The happy days as a newbie (column from q2players.org)

[daelmun]

I've writting a bunch of columns on www.q2players.org, and thought maybe I'd just put one of those up here as I think this one is fitting the tastyspleen community to some degree. It's actually a tribute to the unexperienced player who learns the game the hard way. It's actually not that far from being what I've been through on my way from complete and utter newbieness to some who is fairly skilled.


The happy days as a newbie
by daelmun on 2005-03-14 at 11:42:43

Do you ever remember how much fun you had when you were totally new to quake2? When you didn't know anything about how to play the game, how much fun it was to learn new stuff and discover things along the way when playing on servers getting beaten, and getting beaten hard. This column is a tribute to those days, when you had to think differently on how to play the game, when not everything was given in advance. When you had to be a little more creative in the way you played.

"Wow, it is dark as hell here, I bet noone can find me here"
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The funniest thing about quake2 as a newbie was to be sneaky. I don't mean sneaky in the way you are sneaky now. We didn't make fake sounds as newbies, cause we didn't use sounds when playing. We didn't do suprising attacks with low health either, cause damn, we were low on health all the time! No, we were sneaky in the dark. We wanted to get the frags done in style, no fancy aiming or speedy chases please. No, we waited in the cover of the dark for the enemy to come to us, with a super shotgun or a railgun, maybe even a rocketlauncher if we accidentally came across one lying around free for us to steal. "Sorry about your sudden death, mister, but I really need that gun". Finding a good spot to hide was hard, and getting there alive was even harder. We always knew that this one guy would kill us at an instant as soon as he appeared. We crossed our fingers prayed he was busy slaughtering some other defenseless newbie at the waterside, we even saved our precious rocketlauncher ammo not firing at players running past us.

5 rockets were all we had, and we were on our way to the sewer.

It wasn't that long way really, just avoid the nades coming down lift, and pray that the camper at lower rocket launcher already was taken care of by mr. speedy over there. Getting the rocketlauncher out of the tunnel was half the job done. And we didn't let a death or two stop us, no way, we were determinded to hide in that sewer and getting that long planned frag. The idea was pure genious, hide in the middle of the sewer-corridor in between the pillars, and suprise the guy trying to escape the water area where mr. speedy was shooting blue trails out of his ass. Kill the weak in the cover of the dark. That was a winning concept, failproof too. Well, we quickly ran down the stairway, into the dark. "No sudden moves with that mouse now, else you lose track of your direction" you kept telling yourself. And we didn't move our mouse and inch after getting into the sewer before being in position. It was dark and scary, and we waited. And we waited. We checked the scoreboard "mr. speedy 49" we read, and on the very bottom we could see "me 2". Nah, we couldn't get on the top of the scoreboard anyways, this wasn't about winning. We were just gonna be sneaky.

We waited. A splash sound! Ok, prepare attack. Fire rockets!

Rockets were of course not fired, as mr. speedy placed a slug in our ass before we got to see him. So much for the "hiding in the dark" idea. Genious in my ass.

"First try at speedjumping"
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Now, sneakyness aside, what we soon realized was that mr. speedy wasn't a speedhack. No sir, he was a jumper. "Well, that can't be too hard to do, just find a guide on internet and tomorrow I'll chase his speedy ass around". Guide found. Press strafe and forward and jump. Strafejumping. Piece of cake. Ok, we were back on the server. Rocketlauncher located and taken, escape successfull. Healthstatus: 100. Location: arena floor. Now, what was the deal? Press forward of course. Then strafe left or right, I can't remember, I'll try strafing right first. Then jump. And bounce.

Well, it worked sorta, we certainly moved faster than before. But the direction got all messed up, and we were like Bambi on ice. Any obstacle would turn us into slow newbies again. It was like you were driving a Ferrari but then suddenly realizing you were still walking. "Well, who cares, I'll catch him as long as there are no corners or boxes or stairs, and if someone doesn't fire a rocket at me, hell, I'll kill him easily with this speed! If i just can chase him from the rocketlauncher tunnel across the arena. Mr. Speedy is gonna pay."

We were eager now, with our newfound source of speed, we came up with a new plan to kill anyone with pure speed and rocketlauncher spamming. All we needed to do was to sorta hide at the boxes by lower rocketlauncher tunnel and suprise mr. speedy after he succesfully had killed mr. newbiecamper in the tunnel. He would of course run straight across the arena, and we would just outrun him feeding him rocket after rocket. And in the cover of the dark of the boxes he wouldn't be able to see what hit him. Two cunning strategies merged into a super ingenious plan! We were no more mr. newbie, we were gonna beat mr. speedy, and beat him hard!

Weapon carefully chosen, and 4 rockets are left. More than enough. Position: near the machine gun by lower rocketlauncher. Healthstatus: 47. No room for error in other words. Mr. Speedy has just entered the tunnel, and we eagerly await the death of mr. newbiecamper. Ok, now he is coming, running out of the tunnel. We jump after him, pressing strafe and forward and hell, we're even remembering to press fire. Rockets are nowhere close of hitting him, as he take a sudden turn towards the Super Shotgun stairs. Still baffled by the sudden change of direction we are running straight into the wall of the arena forgetting to trun and killing ourselves with the rocket fired at the wall. How lucky can mr. speedy get!

"Weaponchanging"
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After practicing speedjumping for hours, and learning that hiding in the dark maybe wasn't such a stellar idea after all, we decided to make a different approach. We noticed how mr. speedy kept using different guns, sometimes he railed you, but sometimes he chained you after a rail! Even though he clearly had more slugs to use. Now, that was something we could do too. New plan as follows:

1: Get the supershotgun
2: Get the railgun
3: Locate mr. speedy
4: Hit him with the railgun
5: Hit him with the super shotgun
6: Steal his railgun and run

Simple plan, yet it has some weak spots. We needed to be able to switch the weapon, and using the weapprev and weapnext commands we discovered it was easy to switch between guns. Another weak spot was that we had to be able to survive a hit with mr. speedy's railgun. Health and armor collection was the way to go. So, we added:

1.a: Get health and armor

Also, someone told us that to have visible weapon was newbish, and that it just take up space on the screen you and decrease your visibility. And while we change the hand to 2, we bind weapnext and weapprev on the keys on either side of the arrows. Ha, now we're close to pros, with new altered config, and a almost failproof plan.

First spawn, we spawn in mega room. Great. Run straight to the armor, and jump up. Grenade picked up, allthough not in the plan, picking up ammo can't be bad! Mr. speedy is already located by water. Armor picked up after a few failed attempts to jump up (those boxes are tricky to jump up, need to work on that). Next destination is the super shotgun. Easy, we have practiced speedjumping there two hours straight, it should prove only a minor challenge. Supershotgun picked up, and we see that mr. speedy already is peeking out of mega railing in the arena. Should be perfect timing, as we now head for the water. Railgun picked up, and even some shards. We should have more than enough health and armor to dispatch mr. speedy in arena. All we need to do is to rail him once, and then use the SSG to finish him off. And with the spread of the SSG that shouldn't be too hard.

We run up the stairs, avoiding the sewer as there might be some newbies hiding in the dark down there trying to sneak up on us. "Haha, such stupid newbies hiding in sewers" we think, as we run from the mega towards the ssg again. Mr. speedy is probably near the arena. And if we sneak up on him from behind we will get the first shot on him! Oops, don't forget to change to the railgun. "What key was it? It was one of those numeric keys i think" We try to press all the numeric keys till the railgun shows up. Relieved we noticed that before confronting our foe, we jump down the corridors near the ssg. Before launching the attack we suddenly remember that we just use weapprev/weapnext instead of hitting the supershotgun key, as we have bind those keys next to the arrow keys. Then we don't need to lift up our hand from the keyboard! Ok, we enters the arena from below the super shotgun, and we see mr. speedy is railing someone standing near the machinegun facing down the lower rocketlauncher tunnel! Finally luck is paying back on us, and we fire the rail. Hit!!!!

Mr. speedy turns around, but we have already prepared being hit by his rail. And while he rails us, we just the press weapprev key once. And smiling we press the fire key deliviring the final blow to his sorry ass (well, his stomach to be honest, he is facing us, and looking really angry). Click, click, bounce bounce. There, right in front of us lies a lousy handgrenade not even close to being in harms distance of mr. speedy. So suprised by the sudden realization that we are in deep trouble, we try to speedrun away, ending up killed by our own nade. So much for the sneakup/weaponchanging attack.

Summary
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Well, the point was to show that newbies aren't stupid. I'm really sure a lot of newbies plays with a lot more thought than most of you guys who are playing q2dm1 all the time. They just lack the skill, and their attempts often fails miserably ending up in funny situations. But I know for a fact that they have a lot of fun, I certainly had a shitload of fun being a newbie. I learned so much so fast, and I've done all the newbie mistakes, and I've laughed my ass off too. But in the end, you don't need to be good at quake2 to enjoy the game. But also, some of the fun lies in the fact that you always can get a little better, do things slightly differently. Don't stop thinking on how you play just cause you suddenly hit every rail. And never stop having fun while playing, and realize that even the guy hiding at sewer can have the best time camping down there.

[Om3ga]

  *claps his hands* thank you very much for the presentation dude. it had very much touched my soul. *weeps in joy*

[daelmun]

I like this column, it's one of my own favorites of all the columns I've written. It's not cause it's infested with grammatical errrors and typos, but cause it touches something that I think many tend to ignore after a while. That things you take for granted now after playing quake2 for X years are far from obvious for the ones just starting to play. And they use whatever means they can to get a frag. And they can't outaim you, so they need to think in other directions, use the map to their own advantage. Camping and spamming and hiding, that's all parts of the game that some might find cheap etc, but it's really the first step (and hopefully not the last!) on the skill ladder in quake2. Thinking about how to improve by learning from ones mistakes, learning from better players and trying to put a personal touch to your play.

And as I mentioned in the summary, it's also a message to the better players to never think they've reached the peak, and that they can't improve. People who play q2dm1 all the time starts to play on what I call autopilot, they barely think anymore, everything comes so easy. But then some of the charm of the game goes away too. And I don't meassure the amount of fun people have by their skill or playing style, but more to their approach to the game. Uneven on the skillevel, but maybe the newbie at times has more fun than the experienced player, and actually thinks more than the guy running around railing. Think about that next time you win a round of FFA

[Om3ga]

hmm. thank alot anyway tho. i should make a topic on what *ahem* not even gonna finish that one, cause my idea will be stolen.

It's not cause it's infested with grammatical errrors and typos

ok.....   time for me to go, cause i smell smoke already, since ive posted here, and i dont wanna bring any flames in your topic. its not about you btw k.

[daelmun]

Seriously, I have no idea what you're talking about at all.

But yeah, please do your flaming in other people's threads if you intend to do that, and not here. If not, feel free to use this one as you like

[Om3ga]

hmm would like to explain, but dont have the guts to do so  . and i also hate others messing my topics, and myself messing up others.

[daelmun]

Well, this is a column I wrote back in March so it's like 4 months old now, not directed at anyone, just thought people might want to read it. Not trying to point any fingers or whatever, quite the opposite. But hard to understand what you're getting at when you wont say it.

[pantaloons]

I'm going to guess Omega took your comment about, "It's not cause it's infested with grammatical errrors and typos", in some manner other than the self-deprecating jab at the superficial errors in your own article that I believe you intended it as.  It took me a little while to see this, but I guess if you reparse your comment about errors and typos with the right kind of paranoia, it could sound like a weird backhanded slam on someone else's (alleged) posting style.

   Anyway - that's just a guess...

-p

[daelmun]

Ah, well in that case I don't see any harm done. If you are so aware of your own problems with grammar etc that you take any reference to it as an attack on yourself, then it's just best to improve and work on it. Nothing more to it.

And it was meant as a kick in my own ass, as I am too lazy to spellcheck and read over the columns before posting it. And I see a lot of errors that annoy me, but it should be readable

Thanks for clearing it up pantaloons. I really had no idea whatsoever he was talking about, but I just skip the flaming threads anyway, so I'm not aware of what's going on all the time.

[themuffinman]

Another Deal thread, another page-long essay 

[daelmun]

Yeah, but this is an old column that I wrote a while back. So I wont say it's a new thread or new column or anything. Just instead of just linking to it, I just pasted it and did some font changes here and there

[10zx]

man.. I was sad to see that end.. I was really enjoying that and reminincing on the good times I had when I was at the same skill level as Omega.S is now

[themuffinman]

...when I was at the same skill level as Omega.S is now

lol!!!! 

[tr3y]

I really enjoyed reading that.

[[BTF]Gator]

Yeah, that is what the challenge is after you have been playing it for years, to keep it fun.

Me personally, i relish my own n00bnish and vow to never let it go.  To me n00bism is innocense.  And there is joy in that innocense.