Deathmatch
So your game rankings aren't on the top of the scoreboard!!!. Maybe your doing something wrong (or maybe not). Deathmatch play on the InterNet Australis gamezone servers is what you would call a free for all. Its kill or be killed. The one with the most frags (kills) is the winner. If you're a customer of InterNet Australis you're going to have a huge advantage as you will have extraordinarily low pings. A ping is the response time it takes to send and receive information to and from the game servers. The lower your ping is the smoother the game is and the greater your advantage will be over the opposition. So sign up today and aim to be the best.

For those players who are still having trouble fraging everyone in sight here are a few pointers that will make all the difference.

Reduce your screen resolution
Its true your screen sure does look nice when you're playing at 800x600 resolution, but unless you have a fast computer with a 3D card then chances are your screen wont be updated fast enough. To fix this, reduce the screen resolution to something around 640*480 or even 320x200, It may look a little more blocky, but game play will be much smoother (over 4 times smoother) and your fraging will improve dramatically

Use your mouse as well as your keyboard
When most people start playing Quake, Quake II, Quake 3, Half-Life or Unreal Tournament they use the keyboard to aim, move and shoot. I'll warn you now  this  may be sufficient when playing some lame monster in single player mode, but the fact is you wont be able to compete with even the average online player. The reason is simple; 'ALL' internet players use the mouse. It allows them to look around and aim independently of how they are moving. The keyboard is limited, you can only turn at a constant rate and its slow. It takes around 1 second to turn 180 degrees on the keyboard whereas the mouse on the otherhand will allow you to turn and shoot in less time than it takes for your keyboard welding opposition to blink.

To enable the mouse in most online games you must go into the options screen, by pressing the <ESC> key and turn the USE MOUSE option on.  If you also want the mouse to look up and down just as easily as you now look from side to side you may need to bring up the game console by pressing the '~' key and type +mlook. You are now able to change your viewpoint with the mouse while moving forward, back, left or right with the keyboard. You can also set your mouse buttons to Fire and Jump, a third button mouse would of course be even better.
Note: Before playing with the mouse always make sure that both the mouse ball & its tractors are clean. Dont get caught with a mouse that sticks or is jumpy.

Configuring Keys:
Spend time setting your keyboard up properly. You wont get anywhere if you can't find the fire or jump buttons quick enough. Make sure all the controls/keys are easily reached. Make sure that the most important keys and buttons always have a finger dedicated to them. Never ever put yourself in a position where you find yourself looking down for a key when you should have been fraging another player. Just use some common sense, after all your not going to be able to fight well if you use the same finger for jumping as well as moving forward!  

To configure the keys with most of our online games press the <ESC> key to bring up the options menu. You should see another menu with a label simular to "Customize Controls".  Selecting this will list the various actions available to you, the key that the action is bound to will also be displayed. You may change the controls by pressing the enter key followed by the key you wish to use.

Enable Run
Make sure you always have run turned on. If you just walk around you may as well just lay down and died.
To turn run on in quake you need to go into the options screen by pressing <ESC> and turn the RUN option to Always

Start learning to use the console:
As you become more familiar with the game you will find yourself using the console more and more. The console is displayed by pressing the ~ key (the key below the ESC key). When this key is pressed, the upper half of the game screen becomes an area for inputting commands.  Quake, Quake II, Quake III and Half-life and unreal tournament all have many valuable commands that are only available through this console. To find a list of commands that Quake can use type the words 'Quake console commands'  into a webpage search engine like "yahoo" or "AltaVista".

Game Tactics & Great Tips

Now that you have set up the game its finally time to fine turn your playing tactics. You need to begin by learning the maps. If you don't know the maps well you will and I repeat WILL be killed by those who do. It is a good idea to spend some time running around the maps finding out where the weapons, health, runes and sniper spots are located, If you know the weapons well you will be able to grab them quickly and make mince meat out of all but the best deathmatch players. Also begin by learning when and where a weapon should be used. There are many tricks that you can learn; try firing rockets at people's feet its a much easier target to hit.
So watch your opposition and learn from them. Don't just jump into battle, make sure you are fully equiped. Get a few good weapons, some health and armour. Then return with all guns blazing to those places where you know players hang out. Start practicing your skills, try running around corners backwards and learn to shoot while strafing and/or jumping.

Strafing
Strafing means to move sideways. Set you keyboard up so that you can easily strafe at all times (especially when running). Strafing will make you 5 times harder to hit. So instead of just standing there and aiming at a target in front of you, learn to strafe around your target. keep them in your sights using the mouse to aim and fire. Mastering this is the ultimate in multiplayer game play, Its easy to do and it feels great.

Aim for the head
Aiming for the head makes no difference in Quake 1 however in Quake II, Quake 3, Half Life and Unreal Tournament it is a great strategy. It can cause between 2-3 times the damage. This means you can bring down the enemy quickly using less ammo and with less chance of  being hurt. One shoot to the head should kill most players unless they are heavily armored.
Note: Ducking in my opinion isn't so wise. Your movement is hindered and those players who would normally aim for your torso are  now targeting your head.

Jumping
Jumping is useful, but not as useful as strafing. Try Jumping when someone shoots a rocket at you. Chances are they are aiming at your feet, if you jump you will be guaranteed to suffer less blast damage and can even jump over the rocket. Jumping can also confuse the opposition as most players try to predict what you are going to do. Jumping is just one more thing that they must now facter in
Note:  Those players who think they are really good may like to try strafing, jumping and aiming at the same time.

Predicting Players Movement
Start predicting the opposition movements. Predict where they are going to go next. If they are near health, ammo or weapons chances are they will try to strafe towards it. So hint 101 is to "AIM THERE". Always predict and your frag count will improve.  

Run
If you think you are going to be killed and you don't want to collect all your weapons again my advise is RUN!. Running backwards also helps as you can shoot at anyone who chases you. Remember to strafe while running, otherwise you might as well be standing still.
Note: Some games have a Grapple Hook. So If you think your not being targeted and have the time, try using your grapple hook to grapple to somewhere that is both higher and safer.

The last piece of advise I can give to you is to practice, practice and then practice a bit more.
Well? ......      What are you waiting for? ....        Get back on the game servers.

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