The title hopefully explains it all. This is a simple overview of each and every single aspect of CTF, which I'll get deeper into in next articles.

Getting Started: Console Commands and nifty files

cg_fov 97: This increases your field of view. Invaluable, once you're used to it, may it be in CTFs, TFFAs or FFAs. Right now, I even use it for saber FFAs. Don't give up on it after ten minutes just because it feels weird, you'll get used to it in no time. I'll just quote Jacen Aratan, leader of the JAA's CTF team on this one:

Quote:

All who still use 80 must jump out from a bridge 10 times.

cg_drawteamoverlay 1
cg_drawtimer 1
cg_drawmap 1 (not sure about this one. You can bind a key to it in the controls section anyway, I believe)
I think all of these are obvious, as well as their uses.

Oh man, I'm sorry to exploit like this the Jedi Academy bandwith, but, well, I'm too lazy to find a site where to upload this
-Transparent flags, for all of you guys who like 3rd person view, even when using guns. http://www.thejediacademy.net/~jastaff/stuff/FaDed/red_slushie_flags.pk3
-The jumptraining map, which you can just solo to practice strafejumping.
http://www.thejediacademy.net/files/jumptraining.pk3

GUNS OWNZ J00!11

"The Lightsaber, this is the weapon of a Jedi Knight, not as clumsy or random as a blaster, an elegant weapon for a more civiled age"
This is generally the hardest part of CTF to accept for new players.
Guns > Sabers anyday. ANYDAY, even in Chop Shop, where a lame scratch on your left arm by those damn neontubes will instakill you. Why? Because any player that's decent enough to know what he's doing will just jump away and blast you before you even get close enough. And believe me, you won't be seeing upped saber damage in the more advanced levels of play.
Also, remember the better weapons are those with splash damage, such as the repeater, the flechette weapon and the rocket launcher. Go for these, and for their ammo, ASAP.

From point A to point B: Movement basics

Now, before I go any further... CTF isn't a friggin' walk to your grandmother's house, people. Force Speed is ESSENTIAL, and makes the difference between a dead flagger and a capture. NEVER walk if you can strafejump, even without Force Speed. Know the maps until you can see them by just closing your eyes, know the chokepoints, the routes and the ways to quickly switch from one to the other.

Onto strafejumping itself:
It is important for you to learn it, not only because it's fast, very fast (you can outrun a swoop if done correctly) but also because you do not spend any Force to assist you with the jumps!
I'll quote HooDWinkeR, one of the world's best CTF players, and his strafejumping tutorial. It's by far more detailed than anything I could write on the subject. If you don't understand, reread it until it makes sense, and if still doesnt, ask me, and I'll be glad to help.

Quote:

Alright, here's what a lot of people don't know about or don't seem to care about. Your first jump is where you make it or break it, it's the single most important jump in the whole set-up of strafing. [The First Jump] - Face at a 90 degree angle to the direction you intend to go. What you are doing is setting up for the first step in a circle jump. You face at that 90 degree angle and when you start, you turn your mouse to face ahead and at the same time press forward and the strafe key that takes you towards the edge... When you hit the edge you jump. What that 90 degree turn did was maximize your starting acceleration and height. *When I refer to the "edge", I am talking about a strafe-jump training map which I will later link to. [Beat Strafes] - This pattern of jumping gives you the fastest acceleration possible. Every time you press jump you should be doing two things... First off, hold forward and do not release until you are done strafing. 1st jump - look left - hold key for strafe left 2nd jump - look right, hold key for strafe right 3rd jump - look left - hold key for strafe left 4th jump - look right - hold key for strafe right ... and so on. [The Second Jump In-Depth] - The second strafe-jump is just about as important as the first. If you attempt going backwards like I sometimes do, then it's crucial that you do the first step correctly and follow these guidelines for the second jump: First, I'll recap the first jump in short: First Jump: 1st step: You do a normal circle jump (as explained above). 2nd step: While in the air you move the mouse slowly and smoothly to the left. You should have moved about ~25° to left when landing. Second Jump: 1st step: Jump and continue moving the mouse to left by about ~10° (~35° to left in total) 2nd step: Now the difficult part for the most players comes: Changing in the air. If you reached the highest point of the jump, you switch the strafe-key (you release left-strafe, and hold right-strafe instead of left-strafe) + moving the mouse to the right side: approximately 20° to the right should have been reached after having landed the jump. After this, continue with the Beat Strafes.

Make sure you practice it in the jumptraining map, or you could find yourself a nice straight line in a map if it's too hard (the caves in ctf3, or the long large corridor in ctf4)


Secondly, make sure you learn wallrunning and wallflipping. This is an essential skill, especially in the Coruscant Streets map. This is how you do it:
-Run up to a wall, doubletap spacebar (We'll assume you're holding forward from now on)
-You'll notice there is a set height you can reach while wallrunning. When you reach it, your character will flip away form the wall. Right before this happens...
-Hit and hold the spacebar to "kick off" the wall. use your mouse to face whichever direction you wish to head to.

The Force

Force Powers, and their usage, are a decisive factor in CTFs. The most important tip I can give you is, always try to stay at 50 or plus, in case you suddenly need to use Speed. it is by far the most important of all the powers available in CTF.
The choice between Light or Dark isn't truly difficult if you're going on offense. Absorb is pretty much essential.
For defence, it's truly up to you. Rage is just wicked if used right.
As for points distribution, It's up to you, but because of the reasons stated in my second paragraph, you won't want saber offense any higher than 1, and the level of defense you desire. 2 or 3 is fine. Wether you are lightside or darkside, make sure you max all neutral powers (though seeing is, truly a matter of preference) and your team ____ power. An ally who uses team heal or team Energise is a godsend to any flagger. As for self-healing powers, I'm starting to hesitate. Flaggers definitely need it in case there isnt a team healer around (although the force price is painful), but I'm not quite sure about defenders or midfields. It's up to you, I presume. Try and find wathever suits you best.

Teamwork and basic strategy

Remember, CTF isn't a variant of TFFA with guns. You're either attacking, defending, or on some rare opportuinities, supporting in middle. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT, kill just to kill.
The red team / blue team score is all you need to look at. Point. Individual scores are irrelevant and not even necessarilly a good way to show the skill of a player.
Make sure there is a balance between offense and defense - both are required to achieve victory - and don't hesitate to coordinate with your team to make sure evereyone has a role they can focus on. However, remember, always remember you might beforced a role that is not yours. Flexibility, the ability to adapt to a new situation, is needed to be a good team player.

And finally, one last thing: remember, that this is a game, meant to have fun. Don't let idiots ruin it. Make sure teams are even number-wise, but most importantly skill-wise. Remember that being insulted by another player usually means you're beating them so hard they need to do this to cure their oversized ego, and it should thus be taken as a praise.
I am proud of being called a rocket whore. I've been told that a grand total of four times, and I have received allusions to my sexual preferrences, skin color and religion (I think you understand what I mean)two times for each. And I'm smiling.


Well, I think this is everything for today. Watch out for incoming articles soon.

-[HR]MaceWindow