plagiarize said:Unreal Tournament 3 Deathmatch/Team Deathmatch tips.
Just based on a lot of what I've seen playing yesterday, a lot of people are obviously new to the series and unaware of a number of key things about UT that make it different.
First and foremost a game as fast paced as UT, if you aren't looking over your shoulder every few seconds you're as good as dead. Get a mouse and keyboard if you can... and once you do, be sure to turn the mouse sensitivity up until it seems slightly too fast. As soon as you get used to it, turn it up again. Keep doing that until you've hit 20 which is the maximum.
I'm not saying you can't be competitive on a pad... you absolutely can. I know I've been beaten by pad owners... but the fact remains that there are things you can do on a mouse and keyboard that you cannot do on a pad. Try whipping around and shooting someone behind you on a pad. Try pulling off pinpoint alt fire goo shots or shock combos.
If you absolutely can't bear to play on mouse and keyboard, stick to the rapid fire high damage weapons like the primary fire of the link gun and the alt fire of the chaingun. Make sure you aim ahead of players. IE, where they are going to be by the time the projectile hits them. Don't waste time trying to get shock combos on a pad. Your rate of damage with those two other weapons, plus the fact that you won't need to stand still to fire them, more than makes up for the lesser damage.
Both those weapons eat through health at an alarming rate. The games I played on pad only servers those easily served me the best. If you can get good enough on a pad to hit headshots with the sniper rifle in a game as fast as UT then you are a pad god.
Learn all the weapons and their alt fires. Learn where they are on each map. Learn where the ammo is on each map. Learn where the power ups are on each map.
Can you see a power up way up high that you can't figure out how to reach? Jump boots may help, but if there's no jump boots, look to see if there is a lift nearby. There is a trick in UT games called lift jumping. Jump when you're going up on a lift, and the momentum of the jump is added to the speed you're going up on the lift. There are a lot of items and power ups that can only be easily reached by mastering the lift jump.
The shock rifle has a powerful combo. If you fire off one of the slow moving alt fire balls, and shoot it with the regular fire beam, it explodes in a very deadly small black hole. Definately useful, but practice it offline. Trying it against real people when you can't do it just going to get you dead.
Everyone underuses the goo gun. EVERYONE. There is always ample ammo for it, there is almost never anyone camping out trying to kill people that go to the weapon spawn and it is one of the most powerful weapons in the game. Most people try it out briefly, kill themselves, or fail to get kills with it and never willingly pick it up again. The meat of the weapon is the alt fire. Hold it down to charge up a bigger, slower moving, shot of goo. If you hit your opponent with that, it will stick to them and very rapidly burn through their health. Even better, unlike the rockets, you can hold a charged goo shot indefinately.
It WILL kill them. If there is someone running around with a tonne of health and shields, the googun is your quickest bet to kill them, but again, hitting goo shots at anything but close distance takes a lot of practice, and is even more difficult on a pad.
The Rocket Launcher alt fire stores up to three missiles and fires them out at once. There is an important, but useful, trick here too though. Normally it fires them out in a horizontal spread, but if you hold down the primary fire as you let go, they instead fire out in a tight cluster. This doesn't come in handy often, but often enough that it can make the difference between death and a kill in certain situations.
Don't overlook the dual enforcers either. If you're pretty good at aiming at an enemies head, dual enforcers alt fire is a good enough weapon that you'll probably be surprised at how much of a fight you can put up with them. Damn cool to get kills with them too.
The flak cannon ricochets twice. You need to be wary of this for your own safety first and foremost, but secondly it means that you'll often be able to bounce shots off walls and ceilings to tag enemies that aren't even within line of sight of you. That usually means they can't shoot back... which is a good thing. If an enemy is further away, your best bet is using the alt fire and trying to arc a shot to land near them. The nearer to 45 degrees above horizontal you aim, the further it goes. Practice to get a feeling for the range of shots.
Try to always be aware of where the nearest health or ammo for your weapon of choice is. If you're in the same room as it and you need it, you should be able to walk backwards into it so you don't have to take your aim off of your enemy. This is even more important on a pad where turning is much slower.
Learn to glance at your health and ammo regularly and often. If nothing else, it should be the first thing you do after killing anyone in the near vicinity. Last thing you want to do is get caught with your pants down without ammo, or be running around trying to kill people with 3 health when you could be running to the nearest health.
Remember, health vials can put your health over 100. If there are health tanks and health vials in the near vicinity take the tanks first, then the vials.
Practice dodging, wall dodging (dodge away from a wall you're touching when in the air) and double jumping. The more unpredictably you move the harder you are to hit. Also, you might find some alternate and unexpected routes through the level, letting you clear jumps you wouldn't normally be able to. That gives you more options and greater ability to get where you need to be.
High ground is your friend... but should you be stuck on low ground, either use a weapon that arcs downwards like the flak alt fire or the biorifle alt fire, or if there is a suitable ceiling, use the flak cannon primary fire.
I recommended it earlier for pad users, but the alt fire on the spiker is very powerful. You just have to be able to lead your shots. As a big plus, it really throws a player back when it hits them, and if they're near a wall it will pin them too it making them a stationary target. I'm a big fan of the spiker.
Anything that disorients your opponent is good. The shock rifle's primary fire tosses people about pretty nastily. If they're stood on or near a precipice, consider blowing them off the side with it. Saves ammo. Espescially nasty in low grav situations.
Don't be afraid to stand still, but do it sparingly. Most people don't expect someone that's been jumping all over the place like a mexican bean to just randomly stop. Don't always double jump. Don't always dodge the same way. Don't always wall jump when you can. Mix it up.
Always be thinking about shields and powerups. Picking up shields is never a bad idea no matter how much health you have. Move from shield/powerup spawn to spawn, taking different routes each time (heading towards combat whenever you can hear it, people already fighting are likely to have less health) and make sure your route brings you past ammo for whatever you need on the way.
All that is just the basics. Be creative. As fast paced and hectic as UT3 is, your best weapon is your mind. If you can convince another player that you're better than them, even if you aren't, they'll probably go to pieces around you. Never forget that.
Awesome advice plagiarize! Just bringing this up to the new page!
PS: Some overheads of some of the maps with weapon placements.
http://www.beyondunreal.com/content/articles/219_1.php
