Soldat's Comprehensive Competitive CTF Tutorial

Capture the Flag (CTF)

This game-mode consists of two teams: Alpha (Red) & Bravo (Blue). The goal is for each team to steal the enemy's flag and bring it to your own flag.

The team with more captures (caps) in the round (each map is a round) are the winners.

There are 32 default CTF maps in Soldat, as well as hundreds of custom made maps.

Server settings used in Gathers

• Default Format: 3vs3 (Best of 3 maps)

• Time Limit: 10 (per map)

• Respawn Time: 3-5 seconds

• Capture Limit: 10

• Weapons: All enabled (besides stationary guns)

• Bonuses: Disabled

Introduction

• This tutorial is directed towards both new and experienced Soldat players.

• Playing gathers actively will rapidly turn you into a stronger player and you will have the chance to meet the best Soldat players and become a part of the competitive Soldat Community.

• The skill-level in gather is relatively high compared to the one in public servers. Meaning there’s a learning curve for newer players in most cases (like the majority of things in life). It takes some time until one wraps his head around all these concepts and tactics and is able to perform all of them in-game. But don't be discouraged or fearful to play! This tutorial can help any new player in creating fast progress, game-sense wise.

Map knowledge

It is highly recommended to gain map knowledge prior to playing Gathers. In order to do so, you can:

1) Begin an offline session (Start Game menu) to walk around the maps and explore the paths in each CTF map.

2) Play on CTF public servers to gain experience in those maps, and possibly in other custom maps.

3) Be brave; jump into deep water and learn on the go.

The most popular maps in Gather nowadays are: Guardian, Rotten, IceBeam, Wretch, Blade.

The reason that these maps are favored is due to their size and fast game-play which suits the default 3vs3 format gathers use (just like public servers for example, usually use big enough maps to consist large teams).

Movement

• Haste's Comprehensive Movement Tutorial

• Ginn's Running Tutorial

The first one is an in-depth tutorial of all movements in Soldat. The second one will teach the most fast-efficient set of movements

Aim

Crosshair

is the thing you move around with the mouse. It indicates where you’re aiming it. Placing the crosshair on a teammate will show their nickname, and health points percentage. Placing the crosshair on an enemy however, will show their nicknames red (only while standing. Hence this will not work with crouched or proning enemies).

Crosshair placement

differs between the guns and the distance between the opponent and you. Keep in mind that within some weapons bullets lose speed as they get further. In order to understand this concept better, try shooting at enemies in different situations and angles.

Also, if you’re getting shot, most guns will become less accurate (bink) due to getting hit. Movement also has an effect on accuracy (for instance: Barrett & Ruger-77).

Practice

a great way to practice your aiming skills outside of gathers is engaging in what’s called “1vs1 aim”. The best setting would be a server with CTF set as its game-mode on the map: Rok. This way you always re-spawn at the same spots and not randomly across the map, making it easier to focus on aiming. At each round, use your primary gun only (no secondary, no grenades) for 10 minutes. No fancy running away, just engage in aiming only - Stats don’t matter in this practice meta, just try to focus on your aim.

Weapons

Soldat does not have classes or a buy system to determine which weapon you can choose from. You can select from all available weapons without limitation. You can change your weapons whenever you re-spawn. Press [TAB] to enable or disable the weapons menu.

It is noteworthy to mention that weapons will provide greater damage when player’s inherited velocity is greater.

That does also mean that weapons in Soldat are fairly balanced. However, it is recommended to adjust your weapon choice depending on the map you play on, and also depending on the situation.

Playing Barrett on fast-paced maps such as ctf_Wretch might not be considered the best weapon choice, while it's a better choice on larger maps such as ctf_Nuubia or ctf_Mayapan.

Tip: You can also equip yourself with 2 primary weapons (e.g AK-74 & Barrett). To carry 2 primary weapons simply drop your secondary weapon and pick up a weapon from the ground.

Gathers are currently testing the new weapons mod for the upcoming Soldat version 1.7.2.

You can view the new weapons mod here or test it in #gather on our Discord server.

Roles

The main goal of CTF is of course getting as many captures as possible. However, there are also roles for each player in a team. The concept may vary between different maps and different teams. It is utterly important to think what's good for the team and play together. Teamwork makes the dream work!

These roles aren't pre-set in Soldat, and should be communicated with your team before each map. In reality, the plan does not always work, hence roles are should be flexible. Prepare yourself for being creative in case the roles don't work out perfectly and find the ways to cover your teammates failures, or communicate to swap roles mid-game if the current tactic does not work out.

Route related roles

Main Player and Alt Player, in context to which path is each player going to play. In most maps two main players will be manning the main path of the map, and the alt route player will take the alternative, usually tighter, route of the map.

Personal gamestyle roles

Rusher

The rusher of the team will usually dive straight into the enemy's base in attempt to snatch their flag and score for the team, sometimes even completely ignoring enemies just in order to get that capture. However, it might be considerably smarter to try eliminate enemies whilst still trying to maintain speed on the rush to the flag. Note also that sometimes your teammates will need cover for potential enemy leaks. So keep your eyes on your base with peripheral vision even if your role is to rush. Rush can be done pretty much with any weapon. However there's the M79 and Spas-12 which their boosting feature allow faster movement across the maps.

Defender

the defender of the team will make sure to eliminate any enemies that his teammates failed to killed (leak). A defender position is needed in most maps. That being said, it is not highly recommended to play super defensive bunker style for 10 minutes every map, because a lot of those small maps which are played are about applying constant pressure. If you're the defender of the team, try to find a balance and develop a sense of when can you attack and when you must defend. Defenders usually play automatic weapons, because the clip-sizes allow them to eliminate multiple enemies.

All Rounder

basically a combination of a rusher and defender. Such a player can provide the death-match when needed, and use momentum to his advantage in order to steal a cap.

Within time you'll realize what style suits you more, however being flexible and prone to the situational changes is probably the best thing you can do.

Common mistakes

Old Dog, New Tricks

Do not be afraid to learn something new (this one is dedicated to all the oldies out there). Yes, some of us having been playing over a decade now, but it doesn’t mean that we’re always open-minded. Playing 15 years doesn’t negate the fact that there might be something you missed, or something that you haven’t developed enough. Whether it’s movement, aiming, game-sense or whichever other aspect comes to mind. Try to keep an open-mind, and use losing, and observing the enemies’ actions, as a learning process. If you’ll do that you’ll be able to enjoy the game more, and get better at it as well. Double profit.

Leaking

Leaking can mean you completely missed an enemy due to not scanning the areas whilst on the go towards enemy base. It can also mean that you've failed a 1vs1 and failed to communicate it out to your team with taunts, so they can try to cover the route.

A good way to avoid leaks is to try to keep peripheral vision and active awareness of your surroundings. If you're sure an enemy is not approaching, drag your crosshair around the corners of the map to see those blind spots and make sure you haven't missed an enemy (even if your teammates did not acknowledge you in team-chat). Also in every 1vs1 that you fail, use the respective taunt to hint your team-mates which path to cover.

Ignoring Info

Team chat, Taunts and Radio Menu are there for a reason. It's extremely important to keep communicating with the team during the match.

Soldat has key-bindings (taunts) to send team-chat-messages in a fast way. This allows you to give your team the needed information such as where the “EFC” (Enemy Flag Carrier) or the “FFC” (Friendly Flag Carrier) are located. You can assign those 'taunts' to ALT + [1,2,3...A,B,C...]. Get the Soldat Taunt Editor tool to create or customize taunts.

Make sure to use the information your team provides in order to enhance teamplay. Also make sure to deliver the CORRECT info to your team. If you mistakenly deliver 2 locations of enemy flag carrier, it might confuse your teammates and at times even harm the team's performance.

“Doubling” a route or not manning your route

as mentioned above, the roles are a general guideline, to keep an understanding between the teammates, who does what in the match. In most cases, not manning your route might force your teammates to clean up after your “leak” and generally might cause a lack of flow due to them having to pursue other roles. It’s a very risky move and a player should be a hundred percent sure that’s the right time or situation for doubling, meaning that the route is either completely clear or there’s a teammate covering using that path for that specific round for you.

No focus on base

In many situations it is highly important to clear the base first, for example: in IceBeam, there's a potential for multiple caps in a short time due to the skeleton of the map). Make sure to clear the base unless you're in a position that forces you to rush out of there, or you see that your teammates are defusing the situation. If you're not sure they're handling it (you see they're very Low HP), stick around until the situation is dealt with.

Points greediness

It’s a common misconception in CTF to think that you can make up for your lack of performance of the capturing aspect of the game with a good kills and death score statistics. However, remember that, in the end of the map, the score team’s flags is the one that matters. Be mindful to your surroundings, cover your teammates in a way that’ll contribute to the match and not only your personal stats.

Use your weapons

use your secondary weapon and your grenades! Each player is equipped with a secondary weapons (USSOCOM, Combat Knife, Chainsaw & M72 LAW). Each weapon is unique and can be used for different scenarios. You can switch to your secondary weapon by pressing [Q].

- The USSOCOM pistol is usually equipped with one-shot weapons (M79, Barrett).

- The Combat Knife is probably the most common secondary weapon, it can be thrown, very useful for spawn killing or instant-knife-kill upon respawn to prevent enemies from capturing the flag.

- The Chainsaw is perhaps the hardest secondary to use. Both for novice and experienced shooters, and especially against experienced players. You will need a good concept of movement to use it to your advantage.

- M72 LAW very good for defensive scenarios, lurking and spawn killing. You can aim to common spots and "blind shot" or use known ricochet spots to get those blind shots as well. It is sometimes used even is a preventive weapon in a way, for example: you get the flag in ctf_Dropdown and players are respawning and you push them back into spawn by hitting the poly near them. Then escape with the flag or throw flag to teammate.

- Frag grenades: Default re-spawn grants 1 grenade, and grenade kits grant a maximum of 3 grenades. Using grenades whilst shooting the enemy can provide a very quick kill with a minimal usage of bullets. It is a very effective and commonly used method. Another thing you can use grenades for is boosting on colliders to gain speed (probably should practice that as well outside of gather to prevent losing an excessive amount of health due to boosting fails).

Summary

It might seem a lot of work, but once you get used to each on of these concepts. It can pretty much become autopilot-mode, and you’ll use these good habits without thinking twice.

Productive Mindset

Playing lots without seeing an improvement trend in your game-play can be a little demotivating. However, most of the days, our own attitude towards the game affects the game-play directly. It is highly beneficial to try and eliminate any focus on bugs, eats, trolling, flaming, skill gaps. Yes, shit happens, but focusing on it won’t gain you the lead again and might just demotivate your team if you express yourself about it to them.

Try to develop a productive mindset. It will undoubtedly help you develop your skill and you’ll enjoy the game even more.

If you find someone’s comments or general attitude non-profitable and only a distraction to your game-play, consider using the /mute command. Sometimes it’s better to have no info, and looking for problems actively instead of listening to a toxic teammate.

Configuration Hints

Flag throw

Default key combination for a flag throw is [W+S], however it may interfere with some of the movements a player can perform and result in undesired flag throws that might cost the team a point. It is highly suggested to bind it to [G] because of its proximity to the W, S, A, D - default movement keys layout, and the it’s not bound to any other action. If you have customized your keys already, pick the most comfortable one for your setup.

Force Background Colors

In some maps it can very useful to have. take for example ctf_Catch, it has an extremely dark map background. Using a custom background forced color might enhance visibility. Some players use this option in all maps. This can be done inside of Soldat in the Player tab on the upper right-hand corner.

Remove Background Scenery

Removing some of the scenery objects from your screen while playing might be also beneficial for some players to relate on pure game-play and not on the excessive details some maps have to offer. While it neglects art aspects of maps, a lot of competitive players have found this setting useful. You can un-check render background scenery through config.exe file in your soldat directory, inside More tab.

Modification Hints

You can use custom modifications to enhance visibility and make it easier, for example, to see grenades or bullet trajectory better - Soldat Forums Modifications Board.