Herein I will discuss the all important topic of key bindings, without which you cannot reach a level of online mastery. I will also touch on some strategy topics, pointers that will keep you alive longer or disallow you from being the object of much laughter from more seasoned players. (a.k.a. things to do to avoid being labeled a n00b.) Known issues in AoT v3.3.2 will be addressed last.

First, however, if you're playing with the retail version or the Unreal Tournament mod release, you need to upgrade to TO AoT v3.3.2 which came out over the fall. You can find these updates at the offical site linked above. Make sure you get the update for your kind of mod: retail or Unreal.

Tactical Ops Key Binds: Hints and Tips

Both the buy and voice menus have relatively unpublicized command shortcuts you can set in your configuration file. The file you'll need to edit is either User.ini for the commercial version or TOUser.ini for the Unreal Tourament mod version. In either case, you'll find it under the .\System\ subdirectory of your installation. Please backup this file (copy it to another location) before you begin modifying it. Also note many of the key bindings within can actually be modified from directly within the Options -> Preferences menu under the Controls tab while Tactical Ops is running.

The particular section of your User.ini file of interest here is the [Engine.Input] section. Here you will find game command aliases, many of which are free for your own usage, and key bindings to various commands. Briefly, it'll look a bit like this:

Aliases[0]=(Command="Button bFire | Fire",Alias=Fire)
Aliases[1]=(Command="Button bAltFire | AltFire",Alias=AltFire)
Aliases[2]=(Command="Axis aBaseY  Speed=+300.0",Alias=MoveForward)
...
LeftMouse=Fire
RightMouse=AltFire
MiddleMouse=s_kChangeFireMode
Tab=Type
Enter=InventoryActivate
Shift=ToggleHUDTeamInfo
...

Aliases will form the backbone of your easy to manage key mappings. There are slots for 40 aliases, and there are many open slots left with only 25 being used currently. Here you'll bind buy menu commands and teamsay messages for your teammates.

The best source for key bindings I have found is The Druids AOT Bindings, but that site seems to have gone away some time ago. Instead, I have found CTF's bindings page to be quite nice. It's pretty all inclusive and includes bindings, examples, and administrator console commands in a single convenient place. Sometimes the weapon names will differ slightly in the game, but it's still the same weapon load out your know and love.

Different people have different layouts, but I'll describe my keyboard layout for the sake of an example.

First, I have a laptop, so that rules out the use of the number pad, because I don't have one. With that in mind, on a QWERTY keyboard, I've defined the left side of the keyboard as the movement portion, the number keys as buy keys, and the function keys (F1-F12) as voice bindings. From within Tactical Ops, it is not possible to bind keys F1 through F10, but through editing your TOUser.ini file manually you can allocate them along with most other keys on your keyboard. It's useful to note that I have an optical three button Microsoft IntelliEye mouse, with a scroll wheel. I bind no less than five actions to it!

More specifically:

e - Forward
d - Backward
s - Strafe Left
f - Strafe Right
g - ThrowWeapon
a - Croutch
q - Reload Weapon In Hand
z - Use Item
r - TeamTalk
t - Talk
v - Toggle Buy Menu
space bar - Jump
Shift - ToggleHUDTeamInfo
Mouse Left Click - Fire
Mouse Right Click - Toggle Weapon Secondary
Mouse Center Click - Toggle Weapon Mode
Mouse Wheel Up - Next Weapon
Mouse Wheel Down - Previous Weapon

Battlefield Strategy

Know your enemy. I cannot emphasize this enough. Watch his movements. Learn the common strategies and approaches for each of the most common maps, and take advantage of them! It might take a few rounds to piece together what one or more players likes to do most, but once you know it can be a powerful ally. Personally I like to recon the first few rounds of a map and determine just what kind of opposition exists. Most maps have one or more observation points (or sniper death traps) which you can avail yourself of. Notice your enemy approaching (or defending), understand his motivation, and take full advantage.

Flank when possible. Make your opponent believe you wish to engage him in an endless shooting match, reload over reload, and instead attach from another angle.

Bait, and switch. When possible, you can use a confusing situation to your advantage. If you happen upon a teammate heading into a dangerous situtation, in the heat of battle your enemy might mistake your teammate for you, or assume you trotted off. Find a nice spot and wait a moment. The impatient opponent will run past, only to meet his destruction. (You might want to apologize to your teammate after you've used him, or her.)

Let your opponent arm you. Become effective with small arms. Extremely effective. When the time is right, you can collect additional weapons off the corpses of fallen opponents (or teammates, as the situation dictates). Soon, you will become quite wealthy and have your choice of weapons. Choice is good.

Get the drop with the MP5. Since the release of AoT 3.3.2, The MP5 is more powerful than ever. Take advantage of the punch it packs and catch your enemies off guard. Engage your opponents with your submachine gun, then trade up if necessary and finish him off. Or proceed to take down additional engaging opponents with your ready and loaded rifle.

Knife! You move much faster when you switch to your combat knife, even if you're running around with an M60. You can bring your weapons to bear on your opponents sooner and catch the unknowledgable opponent off guard by pushing the initial contact and engagement closer to the start of the round and in unexpected places!

Break contact. Sometimes, with your new found knowledge of your opponents' numbers and strength, you simply need to withdraw. Hitting your opponent and withdrawing is another excellent strategy to take advantage of the impatient opponent, who will chase you relentlessly to his own death.

Avoid Being a n00b

Know the terrain!

I cannot stress this enough. Play each map on single player at least once. If you like it, play it twenty or thirty times; or more. Learn every hiding spot. Seek out every sniping opportunity. Learn every back door. Most areas have two, three, or more directions of attack! Know the detonation locations on all maps (always two sites) where C4 is to be planted. Know all hostage locations on hostage maps. Be familar with special objectives on maps like TO-CIA, where you need to either rescue the hostages as Special Forces or hack into the CIA mainframe computer as Terrorists.

Always (sometimes) trade down!

Once you have enough money to buy a second tier weapon (sub machine gun or shotgun), it's possible to immediately trade down to your first (or an earlier) tier weapon and keep shooting. If the situation is advantageous, like your opponent only has earlier-tier weapons versus you, take advantage of the situation and nail him whilest he reloads! It's also useful to trade down to a second tier weapon if you're sniping and the baddies are getting too close for comfort. Sometimes, it makes sense to do just the opposite as the situation may dictate. Using second tier weapons to convince your opponent you are weakly armed is an effective strategy indeed.

Pick up better weapons!

Learn to quickly identify each weapon on a corpse. The last weapon and ammo in usage are all you can pick up, but often it's the best weapon the formerly live teammate or opponent possessed. If you already have a weapon in your inventory from the same tier as the weapon you've found, but yours sucks, throw it away and pick up the better gun! You can even switch to the Glock in this manner, and keep it, as Special Forces if you prefer it!

Never enable automatic reload!

It's possible to have Tactical Ops automatically reload your weapon after you've completely emptied your clip -- but don't do it! While you're auto-reloading, you cannot trade down to a lighter gun and shoot. You're a sitting duck! Also, you can't throw away partially spent clips if you both enable this and forget to bind a key to reload your weapon in hand.

Defuse the C4!

On missions where it's necessary to defuse a bomb planted by the Terrorists, like Assault on Verdon and Blister, the key to defusing the bomb is to hover over top of it and press and hold your use item key. A status bar will appear showing your progress. You're completely vunerable during this operation (you can abort by unpressing the key!) so make sure the area is secure or you're feeling lucky. (I tend to have better luck when I switch to my knife first.)

Plant the bomb!

On missions where you can plant a bomb, and you have it as a Terrorist, it's necessary to go to one of the bomb sites (see first point) and then, hovering over the bomb marker, press and hold your fire button with the bomb selected until it's set. You'll know when it's done. You'll be vunerable for about ten seconds while you plant it, but you can abort the process by releasing the fire key. Make sure the area's secured, first. Also, like any item, you can discard the bomb with the ThrowWeapon key.

Jump around!

Jump -- a lot. The easiest way to spot a newbie is to look for the players simply strolling about, feet firmly on the ground. Actually, though it looks silly, jumping makes you a harder target. It's also useful for signaling your location or acknowledgement, though typically the voice and taunt cues are used for that. Moreover, due to odd game physics you actually move a bit faster.

Be courteous, please!

It should go without saying, but try to be a courteous netizen while playing Tactical Ops online with others. Observe any rules on a server, don't cheat (silenced gun hacks, m60 cheats, ect), and don't grenade your teammates at the insertion point. Don't laugh at the newbies too much, either; next week one of them might mop the floor with you... (Seriously.)

Known Issues in Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror v3.3.2

Where'd my grenade go?

Once in a while, a grenade you're about to throw will get tossed by you before you actually release the trigger.

Copyright and Revision Information

05-28-02 - Initial Draft

07-13-02 - Added list of known issues in AoT v3.1.5

12-07-02 - Modified to be relevant for AoT v3.3.2

02-07-03 - Thoughts from seven months of play experience