Tools of the Trade – Calculating your K/D Ratio

Before you can know the most efficient way to get to where you are going, you need to have a good understanding of where you are at. One of the easiest ways to do this is by calculating your kills to death ratio (K/D ratio) at the end of each map that you play. If you are unfamiliar with how to do this, it is quite simple. At the end of the map when the scoreboard is displayed look at the number of kills you acquired in the ‘kills’ column and divide it by the number of deaths you had in the ‘deaths’ column. With this number you can have a general idea of how you are doing on the server from round to round, map to map, day to day. However, there are a few caveats on how much weight you should put into this number. First off, by the very nature of acquiring kills and being killed is subjective to your opponents level of skill, therefore your K/D is going to be equally affected. So how do we put any weight in it? Well, if you stick to the same server/s and play against the same opposition day in and day out this number should reach a relative medium from which you can gradually see improvement from.

Theory – What is Tempo?

Now you have a basic tool in determining where you stand on the server you regularly play on, but this doesn’t give you anything specific to work on in respect to how you should play differently to steadily improve your level of skill and consequently your k/d ratio. In order to accurately pin-point what needs changing and thus where you are currently at in the development process, you will need to understand your present style of play and through a little guess and check determine how fast of a tempo you can bring to the game and maintain a high level of success.

So what is this tempo that I keep alluding to but haven’t defined? Tempo is simultaneously the speed at which you can play the game in regards to the amount of pressure you can handle from the enemy and maintain a consistently and relatively high level of success, but can also be referred to as the speed of the game as mandated by your team and/or opponents aggressiveness or mere number (of opponents). Both of these definitions mean essentially the same thing, however, the variance is that sometimes you are in control of the tempo and sometimes your opponent is. The importance of tempo will be more realized later but as a quick preview, being in control of the tempo is arguably the key to consistent success or failure, and is why developing your play style to be effective at varying tempos is the single greatest factor to improving your individual skill at the game.

Practical Approach to Pin-Pointing Your Playing Style

Playing style is generally categorized as defensive or aggressive, are you the type of player that sits back and picks the enemy from a distance, or are you the rusher that survives on good timing and out smarting the enemy? However these are the extremes, and finding where you as an individual are on the scale between them will determine the next step in your progression.

Low Tempo – Play Style

For someone completely new to the FPS genre and doesn’t have a background in basic tactical movements will likely be overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite number of variables thrown at them by the enemy and if they are not completely frustrated with the game will end up playing at a very low tempo equivalent to camping at different points around the map. Starting out this is exactly what a person of this skill should be doing. Finding safe routes to certain points on the map and doing what they can to eliminate the enemy. As their awareness of the map increases in knowing where to look for potential enemies they should focus on taking up back positions where they can sit for the most part unnoticed and just try to pick players off, crossing between cover and concealment. Their focus at this level should be survival, and when they are the last player left, start pushing out to get experience at the higher tempos of close quarter’s battles. Once you start surviving to the last player left on single-spawn game modes like Search & Destroy and your K/D ratio reflects 2.0 or greater consistently, you have essentially graduated from this level and can start making attempts to play at and master a moderate tempo.

Mid to High Tempo – Play Style

Starting out in CoD4 or any new FPS game with past experience you will immediately fall into this category. If you’re just now getting here from graduating from the Low Tempo – Play Style and find the following still too difficult, I would suggest using a mid-ranged rifle and camping closer to enemy objectives, this will give you that close quarters combat while making sure you aren’t overwhelmed from the start. In any event you will eventually join the rest starting out with the new game and are begin to get a more in depth feel for the maps, specifically for where key vantage points are to cut the enemy off, the choke points to keep focus on and the general DMZ of the map. What I mean by DMZ in FPS games is the line across the map, and it’s not always straight, but often jagged dependent on the timings of the map, but this invisible line is the point at which enemy contact is first made when players on opposite sides take the same route from spawn to get to their opponent’s spawn.

Pressure, Momentum, Tempo

At first it may not appear to be working, but after numerous attempts you will suddenly get it right, and the next round you will do the same thing, being prepared for the enemies adaptation you will succeed again and again – this – is momentum.

First thing you need to do is identify what the other team is doing that is contributing the most to their success. Is it one guy carrying the team with a high score, a group rushing a bombsite together, or a camper perched in a key location? Is it one guy always covering his team’s flank, or a rusher always catching your team off guard? Whatever the essential element contributing to their success is you need to identify it. Use the scoreboard, keeping in mind both points and kills to deaths ratio (K/D) are factors. It could also be the one opponent that is getting fewer kills and points, but is crippling your teams effectiveness with well timed and placed kills.

Once you find out who their leader is, or what is the contributing factor to their success, begin analyzing the routes that make that success possible. Are there any patterns? Initially this will appear to be very difficult, but the better you are at the map, and playing it in different ways the quicker you will be able to recognize exactly what someone had to of done to get to the position they were in, in the time frame they got there, telling you a lot more than just what position to watch out for but the entire route they had to of taken to get there.

Now that you have the route the person or group is taking, you need to reference your knowledge of the map, and find the point along the route that is most vulnerable to ambush, or take up a position at their destination that gives you the advantage on the situation. If this isn’t possible, consider flanking them, or consider what their next move would be from the position they reach, and how you could best counter that move.

Once you have effectively neutralized the advantage of their routine once, you need to be prepared to do it again, but this time it needs to be adapted as the element of surprise or luck won’t be such a contributing factor - they’ll be ready for you. If you are successful in countering their move two or three times, they will likely learn that an alternate routine will be better than what they are currently up against. At this point you’ve dealt a serious blow to your opponent, because now they’re playing a route that is secondary, less practiced, and more prone to mistakes.

When you can confirm that they have moved on, you can reassess the balance in teams and decide whether you would be best used playing aggressive and picking up kills or going back to the drawing board and finding who their successor is, knowing that it may be the same person you just countered, but now they’re in yet another effective position.

The more you exercise this practical approach, you will become a better leader, and start negating the most likely or difficult to counter routines from the start and then working on the adaptations of the opponent until they are so frustrated with spinning their wheels that they are defeated before the next round even starts. Even if this seems like too difficult of a concept to include in your current development, it is still a good practice for learning effective routines by recognizing someone’s position as advantageous and understanding how they got there. Then when you switch sides, or are able to use the position, you will both know how to play it effectively but you will also learn how to counter it when others are able to beat you out of it.

That’s all well in good, but I nearly posted this article without addressing the true nature of a good leader from the perspective of not focusing on the opponent so much, as placing your focus on your team’s weakness. If the team you have at hand is one you play with regularly, there is a lot you can do before competition to prepare them for the upcoming match, but what if you find yourself at the beginning of the match with no time to make the more important changes that are required of your team? Or what if you’re just on a public server getting slaughtered by the other team, and communicating what is required of the public players is just too difficult–what can you do?

Step 1 is to identify, but rather than identify what your opponent is doing to be so effective, identify what your team is doing that is so ineffective. Are they camping when they should be putting pressure on the enemy? Are they rushing without a base-of-fire or into heavily fortified positions? Is the opposition simply a better shot, faster, more coordinated? Again your ability to identify the essential element of your team’s weakness will influence how you decide what your next step should be. As mentioned in the past article, are you needed to be the foundation of the team, sitting back being the base-of-fire; are you needed to keep the opponents on their toes forcing them to move more slowly and deliberately, by rushing them full force even if this is suicide; or is it honestly too much to ask? No matter what you alone do, it won’t be enough to swing the tide of the war. If there is nothing left for you the individual to do in-game, you’re left with doing what you can to communicate with your team how to best counter the opponents movements. And finally in your best judgment if there is absolutely nothing left that you can say or do that will tip the balance in favor of your team, do what you can to keep morale high, and focus on learning what the enemy is doing for future reference and analysis. So at the very least you walk away better for having manned up to the beating.

For those of us that have been around the FPS genre for awhile, we all meet new players on a regular basis who ask us for advice on how to get better. The common response thrown at these newbies is, “Just do what works for you,” followed by a few attempts to clarify that statement with suggestions such as “Try this weapon, or don’t rush in the open, etc.” All statements that although are helpful, don’t address the root cause and assist them in their development process from where they are currently at.

At times these well intended suggestions can even be counter-productive; as so many tips are thrown their way; combined with their limited understanding of the game, the suggestions given appear to be conflicting views–when in all reality they are just better directed toward players of a certain level of skill. For example, you wouldn’t immediately tell a player new to the game to start using a sniper rifle and be a scope for their team, because that doesn’t help them learn the routes on the map or develop quick analytical skills for the moments where they have to actively engage an enemy in close quarters. However, to someone with more advanced play, maybe developing skill with the scope is the next stage in their development of becoming a better more rounded player. The synergies of understanding the use of a scope will then later help them counter the next scope they come across by understanding positions that are key to their weapon and key routes for navigating the map safely.

So, what is the root cause? What is the “right” answer to the question, “What does ‘Do what works for you’ really mean?”? Just as the statement “do what works for you” is too ambiguous to glean one tangible answer from, the response required to define the root cause is equally varying. The reason the answer to this question is difficult to define is that everyone approaches the game from a different background and therefore a different point on the learning curve. Pointing to the top of the curve alone isn’t going to give them the best information to get them over their present hurdle. Since this is the fundamental flaw in the question, “How can I get better?” and in the statement “Do what works for you” we have to recognize the present skill level the player exhibits, identify their obstacle to improvement, and make suggestions based on this realization.

First thing you need to do, is identify what the other team is doing that is contributing the most to their success. Is it one guy carrying the team, a group rushing a bombsite together, or a camper perched in a key location? Is it one guy always covering his team’s flank, or a rusher always catching your team off guard? Whatever the essential element contributing to their success is you need to identify it. Use the scoreboard, keeping in mind both points and kills to deaths ratio (K/D) are factors. It could also be the one getting fewer kills and points but are crippling your teams effectiveness with well timed and placed kills.

Once you find out who their leader is, or what is the contributing factor to their success, begin analyzing the routes that make their success possible. Are there any patterns? Initially this will appear to be very difficult, but the better you are at the map, and playing it in different ways the quicker you will be able to recognize exactly what someone had to of done to get to the position they were in, in the timeframe they got there, telling you a lot more than just what position to watch out for but the entire route they had to of taken to get there.

Now that you have the route the person or group is taking, you need to reference your knowledge of the map, and find the point along the route where you can best ambush, or take up a position giving you the advantage on the situation. If this isn’t possible, consider flanking them, or consider what their next move would be from the position they reach, and how you could best counter that move.

Once you have effectively neutralized the advantage of their routine once, you need to be prepared to do it again, but this time it needs to be adapted as the element of surprise or luck won’t be such a contributing factor - they’ll be ready for you. If you are successful in countering their move two or three times, they will likely learn that an alternate routine will be better than what they are currently up against. At this point you’ve dealt a serious blow to your opponent, because now they’re playing a route that is secondary, less practiced, and more prone to mistakes.

When you can confirm that they have moved on, you can reassess the balance in teams and decide whether you would be best used playing aggressive and picking up kills or going back to the drawing board and finding who their successor is, knowing that it may be the same person you just countered, but now they’re in yet another effective position.

The more you exercise this practical approach, you will become a better leader, and start negating the most likely or difficult to counter routines from the start and then working on the adaptations of the opponent until they are so frustrated with spinning their wheels that they are defeated before the next round even starts. Even if this seems like too difficult of a concept to include in your current development, it is still a good practice for learning effective routines by recognizing someone’s position as advantageous and understanding how they got there. Then when you switch sides, or are able to use the position, you will both know how to play it effectively but you will also learn how to counter it when others are able to beat you out of it.

IYP is also looking into creating a forum for the site, with a section dedicated to developing video demonstrations. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

With the future onset of having video demonstrations created and on a regular basis, the flexibility of needing stand-in actors will be essential to it’s success. Therefore, IYP.com needs you!

For inquiries about any of the above subjects, from stand-in actors, to forum moderators, on up to server sponsorships and discussion of pricing if full sponsorship isn’t possible, feel free to contact me at ImprovingYourPlay@gmail.com. Thank you.

-Howie17

Article on the horizon: A Practical Approach to Becoming a Good Leader

-Howie Out!

Most players on a pub server only recognize those with the highest kills or one step further, those with the best kills-to-deaths ratio as being the leaders. Why? Because these are the easily identifiable statistics at the end of the game, all displayed and pretty for you to quickly recognize. However, there is a statistic that essentially cannot be calculated. This is more of the idea of “important kills” or “game/round changing kills.” These are the kills where an enemy flanks your team and starts firing - open to rack up a quick 5-6 kills, and just as the first bullet leaves the chamber of his gun you (or someone else) turns and takes him/her/them out. Another example would be the opponent on the other team camping out a vantage point racking up 5+ kills per life.

In the gametype TDM this can be the deciding factor between teams;  which team will negate the other team’s flanker more? In S&D this may be the person that takes out the bomb carrier and bogs down the rush the other team had going or the rusher that cripples them with a well timed flank. In HQ this may most notably be the person with the highest score, able to get to the HQ the quickest. Of course it could also be the person with the highest kills camping key choke points on the map, making it a hindrance to get anywhere on the map.  What you will often find, especially on public servers, is that individual players stick to just a handful of routines or positions on a map for any given gametype. If you can manage to thwart the positive advantage they receive from these routines and positions, you’ll find they become nearly useless (they don’t know how to be effective any other way), and you can just focus on being the flanker again - racking up all the kills.

The last comment I want to make before closing out this short article is to bring attention to the fact that sometimes being the leader means taking one for the team, and being the guy at the end of the round with a negative k/d ratio. Why? - because you held out strong where ever the base-of-fire was needed and as long as you could, allowing your flankers to have a base-of-fire to flank out from. Essentially providing the cover by suppression and distraction contributing to their success. It’s not easy or necessarily fun having the low score on a pub server when you know most people only play for high scores, but if you recognize your key part in making your team the victor, it was for the right reasons, and nothing else matters. You were A leader, if not THE leader.

Practical Challenge: Next time you hop on any server consider taking on a leadership role for your team, analyze which individual on the other team is carrying them and make it your focus to negate their influence on the final score.

The Base of Fire & Flank

The base of fire and flank is the most fundamental function of any skirmish. The game “Band of Brothers” does an excellent job of teaching the new player this very fundamental aspect. From the start you are in a squad - moving forward you reach a stone wall, fence, or tree line and take cover, one group (the base of fire) sets up suppressing fire, keeping the enemy focused and under cover. You and the second group of people file out to either side (whichever is more advantageous by cover or concealment) and pin the enemy in a “V” or “L” shaped crossfire virtually eliminating their cover and forcing them to stay in the open or adjust their position around the cover to be placed out into the open to one of the attackers.

How can this be applied to other aspects of the game described in prior articles? Well, without diving in to quickly we can immediately take away the benefit of the flank as being, the process of squeezing the enemy into a position that takes away their cover and thus gives us the kill. Although the skill of head-to-head battles may reap a consistent 1.0+ kill to death ratio it is completely reliant on you being better than the person across from you, and even still - although you may be better, they will get lucky from time to time with just having their sights on where you pop up. At it’s very core this is the defining factor of why the flank is so effective. It turns your 1 to 1 k/d ratio into 2+ to 1 k/d.

Using this basic principle as a point of reference to build upon you can begin to establish a map-wide battlefield awareness that breaks down to a thought-process of something like this: “I’ve spawned at the North side of the map, the enemy spawned at the South side. The natural base of fire will create itself along the middle of the map in a horizontal fashion. If I hear gunfire on the East side of the map first, there is a greater likelihood that the West side is open for me to flank. Likewise if I hear gunfire on the West-side first I should make my flank to the East. If I am making my approach from the East and meet resistance, I am the base of fire (vice-versa for the West).” In this we are reminded of the basic requirements of base of fire and flank. You need at least one person to defend and be the base of fire, and at least one person to move to the enemy’s side and be the flank. Recognizing your role in the fight and sticking to it is just as important. If you have ever played a Team-Deathmatch match and feel like you are constantly being flanked by the enemy and don’t understand how that is possible, it can most certainly be attributed to the fact that no one on your team is playing the role of “base-of-fire” and with everyone trying to flank each other it becomes a tossup bloodbath in deciding who will win.

Thus far we’ve analyzed the base of fire and flank technique from the aspect of the flanking team, but what about the lone enemy? How can we apply this knowledge to help him? If you find yourself in a situation where it is 2v1 and you have solid cover between you and your two opponents there are a few things to consider. First off, unless you can turn your position into a decoy and flank the enemy yourself, you are left in a head-to-head 2v1 position with which your best option may be to flee and re-engage where you have a more advantageous position. Given a situation where you must stay and fight, there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of survival or success in whatever form it presents itself. Immediately, find cover, if that means just hitting the dirt, do it. Then consider your surroundings and how you could make the 2v1 situation a simple 1v1 battle by positioning yourself with cover between you and at least one of your enemies. While doing this keep in mind you need to keep both of your opponents on their feet, if one thinks he can sit back and just try to pick you off, you aren’t doing a good job of suppression, but even this is redeemable if you can make his sense of safety a false sense of assurance by picking him right back. While you are calculating, considering and taking all this action, you need to keep your awareness out to make sure one of them doesn’t split off to come at you from one of your flanks. If this does happen, you do have a temporary moment of balance where the disadvantageous 1v2 fight turns into 1v1. However, very quickly your safety will turn into an extremely disadvantageous pinned position. Keep an eye on your internal clock, not a real clock, but that sense of “the enemy that broke off is due around my flank any second now.” Once you know this timer is about to expire and your death to follow, prepare yourself for the flank and perhaps you will catch this opponent off guard as they don’t expect you to be expecting them. Even before this, if you can notice any holes in the cover of the path the flanker would take to get to you, it may be worth shooting through at estimated times of their passing by in hopes of neutralizing the enemies advantage putting you back into a 1v1 situation.

Taking this whole scenario a half-step further, as you get better at flanking, and your opponent gets better at flanking, you’ll start to realize when your opponent is under suppression and when he may be setting up to be prepared for your assault. As the flanker, if your opponent isn’t maintaining the 1v1 fight with your teammate he has likely bugged out or has taken cover with his aimer waiting for you. If you aren’t distracted with other battles going on around you or the sound fog-of-war, communicate with your teammate to bring the base-of-fire forward as you have gone as far as you can or have potentially become the base-of-fire yourself. At the moment the enemy re-engages your teammate is the cue to move in. It can be very difficult and messy if the timing isn’t executed just right. This is where good communication and understanding between teammates is the determining element.

On the flipside again, if you are the lone fighter, throw a fake at the flanker if he’s getting smart to your heightened awareness. Make firing noises at inanimate objects, and then quickly adjust your aim to where the opponent should be flanking so he thinks you’re distracted with his teammate.

By no means is it a science, it’s just the art of making the best of unfavorable situations. As for a word of encouragement, the reward of playing these situations right and to the best of your ability is truly unforgettable.

Not much of a news update, more of a rededication to bringing content to this site and to the gaming community. As always, stay tuned ;P

Lets start dishing out Call of Duty 4 tips. Every one has their own style of playing video games. There are 2 basic methods of setting yourself up and moving around the map, defensive and offensive.

This cod4 tip will take you far, no successful call of duty 4 player plays either style full time. This is true for any video game and any gamer. If you always play defensive eventually you will be run over. If you always play offensive your going to run into more than you can handle.

Over View

The key to being a successful CoD4 gamer is playing into your strength as either a defensive or offensive player, but also being able to change gears. Some thing you have to work into your cod4 technique is that your playing against human opponents. They are sitting behind a computer monitor or TV just like you. When you play the game a certain way it effects your opponent in a certain way and they begin to play differently.

You can feel the texture of the game change as the round progresses. This is what decides what kind of approach you should be taking to the map when you spawn in. No matter how good your spot is you cant play the same one every round, between grenades and wall-spam theres no such thing as a “perfect” spot.

Now that we have established that no particular gaming approach dominates the other lets figure out your strengths. How do you tend to play, and what parts of the map do you end up covering during the course of a game? Do you stick to one or 2 rooms or are you all over the map? If this is some thing you haven’t really considered before you should just go into a server and see with type of play rewards you with the most kills.

I will lay out some basic cod4 tips for both defense and offense. Even if you are uncomfortable playing a particular style you might end up walking away with a few ideas you may want to try out.

Call of Duty 4 Tips for Defence

What do you think of when it comes to defense in cod4? One of the biggest mistakes players make in video games is getting tunnel vision and focusing on one door, or a particular hallway. Most places in call of duty 4 have multiple entrances. Lets take off the blinders and figure out some good spots to play.

Setting Up
The first thing you want to do is stay away from corners, your going to have to run away like a punk every once in a while so leave yourself a way out. If you cant watch every entrance in your area try putting your back close enough to one so that you can clearly hear foot steps, and focus your crosshairs on the others. Once you start stacking up kills in one spot you have to rotate to another… Pissed off noobs with nades are on their way, it happens in every server.

Mix it Up
This doesn’t mean you have to leave the room/objective every time you get a few kills, just shift around enough to not be predictable. If they rush your old spot and your breaking in a shiny new one you may even get a few easy kills. One of the biggest call of duty 4 tips I can give you is to be spontaneous, if you don’t know what your doing next then your opponent wont either!

Build Speed
This will become easier the more you play your spot and the more you know about it. Out of my bag of Call of duty 4 tips this is going to be a recurring theme, Speed is every thing. How do you get speed? Speed comes with experience the more your brain does some thing the faster its going to get at it. Learn your spot inside out and get to the point where you can make plays on it in a split second without having to think about it.

Weapons for Defence
Guns guns guns, thats the most fun part about cod4 right? Since you are on defense your going to lean in favor of certain guns that will give you an advantage over the attackers. The longer range guns tend to be more effective when playing on defense, that doesn’t mean you should sit back with a sniper, most of the assault rifles do well.
The M4 is a popular choice, if you can handle the recoil on the AK it can be a monster for defending. Try to stay away from sniping on defense, on most maps its going to cut down on the amount of spots you can play effectively making you predictable.

Dont forget these Call of Duty 4 tips can take a while to integrate into your style, don’t expect to be at the top of the score board the first night you try some thing new. Give your self a chance to learn them so you can react more quickly. Dont forget to record demos of your play and adjust, this is one of the most important Call of Duty 4 tips I can give you. Figure out whats giving you deaths and patch the hole in your cod4 technique.

Call of Duty 4 Tips for Offence

My tips for cod4 offense are going to center around 2 things, knowing the texture of the game, and knowing weird routes. Whats a weird route? Its a place or a way to get around that people don’t normally go. For example hopping over walls, ledges and jumping out of windows.

O or D?
How do you know when offense is the right move? Lets get into your opponents head. If you have rushed the same few spots all game and are racking up lots of kill its either time to pick new routes or start playing defense.

Flank
The key to good offense is to light fires in one area then when they come in with the water you start another one some where else before they get to you. Good movement out side of gun fights is just as important as it is in 1 vs 1s.

Mix it Up
Every thing works some times but nothing works every time. Mix up your game and change gears when the texture of the game goes in a different direction. If the other team is holed up in their spawn waiting for you its probably time to switch it up to defense.

Weapons for Offence
COD4 tips for offensive guns, SMGs are amazing for offense. I highly recommend the MP5 when you are trying to push a team back. Use the right routes and you can decimate a team with the mp5, just don’t get involved in long range fights.

The other SMGs don’t have the range of the MP5, it has the perfect mix of bullet spread, speed, and damage for offense. Give your self a chance to work these call of duty 4 tips into your strategy.

Like all video games Call of Duty 4 is about out smarting other people on the server. Play smart stick to your good guns and mix it up. With a new Call of Duty server comes new gamers to pick apart.

For more ProGaming-Tips head on over to Callisto’s site at http://www.ProGaming-Tips.com.