In order to play as a sniper you need to set up what keys control your functions.

Basic keys set-up / How to combat Lag / Sniper Alias /

Sniper script to download

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To start with your need to be able to get to all your functions quickly so that you can change weapons abruptly and without looking away from the screen. Here is how I've set up my keys for quick access.

UP Arrow	Forwards
DOWN Arrow	Backwards
LEFT Arrow	Strafe Left
RIGHT Arrow	Strafe Right
INSERT	Select Weapon 2 (Sniper Rifle)
HOME	Select Weapon 3 (Assault Rifle)
PAGE UP	Select Weapon 4 (Nail Gun)
END	Use Grenade
X	Drop Unused Ammunition
CTRL	Duck
SHIFT	Jump
Mouse 1	Shoot (see shoot alias)
Mouse 2	Special skill (Zoom in)

With the above options you will find everything within easy reach of your left hand, leaving your right on the mouse and ready to rock and roll!

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If you've experienced lag on Doom or Quake 2 before then you'll know what an infuriating thing that it is. For the TFC sniper it is death. Lag will get you killed nine times out of ten, because it stops you from being able to handle close up objects, large explosions, slow zoom movements or most importantly its effect on the sights. Lag means that where you are pointing and where you are shooting can be way off. Considering that you will probably be shooting half the map away then that is going to cause you some problems - i.e. you'll miss. For a full discussion of the effects of the red dot and how you can maximise your chance of judging the shot see the "Basic" and "Advanced" shooting sections.

However there is something else you can do....

To counter lag you can insert the following commands and values into your autoexec.cfg which will be in your TFC directory under Half-Life. These commands reduce the graphical protrusions that Half-Life defaults to. However upon use you will hardly notice the difference apart from the fact that you can now keep lag at bay!

• I recommend playing with the values here until you get the performance you require.

• To see how lagged you are TFC includes a little net graph program which shows you second by second the situation. <SCREEN SHOT>

• The basic rule is don't play on a full server or on a server with over twenty people

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The next most important step is to set up your Sniper alias. Aliases are little routines which enable different effects. Many sites concentrate on these aliases so that they become full battle scripts. That is not strictly necessary. As a sniper the following alias is vital, but apart from that I only use a few small comms aliases. Insert this section into sniper.cfg in the TFC directory as before. To load it bring down the console and type "exec sniper.cfg" (without quotes).

//charge shot press once to charge and again to fire

//This alias uses the ingame voice to tell you how far your charged

alias timer "speak four.three.two.one.zero"

alias chargeshot "+attack;bind mouse1 fireshot;timer"

alias fireshot "-attack;bind mouse1 chargeshot"

bind mouse1 chargeshot

The effects of this alias are brilliant:

• Pressing fire once will start your sniper rifle charging, press again to fire.

• Once the red dot becomes visible you will move slowly.

• But you don't have to hold the button down, so you can do other things like throw grenades.

• THE MAJOR BENEFIT is that if you are running and you press fire the slow down will not occur until you stop. This means that you can run full pelt around objects moving your mouse all over the mouse pad and not worry about taking you finger off the button. Once you stop the red dot immediately becomes available and if you have to you can shoot. This reduces the amount of time charging because it takes away the time it takes you to react. This little alias has saved my life many times. The immediate shot wont kill anyone but it will make em jump!

• Because of these benefits you can use this alias to gain the upper hand in a sniper dual - of which there are many. See Basic Team skill for more information.

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Finally, for those that are interested, there follows m complete TFC Sniper script. This script controls all of the functions described on this page. Comments are in blue. Feel free to steal whatever you want from here because I only wrote parts of it.

Click here to download my crosshair.

This should be placed in a sprites directory under TFC.

Click here to download my basic sniper script.

Click here to download my speed up script which contains the settings shown above.

These two file should go in the TFC directory under halflife. The sniper.cfg file will execute everytime the sniper character is picked. The speed.cfg can be run by bringing down the console ( ` key) and typing exec speed.cfg.

// This is Carter's personal sniper config

// charge shot press once to charge and again to fire, also adds the shot to a picture file

//This alias uses the ingame voice to tell you how far your charged

alias timer "speak four.three.two.one.zero"

alias chargeshot "+attack;bind mouse1 fireshot;timer"

alias fireshot "-attack;screenshot;bind mouse1 chargeshot"

bind mouse1 chargeshot

// Grenade timer. Plays the countdown voice from above to tell you when to throw

alias +gr1 "timer;primeone"

alias -gr1 "throwgren"

bind "END" "+gr1"

// Talking. Don't flood the server with crap messages this only pisses people off

bind "t" messagemode2

bind "r" messagemode

bind "y" "say_team Acknowledged"

bind "n" "say_team Negative"

bind "F1" "say_team I see a spy"

bind "F2" "say_team Enemy flag carrier down - flag in open"

bind "F3" "say GG :)"

// Demo Recording stuff

// This starts the recording while you hold down "d"

Alias starttag Echo Demo recording -> Started

Alias endtag Echo Demo recording -> Finished

Alias +Dem "starttag;record demo1"

Alias -Dem "Endtag;stop"

bind "d" "+Dem"

// Game Stuff. This sets the lag combat settings

fps_single 72

fps_modem 30

fps_lan 60

// Net graphs graphically shows you what's the lag situation

alias e_ngraph "r_netgraph 1; bind PAUSE d_ngraph"

alias d_ngraph "r_netgraph 0; bind PAUSE e_ngraph"

d_ngraph

// Changes the rate that data is fed to your computer

alias r_10000 "rate 10000;alias r_up play rt10000.wav;alias r_dn r_8000;play rt10000.wav"

alias r_8000 "rate 8000;alias r_up r_10000;alias r_dn r_6000;play rt8000.wav"

alias r_6000 "rate 6000;alias r_up r_8000;alias r_dn r_5000;play rt6000.wav"

alias r_5000 "rate 5000;alias r_up r_6000;alias r_dn r_4500;play rt5000.wav"

alias r_4500 "rate 4500;alias r_up r_5000;alias r_dn r_4000;play rt4500.wav"

alias r_4000 "rate 4000;alias r_up r_4500;alias r_dn r_3500;play rt4000.wav"

alias r_3500 "rate 3500;alias r_up r_4000;alias r_dn r_3000;play rt3500.wav"

alias r_3000 "rate 3000;alias r_up r_3500;alias r_dn r_2500;play rt3000.wav"

alias r_2500 "rate 2500;alias r_up r_3000;alias r_dn play rt2500.wav;play rt2500.wav"

r_5000

bind "-" "r_dn"

bind "+" "r_up"

// Push latency is the computer movement prediction routines. Should be half your ping.

alias pl_50 "pushlatency -50;alias pl_dn play pl50.wav;alias pl_up pl_100;play pl50.wav"

alias pl_100 "pushlatency -100;alias pl_dn pl_50;alias pl_up pl_150;play pl100.wav"

alias pl_150 "pushlatency -150;alias pl_dn pl_100;alias pl_up pl_200;play pl150.wav"

alias pl_200 "pushlatency -200;alias pl_dn pl_150;alias pl_up pl_300;play pl200.wav"

alias pl_300 "pushlatency -300;alias pl_dn pl_200;alias pl_up pl_500;play pl300.wav"

alias pl_500 "pushlatency -500;alias pl_dn pl_300;alias pl_up play pl500.wav;play pl500.wav"

pl_100

bind "[" "pl_dn"

bind "]" "pl_up"

echo Carters SNIPER CFG LOADED - version 1.1 :)

END

 

Now its time to play!

This page, pictures, and text were created by Carter. They may not be reproduced copied or printed without prior permission