How do I play?
This question is farely involved but I will try to cover most everything I can with an example. So you find yourself on a server. The score is 0-0 and the game has just started. You are on the red team playing the map Battle. It is a 3 on 3 game. You have 2 teamates and 3 enemies. The first round starts with the Charge sound. What do you do now? Well you have 2 choices basically. The first choice is to run around your base looking for supplies. The second choice is to head straight for your opponents base in an effort to surprise them. Both are valid ways to play this or any map, it is basically a question of personal preference and often times depends on the score. 

Lets say you choose #1. So you run around your base looking for supplies. You will need a Gun, Hopper, Co2, Paint and hopefully a barrel. Ofcourse it is best to get the highest powered gun possible. So you may drop your gun a few times looking for a better one. However while you are on the search for the perfect supplies keep an eye on the entrance. While you are switching guns an opponent could easily fly into your base and shoot you. See the sections on Guns and Other supplies to find out what stuff you need and how to drop stuff you do not need. 

Once you spy a large co2 canister that you know you will get, I suggest hitting your empty_co2 bind (defaulted to 7) so that your current small bottle will start emptying. You will hear the hiss of the bottle and if you get to the larger bottle in time, it will switch to the large bottle and you will have the quickest change possible. If you wait till after you have the larger bottle, you may be in a co2 switch when your opponent enters the base and that would be bad. Without a co2 bottle loaded you cannot fire. On the other hand if you cannot find a co2 bottle you will only be able to shoot about 12 shots before you will have to switch to another small 12g bottle. You can see the problems this may pose. Once you are all stocked up on supplies it is wise to look on the HUD and see how many large (black) co2 bottles you have, If you have more then one, it would be best for your team to drop excess. Most likely you will not need more then one during a particular round. Hit your bind for dropco2 (defaulted to 4) as many times as necessary to drop extra bottles. Your teammates will appreciate it greatly, and after all this is a team game.

OK, So now you have gun, hopper, paint, and co2, and if you were lucky enough a barrel. The barrel will make your paint fly faster, which in turn will make it go further. Remeber that forumla in High School that involved angle, speed, and gravity? Well that is basically how paintballs fly in Paintball 2. So the faster that ball shoots out of your gun the further it will go. This is different then Rate of fire, Rate of fire is how many balls your gun can shoot per second, and the speed is how fast the balls travel once they leave the gun. Both figures can be seen for each gun on the Guns page. These figures aren't exactly accurate for real Paintball guns however the relations between the guns are similair and everything has been tweeked for the best gameplay possible in the Quake 2 environment. 

While you are scurrying around looking for the essentials you may happen apon a bonus. Grenades are a feature that was added in the Quake 2 version of paintball and contribute greatly to its gameplay. They are an invalueable asset while playing and I suggest you pick them up and use them wisely. Click here to learn more about grenades.

So lets assume you have found a decent gun, a Carbine. You also have a 100 round hopper, 100 Paintballs, a Brass Barrel and 1 7oz. CO2 canister (of course you dropped the extra co2 you had for teammates) You notice a few of your teammates have set up in defensive positions around the base. In Paintball it is best to spread out so that when the opponent enters the base they see several different targets not one bunch of targets together. Common defensive positions on Battle include the spools on either side of the entrance, behind the x-barrier at the front of the base. On or under the center bunker, At the flag stand, in the tower, or on the ridge. Each position has its benefits and drawbacks. An effective defense would take advantage of several of these positions. Try to position yourself in such a manner that you will be helping a teammate. If you have grenades it is best to aim them towards the door. A smoke grenade tossed at the entrance is very effective in keeping opponents out. A paint grenade tossed towards the door every once in awhile will also be effective in keeping the enemy out. Your goal on defense is to keep the attacking team away from the flag and ofcourse to kill them. 

In Paintball the flag is the most important element. A Flag Capture is worth 5 points. Winning a round is worth 1 points. Winning a round consists of killing off the entire opposing team. Winning a round with the opponents flag in your posession is worth 3 points. So while on defense, if you are the last man standing, it is better to die, then to allow the other team to capture, or even touch the flag. At all costs protect the flag. Do that and you will be one of the best teammates possible. Experiences players know the value of the flag and tend to get upset when a new player gives up a capture. Avoid that by defending the flag and chasing after anyone who grabs it. 

Lets move on a bit. It is a 3 on 3 game on the map battle. You have stocked up as I said before. And you have positioned yourself on top of the bunker in the center of the base where you can easily survey the entire field. You have one teammate to your right defending near the ridge, and one other teammate on your left behind the spool close to the entrance. Many defensive players on battle constantly fling paint at the entrance, Although this is effective in keeping attackers out, it is also distracting to what is going on. The constant stream of paint makes noise and hinders your ability to see the entrance. Listening carefully to footsteps, jumps, and the sound of opponents picking up items can clue you into when they will enter the base. While in your defensive position you see the man on your left exchanging fire with an opponent to your right that you cannot see. After several fluries he is painted and is eliminated for one minute. At this point it is a 3-2 advantage to your opponent. Your goal is still to defend the flag at all costs, however you should now be more focused on keeping the opponent out of the base and allowing your teammate to respawn. Using grenades and flinging random paint at the entrance everyonce in awhile can easily pass a minute by. However your opponents once sensing they have the numbers in their favor storm the base. Quickly 2 opponents enter and you fire at the one to your left, while your teammate works on the guy to your right. However your opponent to the left is clever and aims across the map and hits your teammate. It is now you versus 2 guys, and they have one more who has just entered the base. At this point, unless you are an amazing player, it is best to give yourself up and take the one point loss. But remember you must protect the flag. So from the center bunker you jump to the flag stand and get into position. From the flag stand you can force the opponent to kill you and make sure they cannot grab your flag and score more points. The enemy knows this and stops firing at you as they all converge apon the flag from different angles. Since they have stopped firing and want the flag you are able to kill 2 opponents and finally their 3rd man shoots you from behind but is unable to get the flag. Your team is down 0-1, but you did not give up the flag. 

This is the end of the round and a new round begins as everyone respawns in their own bases. You quickly gather equipment again but this time one of your teammates has rushed the opponent and has taken out 2 opponents before being killed in their base. Now your team has 2 players, and the opponent 1. Quickly you and your remaining teammate move up and claim the center. Now you must coordinate an attack on the base and make a run for the flag. You see your teammate enter the base so you go in right behind him and then split off and take a different route to the flag. You are drawing fire from the defender who is positioned on the bunker but he is unable to hit you. Fling back some token fire just to scare him. While you are distracting him your teammate has moved in behind him and has grabbed the flag. He is now running towards the exit of the base and the defender has started chasing him and flinging paint at his rear. It is now your job to distract the defender and delay him so that your teammate can capture the flag. If you feel the defender is going to easily catch and kill your teammate then it is best to kill the defender and win the round with 3 points. However if your teammate has a chance of running the flag back, do everything possible but shooting the defender in order to free the flag runner. Since the runner has a bit of a lead on the defender you decided to let him attempt to capture so you run in between the 2 and jump around, the defender pauses for a few seconds to shoot you and get you out of his way. While he is doing this your flag runner has gained more ground. The defender is able to kill you however your flag runner is now home free. Send him a team message saying "YOU ARE CLEAR!" and watch the action while you sit out 60 seconds. Your teammate does indeed capture the flag and as soon as he crosses the line the defender finally enters the base and shoots him from a distance. Result, your team scored 5 pts, the opponents scored 1. You are now up 5-2 and they have more kills then your team does! 

This is basically how a paintball game goes and ofcourse their is much more that can be discussed. I will be adding to this file and offering more strategy tips in the near future. If you have any questions don't hesitate to email me. 
How to use Grenades
One of the most commonly asked questions in Digital Paint is how to use a Grenade. Their are two types of grenades in Digital Paint, paint grenades, and smoke grenades. 
The Paint grenade is modeled after the real life squad buster. When tossed across the map it explodes in a few seconds and paint flies everywhere out of it. This paint is just like normal paint in the game and can eliminate opponents. This grenade is highly effective when people are camping in bunkers and other enclosed areas, where you can toss the grenade. They won't be able to get away from it quick enough. You can only carry one grenade at a time. To toss it use the bind, "tossgren". To drop a grenade and pick up another, use the bind "dropgren". The Smoke Grenade is similar to a flash grenade from Team Fortress. Once the grenade is activated it has a radius that expands for the life of the grenade. Once a player is within that radius their screen grows increasingly bright until they cannot see. It effectively blinds them but they can still be seen from far away. "Real" Smoke could not be effectively created due to the limitations of the engines, however this implementation is highly effective. To use the grenade bind a key to "tossgren".


  • CO2 Inventory - Shows which bottles you are carrying: 12g, 7oz, 12oz, or 20oz.
  • CO2 Level - Shows how much co2 is left in current bottle
  • Player Color - Shows which team you are on: Red, Blue, Yellow, or Purple.
  • Hopper Icon - Shows which Hopper you are carrying: 100, 200, or 300
  • # of Pballs - Shows how many Paintballs you are carrying
  • Barrel Icon - Shows which Barrel you currently have: Steel, Chrome, or Brass
  • Grenade Icon - Shows which grenade you have: Smoke, Paint, or None
  • Team Alive Status - One bar for each team, one dot per person alive
  • Team Scores and Flag indicator - Shows team scores, and if team has flag shows flag in box.
How to Switch Teams

 Switching teams in Digital Paint is very simple. Tab should be  automatically bound to inven. If not you can bind it by typing, bind tab "inven". Or you could bind it to any other key that you wish. When you hit this key the menu to the right should come up. From here you can use the bracket keys, ] and [ to move up and down the menu. Then hit enter to select. Using this you can switch teams, go to observer mode, use the chase camera or view some of the other options (some of which are not done in this version). This is the easiest way to switch teams. However if you would like to switch teams from console you can use one of the following commands
 
  • join blue
  • join red
  • join yellow
  • join purple
  • join observer
You could also bind these to keys for the quickest team switching. Proper Quake etiquette maintains that you only switch teams at the beginning of a map or to even out teams. Joining the winning team or switching teams every round if pretty much lame. Don't be lame =)

Siege mode was added to Digital Paint in Beta 5. This new variant of team play is very exciting and much fun to play however it is difficult to understand at first. This Tutorial is meant to explain the gameplay mode to you so that you will be able to play it effectively. The map pictured to the right is Paintball 2 Siege 1. It is the Siege map that comes packaged with Digital Paint. New maps for siege mode may be made by 3rd party mappers. This tutorial will focus on the map pictured to the right. Siege games consist of rounds. Each round the 2 team switch positions. The first position is Defense. The defense's job is to defend the flag. On their particular map their are 3 flags. The center flag is worth 6 points, each of the side flags are worth 2 pts. The defense scores one point for each kill that they get. They will also receive bonus points if they are able to kill off the entire attacking team or last through the specified time limit. Their is a line just outside the base. This line marks the boundaries of the base. If the defensive team attempts to cross it, they will be killed. This is to keep the defense from attacking. The defensive teams spawns next to high powered guns, and all the supplies they should need for the entire round. This allows them to get into position to defend quickly. The other team on Siege mode is the Offense. The offense spawns together on the opposite end of the map from the base. They must collect upgrades and supplies on their way to the Base. Their guns are random and supplies is scattered. This is to delay the offense so that the defense has time to get set. The offense must also pass through obstacles (the logs and barrels) on their way to the base. This is also meant to delay the attacking team. The offense receives points for killing off the entire defense, or for grabbing a flag. They need only touch one flag in order to end a round. The offense should go after the middle flag in order to score the most points possible. Hopefully this tutorial is sufficient enough for you to be able to play Siege mode effectively. I think you will find, if played correctly, siege is very entertaining. 
Siege Mode

Deathmatch
 Deathmatch mode was implemented in Beta 4 of Digital Paint. The install for DP comes with one Deathmatch map. It is an indoor arena style map that can hold many people. Deathmatch in paintball is just like normal deathmatch. Their is no wait on respawn and it is every man for himself. In DM you can shoot people that are the same color as yourself. The first person to aquire the amount of frags that equals the frag limit, normally 50, wins regardless of how many deaths they had. In deathmatch mode your kills and a streak counter are displayed in the upper right hand corner. Deathmatch breaks away from the normal Paintball gameplay because it does not involve teams at all. It is a nice change of pace and has become very popular on our servers. 

Jails - Jails were implemented in Beta 5 of Digital Paint. They exhist basically to give you something to do while you are dead. In maps that have Jails you will be placed in the jail as soon as you die. Here you can have a PGP fight with the other people who are dead. Jail is similair to deathmatch in that you do not have to wait to respawn. You keep fighting in jail until your 60 seconds is up or the round ends. Only a few maps have jails currently, however more jails will be added to maps in DPPB2 Final.