1 Topic by William Tee Riker (edited by William Tee Riker 2011-04-23 16:40:59)

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Topic: CTF strategy guide

I'd like to start collecting CTF strategies.
So here are some strategies that I have found to be very useful. Experienced players probably know all of them, but I think they can be very helpful to not so experienced players.

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- When you are carrying the flag, stay close to your flagpoint so that you can score quickly when your flag is returned. You should only help attacking if you can see that your team can't do it without your support. It can be very annoying to your teammates if they finally manage to return their flag and the flag carrier is miles away from his base and therefore can't make it back quickly enough.

- When you are carrying the flag and are very low on health, consider killing yourself (using grenades or with the "kill" command that you can bind for example to the backspace key, although this will lead to a much longer respawn time) in a safe location that will either allow a teammate to take the flag or allow you to get the flag back after respawning. Wait as long as possible before taking the flag back, because the enemy's flag carrier will think that their flag will return, and he will probably try to stay close to the flag point by all means. This may get him killed by your teammates, and then you can score.

- Protect your flag carrier and clear his path back to your base! Hook enemies that try to follow him, draw their fire to yourself. Be ready to take the flag back in case that your flag carrier dies.

- If you successfully fought off an attack on your base and you are left with only very little health, consider killing yourself to respawn with full health so that you have better chances fighting off the next wave of attackers.

- If you are very low on health and defending, don't pick up weapons, because you would probably waste them. Instead, leave them to teammates or kill yourself and respawn with full health. Exception: If you see that an enemy would take it, better you take it.

- Know your enemies' escape paths. Some players always take the same route to their base after stealing your flag. And this is where you will wait and intercept them.

- Sometimes, it is better not to kill an attacking enemy immediately, but just give him enough damage. Remember that if you kill him, he will respawn in his base with full health and will make life harder for your attackers. Kill him in the right moment, several seconds after one of your teammates grabbed the enemy's flag. The enemy will respawn too late to defend. This is especially important for very good players.

- Try to balance defense and attack. If you see that too many of your teammates are defending, go and attack. If you see that your base is full of enemies, stay and defend. Also use team chat to coordinate with other teammates ("We need more defenders!" / "We need more attackers!").

- If you killed the enemy's flag carrier, don't return the flag immediately. If you are close enough to your base so that you can see it (in this case, dynamic camera can really help a bit), wait for the right moment to return the flag (for example, when your flag carrier reaches the flagpoint). Don't return the flag if there are lots of enemies in your base, since it would be stolen immediately again. If you can't see your base, use a "Ready for flag?" shortcut (see below) to synchronize with your flag carrier. If this doesn't work, try to estimate the time that your flag carrier will need to reach your base.

- When you are attacking, always try to stay between the enemy's flag carrier and their flagpoint. You should always be at their flagpoint before their flag carrier can reach it in case that your flag carrier dies. Don't let the enemy's flag carrier draw you away from their flagpoint. Exception: You can follow him if you see that there are other teammates at the enemy's flagpoint who could pick up the flag.

- Surround the enemy's flag carrier. If you see that a teammate follows him, don't take the same route but another one. Otherwise there will still be an open escape path and chances are that you accidentally hook your teammate and slow him down.

- Steal as many weapons/powerups as possible from the enemy's base. If you already have a weapon with full ammo, fire one shot and pick it up (of course, don't do this when teammates are with you who might need the weapons). This will make it more difficult for their flag carrier to stay close to their flagpoint.

- When the enemy's flag carrier dies and drops the flag, immediately switch to defense mode. Try to protect your flag carrier and keep the enemy from getting your flag again. Consider killing yourself to respawn in your base with full health so that you can help defending.

- Create keyboard shortcuts for giving important information to your team.
1. bind f say_team Losing flag! Prepare to grab!
Use it when you are carrying the flag and are about to die. Smart teammates will be able to prepare for the flag loss and get it back when it appears on the enemy's flagpoint.
2. bind r say_team Ready for flag? Ready for flag!
When you carry the flag, use it to indicate that you are ready to score. Smart teammates won't pick up the enemy's flag immediately, but first wait for you to get ready for scoring. Using this shortcut, you can tell them that you are ready.
When you attack, you have killed the flag carrier and the flag is lying in front of you, use the shortcut to ask your flag carrier if he is ready to score. If he responds, pick up the flag so that he can score. If an enemy sees the flag lying around, you may have to pick it up before he can get it.
3. bind g say_team Go go go! Base is clear!
Use it to tell your flag carrier that your base is clear of enemies and that he could score now if he was there.
4. bind e say_team Enemies in base! Stay away!
Use it to tell your flag carrier that he should not come to your base right now, because it is full of enemies who would probably kill him.
(Note that the keys E, R, F and G are easily reachable when playing with A and D keys!)

- Votekick idle/afk players. They keep others from joining the game (if the server is full) and can destroy the team balance because they count as players while they really are not.

2 Reply by Slayer *gV*

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Re: CTF strategy guide

Nice guide, new players will learn pretty much! [+]

Ofc its just theory, when practise it you have to combine all of them.

Some editions:

William Tee Riker wrote:

- If you are very low on health and defending, don't pick up weapons, because you would probably waste them. Instead, leave them to teammates or kill yourself and respawn with full health.

If there are no teammates but enemies, pick as much up as you can.

William Tee Riker wrote:

Wait as long as possible before taking the flag back, because the enemy's flag carrier will think that their flag will return, and he will probably try to stay close to the flag point by all means, waiting for the flag to return.

Yes and no. Dont forget to prepare yourself against attacking teammates!

About shortcuts: Make sure, you disabled spam block features, when your mod-client supports this.

[MOD] Domination   ||   [MOD] iVampire   ||   [MOD] Streamer
[MAP] Slayer's maps (fly)

3 Reply by Bee (edited by Bee 2011-04-24 18:57:56)

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Re: CTF strategy guide

My tidbits:

- When Defending, always have the Grenade Launcher handy. Due to its high power and splash damage, you can deal damage to multiple enemy players at once. This is especially useful to have when many are camping at your flagpoint, waiting for your flag to return. You don’t necessarily have to even know where they are when shooting since they're likely near your flagpoint. Just aim near that general area and you have a fairly high chance of dealing damage to someone each time. wink

- Disorient enemies in close range combat. When left with the typical the close range weapons (hammer, shotgun, and gun), try hooking the enemy player around or try quickly maneuvering around them to sort of confuse them. Half the time, they won’t know where you are in order to shoot you. Do not do this technique mindlessly because you yourself might not know where you’ll be in relation to them in the next few seconds which is vital to your survival. I wouldn’t recommend using the Rifle (Laser) in close range combat since that’s a very precise weapon nor the grenade launcher since you can easily kill yourself before you kill them.

- Slow down enemy flag carriers. (Especially useful when they’ve just snatched your flag,) Slowing down enemy flag-carriers by hooking them can greatly help so they can’t make a fast capture and gives you and teemates more time to kick the crap out of them which generally ends in their demise. big_smile

- Use grenade launcher for quick escapes and routes. Rocket climbing, rocket boosting, or just trying to quickly change directions via the grenade launcher, are many different ways you can quickly escape from danger. Since rocket launching is costly, use it sparingly and only when necessary. Generally you’ll only be using these techniques when you’re carrying the flag or trying to quickly get somewhere and is definitely not advised when low in health. You'll have to make the call between possibly dying from low health and grenade damage or from the hands on a malicious enemy offender when it happens... there's just too many variables to have a clear cut answer. hmm

- Just chillin’ with the flag. Sometimes the best way to stay a live (stay a live. A-a-a-oh!) is by doing nothing but hiding. Going to a fairly secluded area and avoiding enemy players can help when your base is swarming with campers. You’ll need to get in there when the flag returns to its flagpoint, however, waiting for another teemate to “take out the trash” is better for your team because if a defender dies it’s not as costly to your team than if the flag carrier died.

- For quicker speeds, go with current flow of movement. It's kind of hard to explain but whenever you can, try converting your current speed when changing directions. So instead of simply changing directions on the ground which can dramatically slow you down, try hooking around objects which lead in the same direction. Or, say, if an enemy just shoot you with the grenade launcher and it gave you a slight boost, keep it. Don't try going against it if you can. If it's totally out of your way then of coarse change directions, but even with that try using the hook to convert that energy. Also, use heights to your advantage. Combine gravity and the hook swing into horizontal movement. You'd of coarse need to be good with maneuvering around with the hook but if you're not keep that in mind now while you're starting to get use to the hook.

Give others the respect you wish to be respected with. In the mean time, enjoy the website!