Red Faction Multiplayer Guide

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Red Faction

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Multiplayer

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Characters

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Weapons

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Mechanics

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Achievements

This article focuses specifically on PC multiplayer. While much of the information in this article will carry over to PlayStation 2 multiplayer, the focus is PC. This is because PlayStation 2 multiplayer is limited to botmatch and 2-player splitscreen (no online), only offers Deathmatch, and contains very few maps compared to the PC version.

Red Faction's multiplayer at its core is a competitive Arena FPS. It differs in a few fundamental ways from most other Arena FPS titles - notably the armor system, movement mechanics, and of course the presence of GeoMod technology. This article will cover the main aspects of RF's multiplayer component, including the vast degree of innovation the community has shown since the game's original release in 2001.

Game Modes

Red Faction features three distinct game modes:

• Deathmatch (DM) - This mode pits every player against one another, with the goal of achieving the highest score by the end of the game. Each kill adds one point to an individual player's score, and each suicide subtracts one. Winner is determined by highest score, when either the kill or time limit is reached.
• Team Deathmatch (TDM or TeamDM) - This mode pits two teams against each other in an arena, with the goal of scoring the highest number of points before the game ends. Player kills are counted towards their team's score. The winning team is determined by highest score when either the kill or time limit is reached.
• Capture the Flag (CTF) - This mode pits two teams against each other in an arena, with the goal of achieving the highest score before the game ends. Team and player scores are tracked individually, but only team score decides the result of the game. Teams score by "stealing" their enemy team's flag from their flag stand, and "capturing" it by bringing it back to their own. Each flag capture adds one point to a team's score. The winning team is determined by the highest score, when either the capture or time limit is reached at the end of the game. Players are able to acquire points for their individual score via kills, flag captures, and returns.

Adapted Game Modes

While not distinguished by Red Faction's game client, a variety of community built custom maps, modifications, and "house rules" have been implemented as de-facto game modes on top of the mechanics offered by the basic DM, TDM, and CTF modes. The ones most commonly played are:

• "Deathrun" or "Run" - Typically built on the Deathmatch mode, these maps place players in a map where the goal is for the player to run through a course of obstacles without dying. These maps commonly implement "checkpoint" systems for players to save their progress at certain fixed points of completion. Combat is generally frowned upon if not outright restricted through various means, but some Run maps with player vs player elements do exist. For more information visit: Run Maps Section
• "Rail-only" or "Rails" - Inheriting the scoring and gameplay mechanics of DM, TDM, or CTF, the most restrictive form of this mode permits players the use of the Rail Driver exclusively. Several variants of this mode exist, but the most common implementation allows for the additional use of the Baton and C4; for close-range combat and Geo-Mod respectively. The use of the Pistol, even if seemingly available, is highly discouraged if not prohibited.
• "Assault" - Typically built on the Capture the Flag mode, Assault maps feature "attack and defend" style gameplay, where one team seeks to achieve or reach one or more objectives and the other team attempts to prevent them from doing so. Usually these maps conclude with the attacking team pressing a button after reaching their objective, at which point a CTF flag and base are available to them, and the game ends by the attacking team capturing the flag. Most Assault maps in Red Faction cast the red team as attackers and the blue team as defenders.

Maps

Red Faction (PC) multiplayer may be played on one of the 27 default maps, or any one of the several thousand custom maps that have made made throughout the years using the Red Faction Level Editor.

To find and install custom multiplayer maps, see the Guide on Installing Custom Levels.

Multiplayer Gameplay

Red Faction's online multiplayer has significantly different gameplay mechanics in comparison to the singleplayer campaign. Some noteworthy changes are:

• Player movement speed and acceleration is greatly increased.
• The Rocket Launcher, Submachine Gun and Pistol's alternative fire modes are disabled.
  • The Submachine Gun's pickup does, however, award the player a single magazine of 5.56 ammo used by the Assault Rifle.
• With exceptions for the Rocket Launcher, Fusion Rocket Launcher, Remote Charge and Grenade, weapons do not utilize any kind of ballistics in multiplayer. Bullet spread mechanics are retained from singleplayer, but substantially reduced to the point where most weapons are at least accurate to slightly beyond mid range.
• The Flame Thrower cannot ignite enemies or cause them to catch on fire.

Characters

There are 20 playable characters in Red Faction PC multiplayer. See Red Faction Multiplayer Characters for a full list.

• Characters have slightly different characteristics. Player view height, collision size, animations, and hitboxes vary between characters. Some characters are considered to be generally advantageous. These characters are:
  • Elite Guard, Riot Guard, Ultor Commander, Enviro Guard and Masako.

Movement Physics

• Red Faction features symmetric player movement in all directions.
• Player movement is affected by a minor acceleration curve that brings the player up to a capped speed while running, and decelerates the player when switching directions or releasing input to standstill.
  • The rate of acceleration/deceleration is dependent upon the traction value associated with the material type of the surface the player is on. For example, the rate is doubled for water surfaces and roughly halved for sand.
• Crouching slightly reduces the player's maximum run speed.
• In contrast to many other Arena FPS games, there is currently no known "movement tech" or way to otherwise significantly influence player speed, velocity, and so on through client inputs.

Health and Armor

• Weapon damage is adjusted by static multipliers assigned to specific regions of the body. Hits to the torso deal the standard amount of damage, while hits to the arms and legs deal half. Headshots deal two times as much damage per hit.
• Armor absorbs damage received before health. If the damage received exceeds what the amount of armor equipped is capable of absorbing, the remaining damage will be taken from the player's health.
• Armor absorbs twice as much damage as health. Put another way, one point of armor is equivalent to two points of health. It may help to consider your combined health and armor as "effective health" - meaning if you're at 100 health and 100 armor (normally written as 100/100), you have 300 effective health. Some examples are listed below.
  • Example 1: You have 100/100 and take 150 damage. Because armor counts for twice as much as health, you will lose 75 armor, and end up at 100/25.
  • Example 2: You have 100/10 and take 100 damage. Your armor will soak up 20 out of the 100 damage since armor counts for twice as much as health. This leaves 80 additional damage, which is taken from your health. You will end up at 20/0.
  • Example 3: You have 100/100 and take 275 damage. Your armor will soak up 200 out of the 275 damage since armor counts for twice as much as health. This leaves 75 additional damage, which is taken from your health. You will end up at 25/0.

Pickups and Powerups

Health

• First Aid Kit: Heals 25 (max 100)
• Medical Kit: Heals 50 (max 100)
• Super Health: Heals 200 (max 200)

Armour

• Suit Repair: Adds 50 (max 100)
• Miner Envirosuit: Adds 100 (max 100)
• Super Armour: Adds 200 (max 200)

Powerups

• Damage Amplifier: Multiply all weapon damage by 4; lasts for 30 seconds
• Invulnerability: Ignore all damage that would be dealt by other players; lasts for 15 seconds

Item Respawn Times

• Damage Amplifier: 90 seconds
• Super Health, Super Armor, Fusion Rocket Launcher: 60 seconds
• Invulnerability: 45 seconds
• Everything else: 20 seconds
  • NOTE: Level designers do have the option to set different respawn times for items in their map - though most level designers just leave the default values.

Weapons

Red Faction's multiplayer features all fifteen of the weapons from singleplayer, albeit with some changes to their mechanics. Here are a few things to note:

• The Flame Thrower and Riot Shield are not particularly effective weapons in most circumstances.
• The Remote Charge, Grenade, and Rocket Launcher have good utility and are strong in certain situations, but are generally ill-suited for direct combat.
• Many of the hitscan weapons overlap in terms of pure utility; most deal comparable comparable damage per second and are typically accurate. The most significant differences come down to magazine sizes, spread, and fire-rate. Generally speaking, a basic evaluation of their effectiveness can be made based on engagement distance. In order of most to least efficient by range:
  • The Shotgun, Heavy Machine Gun, Pistol and Rocket Launcher for close range fights.
  • The Assault Rifle, Precision Rifle, Heavy Machine Gun, Submachine Gun and Pistol for mid range fights.
  • The Rail Driver, Sniper Rifle, Precision Rifle, and Heavy Machine Gun (alternate fire) for long range fights.
• Many of these weapons deal in excess of 300 damage per second, which means that even with full health and armor it is possible to die in under one second from well-aimed shots.

Please see Red Faction Weapons for a comprehensive list of Red Faction's weapons.

Bullet Penetration & Spread

• The Sniper Rifle and Precision Rifle become 100% accurate (spread does not apply) when the scope is engaged, regardless of the zoom level.
• The impact location of bullets on your screen does not indicate where the bullet landed for damage calculation purposes. If you hear a blood impact sound and see a blood particle emitter spawn, that does not necessarily mean the hit dealt damage to your opponent. This is because spread is calculated independently on the server and for each client, but only the server's perspective matters for damage calculation purposes.
  • In contrast to other Arena FPS games where edge tracking can be advantageous, it's best to aim as close to the center of the enemy player's model to reduce the occurrence of arm or leg hits. Additionally, spread will sometimes cause perfectly aimed shots to either miss or hit an unintended location, such as the arms, legs, or even the head. This can make it very difficult for players to estimate how much damage they've dealt in an encounter.
• You can shoot through any grating with bullet weapons in multiplayer with 100% penetration. Even if you see and hear the bullet hit a "solid" looking part of a grating texture, that bullet still went through the grating and dealt damage.
• Bullet ricochets do not deal any damage in multiplayer. Even if you see and hear the bullet ricochet, ricocheted shots do not deal damage to players.

Lag Compensation and Hit Detection

• Red Faction's network protocol utilizes client-side interpolation to smooth player movements visually and server-authoritative backwards reconciliation for hit detection with hitscan weapons. As a result, there is no need for a player to lead shots or otherwise adjust for their ping when aiming. Historically, this was a major boon for the game, as it is relatively playable on a variety of connection speeds, even down to 56k.
  • Some consequences of this approach is that it can result in some visual discrepancies for players, most of which become increasingly apparent with high ping (over 100ms). Two commonly experienced issues are: continuing to receive damage or dying after diving into cover and kills being delayed by a half second or more. Both issues as perceived by the player are simply the result of the reconciliation of the skew between the client and server's perspective.
• Projectile based weapons do not have lag-compensated hit detection. In general, players do need to lead with these weapons in accordance with their ping. While most of these weapons have a substantial range for inflicting splash damage, the amount of damage inflicted falls off sharply from the center of the blast. Additionally, for players with high ping (over 100ms), direct or near hits from the client's perspective against a moving enemy will almost always be either misses or near-misses from the server's perspective. Lastly, it's worth mentioning that with all pings it is possible, if not likely, for direct hits against moving enemies to deal zero damage to enemies due to the projectile missing the enemy entirely on the server's perspective. Even on LAN, it is extremely common for there to be a substantial discrepancy in the position of moving players between the client's perspective and the server's. Ultimately, the server's perspective is authoritative when determining whether or not a hit has occurred, and it is therefore wise for players to prioritize splash damage over direct hits against moving enemies.
• Red Faction's hitboxes are simply 3D rectangles encapsulating the player model and therefore have a number of known flaws. Notably, the feet of most player models will not register hits. Crouched enemies that are moving will often fail to register headshots. As a result, with hitscan weapons, it's generally advised to aim at the upper torso/neck line for standing enemies, and center mass for crouched enemies.

Sound

• Enemy footsteps will only emit from players that have a pistol equipped. To move silently, equip any weapon other than the pistol.
  • Landing sounds produced by falling onto surfaces of any kind do always emit, however.

Voting

• When in a Dash Faction dedicated server server, the following commands can be entered via chat, allowing players to vote to perform actions like changing the map or kicking a player.
• If you host a dedicated server, see Dash Faction Enhanced Dedicated Server Config for specifics on how to configure voting options available to your players.
• Only one question can be active at any given time. Unless customized by the server host, each vote will last for 60 seconds.

vote y 

• If a vote is on-going, enter this command to vote for it.

vote n 

• If a vote is on-going, enter this command to vote against it.

vote rest 

• Start a vote to restart the current map.

vote next 

• Start a vote to change to the next map in the server's rotation.

vote prev 

• Start a vote to change to the previous map in the server's rotation.

vote ext 

• Start a vote to extend the current map by 5 minutes.

vote kick <player name> 

• Start a vote to kick the named player.

vote map <map name> 

• Start a vote to change immediately to the named map. (maps must be named by their .rfl filename)