Overly Chatty Penguins

The Ready Room => General => Topic started by: TheAdj on August 05, 2004, 05:04:34 PM

Title: Lerk Tactics - Lame Or Not?
Post by: TheAdj on August 05, 2004, 05:04:34 PM: So lately I've regulared on the Lunixmonster due to one fact: I haven't been kicked for pancaking. Every other server that has the admin presence that lunixmonster does that isn't a clan server has either permanently banned or continually kicks me until I stop going lerk. Not cool when I'm trying to get my practice in for the next CAL match or random tournament.

I've also had people in at least 1 game a day complain A LOT about my playing style as lerk. I thought I'd define why and how I do what I do to minimize the crying from the people that read this forum, which in general are the only ones that count. I discovered that the reason a lerk dies is one of three reasons: It stays too long in combat and gets whittled down, it takes a direct hit or series of them and dies instantly, or it gets ambushed in some way. These are common to all aliens, but the lerk has special circumstances.

The first example is usually because the lerk finds one lmg marine and tries to kill him, yet can't do it fast enough, and either that one marine eventually kills the lerk or backup arrives for the marine and picks you off from the doorway. I solve this with my diving attack flight style. Marines have a hard time tracking a vertically moving target, so constantly changing my height makes it impossible to track accurately. I stay hear the ceiling, then dive down, attack a few times, the go back to the ceiling and repeat. If more than 1 marine or larger weapons are around, I try to force them to unload ammo. This is what generally makes people angry, as I fly around the room acrobat style and force them to expend ammo trying to kill what would otherwise be a very easy target. The power of the new flight model is the possibility of flying around in an impossible to follow manner, while keeping tabs on where you actually are. It's easy to lose focus and forget where you are in a room and die trying to leave the wrong way.

Second example is mainly for shotguns/GLs/HMGs. A single shotgun blast with all 8 pellets connecting will drop most lerks dead, and is a #1 killer for lerks. I avoid this in two ways. First I get carapace, which makes 1 shot kills with a shotgun impossible at full health. Second is my flight style once again. shotguns are less likely to get a full 8 pellet hit the further you are away from them, so the least amount of time you spend close to the marine the better. The preferred tactics are either diving in a random pattern to minimize damage (the higher the angle the better, its hard to track when you have to look all the way up and rotate around that point) or what I've done lately vs solo shotgunners. Dive to their feet, bite, then hop over their head and bite from behind. It's hard to flip around and shoot something and continue doing it.

Third example is the one you really have to watch for. A good ambush is impossible to detect and difficult to escape. It involves either baiting a lerk for the "easy" kill or doing something sure to draw the lerks attention. Once it's in position, the doors are blocked in some fashion to prevent easy escape. Avoiding the ambush is usually difficult to achieve, and escaping isn't much easier. Usually reaction skills keep you alive, the moment you see or hear something suspicious you change your flight pattern so whoever was trying to hit you can't follow you. If anyone has ever shot at me from behind with a shotgun, you know what I'm talking about. I immediately switch directions and weave up and down, which makes it hard to get a good shot on me.

GUIDELINES
For some reason people feel the need to get angry at me when I play like this, so I started this thread to ask one question: Why? Why does this bother you so much? This is for the people that don't like my style of playing for whatever reason to say why, and for general conversation about the lerk and/or pancaking in general. Don't flame me (flame the playing style), don't flame each other, and stay on topic. Flame away.
Title: Lerk Tactics - Lame Or Not?
Post by: BobTheJanitor on August 05, 2004, 05:11:46 PM: Regardless of what people like or don't like, the rules say that you cannot pancake as a lerk. It's an exploit in the fact that lerk vertical speed is totally uncapped, and it's listed in the bug tracker. However, pancaking DOES NOT mean simply moving up or down. Lerks are allowed to fly up. Lerks are allowed to fly down. They are allowed to use random movement to avoid fire. Anything else would be silly. What is NOT allowed is flying madly up and down, bouncing off ceilings and floors over and over. That does make you impossible to hit, and is considered an exploit of the game engine.

So dive for kills if you must, fly away straight up to escape, that's fine. Just don't bounce like a rubber ball gone mad.
Title: Lerk Tactics - Lame Or Not?
Post by: Asal on August 05, 2004, 07:02:50 PM: Maybe boring and annoying, but not lame. I'd say the more the marines complain, the better you're getting. Now try for 2 complaints/day >:D
Title: Lerk Tactics - Lame Or Not?
Post by: Dark on August 05, 2004, 07:45:33 PM: Quote
Regardless of what people like or don't like, the rules say that you cannot pancake as a lerk. It's an exploit in the fact that lerk vertical speed is totally uncapped, and it's listed in the bug tracker. However, pancaking DOES NOT mean simply moving up or down. Lerks are allowed to fly up. Lerks are allowed to fly down. They are allowed to use random movement to avoid fire. Anything else would be silly. What is NOT allowed is flying madly up and down, bouncing off ceilings and floors over and over. That does make you impossible to hit, and is considered an exploit of the game engine.

So dive for kills if you must, fly away straight up to escape, that's fine. Just don't bounce like a rubber ball gone mad.
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nicely put bob. i don't mind a lerk flying away normaly as long as it is just normal up and down to avoid being killed right off. if that is what you are doing keep it up
Title: Lerk Tactics - Lame Or Not?
Post by: X-S-Z on August 05, 2004, 08:19:48 PM: I just want to know how you dive down so fast. I've never had anyone dive down to attack as fast as you do. Is it just binding jump to the mousewheel? Or do you have a jackhammer for a thumb?
Title: Lerk Tactics - Lame Or Not?
Post by: TheAdj on August 05, 2004, 09:58:52 PM: No, I use the arrow keys for movement normally, and shift to jump as lerk. All it takes is 3 flaps to go full speed, and if you do a 180 fast enough you keep about half momentum. I also always get celerity, so my speed goes up even more. For some reason not many people use lerk this way, and I honestly don't understand why. It's brutally effective and gets better as room size increases. Marines supposedly have an advantage in large rooms or big corridors, and I use that against them. It's rare to kill me in a large room, most of my deaths are in small areas with little/no cover at all, especially on the ceiling. I like rooms like Aux Gen on caged because there are so many things I can do acrobatics through, and it becomes impossible to track me reliably until I actually attack someone.

EDITED FOR CLARIFICATION
Title: Lerk Tactics - Lame Or Not?
Post by: Satiagraha on August 05, 2004, 10:54:03 PM: What are the arrow keys for? and Shift for that matter. Why would a lerk use shift?
Title: Lerk Tactics - Lame Or Not?
Post by: Mr.Ben on August 06, 2004, 05:47:22 AM: TEAM LORK! :D
Title: Lerk Tactics - Lame Or Not?
Post by: Isamil on August 06, 2004, 07:03:55 AM: I use the arrow keys to...
But, I use the End button to jump.
Title: Lerk Tactics - Lame Or Not?
Post by: tharsis on August 07, 2004, 11:05:29 PM: I think that being a Lerk is basically part of the game. Unless you use it how its supposed to be used, then its fair game. It is actually very good for those speedy, stealthy, attacks. I'm trying to get better at it, so I'm not the best, but people still whine about it.
Title: Lerk Tactics - Lame Or Not?
Post by: Lito on August 07, 2004, 11:19:09 PM: Its hard to hit you, albiet, but not OMGITSFLYINGUPANDDOWNAT100MPH hard. What am I supposed to say? Get off the server because you're too good?

Now if you were pancaking it would be "Get off the server because you're exploiting" Which is a whole different story.

Welcome to Lunixmonster, where we recognize skill as skill, not "Get the hell out, I can't kill you so you must be doing SOMETHING exploitive".
Title: Lerk Tactics - Lame Or Not?
Post by: Anarki3x6 on August 08, 2004, 01:47:28 AM: yeah, theres plenty with good lerk skills, theyre mostly on the verge of pancaking :) but not exactly, yeah theyre annoying but they can be easily taken care of with a good shotty blast, but when i hear the groans of a lerk gone mad crashing into the floors and ceilings THEN theyre pancaking...