JUST A FEW OUTLAWS TIPS FOR NEW MULTIPLAYER PLAYERS

Disclaimer: Do what you like, this is just my personal take on it.

Pistol - Doc and Sanchez have best ones. James is worst. Rapid fire is less accurate than single fire, not good at long range. Single fire is more accurate and quite useful at longer range. Best use is to get close, hold trigger down and rapid fire all 6 while trying to keep the sights on (your target). That said, keep your distance from Mary and Two Feathers. Back off and fire. For that matter same with Bob if he has the double barrel loaded and up.

Rifle - James has the best. Only James and Doc come with them. Best technique with rifle in a battle is to hold trigger down (either one) and fire continuously while concentrating on the timing of it and trying to place your sights on target as it fires.

Shotgun - Mary comes with one. Best shotgun technique is to snap shoot. Takes practice, you quickly aim and fire then reload right away. You try to make the one shot count. Keep your distance from someone with one.

Double barrel - Bob comes with one. Good for longer range than shotgun, especially if firing both barrels at once. Keep your distance from someone with one.

Sawed-off - Very good at very close range only. Usually not included in maps or "outlawed", that is the host will declare the game "Marshal Law" which means don't use the vanishing cream, the badge or the sawed-off if there are any in the map. Should you accidentally get the cream or badge, announce it, like "oops I got the badge" then just go hide until it wears off or self-destruct or let somebody kill you.

Dynamite - Sanchez comes with it. Best used with targets in mind as opposed to tossing it out and hoping for the best. In other words, try to anticipate what the enemy is going to do about the time you toss it and it goes off. If you run and toss, it goes farther, if you run and jump and toss, it goes farther. And the longer you hold your arm cocked, the stronger the throw, up to a point. What I do is light a stick and THEN look for enemies, that way if I see somebody I can toss it and they won't have time to run away before it goes off. If I don't have an enemy around I throw the stick away before it goes off in my hand (hopefully). 

Here is a map you can goof off in and get a feel for the fuse timing... you'll see what I mean, just have your sound up... http://www.theoutlawdad.com/maps/modhole.zip
that fuse sound you hear in Modhole... the timing is the same as normal Outlaws, go practice it and get used to it, then when you play, think, "LIGHT one hundred, 2 one hundred, 3 one hundred, TOSS one hundred, BOOM". When you press the key or button to light it, that's your number 1 on the count, and it blows up on 5.

A tip on dynamite... if you can't see the stick, usually it can't hurt you. In other words put some construction (wall, building, door, cabinet, etc.) between you and the stick before it blows. Objects like trees, ammo boxes, plants, horses, cactus, rocks, etc. offer no protection from dynamite. They do stop bullets unless they are little things like baby cactus that might be "walk-through-able", that is they have no physical presence, you don't bump into them, you only see them.

Knife - Two Feathers comes with knives and he is the best with knives, mostly because his arm seems longer so he can stab from farther away. A thrown knife will spin you 90 degrees or so when it hits you, and it will damage and kill you but there is no score registered, and no dying sounds for some reason with thrown knives. Like with dynamite, the longer you hold your arm cocked (up to a point), the stronger the throw.

Gatling gun - One note on the gat... when you fire it with your usual rapid fire button you use for the pistol, the gat fires wrong, use the other fire button so the gat shoots fast, like a machine-gun sound. It's a mistake by LucasArts. So in most of my maps I make, I put a new gat file in so it doesn't matter which button you use, you get the correct firing mode.

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Sanchez - Comes with dynamite but no rifle. Is weak but is the fastest. Has very good pistol.
Doc - Is a very visible target but has very good pistol and comes with medbags and a rifle. Good for shooting from behind barriers with only the top of his hat showing. Excellent choice for new players. Get used to hitting your medbags as you take damage.
James - Has the best rifle, has good camo, is fast, medium tough but has lousy pistol. Best at longer ranges.
Two Feathers - Is tough, comes with knives, no rifle. Deadly in close quarters.
Mary - Tough, as though she comes with a boiler plate, comes with shotgun. Also good choice for new players due to toughness.
Bob - Comes with double barrel but few shells, is slow but tough. Pistol is good for longer ranges in slow fire. Not good for beginners.

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Some strategy - based on regular weapons, not Mguns or modified weapons maps.

Don't stand still. Go sideways (strafe). Use run all the time but remember to catch your breath or your aim and speed go very bad.
REPEAT: When your stamina bar is low, your aim gets terrible. And you can't run as fast.
If you see a guy, shoot him NOW and keep shooting until he goes down. Don't just cruise around taking potshots. Pick a target and shoot NOW and keep on shooting. When you fire, reload right away. Try to keep the cylinder or magazine full.
If you hear a gunfight, try to kill them while they are wounding each other and not paying attention to you.
Go stock up, don't just take off into the war, get medbags and plates and ammo first. Learn where they are in maps.
Learn the start positions. Each map has fixed positions where you respawn. Some have many some have fewer. You can look up and see "so and so got killed" and expect them to come from a respawn point, you will get to know where the enemy might come from, and where the action usually is. 
Keep your distance from Mary and Two Feathers. Back off and fire. For that matter same with Bob if he has the double barrel loaded and up.

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Some strategy for Mguns or modified weapons maps.... (By the way, Mguns is not a hack, it's made the legal way. In fact you can't get in a game with them turned on unless the host has them turned on also.)

You don't have to find them, you come with them built-in when they are turned on.
Remember it's only the rifle and pistol and dynamite thats hopped-up in Mguns. Basically it's a "who sees who first" game with Mguns. Stocking up doesn't really help too much. "Drawing their fire" to find out where somebody is, only gets you killed. Respawn and hide NOW. If you see an enemy don't give him a break, FIRE NOW. The Mguns pistol is almost as good as the rifle for normal ranges. I made Mguns but I don't love it. I didn't make it for me. Some maps with modified weapons built-in have anywhere from one (usually rifle) to all weapons modified.
With some maps you have to find the super rifle or whatever, in some you come with them.

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Shoot some bullet "groups" and shotgun "patterns"... that is go in a map and shoot the various guns from various distances at a wall and then walk up and look at the bullet "holes" and you can see how accurate certain guns are and how tight the patterns are with shotguns at different ranges.
Also practice shooting stuff. I can recommend a few maps with lots of targets but one good practice thing is to go in Sanctuary and practice shooting the tree while strafing around it in a circle.

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The scoring with dynamite... the player who causes it to go off is the player who gets the points if any kills are made. In other words if I light one and toss it but you shoot the stick, you get the credit (or you get a point deducted if you self-destruct or the explosion kills your teammate).
Or if you toss a stick and I toss a stick in close proximity, if mine goes off first and sets yours off by chain reaction, I get the credit for any kills by your stick or sticks.

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For Multiplayer playing....
In your in-game Options - go to Other Options - 

Headwave.............................OFF	Invincibility........OFF
Auto aim...............................ON	Auto pitch..........OFF
Map rotate............................ON	Map overlay.......ON
Crosshair...............................ON	Pitch return.........OFF
Disable cutscenes...............ON	Tinting................OFF
Gore.......................................ON

If you don't use a joystick for Outlaws but you have one coneccted to the 'puter, go to Joystick options in Outlaws and disable it, uncheck "Active".

I'm not a D3d user expert like some guys. I use 3dfx Glide but I do test maps in D3d. However...

In your D3d Options in the Outlaws Launcher under Select Video Mode, Advanced button... it would be fine to have them all checked except for Render everything in one pass. Now, if you want more speed for multiplayer you can turn off Maintain all sprite directions and Translucency, and any others. Play with it and you'll see what each one does in the game, and see if you get more speed. You can type olfps while in the game and on your screen you will see your framerate displayed.

Now in single player, you aren't trying to win a game against humans, you're there for the enjoyment of bein' in the old west and a thinking man would have more options on for the full experience.

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Just for the heck of it I'm going to tell you my key setup...

Mouse in right hand, left button is rapid fire, middle button is slow fire and right button is reload.

I don't use the letter keys over there with the z, x, a, s and such like earthlings. I play over on the arrow keys.
My left ring finger lives on the shift (run) key and also goes up for the enter (medbags) key.
My left index finger lives on the up arrow (forward) key. Also used on the down key. 
My left thumb is used for the other three arrow keys, down, left and right. My left and right on those is strafe (sidestep), not turn. Turn is with the mouse.
I switch weapons on the numpad number keys. 
I jump and crouch with - and + on numpad. I take my right hand off the mouse to do that usually. I can slam the - key up there on the corner without having to look. (My primary jump and crouch are on foot pedals from a racing wheel.)
Sometimes with a gatling gun I will fire with the keyboard while just aiming with mouse. More accurate due to not having to use scroll wheel button. Reason for that is what we said up there under Gatling gun.
If you are like me, you can't aim the mouse and fire well with the scroll wheel button. So put your rapid fire on the good ol' left button. That's the one you'll use most.
I also have the rifle and pistol on the delete and end keys and gat on the \ key. It's a little faster to bring up those often used guns, I just reach up with my left middle finger.

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Learn the "crouch-jump"... such as getting into a small window, you crouch and hold crouch and then hit jump and go forward with arrrow key.

When shooting at a guy above you, aim high. When shooting at a guy below you, aim low. The more the angle the more high or low you need to aim. Also sometimes it helps to lead the target, just a tiny bit, like you would a clay pigeon.

If by chance you have a Ps2 mouse, go to Windows or Logitech or whatever options and put the Ps2 rate all the way up on 200. Then you'll need to readjust the mouse movement speed.

If you are in a dark map and yeah it sure is pretty but you're not having any fun and you're getting creamed, use alt - and alt = to change the gamma. Known as "gamma cheating".

Go to your Display Properties in Windows and go to your video card settings and disable vertical sync for higher frames per second (FPS).
Put your Adapter refresh rate on Optimal.

The only way to get good is to play players who are better than you, so don't get discouraged. And it takes time. We were all as lousy as you when we started. Just kidding, but we were all newbies once.

Bottom line: Don't stand still, try to move sideways and while shooting too. If you see a guy, SHOOT and keep on shooting. When you see plates and medbags and ammo and shotguns etc., GET them, even if just to keep them out of the hands of somebody else. Try to learn our dastardly tactics. Watch out for freshly killed Sanchez's, there might be a lit stick there. Above all, have fun!

Molycoat.