How do I Strafe Properly as a Soldier? (Apologies for the stupid question)

Hi,

I've clocked almost 60 hrs in soldier gameplay, and I'm not proud to say that I am still a terribly atrocious soldier - when I mean bad I mean people are happy to see me on the other team because I feed them points, that kind of bad.

I have a main problem, which is I don't seem to be able to strafe properly. When I first bought the game I walked in a straight line, but now I have gotten used to moving mainly with the A and D buttons and using the mouse to change direction (is that what "strafing" is about?). But even with moving left and right, my friends comment that I'm very recognizable and easy to hit because I "walk in a straight line" most of the time. Apparently, I can "strafe" decently when there are no enemies but when there are enemies, I start to screw up.

They say strafing comes naturally as a player because you will want to do that if you want to be avoided being hit. But I don't think it's natural at all. In fact when facing the enemy I have to kind of remind myself to constantly move left and right, but my "natural instinct" is just to point the crosshair towards my enemy and shoot. Therein lies another problem, with forced moving left and right I find it more difficult to coordinate the crosshair more properly.

With this problem with strafing I am vulnerable to every class, including pyros and scouts who are supposed to have low HP. One moment I see a pyro right in front of me and my whole body is on fire, the next moment he is behind me and in 2 seconds I'm dead. Same for scout who seems to be all over the place and I can't get them in my line of sight, with or without my lame attempts at "strafing".

Apart from strafing....

Actually, there is another related problem which I have which is aiming. If I enter a new area, a level ground, with a medic and a demoman in front of me, I probably can't kill any. My rocket aiming sucks! The demoman just moves left and right and surround me with stickies. May I know in such a situation what would you do?

Finally, may I ask how should the general movements as a soldier be? For example, in dustbowl, I tend to go to enclosed areas, and do the "emerge, launch a rocket, duck, emerge, launch a rocket, duck" sequence. But for most other maps, like gravel pit and badlands, which is in wide open space, such things don't seem to be possible. I enter an area with snipers demomen, heavy, medics, and I get either sentry gunned, sniped, stickied or backstabbed in a matter of a couple seconds.

Is there any servers in which I can spectate soldiers play, or any soldier gameplay videos I can watch (apart from those in youtube)?

I'm sorry if all the questions are so vague; I can't pinpoint the exact problem myself. But if anyone understands what I'm trying to say and can help, I will greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!

Perhaps you could attach a demo of your play?

All the soldier videos I've seen have been of very strong soldiers showing off - lots of rocket jumps, shotgun work and top-level play; it's awesome stuff, but I'm not sure it would be that useful to you at the moment.

Have you tried just spectating other soldiers in-game?   

Go here: http://www.cadred.org/Media/Demos/

There are a bunch of sourceTV demos of extremely good teams playing. Download any of those demos (especially any with pandemic, excello, or 4kings playing). You can watch any of the players, but you should concentrate on the soldiers obviously. Watch it to get an idea how they approach certain situations. Of course they're good, but they also always try to put themselves in the most advantageous position to begin with.

As for aiming, well the only thing you can do there is practice

A few tips:

- Change direction constantly when in a firefight (moving back and forth, side to side, hopping).  The more unpredictable your movements, the less you'll die.
- Look around and be aware of what is going on around you. You'll be amazed how often you'll catch someone trying to sneak up on you.
- Learn how to rocket jump to close distance with your enemy or retreat quickly.  It's easy to dodge rockets fired straight at the enemy from range, but harder if they're coming from above or five feet away.
- Lead your rockets (i.e. aim where they're going to be when your slow-moving missile arrives, not where they are right when you shoot)
- Don't forget to switch to shotgun if you've hit the other guy a couple times, he might be simple to finish off, but it could take a split second too long to reload your launcher.

Apart from that, all you can do is keep playing and practicing, you'll improve with time.

A tip, when you die don't get angry at the other players.  Get angry at yourself, for not moving around more.  Soon the anger will grow and throw you into a rage as you play, wanting to make them all bow before your shear power.  And in time the power will grow and you will then "pop"  and turn into Octon.

Thanks for all the tips guys!

Thanks for the link to all the demos, that's what I needed too! I have one question though, how do you record such demos in which you can view other players POV, because when I just tried to record a demo of a game I was playing I could only record my own POV. Or is that not possible unless you host a server yourself?

Those demos are sourceTV demos, which is why you can see everything and everyone. I think there's a way to do something similar in your own demos, but I don't know how.

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You just need more practice. Eventually you won't need to focus on the crosshair.

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You need a higher sensitivity.

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Approaching a Demoman is risky. He'll kill you if you don't rocket jump at him, but your Medic will be alone if you do. Strafing won't save you either way. You need to go in with a third person to kill them.

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Being successful in pubs as a Soldier simply requires finding a Medic and protecting him. But you should play some scrims as well. Play in our weekend pug games and you'll learn how to play competitively. If you can play competitively, you can dominate pubs.

There are so much that could be said about this. Probably enough for a book..

To start with, the computer hardware and the internet connection plays a big role.
You have to lower your computer settings until you can get good fps even in the most demanding situations.
Your mouse and mousepad also plays a big role. For a long time I played with a crap mouse and didnt think it mattered, but when I bought a good gaming mouse and mousepad I realised how important this is.

To be able to make quick turns (which is needed if for examples scouts are running around you)  I play on a quite high sensitivity (13.1).

When you attack enemies you should try to take them by surprise. If they dont know you are coming, most people run in straight lines and its easy to predict where they are going. Look for enemies which are busy with something else, like shooting at some of your teammates, and try to kill him. As a side effect you also help your teammate staying alive.
You should try to move around a lot and not walking in predictable patterns. Learning all forms of rocket jumping is very important, especially horizontal rocketjumps to transport you quickly around the map. Of course you loose health by doing this, therefore you should know where the medics and health packs are.
Another important thing that takes a lot of practice to master is to know when its time to retreat. You have to learn to estimate the strength of the enemies you face and decide if you can beat them or not. Usually it is also a good thing to walk together with some of your teammates when you attack. 

Regarding killing pyros you should try to shoot their feet so they fly up and when they land you hit them with another rocket. This is usually enough to kill them.
No strafing is necessary since the flamethrower will hit you anyway if they get close. If they use their shotgun strafing could perhaps help a bit.

Regarding Scouts you should be prepared to turn around quickly to follow the scouts movements and try to place a rocket where he will land.
Here you need high sensitivity on your mouse and have good reflexes to be able to follow and kill a good scout.

Regarding demomen I usually spam some rocket at him from a distance or if I really need to kill him I rocket jump past him and firing rockets at him while flying.
However good demomen can predict where you will land and place stickies there. They can also kill you while you are flying, so one has to be careful.

Regarding heavies, you should avoid facing a heavy directly. You should shoot some rockets, hide, reload, shoot again until he dies.

By the way, besides from strafing and running in unpredictable ways,you should also duck jump while doing it as much as you can, especially when you face another soldier, since they usually try too shoot at your feet. If you jump you will take much less damage. If I see a rocket coming against me I usually jump as a reflex. This has saved my life many times.

 

I want to know how I should be strafing during one on one battle. Should I be hopping alot but it will make my aim harder?