Practice Habits

I haven't been active at all in Quake 2 lately, save for the occasional FFA game and Friday nights on the EoM server. I'd like to play duels and TDM, maybe even try to organize another tourney or league for the Tastyspleen/North America community, although everyone more or less knows where they would place since the playerbase is somewhat small and close-knit. But anyway, one of the reasons why I'm staying out of duels/TDM is 'cause even when I was most active, I sucked salty nuts. Right now, if I tried and practised as hard as I possibly could, I'd probably only be 1/2 to 3/4 of what I was, and what I was wasn't really much of anything.

Although it could just be my negativity and I could actually be better right now than before, but that's still not saying much anyway heh. But maybe, if it isn't the amount of practice time that I'm lacking, it could be from bad practice habits. Right now, activity would definitely help, but if/when I get enough of that, I'll start hitting a personal peak again. At that point in time, it would be prudent to analyse just how exactly I'm practicing.

Maybe I just practice 'passively.' Not planning any new strategies or experimenting with new techniques, just playing as I normally would and hope that my aim will magically improve naturally over time. Watching demos doesn't help me especially, maybe because I don't know what to look for. Sure, I can look at demos for the nice shots, but what I won't get out of it are things like how the player knew exactly where the opponent was and knew exactly how to get into whatever position in order to take said nice shot.

Taking a page out of another game though, maybe all I need is to experiment more. I've been working on a 100 point hard mode run for Megaman Zero for a couple of months, and although I have failed numerous times due to screwing up toward the end of the run (my latest result was getting to the 2nd last level and choking on the boss), I've learned a couple of tidbits as I went along. Yes, time did play a major role in getting decent at MMZ, but I also had to experiment with the system, finding uses for glitches such as shield dash jumping, and learning/memorizing the stages and boss patterns.

If I had someone to play against regularly, maybe I should try and pick up on some of the other person's tendencies, which would be similar to learning a Megaman boss pattern. Obviously learning the map would be the equivalent of learning the stage.

Maybe I have to work on some of the more obscure concepts as well. Using the rail, for instance. When the opponent appears in an area that I'm not directly looking in but is at mid-long range, should I try a flick rail to get first strike advantage or take my time and shoot when I feel I'll hit? If I flick and miss, would the opponent take advantage of the shot delay and charge me with chain/rockets/ssg? If I take my time, will the opponent try to edge forward or back off? Am I simply pushing the opponent toward a better area of the map just by holding the rail out?

I should also try to keep thinking constantly, never let myself play with a completely blank mind. Keep thinking about the enemy position, my own position, what weapons I would need and could I get them safely, what is the opponent's health/armor, when is this item going to spawn, etc. I have that same problem with Soulcalibur 4, just carelessly poking away with Raphael and not wondering if I'm being put in any of the opponent's set-ups. This is probably the major reason why I blow at fighting games.

I know I probably won't be as good as the top players of any game, but even the top players have lost a few matches. One could always debate if whatever ace player was screwing around 'cause it wasn't a tourney match or whatnot, but you should be able to tell if the other player was taking the game seriously. I'm pretty sure that with more practice and better habits, I can be better than where I am now. And it's obvious that I like the game or else I wouldn't have been playing just simple FFA for all these years...