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Basics
The following was written by a|wiseguy at cached.net
any thoughts or comments concerning this page should be sent to wiseguy@teamabuse.com
So you want to play CPMA TDM?
Moving into a new game can be frustrating when going up against teams that have much more experience. Everything seems futile as your team gets puts on the losing end time after time without any real way to learn the ropes. This no frills straight forward document is to help out those teams, to help teams focus on what they should learn right away and other stuff that will just come with time.
What do I need to understand about CPMA TDM in general?
(1) While movement is very crucial in CPMA 1v1, it is only about 25% of the overall effort in TDM. If you can learn to move faster in a straight line, and can accomplish a few of the double jumps then it will be time to focus on the other things. Don’t spend a lot of time trying to move like the cpma 1v1 demos! If you do find that cpma movement is easy, don’t fall into the trap where one is going somewhere fast just because they can. Have a purpose, and just because you can trick jump up to a certain spot does not mean that you should when in an actual match. Going the long way and using an extra 1-2 seconds is a lot better then being fancy and missing it which at its best will cost time, at worst will mean you die and lose control for your whole team.
(2) When spawning back in you must think of yourself as having 10 health. Nearly every weapon can kill you in either one shot or a very short burst. Players must be aware that they can do virtually nothing to get a kill after spawning back in. Do not do the newbie mistake of firing your machine gun at an opponent just because you can, you might as well just type "kill" in the console as your opponent will say "hey thanks for letting me know you are a gimme frag". A common mistake of new teams is that "more is better" when it comes to having bodies at the time of when powerups spawn in. This is not true for CPMA, either come prepared or don’t come at all when trying to secure an area. It is far better to wait for a weapon/armor and let your other 2-3 teammates do the job of attacking the quad. It allows you to be in the position of picking up frags from the opposing team respawns, or helping to protect resources should your team need to fall back. I have seen teams lose 20 frags (or more) from simply not understanding this concept. Don’t be one of them.
(3) Armor is not something to just pick up "on the way". It is on par with timing the quad, it is what allows one to pick off respawns with impunity. Every 25 seconds the armor will respawn, the team that protects and manages this resource will go a long way towards winning the fight. If a players weakness is aim, have him concentrate on guarding and timing armor and weapons, it can have a major impact on how well a game goes. Knowing all the ins and outs of the CPMA armor system can be daunting, suffice to say that red armor is better then yellow which is better then green. One can "stack" two (and only two) armors, one cannot pick up armor if they already have more then the "stacked" amount of the armor they are trying to pick up. Since weapons are usually plentiful (see #5), armor becomes a very pivotal part of the game. Knowing where it respawns, how to guard it and how best to share it will result in wins.
(4) The concept of zone defense. In VQ3 it is quite common to see the whole team go to a particular spot on the map, even if they are winning. Many teams are going to lose control of valuable resources (armor/weapons) not because they lost it from fighting, but simply because they left it behind and the other team came in and took it over. This is why FFA is so ineffective, players get into a lot of 1v1 situations against a well armed and armored defender. Teams that are down must focus all of their resources on one target and take it out, and from there expand control.
(5) Weapons can be dropped and shared with teammates. Create a bind with "drop" ala "\bind f drop", this will drop the weapon is currently carrying so that your teammate can pick it up to use it. This bind is very helpful for those guarding resources, it can get your teammate back into fighting form 20 or more seconds before the other guy which has to wait for a weapon to respawn. This is a huge advantage. (swelt: bind f "say_team Dropping #w for #f; drop" works even better)
(6) Plasma gun is NOT a good weapon. If a player thinks they are going to jump into a fight and rip it up with a plasma gun they are in for a very rude awakening. It is better then a respawns machine gun, but it is purely for defensive purposes.
Following these 6 basic steps that really have nothing to do with personal gaming ability will put a team in a much better position to win. Knowing these will also allow teams to better learn the tactics of a map and knowing that games can be won by playing either aggressive (aim based) or defensive (resource based).
The following was written by a|wiseguy at cached.net
any thoughts or comments concerning this page should be sent to wiseguy@teamabuse.com
So you want to play CPMA TDM?
Moving into a new game can be frustrating when going up against teams that have much more experience. Everything seems futile as your team gets puts on the losing end time after time without any real way to learn the ropes. This no frills straight forward document is to help out those teams, to help teams focus on what they should learn right away and other stuff that will just come with time.
What do I need to understand about CPMA TDM in general?
(1) While movement is very crucial in CPMA 1v1, it is only about 25% of the overall effort in TDM. If you can learn to move faster in a straight line, and can accomplish a few of the double jumps then it will be time to focus on the other things. Don’t spend a lot of time trying to move like the cpma 1v1 demos! If you do find that cpma movement is easy, don’t fall into the trap where one is going somewhere fast just because they can. Have a purpose, and just because you can trick jump up to a certain spot does not mean that you should when in an actual match. Going the long way and using an extra 1-2 seconds is a lot better then being fancy and missing it which at its best will cost time, at worst will mean you die and lose control for your whole team.
(2) When spawning back in you must think of yourself as having 10 health. Nearly every weapon can kill you in either one shot or a very short burst. Players must be aware that they can do virtually nothing to get a kill after spawning back in. Do not do the newbie mistake of firing your machine gun at an opponent just because you can, you might as well just type "kill" in the console as your opponent will say "hey thanks for letting me know you are a gimme frag". A common mistake of new teams is that "more is better" when it comes to having bodies at the time of when powerups spawn in. This is not true for CPMA, either come prepared or don’t come at all when trying to secure an area. It is far better to wait for a weapon/armor and let your other 2-3 teammates do the job of attacking the quad. It allows you to be in the position of picking up frags from the opposing team respawns, or helping to protect resources should your team need to fall back. I have seen teams lose 20 frags (or more) from simply not understanding this concept. Don’t be one of them.
(3) Armor is not something to just pick up "on the way". It is on par with timing the quad, it is what allows one to pick off respawns with impunity. Every 25 seconds the armor will respawn, the team that protects and manages this resource will go a long way towards winning the fight. If a players weakness is aim, have him concentrate on guarding and timing armor and weapons, it can have a major impact on how well a game goes. Knowing all the ins and outs of the CPMA armor system can be daunting, suffice to say that red armor is better then yellow which is better then green. One can "stack" two (and only two) armors, one cannot pick up armor if they already have more then the "stacked" amount of the armor they are trying to pick up. Since weapons are usually plentiful (see #5), armor becomes a very pivotal part of the game. Knowing where it respawns, how to guard it and how best to share it will result in wins.
(4) The concept of zone defense. In VQ3 it is quite common to see the whole team go to a particular spot on the map, even if they are winning. Many teams are going to lose control of valuable resources (armor/weapons) not because they lost it from fighting, but simply because they left it behind and the other team came in and took it over. This is why FFA is so ineffective, players get into a lot of 1v1 situations against a well armed and armored defender. Teams that are down must focus all of their resources on one target and take it out, and from there expand control.
(5) Weapons can be dropped and shared with teammates. Create a bind with "drop" ala "\bind f drop", this will drop the weapon is currently carrying so that your teammate can pick it up to use it. This bind is very helpful for those guarding resources, it can get your teammate back into fighting form 20 or more seconds before the other guy which has to wait for a weapon to respawn. This is a huge advantage. (swelt: bind f "say_team Dropping #w for #f; drop" works even better)
(6) Plasma gun is NOT a good weapon. If a player thinks they are going to jump into a fight and rip it up with a plasma gun they are in for a very rude awakening. It is better then a respawns machine gun, but it is purely for defensive purposes.
Following these 6 basic steps that really have nothing to do with personal gaming ability will put a team in a much better position to win. Knowing these will also allow teams to better learn the tactics of a map and knowing that games can be won by playing either aggressive (aim based) or defensive (resource based).