What makes a good ESF Player?

I saw this mod at Planet Half life and thought I would try it out. Mad props to the devs, they are doing a nice job. So after playing for a couples days, trying to figure out when to teleport, when to block, use melee or beams. I am still trying to get the hang of it, playing on a couple servers where people go 79-9 and they make fun of you every time they kill you, totally on top of the server where barely anyone can go 1v1 with them.
I just wanted to know what tips anyone has for a n00b, such as blocking, teleporting, and especially melee'ing - thats tricky. Thanks!


-DS

Just practice. Thats what they did. Don't worry about the idiots that think their all that. Just remember that their is always someone better and you might be that person in a week or two depending on how much you play.

I say the willingness to learn new techniques and using what works for him is what makes a good player. And the ability to calmly accept defeat rather than try and argue it out is another good quality a player should have.

HI! Welcome to the forums!!

*On Topic*

Maybe you should try downloading the bots and practice with them on the hardest level. Thats how I did it when they first released the bots.

yeah be calm and use teleport wiseley it can be very usefull and you might wanna try my bots first they never complain if you're to good/bad

Reflexes. If you can react quick enough, you can do anything in this game. The best thing you can learn is how to control swoop. A lot of people don't actually turn while swooping to attack, they use teleport to set up a straight swoop, then go in straight. If you can learn how to turn accurately while swooping, especially to re-orient on a teleporting target, you will be awesome at this game.

Another thing to practice is beam control. Following a target and detonating a beam at the right time is a good skill to have.

BTW Date Sensitive, I remember playing you, you are very good for someone who just started out, keep it up!

yeah, it just takes practice to learn how to play well.. but you should also try to keep friendly, so people will actually want to play with you.

timing your teleports and thinking ahead of yourself works really well. If you see people in the distance, a few well timed teleports can get you close to enough to actually hit them straight away, or at a point where you can swoop a short distance to hit them.

Practice on the bots that are released for 1.1, they're tougher than hell man.

Sweet, thanks for the suggestions guys. I've been getting my butt handed to me by the bots, they are insane. And I'll pop online every once in awhile. I'm actually breaking even in my kill/death ratio ;D

-DS

Bah. Screw bots. While I don't know exactly how bots play, I seriously doubt it's close to what an average level player plays like (by that I mean their strategies, reaction times, blah blah. An average level player still might get owned by a good enough bot, but that doesn't mean the bot plays like a human). My best tip:

Watch what people do. Copy them. Learn their techniques and just try to incorporate them as best you can. If something is too hard, put it aside until you're good enough.

Keep fighting *people*. You learn much more than you do from fighting even the hardest computer. Learning the way people think and react to your actions are all a part of getting good.

i think its good to pratice on the bots, learn the basics with them and then play online and pick up some technique from the guys on their.

Originally posted by Hitokiri
Watch what people do. Copy them. Learn their techniques and just try to incorporate them as best you can. If something is too hard, put it aside until you're good enough.

Keep fighting *people*. You learn much more than you do from fighting even the hardest computer. Learning the way people think and react to your actions are all a part of getting good.

Click to expand...

That'd be my advice aswell. Bots are good for test and to waste time, but they are incompitent, and they lack the one thing humans need most to survive (in life and games): intuition. Few AI have the ability to strategize aswell as a human does.. especially not those that are user created (no offense, Me).

Keep your bots close, but the ignorant jackasses that you seem to be fighting closer (not ingame, ofcourse... close isn't that good). Don't fight them, test them. Whatch how they react to your attacks, then use that to your advantage, while incorporating it into your own fighting style... That would be what bots are for: try and get them to do somthing you did, then perform your previous opponent's action, then make that action perform unconciously.

Well the bots reaction time in melee at its highest level is almost perfect, it's friggen hard to beat a bot head on in melee, but thats just me.

i try free fighting with 8 bots with 100% melee, its pretty hard u smack one of them and another smacks ur ass

But with bots you can practise on lan with NO lag which is always helpful to start off.

Yea, bots are hard as crap to melee on the perfect setting. They are so damn fast at teleporting I can barely keep up. Keep the advice coming in! Is there a good way to learn and know when to block and then try to counter? any techniques I should try in game? B/c when I block I have a very hard time landing an attack on the attacker, and sometimes he gets behind me and stomps me from behind - very embarassing. I can see more and more how this game is based a lot on reaction time

*EDIT* Are there charcs that do more damage during melee, or are just plain better at it that others? I really like playing as Krillin, but I barely ever reach 2mill PL let alone 3mill in a game.

-DS

Hold block until they hit, give them time to finish their animation. That's your cue.

You should never play online at the beginning!
When i got ESF i connected to a server at once and really got beaten up!
Then i started training with bots and man i think i´m really good now!

You jumped right in?!?! Without even checking out the controls in your own server?!?!?!