Realistic DM and Assassin

Realistic DM

There are several major differences between standard DM and realistic DM mode. First and foremost, the movement speed in realistic DM mode is much slower than in standard mode. There's also a fatigue meter to worry about. It's in the bottom center of the screen, where the sound meter in the single player game was. The more you run, the more tired your character gets. Once you max out your fatigue, you will be forced to walk until your player is rested enough to run again (walking or standing still "recharges" your energy levels). Another difference is that the damage you deal to other players is much more severe (as it would be in real life). A single shot to the head will drop a player, while leg shots might affect the run speed of your opponents. In realistic DM, making the first shot count goes a long way toward winning a duel.

Fatigue meter in bottom center - maxed out

The pea shooter can be decent in realistic DM

Reloading issues

There are three more big differences in realistic DM, with regard to weapon usage. The first is that reloading is not done for you automatically. In all the other modes, running your gun to 0 bullets and then firing again would trigger a reload. Not so in realistic DM. You have to hit the reload key explicitly or else you'll keep hearing that nasty clicking of an empty gun. But don't make the mistake of reloading every 4 shots.

Unlike the single player game and the other multiplayer modes, you lose the bullets that are still in your gun when you reload. For example, let's say you are holding the 9mm pistol (capacity of 18 bullets) and you have 11 bullets in the clip. You have 50 extra bullets in your pouch when you attempt to reload. In the single player SoF and the other multiplayer modes, your extra bullets would go down to 43, while the bullets in your clip would increase to the maximum 18. This isn't the case in realistic DM. What essentially happens is that you discard your current clip (and all the bullets left in it) and pop in a fresh one. So you'd be left with 32 bullets in the pouch (not 43), and 18 in the clip - losing the 11 that you originally had in the clip. Constant reloading might not be the best strategy in realistic DM because it wastes bullets. When and where you reload becomes a critical strategic issue in realistic DM.

The white suit is charging with a knife

Decapitated with Heavy MG

The third weapon related difference is that you can only hold a two or three guns in realistic DM. In standard you could carry a lot more. We ended up using the "discard gun" key a lot in realistic deathmatch, as we ran out of bullets in one weapon and attempted to pick up another. Be sure to have that command bound to a nearby key!

Green X = don't shoot

There's my target...and he's not looking

Assassin

Assassin is an interesting twist to standard DM. It's basically a huge free for all, but with every respawn you are assigned a specific person as a target. There are also 1 or more players assigned to kill you. The rest are considered bystanders and you're not allowed to kill them at all. The "bystander" players are marked clearly on screen with a green X above their heads. Kill one of them and you lose a frag. The person you're assigned to kill will have a red crosshair over his/her head. Nail the target, and you receive 4 points and you're assigned a new target. What about the people who are out to get you? They have an orange bullseye over their heads, and killing them nets you 1 point. So what happens when you die? The person that kills you becomes your target - it's a system that fosters vengeance and retribution. Pretty cool huh? It also means that the folks who go on long killing sprees without dying will eventually have everyone turned against him/her. The person who starts to dominate eventually becomes the hunted, which helps balance things out. It's an interesting play mode, and pretty fun when you get tired of plain old DM.