Aiming and Settings Guide

[Blade]

Guide to Aiming/Settings in Enemy Territory

Introduction
Since its been awhile since I last updated my little guide I thought it would be nice if I rewrote it and put more effort into it. This guide will describe the basics, settings, and techniques of becoming better in Enemy Territory. All this information has been obtained from sources such as friends and other guides that have helped me grow as a player.

Lets Begin.
Aiming is one of the main components of Enemy Territory along with team play. Aiming in ET however is much different from other fps games. The game relies on the ability to track the opposing player while strafing from left to right. When I first started ET I was playing on a ball mouse with my sensitivity jacked up to 24. I had trouble keeping my aim consistent because my sensitivity was too high, but I couldn’t use low sensitivity because it just felt awkward. I wasn’t sure how to move correctly or position myself. All of these factors come into play when aiming because aiming and movement are connected and should be in sync. Your sensitivity also has to be where you are able to move freely without being crippled with a very low sens or high sens.

Sensitivity
The first thing I should say is that I was a very inconsistent aimer and insecure player when I first started. I used to change my DPI (CPI), mouse, mouse pad, and sensitivity everyday just because I had a bad game. I would try to use the “pro” configs thinking they would help me improve. This was anything, but true. The main point is you need to find a setup that you feel comfortable with and move on from there. You wont improve as a player if you keep switching your setup and try using someone’s configuration that wasn’t designed for your computer or you playing style. Sensitivity in ET is a personal preference and solely depends on how you play.

I will describe and detail the pros and cons of different levels of sensitivities. I have used just about every range of sensitivity from very low to very high so I am able to be a valid source of opinion. A lot of people will say low sensitivity is the way to go since its very stable and if you get surprised you won’t launch you mouse off your pad. The problem with low sensitivity is that you can’t react as fast or do a 180 if it takes 6 swipes to turn around. Low sensitivity relies on aiming with your arm rather than your wrist. When I’m playing I find it more accurate to control the mouse with my wrist because there’s smaller room for error than when I’m aiming with my entire arm. I’m sure there are some people who would argue that low sensitivity is the way to go and in some cases people do find it suitable for their playing style and prefer it. Medium sensitivity in my opinion is a good balance of speed and stability. You aren’t sacrificing speed or accuracy. I’m probably biased because I use med sensitivity, but overall I do believe it is good because it isn’t too fast or too slow. High sensitivity can be a good choice in some cases, but it can also be hard to control and keep stable. I eventually got used to it and enjoyed it a lot. The problem was the amount of effort it takes to control the high sensitivity, which put a strain on my wrist. Overall, I enjoyed the sensitivity, but it became too much of a hassle to use.

Sum it up

High Sensitivity

Pros

• Wide Range of movement
• Fast Reaction time
• Easier to snap to targets

Cons

• Can be unstable/hard to control
• Can strain wrist
• Loss of accurate targeting sometimes

Medium Sensitivity

Pros

• Balanced
• Easier to do 180 turns
• Stable/Accurate
• Easy Snaps

Cons

• I don’t think there are any real Con’s with medium sensitivity because it is balanced and well rounded.

Low Sensitivity

Pros

• Very Stable
• Less error in aiming

Cons

• Harder to snap to players in some cases
• Crippled movement
• Larger swipes depending on how low the sensitivity

Mice

For a good part of my gaming years I was pretty much a gear freak and would buy a ton of mice and mouse pads. A good mouse is one that is comfortable in your hand that will suit your style of play. One thing to look out for is DPI. I’ve walked around stores and see advertisements about all these “high end” mice boasting the highest DPI stating that it is much more accurate. Even if I bought a mouse with high DPI I always ended up setting it to 400 DPI. You don’t have to spend 70-100 dollars on a gaming mouse for it to be good. In ET it is all preference, but based off of my experience lower DPI is much more accurate because it removes all the errors because it doesn’t pick up small movements like high DPI. In other words, don’t buy into all the hype around high dpi mice because all it is in my opinion is a marketing thing. Below I’ll detail the mice I’ve owned and explain the pros and cons.

Razer Diamond 1^st Gen- I enjoyed this mouse a lot because of the shape, but also because of how well I could control it. The movement was very fluid with no skipping, but one problem is that the mouse feet wore out very fast. Another problem was that the cable had issues so the mouse would keep connecting and disconnecting from my computer. Overall a good mouse and one that I would recommend.

DPI- 400, 1600
Polling Rate: 125(Its been awhile since I last used this mouse so it might be 500hz)

Razer Deathadder – This mouse is one I would highly recommend, as would a lot of other players who have used it. The deathadder has no troubles with skipping and is a very good choice for low and med sensitivity users. When I tried using high sensitivity I just couldn’t control my aim and preferred lower settings. The deathadder is in my opinion one of the top mice on the market and with good reason.

DPI- 450, 900, 1800
2^nd Gen- 450, 900, 1800, 3500
Polling Rate: 125, 500, 1000

Razer Imperator- My first and lasting impressions of this mouse are very negative. The lift of distance for me was too low and it just didn’t feel right to me. The imperator has a very nice grip to it like the MX518 and looks like a deathadder in a way, but it didn’t perform as well as I had hoped. Another issue is that the sensor had a problem with the z-axis where when you lifted the mouse it would move diagonally a little. I wouldn’t recommend this mouse due to how it didn’t feel comfortable and the problems with the sensor. I know that they have rereleased it with a new sensor that allows you to adjust the LOD and may have fixed the issue, but I don’t see myself buying this mouse again any time soon.

DPI- 200-5600
Polling rate: 125, 500, 1000




Steelseries Ikari Optical – Overall a good mouse, but I had trouble adjusting to how it was designed. The first thing you should know is that this mouse is shaped to be more of a palm grip mouse. The mouse itself is designed well, but I felt that it just wasn’t designed for my style of playing, which is a palm/claw grip.

DPI-400-1600
Polling Rate 1000hz

Logitech MX518- This mouse is no doubt one of the best mice I have used. The feel of the mouse is great and it is easy to grip. The drawback of this mouse is that it is set at 125hz polling rate as default, but this can be fixed with some overclocking. The best part of this mouse is the accuracy it brings and the stability. The tracking of this mouse is also to be admired as there is pretty much no skipping involved and no negative acceleration. I’m not sure if they still sell this mouse since the g400 came out, but I’m sure you can find it online.

1^st Gen DPI 400-1600
2^nd Gen DPI 400-1800
Polling Rate 125 Default (Can be overclocked to 500. Unstable at 1000hz)

Logitech G400- I just recently bought this mouse to replace my mx518 and I can say that it is a good successor to its older brother the mx518. The shape is exactly the same with a few cosmetic changes as well as an increase in options such as a higher DPI and the choice to change polling rate without having to do an overclock. Another thing to note about this mouse is that it is hard to grip at first and a little different when compared to the glossy top of the MX518.

DPI- 400-3600
Polling Rate: 125-1000hz

Mouse Pads

The use of a mouse pad in ET is key to attaining a good fluid movement in your aim. In ET the main thing you should be striving for is a frictionless glide that will make your movements in game as smooth as possible, but also with control so you are able to make those important snaps so you don’t die. The choosing of a mouse pad is mostly trial and error since you cant really test the mouse pad before you buy it unless a friend has the same one you want. I’ve been buying mouse pads for a while and can say that it did take me awhile to find something that suited my needs. A cloth mouse pad is a good choice as it is usually very affordable and reliable. A plastic mouse pad is something I’m not a big fan of because the plastic will eventually wear down in a matter of months leaving a noticeable loss of glide. Something I recently decided to do was buy a glass mouse pad and I enjoyed it a lot because of the unique glide that it possessed. The durability of the pad is something I also liked because it would retain the same glide without wearing down within a few months. A few mouse pads I can recommend are the Steelseries Qck+(Relatively good/Has a long life span), QPAD CT(Amazing glide and control, but wears down fast), Steelseries 5L(Maybe Discontinued, but a very good pad), Steelseries I-2(Great Glide, Good Control, Durability). I should also note a mouse pad that I would not recommend, which is the Razer Destructor because of how fast the surface wore out. I used it for around 1 month and I could already see signs of the sandpaper texture smoothing out. This is in my opinion one of the drawbacks of using a plastic mouse pad. The glide may be good at first, but the pad will begin to wear out very quickly.


Finding your Sensitivity

This is a question that is constantly asked and most new players are not sure how to solve. When I first started to play I was also unsure how to find my sensitivity and would constantly ask better players for guidance, but no help was given. I directed my attention to guides in search of help and came across “Aiming by Raziel” I had heard of this guide previously and was aware that it made by an RTCW player. The main point stressed was that you needed to first learn to track a stationary point before you could track a moving player. The map I used was CTF_MULTI, which is the same one used in the guide. I began to practice pivoting back and forth doing my best to keep my crosshair on the tiny metal piece, but I just couldn’t do it. One thing you can do to ease the stress of keeping the crosshair on the target is lowering your m_pitch to where you are able to keep it at head level without putting strain on yourself. The main thing you need to do is find a sens that is stable and you will be able to do this with ease without having to put too much mind power into it. In order to accomplish this I looked towards “gaming” mice so I would be able to further customize the settings. This helped me tremendously because I was able to set the DPI lower giving me more slower and stable movements. Another thing to add is that you should set your windows sensitivity to 6 so that there is a 1:1 ratio. Ok, back to the MG stand tracking. The trick to doing this is to find a setup that will allow you do this such as a good mouse pad and a mouse that is comfortable for your specific style of mouse gripping. I should point out that your chosen point that you track can be anything from a wall corner, to an mg stand, and so on. The main thing is that it should be aimed at head level and a flat ground surface to move on.
I’d like to move onto the use of high DPI in game. Some people will argue that high dpi is better because it will register smaller movements making your shots more accurate. While this may be true in some cases there is another side to look from. The use of high DPI in ET may cause negative acceleration. The term negative accelerations simply mean that the faster you move your mouse the slower it will actually move on the screen. The effect is that you won’t be aiming where you actually intended to. This is the reason while a lot of players have chosen to play with a lower dpi as well as the desire for a more stable sensitivity. Continuing on the idea of pivoting around a specific point. While you are doing this you need to analyze what is causing you to be unable to track the point. Are you too jittery? Are you too slow when you’re moving your wrist or arm? This leads to whether your current sensitivity is too high or too low than where you should be at. I’m not saying your sensitivity is wrong because it’s all about preference and what you prefer to play with. On a finishing note of DPI I would also like to point out that negative acceleration doesn’t just have to do with DPI as there are some cases where mice actually have negative acceleration within them already.
Once you have found that balance go play and see if that sensitivity suits your needs. If not then don’t go back and change it. This is not a become “good quick method”. You need to play with the sensitivity for a while and get used to it before you judge it and move on. This was my biggest fault because I would constantly change my sensitivity everyday because I would have one or two bad games. This isn’t the answer to getting better. You need to become comfortable with the way your sensitivity works.

Settings

The first settings I will go into are your render settings. The importance of these settings is to ensure that you have good visibility in game as well as maintaining a constant rate of FPS (Frames per second). The numbers that are good to cap at and are widely used are 76 and 125. Another thing to take into account is the refresh rate of your monitor. The standard on most LCD monitors is usually around 60-75 and this is ok, but if your running your game at 125 fps and your refresh rate at 60 there is going to be tearing of the frames. What you should strive for is making it so your fps is equal to your refresh so there is no tearing and everything is being drawn creating a more fluid image. When I first started I would use 75 hz+125fps and it was evident that there was indeed tearing of the frames. Then monitors started to come out with features such as 120hz and I thought that I should try it. Now, I should note that CRTs already have the capability to show very high refresh rates with some as high as 200+. I can say that I did see a very huge change in the image and that the movement is very fluid without any kind of jittery picture.
When making your configuration I would insist that you first think about what you want. Do you want a config that will squeeze out the most FPS your computer can output? Or do you want one that will be strictly eye candy reducing the amount of FPS you can get? This is a personal preference on what you want and how you want to play the game.

Polling rate is also an issue that is important because it is reaction time of your mouse. Most mice are around 125hz, but gaming mice have to ability to transfer from 500-1000hz. Most would say that the higher the better, but in this case this is not always true. Yes, the mouse will be sending and receiving more and more information, but this will only use more of your cpu. I would recommend that you use 500hz because it is just as reactive as 1000hz, but uses fewer resources.

Regarding DPI and Resolution, Some will argue that you should choose your dpi based on the resolution you play with and that is true in most cases, but again this depends on what you like to play with whether or not there are issues and or complications. From my experience I have used 800by600@120hz with 400 dpi as well as 1920by1080@120hz and I didn’t notice any big change other than the amount of pixels that were being drawn.

Another thing to add about your choice of resolution in game. Some people would say that the higher the better, but in FPS games I don’t see it that way. Yes, it may increase the quality of the visuals, but you may also be sacrificing frames for just eye candy. The reason I choose to use a low resolution of 800by600 is because of how fluid it feels when compared to a higher resolution and the appearance of being a little closer to the enemy target. This is still however all preference and goes back to what you want to play with and how you want your game to feel like.

I will detail below the numbers and reaction rate for polling,

125hz – 8ms
500hz – 2ms
1000hz-1ms

I’ll conclude with a little overview of what I have stated before. Finding your setup solely relies on what you yourself are comfortable with and not what some professional uses. Don’t follow the hype of some outrageously high DPI mouse because it’s not going to help you become better. Yes, hardware is important such as a good mouse, mouse pad, and monitor are important factors, but the main point is what you like to play with. Also, finding sensitivity through the use of the pivot technique is from the guide of “Aiming by Raziel and all the credit belongs to him for the knowledge he shared. I hope I helped some of you and would be grateful if you would like to add something to this guide or make some changes to my information. Thanks for reading and good luck in game! Message me if you have any questions. I should also add that all of this is simply a guide of information that I wanted to share and that you don’t have to follow it.

-Blade

[KARINE]

thx Blade for the tutorial Im gonna check it out

[TulsaGeoff]

Nice guide. I set my mouse low, but high enough to be able to do a 180 from in the middle of my 18" mouse pad. ET is a game where headshots really matter. In COD I'm able to run a slighly higher sensitivity since I'm just attempting to hit the person.

[Lumen]

Thanks for the tutorial helps a lot

[flagoon]

hey blade thanks this is actually very helpful 2 me i appericate it

[David your friend]

Blade; Well written tutorial! I have not put any of it to use but I will bookmark it & also will be testing some of it later today. 

[UWereChosenone]

So you're saying that my bed sheets or pants leg doesn't make a decent mouse pad then?

[Snuffs99]

Nice tutorial.

 

I'd also advise people to look at "aiming by raziel" (google is your friend), its near on 16 years old and was really for RTCW but as ET was simply meant to be an expansion pack to RTCW that was instead released as a standalone its just as good for ET too.

It will help people to determine whats a good sense etc to have for them because a low sense may work well for me but it could well be bad or awful for others, IMHO its all about feel when it comes to ET and aiming by raziel will help players have a better understanding.

 

My tuppence 

[UWereChosenone]

So, I guess this Raziel guy is some kind of legend...does he still exist or ever make appearances?

[Snuffs99]

Raziel was a famous RTCW player.  No idea regarding existence or current playing activity though.

 

 

[HOTSPUR]

On 4/4/2019 at 11:04 PM, Snuffs99 said:

Nice tutorial.

 

I'd also advise people to look at "aiming by raziel" (google is your friend), its near on 16 years old and was really for RTCW but as ET was simply meant to be an expansion pack to RTCW that was instead released as a standalone its just as good for ET too.

It will help people to determine whats a good sense etc to have for them because a low sense may work well for me but it could well be bad or awful for others, IMHO its all about feel when it comes to ET and aiming by raziel will help players have a better understanding.

 

My tuppence 

Configs rule these days, if your lucky enough to have a good one and connection to boot  you're in luck. 

[captnconcrete]

On 4/4/2019 at 6:50 PM, UWereChosenone said:

So, I guess this Raziel guy is some kind of legend...does he still exist or ever make appearances?

nope not around any more.. very good player tho .. 

[Snuffs99]

1 hour ago, HOTSPUR said:

Configs rule these days, if your lucky enough to have a good one and connection to boot  you're in luck. 

Thats really not true at all and you are very naive if you think that, you could have a config from a pro player but its not going to make you a pro. No matter the config each player will only be as good as they can be, no getting away from that and no way is a config going to make you better than your own personal limits. At the end of the day like most things in life its practice, practice, practice but eventually you will reach your own limits, config or no config we cant all be as good as one another. Its no different than me saying if i put on the same football boots as messi/ronaldo etc etc then i'll be as good as them. 

 

Yes settings within configs can help players improve their own skills, but you and i could have the exact same config and one of us would play better than the other, according to your statement we would be equal, which we wont as a players ability is way more than just a config and a good connection. 

Edited April 7, 2019 by Snuffs99

[HOTSPUR]

15 minutes ago, Snuffs99 said:

Thats really not true at all and you are very naive if you think that, you could have a config from a pro player but its not going to make you a pro. No matter the config each player will only be as good as they can be, no getting away from that and no way is a config going to make you better than your own personal limits. At the end of the day like most things in life its practice, practice, practice but eventually you will reach your own limits, config or no config we cant all be as good as one another. Its no different than me saying if i put on the same football boots as messi/ronaldo etc etc then i'll be as good as them. 

 

Yes settings within configs can help players improve their own skills, but you and i could have the exact same config and one of us would play better than the other, according to your statement we would be equal, which we wont as a players ability is way more than just a config and a good connection. 

Nah just 14yrs of playing give me that opinion 👍 

[HOTSPUR]

17 minutes ago, Snuffs99 said:

Thats really not true at all and you are very naive if you think that, you could have a config from a pro player but its not going to make you a pro. No matter the config each player will only be as good as they can be, no getting away from that and no way is a config going to make you better than your own personal limits. At the end of the day like most things in life its practice, practice, practice but eventually you will reach your own limits, config or no config we cant all be as good as one another. Its no different than me saying if i put on the same football boots as messi/ronaldo etc etc then i'll be as good as them. 

 

Yes settings within configs can help players improve their own skills, but you and i could have the exact same config and one of us would play better than the other, according to your statement we would be equal, which we wont as a players ability is way more than just a config and a good connection. 

I have seen players acc rise maybe from 30acc to 45/50 acc so it has a big impact if the player uses the config correctly.