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Beginners Guide to Playing SG Multiplayer

Postby Pardner » Wed May 28, 2008 4:42 am

Introduction
So you just joined an online server and you got schooled like a youngin'. Chances are, you played some hardcore gunslingers. They probably seemed like they were invulnerable to your bullets, or they were everywhere you seemed to go, or maybe they seem like they had god like aim. Well have no worries: the purpose of this thread is to provide insight and advice to SG beginners who are wondering what the veterans are doing that make them so good.

Gerneral Gameplay
This section, by far is the hardest. This is the stuff that you may learn from playing bots, but mostly learn from playing other players. Everybody has their own style, I will try to sum up the things I have seen many new players do on the servers, as well as explain some techniques that the gunslingers use to bring in the frags.
  1. First off, check out the SG user manual. It has plenty of useful information, including how to reload akimbo pistols.
  2. Moving about the map
    1. Don't go out into the street with out a plan. If you need to get to the other side of the street, find a way around. If you must cross the street, wait until someone is shot. It will pop up saying someone shot someone..... this means one person is dead and another is reloading. Skilled gunslingers can, and will pick you off if you keep wondering into the street.
    2. Walking and crouching is very important. It hides your footsteps. If you can sneak up on your opponent with out tipping him off, you have a major advantage. Crouching also lowers the spread of the bullets.
    3. If you see someone with a chat bubble about their head, please don't shoot them. Please be a good sport about chat killing and buy killing. Like wise, please do not start a conversation while you are out in the open. Find a nice safe sport to chat. This prevents any sore feelings.
    4. TNT and Molotov are a great way to cause damage where you cannot shoot. Molotov are great for blocking you opponents path, and TNT explodes when shot.... so watch out for TNT traps.
    5. Use your ears as well as your eyes. You can usually get a good idea where your opponent is just by listening. When experienced players go at it, its usually "First to make a sound, first to die"
      1. Wait for opponent reload. This will both give you a clue where they are and it means that they cannot shoot back!
      2. Listen for footsteps. This will tell you where they are and where they are headed. Different textures have different sounds: dirt, sand, rock, wood, metal, etc.
      3. Get some headphones. They help out tremendously.
  3. Once in a gun fight
    1. Wait to shoot your opponent in the back. As yellow as it seems, the best way to win a gunfight is not let your opponent shoot back.
    2. Aim for the head. Usually it will be a one shot kill and the boiler plate does not cover the head.
    3. If you run out of ammo, use your knife instead of reloading. t is very common practice among experienced gunfighters to empty their guns then get out the knife while in the heat of things. When you have time again, reload your guns.
    4. There is a common trick among gunslingers.. "One left in the chamber trick" When emptying your guns, leave one bullet in each pistol, then switch to the knife and wait for your opponent to do the same. When your gullible opponent does, switch back to your pistols and blow them away!
    5. Lear to use the "quick swap". I think it is officially called the "Last used weapon" key. What this handy function does is switch to your last used weapon. SO for instance: you have a shotgun and two pistols. First, change to the shotgun, then change to the dual pistols. Now when you press the "last used weapon" key, it will change between the pistols and the shotgun. This removes the messy scroll wheel.
    6. Learn to do the "Two pistol two step." When you get into a close pistol fight in open area, learn to move around randomly. This will make getting a clean shot very hard. What ever you do, do not stand still.
  4. Some experienced players will set up camp and not move. They know where they can defend themselves easily, and they can rake in the bounty for it. You can choose to avoid those spots and make them come to you or you can go back for the revenge kill. Warning: if you set up camp, any experienced gunslinger will be back for the revenge kill so watch out!

Know Your Maps
You really have to learn the maps. I cannot tell you how you learn the maps, and I will not spoil the secrets of each map. These should be discovered by you; I'll probably get hate mail from the mappers, if I spoil them here. So what is the purpose of this section then? I just wanted to take some time and point out somethings you should be watching for on a map as well as some pointers as to how to learn the maps.
  • If it looks like you can go there, it means you probably can. Play the map on single player mode and try to get there. Also, don't be afraid to as someone on the server if they know how to get to a certain section of the map.
  • Get to the roofs. Mappers seem to like to make it so you can get on the roofs. You should learn to watch the roofs as well as try to get there.
  • Things break. Anything from glass windows, to safe doors, to boarded up rooms, to covered graves, to boardwalks, etc. If something is there one time you play it, but not the next... that means it was either shot down or blown up. Note: somethings need TNT to open like safe doors.
  • Follow an experienced gunslinger. See where they go and what lines they follow. Most likely, they know where the hot spots are, how to get their quickly, and where the advantage points are. Don't hate them for it, learn from them.
  • Know where the hot spots are. If you stand on a roof, learn where to expect you opponent to pop up: door ways, windows, etc.
  • Learn to navigate the map smoothly. If you need to get from point A to point B... learn how to do it quickly and smoothly.

Know Your Items
What I would like to do here is just run through the items that you may purchase using your bounty money. First off, take a look at the weapon damage thread, just to get an idea of the weapons strengths and weaknesses. Also, when you finally find your favorite weapons, learn the buying combination: peacemakers:b13, tnt=b54, pistol ammo=b6, etc. This allows you to buy your weapons, items, and ammo much faster.
  1. Pistols: always use akimbo(duel): two shots are better than one.
    1. Remington 1858 Model: Never! EVER! buy this pistol. It takes 2 headshots to get a kill, and chances for a headshot are less than a body shot.
    2. Smith & Wesson Schofield: The second best weapon in the game. You spawn with at least $20.... use it to get one of these. Your chances of getting a kill with a Remington'58+Scholfield is much greater than with a single Remington'58. The Schofield is also great because it has a very fast reload time. When there is a lot of people playing on one server, I use this to my advantage when reload time is worth more than shooting power.
    3. Colt Peacemaker: This is the gun to get. Great range, even better damage, but bad reload time. If you spawn near money, buy a peacemaker. The best gun in the game: plan and simple.
  2. Rifles: I am not a huge rifle fan. I find the pistols are just as accurate, only rifles you can just press and hold fire... no trick timing to master.
    1. Winchester 1866 Model: I don't use rifles. They are not good for close range, and my peacemakers are just as good at long range. Of course, I wont argue having one that I looted from a fallen player. I think the Winchester 1866 just sounds cool.
    2. Colt Rifle: Faster fire rate makes the colt a better weapon than the Winchester 1866. Doesn't sound as cool.
    3. Sharps Rifle: If your in close range maps... don't buy this gun. I hardly every get a kill on the first shot, and that all you have with the sharps. The cool thin with the sharps is you can mount a scope on it and zoom in. Very handy for long/very long range combat. Just don't stay still should you decide to snipe.
  3. Shotguns: kings of close quarters.
    1. Remington 12 Gauge: The best all round shotgun. The switch time is more than the Sawed-off, but the spread is less and range is greater. This gun is the pistol yielder's worst enemy. Its good for short/mid range and the damage is just devastating. I recommend the single fire mod (one shot at a time) rather than the double shot because of unpredictable lag. If you miss the first shot, then you still have an equally powerful second shot.
    2. Sawed-Off Shotgun: king of train. More powerful than the 12guage and it has a very fast switch time. This is very nice for me because I use pistols and then I can very quickly switch to and fire the sawed off. I do have a problem with lag with the sawed off though. Firing both barrels brings my computer almost to a FPS halt.
    3. Winchester 1897 Model: this gun really gets my blood boiling. It has 5 shots, it is good for mid range, and it has a very small spread. This makes it great for shooting through walls and stopping someone dead in their tracks. This is my preferred shotgun.
  4. Machineguns
    1. Gatling Gun: fires powerful, long range bullets in fast succession (COOL), but your stuck in one place(NOT COOL). I hate not being able to move, therefore I hate using the Gatling. If you use the Gatling, you will become every bodies target.
  5. Misc
    1. Boiler Plate: its armor. the more you have the longer you live.... but don't buy it. its a waste because I always seem to die to leg shots, arm shots, and head shots: all of which are not covered by the boiler plate. If you are low on health and you have $15, then yes grab a boiler plate, but chances are you'll die anyway.
    2. Scope: Can only be use with the sharps, so only buy it when you have the sharps!
    3. Ammunition Belt gives you full ammo for all weapons. If you dont shoot 48 pistol rounds, 24 shotgun rounds, or 24 rifle rounds, I don't recommend buying this.
    4. Dynamite is great for blowing stuff up. Also handy for setting taps because you can shoot it on the ground or set it of with a light Molotov Cocktail.
    5. Molotov Cocktail are great for burning your opponent or just blocking their path. Nobody wants to walk through a burning fire!
    6. Knives: tied of using guns? You can slash your opponents, or through a knife at them from afar. Nothing says "OWNED!" like sneaking behind you opponent and knifing them in the back!
  6. Prim. Ammo: I usually buy this when I'm empty. I don't know how long I'm going to be alive and its cheaper than the ammo belt
  7. Sec. Ammo:I usually buy this when I'm empty. I don't know how long I'm going to be alive and its cheaper than the ammo belt. If I'm low on both primary and secondary, then I'll buy the ammo belt.


Config
It is very important to know your config. I highly suggest going through your config and learning/setting all your keys. The big ones to know are: Last-used weapon (quick swap), crouch, reload, fire1, fire2. I don't want to have this thread become a config discussion thread, but knowing your config is as important as knowing the maps.

Conclusion
Now unfortunately, a lot of these pointers pertain to any first person shooter. This has mainly been "Western according to Pardner." My hope is that any one of the gunslingers (you know who you are) will point out there most favorite trick, or bring up a new one of their own. Just remember that the game is for fun, and that anyone of those experienced gunslingers will be more than willing to help you: they are just happy that there is new blood in town.
-Pardner

NOTE: maybe I'll add some screens later. I realize that this post is long and filled with too much text. I'll try to revise it later.
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Postby Joe Kari » Wed May 28, 2008 6:50 pm

Nice tutorial Pardner ! ;)

About the boiler plate, I'm not fully agree because it depends on many things, for example the game mode : I always buy a boiler plate while playing Bank Robbery. If it can save your life, your team might be able to win ! In Deathmatch, you don't care about how many time you die, only your kills are important, but in Bank Robbery or Round Team Play, you have only one life, so boiler plate is a good strategic choice.
That's true boiler plate don't cover head, arms and legs, so it depends on your opponent style. Boiler plate is very effective against shotgun. If you don't have boiler plate, you will die from a close and a mid-range remington 12 gauge double-shot, but if you have a boiler plate, you have lot of chance of surviving a mid-range double-shot. On the contrary, playing against Pardner and his akimbo peacemaker make boiler plate useless because he loves shooting your legs :D
In Deathmatch, most of time I buy a boiler plate when I have all weapons (two peacemaker and a shotgun), if I have at least 40$ left and at least 60~70 HP left... because having all weapon is something you can't expect to have all the time, so you should keep alive !

About the ammo belt, again it depends on the gametype and your weapon set. If you buy an winchester 1897 shotgun (the one with 5 shell) and play a Bank Robbery or a Round Teamplay, it's good to have more ammo, because this weapon is ammo eater, and 12 shell isn't enough most of time (in Bank Robbery, you can only buy weapon in your respawn area and only during 60 second, so if you run out of ammo, most of time you can't return to your respawn area).


I think the Winchester 1866 just sounds cool.

Yeah ! I love its sound too ! :D


About the winchester 1897 shotgun, I think it is more effective in deathmatch, where only few people carry boiler plate, and most of time aren't full HP, and you can reload it very fast, so you can mass kill a lot ! But it isn't so usefull in Bank Robbery or Round Teamplay. If you have someone covering your butt, remington 12 gauge is perfect for teamplay.
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Postby Pardner » Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:01 pm

Due to the amount of new players on the servers and the forums (and a nudge from Breli) I moved this thread back out into the public.

Gunslingers: feel free to post your thoughts, I will try to keep this thread cleaned up.
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Re: Beginners Guide to Playing SG Multiplayer

Postby Ugly » Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:11 am

Pardner wrote:[*]If you see someone with a chat bubble about their head, please don't shoot them. Please be a good sport about chat killing and buy killing. Like wise, please do not start a conversation while you are out in the open. Find a nice safe sport to chat. This prevents any sore feelings.


Chat killing and buy killing seem to be part of the game on the servers at the moment. People seem to respect the chat bubble on OpenArena but on SG you seem to be fair game and I've adjusted my own behaviour accordingly. If you don't get shot whilst buying you get people who stand behind you and shoot you as soon as you've finished to steal what you've bought. I'm not sure which is worse, at least if you're shot before you buy then you haven't wasted your money.

[*] Don't ever buy something in the open. Always find a spot where you can see people approach and remember that people can hear you buying new stuff. Experienced players will bind keys to buy common weapon choices.
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Postby Pardner » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:14 pm

Yes I've noticed this too. Any seasoned play will see you, then run in another direction. Also, if a seasoned player sees someone come up while they are chatting, and that person spares them... that seasoned player will not follow them.


So many times I've come up on someone buying, decided not to shoot them, only to get shot in the back as I try to run away.


I suggest calmly asking them not to chat/buy kill. Maybe they will changed their methods.
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Postby Joe Kari » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:21 pm

IMO, chat killing is not fine, but buy killing is a part of the game. And some people buy ammunition during a fight, and even weapon (sometime I eventually buy a sawed-off when my pistols are empty, and my opponent start to run with a knife... of course if I will not complain if I get killed before I finish :P ).
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Postby Breli » Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:26 pm

Just to throw in two additional pieces here:

1. The whole point of the game is having fun not being the most efficient player ;) (unless thats your idea of having fun)

2. Buying weapons: with so many players on the servers nowadays you dont really have to buy anything. There are enough weapons lying around. Try to save some cash so that you can buy more expensive\interesting weapons and experiment with them.
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Postby CoolHand » Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:07 pm

IMHO,
this should be a sticky in the saloon instead of being in the Doc's office...
Great post, wish I'd have found it when I was a n00b... (not that I'm still not compared to most of you guys, but I have learned most of this now ;)
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Postby DeUgli » Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:46 am

CoolHand wrote:this should be a sticky in the saloon instead of being in the Doc's office...
Good idea, CoolHand. I know that I end up answering basic questions from n00bs ingame, so increasing the visibility of the how-to would be good.

(Of course, ya still have to RTFM.) :)
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Postby Lucky Bro » Mon Apr 06, 2009 5:23 pm

If I get the idea of the topic right it is like "guide: how to survive in prairie". But not the codex or something similar to it.
I mean the following:
Seems many new players read this topic and now they like to shout in the chat something like "Don't shoot my back!", "Don't kill me while I'm bying!", "Don't cheat on me!", "Don't kill me at spawn point!", "Don't play camper!" and so on (million of forms depending on speaking and thinking level of talking guy).
What I want to say and what you should expect from game - no one owe you anything.
That is only your responsibility to follow the guide and be aware of your back and so one. And sometimes it's about your luck. Did you forget the Doom's telefrag kills? If not then you should remember how fun it was.
I don't understand why you should blame someone for killing you when you're chatting. He playing the game and you're chatting.
I like Pardner's guide. But I don't like the whiney guys. Did you ever saw in western movies someone blaming opponents for theirs behavior? Why? Because then they’ll become weak. And then dead.
I understand that you angry about such kills. But please don’t be whiney. Be cool. Watch any movie with Clint acting in sixteenth time. A lot of times he’s out of luck.
You didn’t buy your favorite gun? Your money were stolen?
Isn’t it a real day-by-day situation?
Ask any long-playing guy (not me, I'm recent one :)) and he’ll tell you that it’s possible to kill anyone even with two Remingtons.
Personally I don’t like campers. For two reasons – in team games they spend a lot of others time. And the second – they are easy-to-kill targets in one-on-one games. But still I like to play with them. Why? Because they make me think of new tactics of advance (especially in team games).
And some back-shooters actually showed me the power of tactics. It’s not just back-shooting it’s a trap and then back-shoot. Which makes this act absolutely legal and even fun. Because it is fun to play when you have something to learn.
I'd never used the roofs and had never wanted to explore whole map until I had a match with one tough guy. Because those times I thought my precision is all I have. But sometimes (don’t you even try to speak of ping :)) it’s really the way to win. It’s so exiting one-on-one battles when both players are tactically skilled.

I probably shouldn’t write this post because usually I don’t pay any attention to these little things.. But sometimes it just becomes ridicules.
I enter a game and shot unknown to me guy and he went like “Camper!”. And then each time I killed anyone others go to chat “camper”. I never acted like camper (I don’t like them and actually I can’t).. Or at least I suppose so. I don’t care about their opinions because I just don’t know these players personally. But I don’t like such behavior.
Next time there was a small map and server was full of players. Once I entered the house I did three kills in a row just by waking from one room to another. And they go like “Spawn killer!”. I decide not to kill newbies if they will spawn next to me. So, I saw the newbie spawned. I went to other room. Waited. Then I went to previous room and shot him in the face and he went again “Spawn killer!”. If I got him right – he wanted me when I saw him to get away and spend my time by looking for other players. And me be thankful if he’ll decide not to shoot me.
Once I did a nice trick – guy was waiting me to out from the corner, so I decided to go by the roof and then kill him from back. I done this and he went then “Back-shooter! It’s not fair!”. Oh, my.. He thinks it is he who decides what is fair and what is not fair just because he’s out of vigilance.

So, again and as the conclusion – you free to act as you like. Anyone has its own style. You can’t blame bandit for being bandit. No one owes you anything. You can’t get respect just for blaming others.

Excuse me for so long post.. I can't write it shorter.
Feel free to correct me because I'm just usual player as you. And I can change my mind if you'll give me reason to. I'm quick to learn ;)
Last edited by Lucky Bro on Thu May 28, 2009 1:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby DeUgli » Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:26 pm

Lucky Bro wrote:And some back-shooters actually showed me the power of tactics.
It worked for Robert Ford. :lol:

About camping, I argue that "it ain't camping, it's defense."
In a game where you can camp by the health powerup, it is unfair, but there is no health powerup in SG.
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Postby Pardner » Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:55 pm

DeUgli wrote:
Lucky Bro wrote:And some back-shooters actually showed me the power of tactics.
It worked for Pardner. :lol:


Fixed. I had to say it before Red did!
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Postby Lucky Bro » Thu May 28, 2009 1:44 pm

DeUgli wrote:About camping, I argue that "it ain't camping, it's defense."
In a game where you can camp by the health powerup, it is unfair, but there is no health powerup in SG.


When it is defence I call it defence ;)
As far as I understand camping is process when one person is sitting in one place and waiting for players to shoot from that place. Without moving to other place. Which makes that process kind of stupid one (except those situations when your opponent is expecting you to change the place).
Instead of camping sniping implies the change of place. Shoot then move to other place. And such players are much harder to defeat.

I think as long as game allows you to camp -> camp is fair. In some games there are server options to prevent camping behaviour. And sometimes it is about admins of current server. Since they are admins -> they are the persons who dictate the rules (because they have the power to kick players).
Personally I don't have anything against camping behaviour at all except those stupid situations when my time is wasted by campers on public servers. I mean the ones when there are only two players stayed alive in BR and both are camping. Or more players but still they all are camping. Again - I'm talking about camping, i.e. when they are sitting in one place without changing it and there are about 5-6 players who are waiting them to move. And as I said before I count it as fair behaviour though I may don't like it personally.
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Postby TanteTrude » Sat May 30, 2009 2:44 am

Lucky, i totally agree with you on this topic! Sometimes its funny when some person is in one small area for a minute and then be abused as a camper. Everytime moving is a good strategy not to be killed, but some weapons are for hiding and sniping (like the sharps rifle :-) or to be in a place for a longer time (like the gat). Its just another art of fighting and thats o.k. but with the exceptions Lucky told before.
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Postby ReD NeCKersoN » Sat May 30, 2009 5:00 am

If I am camping & someone complains I say this: "You know where I am so it's easy to get me now, right? Come & get me." :wink: Only noobs complain about strategy in deathmatch. But I agree about the frustrations in team games when players refuse to move & keep the dead waiting. Nothing we can do about that though.
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