Official forums for BZFlag.org

Hello,

I was wondering if you guys could help me complete my list of the various skills in BZFlag:

- Driving/Footwork - Skills in dodging, jumping, feinting and engaging/escaping enemies
- Flag Use - Using flags advantages effectively, covering the flags weakness, countering flags with other flags (e.g. ST vs GM, CL vs L, SW vs campers, SB vs OO)
- Teamwork - Covering, flanking, drawing out the enemy for your team to shoot.
- Tactics - Tricking the enemy, opening up the enemy, finding an opening in a melee and using the terrain to gain the upper hand.
- Situational Awareness - Using the HUD, radar and sounds around you to be aware of the environment.
- Combinations - Combine the above skills to become unstoppable.

If you can add anything else, I'd appreciate it.

- The Vet

The use of communication to inform teammates of observations and information.

Whack it in the wiki when you're done?

Individual skills, rather than teamwork skills, are still important. Why not include sections on different jumping skills, for example spin jumps and the jump and ricochet.

Too sad i just understand about 80-90% of the text.
I hope i dont repeat some messages that u already did write down

-Flag use:
SW vs. PZ. And SB vs PZ.

-Teamwork (i personally dont play in teams, but i know some stuff about teamplaying):
Supporting your teammates in a tactical way, by not dropping the Anti-Flag.
E.g. if your teammate has GM u hide near him with ST in the case that u are lucky to get ST. This way the chance of the other players to get ST to kill the GM shooter is theoretically just half the chance, cause normally there are just 2 ST flags on maps. Additionally u look in another direction then your GM-teammate, this way a ST-opponent even has less chance to come from a direction where u both dont see him. And a non-ST opponents anyway has a weak chance to hit u and your GM-teamplayer.
[Now maybe some people are asking why i'm giving evil hints. Well: Noone is forced to play on maps with flags that have such disadvantages. If u dont like it there, just dont go there, go to non flag-maps or just dont play bz]

-kinda Teamwork or/& Tactics:
This normally never works on maps with lots of players:
U team up temporary even with a non-team-player, in order to hit a talented player who has a superweapon.
Give the other non-team player with whom u wanna temporary teamplay indirectly signs that u dont want to hit him now. E.g. not shooting him altough u are near him and could easily hit him. Instead shooting at him drive e.g. parallel to him or behind him in order to hunt the talented player.

Category: Essential Keys

Should cover remapping keys to create the perfect key combinations. Also providing hints to keys that provide effects that people might not know exist (such as removing flags on radar to easily find people with BU).

-Teamwork

Assisting someone with a team flag in CTF. Whenever somebody picks up another team's flag, you should either follow behind him (for support, and to reclaim the flag if he gets killed), in front of him (to provide cover), or take a position. This is especially important in maps with two teams, and more so in tactical maps (like pillbox).

-Situational Awareness (kinda)

Using the map's advantages. Taking advantage of each map's special abilities helps make you a better player. In maps that give you 8+ shots, shot placement matters very little, and spraying bullets is much more efficient. On the other hand, shot placement in pillbox maps is very important. Also, different strategies work in different game modes.

-Flag Use

Gotchas. This is where somebody could put all of the different "Gotchas" that are associated with the flags (like how GM's lock on only works for one shot).

---

It would be nice if there was a unified skills tutorial that isn't hosted on a web archive.

F687s wrote:GM's lock on only works for one shot

Wtf...??

Additional to Essential Keys:
-using "i" to find easily Stealth-tanks.
U just rotate 360 degree and press all time "i" till u get displayed the callsign of the stealth-tank. Dunno if this is considered as a cheat, but i dont think so.
-using "u" and "7" sevral times to mark players on radar.
It can be very useful if u like to mark the best player, to not get hitted by him too often. Or to mark a player with a superweapon.

GM's lock on only works for one shot

GM locks always if u aim at another tank. (Exception: Tank is too near or is stealthed)

z[h]ero wrote:Additional to Essential Keys:
-using "i" to find easily Stealth-tanks.
U just rotate 360 degree and press all time "i" till u get displayed the callsign of the stealth-tank. Dunno if this is considered as a cheat, but i dont think so.

That doesn't work for tanks with the stealth flag.

GM's lock on only works for one shot

I mean that if you lock on to one person, and shoot two GMs, only the first one will track the player. You need to lock on again.

-Combination

Play against vets. One of the best ways to learn how to play is to learn from people who have been playing for a long time. If you want to learn the better skills but do not want to face the vets, join as an observer.

Play the classics. Some of the best maps are the ones that have been around for a long time. Great maps (such as HIX) are ones that have many tactical surprises. Discovering those can make you a better player on all maps.

F687s wrote:

GM's lock on only works for one shot

I mean that if you lock on to one person, and shoot two GMs, only the first one will track the player. You need to lock on again

no... You can shoot multiple times with the 1 lock.

You can even change the lock AFTER you fire a missile. The lock remains in effect as long as there are active missiles from your tank.

F687s wrote:

F687s wrote:GM's lock on only works for one shot

I mean that if you lock on to one person, and shoot two GMs, only the first one will track the player. You need to lock on again

GM locks expire when all your current locked shots expire (either by expire time, or by hitting an object).

blast wrote:

z[h]ero wrote:Additional to Essential Keys:
-using "i" to find easily Stealth-tanks.
U just rotate 360 degree and press all time "i" till u get displayed the callsign of the stealth-tank. Dunno if this is considered as a cheat, but i dont think so.

That doesn't work for tanks with the stealth flag.

Oops, true.
I mean:
Pressing "i" to find players on no radar maps helps very much. (Dunno if this is considered as a cheat..)

z[h]ero wrote:

blast wrote:

z[h]ero wrote:Additional to Essential Keys:
-using "i" to find easily Stealth-tanks.
U just rotate 360 degree and press all time "i" till u get displayed the callsign of the stealth-tank. Dunno if this is considered as a cheat, but i dont think so.

That doesn't work for tanks with the stealth flag.

Oops, true.
I mean:
Pressing "i" to find players on no radar maps helps very much. (Dunno if this is considered as a cheat..)

This will only work till I get back to my home computer, and fire up my IDE and SVN

z[h]ero wrote: Pressing "i" to find players on no radar maps helps very much. (Dunno if this is considered as a cheat..)

Of course it is not a cheat. I use it all the time in order to know what flag does the player in front of me have.

It is important to know what flag does your enemy have in order to plan a strategy to kill him.

This is a neat idea Vet. Here is what I would add:

Pillbox-like maps
1. Tank Awareness:
Ability to make decisions based on the positions of teammates and enemies. This can be a little like predicting the future. For instance, at times it may be better to hide and wait, run for cover, attack, cover a teammate, or go for the flag etc..
Along with that might be using your enemy's tank direction for your advantage, i.e. if he is facing you, he cannot dodge

Tavern/sniping maps
2. Accuracy:
Ability to quickly and accurately target an enemy using the mouse-box, binoculars, and radar.
3. Site Lines:
Quickly evaluating your vulnerability based on obstructions and your enemy's site lines.

Other
4. Pyramid/Slope Climbing, see Legolas' artwork: http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=106881#106881
5. Predicting ricochets
6. Ability to shoot while sliding on Tedius's maps :)

On open FFA maps with lots of flags, such as Planet MoFo or Badgerking's, you need to be aware who has which powerful flags, and where they are; with this information you can deduce which flag you need to gain the greatest advantage. Or alternatively, where the best place is to perhaps ride a GM spree, if you want to keep another flag.

You need to be able to alter your strategy and playstyle depending on the situation: for example on mofo, jumping to the first level while there is a laser camper in one of the corners is a bad idea.

Another strategy is learning, that is especially useful if you're tracking the spawns of good flags, is to note where the good flags are dropped frequently. Most servers allow the flags to simply fall where they were dropped several times before respawning. This can cause some areas of the map to become a gold mine of specific good flags, if you catch my drift.

P.S, sorry if that's sloppy reading - I'm tired.

I'm "SHOCKED" that no one has mentioned this site yet. It was gone for awhile, but returned over a year ago.
http://shellshock.bzflag.bz/guides-rookiemoves.html
Be sure to chck the "veteran moves" section, and the "BZScience" section.