I'd say 1, its not too hard, takes a while to define it all, but using a boiled down method like the SP functionality works if youre lazy
I'll also suggest another one.
#4. allow players in each match to determine and agree upon their legal and allowed glitches/techniques and maybe weapons too. while this removes some consistency from the ladder, and adds the possibility for players to say things like "pfff you beat him using shotgun only, I beat him using 'anything goes' so I'm better." this will make it so you do not have to take the time to define every single glitch, or let the "honor system" stagnate the game. also distances you guys from having to make a list of "pet glitches" for the ladder and make the ladder more acceptable all-around.I've been thinking of #3 as well, mainly in regards to the XE rule-set.
every day, I witness players using glitches, and the rule is just too hard to explain and communicate to enforce properly. quite frankly, glitching knowledge spreads faster and easier than rules and honor.
humans by nature are wired for "survival of the fittest"
the internet is a place where people act out their internalized processes more freely, being assholes, racist, flaming, whatever...
I am starting to think the game may grow more if we work with glitching in a way that is not prohibitive to the players and their human nature to survive by whatever means.
basically, if I ever become convinced that players teaching eachother glitches and nubs facing harder odds or a harder learning curve results in less players quitting forever than "lame admin" or ladder/competition kicks/bans for glitches, I'm going to make glitching 100% legal on XE, and push for the same on all ULK servers. let the chips fall where they may...
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now, back to the topic, I played with the technique for nearly 4 hours yesterday. here's my new report:
you basically run while holding fire (holding fire while sprinting doesn't do anything actually, it only makes the switching easier), roll the mousewheel to stubby and let go of sprint key only, while still holding a directional key... this will start the shot animation. immediately scroll back to the sprint weapon of your choice. you can do it as fast as you can as long as the shot animation starts, you can literally roll up to stub and back down consecutively, and forget about the scroll wheel from this point on. after completing the scrolls, re-press and hold your sprint key. from here, just watch the shot animation until the shot is right about to fire, and jump right before, right as, or even right after it fires. as soon as you jump, you instantly switch.
compared to normal jumps, the switch happens much faster.
alternatively, you can crouch right as/before/after the shot fires, like the crouch+switch+run, only instead of running, jump. the crouch seems to fix some of the aim issues you had mentioned, and make the shot fire even faster. some witnesses claimed to see sliding animations. others claimed to see a huge speed increase. laggers claimed to see me not shooting and breaking shots, and in general, all laggers(mainly DU tyrant) totally dominated me while using this style.
also, close range stubby users seemed very hard to hit using this, due to the aiming issues you had mentioned. any turret/sweep shots fire very early along the path you move the aim reticle. without almost instant "snap-to" aim skills, shooting someone up close with minimal spread and off-timing is fucking HARD. seriously.
generally, this style works best at range, has a great advantage at jump-back styles... and has a HUGE advantage firing sprint weapon consecutive to shotgun, for out-of-shotgun range jump-back attacks and finishes.
basically what I am saying is, I am 100% sure this is prontera's style for shotgun+python... I even have some old logs someplace of him telling me "I switch BEFORE the shot" while we were discussing the similar shotgun with python sound...
this style can also be gall's, it can accomplish all the things he does, albeit with some difficulty, and being seemingly useless in some situations. that said, there is not one single style in the game a person can depend on solely to beat other players to the point of being questionably called a modder, with little to no proof. I imagine gall uses this style on the fly, and dynamically with other styles to compensate for its weaknesses. under the same idea that one single style cannot allow for such domination to occur, one minor mod to anims/switching to allow an mta-style switch would not allow such an effect either.
in any case, I can never prove gall did NOT mod. proving a negative is next to impossible. the closest we can get to settling this, is whether or not someone can duplicate this modification, and then get in game and do everything gall does effortlessly.
until someone can duplicate this mod, all the situational evidence leaves me only to believe that gall uses technique, not mods... being that there is something concrete to that arguement, while the accusations are all speculation at this point. that said, I still believe these effects could be accomplished through modifications, I'd like to see that done so I can tell myself "LOL I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!!!" and feel better about all the times gall smoked on me in VC
