How to improve your game

Android · Post by **Android** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 8:04 pm

By sharing my mindset when I play, I am (hopefully) helping others develop an eye for the game. What fun is it to play using the same tricks all the time? I'd rather have to look for new patterns and watch out for my old tricks being used against me. Plus, increasing the skill of your opponents forces you to become a better player, too.

Honestly, I am not concerned someone would try to watch these couple of strategies while playing me; even when you know intellectually, it can be difficult to apply that knowledge. And, it can be distracting to be actively be thinking about and looking for others to use specific strategies.

Speedracer · Post by **Speedracer** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 9:48 pm

Some players don't need to study your tron skills because they have thiers and use them like another extension of thier body... but I have done this and know others to recognize players playing styles. To keep up a random style and come up with new patterns is ok, but it disables you from really advancing in your game. Practice makes perfect so to speak. After you have accomplished the most basic manuvuers, then try to randomize your strategy.

EDIT brown: I have studied other people and while playing begin to recognize their style.

Android · Post by **Android** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 10:14 pm

I disagree. It is a mistake to believe you are above observing others. Even the best players can gain insight from studying others' skills. Otherwise, it is easy for your skills to become stale and worthless. Please note that I am not saying that I am some guru that you should follow around and take note from, just that enlightenment can come from many different sources.

And, I am not advocating a random style of play; instead, I feel that strategies need to be free flowing with experimentation with new responses, lures and attacks. Don't change play style just to change, but look for improvements that could be made.

Speedracer · Post by **Speedracer** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 10:20 pm

I think we just said the same thing just in different ways...hehe.\
And if not... I agree with you anyhow.

Everyone grows at a different pace. What style I have now will probably be different in a month.

Speedracer · Post by **Speedracer** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 8:54 am

Why do I suck sometimes, and then play really good at other times? No matter who it is on the grid, I seem to allow room for error. Is it me, the grid, or the way the lines blur together to show me a pretty path to skip along and dance as I see a bright light getting closer and closer?

Speedracer · Post by **Speedracer** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 9:52 pm

I wanted to hear more about the buddah and zen topic..

n54 · Post by **n54** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 10:32 pm

i think rudeboy would be better than me at explaining zen, or maybe someone else?

anyway here's a shot: when you do something so completely that you become what you are doing in a meditative way such as to be in 'the zone' of nothingness that is the true reality (while still being what you do of course)

kind of the opposite of intense concentration, everything just flows into place without concious thought about it

as i said i'm not very good at this bit

Speedracer · Post by **Speedracer** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 10:43 pm

Try to relate it to tron. That is where you were making sense! Rudeboy will justify the cosmic side of it.

n54 · Post by **n54** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 11:49 pm

ok

hmm.. i'll try to describe it:

using your keys for glancing becomes ingrained in your playing - you don't think about "pressing the key" or where to look, you just automatically look in the direction(s) you need to... more of an affirmation than anything else if you get my point, and almost subconsiciously

the "how's" of tactics have become instincive - you "think" (feel would be more appropriate wording i guess) about what you want to do and not how you do it, guess you could call it envisioning or something like that

lag and ping compensation is like the ebb and flow of the ocean, you pick up small signals i guess, things that don't get noticed consciously (lag can be too erratic though but still a fair bit of it compensated unless really bad)

your own movement and past placements of others + sound + all the small indefinable things just kinda makes you "feel" where you yourself and the other players are (and where they will be later)

basically one is just very in tune with the game. i don't manage this too often but when i do i guess i win about 90% of the games (as i said not too often)

play the trail and not the bike <-- maybe this is the best way to say it?

this way one could say that one gets an instinctual feeling for how the game flows and where in this flow to let you (the trail) be

it's sounds very mumbo-jumbo i know lol call it experience

Speedracer · Post by **Speedracer** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 1:48 am

Wow man...

I see exaclty what you mean.

Nice job.

subby · Post by **subby** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 5:29 am

I agrre with N54, though i don't use sound.

When you're hot you're hot.

I think that happens "the zen thing" when you do anything a lot. ITs like changing gears in a car, you don't really think... ohh i should be in 3rd now... you just do it.

I used to play Need for speed 1 demo a lot, you guys know it? it was the one where you could just spend all day doing doughnuts and wheelies. That plus all the other car games i have played over the years has enabled me to react to emergancy situattions in a real car a few times. Wet or dry conditions. It becomes instinctive, you don't have time to think, becuase you only have milliseconds to either crash or control.

For me, playing car games has saved me an my wallet a few times lol

nicolas.b · Post by **nicolas.b** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 6:03 am

1) spectacular thoughts, node, and i look forward to one day having improved health to play the game and consider thesea* things.

2) ZEN: i haven't really been following thread, have there been much off-topic zen stuff here? if so, maybe split into new thread where i was thinking very much i'd like to discuss zen and buddhism in general. possibly enlist RK in this, he has some nice thoughts on the matter i think...

* jar-jar made me

n54 · Post by **n54** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 6:18 pm

subby wrote:I think that happens "the zen thing" when you do anything a lot. ITs like changing gears in a car, you don't really think... ohh i should be in 3rd now... you just do it.

yes thats it + i forgot one important point above: not to think, not even about not thinking

(but it shone through i guess)

i hope your health gets better nico + i don't think there is such a thread yet

Speedracer · Post by **Speedracer** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 6:25 pm

Man, as far as I know, I don't have time to think on the grid. Everything is happening so fast that there is only one thing from keeping you from being better. That is, the electrical impulses from your eyes to your brain back to your hands and then back to your brain comfirming the process has been completed. In a matter of nano seconds, your mind has relayed information so detailed, it would take a super computer maybe a nano second more to match.

Seleucus · Post by **Seleucus** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 6:42 pm

I agree with alot of what was said, the best gameplay omes when I am just having fun, then things just seem to work, this kinda of fits with what others were saying about feeling where to look etc... The glance keys and view switching happens naturally when i play and i use it alot, but as a practice technique try not using the mirrors and then getting out of the situations that people put you in because you didn't see them, this of course should only be done after you are good with mirrors and know how to play, there are several things that after you have the basics are fun to try... Making really complicated mazes helps to improve reflexes and anticipation of others moves. The thing that helps me the most is that i think 10 seconds ahead of the game, meaning that due to lag as well as how players react i try and anticipate where they are heading and put my line in the way, it works remarkably well... (The movie is the Princess Bride - see earlier quote)

-Seleucus

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How to improve your game

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