Come on dance with me... the dance of death

[zybork]

"Dancing" means to outmaneauvre your opponent, making it as hard to hit you as you are skilled in "dancing" or, as I prefer, "deathdancing".

I would really like to discuss the topic of deathdancing here, if somebody has some tipps and countertactics, please add.

Here is what I know:

Tactics:

dretch outdancing human

If you want to deathdance using a dretch, just wallwalk permanently, if you use your mouse for control of heading/direction you move in, just move it around randomly while pushing the "move forward"-button. It will be nearly impossible for a single human to hit you except for pure luck.

Try to get closer to the human while still changing heading almost randomly and - important! - do not take the time to aim at his head, just aim at his body. Speed kills, the tenth of a second it takes to aim is also the tenth of a second it takes for the human to aim. He must not get this 0.1s - speed kills. Literally!

So, deathdance, move along walls, floors and ceilings as irregularily as possible, for if you do not know what you're gonna do next, your opponent does not either!

If the human has a weapon that needs to reload when one clip is empty, this time may give you a chance to hit him properly.

Countertactics:

In general

Something I even have a teamsay-binding for: Don't go alone, team up! No dancing human can take on two tyrants, no dancing dretch that does not just run can take on two humans. (Except for damnfools of course, but those people... there is no way to help them.)

human vs. dancing dretch

If the dretch is alone: Do not waste your ammo! Fall back and wait until the dretch gets into your crosshair. If it does, pull the trigger. If you have a painsaw, a shotgun or the flamethrower, wait until it comes near you. If you are a flamer, a fast 360°-turn with flamer on helped me several times to get rid of dancing dretches near me.

tyrant vs. dancing human

A human will circle around you, firing. This is dangerous because tyrants are not that agile, and you will run out of health, and that gunshooter/chaingunner/etc. will kill you - unless you make a very hard turn (if you use the mouse for turning: 180° plus a jump to the left or to the right is a good idea) and an unexpected move to break his pattern of movement. A hard strafe jump to the left or to the right may also work.

Fighting dancing humans is one of the few really good reasons for a tyrant to get poison, by the way, because you just have to touch a human to hurt him, you do not need to claw him.

dragoon vs. dancing human

Jump away. You won't get him. You do not have enough health power to survive this dance.

[Kaine]

Allow me to summarize, while removing the worthless bits:

"Learn to aim, and crank your sensitivity up.  End of story."

[Taiyo.uk]

Tyrants do headbanging, but grangers need mirror balls and disco lighting.

[zybork]

Kaine: Wrong. I once was a dancing dretch and half a dozen humans fired at me with lasguns and massdrivers. I did this for five minutes or so before I got hit. And I am dead sure all those people did have their sensitive cranked up and had a perfect aim.

[Kaine]

Holy cow man, for real?!  Are you serious?  Wow!  No Way!  I will blindly take your word for it that not only did all 6 of the humans have godly aim, but that you also danced them all for 5 minutes!  Furthermore, I will be impressed by it, and think much more highly of you because of this little anecdote!

You sir, rival God himself.

[Hendrich]

Wrong. I once was a dancing dretch and half a dozen humans fired at me with lasguns and massdrivers. I did this for five minutes or so before I got hit. And I am dead sure all those people did have their sensitive cranked up and had a perfect aim.

If what you just said wasn't overly-exagerated or unture, I would hand you a slice of my cake anyday. ^^
Good guide, it makes me think twice about dancing. I think I'll hang around Tremulous today to get the hang of it.

[zybork]

No, I can recall where and when it was, it was a few days ago, one week max., I do not remember the server, unfortunately, but it was on one of those ATCS-clone maps with a kind of a prison-theme, where default human base is behind a line of concrete cubes connected with a thin board or so. However, it was in that tunnel resembling that of ATCS, and I was a few "metres" above the humans, where I was running around the walls in that tunnel like mad, just randomly moving the mouse, keeping wallwalk-button and move-forward-button down, wondering why the hell they did not hit me, standing down there, aiming up, and firing their lasers and mass drivers. I did not know what to do I admit, there were impacts all around me, it was crazy!

I tried to get closer to them, for a bite or so, like: "if I die, I wanna die biting your asses", but got hit by a laser from time to time, but I always regenerated my health points while running around like mad, until that mass driver hit me. It was a surprise to me that I survived that long, because I am by far no leet player, and I usually do not survive encountering good players for long.

From that time on I try my "wiggle the mouse and run like mad wallwalking"-thing regularly, and even if I don't get someone to bite, at least they don't get me.

This experience and the method of dancing I developed from it is one of the reasons I started that topic, because if "a loser" can survive enemy fire until his hand gets tired from moving the mouse, there must be something about it.

I always wondered how those "super dretches" manage not to get hit I saw in ATCS from time to time, when all them campers emptied their magazines on them (hoping for a cheap kill, just to get eaten by a rant then) but in the end the dretches ran away, surviving the onslaught Now I guess I know how they do it.

[Bissig]

"Wallsurfing" on ATCSZ Alpha in the tunnel to the bunker or on Tremor near the alien front entrance is rather fun too. If you can keep it up and surf close to their heads you might get a few looky headshots in a row. I can recall one game where I was just jumping from wall to wall and running along while a group of 4 or 5 humans attacked and I ate 3 of them in a zig-zag run. I think that's the only time I was accused of cheating ;-P

[zybork]

I am actually not good at eating them humans, but I am very pleased that at least I now can run around them at gunpoint range and survive That random-run-method seems to be pretty effective.

Forget maras and goons! Go dretch, those are da killaz

[mooseberry]

Meh..

dretch outdancing human

If you want to deathdance using a dretch, just wallwalk permanently, if you use your mouse for control of heading/direction you move in, just move it around randomly while pushing the "move forward"-button. It will be nearly impossible for a single human to hit you except for pure luck.

Try to get closer to the human while still changing heading almost randomly and - important! - do not take the time to aim at his head, just aim at his body. Speed kills, the tenth of a second it takes to aim is also the tenth of a second it takes for the human to aim. He must not get this 0.1s - speed kills. Literally!

So, deathdance, move along walls, floors and ceilings as irregularily as possible, for if you do not know what you're gonna do next, your opponent does not either!

If the human has a weapon that needs to reload when one clip is empty, this time may give you a chance to hit him properly.

Eh, not aiming is actually bad, just because he has trouble hitting you doesn't mean you can kill him.

human vs. dancing dretch

If the dretch is alone: Do not waste your ammo! Fall back and wait until the dretch gets into your crosshair. If it does, pull the trigger. If you have a painsaw, a shotgun or the flamethrower, wait until it comes near you. If you are a flamer, a fast 360°-turn with flamer on helped me several times to get rid of dancing dretches near me.

So your saying wait until this crazy moving alien gets into your crosshair and fire? Foolproof I guess...

And your flamer idea is just wrong. Spinning with a flamer is for newbs, sorry it's a fact. You hurt yourself, and a dretch can just run circles around you or back out of the way.

tyrant vs. dancing human

A human will circle around you, firing. This is dangerous because tyrants are not that agile, and you will run out of health, and that gunshooter/chaingunner/etc. will kill you - unless you make a very hard turn (if you use the mouse for turning: 180° plus a jump to the left or to the right is a good idea) and an unexpected move to break his pattern of movement. A hard strafe jump to the left or to the right may also work.

Fighting dancing humans is one of the few really good reasons for a tyrant to get poison, by the way, because you just have to touch a human to hurt him, you do not need to claw him.

Just because you are good at dodging does not mean you can take down a rant with a rifle, although you can, just saying it doesn't make you as invincible as you make it sound here. Also, I have found the best tactic is to not move as much as a rant. If someone is dancing around you, just sort of aim in their direction and let them move into your aim. Take advantage of that fat tyrant aim and kill them.

dragoon vs. dancing human

Jump away. You won't get him. You do not have enough health power to survive this dance.

My advice: Work on your goon.

[Dracone]

I was going to make a guide on this, more on the side of the human part because the alien movement falls directly into your killing efficiency and is often just as important as aiming, whereas on humans, if you can kill the alien before it's in range, that's a different story.

Of course, you beat me to the punch with a thread of open ideas, although I may still make a dancing guide in the future. I'm not terrible on aliens, but I consider myself to be a damn good dancer on humans.

[Colynn']

Hi.
Low sensi ftw. I love it!

And I don't agree zybork for the dretch's dance. Moving randomly on the wall won't make you unhitable. Good players have the hability to AIM at you correctly even if you are on walls. And myself, I can kill dretches on walls if I'm very concentred and alone.

But, I agree for the rest, and it seems this guide is for newbies (Am I right?).
Good job zybork! 

[zybork]

Well, I don't claim that this MUST work, this is a discussion, of course other may people may have different experiences and tactics.

Btw, I tried my "dretchdance" several times now of course, and it workes PERFECTLY against certain players, it does not work against others that well, appearantly. Also, there are people who can outdance others but not me, and vice versa. Hoever, not standing still is always a good idea

[Nux]

As far as dancing goes, you can only dodge to the best of your experience. All it takes is an enemy with a different play-style and your current habits won't work so well. This is why the importance of getting in every hit you can with the time you buy yourself can't be stressed enough. Also, learn to know when to disengage from an attack and how to escape with your life.

Good 'dancing' isn't enough on it's own.

[Player]

i've used dragoon effectively against dancing humans by jumping back and getting them out of rhythm then going back in for the kill before they can start their dance again

[Hendrich]

Well, it looks like we have another Player in our hands, long over due but welcome to the forums. ^^

i've used dragoon effectively against dancing humans by jumping back and getting them out of rhythm then going back in for the kill before they can start their dance again

But how do you dance as a goon? I unfortunately suck at Goon because its difficult for me to move my goon ass and dodge out of the way. But my low health (compared to Tyrant) combined with my size makes me an easy target for shotties or chaingunners. Any expert gooners got Goon-dancing advice?

[Bissig]

Learn to  be patient to charge up your pounce. F.e. outside of ATCS humans base door: Jumping up the bunker to run off: Take your time to fully charge your pounce to get up. Don't care about that human shooting your ass. If you start caring, your pounce will fail and you will die anyways. Or in the tunnel: Pounce left, pounce right, repeat. The goon is soo fast once you get a little grip on how to move from pounce to pounce.

The best map in my opinion to practice gooning is Pushcannon. The wide open space will have humans nail you down unless you learn how to dance. Also, there you can really gain speed if you pounce well. Also, it is a good place to practice moving around obstacles or use them as a shield since there is that big, fat cannon obstructing too nosey humans from seeing you.

[mooseberry]

Try to play a day of only pouncing to kill humans as a goon, no chomping. This is not a good strategy necessarily to employ all the time, but it really helps improve your pouncing skills which, as a good, are necessary to survival.