Written by Jon Newton, better known as Ender on the field o' ice.
With some additions by
Andrew Yeh (Christoffel)
Ken. Hanson (Mirrorshade)
Note: The above was written some time ago. The current server code has walls permeable to ships only in one direction - moving back onto the ice from the sidelines. To get to the sidelines in the first place, send puck the message "sitout". The goal walls are permeable to ships in both directions.
When you shoot the puck, the puck flies off in the direction of your ship's heading. For accurate shooting at long distances, it is best to change your ship's heading by clicking on a destination on the GALACTIC map. This is the map on your right side; it shows the entire hockey rink.
Many things can go wrong when you try to shoot the puck. A common mistake happens when you are tractoring something or pressoring another person. Hitting the pressor button once only turns off an activated pressor or tractor. Therefore, you must hit the key a second time to actually pressor the puck. Also, BE SURE that your pointer is on the puck when you pressor. If not, you might pressor another ship.
If other ships are close to you, and tractoring the puck, you may not be able to shoot the puck. You can only shoot the puck if you are closer to it than the enemy ship. Figuring our these nuances is best done through practice.
Mirrorshade adds:
Note that unlike phasors, tractors/pressors are not vector based. In other words, if the mouse is not directly over a target when you hit the tractor key, you are going to get the ship that is closest to the mouse pointer, not the ship whose direction is closest to the direction of the mouse pointer from your ship. This can lead to some unexpected situations, for example:
| Ig | x | O1 | K9 |
(Where Ig is puck, x is the mouse pointer, O1 is you, and K9 is some enemy.) Assume that everything here is within tractor range. Since you have the pointer over toward the puck, you might think that puck would be tractored here; however, ship K9, on the other side of you from both the puck and your pointer, is actually closer to the pointer, and so it is the enemy ship that you would tractor, not the puck.
Checking, in my opinion, is killing someone who is an immediate threat to puck control. It is a good thing, and a safe policy, but not necessarily the best thing. In this case, the waste of fuel and giving the enemy a nice new ship, should be outwieghed by the risk of losing the puck. For example, checking a goalie so you can score a goal is good, as is checking an enemy in front of your goal who is going to score.
Crippling is the best case scenario when it comes to hurting people. If an enemy scout has 74 out of 75 damage on their hull, then that is reason to smile. Essentially, the enemy team has lost a player, because a warp 1 scout is useless. That scout is in the penalty box o' pain until he can repair to a decent warp speed. Unless your better judgement tells you to check, this should be your goal when firing a torp or phaser.
For the same reason killing others is bad, suicide can be very handy. If you are crippled, or just low on fuel, drop those shields and become Pac-man. Most often, it is a good thing when you die. Also, be ready to det those torps that you can't run into on purpose; sometimes, a little damage is all you need.
Mirrorshade adds:
A useful bit of information to know is that five SC torps will cripple a shielded undamaged SC. (This assumes the enemy does not det.) Count your torps. Also, if you want to know whether an enemy ship is crippled or not, look at their speed. If they are moving at warp 4 or slower, then one more torp will likely kill them; if they are moving warp 5 or faster, you can safely pump another SC torp into them.
Notice also that if suicide is good for you if you are crippled, you should watch out for crippled enemy ships trying to suicide with you. In general, stay well away from any enemy ship that is crippled.
A proper goalie should meet the attacker away from the goal. If you simply stay between the two sides of the goal, the attacker can get close enough to shoot the puck right through you and score, no matter how strong your tractors are.
When the puck is shot at you, be able to turn quickly and move with the puck as you tractor it. The closer you are, the more your tractors slow down the puck. (Mirrorshade adds: We are still waiting for confirmation of this "closer = more tractor slowing" conjecture on Ender's part.)
Finally, be able to phaser and fire torps at the same time you are tractoring. Your first priority should be to tractor the puck; lock on with tractors and then worry about blasting people (if you can't do both). Also, if a scout is dribbling at you at warp 12, throw some torps at him; they don't dodge well at max warp. :)
The main purpose of centering is to outflank the goalie. Eventually, the goalie, if the goalie is smart is going to have to commit to one of the posts (a post is one the the sides of the goals). At that point, at least one of your teammates should be waiting in the center to catch your pass. Their position should be such that the path which the puck must travel does NOT come too close to the goalie's tractors. The case may be that the receiver is BEHIND the passer, which is perfectly alright. When a proper center is made, the receiver just shoots the puck into the goal a point out of the goalie's reach.
Being able to travel safely within the center simply means you have more flexibility on how to move the puck to the enemy goal. Therefore, it is more difficult for the enemy to defend against you. Centering is simply a part of good passing, which is as much a receiver's responsibility as it is the passer's.
If you clear the puck to the center and the enemy gets it, you have granted them a very good position close to your goal. Even if it looks safe, someone might kill an enemy and that enemy resurrects in front of your clear.
While in a scout, moving at warp 5, get on top of the puck, and then set your heading to where you want to go. Hit warp 12. When the puck is just about to move out of shooting range, shoot the puck and immediately tractor the puck. Continue tractoring the puck until it slows down to about warp 12 or 13. Then just coast along with the puck until it is about to go out of pressor range again, and shoot it.
When dribbling at fast warps, you must be careful not to deflect your own shots. Let the puck get in front of you before you tractor. Also, when you are tractoring a fast puck, your ship is moving faster than its max warp. Expect the puck to jump forward a little when you release it.
Dribbling is probably the most important thing to learn in hockey. Someone who is good at dribbling can simply make the puck go wherever they want it any time they want (fuel permitting). ;)
Christoffel writes:
[After mastering the dribbling exercise above, the next step is to learn how to turn while dribbling. In a scout, coast along just behind the puck. When puck slows down to warp 10 or 11, hit warp 8 and change your heading by about 45 degrees. When your heading change is almost complete, hit warp 12, and continue to dribble. If you time things correctly, your ship can remain within shooting range of the puck for the duration of the heading change. This sense of timing is quite tricky and takes a bit of practice to do reliably.
My favorite dribble exercise is to take the puck from midcourt, to dribble it around the backside of the goal, and to shoot a goal. Try to keep the puck within tractor range at all times, and to use less than one tank of fuel.] -- ayeh@mit.edu
Actaully, the drop pass is a solid tactic. On a run to the enemy goal, the leader (who has control of the puck) simply leaves the puck behind if a teammate is following. The leader can get open for a good pass or check an enemy that's in the way (hopefully the goalie). The drop pass should be used, if possible, when the leader has the choice of either going through enemy traffic or stopping and waiting for receivers to get into pasition. The drop pass keeps at least one receiver ahead of the puck.
As for winning the faceoff, you simply have to be lucky and good. If you are close, just shoot it to where you had planned. If not, tractor the puck, try to get on top of it, and try to check the enemy who has the puck. You should be as close as possible to the midcourt line without being caught offsides. Finally, you should fly slow so you can turn and maneuver (i.e. warp 4 in a scout); some people simply stop at the faceoff and wait, which may not be a half bad idea. It is also worth considering putting one big ship (CA or BB) on the faceoff who can tear the puck away from about anyone and pass it off to an offensive scout.
After the faceoff, you should be on the side of the rink that has the puck. DO NOT commit to an offensive position until you know that your team has puck control. IMO, alot of the people that do this are nothing more than cherry pickers hoping for some easy DI. Defensive play is just as important as offense, assuming you care about winning.
I know this sounds cheesy, but seconds or fractions thereof almost always make a difference in a fast break. If you pause for even a second, often, a warp 12 scout has just turned your fast break into a chore.
First, you learn to recognize whether a pass to you can actually reach you without being intercepted. If there are several enemies between you and the passer, you are most likely in a useless position. Find where the holes are in the enemy defense and get there, even if it would require passing backwards!
Yes, even backwards passes are useful. At the very least, it forces the defense to shift positions. While they are shifting, holes might open up to pass through. Also, it might be a good way of getting around slow defenders (i.e. BB goalies).
Finally, recognize what ships the enemy is flying and who's flying them. Passing through a scout or two isn't too hard, but passing through a BB is nearly impossible. Similarly, ensigns are easier to pass through than fleet captains.
Here is how to do it with a scout: Stop at the top of your home planet (Orion or Klingus) so that your shields are just touching the planet. When you have 8 or 9 seconds left, hit warp 12 and head straight for midcourt. You should reach midcourt just as the puck appears.
To counter grunking, you simply have one person stay back at your home planet for the faceoff (which is a good policy for any situation). The rest of the people faceoff like normal. If the grunk is a success, then the person who is back simply catches the puck. If the grunk fails, the grunking team is really hurting, because their grunker has to slow down, turn around, and head back home to defend. This might sound trivial, but the grunking team has essentially lost a player during a very critical time of the game.
Mirrorshade writes:
However, if noone is threatening to steal the puck from you or kill your ship, take enough time to make certain that you pass well.
A common offensive strategy is to dribble past the goal, and then shoot it to the post where hopefully other attackers will be. Be ready to use it and defend against it. However, if possible, it is always good to pass around the defenders and dribble to the other end of the goal. When you have scouts versus a slow BB goalie, this is a very real option.
For example, if you are crippled but you could delay an enemy fast break for a second or two, do not repair. It is a judgement call, but too often there are players who are repairing or refueling when their team really needs them.
In case you hadn't realized, ships turn very slowly at max warp. Always be aware of your speed and turn rate; always know what they ought to be and make the proper adjustments.
Also, if you are heading at the wall, it is often faster to do a bounce pass than to catch the puck and turn around. I can't stress it enough: second(s) matter.
Except for rotate galaxy, I consider it a must to have the above functions. While I never used rotate galaxy in classic trek, I am very used to a certain orientation in hockey.
As far as keys, you should remap them to something you are comfortable with. Most importantly, tractors and maxwarp should be remapped to handy keys (shift t is terrible when you are trying to wrestle away a puck). Here's what I use:
| #BUTTON AND KEYMAP | ||
|---|---|---|
| keymap: | g% Dv`xXXxDeeErh[r | |
| buttonmap: | 1T2p3k | |
Yes, I remapped tractors to my mouse button. Since I can continuously torp with the t key, torping with the left mouse button was pointless (although now continuous mouse exists).
As for the client I use, I do play paradise on ocassion, so I'm currently using paradise 2.3 for all my netreking needs. COW is worth checking out too, since it has hockey lines by Michael Kantner. These are lines drawn where the planets define boundaries. Note: patch 13 of paradise now has hockey lines.
Whatever configuration you setup, make sure it is a smart one. After you get used to it, it is very hard to switch to a new one.
Mirrorshade adds:
Also, my macro key is "b". This explains why I have some macros mapped to the b key; my finger is right in that region anyway. Also note that the "f" and "E" macros have been broken into several lines here, but should be all on the same line in your .netrekrc file.
A better fake though, is to act like you drop it. Say a defender is hanging back enough so that you can't simply pass right through with. To lure him in so that he is too close, start dribbling towards them. Rather than shoot, however, you drop it and keep moving forward a bit. Make sure you can beat them back to the puck though. Usually, they'll think you dropped it on accident and go charging after the puck. All you do is get back first and then pass it off without that joker interfering.
The really good players or hockey masters simply have an intuition on where the puck will be passed or where holes might form. The best way to develope this feel is to play alot and watch the galactic map as often as you can. At least one good thing about being a goalie is that you can often sit and watch the action and see how plays are shaped on the galactic.
So, crippling and taking these types of people out of the game is invaluable. Learn who they are; they generally have ranks of fleet captain or higher. Because of their noteriety, some will often come in as guests or under new names so they look like ensigns. So, learn their login names too.
Here is my opinion of who the hockey masters are (I may forget a few. Sorry, don't mean to offend anyone)(very dated)- (This list has been added to by several people at different times.)
Also, there are alot of up-and-comers. Just take notes on who's a real threat and deal with them accordingly. Basically, if they are a fleet captain or better, mess them up. There is no such thing as fake rank in hockey.
After you're killed, you come back in a beast of a ship like a BB or CA. Then you can take the pass and score or check the goalie for one of your team mates.
Of course, Olson half-heartedly claimed it was intentional, so since then Olson Maneuvers are required to be called before the shot is made or else it is a slop shot. ;) I can think of three Olson Maneuvers I have tried, and only one which has worked. So basically it is a trick to be used against inexperienced goalies with fast reflexes when passing isn't an option.
When you res, your new position is basically at the same heighth as your old position. However, you are relatively far to the left or right of your position. You have a 50-50 chance of going left or right. This can come in handy in desperate situations.
My favorite trick is when I'm trying to score but don't have anyone to pass to. I wait for people to shoot at me, shoot the puck sideways (in front of the goal, and then commit suicide (be sure that all of your torps are detted). About half the time, you'll resurect by the puck; you have passed to your future self. Then you score and listen to people whine. ;)
This also comes in handy on defense. Say someone shoots a puck at your goal, but away from you. Simply die, and come back in as a BB and use those MONSTER TRACTORS. This strategy has saved many a goal, and is a good reason why you should shoot the puck into the goal on as close to a perpendicular path as possible.
This is a fairly reliable trick. Use it in desperate situations where you need to be left or right. Also, be ready for such tricks. If someone has died and they might res close, hold off your pass until they come in.
First, you need to be fairly close to the goalie, and the goalie needs to be fairly close to the opening of the goal. Then, you tractor the puck close to you, lock onto the goalie, and shoot the puck. Just out of reflex, the goalie will tractor the puck (which is best for deflections). Hopefully, the puck will deflect off of the goalie and into the goal.
I've tried this once and had it work perfectly, but I had seen it happen before in INHL games (although I don't think it was intentional). This is a desperation shot that depends on alot of luck. I used it because I had no one to pass to and several angry defenders were heading my way.
The rover plays far forward, even as far as midcourt. His job is basically to keep the puck on the enemy's side of the rink. He intercepts the puck and kicks it back to a teammate before his team ever has to fall back to play defense. The rover will sometimes get burnt on fast breaks, but this pre-emptive type of defense not only boosts offense in a big way, but keeps down enemy scoring just as well as a regular goalie.
In the fall 1993 INHL season, Dreadnought had the best defensive stats hands down, and did this as an aggressive rover. In thinner games, a good rover beats a good goalie.
Because Teg had pressored, the puck was off to my side a little. When I shot, I wound up side-arming it, and with Teg still pushing it, the shot went wide and bounced off the side of the goal. Moral of the story: if someone is moving in for the kill, your pressors can be your best defense.
I think that pressors/tractors can't go through cloaked ships. Therefore, you can interfere with dribbling, shooting, and catching while cloaked. Then you can sit back and enjoy listening to your victims bitch about packet loss. ;) (Mirrorshade clarifies: If you are cloaked, sitting between another ship and the puck, that other ship will still be able to tractor or pressor the puck. However, they will not be able to shoot the puck, because you are closer to the puck than they are.)
SC: Probably the ship of choice, scouts in hockey mirror cruisers in classic netrek. This is because speed kills in hockey, and nothing is faster than a scout. Also, the manueverability of the scout means it can react the quickest to passes and changes in the game. While it can't take much punishment or deal it out, dieing and getting in a new ship doesn't take long. Even if it can't commit suicide, crippled scouts don't take long to repair and are still fairly fast when crippled.
DD: Probably the least used ship. It is fast and manueverable, with more punch and survivability than a scout. However, people tend to opt for the CA which is only one warp slower. The DD does make an excellent rover as I've seen Hockey Ikki demonstrate.
CA: While this is often like a flashing neon sign that says "TWINK", the CA can be a good ship. Dreadnought uses a CA almost exclusively, and is as effective as anyone in it. The only reason people associate it with twinks is because new players fresh from bronco trek hop into CAs. The CA does best in crowded games, because it is tough, deals out lots of damage, is fairly quick, and has very good tractors. In games with fewer players, the CA tends to get beat by scouts. The CA can make a good all around ship, but it does best as a rover or goalie.
BB: Two words: MONSTER TRACTORS. If the BB didn't have such glorious tractors, it would prabably get removed from the game like that assault ship. Warp 8 is alot worse than it sounds; the BB's manueverability and acceleration are terrible (and these are at least as important as max speed). But the BB's tractors have incredible reach and strength. All these traits have fated the BB to being a goalie ship and not much more. While the SC, DD, and CA can each be used as an all around ship, the BB's terrible mobility prevent from doing the same. However, as a goalie, or in carnage-fests at a goal, the BB is the ship of choice. They are tough to kill and nothing but another BB is going to steal the puck from you. This also makes them good at faceoffs. There, they have the tractors to wrestle the puck from anyone, and the survivability to actually pass it off before they die. Despite being a brutish type of ship, playing a BB well is hard and takes a great deal of finesse. Mirrorshade adds:
In a recent INHL season, Felix (sunscreamer) has demonstrated that some of the above is not entirely true; there is a place in hockey for a position known as the Forward BB. In this position, the player stays in their BB not just for the faceoff, but for most of the action (only changing to a SC if killed far away from the action). By staying mostly in the center of the field, the Forward BB can provide a safe passing point for the team (enemy SC ships do not stay alive/uncrippled for very long inside the BB's phaser range), and with the monster tractors can often interfere with enemy attempts to move across the center of the ice. Be warned, though: While Felix is very good in this position, it is apparently very difficult to play Forward BB well, and most players in a BB are simply left well behind the action.
AS and SB: These two ships have been removed from hockey. If you ever find yourself in one of them on a hockey server, the server is broken. :)
Summary: All the ships are useful. Be prepared to switch ship types during games or during plays. While I play scout most of the time, I often switch to a CA or BB during a point.
Passing range is roughly to the edge of your tactical.Actually, depending on the receiver's speed and how open the pass is, it is possible to effectively pass to someone from 1/2 tactical away (mostly if they are moving at high warp away from you and the puck) to two tacticals away (either if the pass is wide open, or if the teammate is maxwarping into the pass). However, for most slow speed passing, the edge of the tactical provides the radius for the effective "passing circle". If the receiver is much closer than this range, the puck will be going too fast when it passes them to catch it; all they could hope for is a deflection. If the receiver is much farther than this range, then puck will have slowed considerably by the time it approaches them, and an enemy player will most likely have had time to grab it before it finally gets to them.
Whether you are trying to catch a pass or intercept an enemy's pass, you want to be somewhere on that fuzzy circle which indicates passing range. If you and an enemy ship are on the same passing vector, you are better off if you are closer to the puck/passer than they are; just be careful not to wander too close into deflect territory.
Notice that when talking about "passing range", this also applies to "shooting on goal range". However, since the goal is not going to be maneuvering to help "catch" the puck from you, you really want to be much closer than you would be for passing to a teammate; in general, don't even think about shooting on the goal unless you are about 3/4 tactical away (i.e. the front edge of the goal is about 3/4 of the way from your ship to the edge of your tactical) and you want to be even closer than that if enemy ships are at all between you and the goal. If you are farther than this, then you really shouldn't be shooting on goal yet; either dribble or pass to a teammate to start maneuvering the puck until someone on your team is close enough to shoot on goal.
If your teammate is not wide open, then pass the puck to the side of them farthest from enemy ships. For some reason, there is a strong tendency to pass the puck between your teammate and the enemy covering them. This is probably because the evil "move the puck toward the goal" meme kicks in, and so you try to pass a little in front of your teammate to put them and the puck closer to the goal; however, the enemy is likely closer to the goal than your teammate is, and so you have just passed as much to the enemy as you have to your teammate. This is bad.
Remember the key idea: The most important thing to do is to make certain that your team retains control of the puck. So long as this is taken care of, your team will eventually maneuver the puck toward the goal, and eventually a teammate will get open to receive the puck for a clear shot on the goal.
Some simple rules concerning team play:
It is easiest to break situations down into three general cases to consider:
IF THE ENEMY HAS THE PUCK, THEN COVER THEIR PASSES. The one exception is your team's defender, who should be covering the straight shot on your goal. Inexperienced teams repeatedly make the mistake of doubling or tripling their coverage of the shot on goal, leaving the opposing team with easily open teammates to pass to. Look at the galactic, and see which enemy ships are open. Try to figure out how your team can shuffle around best to cover all of those ships, and then do your part in that shuffle.
IF YOUR TEAM HAS THE PUCK, THEN GET OPEN. You want to have players situated around your teammate with the puck; in the best situation, your teammate with the puck has teammates in front, behind, and to the sides of them. Getting open requires a lot of dancing around in your ship; fake, dodge, weave, cloak, all the while trying to evade the enemy ship that should be covering you. Killing or crippling your shadow can frequently help (but do not kill if the enemy ship is on the same level as your teammate with the puck, i.e. to right or left, or you risk having him res on your puck handler).
Avoid bunching up with your teammates. A common mistake is for several players to be trying to get open directly in front of the puck; this makes it possible for a single enemy player to cover both of you. One good way of visualizing whether you are bunching up is to imagine drawing lines from the puck through each of your teammates; if the angle between your line and a teammates is less than 45 degrees, then "orbit" the puck to open up that passing option more.
There is one case in which you are not trying to get open, and that is when you have multiple enemy ships covering you. If there really are several ships covering the pass to you, then this means that one of your teammates must be open; you do not want to shake off a shadow and give him the idea that he could go cover the open guy. This happens especially frequently in front of the enemy goal. I will frequently go sit on the posts and accumulate two or three defenders, knowing that my teammates will not pass to me but will instead use the open men to pass wide around the little cluster around me. Dance around just enough to look like a threat and to keep them occupied and let your teammates do their part.
In general, if your teammate is not passing to you, it probably means that he doesn't think you are open. Not passing is his way of telling you to get more open than you currently are.
IF YOU HAVE THE PUCK, THEN CONCENTRATE MOST ON MAKING CERTAIN THAT YOUR TEAM RETAINS CONTROL OF THE PUCK. The most common error that inexperienced players (and teams) make is to fire off the puck toward the goal the moment they get it, without considering how likely the enemy is to stop that shot. It is as though new players start with a rule in their heads that says "So long as I shoot the puck forward or toward the goal, I have done something good." However, this is not a good rule. The rules that should replace this thinking are:
Of course, the enemy does not always give you the liberty of taking your time with a shot; they will almost certainly be trying to mug you. Notice, however, that if they send multiple ships to mug you, then one of your teammates must be uncovered and you may be able to pop off a quick pass to them before you are staring at MOTD. In the very worst case situation, the enemy will be doing exactly what they should, and have one ship covering each of your teammates, with their remaining ship harassing you. There are no easy options here. (One of your teammates should be falling back to be behind you in this case, so that they can delay the enemy break in case you lose the puck.) If the enemy does rush you and the puck, remember that this makes them vulnerable to letting you dribble the puck toward the goal yourself. The likelyhood is, though, that you will have to make a panic shot with the puck. Just try to pass it closer to your teammates than to any enemy ships (as opposed to passing straight toward the enemy goal but into a cluster of enemy and teammates).
One small aspect of finesse which can help you here is to learn how to pass the puck from your galactic rather than from the tactical. All of the vital information at this point in time is available on your galactic, so this should be where your focus is. The trick is to be moving slowly enough (around speed 5) that when you give your ship a direction you can assume that it is pointing there almost immediately. When clicking the direction of my ship, I have found it useful to click on the actual location on the galactic where I expect my teammate's course to intersect with the puck, although locking onto the teammate themself or a meaningful planet along the line where the puck is to go can be useful as well. Then, move the mouse to on top of you and the puck, and pound your pressor key. Pickup is a good place to practice passing from the galactic, since you are almost certain to be getting mugged during the normal pickup rugby-style of play.