Unreal Tournament Mods

There's basic Assault as you're used to from playing Single Player Practice matches against bots or versus newbies. But sooner or later you'll encounter advanced Assault players who belong to several classes. Although there are no specialized player classes you can select in the game, all players are equal in their attributes, you do decide what kind of role you play within your team. In both the attacking and defending teams, there are various possible roles, it's entirely up to you to determine which one to play. You can switch between roles at any time simply by changing your way of playing. Here's a list of my favorite roles. Feel free to innovate and come up with your own niches, play whatever you want, as long as it actually helps your team to win the game.

• Fighter: The standard role. A fighter will do just that, fight, trying to kill any and all opponents. Fighters are either stationary (defenders) or moving around constantly (attackers).
• Runner: Only useful on the attacking team. The runner will concentrate on running instead of fighting. Your only goal is to rush through the level and destroy the objectives. Try to avoid any resistance unless you have an escort of fighters. Speed, agility, and accuracy are your strengths.
• Jumper: Only useful on the attacking team. Similar to the runner, but instead of running the regular path, a jumper will try to get past the main defense by using the impact hammer to jump into the enemy base. Since this is often overlooked, a sneaky jumper can be very effective, especially when unexpected. Jumping is very useful, it will help your team's time a lot, so the skilled players who do it properly will be awarded an appropriate amount of points. Success usually means you'll be ranked very well on the in-game scoreboard. To cope with this class, the defending team has to have some players at the jumping points to intercept incoming jumpers.
• Launcher: Another attacking strategy. Instead of letting a jumper impact-jump into the base, which would cost health and armor, the launcher will shoot the jumper into the base by firing some rockets at the jumper's feet. The blast damage will not hurt, normally team damage is disabled, but catapult the jumper high into the air and hopefully on top of the base near an entrance. This technique requires a lot of practice because you have to know how many rockets to use and where to aim, the jumper has to know where to stand and how to fly, and you'll both need a little luck when operating under lag.
• Camper: Works for both teams. The camper's task is to break through and into the enemy spawning area and kill them before they can kill him. Sooner or later, he will always be killed, but the time that the other team has to spend fighting a camper will help your team a lot. Regarding their purpose, campers are the exact opposite of jumpers, campers increase the time the other team needs while jumpers decrease the time you get. Spawnkilling the defending team is also a useful attempt to cut your own team some slack by distracting the defense. Camping is very useful, it will help your team's time a lot, so the skilled players who do it properly will be awarded an appropriate amount of points. Success usually means you'll be ranked very well on the ngWorldStats listing. To cope with this class, the attacking team has to have some players at the spawning points to intercept incoming campers.
• Sniper: Useful on both sides. The sniper is supposed to take out any enemy before they get close enough to the base, spawnpoints, or your teammates. Effective snipers will be able to support the fighters and stop the spawnkillers before they get into the spawning area.
• Spy: A spy is a stealth unit, spies shouldn't openly fight against enemies, they should stay under cover and observe. Very useful to report enemy movement back to your team while feigning death. Also great for surprise attacks or attacks from behind, sneak up on your prey, then kill them before they know what hit them.
• Master: He who masters all of the above and is able to switch between them on the fly depending on circumstances shall be called the advanced assault master. To be a master, you have to learn how to play all of the other styles, and how to protect your team against them. Only then will you be an elite Assault player.

Among those player classes, there are two that are still a bit controversial, probably because some newbies think they might be "overpowered" or "cheap": Jumpers and Campers. Those newbies apparently assume that kind of behavior is against the rules, but they definitely err, both jumping and camping are very valid and even encouraged as is obvious from taking a close look at the maps and gameplay or scoring. There's no special spawn protection at all in the code, so it's up to the map makers to make sure the spawning areas are secured (e.g. by either making them one-way-only or placing autocannons in there), or up to the players if there are no level protections in place (yes, even the offense needs a defense, as offense might be the best defense for the other team). Jumping is also intended, that's what the Impact Hammer is useful for, just read the weapon description. If the designers wouldn't have wanted camping and jumping, they would have discouraged it by protecting the spawn locations and not providing any special entrances for jumpers. Since the spawn points of most maps are open and there are entry points for jumping, that means both tactics are encouraged, available to all advanced players who want to play those roles. If a server admin wants to make sure the game only applies to newbies, they should run the ChainsawMelee mutator (so the Impact Hammer won't be available), InstantRockets mutator (so the Rocket Launcher can't shoot several rockets at the same time - necessary to launch other players), and a custom mutator (like the one I made, EavySpawnProtection, not officially released yet) or custom maps (where the spawn areas are properly protected). When you play on any public server where you see people spawnkill, jump, or launch, that means it's an advanced Assault server, so you're free to use any style you want, too. If anyone complains about the advanced tactics, both jumping and camping, then it's probably a newbie server and you should leave them alone. If someone complains about just one of the two, it's a semi-newbie who has only learned one of both advanced techniques, so send them here to read up on the expert stuff they still miss. If one is in favor of only one of the two, the other one is automatically as valid, as the following comparison demonstrates how balanced both are:

Spawn-Killing/Camping...

• improves your score because you get points for killing the opponents
• makes it harder for the enemy to attack because you throw off their offense
• will increase the time your team is going to have to take over the base
• can be frustrating because the players die too quickly
• when failing to execute it properly, you'll die fast
• to protect your team against it, you have to be prepared to intercept campers
• campers are easy to deal with if you're ready to deal with them
• it's the most efficient strategy against jumpers:
  They can't jump if hurt and they can't launch when under attack

Impact-Jumping/Launching...

• improves your score because you get points for destroying the objectives
• makes it harder for the enemy to defend because you bypass their defense
• will decrease the time their team is going to have to take over the base
• can be frustrating because the match ends too quickly
• when failing to execute it properly, you'll die fast
• to protect your team against it, you have to be prepared to intercept jumpers
• jumpers are easy to deal with if you're ready to deal with them
• it's the most efficient strategy against campers:
  Once you get past them, they are out of your way, can't block your run

Playing with humans means you'll have to be willing to adapt and learn since they won't be as predictable (i.e. easy and boring) as bots. Human players have different styles and techniques. Prepare yourself for the challenge, don't whine, deal with it. Only then will you stop being a newbie and become an advanced Assault player...