5
« on: September 08, 2005, 03:15:52 PM »
In this document i hope to cover the basic principles of building, that is, the different kinds of walls, mazes and towers you can make, but also some general tips and pointers for the whole game. At this time i do not have any images to help my point getting through, but i might make some, but even if i did then i wouldn't really have many places to upload them to D:. You should also note that this guide does not have map-specific help.
Tips and Pointers
- Avoid floating constructions, that means constructions that are not in contact with the ground, read below for reasoning. An easy way to do this is with the help of your good friend Gravity and then the freeze-gun.
- Use the freeze-gun whenever you can, you actually have a limited number of grav-gun freezes.
- The basic fort should have walls and a flag-maze, the flag-maze is very important.
- If you're building a platewalls then have the plates lying down to get more cover from each piece, you don't need that last bit of height they already cover more than your own height when lying down.
- Learn the sound of the Crowbar and Stunbaton hitting blocks, because if you hear that sound then someone is tearing down your base, same goes for shots on your base of course.
Ettiquette
- Don't steal other people's blocks.
- Don't spawn tons of blocks if you don't need them, and even if you do, then try to spawn them in small groups, that way you avoid having blocks lying around being a nuissiance and some maps also have a limited number of blocks in total, so if you spawn loads of one type, then you might end up lacking oher types of blocks.
..If you have anything else, then post it here and i'll add it.
The Blocks
In most maps there are 5 basic blocks, and in this guide i'll use the following names.
- Cube, a small cube-shaped block.
- Box, the same size as 2 cubes put together.
- Plank, long rectangular plate.
- Large Plate.
- Small plate.
I might go around to get some images of them up, but i don't really have a place to upload to, and most people should have an idea which blocks are which by their names and 5 seconds of experience ingame.
Handling Blocks
Turning the blocks around the vertical axis is easy, you just let it drop and then walk around the block. To turn a block around the horizontal axis you will need to look up, when you look up the side that is against you when looking straight will be faced down as you look up, then it's a easy matter of letting the block drop down after being aligned and then picking it up again - if it's a plate then be quick to get it before it falls over.
The Fort
Here I'll come around the basic parts in a fort, and also the pros and cons of different building methods and the difference between the blocks used.
The typical SourceFort Fort consists of 2 basic, and obligatory, things:
- Walls
- Flag-Maze
Often you will also see:
- Towers
- Bunkers
But I won't come around these now. Though I might edit this later and put them in if people want me to.
The Walls
The purpose of the wall is of course to block entrance, but also to cover your team from enemy fire, also whenever we build stuff we generally want to be able to easily repair it and reinforce it during build-time.
Build method
Basically there are two approaches to building a wall, a standing wall, that is a wall that is in contact with the ground, and a floating wall, the opposite.
Standing wall
Pros:
- Gives you proper cover.
- Depending on how you build it, and what blocks you use, you can have situations where the dead blocks stay in place and still works as part of the wall.
- Easy to reinforce/repair, the real boon to this is when the blocks stay in place after dying then you just need to do a quick repair and not a repair/refitting.
- "more for less"
Cons:
- Takes longer to build since you need to align blocks and turn them properly.
Floating wall
Pros:
- Really easy and fast to build.
- Can be hard to take down, since you can often fire through.
- Can be deployed almost anywhere, the particular place i'm thinking of is walls on the side of a ledge, you can't build standing walls here because you don't have the space.
Cons:
- It gives you practically no cover at all. First of all the blocks isn't on the ground, so your toes litterally DIES and second, when building like this the blocks are often not aligned properly to use all the surface area to give cover.
- "Less for more"
I know it seems like the last build-method is just useless, and it pretty much is, but as stated it's faster to build, so if you're under time-pressure then it can be utilized for some quick defenses. The bottom-line is, HAVE STANDING WALLS FOR CHRIST SAKE OR I'LL KILL YOU WITH MY BARE PASTRY HANDS! Note: the easy way to make standing walls is use gravity and then the freeze-gun.
Blocks used
for the floating wall you just use whatever blocks you can get your hands on, though the box tends to give "good" results. For the standing wall you should mainly be using the box and the large plates. And again, you have 2 approaches. To make the wall out of boxes/cubes or plates.
The Difference..
- Boxwalls are perhaps a bit faster to build.
- Boxwalls are thicker and takes more space, might be bad someplaces.
- If you're not a bit careful the enemy can jump up over the boxwall like steps on stairs.
- With the platewall the enemy surely can't get over.
- Platewalls with overlapping pieces can easily lock dead pieces into place, making the wall more solid.
So yeah, build Platewalls, namely STANDING platewalls.
How to..
Boxwalls are easy to figure out, you just drop a box, freeze it, drop a box on top of it and freeze that, rinse, repeat.
With platewalls you just need to get one piece standing then have the the second plate support itself on the first plate and then freeze it, the third plate support itself on the second and so on. To get the first place standing you can either have a box standing/lying behind the soon to be wall and have the plate support itself on that, or simply freeze the plate in the air with the gravgun.
The Flag-maze
As i mention in the pointer/tip section the flag-maze is very important if you want to keep your flag safe. Actually there usually isn't much maze in it, it's often composed of a crawlspace or at least some walls around the flag to limit the entrance, here i'll concentrate on the crawlspace version, since it's the one that actually works properly, and you can refer to the wall section for walls.
The purpose of the flag-maze is to give slow down the opponent in getting away with your flag, typically by having a crawlspace entrance-exit or perhaps just a crawlspace exit - the important part is the exit part, since you get a warning when the enemy takes you flag. And oncemore you can chose to have a floating contruction or a standing contruction.
Floating flag-maze:
Pros:
- Fast to build
- the contruction itself is easy to defend.
- more flexible for the height.
- can provide some protection with the least amount of blocks - 1.
Cons
- Hard to get the height right so you can still crawl under it and get to the flag.
- doesn't give you much defense for the flag.
- aligning the block properly so you use the block to the fullest is harder.
Standing flag-maze:
Pros:
- Easier to get the height right, the boxes/cubes are the same size as a person crouching.
- provides excellent protection for the flag.
- the construction can be reinforced with several layers of plating.
- If you have a roof then the enemy will always have to walk out through the crawlspace, you might risk having enemies boosting eachother up if there's no roof.
Cons
- Takes longer to build.
- If you have a roof then you also need to crawl through the crawlspace to get to the flag, isn't much of a penalty since you're usually safe when you're in your base, but technically the time used on crawling could be used on capping the flag extra times.
- typically takes more blocks
As I said I think the flag-maze is one of the most important parts of the game, first of all that's how you technically win the game, but it also gives the opponent a lot of money if they can just walz away with your flag all the time. And since it is so important i think you should sacifice the time and blocks to get a standing flag-maze, however on some maps with a limited amount of blocks you might have to do a floating flag-maze since you need walls to stay alive.
How to..
Standing flag-maze is easy peasy, just form some blocks to make the crawl-space path then drop some large plates over the top. Remember to notice if the flag is on a raised platform or similar because then you will need to make the roof higher above that specific place to make the flag accessable, which it must be. If you plan on making a roofless flag-maze then use large plates, standing up if you have enough, the reason they need to stand up is to avoid the enemy boosting eachother. And even if you don't plan on making the roofless version then if the flag is raised then you will need to make a higher area around the flag anyway, and the platewalls are thinner and more usually more solid as i mentioned earlier.
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