How to use Lightning Gun / Shaft

[fernandinho1337]

Hello,

as I was asked by tar!/ Bewb.zi to explain how I shaft, I try to explain it within this thread/ post:

1. Adminless has set up his mod with unlagged mod, therefore "the old aiming technique" I will explain in a second is outdated as you will not have to worry about ping issues on his servers. Though, if you are used to "my" technique you can translate it onto all guns which are similiar to lightning gun and to all games if the game you are playing has a similiar "movement system", i. e. strafing is possible. Furthermore, having some type of technique will help you get steady high accuracies on those weapons.

2. Starting point of technique: Back in the old days internet connections and netcodes were not as good as they are nowadays. This made aiming when playing online more difficult. In order to show you how difficult it was I uploaded a video: You can tell when I am moving my mouse by a lot the beam of the LG is "wobbling" around the crosshair but is never really on the crosshair therefore even when you were able to point directly at your enemy hits were not registered.

3. How to fix it: As also shown in the video I uploaded you can see that the wobbling is very close to non-existent if you do not move your mouse but strafe left and right. This is really important as this realization means the world to your aim.

How to Aim:

3.1 Do not use your mouse, strafe only instead!
3.2 When strafing, try to synchronize with your enemy's movement which means if (s)he strafes to the right you strafe to the right. If (s)he strafes to the left, you strafe to the left. If you do this well you will get the "lock in"-effect, i. e. your crosshair will be glued to your opponents hitbox.
3.3 As you will not be able to perfectly synchronize your movement/ copy your enemy's movements you have to make corrections. You make those corrections by using your mouse. These corrections should be as minor as possible.

4 Additional notes

4.1 Players with low or medium mouse sensitivities will have a much easier time doing the corrections mentioned in 3.3. If you just cannot do it try lowering your mouse sensitivity (I use medium sens with mouse acceleration to compensate when moving around the map).
4.2 Practise is required
4.3 Combine this aiming technique with your dodging technique (see 5).

5 How to dodge when an opponent utilizing the lightning gun is "in your face"

5.1 Baisc technique:

I attached a picture to show you what I mean:

It shows to players from the aerial perspective.

(1) Attacker
(2) Defender (you), your starting point.
(3) Your circle of movements. You can move when not jumping with 320 units per seconds in Quake 3. So assuming the circle has a radius of 320 units you can reach every dot of the circle from your starting point (2) within one second by strafing forward, backward, left, right or by combining, e. g. moving pressing +forward and +moveleft at the same time.
(4) Scenario 1
(5) Scenario 2
(6) The attackers perception

Scenario 1 (4): You are at your starting point and the attacker hits you. If you only move forward to position 4 your displacement from his point of view is zero. Therefore he will keep hitting you all the wall and he will not even have to make any corrections with his mouse. Therefore you are an easy victim.

Scenario 2 (5): You are at your starting point and the attacker hits you. By only strafing left (if you are only strafing right it is the same thing) you get to to the point marked 5 on the circle. You will have the maximum displacement from your attacker's point of view in this scenario, so you will appear to be moving faster than in Scenario 4. Now the attacker has to do something. He will try to synchronize his movement with yours and make mouse adjustments to keep hitting you.

5.2 Conclusions:

If you are under attack and only strafe left and right it is most difficult to hit you. Of course, it is not always possible because you have to consider what else is going on in the map. Are there any walls, teammates, enemies? Do you want to fight till the end or do you prefer to escape? So there are many reasons why you cannot just strafe left and right but if you are in a head-to-head / 1on1 situation with an LG vs another LG player you should avoid moving forward or backward or even jumping. If you are jumping your trajectory is predictable which makes you easy to hit. (I want to point out that my LG aim appears to be so strong because I am not such a good aimer, actually many players on the server just do not know how to dodge the LG shots, I almost strictly stick to the rules set in 3 and play it out).

Another conclusion to be drawn which is really important: If you know how to dodge well it will also improve your LG aim. Shafting enemies on the jumppad is easy because they are in the air and predictable. You will think about your positioning. You should try to position yourself in a way that when an enemy enters the room his displacement is smaller (thinking about angles and corners!), e. g. do not stand right in front of entries, move yourself a bit to the left or right in certain situations.

6 Summary

Everything in quick words: Aim by strafing left and right (synchronize!), mouse is only needed for corrections. If you cannot do it lower your sensitivity. If you are under LG attack, try to strafe left and right, do not strafe forward or backward unless you have tactical reasons like confronting in close combat or retreating.

Best regards,

[adminless]

hey good post I believe this should interest people so I uped it to announcements in this sub-forum. see you.