There is a saying that goes like this "timing is everything" I am not sure where or what it relates to but to begin with I think that it is a very important part of pretty much all aspects of serious gaming in quake 3 and many games, in this guide I will concentrate on quake3.
Where do I start?
Well for alot of people that have asked me they cannot seem to get the grib of timing items and I found myself with the same problem a while ago, so this guide is here to shed some light from my experiences and what helps learn timing the best and fastest way.
To begin with you will atleast have to have a rough idea of when items respawn,(please note in team games spawning times for weapons and such is alot longer approximatly 30 seconds while in 1 on 1 and free for all games it is about 5 seconds. Other items like armor respawn around every 25 seconds and on most maps in 1on1 play mega health is 35 seconds.)
The next thing is to actually use this in the game, the best way is to do this is slowly ease into it so what I recommend doing is getting a strat or map route that incorperates the armor and powerups and/or important items of a level in one on one play or whatever you are learning to time, a simple example would be like my dm13 demo which you can get here , this way you can run around the level and getting a feel for the timing of items, and it is important that you do this by yourself for a start because you cannot get a real grip of the timing with someone fragging you all the time , or atleast trying =) but playing other players while trying to learn can put you off alot . Then once you have got some idea of timing try playing against some bots of various skills just to get some competition and see how you handle timing against a "enemy" if you are not handling it then try going back to just running around yourself and try adding some variety to your movement around the levels to get a better grasp of timing which will help alot more because that is what happens in real games and makes you alot less predictable, then try playing the bot and if you think you can handle the bot with timing resonably well try adding some more variation and also try letting the bot get items powerups etc a few times so that you can learn to follow items even if you are not picking them up.
Ok I got timing down what next?
Timing is a very important skill, the more you can time the better but to do it well you need to be able to do it as a habit and not really having to think about it much while playing because there are more important things to worry about like knowing where your enemy is. Once you have reached a descent stage I would recommend developing various strategys for different circumstances using the timing you have learned and also trying to time more items that are some importance for you or keeping from your enemy like health, shards etc.
Conclusion
Well thats the basics to learning timing, in the end it comes down to experience for some it may take alittle longer some shorter but the more you put into the basics the better the result and the more you will get out of it, but if you do you will be winning more games and if your team can do this well winning more team games! if you have any questions you can at or contact me by my icq number 2539006.
