NEW PLAYER'S GUIDE

Presentation video

H.U.D.

The H.U.D. shows everything on the minimap or in the main view with icons. You can see team mates, ammo and med packs, the objectives (primary and secondary)

Time left to complete the Primary Objective Time before next respawn wave Objective achievement indicator : describes the objective to complete and its completion state. Conditions of your teammates: Health and life state (red portrait = incapacitated, red skull = dead) Mini Map showing your surroundings, and useful info as icons. Underneath is the name of the location you are located. Kill log Ability Cooldown indicator : shows the state of readiness of your abilities. If red it's in cooldown. The digit indicates the number of available items. Ammunition counter: loaded / spare Health

Squad

You can configure your squad in the Lobby prior to the battle. Click on the Merc Loadout cards to choose the mercs and loadouts you want in your squad.

Lobby Screen

Changing Team

The game has an autobalance feature in the lobby. However, as players leave or join, unbalance and unevenness can occur. You can change the team you play in, by pressing the escape key (Esc) and select Change team. You could also call a vote to balance the teams by Skill. Again, this is done by pressing the escape key (Esc) and select Call Vote. Then press the 2 key on your keyboard, and the vote to shuffle teams will start.

Voice System

The Voice System allows your Merc to speak to other players. Voice commands under the "Global" and "Taunt" categories are sent to all players, while the rest are only sent to your allies. You can use this to quickly communicate orders and information to your team.

Voting

By pressing the F5 key (Or calling a vote through the Menu), you can vote to :

Kick a player from your team. Useful to kick unsporting or annoying players.

Shuffle Team by skill

Restart the Map (This is only available for a limited time)

You can vote kick a player in the Score Screen (Tab) with mouse 2) and right clicking on the player name.

Player Options

Know the Roles



Each Merc in Dirty Bomb falls into one of five different groups, each with a different job for the battlefield. Make sure you know your role, as well as the roles of the people you're going up against, so that you know who to shoot first!

Assault

Exactly what it says on the tin, the job of these characters is to kill enemies, kill enemies, and maybe kill some more enemies! Their abilities are all about tearing apart foes and staying in the fight as long as possible. If you get killed, it'll probably be because of one of these guys doing the shooting. Be sure to get your head down if you see Fragger, Nader, Rhino or Thunder on patrol.

Engineers

These are the Mercs that are best suited to dealing with most objectives, be it repairing the EV or arming and defusing C4. While any Merc can Repair, Arm or Defuse, the Engineers do it in a fraction of the time. If you're trying to protect an objective, make sure that the three Engineers, Bushwhacker, Fletcher and Proxy, can't get anywhere near it.

Medics

The unsung heroes of a team, these Mercs trade-in offensive power in order to support their teammates. While healing is obviously their main duty, their heroics often come from the use of Defibrillator Paddles to revive a downed ally, bringing them back up with some health, a brief spawn shield and a thirst for revenge. No point in killing the big guy with the minigun, after all, if a Medic just pops in and hauls him back up! Be sure to target the Medics, Aura, Phoenix, Sawbonez and Sparks, first things first.

Fire Support

It's hard to shoot people if you don't have any bullets! These Mercs have traded combat ability readiness for the ability to hand out ammo to their teammates, keeping them topped off. These Mercs also double as the having some of the most powerful offensive abilities in Dirty Bomb. Between Airstrikes, Artillery Strikes and even an Orbital Laser, these Mercs are a terror to the EV and excellent at zoning out the opposition. Keep an eye out for Arty, Kira, Skyhammer and Stoker for ammo, and watch out for when they pull out the big guns!

Recon

There sneaky mercs use their abilities for spying on enemies and picking them off, preferably from afar. Or right up close in Phantom's case. They offer excellent abilities for keeping tabs on their enemies, such as sniper rifles, heartbeat sensors, cloaking devices and IR goggles. Keep your eyes peeled for Phantom, Red Eye and Vassili.

Don't Forget Your Objective





The Mercs of Dirty Bomb aren't violent sociopaths, after all. They're professionals!

Well, Professional Sociopaths, at least. They're not in this just to wipe away the enemy team, they've got a job to do. Fight your way through to the objectives, push the enemy back, but don't forget to cover the Engineer and the Medic. Your KDR doesn't matter, not if your team can't protect the bomb site or repair the EV. Objectives in Dirty Bomb come in three varieties

Delivery



In Delivery objectives, the Attackers must Deliver an object from one location to another. Sometimes they are near their spawn and must be carried towards the Defender's spawn, and other times the other way around. The player carrying the objective cannot use their weapons or abilities while doing so, and thus must drop it in order to defend themselves, so give them some cover! Additionally, Defenders are able to Return a dropped objective back to its spawn if they can control it for a few seconds.

Bomb



Bomb objectives challenge the Attackers to plant C4 at one or more location and defend it. The C4 will take 50s to explode, during which time the Defenders are able to Defuse it, which if successful will force the Attackers to plant another one.

This objective can be completed much faster, on both ends, by Engineers, although the countdown timer will always be the same.

EV



EV objectives challenge the Attackers to Repair an EV, so that it can start moving, and then escort it along a path while the Defenders attempt to hold it back. The EV only moves while an Attacker is near it, and can be Disabled once again if the Defenders hit it with enough damage. Once Disabled, the EV will not move backwards, but must be repaired anew in order to get it moving again.

The Repair of the EV is once again the main purview of the Engineers, able to do it in a fraction of the time as the attackers. Disabling the EV is best done with Explosives, particularly the powerful abilities the Fire Support Mercs can unleash. Additionally, all maps have Secondary Objectives, which help tilt the battle in the favor of the side controlling it, be it blocking the path of an EV, closing or opening an alternate path for either side or changing the Spawn locations. These objectives have two varieties.

Repair

Much like the EV objectives, some maps will have objects that can be activated by Repairing it, and deactivated by planting and defending C4. As with the Primary objectives, these Secondary objectives are much easier for Engineers to complete.

Zone Control

This secondary type requires nothing more from either team but to stand near the objective, like escorting the EV, and it will slowly be captured by your team. These objectives can be retaken by the other team through the same method, so it's always a battle for control.

Loadout Cards



Your chosen Mercs will define a lot about your combat, but the Loadout Card you have equipped can change a lot too. Beyond giving Proxy an SMG instead of a Shotgun, or Fragger with a Burst-Fire Rifle instead of his Machine Gun, the Augments can work wonders.

Augments do a wide variety of things, like boost your reload speed, give you more Medpacks to throw out, make your Deployables react faster to the enemy or lets a non-Engineer complete objectives a faster than normal. There's dozens of Augments about, so look through all your options before picking a card.

Loadout Cards come in 8 forms :



Rarity Rarity Name Augments Transaction Fee # of 'Rarity-1' Cards needed Skin Default Default 0 Free N/A Beige Lead 1 Lootable only N/A Desert Camo Iron 2 Lootable only 3 Khaki Camo Bronze 3 1,500 3 Forest Green Camo Silver 3 5,000 4 Carbon Fiber Gold 3 25,000 4 Gold or Gold + Red Cobalt 3 ? 6 Grey + Blue or Digital Cyan Obsidian (Special Edition) 3 Promotion only N/A Red (Beta Fighter) or Green + Orange (Founders)

Beyond Bronze, Mercs only gain a different skin.

General Tips

You run faster with your knife. The more cumbersome your weapon is, the slower you run.

While sprinting, hitting your Crouch + Jump buttons simultaneously will trigger a Long Jump. This can also be used during wall jumps to boost your trajectory. Doing so will disable sprinting for a few second, so it's best advice to pair it with wall jump for maximum afficiency.

The F key allows you to perform various actions, which are contextual. You can repair objectives, plant C4, use a turret MG, revive a teammate, etc... However you have no control over what action it does. If you're a medic and want to revive a teammate near an objective, it will select the objective. Use the appropriate tool key instead (The Defibrillator is bound to key 5 by default).

You spawn with only 3 or 4 clips of ammo. Support classes such as Skyhammer and Arty can provide ammo but do not do it as often as wanted. Learn where the ammo boxes are on the map and get some when needed. Using the voice command v,2,2 ("Ammo!") will not only alert friendly fire support mercs to your ammunition deficit, but will also indicate ammo boxes, stations and packs on your HUD.

Melee weapons have 2 attacks. Left click for a quick attack and right click for a slow but powerful attack.

You can destroy enemy deployables (e.g. proximity mines, sticky bombs, turrets, heartbeat sensors) by shooting them for a small XP reward. Red ones belong to the enemy and blue ones to your team.

You can revive incapacitated teammates, even if you are not Medic. Helping up your teammates takes 8 seconds and leaves you vulnerable and immobile in the process. So use it only when necessary and crouch and get as much cover as you can before. As they revive with low health, it is usually not worth helping up teammates if you're coming under enemy fire, or if they're going to respawn soon anyway.

Choose your fights, don't go for kills if you're support. Play your Merc role.

Killing enemies leaves them incapacitated, but they can be revived by a medic or helped up. To prevent this, you can finish downed enemies by damaging them more. This also grants XP according to the damage done. A quick slash or a fast attack of your melee weapon will instantly kill them.

Use your secondary weapon instead of reloading when you emptied your clip in the middle of a fight. Most are powerful and faster to draw than to reload your primary weapon.

Aim for the head, as you deal twice as much damage as for body shots.

Use mounted MGs, they are accurate and powerful. They heat up from extended use, losing accuracy and eventually overheating, requiring a cooldown before it can be fired again. Beware though, as your static position makes you a target of choice for snipers.

On Terminal, you can capture a forward Spawn Point (both teams) that help your team by spawning closer to the objective, and the enemy further away.

Objectives

Constructing secondary objectives rewards Game XP and can help your team a lot by creating a MG turret ramp, a bridge or clear a route to the objective.

Don't stand still when repairing! Contrary to when planting C4 you can actually move when repairing. This is particularly useful when you want to get that last repair in on a vehicle while you are being shot at. Just keep repairing and move into cover behind the vehicle.

Cover your engineers! Engineers repair, disarm and deploy C4 faster than other classes, and multiple mercs repairing does not increase repair rate. So let Engineers do the objective and provide cover for them.

Plan your vehicle repairs! When your EV is down and being repaired it won't take any further damage. If you notice an airstrike is about to be called in on top of it and you are nearly done with the repairs, back out until the airstrike is over and finish it afterwards. If you repair it before the airstrike lands, chances are it will break instantly. Also, keep in mind that a mobile EV cannot be repaired until it is down again. Constructing a Ramp on Chapel

You can enter the EV turret from the sides only. When in it, you can fire the turreted MG to protect it. Beware, as you are a target of choice as your head is vulnerable.

Objectives (EV, generators, walls) can be damaged by abilities and also all weapons including melee attacks. For example, the barrier generator on Bridge, which must be destroyed for the EV to proceed, can often be destroyed faster by Nader or Rhino firing at it than waiting for the C4 to destroy it. This can be useful if the generator room is being heavily defended.

To deliver or return a carried Objective (Drug Sample or EMP Charge), you don't have to hold F to return or deliver it, you can just tap F and it will return/deliver it as long as you stay in range.

When a map requires you to escort the EV it is required that at least one person from the escorting team is close to the vehicle for it to move. If the vehicle is not moving it is easily disabled by airstrikes.

Abilities

Fire Support

Arty - Artillery Spotter (Activation Key: Q)

Calls in an artillery strike on the location indicated. Arty gets a maximum of two artillery strikes, accumulating once per cooldown, allowing you to use them tactically. Artillery can deal significant damage to the EV or secondary objectives, but cannot be called indoors or under objects. Use the painter on walls and outcroppings to call in artillery on players behind cover. Getting shot while calling in delays the strike, so try to avoid getting shot. Kira - Orbital Laser (Activation Key: Q)

Kira's Orbital Laser takes a considerable amount of time to focus, and the call-in animation can be seen by the enemy. Deploy it in a spot not visible to the enemy, and then move it with the painter. Getting shot while calling in delays the laser, so try to avoid getting shot. Skyhammer - Air Strike (Activation Key: Q)

Calls in an airstrike where you throw it, causing massive explosive damage in the area you throw it, but on a minute-long cooldown. Airstrikes will land from right to left perpendicular to where you threw them from. The marker can be used as a grenade indoors, which uses only 25% of the cooldown. If you get damaged by the marker itself the airstrike is NOT called in. Stoker - Molotov Grenade (Activation Key: Q)

Stoker's incendiary grenades cover an area in flames for a short amount of time. Enemy flames are red and will quickly kill you if you are in them. Friendly flames are yellow and can be safely walked through, unless they are your own. Arty/Skyhammer - Ammo Pack (Activation Key: E)

When picked up, ammo packs fully replenish your ammo reserve. Direct player hits with Ammo Packs reduce the target's ability cooldowns by 15%. You have plenty of ammo in stock and they regenerate quickly, so be generous and make sure your teammates are well-stocked on ammo. Health Packs and Ammo Packs can be picked up by teammates and enemies alike, so be careful where you drop them. Kira/Stoker - Ammo Station (Activation Key: E)

Dispenses ammo in a radius to nearby mercs. Ammo can be collected from both friendly and enemy ammo stations, but enemy (and your own) ammo stations will block your movement. Use this as a crude makeshift barricade in a pinch.

Medics

Healing Station

Aura - Healing Station (Activation Key: Q)

Healing stations provide a significant amount of health to anyone inside its radius. Deploying the healing station has a long cooldown, but you can recover your own healing station, giving a significant cooldown reduction. While deploying, there is a delay of a few seconds before the station can heal. Destroy Healing Stations as a priority, as they heal a lot and can often outheal any damage you deal to deal to players in its radius. Phoenix - Healing Pulse (Activation Key: Q)

The healing pulse heals Phoenix and any allies in the indicated radius. It can be charged up by holding Q, increasing both the amount healed and the cooldown of the ability. Phoenix - Self Revive (contextual)

Once incapacitated, Phoenix can revive himself to full health. This ability has a long cooldown however, so it is best used sparingly. Phoenix cannot use this ability once he has been finished off. Sawbonez/Sparks - Health Packs (Activation Key: Q)

Sawbonez carries large health packs which can fully heal any merc over a short period of time. This heal is interrupted by any damage. Sparks carries small health packs which instantly heal for 30 HP. Health Packs and Ammo Packs can be picked up by teammates and enemies alike, so be careful where you drop them. Aura/Phoenix/Sawbonez - Defibrillator (Activation Key: E)

The longer you charge your defibrillator, the more health you give to your teammate when reviving them. When it's fully charged, an electric arc animation appears between your defibrillator pads. A fully charged defibrillator revives at full health. You can keep it charged indefinitely so it's sometimes useful to hold it until your teammate dies. The defibrillator can also be used as a melee weapon. Sparks - Revive Gun (Activation Key: E)

The revive gun can be used both offensively and to revive your teammates at any range. Like the defibrillator, it can be charged to deal more damage or revive teammates with more health. However, keeping a full charge on the revive gun will eventually overload it, rendering it unusable for a few seconds. Due to the limited quantity and healing provided by Spark's health packs, and your low health, waiting for your teammates to be incapacitated and reviving them from a safe distance is often more advantageous than keeping them actively healed.

Engineers

Bushwhacker - Turret (Activation Key: Q)

Bushwhacker can deploy turrets on flat surfaces, which watch a small but long arc in front of them. Once locked onto a target, it can track it and quickly deal a lot of damage. It can swivel 360 degrees once it's locked on, so dispatch of it quickly if you are detected by one. Makes a distinct periodic droning noise. Turrets can also be used to block/absorb oncoming damage while crouched behind them. Fletcher - Sticky Bomb/Detonator (Activation Key: Q/E)

A small and versatile thrown explosive device that sticks to players and terrain alike. Sticky bombs can be detonated shortly after throwing them, allowing Fletcher to quickly deal considerable damage at close-to-mid range with them. Stick them to enemies to blow them up; one sticky can instantly kill squishiest mercs! Up to three can be deployed at once, also allowing you to use them as traps. Detonate enemy sticky bombs by shooting them. Proxy - Proximity Mine (Activation Key: Q)

Drops a mine in front of you, which arms after a short amount of time. Shooting a mine will make it explode, doing damage to the surrounding area. Shooting an enemy mine won't hit enemies but shooting your own mine or one of your teammate will damage enemies. You can shoot a mine even if it is not yet armed, which can be useful as a makeshift grenade while playing Proxy to clear out entrenched enemies. Mines make a beeping noise and are quite visible in the open, so you are encouraged to place them around corners, behind objects and at the top of stairs. All Engineers - Objective Specialist (passive)

All engineers can repair faster than other mercs, using the blowtorch instead of pliers. Because of this, as an engineer, your repairs will take higher priority than a non-engineer's, so don't be afraid to butt in and take over a repair job, and have your teammate instead watch your back. Engineers also make use of a PDA, making their C4 arms and disarms a lot faster than other players. This allows Engineers to disarm C4 in a shorter time frame.

Assault

Fragger - Frag Grenade (Activation Key: Q)

By holding the skill button down, you can ready Fragger's grenades. The timer is handily indicated by him counting to three on his left hand. If the grenade is not released it will explode in your hand and kill you. You can put away the grenade by switching to another weapon. Nader - Grenade Launcher (Activation Key: Q)

If you need a lot of grenades in a small amount of time, this is for you. Nader can hold up to 5 grenades which accumulate on a cooldown. Direct hits cause the grenade to instantly detonate, which can one-hit-kill some classes. Nader - Martyrdom (contextual)

If Nader is incapacitated, she can detonate her arsenal for one final stand, killing herself and anyone nearby. Before using martyrdom, first check if there's any nearby medics nearby who could simply revive you, and if your sacrifice is likely to deal any damage to your enemy. Rhino - Minigun (Activation Key: Q)

The minigun deals massive damage, but quickly heats up and loses accuracy dramatically when fired. It will eventually overheat, rendering it unable to fire until it cools down. Firing in smaller bursts is encouraged, especially versus distant targets. Hold right-click to keep it revved up. Thunder - Concussion Grenade (Activation Key: Q)

The concussion grenade will stun enemy players, slowing and blinding them for a short period of time, allowing you to rush in and kill them while they're disoriented. It will also temporarily disable enemy deployables in the radius. The blinding effect can be avoided by looking away from the grenade when it explodes.

Recon

Phantom - Refractive Armor (Activation Key: Q)

Makes Phantom hard to see, but NOT completely invisible. Also blocks some damage, draining the cloak meter, and makes a distinct humming sound that experienced players will be listening out for. Standing still will make you much harder to see and hear, and drain less cloak. Attacking will deactivate the cloak. While it is tempting to be a cool assassin dude with your katana, it is often more effective to ambush your enemies with your primary SMG. Red Eye - Smoke Grenade (Activation Key: Q)

Deploys a cloud of smoke which enemies and friendlies alike cannot see through. Has great synergy with your infrared vision, but keep in mind that enemy Red Eyes can use their own infrared vision and see through it. Deploy it on objectives and in chokepoints to disrupt enemy intel. Red Eye - IR Goggles (Activation Key: E)

Your IR goggles see through smoke and highlight enemy players as white silhouettes. Teammates are highlighted less vividly. With the goggles activated, enemies can be detected and spotted, indicating their position with an icon on your teammates' HUD. Vassili - Heartbeat Sensor (Activation Key: Q)

A small sensor which can be thrown a respectable distance. Once deployed, it spots enemy players in a small radius around it, indicating their position with an icon on your teammates' HUD. Deploy it near chokepoints and busy areas to monitor enemy activity, but keep in mind that it can be easily destroyed. It can detect through walls, so use this to your advantage.

Pictures

Proximity Mines : Left : non armed, right : armed. Note that the colour of the aura shows the team it belongs to : blue for allies, red for enemies.

SkyHammer's Air Strike Marker

Ammo Box

Videos

Mouvement basics









ADVANCED PLAYER'S GUIDE

by adetonian

Graphic Settings

By now it's quite widely known that Dirty Bomb isn't the most 'optimization-friendly' game in the world. The main reason, which I'm only telling you so you know why you might have FPS troubles, is that the game is built on Unreal Engine 3. Unreal Engine 3 isn't very great with multithreading/multicore performance, but the devs have modded the engine heavily to make these work but it will simply never be perfect due to flaws in the Engine. Dirty Bombs performance is also almost all CPU based. You can have the best graphics cards onthe market and still have bad FPS if your CPU is somewhat older(older than i3/i5/i7 2XXX(or AMD equivalent) series seem to have the most FPS issues). There are optimization runs being done almost every patch, some are amazing and some make you feel like FPS meter is lying to you. If you have no FPS troubles, your game runs fine with default/max settings, tweak the game with the in-game settings to your pleasing and add some of the visual commands. The 'potato configs'(or for ET scene 'rivatuner style configs') are not possible anymore. If you want maximum FPS, you can read along.

ALWAYS SET YOUR CONFIG TO READ-ONLY AFTER CHANGING SETTINGS, THE GAME MAY REVERTS CHANGES IF YOU DON'T!

Config files

DB is heavily tweak-able, arguably more than ET. From HUD elements to visuals, almost can be changed to some degree. Disclaimer: This might change with coming patches, so beware if suddenly your config looks different if you use custom settings. Writing this as a competitive player, and assuming most people here have the same idea about shooters, I will focus on main things that align with that mindset. Unlike ET, Dirty Bomb uses three files to save your settings, which are these:

ShooterEngine.ini (Graphics/Base settings, ET's r_ and com_ settings)

ShooterGame.ini (Game settings, ET's cg_ settings)

ShooterInput.ini (Binds)

They can be found in:

/My Documents\My Games\UnrealEngine3\ShooterGame\Config

being whatever hard drive your My Documents folder is located at.

Maximizing FPS (ShooterEngine.ini)

The easy way to say this is: "Get a max FPS config from the interwebz". And you wouldn't be far off, I won't go over every command I will link important information on that in the Sources page. Most top players in the competitive scene have very similar configs to max out FPS. Mostly because in the earlier Beta stages the game ran very poorly on almost all modern systems and everyone was using the same max FPS configs. There are a couple of versions out there now from different people, but currently one of the best versions(my preference and best results for me) was made by France Kroad. You will be able to find all downloads/links at the Sources page of this article. Closer to where we are at the moment, people starting using more different settings as the game is get optimized better but by downloading 'pro player configs' you will find many of them have very similar configs. As in ET, it is recommended that you cap your FPS to create consistency, the commands related to this are:

ResX= (resolution width)

ResY= (resolution height)

bSmoothFrameRate=True (Change this to =False for uncapped)

MinSmoothedFrameRate=X (X to what you want your FPS capped at)

MaxSmoothedFrameRate=X (X to what you want your FPS capped at)

MinDesiredFrameRate=X (X to what you want your FPS capped at)

MinAllowableRefreshRate=X (X to what Hz your monitor is)

MaxAllowableRefreshRate=X(X to what Hz your monitor is)



As usual it is recommended to have the FPS and Hz the same value for the best consistency. However some people, if your system can handle it, suggest using doubles of your Hz for your FPS cap. Example: if your monitor supports 120Hz, set your FPS to increments of that number: 240/360/480 etcetera. Personally I suggest using capped 120FPS at 120Hz simply because the game is still quite inconsistent at high FPS rates.

Clear visuals

Same as for the above section, due to the configs not varying a lot because of FPS related issues the visuals are also often similar. There are however a few commands and settings that benefit your visual clarity, some at some costs. by far the most impact full command would be ColorGrading, this command affects how the games lighting and saturation behaves. =0 and =1 will look very similar but =2 takes away almost all (over)saturation giving the game a brownish tint. Some players prefer 0/1, personally prefer 2 and there are several players who change this per map for preference. Alongside ColorGrading there is FogDensity and BloomSize, quite self-explanatory. Both of these values at 0 means that Fog is completely removed and a lot of unnecessary lighting is removed. These commands however cannot be done through the main menu or in the ShooterEngine.ini file. The best way to use these commands is by using a bind for these and some other settings, a bind that pretty much every competitive player uses at this point. I will explain this more when I get to the useful input settings later in this tutorial.



Another command that improves visibility immensely is MaxParticleVertexMemory This command changes how many 'particles' the game allows for things like explosives, flashes and fluids. You can find these command in the ShooterEngine.ini and by default will is on =400. Changing it to =1 will completely remove explosives, muzzleflash, wallmarks and many other things(too many to list). This makes the game a lot clearer obviously but keep in mind that it will take some getting used to as it can make you feel like you get exploded from nowhere as things like seeing what direction an airstrike is landing becomes slightly harder. There are still markers on the floor showing it, but its a lot less visible than a massive explosion. This command also removes some 'warning-indicator's like the red rings on enemy landmines, the red light still shows but beware of this command if you are not comfortable without indicators. Setting it at =300 means there are indicators, explosions and muzzleflash but no smoke so it's somewhat of a middle ground.



Then there is DisplayGamma in the ShooterEngine.ini as-well which is just the command for the gamma. This can be changed in the in-game menu's but I suggest setting a value in the config file. Numbers between 2 and 3.5 are most used with the most common being 2.4 and 2.6.

OneFrameThreadLag

This command touches both your FPS and Input, in simple terms if you have this setting on =True in your ShooterEngine.ini your FPS gets a massive boost(as big as 30-50 more). It does this however at the cost of very minor input lag. In most scenarios, this input lag is not noticeable to any degree! However on some systems the input lag can be very noticeable to a degree where it is not worth the FPS boost. Most, if not all, players I know have this command on =True for the FPS boost. The basic 'guideline' here seems to be: "if with =True your FPS is above 100 the lag won't be noticed". So I would suggest having this on =True unless even with this you still have a bad FPS, but in that case it's likely your system is just outdated and the game won't run well whatever you do.

If you're looking to do more tweaking, there are a lot of tools/documentation available with information on tweaking. Since this is Unreal Engine 3 a lot of other games tweaking can work for Dirty Bomb as they are the same engine. Personally I've used a lot of Borderlands 2 documentation on tweaking to learn bits and pieces as research, I know other players who used Unreal Tournament documentation as-well. Keep it mind it doesn't always work the exact same, but it's a good place to start from as the documentation on DB itself is still quite little. In the sources I will include some links to start you off.

Game Settings

These are all of the personal preference settings and can be found in the ShooterEngine.ini. For most of the settings in this config I recommend that you change them in the in-game menu to what you want, play a match/round, close the game and then change the config to Read-Only. This way the file won't be affected anymore by patches and other random things and you're preferences will be saved. There are some commands that fall outside of this ruling and I will go over them here.

FOV

This file includes the simple FOV commands, PlayerDefaultFOV and DefaultFOV. So you can change them here if you want to. Keep in mind that Unreal Engine 3 uses Vertical FOV! So 100 FOV in DB is not equal to 100 FOV in ET. A guideline-rule is that 73 in Dirty Bomb is equal to ~105 in ET. I will include a FOV calculator in the Sources Page for more exact numbers, but keep in mind that having the same FOV will still feel different due to the Vertical FOV.

DeathInfo

When you die in Dirty Bomb, there is HUD system known as the "DeathInfo" that shows who killed you, from where and with what weapon. This is pretty neat feature but some players, including myself, have this "Laser Show" turned off completely* to prevent HUD clutter. Experienced players have enough map awareness to know where people are anyway. The commands are:

m_bEnablePawnGhostSystem=False

m_bShowDeathInfo=False

There is a known bug that dying from explosives cause a 'partial death info' with only showing the red and blue ghosts. Ignore these until there is a fix.

Input Settings

Dirty Bombs bind system. All there is to it. These can all be find in the ShooterInput.ini. As with the Game Settings, most of these can be changed from the Mouse and Keyboard configuration menu's in-game and I suggest the same Read-Only solution for making sure your binds don't magically change after patches/changes. Below are some of the more important/interesting things for these settings. Keep in mind that DB uses separate command lines for binds while playing and binds while spectating. For consistency with your binds make sure to use CTRL+F to find both binds for the key you are changing.

The "RawInput still feels broken" Fix

Unreal Engine 3 is known for using really weird mouse multipliers to calculate your mouse sensitivity. Enabled Raw Input in the in-game menus will still feel like it's, in the words of megaproplayers, "off". There is no real way to 100% fix this issue but there is a way to change the multipliers to create Raw Input, which is changing the below commands to the values shown here (credits to our very own Oxy/newb) :

bEnableMouseSmoothing=False

LookRightScale=0.00000

LookUpScale=0.00000

I suggest not worrying to much about what these actually do and just going in-game after changing them and feeling the difference in responsiveness and accuracy of your mouse movement. It will feel a lot more reflective of what you're actually doing with your hand movements.

The "Visual Improvements Bind"

As I said in the Graphic section of this article, there are a view visual commands that cannot be set so a value from within the ShooterEngine.ini. I promised you a bind for this and this is it:

Bindings=(Name="F10",Command="BloomSize 0 | FogDensity 0 | ColorGrading 2 | RawInputUpdateTest true | Stat FPS",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False,bIgnoreCtrl=False,bIgnoreShift=False,bIgnoreAlt=False)

Personally I use F10 but a lot of people use F9 as-well. Set it to a key you wish to use for it if you want, by replacing the "F10" with the name of the key you wish to put it on and replace the line for that key in the ShooterInput.ini. If you prefer the bright saturation change ColorGrading to =1. Again keep in mind that if you want this bind to work in both spec and as a player you will have to change that key twice in the file. You have to press this bind once when you first join a server after a game launch, you don't have to do it when you join a different server after that.

RawInputUpdateTest is a command that is supposed to affect RawInput, it's unsure if it actually does anything but most people keep it in here just to be sure.

FOV Toggle

Quite a few of ET players use the infamous FOV toggles. Canada prophet made a script for this in Dirty Bomb and I will share it here and link to his reddit post in the Sources page as-well.

Bindings=(Name="PipeC",Command="FOV 105 | setbind MouseScrollUp PipeD")

Bindings=(Name="PipeD",Command="FOV 90 | setbind MouseScrollUp PipeC")

Bindings=(Name="MouseScrollUp",Command="PipeC")

This is basically DB's version of what creating a vstr bind in ET did. For this to work go into your ShooterInput.ini file and CTRL+F for [ShooterGame.SGPlayerInputPawn]. Paste these three lines at the bottom of that section(so before the next [ShooterGame.blablabla] line) and replace "MouseScrollUp" with the key you want your FOV Toggle on.

"Say and Say_Team" Binds

The spammers among us will like these, prophet again posted this on reddit :

Bindings=(Name"NumPadNine",Command="Get Rekt Scrub!",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False,bIgnoreCtrl=False,bIgnoreShift=False,bIgnoreAlt=False)

Bindings=(Name="NumPadEight",Command="Teamsay Need Ammo!!",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False,bIgnoreCtrl=False,bIgnoreShift=False,bIgnoreAlt=False)

As with the FOV toggle, paste them at the bottom of the [ShooterGame.SGPlayerInputPawn] section and change the "NumPadEight" with whatever key you want these binds to be on.

If you're wondering what the "bIgnoreCtrl/Shift/Alt" means with these binds, in DB it's possible to bind for example X(or any key)+CTRL/Shift/Alt so that X has different functions if your holding Ctrl, Shift or Alt. Change the hold key you want with X to =True for that functionality.

SetFOVSensitivityScale

For the snipers and ADS scrubs among us. Due to the weird multipliers your sensitivity can feel very different while scoped or in ADS(Ironsight). The command to change how this multiplier works is "SetFOVSensitivityScale". According to the documentation this means that 0 is not moving and 1 is the same as your normal sensitivity, but due to the multipliers this seems to not be true in DB. This command can't be found in the config file and can only be changed/used in the in-game console. A value between 0.1 and 0.5 is recommended but play around with it and see what you prefer. People who really need this setting badly could add it to the "Visual Improvements Bind" so that it sets this when you press that. The bind would then be this:

Bindings=(Name="F10",Command="BloomSize 0 | FogDensity 0 | ColorGrading 2 | SetFOVSensitivityScale X | RawInputUpdateTest true | Stat FPS",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False,bIgnoreCtrl=False,bIgnoreShift=False,bIgnoreAlt=False)

Replace X with the value you prefer. Do as said at the bind section above to add the bind.

ShooterUI and the other .INI's

There are a few other .ini files in the Configs folder. I recommend leaving them all alone as they are unfamiliar terrain to most people. The only other file you can play around with freely would be the ShooterUI.ini file which controls all the HUD commands. Creating a custom HUD can be done here, however it can be a pain in the ass to figure out so I will link a few custom HUDs in the Sources page to try. Also I'm linking Wezelkrozums HUD configurator there which can be a fun tool to play around with as-well, it's slightly buggy with the current version of DB but I know he's working on a new version which when released I will share on CF if no-one else did by then.

Community Info

The Dirty Bomb communities have been expanding like crazy in the last few weeks and continues to impress so far. This includes the competitive community of course. Below I will post some links and matching descriptions on where to find things if you're looking for them.

The Main Community Sites

The official Dirty Bomb forums hosted by Nexon, you can find pretty much anything here if you go to the right sub-forums. Patch notes can be found here too(they still haven't figured out how time zones work so beware if you're planning around maintenance/patching xD). There are of-course also recruitment threads for teams here but I suggest using the Dirty Cups forums if you're looking for more serious players, also asking around is a much better tool to get in the 'inner circle' as those teams all know eachother and know if teams are looking.

Self-explanatory to most. The Dirty Bomb sub-reddit. Everything from patchnotes to 'i hate the game threads' and Pro player flame to tips and tricks. Far more complete than the Nexon forums but keep in mind that you also have to dig through more trash. Moderators are generally helpful and fair.

The official Splash Damage forums. This is where the Devs are most active and if you have a serious bug or technical issue I suggest going here with your report/questions. This is also the place where the more competitive players tend to hang out ;). Ofcourse Dev posts/info and patch notes are almost always posted here first.

Competitive Community

By far the most active and prosperous competitive scene is found here. They run a weekly cup on Sundays which combines both NA with EU and you can find scrims on their website if you are not yet familiar with other teams on for example steam(I will admit I don't know how actively used the Scrim Finder is, but from what I've heard people use it :P). This is the best place to find more serious teams if you are team/clan-less so make your recruitment threads here. They also host a mumble where you can enter for PUGs and if your team is desperate for a team VOIP channel you can find it there for free as-well. The PUGs do have a couple of rules so I suggest asking for those when you first join their mumble(the rules are explained in the channel comments but ask if needed). The info for the mumble is: Address: mumble.dirtycups.gg Port: 64738

Evaczone was one of the pillars that starting the competitive scene way back in the early Beta(even Alpha if I remember correct). After a few unfortunate set backs this site has become a bit inactive but from recent news it seems they are looking to get back into the action soon so keep an eye on them if you want.

Every competitive players knows who ESL is. ESL has hosted a small competitive event and according to United Kingdom Pansy ESL is definitely keeping an eye on Dirty Bomb and it's potential. Currently there is not much going on there but keep an eye on it for future stuff!

CyberGamer has made a page for an Australian(region locked I think, not sure) DB 5v5 Ladder. Having in mind that this ladder is still not playable it's good to see that the options are getting ready. So Aussies from CF get in touch with those peoples if you're looking for a team, from what I hear the community is small but very fierce(kinda like it was in ET! :D)

Regional Communities

There are numerous regional communities popping up everywhere. I suggest asking around on the official DB forums by Nexon for what is available for your region. Keep in mind that Russia is in a separate client/region so players from that region might have to find other places to do things as I wouldn't be able to tell you where to find stuff.

Streams and VoD's

With the streaming and video being such a massive factor in eSports and gaming in general nowadays, it's obvious there are quite a few good streamers and content creators for Dirty Bomb. Here I will list a few that are worth mentioning.

The Official Streams

DirtyCups Official Stream

http://www.twitch.tv/dirtycups As said the main competitive scene also has it's own stream. You can find great competition here every sunday around 19.00CET and it's live often till after midnight as it follows the tournament 1 match from a round. The stream is produced by United States of America oen and the casters are usually United States of America FishStix and United Kingdom PixelTwitch. The stream also has events during on weekdays every now, which include NA vs EU Showmatches and Splash Damage vs Nexon employees. Usually fun things.

Splash Damage Dev Stream

http://www.twitch.tv/SplashDamageLtd The official developer stream. A fun community stream hosted by United Kingdom shoe, the community manager from SD. He's always accompanied by another employee as a co-host. Giveaways are a priority here with DLC keys being raffled, SD mugs and SD umbrella's being just a grab out of the items that you can win. This stream is all over the place with serious Q&A to MS Paint contests with viewers.

Nexon Dirty Bomb Stream

http://www.twitch.tv/DirtyBomb The Official Dirty Bomb stream, hosted by United States of America MissMurder the community manager from Nexon. Also often joined by co-hosts working for Nexon. Same as the SD stream, things given out regularly and just a fun stream.

Community Figures

There are quite a bit of these for Dirty Bomb so I will list a few of the more active ones. Sorry if you feel like you should be here but I can't add everyone. I won't really go into detail to why these streams are fun or not, just check them out and see if you like them. Personally I don't watch streams a whole lot but these are more popular ones. There are also a bunch of well known streamers from other games like summit1g, lirik, fl0m and many others who stream Dirty Bomb every now and then so if you like those keep an eye on that too.





Country Name Site USA kudochop http://www.twitch.tv/kudochop USA Bitey http://www.twitch.tv/bitey UK Pansy http://www.twitch.tv/Pansy USA RazielWarmonic http://www.twitch.tv/razielwarmonic Canada oen http://www.twitch.tv/oen_tv

Competitive Players

This will be competitive players from a few of the more active teams (active teams defined by active participation in the DirtyCups/ESL tournaments).

Country Name Site Germany art1er http://www.twitch.tv/art1er_tv (Planetkey Dynamics) Germany outc1der http://www.twitch.tv/outc1der (Planetkey Dynamics) USA sonBANG http://www.twitch.tv/sonBANG (zeroFivezero) USA kudochop http://www.twitch.tv/kudochop (zeroFivezero) Finland OLBAA http://www.twitch.tv/olbaa (dMon-eSports) Netherlands adetonian http://www.twitch.tv/adetooo (dMon-eSports) Finland mikza http://www.twitch.tv/mikzai (dMon-eSports) Finland TAIMOU http://twitch.tv/timothylol (dMon-eSports) USA Lumfish http://www.twitch.tv/LumFish (team Fish) USA Tysaur http://www.twitch.tv/tysaurtv (team Fish) UK mAttja http://www.twitch.tv/mattjatv (.INITIALIZE) USA ChickenNwaffles http://www.twitch.tv/chickennwaffles723 (.INITIALIZE) Germany eissfeldt http://twitch.tv/eissfeldt_ ((ex)LobbyBoyZ) USA Guilte http://twitch.tv/guiltetv (Logic Gaming) Finland LiNkzr http://www.twitch.tv/linkzr (Planetkey Dynamics)

Replays from Matches

Might be forgetting a bunch of people, especially fromt he NA scene but these are the ones I know stream, some more active than others, and are from some of the better teams. I might update this list as there are new players coming along.

Just a couple of replays/VoDs from tournaments/cups to give you a feeling for how the game is played in a more serious environment and the showing the meta.

Closed Beta Series #2, Semi-Final

dMon-eSports vs zeroFivezero

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yimSKXs_2Zc

Closed Beta Series #1, Round of 8

.INITIALIZE vs zeroFivezero

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRKZPQV2_fc

ESL Community Cup, Semi-Final

LobbyBoyZ vs dMon-eSports

http://www.twitch.tv/esl/v/5285530 (match starts at ~1.40.00)

Closed Beta Series #2, Grand Final

Planetkey Dynamic(v586) vs zeroFivezero

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqIYXSooQcY

Sunday Showmatch #1

North America vs Europe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkrawCH69qs

Roundup and Sources

So that is for now all I am able to share with you all. I hope all this give you a basic insight into DB and it's community and you can work your way around and up from there. I might do a future tutorial/article with more advanced info like scripting and more in-game if people ask for it but like I said at the start, most in-game things are very self-explanatory and are learned by simply playing the game. Now for the absolute last part of this piece I will list all my sources and give credits to people. I will include some links that have useful information but that I didn't mention(they will speak for themselves). Remember DB is very tweakable, so back your files up and play around with things and be creative. Especially the HUD file are very interesting if you can figure out how they work so share your creations on Reddit(I'm working on trying to replicate ET's HUD to some degree myself :D.

Sources

Commands, In-game Settings(tweak documentation as-well)



Mouse and FOV calculator

Developper information

Credits (and configs)

Kroad

For his version of the FPS config: http://www.reddit.com/r/Dirtybomb/comments/342yeg/kroads_fps_config/

Oxy/Newb

For his find for the "RawInput still feels broken" fix.

prophet

For his research into scripting http://www.reddit.com/r/Dirtybomb/comments/33mprb/advanced_binding_in_dirty_bomb/

Raziel Warmonic & oen

For their involvement in DirtyCups.GG http://dirtycups.gg/ http://steamcommunity.com//groups/dirtycups (I recommended joining their steamgroup, they often do announcements if they are in need of a couple of players for pug if the waiting time is slightly longer(usually not long at all))

preshr

http://pastebin.com/KsaqRhm4 FPS Config

Twitch DB page

http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Dirty%20Bomb

Syku's WeaponDMG spreadsheet

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yYDiX77THpjA-hImu2eRLio-ayOvGnDEeorZgHAieVQ/edit#gid=490808091 (keep in mind this sheet might be subject to change)

Team Fate's (F8|) Loadout Card Tool

http://dirtybomb.teamfate.us/ This is based of Zenity's List of Loadouts project which you can find here: http://forums.dirtybomb.nexon.net/discussion/1876/list-of-loadouts-wip/p1 (again these are subject to change)

Dirty Bomb most accurate Wiki

http://dirtybomb.gamepedia.com/Dirty_Bomb_Wiki

Netherlands Wezelkrozum HUD Configurator

http://www.wezelkrozum.com/temp/xt_hudconfig/v3/

Germany outc1der's centered HUD

http://pastebin.com/ZXPbmy4e