Piggie's little Duel Workshop

I am very pleased to see the recent increase in activity on the duel server. There's even a chS duel Championship going on! On the servers I frequently meet people who are eager to learn and improve. I am by no means a master of the trait, but I do have some experience to share. This is why I'm starting Piggie's little Duel Workshop. It is mostly geared towards 'weaker' players, but anyone is welcome to join in. Being on mumble is not a must, but certainly helps. If you see me on a server, just tell me you want to practice and we'll hop over to the duel server (if we're not already on).

The first workshop will be on ospdm8. There are several reasons for this:

• A level playing field, since most of you aren't familiar with the map, and probably most of the other strong players you meet in the wild aren't either.
  
• The map is not an aggressive melee map like Aerowalk or Aggressor to distract you from strategy.
  
• The layout is simple, 3 rooms, 3 items, and 3 major weapons, it plays a bit like ztn3tourney1
  
• Hopefully it'll be easier to 'read' your opponent and for me to spot mistakes.

As a homework assignment (yes, we have those *stern look*), I would like you to familiarise yourself a bit with the map. You have to at least be able to find the quickest path to any major item from any room. Then, observe the following game: fatality vs czm on ospdm8. Don't just watch it, follow along. Why do the players go where they're going? Where do they trap each other? Unfortunately the video quality isn't that great, but I don't know if the old osp demos from quake3 work in openarena at all.

As a little help, I've made a screenshot as a sort of overview for the map:

Happy fragging!

I wanna buy some chicken wings, do you have that in stock?

I know this map from Q2 Dueling like a baws and it's so easy once you got control to keep it. At least if you don't make any mayor mistakes.

Tiny wrote:

I wanna buy some chicken wings, do you have that in stock?

Finish your homework and meet me on the server, I'll serve you the finest boneless chicken wings, with a side dish of rocket to the face of course

Jeralulz wrote:

I know this map from Q2 Dueling like a baws and it's so easy once you got control to keep it. At least if you don't make any mayor mistakes.

Yes, the map is very straight-forward, that's exactly why I chose it. It's easier to focus on item timing and learn concepts like keeping map control. I'd even say it's easier than the Q2 version, simply because Mega, armour, and the menacing 100dmg rail (spawn health = 100 for those unfamiliar with Q2) being in the same room made it a lot more frantic back then I think.

OMG ! I <3 our Professor Piggie!

I did all my homework! and i wanna do the test now!

Noone ever suceeded to make me doing my homework if i didn't want to, that won't start now!

Tiny wrote:

Noone ever suceeded to make me doing my homework if i didn't want to, that won't start now!

You get an F!

I know i'm Fabulous

I LOVE you pig, seriously

This sounds like a DUEL class, I'm in!

Jeralulz wrote:

I know this map from Q2 Dueling like a baws and it's so easy once you got control to keep it. At least if you don't make any mayor mistakes.

Yes, the map is very straight-forward, that's exactly why I chose it. It's easier to focus on item timing and learn concepts like keeping map control. I'd even say it's easier than the Q2 version, simply because Mega, armour, and the menacing 100dmg rail (spawn health = 100 for those unfamiliar with Q2) being in the same room made it a lot more frantic back then I think.[/quote]

But I think the Q2 version works alot better with the Megahealth spawn 'cus your Enemy has to guess alot more when you drop below 100 HP to try and go for another Item or either get some DMG done on Mega pickup (Megahealth spawns 20 Seconds after you reached 100 HP or went below it) which makes IMO Q2 Dueling alot more interesting.

Jeralulz wrote:

But I think the Q2 version works alot better with the Megahealth spawn 'cus your Enemy has to guess alot more when you drop below 100 HP to try and go for another Item or either get some DMG done on Mega pickup (Megahealth spawns 20 Seconds after you reached 100 HP or went below it) which makes IMO Q2 Dueling alot more interesting.

While I totally agree with you, that's an inherent issue of the MH rules in qw/q2/cpma vs q3/q4/oa. While I generally like the dynamic MH behaviour, it has its own problems. Static MH seems a bit fairer as in it gives less advantage to the person who last picked it, for example.

A couple of first observations from playing the map with people:

• You don't have to stay and fight. Disengage, gear up, heal, and try again if things aren't going well.
  
• Ambushes work, especially at RA. Are you too weak to fight for RA directly? Have your opponent eat a rocket each time they take it. If you still get YA unharmed you're at an advantage.
  
• Fighting from low ground generally doesn't work so well. If you notice you're taking way more damage than you're dealing, try from a different angle or run away.
  
• If you're getting owned, run and hide for a bit. It's impossible to run all 3 items all the time, so eventually you can steal some gear and/or deal damage at your opponent's RA/MH pick-up.
  
• You don't have to clock all items all the time. That's too much. But get a rough idea which item is up next and in which order they spawn. This also helps you guess the route your opponent might take (possible ambush?).
  

I think I can also help some if two of you want to try each other and I spectate and talk things over in mumble between games (I can type in in-game chat, too, I just find that annoying after a while).