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Over a good period of time I've noticed some key aspects to being able to play well in game. Small things that can make the biggest of differences.
Keyboards: Keyboards that you are most comfortable with help you aim/dodge and move around better. Keyboards that are more sensitive to touch are the ones I tend to like so I have more control over my movements and firing. Keyboards that are smoother and quicker make it easier to fire and move and in game, the milliseconds count when it comes to making a difference. The sooner you can get the action processed, the sooner it can play effect in game.
Monitor: You don't want to be playing on some 13 inch crt where the resolution goes to 800X600. We all know this: Resolution Makes a very big difference. Being able to see out farther and having more time to compute a dodge (mentally) gives you heavy advantage over someone who is running a low resolution. It's like your the sniper in the tower and he's running around with his head cut off shooting in the direction of your fire. Obviously LCD's are just more favorable because of visual quality and improving response time. Also 17-19 inch monitors tend to be the most favorable. Bigger ones are nice but I wouldn't want to be turning my head to watch for bullets.
Graphics card: I'm on a laptop with 32mb of onboard memory. It's no paradise (running at 1280X1024 to an external 17inch LCD) and I can notice the problems in game. When your graphics aren't good, you can see many downfalls while playing. Things can skip across screen, or glitch to your disadvantage. You want a good enough card that can run the game smoothly so bullets and ships glide across screen, not hop skotch.
Network Connection: More obivious than day, you don't want a connection that shows people that are inches off from where they really are. You also don't want to drag it down with background processes. Find the processes using MSCONFIG in the run prompt and take off those hidden start up processes. Find Spyware with Lavasoft Ad-aware or Spybot. These can make cable connections look like someone's downloading the world. Also I'm not sure on this one: But I tend to bend towards a straight through cable connection instead of wireless. I have no proof, but I would believe it would be almost unoticably faster with a cable connected directly to your computer than if it was to go through a router and then transmitted to your wireless card.
Changing bullets: At subspacedownloads, there is a file you can replace the original bullets file in your graphics folder that will make bullets bigger and more visible over the screen. Your eye will have a much easier time picking up a fat warbird bullet rather than trying to see the original needle bullets, that are default for the warbird, in the corner of you eye. Also changing the color of certain ship bullets will lessen confusion when multiple ships are shooting at you.
Session Usage: This may not apply to everyone, but after 2-3 hours of playing, my eyes get fatigue and I notice my gameplay slowly going downhill. I guess my mind is numbing as the time goes because my reactions become slower and slower as time goes on. Breaks are obviously a good thing. Even the best of the best need their rest. Spending just the right amount of time playing to which you feel comfortable without pushing it, means you can always play at the same level of mental response. Anymore and you'll notice your aim go haywire and your recs go negative. Everyone is different.
Improving in all of these areas will help you see a noticable change in your gameplay, split seconds at a time.
Keyboards: Keyboards that you are most comfortable with help you aim/dodge and move around better. Keyboards that are more sensitive to touch are the ones I tend to like so I have more control over my movements and firing. Keyboards that are smoother and quicker make it easier to fire and move and in game, the milliseconds count when it comes to making a difference. The sooner you can get the action processed, the sooner it can play effect in game.
Monitor: You don't want to be playing on some 13 inch crt where the resolution goes to 800X600. We all know this: Resolution Makes a very big difference. Being able to see out farther and having more time to compute a dodge (mentally) gives you heavy advantage over someone who is running a low resolution. It's like your the sniper in the tower and he's running around with his head cut off shooting in the direction of your fire. Obviously LCD's are just more favorable because of visual quality and improving response time. Also 17-19 inch monitors tend to be the most favorable. Bigger ones are nice but I wouldn't want to be turning my head to watch for bullets.
Graphics card: I'm on a laptop with 32mb of onboard memory. It's no paradise (running at 1280X1024 to an external 17inch LCD) and I can notice the problems in game. When your graphics aren't good, you can see many downfalls while playing. Things can skip across screen, or glitch to your disadvantage. You want a good enough card that can run the game smoothly so bullets and ships glide across screen, not hop skotch.
Network Connection: More obivious than day, you don't want a connection that shows people that are inches off from where they really are. You also don't want to drag it down with background processes. Find the processes using MSCONFIG in the run prompt and take off those hidden start up processes. Find Spyware with Lavasoft Ad-aware or Spybot. These can make cable connections look like someone's downloading the world. Also I'm not sure on this one: But I tend to bend towards a straight through cable connection instead of wireless. I have no proof, but I would believe it would be almost unoticably faster with a cable connected directly to your computer than if it was to go through a router and then transmitted to your wireless card.
Changing bullets: At subspacedownloads, there is a file you can replace the original bullets file in your graphics folder that will make bullets bigger and more visible over the screen. Your eye will have a much easier time picking up a fat warbird bullet rather than trying to see the original needle bullets, that are default for the warbird, in the corner of you eye. Also changing the color of certain ship bullets will lessen confusion when multiple ships are shooting at you.
Session Usage: This may not apply to everyone, but after 2-3 hours of playing, my eyes get fatigue and I notice my gameplay slowly going downhill. I guess my mind is numbing as the time goes because my reactions become slower and slower as time goes on. Breaks are obviously a good thing. Even the best of the best need their rest. Spending just the right amount of time playing to which you feel comfortable without pushing it, means you can always play at the same level of mental response. Anymore and you'll notice your aim go haywire and your recs go negative. Everyone is different.
Improving in all of these areas will help you see a noticable change in your gameplay, split seconds at a time.
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