Weapons variety

Modern Warfare 2 has a LOT of weapons.. Assault rifles, sniper rifles, sub-machine guns, pistols.. you name it. Every weapon behaves and reacts differently and it’s not that easy to find THE most powerful weapon or loadout. It’s hard to find two players with the exact same loadout in the server. On the other hand Urban Terror has a low number of primary weapons and 4.2 will bring just 2 secondaries and a sidearm. Also the way that UrT handles the damage calculation lends to similarities within the weapons (the M4 is an LR-300 with a different sound) and weird situations where a weapon completely overwhelms another. For instance… in 4.2 there will be a new sidearm: the Glock. In real life a Glock has 15 bullets per magazine while the Beretta has only 12.
If the Glock will have the same damage as the Beretta.. why would I choose the Beretta?
On the other hand, the Beretta itself is the less powerful weapon in the game, besides the MP5, so the Glock can’t deal less damage than the Beretta unless it would be unplayable. And you can’t play that much with rate of fire since it’s a semi-automatic weapon..
See? Something needs a change in the damage calculation.

Assists

Every modern shooter rewards assists and I don’t see why UrT shouldn’t. By assist we mean when a player participates in killing an opponent by dealing him half or more damage. This will help players to stand out in the scores even if they are pretty unlucky with the kills.

Friendlist, Groups & VoIP

UrT 4.2 will probably include VoIP between its features. It’s very useful to have all in one place so you don’t have to mess around with multiple applications or pay for multiple services like Mumble or Teamspeak.
Friendlists are useful to hang out with your friends between servers and groups helps to stay in the same team during matches. These are all features common in modern shooters.

Gamemodes

Modern Warfare 2 proved that Capture&Hold and King of the Hill are still funny (at least in pubs). UrT sticks with the same old Gamemodes and sometimes you just want something new. The point is that UrT already has other Gamemodes like Follow the Leader but only very few maps and servers supports them.

Perks

To add a little bit more of customization to the character, Modern Warfare 2 uses Perks, which are abilities that you can choose at the beginning of each game to somewhat create a customized class.
I think that they can fit perfectly in the Urban Terror environment. They could translate, for example, into extra stamina, extra life, increased accuracy, increased damage, increased speed, one more equipment slot and so on.

These are a few suggestions for an already great game. I’m sure you will disagree with some of them and you will likely disagree if you’re an old school player. Tell us what you think in the comments!

You can download the video at: http://own-age.com/vids/video.aspx?id=14947

Engine

I don’t use a secondary with the SR-8 so I’m a big DE user. My
suggestion is: save bullets. The DE makes a lot of damage so don’t
worry about taking a second more to aim rather than just spray and
pray. I try to take my time and aim even at short distances and I
shoot a bullet every 0.5/1 second. It deals so much damage that it
allows you to compensate the time you waste with damage. Shoot only if
you are sure to hit the target and don’t waste bullets. Keep it always
fully loaded: 6/7 bullets? Time to reload.

PreviousN

This is just my impression, but I think that a lot of players like the
sound the DE makes when it is unloaded very quickly. Seriously, I
think they do. I remember when I first started playing UrT and one of
my friends was bragging to me about how quick he could empty the clip.
I thought to myself, “yeah, but how many of those shots hit?” I guess
it didn’t bother him that he was limiting his skill by shooting too
fast. Even though the sound the DE makes when shooting in rapid
succession is extremely satisfying, shooting the gun very quickly
leads to inaccurate shots with greater spread.

What this essentially means is that the farther your foe is, the less
likely you are to hit him the faster you unload your clip. Therefore,
DE is not a good weapon to switch to if your enemy is very far away at
all. If your enemy is far, and you’re out of ammo, your best bet is to
retreat.

Up close, unload as fast as you want, since the DE is so powerful that
you only needed 1 or 2 shots to land to defeat your foe. But farther
away, the key is to take your shots very slowly.

Tarquin

The only thing you need to make sure of when using the DE is that it hits
when you shoot. That means aiming, and making sure the spread isn’t too big
when you unload successive shots. It’s still possible to shoot it fairly
fast and accurately, but just make sure the crosshair is on the enemy (as
with any weapon). If you do this, you most likely won’t run out of ammo
before the enemy dies because the DE is so goddamn strong.

Durandal

One of thew few cases where I take advantage of this is that people DO
recognize the sound of the DE… so if I’m retreating down a hallway and
being chased by a couple enemies… I will unload a fairly random barrage of
DE rounds at them… which will make a lot of players hesitate long enough
for Me to get to cover. It’s an emergency measure… but it does work.
Also… since you’re only gonna do this in tight quarters… the chances of
a couple of the rounds hitting for half their life total is pretty good.
It did take a lot of work for Me to slow down and aim My shots with the
DE… but that really is the best way most times.

Don

I like that the DE has so much ammo lying around. I don’t mind
reloading it after every kill if I have 4 extra clips, so I don’t mind
spamming a bit with it. Running out of DE ammo is very rare for me.
When sniping I often switch between the SPAS and DE to get a kill. If
my DE doesn’t do the job, I’ll rush with the SPAS and usually get the
kill. That works well in TS because you don’t have to worry so much
about 4 people swarming you. The DE is very strong against unarmored
targets. 2 chest shots and they’re down. It’s faster than the AK for
such a task. Also, if you get 2 vest shots and a limb shot, you have a
kill. Wait for the bleedout, and engage the next target or get a head
start on bandaging/reloading. Your enemy should bleed out quickly as
they have 2% health left.

—-

We hope that this article helped you to master one of the deadliest weapons in the game.
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Hi Christophe, it’s nice to be corresponding with you.

Hi Allen.

First and foremost, I’d like to know a little about you.

Well, my name is Christophe, I’m 34 years old, and I am a professional programmer who works at a little French corporation (I’m French). I like fishing for shark, watching TV, and having some bud (just joking!). Lately, however, my life has been derailed by some illness in my family; in particular I have had to take a leave of absence from work for more than 4 months. Other than that, there’s not really much else to know. I’m not really a hardcore gamer, but I do have some favorite games such as: Elite, Quake 3, Mirror’s Edge Time Trials, Urban Terror, Zelda, etc.

I’m sorry to hear about your family; I hope things get better for you soon, and maybe with this article some players in the UrT community will send you some get well soon cards and some free beer!

Thanks for your support.

Well to start off, how and why did you start working on iKALiZER?

I’ve been playing UrbanTerror since around 2002 or 2003 and I’ve been playing Quake3 Arena for a very long time (I have the box game). Since I started playing, I had always wanted to enable “A3D sound” in Quake 3 Arena, but I was never very successful (there were too many bugs). With the last release of Quake3, the “A3D sound” had been removed. I thought to myself: “Oh no! I was crying inside!” Anyway, in 2006, I began to play Urban Terror more and because of that my skill level grew. Even though I was getting better at the game, I was still very frustrated to be playing with such a bad sound environment. So, in early 2007, I made up my mind and decided to download the source code of ID Tech 3 and ioQuake 3 (which had become GPL during 2005). After having seen the source code, I decided to make some minor updates in the audio: like adding Dolby Pro Logic I/II encoding. I also added many more “minor” updates. With those updates, the project SAM was born! I decided to send (for testing) my updates of the modified ioQuake 3 to icculus forums [Editor’s note: icculus.org hosts the source code for ioquake3]. After disagreement with some forum members, however, I decided to stop the project. Even though I stopped the project (which was little more than a year old), the idea of improved sound was not dead and at the end of 2007 I decided to try again from a blank slate and brought SAM back to life as a new project “SAM/iKALiZER!”

So you’ve been working on iKALiZER since…

I’ll try to provide an estimate: The actual current release of iKALiZER (0.22.00b) has taken about 12-15 months (of full time work), or possibly more. The audio technology in iKALiZER, has taken me more than 5-7 months to implement, and several months more to polish (including optimization and debugging). Specifically, however, the kind of time one needs to understand and implement all the research involved in Psycho-acoustic, Hybrid HRTF, Holographic and Virtual Holographic Sound is approximately 5-10 years. I personally have been doing research in this area since 1992.  iKALiZER takes advantage of my experience in that “oh so special” domain.

Wow, sounds like a lot of work. How is it that you are able to provide it free for the Urban Terror Community?

Actually iKALiZER is not free to me, as it costs me lot of money to develop without any external help. For example, I pay for web hosting, domain names, software tools (like Microsoft MSDN), and test hardware. That said, iKALiZER will remain free of charge to users of open-source projects. I hope to develop a dual license program in the future for commercial applications such as in the video game industry.

That makes sense. Also related to all the work that you put into it, I’d hate to see iKALiZER not be usable with Urban Terror 4.2. Will it?

I have no direct relationship with the Fronzen Sand team. I originally hoped to finish the next iKALiZER before UrbanTerror 4.2, but I think this will be very difficult (if not near impossible) because I’ve had to delay the project too much this past year. But I’d like to emphasize that work is still continuing on the project. So, all I can say is, “wait and see”… LOL!

What are your future plans for iKALiZER, besides the Mac/Linux support you’ve written about on the Urban Terror Forums?

I’d like to implement some interesting things such as an update service that will keep users of iKALiZER “updated”, a system control center that will allow users to access all settings in a simple and intuitive interface, profile support, and server side processing. Server side processing would only be with a local server of course, and would be very useful during LAN parties and for low power client computers. Some other ideas I have are to provide a wrapper between OpenAL/DirectSound & iKALiZER, and an iKALiZER library that will work with OpenGL or DirectX.

The features you’re thinking about do sound very interesting if not revolutionary. Now to the question I’ve been anticipating: when can we expect Linux and Mac support?

The current iKALiZER build (0.22.00b) isn’t fast enough. I’ve decided to stop trying to fix it and focus on the next generation. So, for iKALiZER 0.22.00b, there won’t be any updates (such as a Mac build or a Linux build), or bug fixes. But before you get too disappointed, I want to tell you that the second generation of iKALiZER is a total redesign that will be natively cross-platform for Intel/AMD x86 processors. For development I use 2 virtual machines (which is very slow but it works): Kubuntu 8.04 and Windows XP SP3. So the next version will have Linux support, even if the current version does not. As for Mac support, I need more time and more money!

Can you elaborate on why you decided to redesign it?

Here are some of the drawbacks of the current version of iKALiZER and why I’m redesigning it: the implementation code in ioQuake3 / ioUrbanTerror is very complex and consumes a lot of processing time. For me, this means that the audio mixing is not fast enough and audio latency is too high. I also feel that the sound immersion is not good enough as there is no elevation support, nor a good realization of distance perception. I hope to address these problems in the next version, and the new implementation will be much cleaner, easier, and FASTER!

That’s good news. When is it coming out : – )?

I can’t exactly provide a date for the next release. During 2010? Summer 2010? Christmas 2010?

Do you still play Urban Terror? If you do, what is your pseudonym/handle, and do you belong to any clans?

I play less since 2008, but my previous pseudonym was “[FR]KaNDai”. From 2008 on my pseudo has been “[ikalizer]christophe”. I’ve never been in a clan, or you could say I’m a clan all by myself! .

Does iKALiZER support any other q3 based games (such as open arena)?

When the next version is completed, I’ll suggest to all those who use the ID Tech 3 open source engine to implement native calls to iKALiZER. So, I guess you could say it’s possible.

Any thoughts about Urban Terror?

Well, to all those cheaters out there I’d like to say: Stop cheating!!! Stop cheating!!! Stop cheating!!! I’d also like to convince myself to stop camping on Riyadh (though, Riyadh is very useful to test iKALiZER).

That’s good to know. Continuing, I noticed on the Urban Terror forums there was some concern about the project’s license. Do you care to elaborate on that?

About iKALiZER and Open Source / GPL licensing… iKALiZER is closed source like Microsoft’s DirectX or Intel/Matrox/ATI/nVidia OpenGL drivers. Applications (like ioQuake3 or ioUrbanTerror) can do a simple call to iKALiZER to achieve compatibility. When distributing, iKALiZER needs to be provided separately of the open source project package or of application packages that use GPL licensing. But, it’s not that difficult, as iKALiZER could be on the same server, just not in the same package or file. There’s no contradiction between iKALiZER and all GPL licences and open source projects.

You mean insofar of compatibility, kind of like how the new anti-cheat will supposedly be closed-source but also provided with the game.

Correct.

Is there anything else I may have forgotten to ask about with regard to iKALiZER that might be interesting?

Well, the name iKALiZER took a lot of work to settle upon. I started by writing a list of over one hundred potential names. I specifically wanted a name whose pronunciation is very close to the project’s aims. It had to be an available domain and not overused on the internet. I also tested this list of names on people around me, and iKALiZER was the winner

Also interesting is that I code using only 2 programming languages: C (sometimes C++) and x86/x64 assembler. I know other assemblers and languages like Basic, Pascal, PHP, Javascript, but I prefer C and x86/x64 ASM.

Unrelated to iKALiZER, what are your future plans?

My life is pretty stressful currently so I guess you could say I’d like to take some holidays off to be more efficient (upon the return!). I’d also like to watch all available episodes of the first Doctor Who Classic series (send me money for that LOL!). My time is currently shared between my family, my professional job and iKALiZER.

Anything else you’d like to give “props,” or tell to the internet?

I have a lot of favorite movies, TV shows and anime. Those include Doctor Who, Stargate SG1, Kare Kano, Lain, the Matrix, MacGyver, Rapyuta, Jacky Chan films, Ai Yori Aoshi (Only the first 4 episodes), Onegai Sensei, Shawshank Redemption, Ranma, Naushika, lots of french movies like Les bronzes font du ski, Les visiteurs, Leon, La cité de la peur, Les tontons flingueurs, Le père noël est une ordure, Papy fait de la résistance, and many, MANY others.

Hahaha! Wasn’t expecting it, but thanks for the list. Like I mentioned earlier, I hope things get better for your family and it was a pleasure interviewing you.

You’re welcome, and thanks for your support. I hope my English was not too bad and provides a good understanding to all non-specialists (I’ve tried to not be too technical).

You can contact Christophe Gossa, the developer of iKALiZER at:

We want more demos! Sent your demos to us but PLEASE tell exactly which round you would like to see featured (I watched a couple of hours of demo today).

Would you like to candidate for the next play of the week?

Send us your demo at info@dailynade.com.

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Today at DailyNade’ we are kicking off a new regular feature: “Map Focus.” Every few weeks a pro will detail your favorite map, including locations, strategy, movement tips and effective pre-grenade spots! Without further ado, here’s the first map selected: Casa.

Pleased to Meet You, My Name is Casa

Back when I first started playing I recognized Casa as the Spanish word for “home” and have since considered it my “home” map. Recently, however, I’ve been told by other players that Casa is modeled after the city “Casablanca” in Morocco or based on the old movie “Casablanca.” I know I am not alone in considering Casa a “home” map though, as it is one of the most beloved maps in the Urban Terror Community.

Originally this article was only going to focus on Team Survivor for the sake of simplicity (and because I don’t often play bomb or CTF). However, after doing some “research” (playing the game!), I decided that it would be a travesty to not include at least some information about CTF and Bomb mode in this article, such as flag locations and bomb sites. For the most part, though, this guide will be from a Team Survivor Perspective. Below I will outline Spawn Areas, the different areas of the map, movement around the map, sniper areas and pre-nade spots. I’ll also throw in some fun tips (like spots that glitch) and strategies.

Prepare Yourself

First of all, Casa is a map that doesn’t especially lend itself to using any particular weapon. This is in contrast to other maps such as Riyadh (where SR-8 rules). Therefore my recommendation for gear/load-out is simple: a Kevlar, Helmet, and whatever you feel the most comfortable with as your primary weapon. Secondly, a good player will usually make it a priority to know the different areas of a map. Casa is no exception, and since it is a map commonly in rotation in nearly all servers there is no excuse not to learn the locations. There is no better place to start than spawn locations.

When looking at the Casa Spawn diagram (below), you will notice that almost half of the map is out of play during a Team Survivor match. This makes the map considerably smaller and cuts down on hiding spots for a faster game. You may also notice that it is possible for a Red player to spawn all the way near the trees at Patio Courtyard and a Blue player can spawn all the way at the end of the Covered Passage.

Ok, Show me the Locations Already!

Before writing this article Casa seemed like a small map to me. After I started writing, however, I realized that Casa is huge! I’ve split the map into two parts to make referring to the picture easier. Below are some general notes about some of the areas of the map.

1. Old Alley: Old Alley (also sometimes called Red Spawn) is usually where Red players will start on the map. This area is generally “safe” for Red, as it takes a lot of effort for the Blue team to push up Ally Timbers or through the Patio Courtyard.
2. Patio Courtyard: Patio courtyard is one of the best defensible positions for the Red team. This is because players can “cover” one another from several angles (for example: a player at narrow can be covered by a second man on the patio by the trees, and the bridge can be covered from narrow). If this area is rushed by an opposing team, however, the only exits are to Fountain Courtyard or back to Old Alley (this is only true in Team Survivor as in CTF or Bomb one can exit by Wood Piles or 27’s Tunnel).
3. Alley Timbers: Alley Timbers is one of the least defensible locations on the map, and is a deathtrap. It is not wise to linger in this area too long because a player can be killed from Market and from Old Alley (Red Spawn), with no place to escape.
   
4. Bridge: Technically called “Main Alley Square, I named this “Bridge” to fit on the diagram. Bridge is another deathtrap, similar to Alley Timbers because hanging out in the middle leaves a player open to attack from above, behind (via Fountain Courtyard), and from the front. That is not to say “don’t go through Bridge,” because if done correctly, one can travel unharmed through this area and surprise the enemy. One can sometimes also effectively hide in the corner underneath the bridge. Typically, however, it is wise not to linger in this area too long.
5. Patio Courtyard (Middle): This is still technically part of Patio Courtyard, but deserves a section on its own because it is a deathtrap. Middle can be a throughway to rush, but what usually happens is that it funnels slow players to snipers at either end (from Covered Passage or from Patio Courtyard). Note that if done correctly one can surprise rushing enemies by hiding around the corner on either side of Middle.
6. Narrow Hallway: Narrow hallway is another deathtrap. This is because on both sides one is likely to encounter a sniper. Take notice of the balcony overlooking the Fountain Courtyard, as this is a good place to take aim towards Market and Bridge (assuming you pay attention and avoid being flanked from behind). This is also good place to pull the pin on a grenade, and throw towards the Patio Courtyard.
   
7. Market: In a Team Survivor match, Market is usually a safe area for Blue team to try and defend. In bomb and CTF, however, Blue has more effective defensible areas (for example, Orchard View). Market is defensible because Alley Timbers and Bridge funnel players into narrow doorways, and New Alley can easily be watched. There are also many angles that allow players to defend one another in a similar manner to Patio Courtyard.
8. Fountain Courtyard: Fountain courtyard is not an easily defensible location; it is, however, significantly safer than Narrow or Alley Timbers. Keep in mind when playing from here that Fountain Courtyard has the most number of entryways and exits of any location on the map.
9. New Alley and Covered Passage: These two locations are often combined because sometimes they are called simply “Blue Spawn.” Covered Passageway offers a good vantage point to snipe players approaching from the middle. There are also some very good places where players rarely look in this area, making it a fine place to camp (In Team Survivor) if low on life. It is harder to hold than Market, as there are fewer exits, but it may be safer than Fountain Courtyard.

Now, a full map for context:

So Many Deathtraps, What Will I Do?

As mentioned in the location section, in a Team Survivor game there are four deathtraps: Narrow, Middle, Bridge, and Alley Timbers. To avoid being killed in these places, one needs to focus on movement. Generally on Casa there are two strategies: “Hold and Exterminate Stragglers,” or “Rush and Flank”. In both cases knowing common routes is beneficial. Nearly all of the most common routes are to help a player navigate (or defend) a deathtrap.

I would bet that most deaths on Casa occur at a deathtrap. If true, then one can significantly improve his or her game by avoiding (or utilizing effective movement in) those sections. Below is a map with numbered routes that I will explain and consider. Note that the movement map in this article is focused on Team Survivor. For the record, I consider Blue to have a rushing advantage and Red to have a defense advantage. I’ve colorized the routes to indicate for which side they are best applied.

1. Blue Spawn to Fountain: This is the most common way players exit Blue spawn. As Tarquin explained in his article “Dominate the market with Your SR-8,” most of the time Market will be empty: “…there’s a good chance (on public servers) nobody’s playing in Market anyway…”. It is important to note that this route is the way most players will take upon spawning (especially players of lesser skill). Further, if this route is performed properly, a player can slide all the way to the middle (even with Kevlar) and surprise the enemy at Patio Courtyard. Good strategy is to syncronize a rush into Patio Courtyard from multiple angles (from narrow, bridge, or market). If Blue team can plan a syncronized attack, then this jump is dangerous to the Red team indeed (even if it’s a pretty standard route).
2. Back Jump to Middle of Narrow: This is a quick back jump and a slight turn to the right to arrive at Narrow Hallway without grabbing. It is a quick way to escape Fountain Courtyard, to prepare a pre-nade for Narrow, or to flank an enemy that you saw at Patio Courtyard.
3. Fountain Wall-Jump to Bridge: This is an effective jump as one can use it to retreat or attack. If done properly a player can continue this jump and slide all the way to the end of the Bridge and continue into Old Alley. A player can also shorten up this jump and go from Fountain Courtyard to Market without spending a significant amount of time at Bridge (one of the deathtraps).
4. The Famous Market Jump: Almost every player should know about this jump by now, even if he or she can’t perform it reliably. It bestows upon the player a significant advantage – that of being able to quickly travel from one end of the map to another (and a quick passage through Alley Timbers). The hardest part of this route is sliding from the end of market to the end of Ally Timbers. It is worth learning.
5. Narrow to Patio to Bridge: This is an effective jump when trying to retreat, flank, or when trying to help defend against an incoming attack at bridge. A player jumps from the edge of Narrow to Patio Courtyard and finishes by sliding towards Alley Timbers.
6. Simple Jump from Patio to Narrow: One can perform this jump to arrive at the Narrow stairs without grabbing. This jump provides an opportunity for an injured player to hide in the relatively safe covered area of the Patio Courtyard and still have an exit opportunity.
7. Bridge to Covered part of Patio Courtyard: Both jumps 7 and 8 start from the same place. This means that a player could end (very quickly) at the opposite ends of the map from the same starting point. One starts by doing three wall jumps in the walkway from Bridge to Patio Courtyard and a slide to the covered part of Patio. This is helpful when fleeing, or when first spawning as a way to arrive at Narrow faster.
8. Red Bridge Jump: This jump can be done with one wall-jump or two. It allows a player to sprint through the bridge “deathtrap” and flank an enemy at Fountain Courtyard.
9. Red Market Jump: This is likely the hardest (or second hardest) jump on the list. It takes a player from Alley Timbers to Blue Spawn in a very quick fashion. The quick travel, if done correctly, will help a player attack campers at Blue spawn. This jump also can help one flank enemies in Fountain Courtyard from behind.

That is all I can provide for tips about movement. These are usual jumps and routes, and even though a few were likely left out, knowing them (either from a rushing stand point, or a defensive stand point) will improve your game. Next I will outline some effective sniping positions, pre-nade spots and notable positions.

Fun Stuff: Glitches

There are a few glitches on Casa. Thanks to UrT player Cynicism, here’s a demo of some of them. In case you can’t tell, the first glitch is that you will lemming if you jump at the window the wrong way.

On a Snipe Hunt

Sniping on Casa is much more common than one would think. All three areas in the middle of the map (Market, Fountain, and Narrow) will be rife with sniper crossfire in a competitive match. Luckily, both red and blue have effective sniping positions.

Red:

1. Sniping Market from Alley Timbers: This was pretty well demonstrated by Tarquin in his article. One can Snipe through the fence at Old Alley all the way to Market. It is a good sniping position because a player can attack incoming enemies from head on and, if needed, escape well in advance to Patio Courtyard.

1. Patio Courtyard Sniper’s Nest: If done correctly, one can hide behind the tree in Patio Courtyard to effectively kill players exiting and entering from Narrow Hallway. This position is difficult to flank, but it is also difficult to retreat from the Sniper’s Nest.
2. Red Narrow Hallway: This is a standard spot. Usually at the beginning of a Team Survivor match there is a race between to secure this spot and Blue spot 3. A skilled player in this spot can effectively closing off a point of entry into Patio Courtyard.

Blue

1. Position at Spawn Corner: This position allows a Blue player to effectively eliminate any Red from entering through Patio Courtyard’s Middle. It also provides a good escape plan, via market. If a player is faced with a 1 vs. many situation, this position allows a player to “use the corner” to their advantage and hear oncoming enemies from behind while protecting the front.
2. New Alley Sniper’s Corner: This position provides some of the benefits of Blue 4, but with an easier escape route. One can defend most of the market from here, but cannot fully see enemies approaching from Alley Timbers.
3. Blue Narrow Hallway: This position allows a Blue player to protect the Narrow Hallway and to watch Bridge. It is similar to the Red Narrow Hallway position.
4. Market Sniper’s Nest: This area allows a sniper to attack all the way into Old Alley. Combined with jump number 4 this position can be very deadly.

Nade’ in Your Pocket, or are you Just Happy to See Me?

In this section, I have outlined four of the most effective pre-nade’ spots on Casa. You may have noticed that they are all on the Red side. This is because I find Blue side to be more spread out and harder to effectively pre-nade. If you haven’t done so, check out Engine’s how-to on using grenades, as most of his examples are on Casa. On the diagram below, grenade spots are defined by “G”, and notable spots are defined by “N.”

1. Alley Timbers Rushing Pre-Nade: This area is effective for a player who is rushing, or to prevent rushes. Also interesting to note is that one can bounce a grenade off of the wall from a relative safe spot within market, (without exposing himself to fire from old alley) and still get damage pretty far into Alley Timbers. Overall, this is one of the better places to send a pre-nade flying.
2. Market to Bridge Pre-Nade: This is a good place to send a pre-nade for both teams. Red would nade’ this position to slow an oncoming attack from Fountain or Market, and Blue could throw nades from this spot prior to rushing.
3. Narrow Hallway Hiding Place Pre-Nade: Blue can send a pre-nade flying at this location to injure or kill a Red sniper. This would allow the Blue team to rush in on Patio Courtyard.
4. Suicide Nade at Sniper’s nest: If a sniper is sitting behind the tree at Patio Courtyard, one can pre-nade this position from Alley Timbers/Bridge or from Middle (Suicide Nade’). That’ll take care of the sniper problem.
   

Notable Spots

1. Red Healing Corner: This is likely the safest place for Red players to heal each other so it is commonly used for that! Take advantage of the protection (Red team) or (Blue team) try to surprise distracted opponents. This can be done easily by listening for healing noises at Patio Courtyard.
2. Red Healing Corner 2: This position is not particularly safe for healing, but many players do so anyway after being shot from the bridge.
3. Covered Area of Patio Courtyard: This is a good hiding place, so always check it for enemies. If you do not, then expect to be unpleasantly surprised.
4. Patio Courtyard/Narrow Hallway Spot Check: Check out this area, as similar to N3, it is sometimes used to surprise enemies coming from Bridge.
5. Fountain Courtyard Bench: A good place to sip Espresso and enjoy a sunny afternoon. Also, to cover the Middle, watch the break in Narrow Hallway, and hear oncoming enemies from Bridge.
6. My Most Favorite Spot to Camp when Low on Health: No one checks these areas. Often you can watch an enemy run by, then head-shot them from behind. It’s my favorite thing to do when low on health.

Conclusion

So, that is it for the Map Focus for Casa. I hope none of you are disappointed that CTF and Bomb modes weren’t discussed in-depth for this article. However, Casa is a great map and I hope that those who read this article gained some new-found appreciation and learned some new tricks.

Finally, I’d like plug the opportunity to help the DailyNade’ in future Map Focus articles. You will get the opportunity to “research” and write about your favorite map.

Oh...

Hey admin! Somebody is cheating here!

Hey! This is MY spawn point!

I've lost my head for this game..

Freakin’ hilarious. Oh btw guys I apologize for lack of update this week.. we had tons of stuff to do but don’t worry. We took our time to discuss and reflect on possibilities for further guides and articles and something is definetely coming.

Got more pics? Send them to info@dailynade.com

We want more demos! Sent your demos to us but PLEASE tell exactly wich round you would like to see featured (I watched a couple of hours of demo today).

Would you like to candidate for the next play of the week?

Send us your demo at info@dailynade.com.

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OMG! I'm walking on walls!

Malincony...

And what the hell is this?

t0t411y surprised!

Weird! Got more? Send them to info@dailynade.com

Here’s the video!

Would you like to candidate for the next play of the week?

Send us your demo at info@dailynade.com.

Liked this column? Tell us in the comments! And don’t forget to subscribe to our feed and follow us on twitter!