---> Octane's Racing Tips & Help <---

[BFM_Octane]

Decided im gonna see how long this will keep up and update it as more comes. If others wish to contribute please feel free to do so. Moderators please feel free to update with other stuff to your liking if you, like, y'know maybe make it look fancy if you get bored too. 

These are a few tips i came up with. I have focussed on tips more for drivers than gunners.



1. Hold down the acceleration key for ever, and expect to flip. Lets put it this way, i can overtake players on the straighter parts of the track, simply by releasing the accel key in short minute bursts over the bumps (added with slight jerks right and left to accommodate the angle of the ground beneath). Not too much that you can hear the engine revs going down, even if you dont hear it atall while releasing the key for that minute amount of time still means youve changed the physics, "gravitational" forces and directions of the hog. Pace yourself, you dont have to go as fast as you can to win. Just dont be slowing with intent to kill... Its noticeable to say the least.

2. Taking your finger off the accel key to try and sort out a vertical drop with the hog from flipping, is infact more likely to flip you than keeping it held down. This is again where you need to think about the physics and motion. The wheels are going forward when you drop and so will pull the back-end down quicker.



3. When colliding with a team mates hog infront (because you are catching up with them) will cause collision lag, which looks like you are bashing into them and flipping them over and over again as you both drive along. Tap the acceleration key a couple of times. Dont veer left or right, or you will suffer the consequences of lag causing you to smash into some wall (as an example) before you know it, or more specifically, before the game knows it hehe.

4. TEAM WORK... Pick that gunner up, but think about when its not a good idea to.
For example :

• Your on map : Sidewinder, your infront, in a Chain hog and are approaching Blue base.
• There is a teammate wanting to be picked up at the base.
• You recently figured there is a gunnerless Rocket Warthog following you not far behind. A team mate ofcourse.
• The enemy are far back, but you still know they are heading towards your way to get the navs they need.
• The Rhog would better suit the gunner for more reasons than just the fact it is a Rhog:

a) It is going to create less clutter in the blue base. You will have time to better get in and back out of the base as the Rhog picks up the teammate.
b) Rhog gets time (or a delay) for the enemy to catch up and more chance to get a distant shot at where they are heading for.

• If it were the other way round, and you picked up the team mate it would most likely, and infact does usually go in this kind of fashion :

a) You stop, gunner nearly gets in, but Rhog collides into the back of you.
b) All flip, all fall out of hogs, all delayed, running around sorting yourselves, some kid stood deciding to give someone jip about the whole situation on the chatbox.
c) Enemy comes and blows you to kingdomcome, whey!



5. Remember what lag is, visually, you will soon learn everything you do has a delay by a certain ammount of milliseconds/seconds/+ (depending on how much lag there is). And everything the enemy does, (or more specifically your target does), has already been done before you see it. You aim for a hog? You need to aim infront of its directional path for the shot to register. HOWEVER, if your going past a still target, or a player on foot. Since the pace of that target is slower, or stood still. Your shots will register when you shoot behind. OR you could look at it this way. When they go past, shoot infront. When you go past, shoot behind. BUT REMEMBER, You need to also consider the movements and direction changes of both your own hog and the enemy, and be ready to adjust for those points, aswell as the lag itself that also changes all the time (but generally on a game like halo, you dont need to worry too much there as you do with other games i play). As long as you understood all that blah-ness that i have just said and you have a smooth enough aim, you should rack up on the kills on the defense line!

Also remember those quirks of lag you get? Jolts that cause mess ups in the complicated areas of the tracks. Just remember what i said in point 1. It helps a great deal.

6. Drive with a high mouse sensitivity setting... And get used to it. Allthough at first your hog will seem, heavy, sluggish, unpredictable. A smaller mouse movement means a smaller hand movement, your brain will tick in with that and ultimately will be less work to figure out handling your hog smoothly.



7. Dodge stuff. Dodge rockets like you have never done before!. By learning the basics of lag, how everything you do is delayed and everything "they" do happens before you see it, both by a second (give or take) and so on and so forth, you will soon learn to dodge quicker, before your natural instincts kick in to do so. Soon you will be able to dodge round after round of rockets on Death Island from an enemy not even (halo) meters away from you.

8. Time your "cliff-dives" with positive effect, meaning landing your hog on its wheels. Can be difficult when trying to concentrate on all these other things going on around you, it gets even more intense when theres an enemy hog shooting up a storm towards you. Most players will spend their first year figuring out from other more experience players on where the best places to land are. Fact is, you can land your hog smoothly pretty much anywhere. Personally i learned by going into my own lan server, grabbing a hog and heading for the cliffs. Easiest way has got to be spinning off and get those 360s going, but that is not getting used to the physics of it and helping it become, well, 2nd nature. But generally, dont expect to get it right in the first few trys. Dont even expect you have mastered it when you accomplish it. Ive been racing (soley on halo) for, ill save myself the embarrassment and just say, years. Im still learning the game physics. There is still a bit of guessing-play going on there. 



9. Exercise. Now personally i play Quake III Arena (Rail-Freeze mod) daily which sorts me out ready for Halo gaming. What you can do however are many things but just to name a few, Flex your hand muscles and joints every so often. Look away from the screen and focus on the wall while your dead and respawning then look back (or more frequently than that if you wish), whether your eyes are straining or not. It works for the brain regardless.

10. Shhhhhhutup and be patient...  Dont get into disputes with other players. I mean for a place like this its simple, you'll just get kicked. Hahar!. But, chatter never did help you win. If your interest was bickering or having a good ol' chinwag with the next random player in the first place, well theres no help for you sorry. Tis just one of those things eh.  All we can do is shoot you when you stop to type, oh, and beat you ofcourse. 

So, i maybe got a bit too technical for my own good there but i hope some of it has helped, NOOBS!    Got any questions of specific areas on this subject? Ask away!

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Probably another great point i should mention (since it helps me personally, a great deal) would be preventing yourself from flipping when a team mate or enemy Warthog is heading straight for you.

It happens to us all. Its almost a fun guessing game! Warthogs crashing into eachother.

But if you play to win in those public race servers, you may wish to take onboard the fact that your going to come across a huge number of head on collisions. Wish to prevent it? Read below.

In real life, what happens to your vehicle as you apply the breaks, or release the acceleration? You slow down would be the first obvious answer. But what else?

Well, the G-Force makes it feel like your falling forwards, towards the windscreen. A few other things happen but most importantly, for this subject, would be that the front end bobs down (engines a pretty heavy thing yah? Well, my foot knows all about it...)  .

Alot of times the servers are full of players who dont race much. So its safe to assume that they generally wont bother slowing down when your heading for each other, so their front end wont bob down. I mean some just enjoy a good old hogwars match with you as you innocently wish to get to that next nav they are near... So, slow down, release that accel key just before impact and let that front end go down. THEY will more than probably (yes im guessing) 75% of the time be the ones to flip and youll just get a lag-jolted nudge.

That percentage greatly decreases though, when the more of an angle the other hogs direction is to hit you, is directed towards the side of your hog and then even further decreased towards the rear end of your hog, simply due to the shape of the hog.
However, with those collisions directed into the more corner-front of your hog and sometimes even on the rare occasion, full on side collisions can be prevented to your hog and will instead cause the other player to flip or at least take the brunt of the impact, by simply slowing down just before he/she/it hits you... And you can go along your merry way, knowing you at least tried to prevent it. 

Small tip for those REALLY new players - If your fish tailing, tap accel then get back to holding it down again once you feel its getting back to controllable...
My arms are getting tired from holding on to the turret so tight...   

[OrbitAddict]

You have a nice graphics card.

Nice tips, thanks for writing them.

[BFM_Octane]

Yes, yes i do. And for £300 i shall think no other way about it.   

[Daigoro]

Excellent post there Octane, instructional even for us longtime players. Point 1's the only one I didn't quite follow -- I do of course let up for a tiny moment at a few places on every map, but it sounds like you are constantly doing that. So for example, as you are racing on Sidewinder straight from red base to score flag, are you letting off on W for a millisecond several times?

[ThE BrIcK]

Excellent tips Octane!

[¥Mderms¥]

I got some tips that I can post for gunners later too. (most of the pics are on my Laptop so ill have to wait till later today)

[BFM_Octane]

Yes Dia, even then ill occasionally do it.  Though not really needed if you go around those central minor bumps in Sidewinder. A good example would be Timberland, from Corner navs on towards the base navs. Sure, you can just pelt it, but i prefer to keep the traction in areas like that. Notice i dont lose time in my lap times from it though, infact i think it does a great deal better once you master it. Not to mention, you gain good confidence in knowing your not gonna mess up much due to the gain of traction through doing it.

Or even look at it this way, would you just pelt it in real life? Nah, you would be nudging the accelerator pedal back and forth, keeping traction in the wheels.

Things like this will smoothen your ride out. Landing into those minor crevices better, that you keep your speed, than if you would if you just kept the accelerator down and put pressure on the axels upon the impacts more, thus slowing you down.

[VxT]

Very Nice guide.

[¥Mderms¥]

I have focussed on tips more for drivers than gunners.

Heres some Gunner tips 





Chaingun Warthog tips.

When firing in a Chaingun warthog, be sure to LEAD ON with the enemy. If you keep the firing reticle ON the enemy, you will miss almost every shot.


The distance needed to lead on with a Chaingun Hog doesn't really differ much with the distance of the enemy, just be aware that the greater the distance, the less accurate you will be no matter how you lead on.

Rocket Warthog gunning.

Now, gunning in a Rocket Hog is much harder to do proficiently, because of the obviously slower speed of the projectile (bullets fly faster than rockets  ). There are a few things you can do here in this situation...

Situation A

Enemy is within 10 meters of you, you wouldn't have to lead on very much.


CAREFUL IN THIS SITUATION! If you fire TOO closely, you WILL commit suicide!

Situation 2

Enemy is much farther away, you will have to lead on MUCH more.



The chances of actually HITTING the enemy at this distance will very VERY slim, but you never know, you may get lucky. This situation, I actually did hit the enemy, but we blew up before I could see the result.

Passenger Tips

Now, being a passenger is the only exception to this guide. As a passenger, you are reliying on the driver for nothing more than a free ride. There is really nothing you can do as a passenger except throw the occasional grenade or rocket (rocket server)
Generally as a passenger you will be the first to die as well.

There ARE a few things you can do though.

Again, if you are in passenger seat, LEAD ON with the grenades. the chances of a plasma grenade actually sticking to the enemy are slim, but again, you may get lucky. Be aware of the limited range of view you have as a passenger. (180°)

Hogjacking

When you die and there are no hogs, it isn't fun to walk to map. If you see an enemy driver barreling down on you, don't panic. Instead of giving him a free kill... turn the tables on him with a well placed grenade.

I like to call this the "Sidestep/Nade"™ technique.



At about this point, you should sidestep (if you don't already have a rocket headed your way, like in this picture), then toss a plasma grenade at the hog. IF the grenade sticks, put a half-clip of AP rounds into the hog. When the grenade detonates, the enemy's shileds will be weakened from the assault rifle's rounds, then the explosion will, MOST of the time, kill the driver and it's occupants. If not then put a couple well placed rounds into the center of mass of the survivors with the pistol.

Then feel free to take the hog and keep racing








(EDIT)

Ok... now that I look more closely at the second pic, I realized there was no driver...

That does NOT mean I was intentionally camping... (notice the plumes of dirt from the still-moving hog) driver probably died and I didnt realize it... srry I owned you Brick 

[Brainless]

Mderms, there's a blue driver in there. Enemies at a distance are compressed and blurred to increase performance, you can barely see a blue blur where the driver should be so I can see you're not camping (I have a fancy monitor that can show these slight color changes >)

Hey I have another thing to add to this list of racing tips: burst firing the Gun Hog machine gun.

If your enemy is off in the distance, and you think your machine gun can't reach him/her, try this! Instead of holding down the trigger on these distant players, fire in short bursts. Like, "Ticka-ticka-tick-tick, ticka-ticka-ticka-tick-," in 4-shot bursts rather than "ticka-ticka-tick-tick-tzzzzzzzz" like everyone always does. It's almost like you are hitting the players with pistol and sniper rifle rounds how they fall to the ground or collapse out of their vehicles so fast. Try it on Death Island, they'll either spin to the side to evade you or just let all the passengers and themselves die all at once--of course they'll be trying in vain to get you by holding down the trigger (they should try burst firing the gun like you will). More of your bullets will hit them than theirs hitting you, even if they shoot first.

Same goes with the Assault Rifle. If you run out of pistol ammo, and there's enemies jumping around you, don't reload the pistol--burst the AR into where they are going while simultaneously trying to stay close to them (while still being outside of melee range) and somehow the bullets will work their way to the enemy's upper body and head due to Halo's autoaim. They will fall almost as fast as getting nailed by the pistol, maybe twice as long, it just takes a little more maneuvering (remember to crouch, move side-to-side and do other crazy things to avoid gettin shot since it takes a while for the AR to do its work).

[¥Mderms¥]

If your enemy is off in the distance, and you think your machine gun can't reach him/her, try this! Instead of holding down the trigger on these distant players, fire in short bursts. Like, "Ticka-ticka-tick-tick, ticka-ticka-ticka-tick-," in 4-shot bursts rather than "ticka-ticka-tick-tick-tzzzzzzzz" like everyone always does. It's almost like you are hitting the players with pistol and sniper rifle rounds how they fall to the ground or collapse out of their vehicles so fast. Try it on Death Island, they'll either spin to the side to evade you or just let all the passengers and themselves die all at once--of course they'll be trying in vain to get you by holding down the trigger (they should try burst firing the gun like you will). More of your bullets will hit them than theirs hitting you, even if they shoot first.

Yea I've noticed that after a long time playing too. I've done some experiments in the past by shooting at walls at various distances and looking at the bullet holes and observing spray patterns from full automatic fire, single shots, and bursts. single shots are by far the most accurate way to fire but is not at all useful in gunfights, so i usually go with bursts.

As for the camping i took that pic on my moms computer and her graphics card is crap

so if anyone sees white Master Chiefs in any of my pics then you know who's house im at 

Thx for the input 

[BFM_Exodus]

Just remember for all those Aussies out there that the lead for the chain and of course the rocket hog has to be about a hog length greater, as by the time your rocket gets to where it needs to go, they will already be past it, even if it does not say it on your screen! As for chains add a hog length for the general fire and you should be alright. Good Aussie chain gunners are as good as any American. Just for the Aussies, practice those reflex shots, especially on Danger Canyon!

[Tango1]

All are very good tips to follow, to bad they were not posted 9 months ago. lol. I had to learn all of those tips the hard way.  If any one is new to Halo, these tips are a gold mine.  Good work!

[BFM_Octane]

Thankyou for elaborating on my point 5 with examples Mderms, will help those who aint so clued up on the jargon i were talking about. I just focussed on the Driving aspect considering thats the racing. Everything else is assistance. 

If you see an enemy driver barreling down on you, don't panic. Instead of giving him a free kill...

Aye. Though id have to disagree for more situations than one would think. 
For example, If you spawn at blue base on Icefields, grab the nav but find that there are no hogs... id rather walk in the direction most enemies will come (from bottom middle nav), let them kill me and have a 50/50 chance of respawning at red base, grabbing that nav, then grabbing a hog which could be there. If not, then i would attempt a hog jack. This has been common enough practice in scrims that most of the enemies actually try their hardest not to kill those players hehe.

Same would go for Blood Gulch Red base if there were no hogs. And also the same for Sidewinder Blue base.

I also would be pretty weary of standing infront of the on-coming enemy hog and getting ready to sidestep out of the way as you would seem to have put it. Personally i just keep a bit of distance straight away from the enemy hog's directional path and again throw a nade in conjunction with the lag (i.e throwing it infront of the hog as it passes by). But this all depends on how skillful one is with throwing nades. I guess some of us just got sick of those on-coming hogs jolting forward through lag and getting us before our nades even been released. 

Again, thanx for elaborating.

[¥Mderms¥]

I also would be pretty weary of standing infront of the on-coming enemy hog and getting ready to sidestep out of the way as you would seem to have put it. Personally i just keep a bit of distance straight away from the enemy hog's directional path and again throw a nade in conjunction with the lag (i.e throwing it infront of the hog as it passes by). But this all depends on how skillful one is with throwing nades. I guess some of us just got sick of those on-coming hogs jolting forward through lag and getting us before our nades even been released. 

Again, thanx for elaborating.

Lol that's just me though, I've been side-stepping hogs for years

And on that pic iIpurposely stood in the middle of the track because personally I'm not too quick on the print screen button, I don't think I could capture a screenie of me actually sticking a moving hog even if i tried.