by you and by other players in the arena. The only exception to this is the bio rifle and the flak cannon, which both make the same sound. These sounds are especially useful in duels, as you can use them to pinpoint the location of the other player at a certain time, which can help you to predict where they will be in a matter of seconds and prime a shock ball ready to explode at a corner should your theory be correct. Weapon ammo packs also make a unique sound.
As most of you will already know, under normal circumstances (ie with no mutators or third party game types) players will spawn with two weapons, the Shield Gun and the Assault rifle. The Assault rifle will be, by default the weapon that players begin the game playing, with the shield gun in reserve, however these guns are generally weak, and players stand little chance without other firepower, allthough I will discuss methods to use these weapons to your advantage as much as possible if there are no alternatives. Viewing the "weapon bar" down the bottom of your screen will show you which weapons you currently have in your possesion, with weapons you don't have appearing as a shadow. The amount of ammo you have for each weapon is also graphically displayed as a yellow bar under the weapon, a full bar means that you cannot hold any more ammunition for that weapon.
The starting and maximum ammo of weapons differ, however no weapon begins with full ammo. There is a general rule that the faster the rate of fire is for a weapon, the less damage each individual round/ammo will cause and the more ammo the weapon will start with and can hold in total, however other factors such as the accuracy of the weapon and its speed or trajectory mean that weapons that seem to be statistically favoured, (eg due to higher possible damage per second) are not unbalanced.
Each weapon also has its own unique ammo pack, meaning that picking up ammo for the minigun will only give you ammo for the mini gun. These ammo packs also give a set amount of ammo depending on the rate of fire and damage of each round. If you pick up an ammo pack for a weapon you do not have, and then pick up the weapon some time later (without dieing of course) you will have a starting ammo equal to the normal starting ammo of the weapon plus the ammo from the ammo packs you have picked up, however if you have ammo for a weapon without the weapon, the yellow ammo bar under the weapon in the weapon bar remains empty, so there is no visual cue on the screen to recognise how much ammo you have for weapons you are not holding. It is important to memorise which ammo packs are for which weapons.
Furthermore, each weapon makes a unique sound when it is picked up, both by you and by other players in the arena. The only exception to this is the bio rifle and the flak cannon, which both make the same sound. These sounds are especially useful in duels, as you can use them to pinpoint the location of the other player at a certain time, which can help you to predict where they will be in a matter of seconds and prime a shock ball ready to explode at a corner should your theory be correct. Weapon ammo packs also make a unique sound.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Weapons Introduction
There are 16 weapons and 2 "tools" that are sometimes classified as weapons, the translocator and the ball launcher. 9 of these weapons are used more often then the others, and I will refer to these as standard weapons from now on.
3 of these weapons are used little in deathmatch and deathmatch varients, but are used more in other larger scale game types such as onslaught. These weapons are the AVRiL, Mine Layer, and Grenade Launcher. 3 weapons NEVER have weapon stay activated, respawn 3 times slower then all other weapons and come with only one ammunition. These weapons are called super weapons.
- Shield Gun
- Assault Rifle
- Bio-rifle
- Shock Rifle
- Link Gun
- Minigun
- Flak Cannon
- Rocket Launcher
- Lightning Gun
3 of these weapons are used little in deathmatch and deathmatch varients, but are used more in other larger scale game types such as onslaught. These weapons are the AVRiL, Mine Layer, and Grenade Launcher. 3 weapons NEVER have weapon stay activated, respawn 3 times slower then all other weapons and come with only one ammunition. These weapons are called super weapons.
- Redeemer
- Ion Painter
- Target Painter
Friday, January 16, 2009
Introduction
In this article I will introduce new players to ut2004 by comparing it to other shooters, and showing how ut2004 is different
Unreal tournament 2004 is the sequel to unreal tournament, which in turn was based on the single player game unreal. If you play the original unreal game you may be able to notice similarities in the weapons of unreal and unreal tournament 2004, however much has changed.
UT2004 differs from other games in the fact that it does not try at all to be realistic, and it gives no apologies for this, other games may try to explain certain essential features so that it seems possible, and many others cannot use good ideas due to realism, ut2004 is not bounded by the laws of what seems normal and what would happen in real life, these laws are abandoned so that the best possible fps (first person shooter) game can be created without compromising the gameplay due to realism. For example:
1. Unrealistic weapons
2. No need to reload, all ammunition is stored in a single clip
3. ability to double jump, and also to trick jump in ways impossible for any real human
4. hitscan weapons accuracy is 100% irregardless of how you are moving
Compared to games such as counter strike for example.
The fact that there are hitscan weapons at all in the game also makes it quite unique. I will explain the terms hitscan and projectile now
A hitscan weapon is a weapon that when fired takes no time at all to reach its target, theoretically at least. This means that what ever is under your crosshair when you fire a hitscan weapon WILL get hit, assuming that the gun is accurate, which in ut2004 both hitscan weapons are. A projectile on the other hand takes a some time from the moment it is fired to reach its target. The amount of time it takes depends on both the distance between the shooter and the target and the speed of the projectile. This is why slow moving projectile weapons are not recommended for long range. In many shooters that try to be realistic, all weapons, even sniper rifles are projectile weapons (although the speed of the sniper round is often very fast) this means that shots must be lead, ie the shooter must aim for where their target will be when the round reaches them.
Allthough this makes it easier to aim in ut2004, the amount of movement of other players cancels this out, you are also expected to move while you aim and shoot a target who is dodging you, of course this is impossible in many games as you must stay still to use the scope, again in ut2004 many good players don't even use the scope often, as it slows them down. It is sort of like using a racing grade car, sure it may be much easier to turn, but what is expected of your skills is much higher when you are on the track then when you are simply driving around in "real life" I will discuss aiming and accuracy in great detail in a later post, as well as how to improve your accuracy.
UT2004 also has a large number of gametypes:
Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch
Last Man Standing
Mutant
Invasion
CTF (Capture the flag)
Bombing run
Double Domination
Onslaught
Assault
Of course just like anything in ut2004, there are heaps of other unofficial gametypes made by other players, for example clan arena, which is basically a two team survival match, last team alive wins the round. I will go into more detail to each gametype in later posts
Unreal tournament 2004 is the sequel to unreal tournament, which in turn was based on the single player game unreal. If you play the original unreal game you may be able to notice similarities in the weapons of unreal and unreal tournament 2004, however much has changed.
UT2004 differs from other games in the fact that it does not try at all to be realistic, and it gives no apologies for this, other games may try to explain certain essential features so that it seems possible, and many others cannot use good ideas due to realism, ut2004 is not bounded by the laws of what seems normal and what would happen in real life, these laws are abandoned so that the best possible fps (first person shooter) game can be created without compromising the gameplay due to realism. For example:
1. Unrealistic weapons
2. No need to reload, all ammunition is stored in a single clip
3. ability to double jump, and also to trick jump in ways impossible for any real human
4. hitscan weapons accuracy is 100% irregardless of how you are moving
Compared to games such as counter strike for example.
The fact that there are hitscan weapons at all in the game also makes it quite unique. I will explain the terms hitscan and projectile now
A hitscan weapon is a weapon that when fired takes no time at all to reach its target, theoretically at least. This means that what ever is under your crosshair when you fire a hitscan weapon WILL get hit, assuming that the gun is accurate, which in ut2004 both hitscan weapons are. A projectile on the other hand takes a some time from the moment it is fired to reach its target. The amount of time it takes depends on both the distance between the shooter and the target and the speed of the projectile. This is why slow moving projectile weapons are not recommended for long range. In many shooters that try to be realistic, all weapons, even sniper rifles are projectile weapons (although the speed of the sniper round is often very fast) this means that shots must be lead, ie the shooter must aim for where their target will be when the round reaches them.
Allthough this makes it easier to aim in ut2004, the amount of movement of other players cancels this out, you are also expected to move while you aim and shoot a target who is dodging you, of course this is impossible in many games as you must stay still to use the scope, again in ut2004 many good players don't even use the scope often, as it slows them down. It is sort of like using a racing grade car, sure it may be much easier to turn, but what is expected of your skills is much higher when you are on the track then when you are simply driving around in "real life" I will discuss aiming and accuracy in great detail in a later post, as well as how to improve your accuracy.
UT2004 also has a large number of gametypes:
Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch
Last Man Standing
Mutant
Invasion
CTF (Capture the flag)
Bombing run
Double Domination
Onslaught
Assault
Of course just like anything in ut2004, there are heaps of other unofficial gametypes made by other players, for example clan arena, which is basically a two team survival match, last team alive wins the round. I will go into more detail to each gametype in later posts
First post
Ok, here goes
I have decided to start a blog dealing with ut2004 and more specifically, in how to become a better ut2004 player, especially in deathmatch gametypes. I do not claim to be the best ut2004 player out there, but there are lots of things I now know about the game that I would have benefited greatly from being told about previously. First I suppose I should tell you a little about me and ut2004. I first played ut2004 at a lan cafe late 2006. The game began to grow on me as my friends and I began to frequent that lan cafe, and I became more experienced with the game. In mid 2007, after traveling to that lan cafe many times just to play ut2004 I decided it would be more economical to simply buy the game, so I bought the unreal anthology, which for those that don't know, consists of four games, unreal, unreal 2, unreal tournament and unreal tournament 2004, and I recommend it to any others who do not yet have the game and are interested in getting it.
After defeating the single player mode in experienced difficulty at the lan cafe, I was quite disappointed with my first attempts at playing online. Any good player will tell you that people are completly different to bots, and some even go so far to say that playing with bots offline will hurt you more then it will help you. At the moment I could beat a godlike bot 30 to 0, without the bot killing me once in 15 minutes, and most good players could, however there are players better then me online who could do the same to me (if I wasn't trying too hard of course :P)
I often hear people complaining about the difficulty of the bots in ut2004, saying that in the higher difficulty levels, the bots become aimbots and can dodge your fire with ease. Trying to hit a godlike bot with a projectile weapon is the best way to demonstrate this, they will bounce off the walls and the floor in ways that players simply physically cannot. The bots however, are fundementally stupid, compared to players at least, and if something works on them once, it will again, and again, and again, they have no medium or long term stratergy, if they see a player they simply fire at them, they don't try to guess the players next moves, corner them with no weapons, spawn camp, ambush or outsmart them. Also despite their inhuman ability to dodge projectiles, godlike bots do very little to prevent being hit by hitscan weapons. This is the key difference between good players and bots, and with a little bit of practice it becomes easy to kill any bot.
This guide will start with an overview of ut2004 and how it differs from other shooters, for those of you who have played ut2004 little, then it will go into more detail about the game mechanics, skip this section if you want. I will then discuss aiming in detail, with an in depth discussion on the world of computer mice, sensitivity, acceleration and dpi will be discussed. I will try to add as much as possible about game skills such as movement, as well as suggested tweaks to the settings. Then, advanced techniques, including timing, using sounds to pinpoint the position of your enemy, avoiding pickups to fool your enemy.
I will also post links to other references that I have found helpful. I will leave you now with a thought, on first appearances ut2004 seems quite an easy game, the weapons don't suffer from recoil, reloading is unneccesary, hitscan shots do not need to be led ect... This is all true, ut2004 is a simple game to play, but it is a very difficult game to fully master.
I have decided to start a blog dealing with ut2004 and more specifically, in how to become a better ut2004 player, especially in deathmatch gametypes. I do not claim to be the best ut2004 player out there, but there are lots of things I now know about the game that I would have benefited greatly from being told about previously. First I suppose I should tell you a little about me and ut2004. I first played ut2004 at a lan cafe late 2006. The game began to grow on me as my friends and I began to frequent that lan cafe, and I became more experienced with the game. In mid 2007, after traveling to that lan cafe many times just to play ut2004 I decided it would be more economical to simply buy the game, so I bought the unreal anthology, which for those that don't know, consists of four games, unreal, unreal 2, unreal tournament and unreal tournament 2004, and I recommend it to any others who do not yet have the game and are interested in getting it.
After defeating the single player mode in experienced difficulty at the lan cafe, I was quite disappointed with my first attempts at playing online. Any good player will tell you that people are completly different to bots, and some even go so far to say that playing with bots offline will hurt you more then it will help you. At the moment I could beat a godlike bot 30 to 0, without the bot killing me once in 15 minutes, and most good players could, however there are players better then me online who could do the same to me (if I wasn't trying too hard of course :P)
I often hear people complaining about the difficulty of the bots in ut2004, saying that in the higher difficulty levels, the bots become aimbots and can dodge your fire with ease. Trying to hit a godlike bot with a projectile weapon is the best way to demonstrate this, they will bounce off the walls and the floor in ways that players simply physically cannot. The bots however, are fundementally stupid, compared to players at least, and if something works on them once, it will again, and again, and again, they have no medium or long term stratergy, if they see a player they simply fire at them, they don't try to guess the players next moves, corner them with no weapons, spawn camp, ambush or outsmart them. Also despite their inhuman ability to dodge projectiles, godlike bots do very little to prevent being hit by hitscan weapons. This is the key difference between good players and bots, and with a little bit of practice it becomes easy to kill any bot.
This guide will start with an overview of ut2004 and how it differs from other shooters, for those of you who have played ut2004 little, then it will go into more detail about the game mechanics, skip this section if you want. I will then discuss aiming in detail, with an in depth discussion on the world of computer mice, sensitivity, acceleration and dpi will be discussed. I will try to add as much as possible about game skills such as movement, as well as suggested tweaks to the settings. Then, advanced techniques, including timing, using sounds to pinpoint the position of your enemy, avoiding pickups to fool your enemy.
I will also post links to other references that I have found helpful. I will leave you now with a thought, on first appearances ut2004 seems quite an easy game, the weapons don't suffer from recoil, reloading is unneccesary, hitscan shots do not need to be led ect... This is all true, ut2004 is a simple game to play, but it is a very difficult game to fully master.
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