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Armor's Guide (by Creedo)
Armor is the best bot in the game. It's the choice of megapros. It's cbchui's main mobile (cbchui has been white dragon/#1 rank in gunbound on many occasions). It's what I pick when I absolutely have to win, and don't want anyone to be able to exploit a weakness on me or force me into a situation where I've got no shot. It's powerful, flexible, and has great defense (it can survive two boomer thor duals). There's no reason NOT to pick armor. So if you want to learn it, here we go:
---------------------- Armor's weapons:
Shot 1: Weak, but low delay compared to its other shots. Use it when you can steal an extra turn vs an opponent who has about +800 or more delay relative to you. You should also be aware of situations where using shot 2 might give the enemy 2 turns in a row, and use shot 1 instead... for example let's say the turn list looks like this:
You: 760 (your turn)
next enemy: +40 (they're next)
If you use shot 2 here, and the enemy counterattacks with shot 1, they will probably get 2 turns in a row on you. Therefore you must use shot 1 to ensure that doesn't happen. When the delay number I see by my target is lower than 100 (either +100 or -100) then I will often choose shot 1 to either try to get two turns in a row on them or prevent them from doing it to me.
Shot 1 is also great for bunging, it makes a big hole (like ice/nak/cake/others) but more importantly it can damage the land under an enemy if it hits them directly. Many shots in the game cannot do that. So use shot 1 if the enemy is on a sliver of land and you want to bunge them, or intentionally miss it very close to the enemy to drop them down a large distance and dig them closer to the bottom of the land.
Shot 1 delay: 770
Typical damage: 150
Shot 2: This is your main weapon. It's strong, but has high delay. The main idea with armor is to pound away with shot 2 until the enemy has less than half their life left, then dual shot 2 to finish them off. The damage is typically about 240 for a nice hit, so 2 duals almost kills them. If you have an enemy with low HP/defense and you hit just right with your duals, you can kill them in two turns. Otherwise you should assume you can't do that and you'll end up doing something like: shot 1, shot 2, shot 2, dual shot 2 (kill). Depending on how carefully you play delay and which items are available, you may only need 3 turns to kill.
Shot 2 delay: 960
Typical damage: 240
SS: This is a decent SS, neither super strong (like boomer/sate) or crappily weak (nak/raon/ice/etc). Use it when you want to do good damage without committing to a dual, or when items are locked out and you can't use a dual. It's nice because the delay is a bit less than a dual, so if an enemy opens up the game with a dual you can respond with the SS and beat their delay. The only catch to the shot is that it requires about 1.8 seconds of airtime before it 'opens up'... if you just shotgun it or don't keep it in the air long enough, it does crappy damage (around 200). Once it opens the missile will transform and cause a huge explosion when it lands.
SS delay: 1320
Typical damage: 400
A quick note on damage, delay, etc: Damage is based on how clean your hit is, and whether or not your shot was partially blocked by dirt. The damages I give are based on a solid center hit using true angle vs a mobile with average defense. In some conditions your shot will do more or less. I'd say your best shot 1 will be 180 dmg and a miracle shot 2 will do 300ish. One other important note on damage: your aiming slice has a solid, bright green part and a faded, washed out pale green part. The solid green in the middle of your aim slice is called 'true' angle, any shots where your pointer is in this solid green part will do full, normal damage. The washed out green at the edges of your aim slice is called weak angle. This does about 20% less damage. You therefore should always try to use true angle, which may require moving armor to get your pointer high or low enough. Note that the SS is all solid green/true angle, but also has less angle range than the other shots.
Delay is fixed, and for every second you take to shoot, the delay for your shot will have 10 points added. Certain items also add to your delay. For example a normal SS fired with no delay is 1320 'time units'. If you used 3 seconds to fire the shot, you are now using 1320+30 time units, so that's 1350 time units. If you use a dual+ item with armor's shot 1, you are adding 250 delay to your natural delay of 780. Dual+ is therefore 1,030 delay as long as you use shot 1 first. That means dual+ delay is only 100 more than using a normal shot 2. There's a myth some players spread that doing shot 2 first gives better damage. This is a lie. Use 1 first, but be aware that sometimes the large bunge effect from shot 1 can cause the enemy to drop, which may make the shot 2 miss.
--------------------------------------------- Other strengths and weaknesses:
PROS:
-Decent movement (climb and move distance).
-Large aiming reticle - Combined with your movement, getting angle is easy.
-Massive defense - you can survive two duals, and even 2 duals with thor.
-Decent bunging, it's there for situations that call for it.
-Shot 2 is very user friendly, it can miss a bit and still cause damage. Shot 1 also can miss a bit and nick a nearly dead enemy for the kill. Neither shot has special requirements or unusual aiming techniques, they just hit directly.
CONS:
-Didn't I already mention it? Armor's got no weaknesses.
--------------------------------------------- HOW TO ACTUALLY USE ARMOR
-------------------------
Armor can be used several ways:
1. Use cbchui-type fixed power formulas to aim all your shots.
2. Use lemontears-type fixed angle formulas to aim all your shots.
3. For some wind conditions or shooting over 1 screen, use 3 and 4 bar formulas.
4. Just use feel to aim.
I prefer method 1, with a little bit of 2, 3, and 4 thrown in for specific situations where using 2.4 fixed power makes no sense.
My shooting plan:
-If I am very close to an enemy and can just shoot using feel to make guaranteed hits on them, I'll do that.
-If I'm far away from my targets and can get a decent angle, I use that angle to start aiming using the 2.4 bar fixed power method. I will usually fire an SS on my first turn to hit the best logical target (or the easiest one).
-If I'm far away from my targets and cannot get a good angle, I position myself on level ground to use angle 35 and try to calculate the power needed to hit whichever target I think is best. This is a mix of using certain power 'landmarks' (like Lemontears) and using plain old feel.
-If I'm very far away, or if the wind is too strong to allow a 2.4 bar shot to reach my target, I will use a 3 bar shooting formula.
-I always use true angle, so if I can't use fixed power formulas without resorting to using my weak angle, I either switch to angle 35 or 60 and take a guess at the power needed to make my shot.
HOW TO AIM
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Fixed power formula:
Using this means simply shooting with the same amount of power every time: 2.4 bars. To aim your shot, you simply choose different angles to hit different locations on the screen. You do not use just 1 angle over and over again, you're usually going to be changing the angle every single shot. You need to change the angle to compensate for different winds, and of course you need to know how to aim your shot in 0 wind. Once you master the formula, you can glance at the enemy and be able to pick the correct angle needed to hit them in 0 wind. Then you can glance at the wind and raise or lower your angle to adjust for wind. All you need to do once you have the correct angle picked out is shoot.
The three basic rules you can memorize to get you started:
1. Power is ALWAYS 2.4 bars.
2. Angle 60 hits 1 screen away.
3. Angle 75 hits half a screen away.
Measuring with the screen: hold right click and drag the screen so that you're at the edge. Then judge what angle you want to use (it's easiest to use angle 75 as a landmark, then judge how far away the enemy is from 75. If the enemy is nearly 1 screen away, use 1 screen = angle 60 as a landmark).
-The distance from your 'all/team' button to your half power mark = angle 80 If you cannot put the all button under you because the enemy is far to the right, put the 3rd power mark under you. From the third power mark to the right edge of the screen is also about angle 80.
-From the all/team button to (in score) the area between the first 'team lives remaining' button and the red number showing how many lives there are = angle 70 explanation: In score it has two buttons bottom right, "b life remaining" and "a life remaining". To the right of these buttons are red numbers showing how many lives you have left. Just between the button and number of lives is the angle 70 mark. In solo or tag, it's from the all button to the left edge of the yellow stripey area next to the "F7" button.
-left edge of screen to right edge of screen = angle 60
-left edge of screen to middle of screen = angle 75 ... to spot a perfect 75, put yourself at the left edge of the screen so that u are halfway off the screen. Look directly under the middle of the wind indicator at the top of the screen... that is where an angle 75 shot will land in 0 wind.
-each 'bar' on your power meter is ~4 angles. So let's say you place yourself above the "all" button. The enemy is 1 bar past your half power (2 bar) mark.
All to half power = angle 80
1 bar beyond = lower 4 angles
so enemy is at angle 76... almost half a screen away.
-You can't use angles lower than 60... the shot only has enough power to travel 1 screen. In fact, trying to fire angle 60 with 2.4 bars might land a little bit short, and you may want to try 2.5 bars for angle 60 shots. If you ever do a calculation that tells you to lose an angle lower than 60, your shot will miss.
-Also, angle 32~35 will also go 1 screen at 2.4 power. So 2.4 power goes 1 screen for almost ANY angle lower than 60 I think.
ADJUSTING FOR WIND:
From my experience, adjusting for wind with any bot at any fixed power is nearly the same. Using the adjustments I'd use for high angling with cake has served me well for using the armor 2.4 bar method.
Wind adjustment works like this:
-Figure out the angle you need in 0 wind.
-If wind is up or towards the opponent or both, raise angle to compensate. If wind is against you or down, lower the angle to compensate. Remeber that if you are using a maximum power of 2.4 bars, you cannot reach certain distances when wind is against you... for example if you try to hit someone at angle 70 with 20 wind against you, you will fall short always. So in moderate or strong wind blowing against you, I recommend you abandon using the 2.4 bar formula. It's still ok when wind is blowing towards the enemy.
-For calculating wind adjustments, look at the wind power, round down to the nearest even number (i.e. 25 wind is really 24 wind)... then divide wind power by a certain number. The number you use is based on wind direction. Here's a chart showing what number to divide by for almost any given wind direction:
Wind Chart
Other aiming methods:
At angle 35, you can use 2.4 bars for 1 screen and about 1.7 for half a screen. One bar of power travels about 7 distance units (15 distance units is half a a screen, so it's a bit less than 1/4th of a screen). That fact doens't seem that useful at first, because the shot is so close it's easy to make just using feel alone. However I use this bit of knowledge to aim my close range shot 2's very precisely... so that the shot is diving into the ground just as it hits the enemy's feet. This ensures that I get the fullest possible damage from my shot 2.
3 bar formula:
This involves shooting with nearly 3 bars of power to aim your shots. You actually use 3 different levels of power:
Inside half a screen (not recommended): 2.8 bars
From half screen to 1 screen: 2.95 bars
Past 1 screen (1.5 screen max: 3.05 bars
The advantage to using this is that with so much power, you can make calculated shots up to 1.5 screens away. The disadvantage is that 3 bar shots, like full power shots, have a lot of distance between angles and you may need to adjust your power level to hit an enemy sitting between 2 different angles. You will also need to watch wind carefully because the shot is spending a lot of time in the air, and the wind effect may be greater than it would for a 2.4 bar shot.
3.1 bar shots are suitable for:
*Enemies beyond 1 screen distance, but not as far as 2 screens away.
*Situations where the wind force holds your shot back and makes it impossible to get the shot to travel 1 screen distance using just 2.4 bars power.
*Situations where you want to stay as close to the front of a slope as possible (and therefore don't want to move backwards to get a lower true angle). If you're in a situation where you're forced to use a very high angle and you need a lower angle for the 2.4 method, you can use 3 bars instead and keep your high angle.
3.1 bar shots are NOT suitable for:
*Close range shots inside half a screen.
*Any situation where 2.4 bars could easily hit (because 3 bars has a greater chance of missing slightly because the gap between 2 angles is larger).
*Shots beyond 1.5 screen (a flat angle or full power high angles are needed).
3.1 landmarks:
1/2 screen = angle 80
1 screen = angle 70
1.5 screens = angle 60
As with 2.4, you are dividing your target area into 30 parts... 10 parts per half screen. That means 5 parts per 1/4 screen. If it helps, 7 angles distance using the 2.4 method is about 5 angles using the 3.1 bar method.
ARMOR STRATEGY -
Basic: Start off the game with a single shot 1, then pound away with shot 2 until the enemy has about 40% of their life left. Finish them off with a dual shot 2. Always attack the closest, easiest enemy, and try to stick to the easier to use low/flat angles (but remember, always use true angle... the middle green portion of your aiming slice).
Advanced: Learn to use fixed power shooting so that you can hit anything on the screen with confidence. When you can do that, you can choose targets based on which enemy it would be best to kill, not on which enemy is easiest to hit. Open the round with your SS, since your shot 1 delay is sort of poor and you're probably going to give up two turns in a row at some point anyway. Later finish the enemy with a dual+ followed by a dual.
Playing delay: If you treat your matchup with a certain enemy as a 1v1, then you have to watch your delay carefully to beat a strong player who has an easy shot on you. Most 1v1 matchups can end after 3 or 4 turns. Here's how you should play most matchups:
You go first -
1. Open with SS or dual+, since even opening with shot 1 will probably cause you to lose two turns vs someone else with a faster shot 1.
2. Next fire shot 2. If everything has hit so far, and hit solidly, the enemy should have less than half their life. If you have enough delay advantage (i.e. the enemy shows maybe +300 delay on the turn list) use a dual+.
3. If the enemy hasn't killed you yet, fire a dual for your last shot and they should drop dead, unless you've been missing or half-hitting.
They go first -
1. If they opened with a dual and took a very very long time lining up their shot and aiming, you can dual back quickly and beat their delay, barely. Vs someone with naturally low delay like boomer, this is hard. Vs another armor or a nak, it's much easier.
2. If they opened with a fast dual, respond with a dual+ (shot 1 first) and you can beat their delay and get another turn. If dual+ isn't available, then use your SS.
3. If they opened up with an SS or dual+, fire shot 2 first to beat their delay, then use a dual+ if it's available as your next shot. You should be able to get three hits on them without losing too much delay to them.
4. If they opened with a shot 2, respond with a shot 1 to beat their delay followed by another shot 1. You can also safely respond with dual, dual+, or your SS. You won't beat their delay, but your delay should be low enough that they cannot get two turns in a row on you afterwards.
5. If they opened with a shot 1, respond with a dual, or to be conservative a dual+/ss. You won't be able to shot 1 back and beat their delay unless the enemy is someone with high delay (or someone who takes a long time to aim). If you CAN fire a fast shot 1 to beat their delay, then make sure your second shot is a shot 1 also... otherwise you give up so much delay that they will get two turns in a row on you later on.
Different strategies for different modes:
SOLO MODE: Remember that once you die, that's it... no more shots for you. You want to contribute as much useful damage as possible before you die. You also have to be aware of the fact that pro solo players look for opportunities to doubleteam/gangbang/rape someone. If that someone is probably going to be you, you should dual on your first shot and don't worry about the huge delay (because you're going to die anyway, and firing a dinky shot 1 before you die sucks). Remember, this is only a solo strategy, generally firing a dual your first turn is a bad idea. The delay from that is so high many players can dual you back and beat your delay, or else get three shots in a row by using fast shot 1's.
SCORE: If you can see you're going to get gangbanged (as in solo mode) you should consider dualling your first turn so you do something good before you die. If you are pretty sure you will be left alone or only 1 enemy will try to kill you, then play delay and treat the matchup as a 1v1 between you and your target. Remember, help is available if your teammates are pro enough. If you need just 1 added hit to be able to kill your enemy, don't be afraid to use teamtalk and ask for their help. Otherwise, if you have things under control you shouldn't ask. Also, if you are really owning your enemy and have a large lead in life on them, you might look for situations where you can help your teammates (or else ask them if they want help). Also... sometimes in a score game, suicide is preferable to letting the enemy get the kill because by suiciding you can choose a drop location right away and respawn faster. If you're definitely going to die in the next turn or two, then suiciding isn't a bad plan. Don't do it automatically every time though. Sometimes it's more helpful to force the enemy to use up a turn finishing you off, which takes some heat off of your teammates.
One other cute score trick: On maps with thin land, fire a shot 1 where you can see the enemy will land. They'll drop into the pit and with any luck you can actually bunge them on your next turn. You can also make a pit straight through the bottom of the ground. If the enemy drops through that pit, they don't lose a life, but they must waste 4 more turns before they can come back.
TAG: Just remember to F7 when your life gets low, around 40% or so. A good tag partner for armor is turtle since both can fire using the same 2.4 bar fixed power aiming system. Turtle also has naturally high defense like armor, and you'll find that having the two toughest mobiles as tag partners means you live longer than most other bots.
Other armor stuff:
-For most shots, especially on a flat map like metamine, it is best to use a low, flat angle like 35. Both parts of your shot 2 can hit easily, and you can judge power by feel pretty easily. The shot 2 will do best damage if it hits right at the enemy's feet. It's hard to get that kind of hit by using higher angles.
-From many positions, using angle 35 makes no sense, but trying to make the shot using fixed power method isn't wise either (because it would mean using your weak angle or the shot is so close it makes no sense to high angle it). For these situations, I like to use angle 60. It is good to learn at least 1 highish fixed angle for armor so that you can make good, fast shots using feel alone when there's no time or reason to calculate.
-When you miss a shot, use your power meter to guide how many angles to change... 1 bar on your power meter is ~4 angles, so it is easy to judge.
-Sometimes a target is between angles, like standing on a pixel. You can use 2.3 or 2.5 power to fix this if a shot is a very near miss.
-Full power high angling: I don't recommend this with armor at all, it's so much harder to aim these than it is to aim a nice flat shot, and within 1 screen you don't need full power shots, 2.4 bars will do. If you want to high angle anyway, or are forced to because of a bad position, Angle 79 goes a hair over 1 screen. So you can also use 84 not-quite-full to hit half a screen away.
-Don't get fooled into thinking you need to adjust power/angle when you switch to a different shot. Shot 1, Shot 2, and the SS all have the same weight even though shot 1 travels quickly through the air and 'looks' lighter.
-If you want to use the SS, angle 35 2.4 (full screen) does NOT open up in time. Angle 60 full screen does. So if you plan to use a flat angle SS, the enemy must be really far away, like 1.5 screens.
-If you want to get a sure shot on someone and can shotgun them... do it. But keep in mind that armor's shot bunges the enemy quite a bit, so if you try a dual shotgun the enemy will often drop down a cm or so and make your second shot miss. Aim low when shotgunning duals to prevent this.
-Dual shot 1 isn't very strong, but it bunges a lot and is a good way to try to drop the enemy through some thin land when a single shot 1 probably won't be enough.
-Follow general gunbound strategy and play smart. Don't use shot 2 if shot 1 is enough. Don't high angle when fixed power is enough. Don't use more than you need to for a kill. Don't toss out a dual when you're not very sure on the hit. Don't aim for enemies who are very close to teammates. Don't use a fancy shot when a shotgun will do. You get the picture.
-Packing items: I use two duals and a dual+. Teleport used to be important to me, but I find the better I get the less I need to use it. If you want to keep a teleport in your pack, use dual, dual+, teleport. Dual+ is too good not to use, and dual is important for finishing off enemies with more than 300ish hp.
-Practicing: The perfect practice settings are 1v1, jewel mode, death 40, SSdeath, solo/score, no items except maybe wind change. You have multiple targets to aim at in jewel mode and that makes it great for practicing the 2.4 shooting method. Metamine is a good map for practice because it's large enough and has frequent wind changes so you can learn how to adjust for various wind changes. It also is easy to get angle on that map. Miramo town is also good because it's a large map and you can practice 3.1 bar shots or high angles.
Ok, that's it, I hope this is helpful.
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