http://www.urbanterrorhd.info/guidesx/shooting/

Overcome Software Limitations

I play with perhaps the worst configuration possible: an Apple Mighty Mouse (which is NOT for gaming) and Mac OS X. Why is the worst configuration possible? Because playing with a Mighty Mouse feels like playing the mouse of my old Amiga 500 and Mac OS X applies some adjustments to the pointer movements that you cannot change, unless using appropriate software.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X messes around with the accelleration of your mouse, in order to make more comfortable its use for everyday tasks. When it comes to gaming, accelleration is just an uncontrolled variable. Basically what accelleration does is making easier to do wide movements by calculating your movements and adjusting the cursor speed accordingly. It’s mathematic stuff. What actually means in a gaming prospective is that equal movements of your hand will not always result in the equal movements of your pointer. It’s just too random to rely on. To disable the built in accelleration in Mac OS X you have to use certain software like SteerMouse that will hugely expand your mouse options.

Windows

It’s more easy when it comes to disable the mouse accelleration under Windows. Go to the Control Panel, Mouse and disable “Enhance Pointer Precision”. This will disable MOST of the accelleration. Windows still leaves some accelleration like Mac OS X does. To overcome this problem there’s a registry fix.

Mouse Drivers

If your mouse comes with drivers, install them. Most of the time it will come also with a dedicated control panel where you can change a lot of settings, change the Dots per Inch and so on.

Warning!

Disabling the mouse accelleration is perhaps the most drastical change you could make. It might require some time to get used to the new settings. I suggest to do so only if you are kind of serious about Urban Terror. If you’re just a casual player or you share your computer with others, consider leaving mouse accelleration where it is.

Let’s get it started

We are going to set up some crucial variables for aim settings. To do so you can edit your autoexec.cfg file (which is located in your UrT directory) or edit these value directly via the console. The choice is yours.

The variables are the following.

• \sensitivity – Which is pretty much self explanatory. It’s the value that you can edit also from the controls menu. The default value is set to 5. In my post about how to improve your accuracy I said that the lower, the better. I suggest finding your ideal value which depends on a lot of factors including screen resolution. Mine is actually 11.5 (but again I’m under Mac OS X so yours might be much lower).
• \cl_mouseaccel – The accelleration value inside Urban Terror. This is not dependent to your system configuration. If you shut off the accelleration under Windows but you still have this variable to any positive value, you will still suffer from accelleration randomness. This is a long debated topic.
  A lot of player will suggest you to turn it off completely by setting it to 0. Other players say that having some accelleration is less stressfull for your hand. If you choose to use this value keep it very low. Anything between 0.05 and 0.5 is acceptable.
• \m_pitch – This controls the sensitivity of the mouse movements in the Y-Axis. Urban Terror lets you to keep different values for the X and the Y axis. It might be helpful to lower this value in order to increase your accuracy if you are trying to aim at a specific spot (like searching for headshots). Default value is 0.022 , mine is 0.018.
• \m_yaw – This controls the sensitivity of the mouse movements in the X-Axis. I found this value to be fine at its default value which is 0.022.

There are two other values “m_forward” and “m_side” but I found them to be very hard to set up and I haven’t seen any improvement on changing them so, leave them there unless you know what are you doing.

To change this variables in the console all you have to do is type the variable and the new value. Typing only the variable will return it’s current value and the default value.

Example:
\sensitivity – Will return the current value plus the default value
\sensitivity 10 – Will set the sensitivity to 10

To edit this value in the autoexec.cfg, add the following inside the file.

Example:
setA sensitivity “7″ – Will set the sensitivity to 7
setA cl_mouseaccell “1″ – Will set the accelleration of the mouse to 1

Like I said, these are “basic” stuff. There’s a lot stuff to talk about like USB port overclocking and more and we might cover up some of these in further posts.
Also we are planning Mouse and Mouse Pad reviews so stay tuned.
But remember: this is very subjective stuff. My configuration will not work for you because I don’t have your same mouse, screen resolution, mouse pad, hand size and so on. There’s no perfect configuration. I gave you some advices so perhaps you can change some values and find the perfect one for you.
As a general advice: don’t expect quick results. Don’t expect to open Urban Terror, set the Accelleration to .25 and start killing everybody. Some changes needs time to get used to and only time can really tell if a change is worth or not.
What are your opinion on aim settings? Which do you use? Which would you suggest? Tell us in the comments!

1. Be efficient

The first rule you must understand is to be efficient rather than pleasing to watch. Usually in frag movies you will see some “frakkin’ ridicolous shots” since they are very exciting to watch (like facing a rush with an Sr-8 and taking down all 4 or 5 of them), but usually maybe that was not the way to go. The point is being effective and trying to do as much damage as possible in the round using every trick you can come up with. Maybe you won’t be featured in the next frag fest video but you’ll be shure that you did your job.

2. Flank enemies

Rushing is damn hard. If you’re not shure about your skills maybe you shouldn’t rush. Watch your opponents and try to look where they usually show up. If you know the map well you could find a way to flank them and shoot them in their back. For example the pillars in Turnpike are usually a spot full of enemies in the first part of the round. If you spawn by the jeep, instead of going to the pillars for a face to face fight try to flank them by going through the office. This could work in a round or two and you could easily kill some opponents that are not even aware of your presence.

3. Wait for enemies

If you are expecting a rush, instead of rushing towards them too try wait for them, assuring a good cover for you. Again instead of going to the pillars try waiting at the metro. In Algeris, try to wait with your Sr-8 at the crates in the Well spawn for enemies that are coming from the plaza. You can take out 2 or 3 opponents per round with this trick.

4. Hit and run

If you’re low on bullets, health or you’re outnumbered don’t be Rambo. Sometimes I got killed because I thought that I could finish up the work with my DE. Wrong. Never be too self confident and remember the Law of Murphy. If you’re in a bad situation try to do as much damage as possible and then run like hell. For example if you miss with your Sr-8 against an opponent with an auto, run and try to wait for him somewhere else (for example, if I miss at the pillars I usually run to the metro front).

5. Choose silencer among Laser

A good thing about the silencer is that doesn’t give away your position. It won’t help lowering the spread of the bullets as much as the laser does but if you miss you have a chance to run. Also it will make you more unpredictable since opponents can’t hear you shooting. If you have the ability of shooting in small bursts it could become a very effective weapon.

6. Fake retreats

As Tarquin showed in his video, faking retreats is very effective. I get a lot of kills by just waiting behind the corner for opponents who wants to finish me up. When you are in a sticky situation, your opponent might think that you run away. Just wait for him.

7. Don’t be obstinate

This is a very common error. Don’t pretend to fight a sniper with your AK from a mile away. He will just kill you. Also don’t get stubborn with sniper fights. If you missed, you will give him a huge opportunity to catch you off guard. Try rather changing position forcing him to show up or try to flank him.

8. Shoot through cracks

As you’ve probably seen from Tarquin‘s video, he often waits for enemies to show up between cracks. This will give you a good advantage on them since you are covered and prepared to shoot at them. For example in Abbey you can shoot down the marble courtside from the door upstairs.

9. Expect to be flanked

If you know you are going to be flanked, set up an ambush. Let’s take Abbey’s tunnel as example. If you wait by the tunnel to shoot some enemies at marble courtyard, chances are someone is coming to flank you from the door at the spawn. Quickly run at the spawn and wait for them near the columns. They will naturally check the tunnel first so you can easily shoot them in the back.

10. Mix these techniques

This techniques works. But they can work maybe two times consecutively, then your opponents will get sick of being killed and they will change their strategy. You should too. Change your position often. Never do the same thing over and over again and remember: be efficient. The point is getting an high score, not getting a good frag video to impress girls.

I hope you guys enjoyed these tips and be shure to keep an eye on DailyNade.com this week since something really big is coming.

1. Change your crosshair settings

Your crosshair is very important. Many players will tell you to choose the dot and to choose it as small as possible. Unfortunatly the dot can’t give you feedback about the accuracy of the weapon you are carrying, especially when you are shooting. Choose instead a crosshair that resizes its arms depending on the current accuracy. Refer to Don’s post about hud settings to choose the correct crosshair.

2. Shoot in small bursts

If you use a crosshair that gives you feedback about the current accuracy you will notice that almost every weapon looses accuracy even with a very small burst. The longer the burst the less accurate it will be. Also you have to wait a bit after shooting to let your aim recover as you will notice by your crosshair.

3. Try Semi-Automatic once in a while

Another training method is to play once in a while with semi-automatic. This means you will shoot just one bullet every time you click the fire button. This will make your shoots more accurate but also will force you to adjust the aim more often, just like when you shoot with the DE or the Beretta. When you will get back to full Automatic you will naturally make shorter bursts and you will adjust aim more often and fundamentally hit more bad guys.

4. Adjust your aim settings

We didn’t covered them up yet but there are a lot of aim settings that you can set via console and configurations files. If you aren’t familiar with them just consider sensitivity for now. Try lower the sensitivity as far as you can.
To see how high is your current sensitivity just type \sensitivity in the console. It will give you back the current value. I used to play with a drammatically high value and i lowered it a lot. I lowered it about 7 or 8 points less than what I had previously and helped me a lot.
By doing that you will make more wide movements with your mouse to let’s say turn corners and walljumping but you will have more control on both moving and still targets. However a post about aim settings is coming, so don’t worry.

5. Use the Remington Sr-8

I can’t tell you how much the Sr-8 helped me to increase my accuracy. Not with the Sr-8 itself but with all the other weapons. Why?
Well if you are a beginner with the Sr-8 you will find yourself hitting rarely and being killed a lot. Fail will help you. One of the fastest way to take down a sniper is to rush on him as Tarquin pointed out in his post. If you see somebody rushing on you you will likely pull out your secondary weapon or your sidearm. As we pointed out secondaries are not that accurate and sidearms are quite hard to use. Using the Sr-8 will force you to use both secondaries and sidearms a lot and since they are not so accurate you will adjust your aim more often to take down some bad guys. Probably this will get you a bad score but don’t worry. When you will get back to autos you will naturally have a better aim and also you will learn to use perhaps one of the most powerful weapons in Urban Terror wich is the Sr-8.

6. Aim at corners and hiding spots

When you walk don’t point your weapon at the floor. Not even right in front of you. You should always point your gun at where you think that enemies will come out: corners, hiding spots and so on. This is very important since you will spend less time adjusting your aim to shoot at enemies. This ability will come along as you get familiar with the maps and as you play.

7. Think about what you are doing

Be councious of what you are doing. When you face an enemy not just shoot but mentally stop for a second and think.
Counciously think: «Ok I’m facing an enemy, I must look for an headshot/I must shoot at his torso». Aim for the torso or head (better). Also consider your opponent’s equipment. If you see that he has helmet and no kevlar just aim for the torso instead of trying the headshot. If you are getting too much legs shots that means that you are aiming too low. Being aware of what you are doing will make you focused. And with better focus comes better aim.

8. Try the Counter-Strike Method

As explained in this post, the Counter-Strike method will help increase your accuracy and creativity.

9. Watch your movements

To avoid bullets often players tend to jump sideways. This might be helpful but especially when you are out of stamina or you have your legs bleeding this might be very hard. Try instead to move sideways randomly. Also depending on your weapon consider moving towards your opponent to have better shots (for example you have to be at point-blank distance to deal high damage with the SPAS).

10. Training

Aim is one of those things that will come along with time. If you are very talented (or you have a lot of time to waste play) you might get this skill very quickly. In other cases it might take time, but the more you play the more you will increase your accuracy and skills.

Have some more tips? Tell us in your comments! These comments might go in a future post about some more tips about aim and accuracy!