Plz recommend a FPS to practice aiming?
googiegames
Join Date: 2012-12-22 Member: 175870Members
Join Date: 2012-12-22 Member: 175870Members
Dear community,
To start off, I feel Natural Selection 2 is an amazing game. I'm glad I purchased it, it's quite the breath of fresh air and an incredibly enjoyable experience. I just wish that I knew how to aim. :/
What would you all recommend for a n00b to practice twitch aiming that would be broadly applicable to all FPS in general, I'm particularly looking more specifically for any FPS that has a mode that would help n00bs like me improve my aiming? We can go back in time to older games if need be. I've bought so many FPS because I want to love the genre and get good at it, but I'm a terrible player in all of them. Should I practice games from early on, like Half-Life, Quake, Doom, UT2004, CS:Source? Or are there other games that would be better to hone skills that are more modern, like Left 4 Dead 2, Killing Floor, Borderlands, TF2, Blacklight Retribution, Tribes Ascend, Quake Live, Black Mesa, Half-Life 2, etc? Or should I just keep at this game?
Some people say practice makes perfect, but in my case, practice makes persistent. And I am persistently bad at FPS. My problem is, no matter the situation, when it's a 1v1 in any FPS, I pretty much can't hold my own unless it's against a pure n00b to gaming in general. I'm decent / ok at other genres, but suck at FPS and also fighters (like Street Fighter, Tekken, etc). When it comes to aiming, unless the object is stationary, I almost always, always miss.
I've found the only class in FPS I really can play is the support/ medic classes like the Gorge for aliens, the welder for the Marines, or the Medic in TF2, because they don't really need to twitch aim. Rather, these support classes rely on mostly healing the one who can twitch aim. But when the person I'm healing dies and I have to fend for myself 1v1, I'm unable to survive such encounters because I always miss the enemy. I'd like to improve my aiming to the point that someday I can twitch aim for others and help carry teams.
In every FPS, I'm always ranked lowest on the team, or amongst the lowest. I played one game as aliens here and I got one kill with 20+ deaths, the most deaths on either team and least kills. Many of these deaths were even just 1v1 encounters, that I SHOULD have won if I had better aiming skills. :(
I've found that personality-wise I'm more used to turn-based games rather than twitch-based games. Like RPGs, or chess, or even games like League of Legends I'm not the best but I can play comfortably. I'm also more of a defensive player rather than an aggressive type. I like to think before I act, and when twitch aiming I feel I don't have time to calculate and just try shooting as fast as I can, oftentimes resulting in the enemy getting the better of me.
Or should I just accept that personality-wise I'm best suited for support/ medic roles and never branch out? I feel like support/ medic roles aren't true FPS as they aren't really primarily focused on shooting, so I'd feel a bit disappointed in myself if that's the only role I can ever play decently.
FPS have always been my weakness and I'd like to know which FPS you guys feel would be best to hone skills for twitch aiming. Looking forward to your wisdom and insight. Thanks!
To start off, I feel Natural Selection 2 is an amazing game. I'm glad I purchased it, it's quite the breath of fresh air and an incredibly enjoyable experience. I just wish that I knew how to aim. :/
What would you all recommend for a n00b to practice twitch aiming that would be broadly applicable to all FPS in general, I'm particularly looking more specifically for any FPS that has a mode that would help n00bs like me improve my aiming? We can go back in time to older games if need be. I've bought so many FPS because I want to love the genre and get good at it, but I'm a terrible player in all of them. Should I practice games from early on, like Half-Life, Quake, Doom, UT2004, CS:Source? Or are there other games that would be better to hone skills that are more modern, like Left 4 Dead 2, Killing Floor, Borderlands, TF2, Blacklight Retribution, Tribes Ascend, Quake Live, Black Mesa, Half-Life 2, etc? Or should I just keep at this game?
Some people say practice makes perfect, but in my case, practice makes persistent. And I am persistently bad at FPS. My problem is, no matter the situation, when it's a 1v1 in any FPS, I pretty much can't hold my own unless it's against a pure n00b to gaming in general. I'm decent / ok at other genres, but suck at FPS and also fighters (like Street Fighter, Tekken, etc). When it comes to aiming, unless the object is stationary, I almost always, always miss.
I've found the only class in FPS I really can play is the support/ medic classes like the Gorge for aliens, the welder for the Marines, or the Medic in TF2, because they don't really need to twitch aim. Rather, these support classes rely on mostly healing the one who can twitch aim. But when the person I'm healing dies and I have to fend for myself 1v1, I'm unable to survive such encounters because I always miss the enemy. I'd like to improve my aiming to the point that someday I can twitch aim for others and help carry teams.
In every FPS, I'm always ranked lowest on the team, or amongst the lowest. I played one game as aliens here and I got one kill with 20+ deaths, the most deaths on either team and least kills. Many of these deaths were even just 1v1 encounters, that I SHOULD have won if I had better aiming skills. :(
I've found that personality-wise I'm more used to turn-based games rather than twitch-based games. Like RPGs, or chess, or even games like League of Legends I'm not the best but I can play comfortably. I'm also more of a defensive player rather than an aggressive type. I like to think before I act, and when twitch aiming I feel I don't have time to calculate and just try shooting as fast as I can, oftentimes resulting in the enemy getting the better of me.
Or should I just accept that personality-wise I'm best suited for support/ medic roles and never branch out? I feel like support/ medic roles aren't true FPS as they aren't really primarily focused on shooting, so I'd feel a bit disappointed in myself if that's the only role I can ever play decently.
FPS have always been my weakness and I'd like to know which FPS you guys feel would be best to hone skills for twitch aiming. Looking forward to your wisdom and insight. Thanks!
Comments
When you play alien it's not as much about aiming as it is about movement. Always when you die as an alien, think of why you died. Aliens are in a unique position in NS2 where you almost always have the choice of whether or not to fight, from where you should attack, and how you should attack. You always have a choice, you know there are marines in the next room. What do you do? Think of your options. Is there any point to attacking? If they are 4 marines, it might be wise not to attack at all. If you decide to attack, from what angles can you attack? Can you get behind them? Can you parasite them from a distance? Can you get a team mate to help you?
Every time you die, both as alien and marine, think of why. That's how you improve.
And to help you with the aiming, here's a secret: Positioning is vital. Keep your distance. Are you about to turn a corner? Follow the opposite wall, there might be an alien right around that corner and in that case those extra meters will be the difference between a hit and a miss.
1) Setting your sensitivity low enough that you use your entire mouse pad to look around
2) Get a nice big, smooth mouse pad, and a decent mouse.
3) Ensure you aren't using mouse acceleration (raw input on), it will give twitch aiming a super duper hard learning curve because each movement will not be 1:1 to the screen, but rather will depend on the speed at which you move it.
Also, i would recommend playing lots of deathmatch games (eg quake, hl:dm, ut, warsow, etc) where you do lots of shooting in a small amount of time, and use the railgun/sniper/awp/etc.
With a higher fps you are also more likely to wait for a frame confirming where you are aiming before you start shooting, while on a lower fps I usually have a tendency to learn my mouse->aim ratio faster, and trust that I aim correctly before I actually know I do.
It also helps to strafe left and right when shooting a skulk close up, instead of backwards.
With a higher fps you are also more likely to wait for a frame confirming where you are aiming before you start shooting, while on a lower fps I usually have a tendency to learn my mouse->aim ratio faster, and trust that I aim correctly before I actually know I do.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You best be trolling!
For the record, low FPS in many games (very much so in ns2) causes quite unpredictable input lag. Trying to get an intuitive sense for how much you are lagging, and how much you need to compensate your aim, is as complex a system as learning to aim with mouse acceleration.
With that being said, in ns2 quick and good aiming is pretty useful, so quake/UT is probably a good choice (especially instagib).
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iytSBGK-4b4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iytSBGK-4b4</a>
For the record, low FPS in many games (very much so in ns2) causes quite unpredictable input lag. Trying to get an intuitive sense for how much you are lagging, and how much you need to compensate your aim, is as complex a system as learning to aim with mouse acceleration.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I never even bothered to try mouse acceleration, sounds like a pure pain in the ass to me :)
What I said is actually quite true, at least for myself. When I have a good fps and learning a new game/gun, I tend to aim way slower than my normal twitch-aiming, since I for some reason wait to see that I actually got my target in my sight (also true whenever I have a scope, even on low fps). While in games where I have had bad fps (like the 1 frame every 3 second from being in a fight in ns2 alpha, or any game back when I had a lousy computer), I actually tend to learn much faster how much I need to aim, and there really is no time to wait for the next frame or the enemy is gone already.
So basically the reason why it works for me would be because otherwise I become too conscious about what I am doing
I also noticed that I seem to notice the performance drops way less than many other players, since its more like a nostalgia trip when that happens. I still cant deal with rubber-banding though :P
If you just can't seem to get better at aiming, you might have bad settings. Try adjusting your mouse sensitivity: I like to play with quite a low sensitivity, although that is not as feasable in ns2 because as alien you have to turn around faster. Make sure you have no mouse acceleration enabled. In case you have a decent mouse, you can experiment with different mouse resolutions.
It's better to play the game you want to get good at, so you can be used to the mechanics of the game.
Also, I'd recommend to stay away from singleplayer games, as the level of difficulty only goes to a certain level, multiplayer games almost have infinite levels of difficulty as it's dependent on the skill of the players.
Generally aiming skills in games is something you develop from playing them alot.
Immerse yourself with the 3D world, and try to get a sense of distances and movement paths of your targets.
To improve yourself, you need to challenge yourself, and try to overcome the challenge.
That means playing against other players thats better than yourself.
Change your sensivity so you can at least turn 180 degress with one move of your mouse on your mousepad. And test this outside of a real game with fast and slow mouse movements, that's to get a feel for how much to move your mouse to make a 180 kill(twitch kills) and to test if you've succesfully removed mouse accelleration.
But also make sure you use most of your mousepad to perform a 180 turn, you might prefer being able to turn a little bit more than 180 degrees in one mouse movement, that's a matter of taste.
I also recommend using a large mousepad, I personally use steelseries QcK+ which is 45cm x 40cm.
After you checked up on your mouse hardware and software settings, you can try these tips ingame:
Try predicting where your enemies are coming from, and be ready to shoot them as soon as you are able to see them.
Try to predict which direction your enemies are moving in, and try to keep your crosshair in the path as they go.
Try to stay calm(dont panic), while being focused on the game(concentrate heavily), ie. what you see and hear in game. Sound can help you locate enemies.
Check ambush spots(cielings, corners, vents) as a marine, aim at them to be ready to shoot any ambushing aliens.
Position yourself so you get most range possible, you can also use your position to make it easier for you to hit your target.
It's easier to hit a target coming right at you, but most good aliens will not move directly towards you, moving yourself so your targets path is more direct towards your own position can make aiming a bit easier.
When you don't succeed, think about why you didn't succeed and try to think about what you could have done differently in that situation.
Hope this helps you just a little bit.
In another case, if you want to learn the basics of aiming, I suggest playing free-to-play (FTP) FPS games that are similar in style with CS such as solider front. In these games positioning is factor but always has a safe way to counter. In FTP games, there are always bound to be players that waste an entire clip and not hit their targets while comparing to CS there are always bound to be 2/3 of the room full of players that will kill you before you walk past a corner. While playing, try to find modes such as team death mode which allows you to constantly respawn after a few seconds rather than waiting for a round to be over. Constantly respawning allows you to try different shooting methods such as bunny hopping/camping/spraying. When choosing guns only go for the sniper as your main and only choice. This allows you to learn how to twitch aim (such get scared ######less after a guy pops out a corner, making you twitch and shoot, leaving you wondering wtf just happened when the guy is dead on the floor) and make every shot count. Only after you learn how to use the sniper should you learn how to spray since the crucial aspect of shooting is that first on target shot.
Just to add. FTP games have many hackers but I still recommend it because of the amount of noobs counters that fact. Also CS type games cover only the basic concepts of shooting. Switching from these games to other games such as NS is hard and may require a week or two to get pro at since every game has different aspects to it such as shooting methods(recoil/gun types), different targets(people/dogs/things), and movement (slow/fast/jump/fly/teleport).
If you just can't seem to get better at aiming, you might have bad settings. Try adjusting your mouse sensitivity: I like to play with quite a low sensitivity, although that is not as feasable in ns2 because as alien you have to turn around faster. Make sure you have no mouse acceleration enabled. In case you have a decent mouse, you can experiment with different mouse resolutions.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is so true, as Marine play smart! Don't run into a narrow corridor and expect that you are going to be able to focus fire on a skulk. Play it smart by drawing them out from a distance, make them come to you and NEVER EVER go anywhere alone as a marine as you are asking to die.
Any FPS that you think is fun that involves aiming, shooting and dodging opponents.
To me that was NS and now is NS2 :)