In the first volume I discuss at large the issues of strafe independence and the other guiding actions, give some piece of advice on keyboard layout, and talk about strafing occasionally. You should understand completely that strafing is a must, that it should be special, and that strafing is an ordinary kind of movement in DOOM (but not in real life ;-)). So it’s time to reap the fruits of your learning.
So, let’s start. The normal speed of running is assumed to be equal to 50 points. Strafing is a little bit slower, in this case, its speed is 40 points. So then, what will it be like if you press side (left or right) strafe and forward simultaneously? The answer is simple: you’ll be strafing and running AT THE SAME TIME as if you are doing it separately. According to the Pythagorean theorem it’s easy to find the resulting speed – ?? points. The direction is approximately to the edge of the screen. You should agree that if you are to get off the chasers or to catch the target and you can move in such a way, you’ll have greater chances to succeed. The problem is that to run in such a way is not an easy thing as the direction of running is rather far from the eyeshot center and the aim line. Nevertheless, with a little practice you can learn moving in such a way first with straight running and then using a mouse smartly with diagonal running. Try to practice it as you practice the ordinary running in open spaces, desert corridors and etc.
Of course, with diagonal running there are at least two ways to move in the same direction: by means of right strafing and running forward and by means of left strafing with looking to the left or to the right accordingly. While running the direction of your look depends on the situation. In particular, try to look at the enemy if it’s possible…
It’s evident that back diagonal running is also quite possible.
Diagonal running let you move quicker than rockets. It’s hard to say whether it holds true for the plasma and the BFG, but your diagonal speed is nearly equal to their speeds, thus with diagonal running you have a greater chance to get off the shots following you.
It’s a good diagonal running maneuver to change your direction by 90 degrees approximately by changing the right strafe to the left one or vice versa. You can also change from forward to back moving (and as you can probably guess from back to forward, can’t you? ;-) ). With diagonal running such course alterations are effective, and are used frequently.
And now let’s talk about 50-strafing. The point is that though the maximum strafing speed is 40 points, simultaneous usage of the mouse Strafe On and single strafes will let it go up to 50. It’s quite an unusual technique, but it can be useful sometimes, it gives you 25% speed advance in strafing. I’ve hardly ever used it and consider it to be practically useless (I’ll explain it later), but I can’t just leave it out. I personally would recommend right mouse button Strafe On.
So then why have I said that the 50-strafing effectiveness is not so great as it may seem? Because the 50-strafing has just the same drawback as the ordinary strafing with Strafe On: while strafing you can’t make a turn, it deprives the 50-strafing off the great deal of their charm with anti-aiming (see the next chapter for what the anti-aiming is and how it differs from the simple getaway maneuver) and top-ace maneuvers accordingly. Thus, the 50-strafing can be applied only in one useful way, though not very important one, - it can be used just to get away off the shots (mainly rockets). Though personally I’d rather use one special strafe with getting-away maneuver, and if I am to move very quickly, I switch from strafing to diagonal running, very often back, not forward one (of course with 45 degree turn). That is I press the left strafe button, for example, make a mouse right turn and then add backward movement to the strafe. This maneuver is hardly worse in speed of getaway than the 50-strafing as with switching to the diagonal running the speed is more than 50 and your lose your aim in both cases as well. So, I don’t like the 50-strafing, but I write about it as I leave it up to you whether to use this feature or not. In any case it’s not so important a trick as diagonal running or “arc”-maneuver (see the next chapter), so can leave it till your skills level will be generally up to.
