How do you improve your gameplay?

[Queen B]

Do you practice? If so, do you have practice maps and do it by yourself, do you go to servers to practice or you're just a learner from experience?
Do you watch videos on youtube? Do you eat super cookies that have +1 gameplay for 2hours?

I watch videos, I try to play with very high skilled players because they won't give me easy kills and will make me not be one, I have downloaded some training maps which I found helped me a LOT.

What about you guys?

[{CLR}geneSW]

It's all about playing with people who are better then you. That is the only true way you can learn to get better.

[lolcat]

I tell myself I cant always play pyro then pick a class Im not good at and try it out. No videos, no solo practice, I only play on Cain's server so the skill of my opponents depends on who is on and how much of a killing competition me and that person have developed (*ahem*tehheat and starscream) I am very driven on killing certain people as much as possible because its fun killing friends

[Zantheus]

No matter what do I cant get better

[Dead_And_Gone]

Truly, I'll go into the CLR server when it is empty, and try different things. Engi practice has really helped alot, since I now know where to place things, jumping places, jumping PRACTICE, and where to pick up iron. Places to snipe, hiding places to pounce as Pyro, Engi secrets, they need practice and recognition. Vids tell you things that players ASSUME you already know, and sometimes assume YOU know as well. I died 20 times before i learned that Spy had to decloak to kill anyone..

And YES, I looked at a ton of YouTube vids. Some were good, some were Mehhh.. It will be awhile before I will be a mediocre spy though.. The best vids were for Engi, Spy, and Pyro. The other's were mostly "Aren't I just the Best".
Training or tutorial vids are where you might learn something, not the braggard vids.

Let's face it, Apache was playing sniper before I knew BF2 existed. So I do OK. If I kill Apache or Prong 1 time for every 2-3 times I get downed, i'm optomistic.

I was doing pretty good against Starscream and friends the other night. I don't let a death or 2 discourage me. Sniper hasn't been my top class, so I had to develop some new technique's to go against some pretty good snipers. Prong and Apache? They are just long time hard core snipers. I happy dance killing them at ALL.

Bottom line? Just jumping in feet first (Or Head First) is fraught with death. ASK! And there are tips and short things on classes in the forums scattered everywhere.. Heck, WIKI has some great info as well.

Instinctive players might do well as scout. Fast twitch. etc. etc.

I've done the dive in, die like a man kind of play. Not fun at first due to the learning curve. use your resources and information pipelines.

[Reimill]

hours and hours and hours of playtime, and not caring to die basically. eventually youll learn to die less and less. and basically by playing people better than me is how i learned. though i also learned a bit through watching those "arent i just so pro?" videos on youtube, i learned quite a bit because when it comes to anything, personally im a good copy machine, if i see something done i can reproduce after a few tries and thats how i learned most of my stuff, sniping on the other hand im still trying to practice that, if anything practice on those classes "sniper / scout" helps with twitch and reaction and timing most of all. other than that all i can say is just play more often!

[{CLR} ObiTroy]

I just play and die a lot and hope I get better.

[JohnyRico]

I don't play TF2 very much so the simple answer is... I DON'T get better! The good news for you guys is that after I have been on for about 5 minutes everyone on the opposing starts getting the message that they are dominating Johny Rico. You're welcome.

[vprong]

Mousepad and mouse make a huge difference. I use a logitech G500 mouse and a func archtype mousepad I got for free at some lan party. My aim is terrible when I play on my work mouse/mousepad.

FUNC INDUSTRIES: SURFACE1030 ARCHETYPE

[Heceldi]

Make sure equipment isn't a hindrance first. No matter how much practice you have, a frame rate of 10, latency of 500, or finicky mouse will negate any practice. Make sure you have a decent quality computer (doesn't have to be bleeding edge), a decent quality connection, and a decent quality mouse that's clean (yes, even optical mice can collect dust that interferes with the optics) and then practice.

If you're going to be a great engineer, its the one (and only) class I highly recommend videos for. The only reason is there are a LOT of places where jumping on dispensers and crouch jumping will allow placement of items in places that are better than the 'usual' spots. Don't use those tricks to break geometry (if a soldier or demo can't get to the place, then its broken, so don't use it), but do use them to your advantage. The acceptable places are all places where your stuff can still be destroyed if approached correctly by the enemy. However, you can still set up shop in some really interesting, and beneficial places.

Regarding the other classes, find a practice buddy and experiment. Find new ways and tactics to do things. Might I suggest someone grab an opposing soldier to practice with you, and you practice jumping onto their rockets? Try deflecting everything as a pyro, experiment with what can be done after a jarate or bonk, etc. As they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat (the corollary: and there's no way to herd cats).

If you find yourself needing heals or ammo a lot, load up a single player version of the map, and find all of the health packs or ammo containers, until you know their locations by heart.

Most importantly, play. I strongly suggest hopping on other servers now and then, simply because you can only learn -so- much playing with the same people every day. They learn your nuances, you learn theirs. I know to expect Starscream around certain corners (if they read this, yes, you are one of the banes of my existence). I know where to look for certain heavies and medics, placement of most CLR sentries, etc. They know you'll be most likely to be doing X, Y, or Z. Hop on another server (when Cain's isn't active, of course) and play against other people. You'll be up against other people, with different styles, which you'll have to adjust to. You'll learn new tricks to dealing with their styles. Then when you come back here, apply those new tricks so you're less predictable and can dominate more people!

[LAMONT]

I spec people who kill me a lot to figure wth I'm doing wrong. (secretly who I'm thinking this mofo is hacking the gibson imma catch him!)

Then you meet prong and just realize he's better than you, and get over it.

[Pumpkin_Jack]

I spec people who kill me a lot to figure wth I'm doing wrong. (secretly who I'm thinking this mofo is hacking the gibson imma catch him!)

Then you meet prong and just realize he's better than you, and get over it.

i know the feeling, although now i can counter snipe prong and get about a 1:1 but he has to be my only focus

[Apache Warrior]

The best way to get better requires two things.
Play against people you are better than to practice new techniques.
Play against people who are better than you to push you harder.
Apache

[BlindOldMan]

I would find a class that you enjoy playing and practice that class by playing against those who are skilled at it. For me, spy is my best class and I have over 1k hours of spy under my belt. I've watched videos, seen others play the class and I have taken what I have seen and learned and adapted those skills to my own.

One more thing, play smart. What I mean by that is if you're playing demo, or solider, don't just charge in and destroy everything. Know your environment that you're playing in and listen to whats around you. You would be surprised at what sounds can key you in as to what is around the corner at times.

[Dead...Again]

I don't!

I watch videos and read tips and guides. They have helped me a bit. In TF2, I primarily just learn from playing. I used to play on a lot of different servers, but now I just play on Cains. If it is fully, I play a different game...