How to play TFC. Part 1 - General Introduction

It's been a long time since I posted my tip series to the newsgroups, and 'the patch' has invalidated a lot of what I said...
So here we go again. From the top.
An irregular series of tips, based purely upon my own experience, and which you may do with as you will.
Disagree with them, and be prepared to be argued into the ground. No offence, but 99% of TFC players are too stupid to argue...

Now, on with the show. Be offended by my style of writing, see if I care.

It is, as we all know, vitally important to be good at all the classes.

Two reasons for this. Firstly, it means that you can be more use to your team at any given time during a match - and secondly it means that you are familiar with whatever the enemy might throw at you, so you can deal with it.

Today, we take a look at that oft neglected class, the scout. Weighing in at about 5stone, the scout looks from outside, to be no formidable opponent.
Lets all change class to scout, and see what tricks he is hiding.
Well - hey look! That looks like a gun you've got. No!
Do not be fooled by appearances.
That is not actually a gun. It is a multiuse tool that looks like a gun.
It is in fact a device that lets the scout go faster.
If has *none* of the utility of a normal gun, don't get tricked into
fighting with it.

I'll repeat that, in case you didn't get it. That 'gun' think, or even the crowbar.. Yeah, if you outmatch your opponent completely, can kill them - but that takes up time that could be better used stealing their flag.
Stealing flags is the goal here people! Get to that cap point, get the flag, whatever, but move move move.
If the enemy delays you, he has done his job. ALL he can do is delay you, if he kills you, you respawn, and come right back (maybe going round him this time)
DON'T try and kill things. DON'T get into a firefight.
You WILL be slowed down, and you MAY get killed.

Now, once the "never get into a fight" lesson has sunk in, we can start to
look at advanced uses for the scout.
1. The scout runs really really quickly.
He has about a 50% speed advantage over anything else (except on dozy
crippled servers)
If you aren't using that speed to its greatest advantage, you should play
another class:
Medic spy and engineer are all nearly as fast. So, how to use that speed?

Let me RE-STRESS that. the scout class is *not* for everyone.
You have VERY few advantages, and a LOT of disadvantages over the closest other classes. Still, those advantages ARE enough to make the class valuable in some situations, and when used to proper effect - is just deadly.

So how do we use the speed advantage?

Explosives is how. Many enemies foolishly have explosive weaponry.
That hurts their team mates.
Get them to fire it at you, and use your superior speed to dodge.

They may be unwilling to fire for fear of hurting their team, or they may fire, and hurt their team. Either way you win.

Beware the player who looks as though he is holding a shot, and fires it when you don't expect it.

Ammo constraints
Enemies have limited ammo!
And once they've run out, they have to change weapon or reload.
So, dodge like crazy, and when its safe,. run away in a straight line, and
let them watch your sonic boom disappear over the horizon
(Don't run early, they'll shoot you in the back)

Jumping. Wait for an incoming rocket / pipebomb, and jump.
With any luck, the resulting explosion will give you enough momentum to
clear the danger zone.

Scouts are the lightest class, and so fly the farthest from an explosion... Physics professors have permission to cry now :)

Try not to slam into a wall, or they'll shoot you.
Instead, try to get them to rocket jump you onto their battlements or
similar. Works best if on full health / armour

Tell your team what's going on. If the enemy is looking the wrong way, any class can get past. But the scout only needs the enemy to look away for a moment. Call in the fire support, and leave the party before they know you joined it.

The scout also has a couple more obvious uses for its speed.
If the flag is in the open, and undefended (the enemy has given up on it) the scout is the fastest thing to cap it - which gives their defence less time to set up.

The scout can look around the enemy defences most quickly and easily - if your team doesn't know what they are facing, a scout can tell them within seconds.

[I *used* to say something about using clint side prediction to dodge here - but that no longer applies]

A scout has one final use for it's speed - it means that the enemy CANNOT ignore it.
The last line of defence MUST treat the scout as its greatest possible threat - which means a heavier class can destroy them.



2. Conc grenades

Conc grenades work SO differently post patch :)
Let me expand it all here - though much of this applies to meics too.
Handheld concjumping is still in - but is much harder to do, and a itny lag spike will wreck it.

Toss jumping (throw the conc, jump over it as it goes off) works fine - but is harder to be accurate at - requires split second timing, and announces to the enemy where you want to be (and if they were listening to your grenade priming, WHEN you want to be there)

Another problem is that it is very suggestive as to which direction you want to go in.

Before I go on to conc jumping (which really deserves, and will probably get, a seperate tutorial) lets look at the main use, and the BEST use for concs.

[Sorry, for real newbies, concjumping is using th epuhsh effect of a conc to send yourself flying - it is the cause of reports of UFM (unexpectedly flying medics) and allows you to reach pretty much anywhere on any map, and quite quickly too]

Conc your enemies.

It has three effects.
a) The white flash blinds them, gives you a split second to dodge in, or may cause them to fire early. Especially good if they have a pipetrap.
b) The shockwave sends them flying. They move directly away from the centre of the blast (their centre ot the centre, so if they are decently far away they get thrown into the air too) and move further the further they were from the centre.
[Again, physics teachers don't get mad - it's SORT of logical, because close to the cetnre, which way should they go... but no, it aint physically possible]
Oh - concs have a limited range, they have to be IN this radius (its slightly larger than the white shockwave) to move at all.
c) They get a 'concussion' icon, and their aim is messed up.
*THIS IS DIFFERENT NOW* IMPORTANt *AIM REALLY DOES GET MESSED UP*
Their shots still land on crosshair (well , a bit off it, subject of an advanced tutorial) but their aim is wildly swinging about.
Short term this is good for you, they cannot close their eyes, and play blind and still hit perfectly. Long term, it's bad - it means they can force their im back under control.
The actual duration of how long the concussion is effective varies - but the main variation is from player to player.
For a good player, you've got maybe a second. Tops. A poor player acts like they are concussed all the time :)

Concussion has most effect on small cone weapons, like nails and rockets - and more effect again if you are far away. Snipers are REALLY hurt by it - but recover much more quickly (the dot is a great visual aid)


Right, so:
Conc groups of enemies. They WILL hit each other.
The enemy will back away from a conc - if unprimed. They want to be out of the radius. They will probably FIRE at the center of the radius (to keep you out) this is wrong for them - partially primed means they will be hit by the full blast.
Throw the conc behind them - they will fly out of their cubby hole and past you, probably slamming into their own rocket explosion. Grin and run past.
You get a lot of concs, don't be afraid to use one to fool the enemy into thinking you missed - two concs close together in both space and time is very hard to avoid.
Be careful not to conc them into walls, or anywhere they can conveniantly smash explosives into the floor near you.
Also, if you have teammates coming soon, consider concing an enemy you DON'T need to run past, their aim will be messed up, they will be slightly out of position, and your teammates will love you for it.

Final 'conc he enemy' tip. Psychology and fear. Don't conc them.
Once they are used to it, they will start backing away BEFORE you throw the conc.
If you don't throw it, they'll assume it's still primed...
Basically - don't let yourself become predicatable.

Countering the defence:
Learn the main SG positions
Many of them can be shot from just around a corner, or from just out of
range. If they are defended, you will NOT have time - so get the enemy the hell away from you first.
Try hitting the SG with a few nails, the engineer will come to fix it, then he aint bugging you or your teammates elsewhere...
[Problem, post patch, one of the BEST things an engineer can possibly do is just crouch behind the SG whacking it with a spanner - you NEED explosives to counter this]
Continue to be aware of your surroundings.
Remember that your grenades can't hurt SGs
Call in for backup, get one of those big hunks with rockets to take it
down. Wait for a distraction, and then make your run.

Tactics against soldiers:
Rush in and out, and dodge a lot. [Unpredicatable dodging is a skill you MUST learn]
Get them to miss.
Jump the shots that land at your feet, and clear the combat zone that way.
Wait till they need to reload, and run like crazy.
Beware the soldier who holds a rocket spare in clip.

Demons:
Stay out of range, and / or simply run around a lot.
Psych them out, by appearing to ignore them, and running for their
pipebomb field like you haven't seen it. Then at the last moment, pull away, nail them for a bit.
Get them to explode the field, then run off - leaving them in your dust.
They have 6 shots before reloading, remember. If you have problems with pipebomb fields, change to engineer.
Almost as fast, and can EMP fields.
*tell*your*team* that you have built no defence, if you do this...

Medics:
Ignore
They cant catch you to infect you, and you should be able to dodge their
SSg blasts.
Dodge a lot, pump a few nails into them as you pass (just to help your
team out a bit)

Spies:
You reveal them by your touch - which costs them about 10 seconds as they
re-disguise
Don't shoot them.
Best tatcic is to appear to want to ignore and run past, then just strafe
into them as you pass.
Ignore revealed spies, same as medics.

Snipers:
Ha. forget about them.
Don't run in a straight line, and a good tactic when about to pass through
a choke point is to run straight at it, then stop, let them fire their
shot prematurely, and then run through.
Works for any class, best for scouts though.

Pyro:
Ugh.
These are your worst nightmare.
Try to get them to use rockets (at range)
And don't let them target you with that flame-thrower. You *will* burn
to death before you get the flag. Best to take another route if these are about.
HWG:
Back around a corner. They almost certainly have less patience than you -
if they come for you, run past laughing.
If they *do* have the patience (ramp room guards usually)
Then run toward them, dodging.
Circle strafe them for a bit, firing, then dodge away.
They will probably fir their grenades.
Back off around that handy corner again, and wait for the explosions.
As the second round of explosions starts, run out, and run clear in the
smoke.
(If you are lucky, they probably blew themselves up) You *can* circle-strafe kill a HWG
The trick is to dodge through their line of fire, so that you are in it
for as short a time as possible - you can do this up to 3 times when on
full health.
However, it takes so long, its not worth it (except on cz2, where you are
trying to die anyhow, and if you kill a HWG, he takes a year or two to
make it back out)

[Post patch, many MANY more HWG are good enough to hit you while you dodge, but still only a few have the patience. Play on that, you can survive almost 1/2 a second of fire from that cannon close up, but no more. Avoid HWG]

Engineers:
You can be out of the blast of a dispenser bomb before they detonate it,
simply by running real fast.
They have decent armour, and a SSG.
Ignore their EMPs (you are immune, if you remembered to drop ammo)
Their sentry gun is the real problem, watch their behaviour, and figure
out where it is.
If you catch it pointing the wrong way, you can strafe around it. Lvl3 SGs take ages to lock on, and lvl1 SGs do little damage. Lvl2 is your biggest problem.
If you meet an ENG guarding his gun, you've probably lost.
Run away, or occupy him, and wait for backup.

Scouts:
It is traditional for both parties to run past, fire four nails, and
dodge.
Not really worth chasing them down, unless you know you have no defence
between them and the flag / they have the flag. Even then, someone else will probably deal with it.

2 enemies at once:
Run past.
Hope their reaction speed is insufficient.

3 enemies at once / 2 HWGs at once: Back off, prime a conc, hold it for 2, and then run in. Don't even bother dropping it - you've got 1/4 a second for their
reactions to kick in, then 1/2 a second before anything hits.
Then the conc should go off - blowing their aim for the next shots off,
and dodging you away from the current ones.
Hopefully it also knocks them out of your way. Then just run away.
*not* in a straight line.

Remember, a conc hurts you less than anyone, because you don't even intend
to fire.

i