Concing tutorial for Team Fortress Classic and Fortress Forever

Do you feel you have no clue what to do on a concmap?
Whats the purpose?
Is there no flag?
Ok, eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhh, how do you fly like that?
THIS MAP SUCKS!!!! [RAGEQUIT].

Some words

This tutorial is for you who happen to stumble on this site or our servers and don't have a clue what type of game we are playing. The tutorial can be used to learn concing in both Team Fortress Classic or Fortress Forever.

Concing is a sub culture in TFC which by now has quite a long tradition.

Playing concmaps is really another ball game than CTF or DM or any FPS game where fragging is involved. You really don't need to be Einstein to be a good concer, but you need focus and have the ability to play systematically. A good concer use gut feeling based on his experience and a focus on adjusting the timing of each conc. There is no shortcuts to experience, as we all know, so that part I leave to you. Just train your ass off and it will come. But staying focused and adjust timing notch by notch is the way to success and making those insane jumps.

Plain concmaps originates from Team Fortress Classic and a few freaks, like me, got addicted to only play concmaps. Ok, we are deserters to the original idea of playing TF, but wtf, here we are and its not so easy to get rid of us. If you been away from TFC for a long time or is a newbie, then you wont stand much of a chance on todays TFC concmaps. If you by accident end up playing one of the hardest maps you will be in a world of trouble.

But lets start from the beginning. There is no other purpose than getting from start to end by using concussion grenades on a concmap. Start killing people and you will soon learn how popular it is :evil: (Hopefully quad maps will come in Fortress Forever and skills maps for soldiers and demomens will come). This may seem simple enough, but a well designed concmap is one of the biggest challenge to your motor and timing skills you will ever experience.

REBIND YOUR CONCS

So to start out as a concer on a concmap you only need to do one thing, rebind your concs. I have always used my right mouse button for concing so change that in your Options. You will need it as soon as you use 2 or more concs.

CHANGING FOV

Changing fov (Field of View) is a matter of taste. Fortress Forever use default_fov "90", but many concers and quad jumpers increase the fov to get a better view of the jump. Enable your console and play around with the values of default_fov in FF or fov in TFC. Increase it and test what you like.

BASIC CONCING TECHNIQUES

Timing

I never used anything else than the beeps to find the right timing for the concs.
In FF you also have the conc timer on the hud.
I might get flamed by saying this but forget the hud timer and use your ears.
The timing of the conc is now client side in FF which means you will have no lag between the beeps and when the conc actually explodes.
This is a huge leep forward compared to TFC and should make it a whole lot easier.

So just use your basic rythm feeling and listen to the beeps.
*beep* *beep* *beep* *explode*

The power of the conc

What you want is to get the most power out of the conc blast as possible.
To do this you need to be at the optimal distance to the conc when it explodes.

See the conc blast as a spheric energy with deminishing power the further away from the conc you are.

You will get the best power when you are at the edge of the conc blast.
The exception to this is when the conc is on the ground as the ground rips power off the conc. The same goes for walls ofc.

But if you have a conc on the ground and jump just before it goes off you will get a good push.

The angle of the conc blast

If you see the conc blast as a spheric energy its easy to get this.

• If you drop a conc below you to the left the conc will push you upwards to the right.
• Dropped under you, it will push you upwards.
• Dropped above you it will push you downwards.

Remember, the conc can take you in any direction, just adjust the angle and it will take you there.

Prime and hold

This is a riddle for most newbies, how the .... do you make the conc explode instantly?

This is done by priming (aka holding down the mouse button for the conc) and drop it just before it explodes. This can be used in mid air, or standing still. Often used to do jumps where more than one conc is involved.

Strafing

By strafing means making turns in mid air using the mouse button in combination with left or right keys. For a lot of jumps you need to learn strafing.

What you can do with 1 conc

If you got the timing right you can use 1 conc to get quite far.

I will use ff_charybda as an example. j1 on charybda needs only 1 conc to pull off. Just prime and hold the conc, jump off the edge and drop the conc below you to the left.

Check the trajectory angle and drop the conc accordingly.

Many jumps are also done by using one Hand Held. A hand held conc is a conc you prime and dont let go off. You just hold it and jump at the exact time it explodes. This can take you forward or upwards at a significant speed.

What you can do with 2 concs

A double forward jump:

• Put first conc on the ground.
• Prime and hold second conc on second beep
• Jump before first explodes and drop the second in mid air just behind you.

A double high jump:

• Put first conc on the ground.
• Prime and hold second on second beep
• Stand on top of the first conc and jump just before it explodes and drop second under you.

A double jump with second hand held:

• Put first conc on the ground.
• Prime and hold second conc as fast as you can
• Jump before first explodes and dont let go of second conc. The second conc will explode in your hand and propell you forward at an amazing speed :).

What you can do with 3 concs

A lot of things, i give some basic use of it.

A high jump:

• Put first conc on the ground.
• Prime and hold second on second beep
• Drop second below you in mid air
• Prime third asap
• Drop third under you before it explodes.

A high jump with third HH:

• Put first conc on the ground.
• Put second conc on the ground at 1,5 beeps.
• Prime third asap.
• Jump before first explodes. With right timing you should land on the second concs conc blast.
• Hold third conc and do a hand held after hitting second concs conc blast.

A long forward jump:

• Put first conc on the ground.
• Throw second conc as far away as you can in the direction you are going on 1,2-1,5 beeps.
• Prime third conc on the 3-3,5 beep.
• Crouch and jump in front of second conc.
• Hit second conc in front of the blast and HH third.

Juggling

By juggling means dropping concs under you, one by one in mid air to get you higher and higher.

Start as described in "What you can do with 3 concs" and keep on priming concs in mid air at each beep and drop them below you.

Avoid the walls in FF for now, as they seem to strip the power off the conc.
In TFC it is easier to juggle at a wall, but in FF you have to do it in mid air.

Combos

We havent seen the really hard concmaps in FF yet, but they will probably come.

Hard jumps often use a combination of all described techniques. It can be very high juggle jumps, jumps with huge drops, jumps with extreme demands on timing, jumps with so many walls to pass that you will loose count of them. Some of the hardest jumps for TFC nowadays can use up to 10 concs or more to complete.

Summary

I don't know how useful this was or how crazy you think I am, but I hope it can help some of the few who actually want to learn advanced concing.

In a usual game of fragging the prestige is in counting how many frags you got. On concmaps it is the reward of hearing the spectators say "GJ" when you worked your ass off to finish a concmap.

I dont know about you, but that turns me on :).

ff_charybda demos

I submit demos of the jumps on ff_charybda as I think thats a map which illustrates most of what I been ranting about.

Uncip them in your Fortress Forever folder and type playdemo [demoname] in the console and it will start playing the demos.

Demo playback can only be done if you own Fortress Forever and have the map. You can download ff_charybda HERE.

If you want to watch videos showing how concing and other skills are done in TFC then you will find a lot of them on Google Video.

I hope you enjoy it, and hope you enjoy playing concmaps.