INFO: Become more than newbs and noobs.

[born_to_be_noobish]

This started as a rewritten compilation of the hints and tips in the other topic. (http://www.evolvedclan.com/forums/index.php/topic,600.0.html)
I am not working on this anymore. i am currently focussing on this: http://www.newerth.com/wiki
Check it out, it has loads of info on both savage 1 and Savage 2.

some visual aid with the basic basics: (with circles and colours for the hardcore newbs)
http://users.telenet.be/kodofraggers/logintut.PNG
http://users.telenet.be/kodofraggers/maintut.PNG
http://users.telenet.be/kodofraggers/gametut.PNG
http://users.telenet.be/kodofraggers/systemtut.PNG
http://users.telenet.be/kodofraggers/playtut.PNG
http://users.telenet.be/kodofraggers/playjoin.PNG

Basics:
Before you play:

• Get the SFE patch if u dont have it yet. (http://www.notforidiots.com/sfe) If  you are unable to join a team, you problably need to update to the latest SFE.
  
• While u are looking around for the sep patch, check out the official savage website, by s2games. It contains info on the weapons and the units. Rather important stuff. It's a bit incorrect sometimes (server side changes to weapons for example) but in general, the s2games site has some decent info on it. http://www.s2games.com
  
• Search for more tutorials and guides on this forum. Read them.
• Configure your controls. You need the movement keys and the change weapons/items. You can hotkey items. Later, when you get more advanced in the game, configure the buff requests. (if you do that as newb, you risk getting kicked for waisting buffs. Buffs need to charge up. If you waste buffs, you won't be popular.)
  
• You can change your nick name in the options. Or with the /name command. “/name typenewnamehere”.
  
• Put the resource panel on something else then disabled. That way you can see how many redstone or gold your team has. A team needs at least 1000 redstone and 1000 gold to build a new garrison or sublair for example. Don't ask for a new gar/sub if your team is all out of resources. later, when you get more experienced you will problably start caring about the buff pools too.
  
• Go to options and activate block/leap switch. (put advanced on)
  
• Set your melee and ranged sensitivity to one that suits you - a higher one doesn't necessarily make you a better player. More on this in mouse settings.
  
• Put auto record demo on. That way, if you get accused of exploiting, camping, stealing and such, you can defend yourself by showing your demo. You can also review your demo's and see what you did wrong or just enjoy the good moments. (<- slows it down, -> speeds it up.) A demo is some sort of video of the entire match, from your point of view. You can upload it and share it with other people using the mighty internet. It's a rather important piece of evidence in ref abuse, exploiting/not exploiting and discussions like that. If you can give a demo of your actions for that game, it makes your case alot stronger and it's way easier to say what you did wrong or did not do wrong. Helps to prevent making the same mistake again. If you just whineflame about the refs being assholes (for doing their job), you will get your ass creamed in this forum. It makes you unpopular. No shit, sherlock. Stay polite.
  

during play:

• Basic controls: movement, leap/block (right click). Use selected item/weapon (left click). The most important is the meelee weapon. Hit allied buildings with melee attacks to build them (white transparent, be careful to not be in the way when the com still has to build it, he can't build on top of you, the building is coloured differently when he still has to start building it). Hit allied buildings with melee attacks to repair em. Hit redstone mines to mine redstone. Bump into a garrison/sublair or the lair/stronghold to deliver it. U keep carrying the redstone if you die. Deliver it when you respawn. Hit enemies with the meelee to hurt em. U cant repair siege units. Only the healer class units can heal the siege units. Healer class is shaman or chaplain.
  
• You will get owned. Several times. Practice makes perfect. It's strongly advised to train a bit and build up experience and knowledge, before trying to run with the big boys. Remember, some of those ppl have been playing since savage exists.
  
• Practice fast item switch (Human medkit on the duel server). For example, a predator makes 3 swings and them a pause. Use that pause to quickly take a med pack. Use mouse scroll or a fast key near your moving keys. If you block someone, he can't do anything for a very small amount of time. Use it to either heal yourself or hit him.
  
• If you want to play, you need to join a team. This is done in the first screen you get after joining a server. Click on "Join Team 1" in the upper left or "Join Team 2" in the upper Right. 3 Team games exist too, you need to have the SFE patch for that.
  
• Spend some time in spectator mode (not in a team, u can hover around with the camera and such), watch what the skilled players do. If you can't understand something you should ask about it in the chat or on this forum. Be sure to search the forum first for answers before asking it. RTFM. For best response, ask on smaller servers. Less ppl talking, easier to chat.
  
• Don't take com. Practise comming on an empty server till you can at least rotate buildings and know how to place them. If you insist on trying to become a (good) com, you need to have some com experience before u can com on the better servers. Referee's will impeach u when they see you are a newb. It also ruins the game for everyone, making you very unpopular.
  
• When you kill stuff it drops stuff. Bags of gold and ammo to be more precise. Depending on how many teams there are and what team you are in, the colour of the gold bags that you can pick up is different. It can change when one or more teams die. The bags are gold, the crates are ammo for the humans, the blue crystals are mana, ammo for the beast. U can only pick up loot from kills by your team. The one that deals the final blow gets to pick it up first, after a few seconds everyone of the team can pick it up too. You can never take loot from another team.
• In general, share the loot with your teammates. But, it also disappears after a while so if u're alone or nobody picks it up, pick it up. By sharing it, i mean, that when for example you are with 3 nomads fluxing a pred and you finally get it down, you take a few bits of the loot and the others do the same. That's not allways possible due to the loot being dropped all on one spot or a behe invasion orso. Or sometimes there just is nearly no loot.
• referees (short: refs) are players who have special powers like killing someone instantly, kicking someone from the server or muting someone in order to keep the game enjoyable by removing annoyments (or annoying or cheating people). A bit like police, they punish the cheaters and try to keep the server enjoyable for everyone.

game types

• duel: training. 1vs1 duels as explained elsewhere on this page.
• HvH: human vs human. 1 human team vs 1 human team
• BvH: beast vs human. 1 beast team vs 1 human team
• 3team: HvHvB. 1vs2 for all teams. No alliances.
• 4team: HvHvBvB: 1vs3 for all teams. No alliances.

It's not because you can hit people that you have too. If someone is attacking the enemy base, let him be. You only need to kill stuff that tries to kill you or your base. If they are doing a gate for example in the enemy base, let it be. If they roll towards the enemy defenses with a ballista, let them be. If they bring down the defenses, you can go in and cause some serious havoc. Most 3 teams last long solely because people can't get a decent offense out. I am not saying you should ally with another team, just don't defend for the other teams. If you kill enemies that kill enemies, u're helping your enemy. Remember, the enemy of your enemy is your friend. Don't mess up their attack on team 1 just cause they attack your base too. Instead, defend your base and attack the enemy bases. It might be a bit difficult to understand, I know. Use the colour enhancement pack, it helps to keep the teams apart. http://www.evolvedclan.com/forums/index.php/topic,796.0.html
[/list]

Bonuses, Power ups and Penalties.
There are several effects that can be active on a player. As you might have noticed by now, the appearance of players can change throughout the game for example. That's more then just a fancy colour changement. It indicates a higher level. Also there are special buffs and items with effects that last for several seconds.
Also, in general you can't have more then one power up active on you. I think the penalties are combinable with everything, but they don't stack, u cant have 5 poison effects on the same target. The bonuses are combinable with everything.
Penalties:

• Poison. This comes from a beast melee weapon. It's a dot, damage over time. It can kill a lvl 1 nomad in 2-3 times. When you use it against your enemies, you don't have to keep hitting them, just hit em once, retreat to somewhere safe (out of meelee range for example) wait for the dot to wear off and hit them again. Against groups, try to hit as much ppl with it as you can, redot em when the effect wears off.
  What can you do against it when you are poisoned? Enter a gar or the Sh. It stops the damage from being applied. Medkits. Don't get hit. Blocking doesnt help against poison. You still get the poison, even if u block but that doesnt mean you dont have to block, you get less damage from the dot alone then from the dot + melee hit. Duh. And beast is easier to kill when blocked.
• Slow down. Comes from either snare or immobilizer. U throw it at enemies and then they get slowed down. Painful if used well.
• Sacrifice. I put this in the penalty section, but it's not really a penalty. It's here cause it kills u. It's an item and when u activate it, it waits several seconds and then u explode. Very useful against enemy siege and towers.

Bonuses: Bonuses stack with everything except themselves. U cant be officer twice. U cant get 120% damage reduction if 2 shamans shieldray u.

• Officer. This one is given by the commander. It can also be undone by the commander. Officers are rather important. Humans get a flag, beast get a stick with skulls. Officers radiate an aura. Being near an officer increases your health regeneration. Officers can also give commands to their fellow players. In general, protect and support them. Follow them, learn from them. Die for them if needed. Officers often perform important sneaks to disable enemy tech or to take down shields. Ofc, that's only when u are playing a good server with intelligent coms who take capable and skilled ppl as officers. Normally, the best players of a team are the officers. Note that being the best player on a team doesnt mean u have the highest number of kills. It's more a teamwork thingie. Dont ask the com to promote u. What u can do, is remind the com that he has forgotten to make officers.
• Lvl Bonuses. Everytime u gain a lvl u get a reward, till u get to lvl 9. After lvl 9, only the colour changes. You can c your lvl and xp till next lvl at the right. It's a blue vertical bar and a number.
  
  • Lvl 1: u start like this. A nomad has 250 health.
  • lvl 2: your building and mining doubles. U can carry 50 redstone instead of 25.
  • lvl 3: Your first armor. A nomad now has 260 hp.
  • lvl 4: Your meelee weapon gets an upgrade. U do more damage now.
  • lvl 5: Your stamina improves. Your total stamina increases. Very important for beast meelee. (stamina is the white vertical bar on the right)
  • lvl 6: Your second armor. Medium armor. Your max HP increases. To 270 as nomad i think.
  • lvl 7: Your block/leap improves. Block: u can block more damage. Leap: u can leap further.
  • lvl 8: Your damage vs buildings is improved. Important.
  • lvl 9: Full armor. A nomad now has 320 hp. A predator has 620 hp now.
  • Beast: the replenish buff. Gives full health, mana and stamina. I placed it with the bonuses cause it doesnt break a power up. It's instantly. The com can give it. It requires a strata pool of at least 50 if i remember well.
  • Beast: being hit by the shaman's ray thingie. As long as the ray hits u, u take less damage. 60% less damage. It doesnt stack. u cant get 120% damage reduction. Ofc, it only works on allies. (Both units and buildings.) U cant shield enemies.
  • Human: the chaplain's bottle thingie. It creates a cloud of some sort of fog. Any ally that walks through it gets a bonus. Health over time. (a hot?) Preferably throw it in the middle of a group of allies that's fighting or has fought. It lasts several seconds.
  Power ups. Here, i define power ups as everything of which u cant have more then one on at the same. Everything that follows now is not combinable with eachother. Example: Elec buff and speed buff. Mist and frenzy. WHen ppl in game talk about buffs, they usually talk about the 5 buffs that have a buff pool. (the 6th pool is for gates, which is not a player buff, but is sometimes called a buff too.)
  
  • human:
  • Speed buff. Increases your walking speed. Doesnt affect your swinging speed. Requires 75 chem pool. Given by the com.
  • Magnetic buff: the buffed person takes less damage from everything, except maybe damage inflicted upon self. Given by the com. Requires 75 magnetic pool. The buffed person has some sort of red thingies in a bubble kinda way around him.
  • electric buff: the buffed person his meelee damage is greatly increased. Dont let him hit you or u will die. It's easier to survive getting hit by a behe then survive getting hit by an elec buffed lego. Against a nomad or chaplain, u might survive one hit. Dunno or the shield ray helps. The buffed person has some sort electric light thingie all over his body. Requires 75 elec pool. Given by the com.
  • Beast:
  • Fire buff: flames around your feet. Doesnt damage you, but does alot of damage to nearby enemies and buildings. Given by the com. Requires a fire pool of 75.
  • Mist shroud: For several seconds, you become harder to c. Transparent. Doesnt make u completely invisible.
  • Frenzy: for several seconds, your stamina quickly replenishes itself. Combine it with sac to go blow up enemy shields. Useful for alot of other things too.
  • Wind shield: As long as it's active (it lasts several secs) you dont get radius damage from anything. Radius damage is stuff like the cata, mortar towers, launchers and mines and such. Dunno or it helps against behe, i doubt it. It looks a bit like a tiny tornado around you. If the enemy has it, dont use radius damage against that enemy. To know or your weapon has radius damage, aim at your feet, if it damages u, it does radius damage. Ofc, dont test that in the middle of a battle.

[born_to_be_noobish]

Mouse settings and important keyboard controls.

• put mouse acceleration OFF. if you have windows... go to your mouse options and turn it OFF. Not in savage options, in windows options
• use a SMALL (the smallest) crosshair... use a colour you can distinct from !any! background. Doesnt matter if it's an ugly color or not, u have to be able to c it, both on snow and non snow maps.
• have ur sensitivity be atleast 30
• More on sensitivity: Well, it does have to pretty high, or u have to learn to move your mouse quickly in some situations. Certainly when u plan to block stuff, u need to be able to turn around fast. Preds can go for your back, fake going for your back and go for your front or do anything in between. Sometimes u have to block front and back nearly at the same time, which requires a 180° turn. Yes, some ppl can do that. No, not with a block bot. It's called skill and reflexes. Blocking is an important part of the game!
• Left click with a meelee weapon for mining, attacking, repairing and building. U cant repair siege. Only chaplains and shamans can heal siege units.

Tips concerning mines (land mines for humans, fire wards for beast)
Clearing enemy mines:

• switch the grass off so u can c the mines! Important!.
• Mines can be nearly anywhere. Smart ppl place mines where u dont expect them. Smarter ppl expect you to expect mines where normal ppl dont expect them and place them somewhere else. Conclusion: mines can be found anywhere, including at very weird places cause there are newbs out there who deploy mines too.
• Npc make mines explode. U can use that to clear mines, but other methods are easier, faster and more reliable.
• When letting mines explode, watch out for your own team. For example, f someone is going to run into a mine/block a mine, keep your distance. I have seen too many ppl die in stupid ways. Your own mines used to damage u too when they explode, dont know or it's still like that. Depends on the server maybe.
• humans can block. Do it.
• humans can throw disruptors at mine fields. They make the mines explode, and they can do damage to enemies. Disruptors can be a very handy item to have with you. both for clearing mines and for killing enemies. Use them. But, they also damage you and maybe your teammates as well, so use them wisely.
• using a magnetic buff to clear a minefield is usually a waste of a buff. In general, don't use a buff to clear mines.
• Beast has the wind shield. It's the ubermine clearer. With windshield on, mines do no damage. Downside is that you can only carry one windshield. Windshield also helps against mortar towers, pulse cannons, launchers, mortars and cata's for example. It does exactly what it says, no radius damage is taken.
• Beast can leap over mines. The further away you are from the mine, the less damage you get from explosion.
• Beast can let a shaman shield them, meaning they take 60% less damage and the shaman can heal them afterwards. downside is that that takes 2 smart people to work together which is often just a bit too complicated to do. There are easier ways, such as windshield or the leap.
• If everyone on your team is smart, u dont have to clear all mines you see. A mine that doesnt explode is a mine the enemy cant place somewhere else (somwhere where it might hurt for example). But the commander can delete mines placed by his team. They usually either dont know that they can do that or they don't do that.
• In general, not everyone on your team is smart. (Put the damn grass off in options so you can see the mines!) And it sucks to die cause some newb/noob lets a mine explode right next to you, so in games like that, it's problably safer to  clear all the mines or stay far away from mines that arent cleared.

Mine deployment:

• Your team only has 25 mines. That's less then 1 mine/person if the server has 64 people. Translation: either don't touch em or use them wisely.
  
• Npc let mines explode, don't place mines near them.
• Beast and human mine deployment is not the same. There are important differences.
• As beast, it might be good to put at least 2 mines together somewhere, that way, it's very hard to decently block them as they both explode and only one is blocked.
• Placing more then 3 mines together in one place is a waste of mines. Execption: flags.
• A perfectly placed mine explodes (and kills) before you, as minelayer, can respawn. that way, you can take the same mine again and place it again. If you place 3 mines and they never explode throughout the whole game, they are wasted. You normally should hear something when a mine you placed explodes. 
  Exception on 3 mines is max: defending flags. Some flags are too important and should be defending with everything you got. Everything. Again, everything.
• when I say flag, I am talking about a flag on a map with a few flags in key locations. If it's a map wiht 200 flags scattered all over the place, callvote nextmap. Not all flags are worth defending with mines. Some can be taken back very easily or can't be attacked by the enemy or are easily defended with other things. You only have 25 mines on your team, it's sometimes better to place them in choke points and places where the enemy passes alot then letting them rot near a flag that the enemy can't possibly take.
• Don't place mines exactly where people spawn. They have spawn protection. The mines often explode without doing damage.
• Placing mines near to enemy buildings can blow up enemies who want to repair stuff, enemies on their way to kill your gate in their base or a lone sneaker of your team who is taking out their tech. Mines placed near enemy buildings also damage the buildings when they explode.
• Again, a perfect mine has killed before a normal player respawns.
• As human, don't place mines together. I bet one windshielded scavenger can take out 25 mines if u place them all at the same place. Instead, put them where the beast won't expect them or where they all pass. Maybe it's wise to put them at about a leap distance from eachother, that way, if they leap past one mine, they die from the other mine. Also, beast often retreat from battle towards the nearest npc for regaining health. Or retreat back to base for items. That's a good time to hit them with a mine, since they often dont expect it and are already weakened. Downside is that's pretty hard to place it there unnoticed.
• Fire wards are more difficult to hide. Also, placing 5 firewards somewhere in a line together is a good siege killer. But only if you can seal off an entire path with it, otherwise people just go around them. Ballista's and Catapults can't easily avoid mines if they are placed well, certainly not if the mines seal off a narrow passage from left to right. It has the added bonus of being somewhat hard to defuse. a disruptor has to be thrown with a bit of skill and at best take out 3-4 mines of the row. You can't easily block it either, cause they are just a bit too close together. Downside is ofcourse that it takes alot of fire wards to seal off a path like that and that the enemy easily sees it.
• As human, forget about sealing off a path like that. One windshield and it's gone. Human mines excell at hiding and killing lone people. If they can see the mine before it hits them, they'll defuse it with ease (windshield, leap+rabid/carn, bounce)

Meelee

watch shags vids indeed plus duel in the duel server 1 hour a night for a week watching people there and you will pick it up fast. melee in savage is not something you can make a guide for since its more about feel and judging distance and range

The video's can be found in the download section.
http://www.evolvedclan.com/index.php?ind=downloads&op=section_view&idev=3
Shagroth Movie No 1, 2 and 3.

• Learn melee on a duel server (check game type), where nothing else done than fighting in melee. And don't be disappointed if there are many better melee players than you there. Learn. Improve yourself. Duel server normally works like this: Select unit, spawn at the flag in the area where most people are. Fight 1 vs 1 duels. You need the officer command key (look it up under controls) to issue a challenge and to accept one. Make sure you're not in FFA (free for all) mode if you want to duel. Healing and reviving after a fight is done automatically. You get fully healed when the next duel starts. To challenge someone, aim at a person who is not in a fight. Press the officer command key. It should say on the screen (in the chat) that u challenged him. To accept a challenge, aim at the person who challenged you and press the officer command key. 3,2,1, fight. First one with no hp left looses. You can challenge everyone. Beast can challenge beast too for example. However, most people only accept HvB (human vs beast) or HvH.
  

Yes, i know, it's still a bit messy and stuff. pm me with mistakes you see or add it in the topic.

edit:
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the creation of this guide.[/list]

[Nymph]

This is great stuff 

[Mefix]

Make it with pretty pictures for hardcore newbs 

[born_to_be_noobish]

/bump

[FLATJUICE]

I really like buttseks

[Nymph]

tell me born to be shit,
why should u tell other noobs what to do if you're one yourself?

STFU

/mute retards.

[Shamoke]

He's got the theory, at least.

Anyway, FlatJuice, that's not nice being not nice.

[FLATJUICE]

No, really I do

[Nymph]

You suQ. I Hope You Die!

[FLATJUICE]

vittu

[born_to_be_noobish]

tell me born to be shit,
why should u tell other noobs what to do if you're one yourself?

STFU

muahaha
u call me a noob but u're too stupid to read the first 2 lines?
muahaha

poor u, how long have u been waiting for a brain now?
wait till u're at least 6 (mental age) orso before u try to mess with the ppl who do have thoughts

[born_to_be_noobish]

yeah, i fell for it. But, still setting such a trap is pretty immature.

we're polluting this topic btw.

[FLATJUICE]

u even fall for my non flames!

[born_to_be_noobish]

It's called being bored.