quakeworld (qw) teamplay manual

qw teamplay is very fast and old fashioned (no fancy teamoverlays), you have to think quickly, react quickly and situations can change quite suddenly. one player can hold an area and a team (of 4) can lock down an entire map.

spawning :
as a player you spawn almost instantly after you die, you have 100 health and you can be killed straight away by one shot from a rocket launcher (rl) or a grenade launcher (gl) when a game starts spawning players often telefrag each other because on some qw maps there are less spawn points than there are total players. everything is there when you first spawn, including quad, pent and eyes.

respawn times :
armour - 20 secs

health - 20 secs

weapons - 30 secs

ammo - 30 secs

quad - lasts 30 seconds, spawns 30 seconds later (its always there every minute) (4 times damage)

pent - lasts 30 seconds, spawns 4 mins 30 seconds later (so its there every 5 mins) (completely invincible, the only thing you can loose is armor)

eyes - same as pent (almost invisible)

megahealth - spawns 20 seconds after it has run out on whoever took it last

weapon damage:

weapon	dmg /shot	shots /sec	dmg / sec
axe	20	2.0	40 (useless)
boomstick	24	2.0	48 (most used weapon in the game, get good with it)
supershotgun(ssg)	56	1.4	80 (decent knockback, good quad weapon)
nailgun	9	5.0	45 (pretty useless)
supernailgun(sng)	18	5.0	90 (decent, very good in water)
grenade launcher(gl)	120	1.7	200 (careful spamming in wars)
rocket launcher(rl)	120	1.3	150 (most useful weapon in a war)
lightning gun(lg/shaft)	30	10.0	300 (*discharge)

*the lg discharge is when you fire the lg underwater. a line is drawn from your head to the head of any other teammates or enemy players within a certain range (about the length of the water area on dm3) and the damage dealt is the number of cells in the lg the time you fired it. if you had 30 cells, every guy within range will take 900 damage, if you had 3 cells, every guys within range would only take 90 damage. when you discharge it can affect players who are outside the water too, that is why good players will float to the top of the water on dm3 and discharge when they see an enemy quad on the bridge.

starts :

starts can be learned for each map, e.g yellow armour (ya) spawn on dm3 should grab the ya, go through teleport, jump out and land on the pent, he should encounter either a teammate or enemy jumping from the lifts spawn for the pent aswell. getting a good start can win you the game. the best way to prepare a start is by figuring out the best route for each spawn and by anticipating enemy spawns. your team should be prepared if the enemy gets the 4 best spawns.

getting control :
your team must get rl's or deny them to the enemy thats the main thing. once a team member gets an rl he must get to armor, once he has armor he can a) hold that area b) get powerups c) help teammates get a weapon. unlike quake 3, in qw, one guy with an rl can hold an entire area. for instance, one of your teammates can hold red armor (ra) on dm3 with an rl quite easily - on his own. if he positions himself just right he can watch all the entrances, health and ammo are available nearby, he can supply the team with that ra, he is denying it the enemy, he can get to quad in about 3 or 4 seconds, he can hold packs for teammates. its an important position. once he has ra, the team can concentrate on taking the other parts of the map, once your entire team has rl's (or lightning guns) they should be able to take control of the map once they all move into the optimum positions.

set tactics :
there are generally set tactics for holding/controlling a map. the top 3 maps in qw are dm3, dm2 and e1m2. denying armor to the enemy was really perfected by clan 9 when they destroyed the american clan deathrow. deathrow thought the most important areas on the maps were those areas which contained the best weapons, however by constant boomstick charging and gaining control of the armor areas of the maps clan 9 were able to deny all armor to the americans who had little protection and lost their weapons in packs to the enemy.

on dm3 and e1m2 the rl area is not of strategic importance, only very skilled teams will try and run it. the armor is the key to both those maps. dm2 is slightly different, although tactics vary alot on this map, good teams will often secure the lower ya/tele first, thus blocking off rl/gl/mega/quad which enemy can only get to by rocketjumping. dm2 is small enough to attempt a complete lockdown of the map, leaving only one small area which is not covered (large - which contains the 2 ya's)

tactics are up to the skill of the team, make them too complicated or advanced and the guys on your team won't be able to handle it, make them too simplified and they may not be enough to beat the enemy team.

general teamplay :

here are the basic rules of teamplaying...

think of the team - not yourself, forget how many kills you are on, don't try to get the top score, everything you do is for the good of the team.

read team messages (and respond) - learn to read these, who wants to be replaced, who needs help, where is a pack, etc (don't spam team messages)

read death messages - these tell you alot about what is going on, if your ya teammate says 'took ya' followed by 'teammate rode enemyguy's rocket' you know an enemy has just taken the ya area, but ya isn't gonna be in for awhile, so its best to attack that area quickly. they give you a good idea of the whole situation.

be aware - this encompasses alot of situations, you shouldn't need to be told to go for quad, you should know when it is, when pent is, you should always be aware of what your teammates have and where they are. good nonspammed teamtalk will help you out alot here.

dont take important items on low health - stop doing this, check if a healthier teammate is close by, if not, take it.

stop snatching weapons/armor you already have - stop doing this, check if a teammate needs it, take it if enemy are very close. taking an rl when you already have one is a waste when one of your teammates doesn't have one, you should advertise it, anyone who wants it should hit the bind "coming from..", keep close so you can snatch it if enemy comes for it.

don't block or hang close to teammates - always leave your teammate lots of space, stand apart, don't run together, stay within viewing distance, stay far away from friendly quad. standing too close causes you to block them went they want to back off and also causes team damage.

learn to attack properly - you may have lost control on a map and the enemy team might be spawnfragging you, learn to coordinate your boomstick attacks on one guy in one part of the map. learn to dodge wierdly and jump in close causing him to take splash damage from his rl or force him to switch to boomstick. very few rl guys can withstand 4 enemy constantly boomsticking them. triangulate your fire aswell so that you don't shoot up your teammates, move away from each other.

learn to hide properly - you may have to hide from an enemy quad or when you are low on health with an rl. it is possible to sneak to less dangerous parts of the maps (e.g. sng on dm3, or start room on e1m2)

ammo - watch your ammo, don't take too much ammo, especially rockets, leave ammo for teammates.

packs - anyone who dies leaves a pack, if they have a shotgun script (switches to boomstick or axe when the rl is not being fired) then weapons in packs are harder to come by. the weapon that was being used when the guy dies is the weapon that will be in the pack. the pack will contain all the ammo they have picked up before their death. its possible to come by a pack that contains 99 rockets and 100 cells. useless boomstick packs in a room can be used as bait, packs can be used as sources of ammunition, and a pack with an rl in it is a priority for teammates.

locs/teamtalk - agree to use the same locs (location files for maps) as the rest of your team. use the same teamtalk format. don't make teamtalk too fancy. bind the most important teamtalk messages closest to your movement and weapon keys. teamtalk commands in order of importance are..

the point command (pack at bridge, ra at ra, etc) the report command (health, armor, best weapon, and powerups you have just taken)

need help at x, replace me at x, coming from x

secure at x, took x at x, go for quad (pent)

you take, unable to/cancel that

powerups :

taking quad - a team should make a concerted affort to take quad, one guy to take it (who has good weapons) and two to guard him, covering entrances. it should be quick and efficient. if the enemy team has control of the level, a team effort should be made to try and steal quad by weight of numbers.

using quad - teammates should stay away from their own quad guy and the quad guy has absolute right of way over everyone, even if he has 195 ra he should be allowed to take the ra in front of someone who is waiting. when using quad you should move carefully towards areas that need to be cleared (too much speed with quad will often get you killed), quad is not for racking up kills but for clearing enemy positions (such as ra or ya) once that is done, get as many kills as you can, and try to end up in a friendly place.

taking pent - an entire team moves to take pent (dm3) one covers lifts, one covers water, one covers window. one can try covering quad holding it for the pent guy.

using pent - pent (dm3) should always be taken by an rl teammate, who rocketjumps up lifts, clears ra, clears ya. pent can take quad aswell if its there. its important for pent to clear ra and ya because its very easy for the enemy team to take over those areas when your entire team has gone to pent.

practices :

practices should be used to try out new things, practicing starts, trying to take control back on a map, trying new tactics, the last thing you should be doing is playing a normal game and trying to win it. every effort should be made to improve your own teamplay and that of your team's. playing more skillful teams will improve you much more than playing weak teams, you literally gain 3 or 4 times more experience in a tough game than an easy turkey shoot game.

watching demos :

you can actually improve your game alot by watching demos, however don't fall into the trap of tracking the top guy in a demo and just looking at his fancy shots, this is pointless. you should watch from the weakest guys point of view sometimes, watch the same game from different points of view. for some games you should read all the teamtalk and try and figure out why the guy is going where he is going. watch your own demos aswell so you'll notice your own mistakes.

finally

quake isn't about fun, its about winning and winning is everything.