Atra's Sandbox. I'm going to put anything I think of in here. Tactics, tips, videos to review, that sort of thing.

Most of this should be general tips, but if you don't want the other stuff in here, feel free to move this to another area.


As some of you may know, I've been addicted to the Soldier for the past four days.

I don't claim to know all that there is to know about the soldier (in my 15 hours grand total of soldier time) but I do know that I've improved greatly by watching videos and reading guides:

Steam forum links:

This is where I started with the soldier. Before I even got my hands dirty seriously playing the class I went here:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...d.php?t=701625

Now, I kind of wanted to steer myself less towards the tactical decisions that a soldier has to make, and work towards perfecting the basic skills. (basically I wanted to dominate like Reptile) And I wanted to do it fast. And believe it or not, a serious tactical game is not the fastest way to do that. With a long respawn time and a long walk it just didn't give me the experience that could be achieved with a DM style game. I frequented dm_duel, and dm_store maps for about the past two days and watched my skill level skyrocket. (har har, a pun) I was leading targets better, I was shotgunning with perfect timing. My rocket-jumping has improved to the point where I'm confident in what direction I'm going when I fire the RPG at my feet.

Atra's Soldier Tip #1: Deathmatch, baby. (Oh god, I'm probably going to get flamed for that.)

Next, I'd like to mention that Soldier has to be the most perceptive and reactive. I found that turning my sensitivity to insane levels helped my soldier play greatly, as I was able to react quickly and efficiently to that pyro that jumped around the corner.

Atra's Soldier Tip #2: Sensitivity is > 15 (mines at like.. 17)

[/soldier stuff]

Next I'd like to compare TG to the rest of the gaming world.

I was practicing Soldier on a DM map with Yoshi this morning. (Yoshi, of course, was not playing Soldier ) and I was able to experience the vast difference in skill between TG and most pub players. Now, in TG games, I tend to get decimated. I'm not afraid to admit that I am far from the most skilled guy in the server. But when I was in this other server, I was dominating, and I couldn't understand it. I know I've increased in skill as a soldier as I've been practicing almost non stop, but this was weird. How can a nub soldier come in and wreck the place? (behind, of course, Yosh on teh snipar rifle) After awhile Yoshi pointed out how.. just.. incredibly dumb most of the players were. When a pyro would rush him, they would run straight at him They would even ignore the rockets that I blasted at their feet. They wouldn't pull out their shotgun/flaregun, they would keep running, with their flames about fifteen feet away from him. They earned a crit rocket to the feet, or a bullet through the brain for their troubles.

What does this teach us? If you're close to the bottom of the scoreboards in a TG server. compared to the general gaming crowd, you're probably quite skilled. I kid you not, and I'm not sure how many of you go play in random pubs anymore, but try it and watch the gibs fly.

[/endegotrip]

Next, I was thinking about the setups and groupings of Medics and Heavies these days. What ruins heavy/medic combo like nothing else? Sniper or a Spy, right? If you could find a pyro that's a crack shot with the flare gun, why doesn't he go with them too? I rarely see the medic dedicated to more than one player, and not having to worry about spies (pyro would spycheck anything that came within 30ft of the group, lulz) and snipers (a well placed flare gun shot makes hitting anything with the sniper near impossible) would allow the heavy and medic to truly focus on wrecking the other team's players and defenses.

(probably a bad idea, but I've never seen it done, so who knows?)

That's all for today. Maybe some tomorrow...