Che's HPB Railing Guide
Anyone with a 300 ping or less can rail just as good as a LPB Anything above 300 ping is a waste of time.
Before I joined KING I thought as many of you think the railgun is a waste of space and is only good for LPB's, Well I was VERY very wrong! It took me about 2 weeks of being humiliated and being constantly killed while I was learning how to properly rail, but those 2 weeks were worth it. The amount of times I have been in a rocket fight on RA2 and on the brink of death I have pulled my railgun out and railed them and won the match. Also its very gratifying going on a DM server getting a railgun and making every rail shot hit a target.
Being a HPB is a callenge not a burden !
If you realise that LPB's can easily win in certain situations then you can avoid these situations and stand a better chance.
Close up - A LPB has a far greater advantage close up so try and keep your distance.
Face to Face - The amount of time I have come face to face with another railer and i know I pushed mouse button before him, Well if it gets on your nerves as it does me, then try and avoid coming face to face, I know its easy to say, and a lot harder to do. When going down corridors dont just run in the middle... stick to a side so your opponent has to aim 1st before raling, this usually gives you the valuable time to out-rail him. Also when moving about in corridors always aim at the places you think an opponent may emerge from.
Strafe and Rail - This is the easiest way to rail an opponent, Say your opponent is moving right aim your cursor about 1/2 cm - 3/4 cm to the right of him and straff right aswell, but keeping your crosshair aimed still. The harder Straff and rail is when you opponent is moving right, but you are strafing left I found this very hard at 1st but with a few weeks pratice you will hopefully get used to this.
Eliminating a Jumping Opponent - This tactic we owe to version 3.17 as they have removed the air psysics. Usually when an opponent Jumps he is going as fast as he can in that direction. Instead of aming to the side of your opponent, aim where he is going to land and when he gets to the highest point in his jump FIRE. I have found this a very easy way to rail someone.
Eliminating an Opponent that constantly jumps - I found this very frustrating at 1st when you get a rail on target and your opponent jumps over it. Well this is how to get the jumping little git :)
Instead of aming at the middle of his body aim at his head so when you get a good rail in it will either hit him in the head or you will rail his feet off.FOV command - This command is very usefull the default FOV is 90, try and use FOV 100 I found it a great help as it requires less mouse movement, I prefer a sensitivity of 5 when raling, but I found it a bit harder to use rockets on a 5 setting so I have binded my Rocket key to select rockets and sensitivity to 6 at the same time. type: bind ANYKEY "use Raligun" ; Sensitivity 5 <-- that changes to rail gun and at same time sets sensitivity to 5.
Making Aming easier - Try and keep your opponent in the middle of your screen at all times so when you have to fire you will only need the slightest of adjustment with your mouse. When I aim at an opponent I only move my mouse a maximum of 2cm giving me a greater chance of aiming correctly.
Avoiding Rails - Well if you face a good railer as an opponent hes gonna rail you whatever, but try and make it harder for him and constantly change direction and also dont move in certain patterns as a good railer will notice you doing this. Try and hide behind objects and time your exit from the object when your opponet is reloading.
Rocket and Rail trick - This I have found works well on RA2 Fire a few rockets either side of your opponent, usually your opponent is too buisy dodging the rocks then quickly change to rail and you usually get a free shot in.
Anticipating you opponents moves - This is easier than it seems on RA2 people usually move in certain areas, say your opponent is in a corner he has 3 choices forward/left/right taking a chance and aiming your cursor in one of these places ready for him is a good way of killing him , well the odds are 3 to 1 and only a nutter would jump straight at you so usually aming left or right is a good bet.
Using Netgraph - With my connection sometimes I get a RED line every 2 - 3 inches. shooting when this line is red is a waste of time as it means you are stalling. load netgraph up and try and time your shots when the line is not red. Also If you see your netgraph going off the scale hide for a little while until your connection settles. Ping Spikes are a pain in the arse but when correctly monitored they are easily avioded. Turn Sky off I dont know if this helps my ping, but it certainly improves my framerate.
Changing weapons easy - My config keys are arrowkeys up/down = forvard/back left/right = straff left/right, del = shotgun,chaingun. END = rocket launcher Pagedown = Railgun and I use inverted mouse so up is down and down is up. I keep a finger hovering over the del/end/pgdown keys so I can change my weapon easily, Annoys me when someone says they died because the were changing weapon Change your config if you have to stall when changing weapon. Remember the CFG file is there to help you get the most out of Q2 , USE IT !!!!
Important: Try not to get too wound up when a LPB is kicking your ass If he rails you in 2-3 shots he has played well and a ping isnt gonna matter you were just outrailed. but if the two of you exchange 10-20 rails each and you loose you have only yourself to blame as you did not kill him quick enough ! Also try and make each rail count dont keep your finger on the fire button, try and aim each shot.
Play better players than yourself - I remember 1st going to RA2 and avoiding B0se/Rail because I stood no chance. And selecting Arenas that had crap opponents in them. This I realise now was a stupid thing to do, If you play a good player and just kill them a couple of times treat it as a minor victory and soon you will get more confident and win more. Learn from your mistakes. Quake2 as I have found out is a VERY tactical game
Winning & Losing - There something worse than a Bad loser and thats a BAD winner! if you beat someone dont laugh or wind them up, no-one respects you for doing that. Also if you lose or win by a small amount why not say "GG", or if they rail you in 2 shots or rail you in mid air say someting like "WOW" or "Shot". My wall has quite a few indents where mice have been smashed at it, but i still say "GG" even though i say it with seething anger. (TIP) buy cheap mice if you like smashing them against the wall, saves a lot of money :)
Thanks to Yakumo[UNR] for showing me a HPB railer can outrail LPB's, And thanks to Blaster[KING] & Rail[KING] for all those hours helping me to be a good railer. Respects to all the RA2 guys on BarrysWorld making it a fun and enjoyable place to play.
if you Feel you can add any good advice to this section mail me at kingclan@hotmail.com