 |
||
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
| Knifer's Guide |
| by Grampa[RBA] |
 |
There aren't nearly enough knifers out there. In the hopes that someone, even one person, will put down their automatics and shotguns and rifles and pick up The One Real Weapon, I will lay out my personal strategies and tactics. That, and I'm sitting at work, waiting for stuff to compile, bored completely s^#@less. The Way of the Knife The Way of the Knife is the Way of Teamplayers. In a Deathmatch situation, it's moderately rare that you can accumulate enough knives to put your pistol aside. Add in the general confusion and mayhem that is a deathmatch, and you cannot truly experience knives to their fullest. The Way of the Knife is the Way of the LPB. The knife is the most difficult weapon to master for those with a low ping. It's really tough at 300 or higher. I've tried, just for fun, playing with knives on a distant server. With packet loss and ping, you'll find your knives buried in walls rather than buried in skulls. But for those fortunate ones with a smooth connection, or those on a LAN, the knife is the best weapon. Let me explain. Why Choose Knives First, they're just fun. A knife kill is pure style. A knife kill says that you can get close enough to an enemy, and/or you can outmaneuver an enemy, and/or you have the cool to accurately lead a dodging enemy while under fire. And the gurgly noises they make when you hit is awesome... An M4 kill is almost nothing. They're a powerful weapon. Only a leg shot will not kill an enemy. Even that will lower them to 30 health. And unlike a sniper rifle, they go through vests. A knife-to-knife fight is a thing of beauty and honor. I absolutely love duking it out with a fellow knifeman (or knifewoman). Ducking and dodging, bobing and weaving. Knives flashing through the air. Two men enter, one man leaves. What's love got to do with it? An MP5-to-MP5 fight is just a lot of noise. You can get damn good with them. Knives aren't something where you'll be lucky to get 5 kills with 'em, and that's the best you'll ever do. You can actually improve to the point where you'll rival LPB M4ers on some maps. And outright whip 'em on others. The Results You're completely safe no matter what the results of the match are. If an LPB with a ping of 50 wins a match with an M4/laser, that person is the object of mild (sometimes moderate or severe depending if the person brags or not) scorn and/or derision. If you do poorly with knives, you can blame it on your choice of weapon. "I wasn't trying to win. I'm using knives, where you losers are all toting M4s." :) If you do well or win, you can do the Dance of Smugness. You've proven that you can not only defeat the other team, but you can score more frags than the machinegunners on your own team. That says a lot. Also, any insults thrown your way slide off like water off a duck's back. For example, "You're all ping." - The delay of throwing a knife effectively raises your ping. If a machinegunner rounds the corner and surprises you, and you find yourself face-to-face with a maniac, chances are real good you're going to lose. No matter what your ping difference is. "You're just lucky." - One or two knives may be total luck, but ten or twenty? "Spray n' Prayer" - You'll just never hear this directed at you. ;) "Zbot #%&*er" - Nor this... Except by total idiots, who are amusing to the extreme. "Knives are cheating" - I actually heard this once. Just gotta laugh... "%(*#& %&@ (%%@ you %*&@ing &@(% mother *%&@( with a goat %&*@ dressed like Satan %&$# $(*&!!!!1!!" - Ah, music to my ears... When I see this, I know I've royally pissed someone off. And not by insulting their mothers or anything. I made them mad because I whipped them with a technically-inferior weapon. I absolutely love enraging the emotionally crippled, so I eat this stuff up... What Special Item Should I Take? This is a good question, but really not that tough because it essentially boils down to either the slippers or the vest. Why not bandolier? You don't need 20 knives. Take the time to pick up the ones you used. Sometimes a "teammate" will scoop them all up. Ask them politely not to next time. I've never had a problem with teammates repeatedly swiping knives. Why not laser or silencer? *Dull stare* When the slippers? When the vest? It boils down to these items. Is the map full of twists, turns, and places to hide? If so, favor the slippers. Is the map mostly open? If so, favor the vest. Is there a lot of people on (more than 4 or 5 people on)? If so, favor the vest. Are most of the people on the enemy side using machineguns? If so, favor the vest. I'll go into detail my reasoning: Closed/open map - An open map means you can't really sneak around too effectively, so there's no point in wasting your special item on slippers. Lots of people on - Means a lot bigger chance that you'll meet with more than 1 enemy at once. Two or more enemies vs you makes a dead knifer. Sometimes you'll get lucky or just be "on fire" with the knives, but usually not. Take the vest. Plus, lots of people means lots of noise. Enemies will tend to think your footsteps belong to a teammate's when the server's packed, where enemies will listen intently if it's not. Most enemies using machineguns - No brainer. Using a vest against a team of shotgunners ain't too bright. ;) Whereas coming face-to-face with 3 machinegunners will have you wishing you'd picked vest. If you pick the slippers but you're dying from a lot of machinegun fire, switch. If people hear you coming too often, switch. There ya go. :) Hunting Moving about when not chasing or outright fighting is important, because otherwise you're camping and tarnishing the honor of knifers everywhere. :) How you move about is more important. Rule 1: Have cover close by. The bulk of the people you'll face will be spray n' prayers. If you see someone, and they see you, hide. If they start firing at you, move so they'll miss if they move into the room still firing. Know how long a machinegun's clip lasts and prepare to attack when they run out. Spray n' Prayers tend to not be all that skilled in evasive tactics, so you can usually catch 'em just standing still when they run out of ammo. If they don't start firing at you, think how they'll come after you and prepare. People tend to move in the same pattern around a map. They'll hug corners and walls. They'll enter a room and move pretty much the same way. Get ready to lead 'em when they come in after you. Also get ready to throw and run. Rule 2: Never go out in the open. Unless you have to, don't do it. Go around the entire map if you need to, but the instant a sniper sees you leave cover, you may as well bend over and kiss yer ass goodbye. Also, if you're in the open, all the machinegunners in the map outrange you. Rule 3: Move silently when needed. If you have the vest, there are times you want to make no noise. Usually when approaching where you suspect a sniper might be hidden, or where you see someone just hanging out (for whatever reason). Walk instead of run. Beware of stairs that lead down, downward slopes, elevators, buttons and drops. They'll all cause you to make noise. Rule 4: Stop and listen. Move into a room, slide into a corner and stop for a second or two. Just a couple seconds. Hear nothing? Move out. Hear something? You've just avoided bumping into an enemy... Get ready to ambush. Rule 5: Let the kids play. If there's a lot of people on the server, let the M4 kiddies have their fun. ;) You will NOT survive just rushing out like Rambo. You may get lucky, but odds are you'll have to watch the rest of the round through someone else's eyes. Wait about 30 seconds or so. Then go for it. This may backfire if your team is superior to the other team. You may wind up getting no kills at all. But this works well if their team is superior to yours. You won't get slaughtered right off, and you can make them split up to try to find you faster. That's definately what you want to happen. 4 or 5 1-on-1 fights means 4 or 5 frags for you in a round. ;) The Chase Ok, you see someone and they haven't seen you. If you have the vest, you may as well start throwing unless there's still a lot of people left alive so they'll ignore your footsteps. If you have the slippers, start chasing. Stick to walls and try to get across open spaces quickly. Most people won't look behind themselves when running, so you're usually safe. Wait until you get to a hallway, then lead them with a knife. If you're directly behind, aim high. They'll run into the falling knife. Or wait until you get to a room with a pretty standard running pattern... Then throw where they're going to run to. If they get stuck trying to go through a door, you may want to hold off throwing. It's very tempting, but usually they're only stuck for a moment. By the time you realize they're stopped and have thrown a knife, they're usually gone, and you've just missed. If you miss, there's a 50/50 chance you've been discovered. Some people will keep on going like nothing happened. You're lucky. Others will turn and fire. Good luck! If I miss, depending on how lucky I feel, I'll either keep up the chase, start attacking all out, or run. He who fights and runs away, and all that... Waiting Like most tactics tutorials will tell you, there are times to wait and ambush. With knives, ambushes are a good thing. The best place to ambush someone is definately from the top of a flight of stairs. If someone's coming, just throw a knife or two down. Thanks to the arc, your knife will fall down the slope, and you haven't really had to expose yourself to throw it. Plus you'll usually wind up with a good headshot. Just try to see if they're coming up the middle of the stairs or to one side. People rarely go up stairs diagonally if there's no immediate reason for them to do so. The tops of elevators and ladders are good ones, too. Just for ladders adjust for the jumping effect of someone getting to the top. Like on Subway2, they'll usually climb up the ladders then hop up. Bear that in mind and lead accordingly. Of course, if you know someone's going to be tearing around the bend, get into a position where they won't see you as they run past. Few people will look around as they run through the level, so take advantage of that. Toe-to-Toe Fighting Every now and again, you'll come into direct contact, and a toe-to-toe fight will start. How to react depends on what weapon they're using. Sniper Rifle/Handcannon - The very best way to deal with these guys is to get as close as possible. Extremely close range. These guys have a long reload time, so if you can get 'em to miss, you're set. Handcannoners especially. Jumping past them unexpectedly, running backwards around them, anything they don't expect will cause them to fire and miss. Then you can say 'Thank you' at the end of a knife. Snipers are especially easy close in. Usually they're zoomed, narrowing their vision all the more. The real trick against snipers is to time your ducks and weaves to between their shots. If you try to change direction when they're ready to fire, you're probably dead. If a handcannoner misses and starts to run, let him go and backpedal away from him.. He'll reload, then turn around and run back at you, giving you an opportunity to knife him before he gets too close. Shotgun - These guys are the toughest to beat, IMO. Staying extremely close works, but their higher rate of fire (compared to snipers/HCers) makes them tougher. They also have a relatively quick reload time (for just one shell). Just try to stay out of medium-to-close range, and use cover to your advantage. Machinegunners and pistolers - Usually pretty predictable. They'll either jump around, or try to circle-strafe, or just stand there, or weave side to side at fairly regular intervals. Circle strafing with the OCCASIONAL jump works pretty well to dodge their fire. Reverse the direction you're going if there's a break in their fire or you can manage it in other ways (changing direction while they're firing after you is pretty silly, obviously). If you jump too much, it'll throw off your aim. Just lead these guys, and you can usually get 'em. Knifers - Enjoy... Just avoid the trap of weaving from side to side or doing a regular circle strafe. Try to weave between their knives. Jump past them. Anything to throw them off. Just DONT BE PREDICTABLE. If they can predict where you'll be in a second, a postmarked knife will be waiting for you when you arrive. Jumping Beans - These guys are only really tough if they're jumping around you. Try to predict where they're next bounce is. If they're jumping at or away from you, aim at head-height (on a standing guy). If you hit them as they land, it's a headshot. If you hit them in mid-air, it's a chest or stomach. All are fatal. Crouchers - These guys are kinda tough... Until you get the hang of 'em. AIM FOR THEIR FEET. Knives tend to sail over them if you aim for the chest, and since I've never hit a croucher in the legs with a knife, I aim lower than I usually would. Since they can't move very fast crouching, they become sitting ducks. (Ba dump bump) If you come upon a 2 (or more)-on-1 situation, where you're the 1, GET THE HELL OUTTA DODGE. Unless you're fighting newbies, you'll get wiped out. Run. Try to ambush whoever's chasing you. If you run and live, that gives you another chance to knife someone. Suicide attacks seldom work. Run, and try to tilt the odds in your favor. Mastering the Arc The arc and the slow speed of the knife are your friends. Arc - Master it. It'll let you hit people you can't even see. If you're below a platform where someone is (ie: Subway2, the second highest building looking up to the highest), you can arc a knife up over the edge of their platform and hit 'em. If you're higher than your enemy, and you've got an excess of knives, chuck one over. I've had some pretty darn long range head shots just because I tossed one over for the hell of it. And your neighbors LIKE being woken up to you yelling "I HIT HIM!?!? I HIT HIM!!! YES YES YES!" at 3am. Honest! ;) Speed - The only way you can provide 'cover fire' for yourself. If someone's coming after you, try throwing a knife in the hopes they'll run into it. It happens. Just for God's sake don't throw at regular intervals! Round's Over All done with the round? Still alive? TARGET PRACTICE! Throw for a far-off street lamp. Throw at your teammates. Throw when standing still. Throw when running. Throw a knife straight up on Urban and try to catch it in your teeth. Final Words Always pick up knives. If I have fewer than 5 knives, I consider myself low on ammo. Try to pick up stuff you've thrown or loot the dead. Dont get excited. Knives take precision. Not only do you have to have a steady hand, you have to be able to lead your target. Using knives while on a cola buzz isn't the best thing in the world for you. :) Dark spot? Throw a knife at it! You can get your knife back if noone's actually there. Be unpredictable. This is important. It'll keep you alive long enough to knife someone else. If you have slippers, only team up with other slipper-wearers. I'll purposefully lose a teammate who's not wearing them if I am. What's the point of me having them, otherwise? Leg damage is your enemy. Try to bandage it ASAP. You can't shoot back at someone attacking you as well as you can dodge them, and leg damage prevents that. I rarely bother with slash-mode. People jump around when they hear the "swoosh swoosh swoosh"... I usually just throw my last one then use the pistol or special weapon if I have one. (as of v1.1b2) BE CAREFUL OF THE DELAYED-SWITCH KNIFE BUG! If you throw your last knife, get somewhere safe before switching back! You can't throw your knives for about 10-15 seconds after switching. Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, and know when to whip out that MP5 you picked up. Sometimes, ya just gotta. Yeah, it's more honorable to die as a knifer than live as a machinegunner, but sometimes you just gotta win. You know, for your team! (Is anyone out there buying this?) Practice practice practice!!! Knives are HARD. And all the tactics manuals in the world will not help you past a certain point. Learn the speed of your knives, how much they arc, what you can and cannot hit, etc. It'll help you lead your targets. Always remember that you're the underdog. Do whatever it takes, short of camping or calling their mothers names, to even the odds. Attack from behind. Slash-and-run. Take your time. In my AQ experience, nothing is more fun or satisfying than being all alone, against impossible odds, and winning. What's a more action movie-esque thing than that? ----------------------------- by Grampa[RBA], Jan 4th & 5th 1999. You can do whatever you want with this as long as you copy it in its entirety with no changes apart from formatting. Everything. From the first line to this one. ![Logo not authorized by Grandpa[RBA]](images/grampa2.jpg) |
