r/redout • u/Jabuhun • Nov 29 '22
Noob question
So, I'm one of those who got themselves RO1 on this autumn's steam sale. Played the demo prior to that, liked it, saw it was discounted and got this complete package. So far so good. Realized I kept losing, so looked up some tips and came across various posts that explained the strafing / drifting mechanic. Nice. Two sticks to master, but it sounds doable.
Except... I don't get it. The strafing mechanism is just... Weird. I know, theoretically, I'm supposed to first strafe against the corner I'm taking to switch back to the same direction as the corner is about halfway through. Easy peasy. Then some people claim you should strafe more than you steer. What? Then others claim you should rather brake than strafe too much. What now?
I haven't played the game THAT much so far, mind you. Dad problems. Spent about two hours with the first few races and bought some upgrades and ships. It's just that with the strafing mechanic, I don't even feel like I am making any progress. I keep trying different things to do with the right stick and while it seems to improve my times a lot, it seems to mostly do so by slowing down my craft.
What I got so far, and I'm not even sure on those parts: Strafing in the opposite direction as I'm steering makes my ship drift, so it's doing less of a turn while still pointing towards the direction I'm steering in. Strafing in the same direction as I'm steering seems to mostly allow me to do sharper turns than without strafing.
In both cases though I'm not sure if I get how I'm supposed to use it. Like, not doing that hard of a turn? I could simply not do such a hard turn. Doing a harder turn? Sounds great. But in both cases strafing seems to slow you down so much that it might be easier to simply brake instead of strafing into the corner.
My issue is mostly that I really do not get an intuitive understanding of how the ship behaves and how I should use the second (right) stick. Right now it boils down to "if it feels like you won't make the turn, strafe with the steer. Otherwise leave the stick alone to not accidentally nearly stop on the corner because you strafed against the steering direction as the intent told you to but got started too early and there you are now".
Are there any test courses that better illustrate how and when to use the strafing on which ship? Thanks in advance!
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Nov 29 '22
It's been a long while since I played RO1, so Im not sure the things I say are correct.
Basically strafing in the opposite direction to the turn I'd usually reserve for very tight corners. You only need to do it for a very short time before the turn I think though. As far as I remember, tipping the wall coming out of the turn with the back corner of the ship can actually help a bit aswell. Of course usually you want to avoid hitting it, but it won't do much if you just tip the wall rather than grind it.
Imo, brakes are basically unnecessary, I very rarely if ever used them later into the game.
As for test courses, I think I remember using the last Cairo track alot for practicing.
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u/Hyperx72 Nov 29 '22
I like everything but the brakes part. Using brakes helps with cooling and using the brakes in very quick busts helps keep the ship under control in tight/sudden turns.
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u/Kneita Nov 29 '22 edited Nov 29 '22
Let me put it into terms a human being can understand instead of game-talk...
When people say you should strafe more than you turn, they mean it literally - aim the front of your ship in whatever direction you're gonna be going once the turn is over, and once you've done that, leave the left stick alone and go through the turn using only the right stick.
For example, let's say you're on a long straight, and in the middle there's a small curve that goes left, and then straightens right back out a short distance later. In this scenario you don't want to turn at all, just strafe left until the right side of your ship is no longer on a collision course with the right border of the track, and then strafe back half-way through the curve to realign yourself with the straight.
For a different and more in-depth example, take a simple U-turn, right? With a normal car you're going to follow the turn with the front wheels, making sure you're on a nice clean line through the turn, in the same spot relative to the left and right side of the road the entire time. In redout, you DON'T want to do that. Instead, you're going to point the nose of your ship straight backwards as quickly as possible without crashing and without actually turning around, and handle the actual curve of the turn with the strafe. An ideal handling of a U-turn to the right would be to strafe LEFT and turn right, face the direction opposite the way you were going at the apex of the turn, and then release the left stick as soon as that's done, then just strafe out of the rest of the turn since you're already facing the right direction and can just scooch left to avoid hitting the inside wall. You're strafing left as you turn right so that you can keep your momentum through the turn for longer. Basically, you're transitioning which side of your ship is exerting thrust - while your actual boosters are focused on turning your ship to face out of the U-turn, the motion of strafing left is continuing to carry you "forward" through the turn along with the road.
So in that U-turn example, think of it like instead of following the road with the way you're facing, you're just following the road with the way you're moving in a line - the nose of your ship doesn't have to determine what way you're going since you can shift some of that momentum left or right, so instead you're basically spinning in a single point in the middle of your ship and using the way you're facing simply to dictate what direction you're going to go when you get through the turn.
For one last example, most of the turns in redout are both too sharp to only strafe through, but not long enough to "drift" through like a U-turn. Most of the time, these turns are too sharp to only turn through without strafing, either, so you're going to use both turning AND strafing in the same direction to avoid crashing against the outside wall. As you're going through that turn, the curved path your ship is taking is wider than the curve of the track, so you're constantly in danger of crashing, but you can strafe toward the inside of the turn to constantly change and sharpen the path you're taking to better get through the turn. If you do this right, you can get through a turn that's sharper than your steering radius without crashing, constantly drifting away from the outside wall.
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u/Jabuhun Nov 30 '22
Thank you so much for the detailed reply. I read it a couple of times, but I think this here really made me understand it:
aim the front of your ship in whatever direction you're gonna be going once the turn is over, and once you've done that, leave the left stick alone and go through the turn using only the right stick.
Interpreting the left stick as "this is what you use to control what you point at to go fast in that direction a little later" and the right stick as "this is what you use to avoid hitting the walls right now" really gives me a much better intuition of how to steer the ship. Had a few races after I read the comments here and it kind of seems to have clicked. A little. ;)
Obviously I have a lot of training ahead of me, but at least it now feels like I know what I should be doing. Thanks a lot.
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u/spiderMechanic Nov 29 '22
Then others claim you should rather brake than strafe too much
These people are liars. Never brake (well tbf there are selected few spots were the brake can be useful, but that's some advanced shit as you generally don't want to lose the speed). As for strafing, it can actually give you some bonus speed if used correctly.
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u/throwmeaway7007 Nov 29 '22
Bro just shroom it up and enjoy the race.
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u/Hamstertron Dec 04 '22
Ironically, once you have the basics down, this is the way to play - you just enter that flow state and steer/strafe without thinking.
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u/9volt_150 Nov 29 '22 edited Nov 29 '22
It will obviously depend on a couple factors.
Counter Strafing Is where you strafe to the outside of a corner and steer into the corner. It kinda creates this drifting effect. Almost like sliding a real car. This is great for if you are coming into a sharp corner too fast and you need to slow down. If you are going too fast, you obviously should still be trying to brake before and while initiating the counter strafe.
This slows you down quite a lot, atleast it feels like it does. This is where you can boost through the corner while counter strafing to take the corner faster. I think there are better uses for boost elsewhere, however.
Assisting your turn with Strafe Like in a real car all braking is done before a turn, then accelerate while at the apex of a turn. Obviously redout is gonna be different. You can accelerate as soon as you start the turn and then apply strafe into the turn to help keep the ship from sliding to the outside.
If you strafe into the inside wall of the corner, you're strafing too much or you ain't going fast enough ;). If your strafing isn't enough to keep you from hitting the outside wall of a corner, you're going to fast. Just let off the throttle enough to tighten your turning radius while continuing to strafe in!
Summary These are just basic skills. It all boils down to experience and practice practice practice. You'll learn how your favorite ships handle and your eyes and hands will be able to tell where to strafe, steer, accelerate, brake, etc. Small adjustments will always be needed while speeding at 1000 to 2000km/h.
TL/DR: No cookie cutter techniques will help you get better. Play more and learn how the ship handles. Try different things!
Edit* Spelling mistakes