The Guide to ARC

I came across this partial guide a few years back, enjoy:


The Guide To ARC.

Lag shooting

"Lag" is a large factor within the game of ARC, same with most online
games. When a player "lags" they have a high "ping". Ping is the amount
of time it takes for packets of information to be sent from a players
computer to the server. This means that generally, where your opponent
appears to be on your screen isn't where they are on theirs, because the
server is slightly behind in relaying information to you. Now, to deal
damage to your opponent your shots need to hit on *their *screen, *not
yours.* So, since what you're seeing is slightly behind, you're required
to shoot in-front of your opponents ship following the direction in
which they are moving. The distance which you need to shoot in-front of
your opponent is then obviously determined by their ping.
The lower their ping, the more accurate their position is on your
screen, and so the less you need to shoot in-front of them. The higher
their ping, the further behind the server is, and so you need to shoot
further in-front of them.

This concept of lag shooting affects every type of shot you'll make in
ARC. You need to be thinking about it all of the time, and adjust your
shots accordingly in order for them to be most effective. You may also
be required to somewhat predict where your opponent will move and when
etc. in order to be able to hit them properly.

Now, two key laser firing techniques.

Spreading.

A spread is best described as a "wall" of a minimum of 3 and a maximum
or 5 lasers. This wall of lasers was created with the idea of trying to
ensure that it would inflict damage upon the opponent. Therefore, in
order to give your spread the greatest chance of inflicting its maximum
damage, you must consider a number of things. Firstly, recognise the
maximum area in which your opponent can move from the time you fire your
spread, to the time it reaches his/her ship. Your spread should cover
the largest possible amount of this area, to lessen the chances of your
opponent simply being able to move around your spread. Secondly, know
how big the gap between each laser has to be. Ideally, the gap from one
laser to another should obviously be slightly less than the width of
your opponents ship. *Its important to note that the 'width' of your
perfect spread will always change depending on the distance between you
and your opponent.* This is to make sure that your enemy cannot find a
way in between your lasers without taking damage. Finally, calculate
from which side of your opponent you should begin to fire your spread;
this depends on what you are aiming to do. When these three things are
taken into consideration you should, in theory, fire the "perfect"
spread which is impossible to dodge.

There are two common noob errors that translates into wasted lasers, or
wasted opportunity. This first common problem for beginners attempting
to spread is hitting walls. This comes from a lack of experience
spreading and a lack of experience with the map. Typically, for combat
around walls, the general rule is that spreads start or end at the
corner of a wall. This remains the case even if your lasers are moving
past your screen, where your knowledge of the map comes into play.

The second common noob error is the direction in which the spread is
made. For example, if an opponent is nearing a wall to his top left, and
you are to his immediate left, what do you do? The correct answer, as is
the case with many ARC situations, is that it depends. A few factors
come into play:
Are you trying to hit him? While some readers may say "Obviously!",
this is not the case. If some of your team mates have died, it may be
more advantageous to suppress an opponent so you can retreat to a more
tactically sound position. If you are attempting to contain the
opponent, a small spread from bottom to top will keep him behind the
wall while you get away.
Distance. So you've decided to hit him, but can you? To hit him, you
must spread from top to bottom. However, if your first laser cannot cut
your opponent off, then he will have achieved cover without receiving
any damage. One way to remedy this problem is to start your spread with
a bouncy. Bouncies travel faster than lasers, and can cut the opponent
off faster.
Click speed. Some esteemed arcers feel that clickspeed does not
matter, but it does. If you can click quickly, you can create a spread
faster. If you are fast enough, you can hit the opponent even spreading
bottom to top, AND forcing him behind a wall as well.

However, as ARC has developed so has the technique of spreading. More
experienced players increase the damage their spread can do even
further, by also firing a bouncy with the lasers. This "burst" can be
very effective if executed correctly. Generally a player will try to
mask the fact that they have fired a bouncy with their lasers by the
timing and spacing of their shots. The bouncy will be "covered" by one
or two lasers from the spread, and will also be fired slightly after the
lasers (since bouncies travel faster than lasers). The bouncy will also
be aimed as direct at the ship as possible. Now, this technique
undoubtedly hinders the ability to fire a "correct" spread. It requires
you to be a lot more accurate since it covers less of an area and it
could possibly mean a wasted bouncy, although if performed correctly it
is highly effective and deals out a lot of damage.



Supression Lasers.

The spread isn't the only key shooting technique needed in mid range
combat. We shall take a look at another, these have been called by some
as "suppression lasers". As the name may suggest, this type of shooting
is used to try and suppress your opponent from obtaining an advantageous
position, or to keep them contained. In order to do this you must fire a
steady stream of single lasers towards the corner that is holding the
opponent whenever you feel he is trying to move out. The trick is to
manage the amount of blue bar you have. You have to find a rhythm that
prevents your opponent from popping out or simply being able to freely
adjust their position, all the while making sure that you do not run out
of blue bar. Usually one wouldn't allow their blue bar to drop below
half, the reason for this being that if you find that you're suddenly
needing to shoot elsewhere you can comfortably do so. Being caught
off-guard with little to no blue bar could be crucial.

The "suppression" though, just like spreads, has been manipulated over
time and more techniques have been created. If you find that your
stream of lasers isn't keeping, or soon won't, keep your opponent at bay you
could fire doubles instead of singles. This technique has been used by
some ARCers and has proven to be very effective when used correctly. It
allows for ample time to re-adjust your position when you need to stop
shooting, and can allow you to get away whilst receiving no damage.
Other ARCers have became very confident in their pinning technique and
have been able to master managing their blue bar. When a player fails to
manage their blue energy, their opponent can make a quick rush, perhaps
sustaining a laser's worth of damage, but still having a full blue bar
versus your nonexistant blue bar.

The *most important* idea behind suppression lasers, and really any
closed combat, is the idea of the *line* *of suppression*. When you and
your opponent are shooting at each other when there is a wall involved,
the line of suppression becomes readily visible. It is the deepest angle
you can reach to hit your opponent. During fights, your line and your
opponent's line are constantly shifting, and constant readjustment is
needed to hit the opponent, and to avoid being hit. Also keeping in mind
that only the tips of lasers deal damage, these walled fights become a
battle of popping out into the enemy's line of suppression to deal
damage, while being careful enough to not be hit. If one chooses to stay
close to the corner, they have the advantage of a greater angle when
they choose to pop out, making it easier to hit the enemy. However,
being closer to the corner often limits one's mobility. On the other
hand, approaching from a lesser angle generally gives one less of an
angle, but more room to move. A balance between the two is not required,
and ARCers should find a position that they are comfortable playing in.

One tactic to use with suppression lasers is a 'fake out'. By stopping
your stream of lasers, you can give the impression that you are out of
blue. By doing this, your opponent may think that you have ran out of
blue bar and thus come out to attack. All the while, you are waiting for
this and when the opponent comes out to shoot fire back at them. You
could fire a spread, a burst, or some other secondary weapon depending
upon the amount of you blue bar and thus deal out decent damage to your
opponent. The only way for this 'move' to be concealed is if you stop
short when you only have one laser. This can be risky, but landing a
sudden missile is a definite advantage.

Dodging.

Dodging, quite obviously, is a very large aspect of ARC. There are a
number of basic rules to remember when attempting to dodge, and these
are as follows.


Look at your own ship when you dodge. You can use peripheral
vision to see any shots coming towards your ship.
Only the tips of lasers do damage to you. This means that you
can move your ship across the tail of a laser and not take any damage.
Your ship can seemingly be hit by a laser on the very edge and
not take any damage. This is useful for being able to dodge through a
spread.
The anticipation of your opponent's fire is important. Have some
kind of idea as to where (and possibly what) the enemy is going to fire.
Basic human reactions and instincts. Generally a person wants to
do his or her best to not take any damage at all. Knowing that sometimes
it's better to take some damage to gain an advantage, than trying to
conserve all of your health only to die is important.



When dodging spreads, sometimes you will find that you got owned, and
you cannot escape. It is recommended that you just *sit still*. If you
move while a spread is being fired, you are liable to hit get by
multiple lasers, rather than just one. Despite being an easy concept,
the only ARCer that applies this often is Nanosecond of TBWA. Through
experience, one can begin to tell whether a spread is dodgable or not
right after it is fired.

Also, as a basic rule of thumb, it is generally a good idea to try and
not dodge in diagonal movements if you are trying to clear a spread. If
you are fighting someone veritcally, dodge horizontally if you think you
can clear the spread. Likewise if your opponent is to the horizontal.
This is because moving in either horizontal or vertical fashion moves
your ship away from what is being fired at you faster than a diagonal
movement.

Some interesting things to keep in mind is that newer ARCers also tend
to not use a full range of motion in close open ranged combat. It's
important that the opponent at least *believes* you are capable of
moving in all eight directions. Another bad common tendency for newer
ARCers is to telegraph some movements by "rolling" their dodging. For
example, if you are moving up and to the right, and then switch to down
and to the left, they "roll" over the down and right keys before
successfully switching. This gives a little wasted movement, especially
if trying to split spreads.



One final word on dodging techniques. A technique dubbed "wiggling" is
being used by a handful of pilots, and I think it deserves a small look
over.

When an ARCer "wiggles" he or she is tapping all of their directional
keys constantly and rapidly. A lot of people, including myself, debate
over wether or not this technique is good or bad for a person attempting
to dodge. Whilst I think everyone is agreed that constant wiggling is
far more detrimental to a player than it is helpful, "selective
wiggling" can be quite useful at times.

In any range combat, open or closed, wiggling increases the direction in
which your opponent thinks you may go. By tapping all of your keys you
are keeping your options open, and so your opponent may find it hard to
make a decision as to a) where to move themselves and b) where to shoot.

"Selective wiggling" can also throw your opponent off of your lag. For
example, if you are wiggling in a mid range open combat situation and
your opponent begins to fire a stream of lasers at you, then you can
stop wiggling and move either right, left, up or down. At which point,
in theory, your opponent would begin to follow you with his/her shots.
Now because you were sitting on one spot wiggling and then suddenly
began to move, your opponents shots may very likely be behind your ship.
This is very effective for people who do lag more than the norm.

However, wiggling does have its downside. It can make a pilot prone to
attempting to dodge diagonally, and thus eating a laser or two which
they shouldn't. It can cause you to get caught out in the open. As silly
as it sounds, if you are rapidly tapping all of your directional keys
and then suddenly have to push one you could miss the key, or fumble
your fingers over it. Wiggling also provokes a your opponent to "paste"
your area with a lot of their weapons. Having to dodge plenty of lasers,
a bouncy or two and possibly a nade all at the same time could get a
little hard!



Fragging.

Fragging depends largely upon the situation in which you find yourself.
There are six different situations which affect how you will need to
fight. These are:



Open/Closed, close range combat: In this situation you should try to
focus more upon anticipation and anti-antipication. What I mean by these
will be explained in detail later on.

Open/Closed, medium range combat: This requires most of the above
"rules" for dodging which I have stated, and then incorporates the
"spread" and other shooting techniques. Techniques which will again be
talked about in detail later on.

Open/Closed, distant range combat: Just as medium range, distant range
battle uses all of the "rules" of dodging and other shooting techniques.
You do, however, have slightly more time to assess what to do and
incorporate a good use of your radar aswell.

Open is when there are no obstacles between you and your opponent(s) so
there is nothing to hide behind. Closed is obviously the opposite of open.





Close Combat.

Anticipation and anti-anticipation are crucial in close range open field
fighting. When I talk of *anticipation*, I mean knowing where your
opponent is going to be. Having an idea of when and where your opponent
will be allows for you to shoot effectively. However, your opponent will
most likely also be anticipating your movements as well, so this is
where the idea of anti-anticipation takes effect. *Anti-anticipation* is
a term coined by Fordus which can be explained as knowing where your
opponent thinks you're going to be (their anticipation) and countering
that with a different movement (anti-anticipation). This is also known
as being unpredictable.

It's well known spreads can be undodgeable at mid, and sometimes long,
range. As such, spreads are also undodgable at close range, but offer a
very weak damage/mana ratio. Fast singles, supplemented with specials is
probably the most effective way to deal with an opponent at close range.

When a player is in a close combat situation, they should expect to see
the use of missiles very often. Whilst missiles fired on their own are
obviously very effective for a number of reasons, they are more
effective, along with all other shots, when used in a "combo". (For the
explaination of what a "combo" is, see the medium range combat section).
One combo which is used a lot in close combat is the "missile and lasers
combo". A missile uses a lot of your blue bar and only allows for two
lasers to be fired with it, therefore, the proper execution of this shot
is critical since it leaves you with no bar afterwards.

For some assistance on the various uses of missiles, feel free to check
puffyfish's missile guide on arc-hq strategy section. I feel however
that puffys guide puts far too much of a stretch on finding ways to use
missiles, when in fact there are only 2 or 3 different practical uses.
The first of these practical uses, damage, will be covered here.
Attempting to hit opponents with missile at any other than close range
is a waste of lasers. Landing missiles on close combat requires a
certain level of experience and anticipation. At close range, your
lasers should intentionally be directing your opponent's movements. The
key in landing missiles is creating scenarios where your opponent is
moving in the direction of your missiles after a turn. The second use of
missiles for damage is the defensive trap, known by some as
counter-missiles. The counter-missile is fired while retreating during
moments of aggression by your opponent. These missiles can suddenly turn
the tide while you're being raped. An important note is that some
careful opponents are simply never hit by these. For example, even when
raping an opponent with a teammate, SilverCrow of XiN is always careful
enough to not overextend himself to be hit by counter-missiles.


While anticipation is something ARCers tend to pick up on quickly,
anti-anticipation is something that needs to be gained from experience.
This is troublesome because many ARCers who choose not to “learn” or
practice anti-anticipation, and will always try to avoid close-ranged
combat, creating passive ARCers who are most comfortable at the mid-long
range. Another factor adding to this is that some of the newer
generation of ARCers have a tendency to look at their own saucers for
dodging, which is quite difficult to use effectively in close range combat.

Being an ability learned through experience, there isn't much more to add.



Medium combat.

Mid range combat encompasses many (if not all) of the fragging
techniques that a player needs. Mid range combat is very different from
close range combat, and is generally somewhat slower paced. A player
will see different kind of shots being used, such as the ones mentioned
at the begining. So without repeating myself, I'll begin this section by
talking about some of the lesser known elements involved in medium range
combat.


The Horizontal Factor.

An odd phenomenon in ARC in the open mid-ranged combat is what I call
the "Horizontal Factor." When you and your opponent are directly
horizontal to each other, you may notice that both of you have trouble
hitting each other. This stems from the fact that if a laser is fired at
you, you have the option of dodging both upwards and downwards, allowing
for some spreads to miss altogether. If attempts are made to shoot
from bottom to up, you will find that your opponent has already began
to move up and away. Likewise, if you attempt to spread from top down,
your opponent will have began to already have moved down and away.
Another integral force behind the "Horizontal Factor" is that while
attempting to shoot the spread, you also have to dodge. Inexperience
compensating for the spread while completely horizontal creates gaps.
When fighting an opponent in the open at mid range, it tends to be best
to attain a horizontal position relative to your opponent during your
opponent's volley of lasers/specials.

But what to do if your opponent is trying the same thing? The answer is
reactive spreading.



Reactive Spread.

Reactive spreading is a form of spreading done at mid combat. This
spread, like the 'standard' spread, is fired rhythmically. However, in
the reactive spread, the difference is that the first laser is fired
directly at the opponent. The next 3/4 lasers are shot in succession
appearing to 'sandwich' the opponent. Keep in mind that there are *no*
gaps in the *timing* of the shots. This reactive spread takes advantage
of the fact that once a laser is fired, your opponent will react right
away. They may move left, or right, or up or down as the case may be.
However, if you don't wait to fire your successive 3/4 laser spread
after the initial laser, your opponent will be caught moving into the
spread.

This kind of spread is used by many players, but a common mistake is the
delay after the initial laser. This delay hurts the spread in that the
opponent will have an easier time weaving the spread, or avoiding the
spread altogether.

Another mistake is not actually watching for the first reaction. Many
players just try to sandwich opponents through guesswork, which while
less reliable, is okay too.

As stated above, this kind of spreading handles opponents who are in a
directly horizontal position quite well.



Combination Fire AKA "Combo's"

Now that we have looked over all of the key laser firing techniques,
it's time to move forward and begin to tackle the idea of a "combo".

A "combo", as the name suggests, is a combination of two or more
different shots; for example, a bouncy and lasers combo. When firing a
combination you should be trying to inflict maximum damage upon your
opponent with what you have fired. There are plenty of different
combinations to fire, and the best one to use, like everything else,
depends upon the situation. We'll take a look at the bouncy plus lasers
combination first.

Bouncy and Lasers combination.

Before I begin it is a good idea to recognise that the "burst" mentioned
earlier isn't a combination; it is a variation of the spread.

The bouncy plus lasers combination can be a highly effective way for
dealing out damage, especially for passive players that like to stay
behind a wall. The general idea behind it is similar to that of the
reactive spread in the need to sandwich your opponent with your shots.
You fire a bouncy off a wall, and then a spread (of around 3-4 lasers).
The spread should be fired as such that it forces your opponent to move
back towards the bouncy, essentially forcing your opponent to take a
laser or two, or a bouncy.

To try and help you understand it better, let me give you a scenario.

In GO, you are red, and you are fighting in the low entrance to your
base in the wide tunnel area. Your opponent is hiding behind the wall
and you are above the bunker facing towards your base, whilst you are
firing some supressing lasers at his pop out corner. You then need or
want to substantially damage your opponent, and you only have two loaded
secondary weapons, a bouncy and a missile. Whilst firing your supression
lasers you advance closer to them to begin your bouncy and lasers
combination. You fire your bouncy down at the bottom wall, so that after
the second bounce off the top wall, it passes over the corner, forcing
your opponent away from the wall. If you are doing this properly, it is
important that the bouncy is *"deeper"*, cutting off the opponent from
progressing anymore to the right (closer to the wall). You then fire
your spread so it starts on the outside, moving inwards, towards the wall.

By firing your bouncy and lasers like this your are forcing your
opponent to at least take some damage. The great advantage of this
technique is the small window of oppurtunity that your opponent has to
hit you. This advantage is lost if you do this technique wrong, which I
will now explain. An example of improper execution is if the bouncy is
*past* the opponent. This forces your spread to have to be in front of
the opponent, and spreading outwards. To achieve this, you have to
compromise your position behind a wall, moving out past the wall. This
gives your opponent more time to hit you with a spread, 'negating' the
damage you just made.

Missile and Bouncy combination.

The missile and bouncy combination follows some of the same principals
as the aformentioned combo. You should aim to try and sandwich your
opponent between your shots, and the bouncy again works as a tool of
distraction if you will.

Since a missile requires a lot of blue bar and is relatively slow, you
really need to limit the chances you have of missing. This means being
close and making the area in which you need to shoot smaller.

Scenario time.

You are in the same situation as before, still with only the one missile
and one bouncy as secondary weapons. You need or want again to damage
your opponent and so attempt the missle and bouncy combination. You move
forward using your supression lasers and stay close to the lower wall as
you go. You reach the corner where your opponent is and they back off
away from the wall. You fire your bouncy so that it prevents your enemy
from moving any further away from the wall. You then pop out from behind
your corner and fire your missile.

By firing the bouncy as such, you have done two things. 1) stopped your
opponent from advancing any further away from the wall, but possibly
more importantly, 2) have kept the area and angle at which you need to
fire your missile to a minimum. The bouncy is very vertical in this
scenario, creating a tight "V" shape that leaves little room to maneuver
if they are trying to dodge the bouncy (which they will always try to
do). The missile is then fired so it enters within the "V", and this is
what decreases the chances of you missing.

Like the bouncy and laser spread combination, the advantage of this is
the defensive posture, only allowing a moment for your opponent to hit
you. Unlike the bouncy and laser combination however, you can't do this
improperly and trade hits. If the bouncy is past the opponent, then you
cannot follow up with the missile. The bouncy is wasted, unless you want
to proceed with the improper bouncy and laser combination.

Grenade/Mortar combinations.

Some more experienced and skilled ARCers frown upon using a grenade in a
combination. They feel that saving grenades for a different purpose is
more beneficial to yourself and your team. Whilst they are partially
correct, a combo incorporating a grenade is just a good a use as any
other, if you manage the amount of times you do it. It's important to
not over use your grenades in your combos, just because you can. Pilots
who find a balance between using them for a different purpose, and using
them in combinations are being most effective with their grenades. I'll
talk about these other uses later in the guide, which will help you
understand the need for a balance. Now, onto the combos.

Grenade and Bouncy combination.

Following the same principal of firing the combination at your opponent
and wanting to deal out the maximum possible damage with what you fired,
you again have the need to "sandwich" your opponent between what your
shots. Hopefully you've realised by now that it's the same with every
combination, and you should apply this principal to all of them.

Scenario.

Same postion as before, low wide tunnel in the entrance to reds base and
you are still red. You appraoch your opponent and fire your grenade so
it forces them away from the wall. Your spread then starts away from the
wall and comes inwards towards you.

The grenade is used to have the same effect as the bouncy in either of
the above combinations, in forcing your opponent away from the wall. The
grenade should also placed as such, that it doesn't allow for your
opponent to move behind the wall to nulify the combination.


The pop out.

Having the ability to execute a good "pop out" is very useful. It is the
answer to the questions being asked of you by suppression lasers, and is
a good aid when being faced with the daunting task of tackling 2 or more
opponents.

Usually when a player is choosing to pop out, they are doing so under
suppression fire, and so can't freely move in and out from behind the
obstacle which they are using to hide. This means that they need to be
timing the pop outs correctly to try and take no damage, and also need
to fire an effective, accurate and powerful shot back at their opponent.
Firstly, we'll deal with the timing of the pop out.

So obviously you are wanting to move out from behind the wall, fire at
your opponent, and then move back behind the wall without taking any
damage (or as little damage as possible). To do this, firstly remember
the second dodging rule; only the tips of lasers do damage. Knowing this
will allow you to maximize the amount of time you have to move out from
behind the wall and fire, your "window of opportunity" if you will. It
means that you can move out from behind the wall and across the tail of
a laser, fire your shots, and move back behind the wall before the next
laser reaches you. Secondly, recognize the rate at which your opponent
is firing his/her suppression lasers, and determine whether or not it is
a good idea to actually try and pop out. If the lasers are really slow
then it is very easy to pop out, however, if the lasers are fast then it
may be better to just stay behind the wall all together and try to
anticipate when your opponents blue bar will run out, before you come
out to fire. Good players tend to try and not fire rhythmical suppression
shots, since it'd make it easier for their opponent to time a pop out.
So it's really down to your anticipation and timing as to when you move,
but remember to maximize your "window of opportunity".

Now you've got the technique of actually getting out from behind the
wall, what do you actually fire when you're out there? As with
everything else on ARC, it depends! If you are in a situation where you
need to be aggressive and take control of the fight, a 3 - 4 laser spread
fired as such that it makes your opponents move behind an obstacle would
suffice. If you're wanting to deal out a lot of damage the "burst" may
be a good choice, or, a spread with the first laser cutting your
opponent off from moving behind the obstacle, and then firing the rest
of your spread away from the obstacle.



Distant Combat

Distant combat is basically fighting at, or over, a screens length away,
and so one must rely a considerable amount on their radar. In order to
use your radar effectively you need to first know a few things.

* What your radar is actually showing you.
* Knowledge of the map.
* The distance that whatever you fire can travel.

There's plenty of patches which have been created that have a modified
radar in an attempt to make it easier to use, but I'll write this with
the default radar in mind.

So first, the basics. The white square in the center of the radar is
you. The colored dots represent the other players on the field,
obviously these are your teammates and enemies depending upon your color.
The square which constantly surrounds you on the radar is representing
your screen. When a dot on the radar has a flashing colored circle
around it, that is indicating that that player is carrying a flag. The
color of the flashing circle represents what flag they're carrying;
white it a neutral flag. So when you're in a distant combat situation
the basic idea is that, using your square and the position of your
opponent in relation to your square, you fire in the direction which you
think they are. This is where the second to things come into play.

Having good knowledge of the map is essential, because as you may have
noticed, your radar doesn't show you the walls of the map! So it's all
well and good to have determined where your opponent is and where you
have to shoot by using your radar, but if they're hiding behind a wall
it becomes pretty pointless to shoot! So this knowledge saves you from
wasting your fire, but you could also try and reverse that and cause
your opponent to waste theirs!

Knowledge of the map also allows you to shoot spreads with bouncies
against walls before you actually see them on your screen.

To cover the distance of your fire part, I'll simply tell you what the
different distances are. I won't mention the missiles distance, because
you shouldn't be using a missile in distant combat, in any situation.

Laser: The laser travels just over a screens length. When your opponent
is just outside of the box surrounding you on your radar then generally
they are within range to be hit with a laser.

Bouncy: The bouncy, when fired in a straight line with no
bounces, travels approximately twice the length of a laser.

Grenade/Mortar: Obviously is limited to travel within a screens length.
However, there are some tricks to extending the length which you can
fire a grenade which you will most likely pick up on your journey
through ARC. They are however, pointless to use for the most part and
thus I choose not to cover them.

The other things which apply to combat at distance have already been
covered in the previous section, medium combat, so apply those here when
needed. It is upto yourself to figure that out; it is impossible for me
to tell you when to do it, ARC is too situational for that.



So far, everything this guide has told you has been directed towards
fragging. All of the principles, techniques and information has been
explained with the intention of having it make you harder to kill, and
helping you find it easier to kill others. Fragging is a fundemental
part of the game; perhaps the biggest part of ARC. Without it you can't
really do much, but having it be the only thing you are good at can hurt
you just the same as not being good at it. From here on out, this guide
will be dealing with the teamwork aspect of ARC. It's important to
realise that "teamwork" has such a broad term within this game, or at
least when I am using it. Good teamwork incorporates good chemistry with
your teammate(s), good awareness, good strategy, decision making and
experience. It's an "umbrella" word, which collectively describes a lot
of things. It's a daunting task thinking about having to attempt to go
through all of this, since the principles and techniques within
"teamwork" are (for possibly lack of a better word) abundant.

Furthermore, ARC is a highly situational game. There is rarely, if ever,
one definitive correct decision to make and it comes down to many
variables, coupled with your own experience as to what decision you will
make (and even then it may not be right). Therefore, I am not going to
spell out every possible situation that could occur within one 30-40
minute game of Golden Oldie, taking into account every possible
differing variable and so forth - that would be impossible. Instead,
I'll try to cover as much fairly basic things as I can, from which you
can start to develop your team game. Also, I suppose it's important to
note that my mentality within ARC is safe. That is, when I have a
decision to make in game, I'll most likely make the safer decision
instead of taking a risk. That is just my mentality. Thus, within the
next few sections of this guide, that may become apparent.

*Note: The guide from here may become very unorganised as I try to think
of everything. I'll try my hardest to keep it as understandable as possible.

When both teams spawn at the begining of a game, the first battles
generally take off at mid. Both teams will meet, 4 vs 4...



"That guide is from so long ago lol.

It's not finished since it has nothing about strategy or teamwork etc, which was originally intended to be the case as you can see at the end. If people are going to refer to this when trying to get better, however, I think I'll take this opportunity to add some general comments about teamwork and strategy in this post so they'll hopefully see this when coming here.

Often people PM me and ask things like "what should I have done in this situation?", and they'll tell me about an instance they had whilst playing. I try to answer them as best I can, but the problem is that in order for me to feel like I'm giving you the best advice or telling you the correct thing to do, the person asking the question needs to give me far more information than they usually realise is necessary.

The problem with writing any kind of guide for Spark's strategy is that there are hundreds if not thousands of different situations that a player can find themselves in, and so it's just impossible to cover them all. I've thought about ways to try and get passed this but the best I can come up with is the following, very general statement.

Decisions you make in a game depend upon all of the different variables of that game. The smartest players are the ones who can consistently keep track of as many of these variables as possible, as well as correctly interpret what the status of those variables (and as such the combination of those states) are telling them to do. Examples of the different variables include things like;

Your own health
Teammates health
Opponents health
Your specials
Your teammates specials
Opponents specials
Number of teammates on the field
Number of opponents on the field
Field position
Who is respawning, when are they respawning
Score of game
Importance of game (Pub go, reg season, playoffs, finals?)
Time remaining in game
Are you currently the offensive or defensive team
What is the play that just previously occurred (did you just have to clear your own base?)

As well as more, but you get the picture. Your job when making a strategic decision is to, like I said earlier, know as many of these variables as you can and then correctly assess what it is they are telling you to do. In this post I can't tell you what you should do for every possible state of each variable, but at the very least you know what kinds of things you should be thinking about.

Also, this isn't just good strategy for GO, it's good strategy for any CTF game on Spark period. You just bend and adapt things based upon the map."