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The Top 25 HLDM/Op4DM Newbie Mistakes
Let's face it: Even the craziest tau-jumping, 75-2 leet was a newbie once. If you're not fragging five unfortunates a minute with impunity, nor have a CLQ rating lower than your shoe size, you could certainly learn a
lesson or three just by watching an experienced player dish out the hurt. Even better, you could refer to this cheat sheet and get hard-learned years of essential Half-Life/Opposing Force deathmatching wisdom in 25
easy-to-swallow, bite-size nuggets. We present to you our Top 25 Newbie Mistakes--the leading reasons so many Players and Shephards get sent to the bone yard in the blink of an eye. Learn them, love them, pass them
on--you can sure bet that 75-2 dude isn't going to take time out from firing plasma bursts into your bald spot from midair to teach you this stuff.
1. Death comes quickly to the strafeless one.
Fool he who does not master quickly the use of the strafe keys. In HL's default keyboard config, the left and right arrow keys are assigned to the mostly useless "turn" commands. Get down and dirty, and
assign those suckers to strafe left and strafe right. You want to be able to sidestep and shoot, not swivel in place--doing so is the equivalent of wearing a sandwich board that says "um.....kill me."
2. He who would frag thee, embrace him.
The only thing worse than having an MP5 or hand grenade lobbed directly at you is to move directly away from it. When the explosive comes your way, show the hurler how much you care by moving directly toward him.
That will maximize the distance between you and the grenade when it detonates (unless, er, you move right into the grenade, which is bad). In the case of the MP5, closing in may discourage your opponent from launching more MP5 grenades, for fear of getting himself caught in the splash-damage zone.
3. MIF (Movement Is Fundamental)
Even if you ignore our advice about setting up your strafe keys--or every one of our other 25 tips--move, for crying out loud. And keep moving! The quintessential newbie goof is to stand in one place while targeting other players. Needless to say, you are bringing joy to experienced players' hearts--you'll probably get thumped with a crowbar post-haste, with no one even thinking you're worth wasting ammo on. Play multiplayer HL of any variety for more than 10 minutes, and you'll discover this tip on your own--or else drop the game like a hot potato and go back to playing The Sims: Hot Date.
4. The pause that lingers (forever)
Real proud of yourself, you just fragged three players with one rocket, eh? Newbie luck, maybe, but if you stick around to admire your handiwork, chances are your corpse will get added to the pile. Players tend to
get respawned relatively near the site of their previous demise, and, count on it, they'll come looking for revenge--with their Health at 100. If you get a multifrag, pump your fist somewhere away from the scene of the crime, please.
5. Bad satchel/good satchel
Familiarize yourself with how a satchel looks before it's picked up (larger and upright) and how it looks when it's activated and ready to blow (smaller and flat). Few images are funnier than watching a newbie pass
repeatedly over a live satchel, clearly wondering, "Why can't I pick this up?" They will have eternity to ponder the question.
6. Tau like you know.
Admittedly, the tau is a tricky weapon to handle and an even tougher one to master. Even so, rule number one in the tao of tau: Unless you're mondo desperate, don't even bother with the primary (left-button) fire mode of the tau cannon. It requires far too much accuracy and delivers far too little damage. Plus, after your ineffctual tau-spraying frenzy, sensible experienced players will be lining up for the chance to frag your sorry ass. Master powering up the tau with the right button, and unleash unholy limb-rending blasts--the spray damage might be enough to take out your target by mistake, even if you miss.
7. Straight spore is for suckas.
The handy spore gun in Opposing Force has a very lethal secret: firing it at a wall or ceiling above your opponent tends to cause your target to disintegrate. (This is obviously a good thing.) Firing the spore balls
directly at their intended target can be effective--if you hit the target in the head--but the spray pattern of the spores is what is truly lethal. Firing dead-on, or, worse, using the bouncy-spore-ball right-mouse
attack diminishes greatly the effectiveness of this weapon and brands you as prime fragbait.
8. Duck season
If you remain still, an even moderately experienced player will nail you within a second or so--yes, Virginia, even if you duck. Unlike countless cop shows, westerns, and action films, Half Life tends to feature bad
guys who can actually shoot straight, and ducking will not tend to make them miss. Ducking is only an effective tactic when you're up close and in the face of an opponent and desperate for weapons--ducking and
crowbarring can be effective, as can ducking and unloading right-mouse pistol fire. Otherwise, strafing is definitely the better alternative.
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