Shell Shock

tips and tricksguides

So you have read the guides but are hungry for more? Eat this, my friend. My favorite dessert.

Tactical

Always right-click on opponents and nearby tanks to see what they have; adapt your strategy accordingly.
Know the strength and weakness of each flag.
If it's busy out there and you don't have any flag, don't try to get one no matter what; better just fight and get a flag whenever the opportunity arises.
Someone has a bad flag? Go after him and finish the loser!
You have a bad flag? Go to a quiet place and sit it out.
Go to the right place for the right flag. Some flags are better in open fields and others between buildings. A few flags are better on elevated platforms.
When picking flags try to go to groups of flags so you can harvest the best one.
Never hesitate to drop a flag if that gives you an advantage in a certain situation. Especially short range flags should be dropped when attacked from out of range.
Flags are only an aid, you can fight perfectly well with just the bullets.

GM cannot lockon to ST, which effectively turns its missiles into dumb bullets.
L shoots through any CL tank. A result of physics one-on-one. Remember, light passes through glass?
BU has the odds against it in any N tank battle.
OO cannot hide from SB or SW, and even an SR tank can get him when he's near the wall.
PZ can easily be hit by a SB or SW.
MQ, ST, CL and IB are all countered by SE.

Always try to avoid jumping while you can; a tank in the air is out of your control for 4 precious seconds.
You should jump when it's the only means to avoid getting shot, however, try to jump upon a structure.
A bullet's range and speed is higher when you drive forward and shoot, and less when you driving backwards.
It's ok to jump in short range engagements. Either jump straight at a tank and keep firing (close distance) or make a 180 Degree Spin Jump and fire upon landing (very close distance).
Never stop your tank, you'll be toast; always drive.
Chasing a tank but can't get him? Never mind, you shouldn't focus on one tank only; release him and fry another.
Someone has a Laser (L) and ricochet is on in the world? Don't worry but move to higher ground for just a little while. Leave it to the amazing ricochet effect to kill the Laser dude.
On mayhem worlds with lotsa tanks and lotsa bullets, stay on the sides and stick with your teammates.
Know the world you're playing in. Exploit the advantages it has to offer while avoiding its weaknesses in terms of cover, levels, and teleporters.

Try not to fire all your bullets; keep at least one in your chamber for bad times.
After firing shots at a facing opponent, immediately steer left or right since you can count on something bad coming your way.
When dodging bullets, do this while driving forward; your reverse gear is only half the speed.
Learn to fire 'lead' bullets when aiming at moving tanks, but also fire one or two bullets at his exact spot since he might stop to escape your lead bullets and turn to face you.
Being chased from behind and can't shake him? Your last resort is a 180 Degree Spin Jump; jumping upon or turning behind a building would be a better option.
If ricochet is on in a world, be aware of bouncing ammunition...including your own.

Do not look out of the window only but use your radar as well; better still, use your radar more than your real view and consider your window as some sort of inferior backup.
Remember that Cloaked (CL) tanks are not visible in the main view and Stealth (ST) tanks are not visible on radar.
Use your radar scaling (1-3) wisely is key to success; use 2 most of the time (90%), 1 for close-up battles (8%), and 3 to locate far far far away opponents (2%). Keep switching.
Someone looks to be on top of a building? Make sure he doesn't have an Oscilation Overthruster (OO).
If you are being shot at your side or rear from a medium to long distance, set your radar to 1 immidiately and dodge the bullets.

Don't just keep track of your radar but watch your scoresheet in the top-left corner (toggled with the S key) too.
Don't admire or despise your own score but be on alert for flags carried by other tanks. Go to high alert when nasty flags appear.

Technical

Make sure you have UDP (in the Options screen) enabled.
Your bullets go mysteriously through a tank? Chances are he's not cheating, but you're experiencing lag (slow network response time); compensate for this by spraying bullets somewhat ahead of a tank.
Want to know how much lag each player has? Type /lagstats in the chat window; tanks with a lag over 250ms are harder to kill, over 600ms is nearly impossible.
Compensating for lag but still can't score? The lag might simply be too much; don't waste your time but find another tank to battle.
Try to play on servers that geographically are not too far from your place (5000km or less); even if you have a cable or T1 connection you will still experience lag if the distance is huge.
Ditch your 56Kbps modem and get something decent.