So you’re a dedicated competitive First Person Shooter player, but want to take your play up to the next level? Look no further, for the GameDrone FPS Self-Improvement Series has arrived!
Having played FPS games competitively for the past decade, I’ve decided to share my knowledge with the you: the future skilled FPS players. Six of these articles featuring thematic tips for improving your FPS playing skills will be spread out across six days.
This second entry in the FPS self-improvement series focuses on the topic of accuracy. We brush on a few good methods for improving your accuracy, mouse settings, tweaking your visuals to optimal effect, etc.
1. Think before you shoot
Use your weapon as it was intended. Do not fire straight at an opponent with a plasma gun, grenade or rocket launcher, do not lead an opponent with a sniper rifle, or shoot with your machine gun at the location where your opponent will land after jumping.
Obviously all of these weapons need to be used in different situations. With a grenade you want to aim for groups, and where they’re going to be when it goes off. With a rocket launcher, you’ll want to aim for nearby walls, rather than the player character. And with a sniper rifle you’d just aim in a headshot.
Most of this sounds pretty basic, but it’s surprising how many otherwise capable players tend to forget these things in the heat of the moment. I’ve seen many decent players forget to fire rockets at the floor/walls, or to lob grenades ahead of an opponent rather than straight at their current location. And firing straight at an opponent with the plasma gun is a very common mistake I’ve seen newbies make in Quake Live… it’s a weapon meant for leading your opponent!
2. Improve one weapon a time
Regular play might get you in better shape in other matters (timing pickups, creating map routes, etc.), but it will hinder your accuracy improvement.
But if you go plain hitscan (railgun, shotgun, sniper rifle) for a week, then you will notice a marked improvement by the end of it. Likewise, all rocket will go a long way to improving your prediction aim.
It can even help to just hop around a level on your own and practice targeting imaginary opponents while moving. This is especially useful for combination weapons like UTs shock combo, or prediction weapons like the rocket launcher, where a one-hour solo session can do nearly as much as a few weeks of online that-weapon-only play can.
Capture the Flag is not exactly the best game mode to practice and improve your aim in...
3. Appropriate modes only
You will not easily improve your accuracy by playing team based objective capture rounds, or Capture The Flag.
It’s best to find an all-weapons-unlocked game mode like Quake Live’s Clan Arena or Unreal Tournament 2004′s Team Arena Master. You can use these modes to practice whatever weapon you like, without having to bother with any pickups, items timing or map layouts. It’s the ideal accuracy-improvement environment!
Alternatively 1 vs 1 matches and small-scale Team DeathMatch are good avenues for accuracy improvement as well.
4. Mouse acceleration
is often your enemy. Most gamers play a lot better when mouse acceleration is turned off, but it can be easy to forget to switch it off after a fresh install. That will throw of your aim enormously if you’re not used to it.
It can be annoying to throw your mouse in a direction and find that it slides just a little too far, because you moved a little too fast.
If you’re used to it: you might want to try a few rounds with it switched off, just to compare. Go with whatever feels best. Your mouse settings are very personal and it is hard to give a genuine recommendation that encompasses all players, because there is no such thing.
Some people play flawlessly with high sensitivity (5 centimeters / 360 degrees turn), whereas other players swear by their 30 centimeters for a 360 degree turn sensitivity settings. There is no one ultimate setting for all players.
5. Tweak it up
Resort to tweaking your in-game and config settings for the best possible results.
You want the environment to be bland and characters to stand out, which usually means turning down visual settings to minimum. You want to reduce smoke, particle and lighting effects so that your view of the environment is only minimally impaired by visual effects.
Other tweaks that might help are setting all characters to a default model, altering your field of view values and turning off your own footstep sounds. A higher field of view results in a wider field of vision, which often helps with movement and spotting opponents, but does not help your hitscan (sniper/railgun) aim. Conversely a lower field of view can make you blind to enemies you would otherwise see, but can boost your hitscan aim tremendously.
GameDrone FPS Self-Improvement Series:
- 6 Hardware Tips for FPS Players
- 5 Tips for Improving your Accuracy
- 6 Tips for Weapon Mastery
- 7 Tips for Improving Map Control
- 5 Tips for Better Practice Sessions
- 10 Tips for Becoming a Better FPS Player
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