[plasma climbing] What is... plasma climbing? For me, plasma climbing was the hardest part of tricking to get into. I'm far from mastering it, but I am competent enough at it that I can explain how to do it (effectively, I hope). As we know from the grenades and rockets, there is this explosion, and with that explosion comes splash damage. That splash damage has a force that can knock you around. Well, the plasma gun and it's plasma bursts also have a splash damage. Now it's nothing compared to a grenade or rocket splash, but it has found it's way into tricking. There are various uses of the plasmagun in tricking, and I think I'm covering all the bases. There's plasma jumping, plasma climbing, and various 'climbing' techniques. But plasma climbing is not easy. It takes more practice, coordination, and more technique to get it down. But after this rather lengthy tutorial, I hope you get the idea, and after hours of practice, you can plasma climb on out of here! The plasma jump Nothing special here. If you can rocket jump, you can plasma jump. The only difference is the splash damage radius is smaller and weaker than that of a rocket or grenade. So in a sense, you can really only use a plasma burst at your feet. Once you start to angle it out, the splash won't hit you, thus making it useless. So a plasma jump is pretty simple. If you've read the rocket jump tutorial, and watched the demos, this will be an easy section for you. Here is a demo of a plasma jump, that is also very useful when you find a situation such as the one in the demo. Since the splash is relatively week, plasma jumping will only work on small ledges. «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRplasmajump; map used: q3ctf1 Plasma Climbing Part 1: Up up and away It's time to climb, baby! When tricking with the plasma gun, you have to rely heavily on momentum. If your momentum is good from the start, more than likely you'll do fine. Once you lose that momentum, it's hard to get it back and you'll find yourself back on the ground. Also, when climbing a wall, your speed and momentum will change, and you will have to adjust your aim. But first, let's climb straight up. Climbing can't be done on every surface, so you will have to get to know the map. Some walls you can literally put your nose on it. Those you can climb. Some walls, seem to have an invisible barrier (a brush or texture) in the way, and those you cannot climb. Here's why. Much like the plasma jump, the splash can only be at your feet, or more exact, just under them. If you're too far away from the wall, the splash will not propel you upwards, but instead, outwards. That's no good. To the left there is the overview of what we will be climbing. Now, if you recall from the tips section, the settings for tricking? If they are not set, plasma climbing becomes a billion times harder. So make sure you set those when you begin to plasma climb. So that large wall is what we're going to attack. Seems pretty high, and yes it is. But with god mode, you can make it. Otherwise, you'll need at least 100 health/100 armor, and even then when you reach the top, you'll be at or near crater potential. This thumbnail shows the angle NOT to use when trying to plasma climb. Unlike a weapon jump trick, you do not want to look straight down. The angle is probably the hardest part when first learning plasma climbing. In all the people I've showed how to plasma climb, the angle is by far the hardest thing to really "show" unless they spectate you. If your angle to too little (almost straight down), you won't make contact with the wall and you'll just be shooting at the ground and at your feet. If the angle is too much, you'll just be shooting at the wall and pushing yourself away. So the angle is very important. I usually like to tell people to aim just a tad above where the wall meets the floor (if you can in fact put your nose to the wall when you walk up to it). This image shows the correct angle to use. Again notice how I'm aiming just a tad above where the ground and wall meet. So now that you have an idea of the angle, lets get the fingering and timing down. When climbing, you want to walk up to the wall and put your nose right on it. Look down and get your aim settled and then press and HOLD forward. Do not ever let go of forward until you reach the top. Now while you're holding forward.. center yourself so that you're running straight into the wall, and not sliding to either side. Now the timing on the next part can vary. But you want to jump AND shoot at the same time, or jump and shoot a split second later. You want to shoot while your momentum is going up. Easiest way is to do it at the same time. If you're still holding forward, your timing good, and your aim correct, you should be climbing up that wall. It will take a few tries to get the hang of it at first. And the first few times you might not make it very high, but that's why you practice. But wait wait wait! I keep going from side to side when I go up the wall! Ahh yes... centering yourself during your climb. While still holding forward and shoot on your way up, simply tap (and tap quickly) the left or right strafe keys to center yourself (if you're climbing to the right, tap left, and vice versa). Learning that tapping technique plays a role in the next section but before you go there keep going up and centering yourself. Get the hang of plasma climbing and then we'll move on. Once you reach the top, you should get something that looks like this (and a demo under that): «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRplasmaclimb; map used: q3dm6 Plasma Climbing Part 2: The Arc Ok, so this next section is called plasma climbing... and while it is sort of climbing, it's more of a scaling maneuver. We'll start with a flat wall again on q3dm6. This time instead of going straight up, we're going to arc over. What we see here is a starting point.. and way over there, the landing point. And in between that wall which is what we are going to use. The easiest way to get used to wall climbing or scaling or whatever you want to call it. Is to start with your straight upward climb, then add the direction to it. Much like centering yourself on the straight up climbs.. you want to tap the strafe keys to get your direction. The more you hold the strafe key, the more the plasma will push you away from the wall. So again, NEVER let go of forward. Once you get the momentum of the direction, gravity and the splash damage will work it's magic. But if you want more speed, tap more. Another way of doing (which is the way I show in the demo below) is to get your momentum and direction first, then start your plasma climb. In the demo I keep it simple, I face the wall, strafe right, then jump + press/hold fire + press/hold forward. And voila I make my arc and land at the "X". Now if you watch a good plasma climber, he can be on the move and climb a wall (up or arc) at any given time. That takes practice. You have to get to know where to aim your mouse for a plasma climb while not being in a stand still with your nose on the wall. The only way to get to that level, again is time and patience, and lots of practice. Below is the landing image and the demo. Enjoy. «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRplasmawall; map used: q3dm6 Plasma Climbing Part 3: The Curve One thing I'll mention from Part 2 that shows itself in Part 3 often, is the technique of aiming on the fly. When performing the arc, the angle of your arc depends on the speed of your left or right momentum. That speed can be changed somewhat, let me explain. If you're arcing to the right, and continue to tap right, you're speed to the right will increase, but at the cost of gravity pulling once you're going too fast that the plasma bursts aren't boosting you upwards (or level). At the same time, if you are arcing to the right, and tap left strafe, you're speed will decrease, and gravity again will being to pull you down. So beware of that. But there is the technique of mouse control when arcing. If you are arcing to the right, and slightly turn your aim of the plasmagun to the left and up, you'll begin to push yourself faster to the right (and opposite when arcing left; aim slightly right and up). That mouse control comes into play in the curve. Here is a screenshot showing me plasma climbing a curved wall. If you were to plasma climb normally, and tap the strafe keys to move into the curve, you'll come to a dead stop and fall. What you have to do, is tap the strafe key (in this example, tap left) to get you started going into the curve of the wall. Once you hit that curve, you have to aim 'into' it. Basically if your nose is on the wall, KEEP the wall perpendicular with your nose. So as the wall curves to the left in this example, you're going to turn your aim of the plasma to the left. This will keep you on the wall, and keep you going up. Now if you wanted to make the curve and then arc into a faster curve and not go vertical, you'd have to turn your mouse with the curve BUT with sort of a delay, so that the plasma is now pushing you horizontally along the curve, and not vertically. Curves are hard to do, not only cause of the technique, but also because the map has to be made smooth and without any invisible barriers that might prevent you from staying close to the wall. Also, some curves may look smooth, but you'll find that you almost hit a corner within the curve. That will only come with testing the walls before hand. Doing the plasma curve requires a steady hand. Just keep at it, and I'm sure you'll get the hang of it. Plasma Climbing Part 4: The Corner The last comment I'll make regarding plasma climbing is on corners. Corners are harder than curves, and yes, they can be climbed. The difference in corners and curves is that in the curve your aim turns slowly with the curve. In corners, you have to whip your mouse quickly into the 90 degree wall next to you while keeping your momentum. Once you start heading towards the ground, it's all over. In the screenshot, I start down by the archway, head up and over to the corner and then I make my move! That quick turn into the next wall (while still holding forward and still holding fire) needs to be seemless in your momentum. Now I tapped my right strafe key to get to the corner and once I got my direction going, I let go. Then I turned my mouse into the next wall, tapped right strafe some more to get myself over to the railgun ledge. And I was lucky enough to get the transition from wall to wall smooth enough, that you can see with the marks on the wall that I in fact continued vertically when I made the cornering move. It's not easy, that took me about 8-10 tries to land it while recording a demo... which is just below. But once you get cornering down, you've conquered plasma climbing and all it's associated tricks. Congratulations! «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRcorner; map used: q3dm6 Ultra Secret Fun Section!!! I wasn't going to cover the bfg on helparena, but at the last minute, I decided to include it, and here it goes. The bfg is considered a lame weapon, to which I agree when in a fragging situation. But in tricking, it can be hilarious. Let's say you combine the rocket launcher and the plasma gun... what do you get? A powerful weapon that shoots fast, right? That's exactly what it is. The bfg splash damage is about as powerful as the rocket launchers splash... hell it might be the same or more powerful, I don't know for certain. But what I do know, is that it shoots faster than the rocket launcher, and slower than the plasma gun. So everything you know about rocket jumping can be done with the bfg. Bfg 'climbing' can be done, but is much different. Since the splash is more powerful than the plasma gun, it sends you high, and if you're used to the plasma climb aiming method, it will shoot you away from the wall, even when holding forward (though you will still soar up into the clouds). So the aiming is a tad different than in plasma climbing, but you get the idea. But that's not the hilarious part... what is the hilarious part is what I saw someone do on a server one day, and I called it "bfg floating". How you do this wonderful secret fun trick, (turn on god mode) is to find a map where the ground drops down about a player model height. Run off to where it drops down, look down and start shooting. Or if you have the hook enabled, fix yourself against a wall above the floor at the previously mentioned height. Look down, let go the hook and start shooting. With the speed and blast radius of the bfg, you'll simply float in the air. You can change directions at will, stay in one spot, reverse etc. If you're unsure of what I'm talking about, I have a demo! The demo is kind of an overview but using the bfg. I'll make a CSJ in the demo, bfg jump straight up then blast myself off of a wall. Then I'll bfg climb up a wall, then I do a few floats in the lower portion of the map (q3dm2). See? Fun! «Click Here for the Demo!» demo name: RMRbfg; map used: q3dm2 That's it. I know this was a long section, but it is the more advanced part of tricking. So you must be asking yourself, what else is there in tricking that can be done? Come back tomorrow and hit the next section, and you'll see. Peace for now.