the What's Most Important poll

You forgot the "All of the above" choice. I don't think any one item makes or breaks a player. You hit the right combo and become almost invincible. Have a good one.

-Johnny Jones

i agree with draco, the two being important to me would be raw skill and map knowledge

Well, that's why I said the most important. If you had to pick one in other words. My fault, I should have worded it that way.

I dont think you can pick just one you could be the best player in the world but with a crappy system and low ping you would be average at best. You also missed a good monitor off the list...

Oh yes, a good monitor should have been on the list you're right.

For me, knowing the maps is the most beneficial thing. I started playing back in the Quake days and always had a lesser system than 90% of the competition. Still, I was usually at least in the top three. As I got computer upgrades, more ram, CPU, etc, I was consistantly let down as far as what my expectations were. The first "upgrade" I got that made a real noticeable difference was cable. Until recently I was still playing using the onboard graphics card. Now I have a 128 meg card and although better than nothing the performance difference is negligible. I have a 2ghz AMD and 1 gig of ram and I place in matches about the same as I did playing Q2 on dial up with a 400mhz cpu lol. Going from dialup to cable made game play easier and more fluid and again for me was biggest upgrade of them all.

I 2 think all of the above!!!!!!!!!! But skill is a killer!!!!!!!!!!

REX 😈

I'd also have to say all of the above but if all the technology were equal, it would come down to map knowledge, IMO.

-JB

{DOU} Cygnus X-1 wrote: I'd also have to say all of the above but if all the technology were equal, it would come down to map knowledge, IMO.

-JB

Yes knowing the maps is probably the better if everything alse is equal going from a mid system to a top system (when i bought it lol) and getting better line speed with increased cable speed does help tho, and seeing as i had monitor problems a few months ago dont think the replacement one is as good so will be looking to change it as soon as i can....

Yup... I am in agreement with map knowledge being the most important. Even with an average rig, and poor ping you can dominate a map from the right position.

mAmA

Map knowledge for me as well. Like the others said, you can have an old rig and high ping, but if you know all the best sniping locations, you'll own the guy with the newest rig and low ping.

I think map knowledge rules for Sniper and when playing with redeemers.

On Uzi, it's just skill. Map knowledge helps, but a good player can overcome an unfamilar map.

my 2 cents.

Cricket

I think map knowledge and skill are way more important than hardware. I know hardware helps, but UT99 was written for hardware a lot less capable than anything we run today.

Of the hardware choices, I'd say the graphics card is the most important, but I don't have any personal experience with top-of-the-line cards. With my current system (128MB ATI Radeon 9800) some maps render really badly, and I don't know if it's just the graphics card or something about the way the map works. On one of Draco's maps (the Egyptian one, forgot what it's called), for example, other players will disappear completely. I can shoot where I think the player is and get a kill that way, but I can't see him. In other maps, I can sometimes see players behind walls. They can't be killed, of course, but I can see where they are. And in others, the objects tear so badly I can barely tell what they are. Big chunks just don't even show.

So this is a long-winded way to say that if I were to upgrade my system, the graphics card is the first thing I'd replace.

Toons, Have you tried OpenGl instead of Direct 3D? That may help.