Tip number 8. 008. The names spy. Sneaky spy.

Oh... Kay!
Welcome to the first of my tips series that isn't recycled from a previous series - this tip is shiny and new.

Now, I won't try and hide the reason for this. The reason is that I consider myself to be a pretty lame spy. I'm awfull at it. Everyone sees through my disguises immediately, and I rarely acheive my objective.
So, this tip willl be more orinetated towards DEFEATING enemy spies - which I *am* good at.
Hopefully those of you wanting to spy will be able to turn that advice on its head.

Ok - first a basic run through of the class.
You're decently fast, slower than a medic, about the same as an engineer. A bit faster than a sniper.
You've got about the same medium amount of health and armour as a medic or engineer.
Weaponry wise:
Super shotgun. Like everyone else's super shotgun.

Tranq pistol (which I will hence forth call the tranq cannon) unique to this class - it fires a single nail, with a rate of fire about 1 every 1.5 seconds. the nail does about normal nail damage, but drastically reduces the targets movement speed, rate of fire and rate of reload. It does NOT reduce turning speed.
Further nails have a culmative efect, but the law of diminishing returns kicks in.

Knife. Instead of the crowbar, a close up only weapon - but deadly. Used correctly it can gib a healthy HWG in one swing.
Correct use is to hit the back of the head. Easiest way to acheive this is to get behin them, aim for the back, start the swing (by presing fire) then swinging the mouse up so that it impacts th back of the head.
To the from it does very little damage, though repeate swings will still kill stuff. This weapon from the back ignores armour it seems.

Grenades, normal, up to 4. VERY useful to the spy, since their use doesn't remove the disguise.
And halluc grenades (spy spam) which block off an area with pretty pixie dust.
Walking through such an area does (a bit of) damage to people, but also starts them hallucinating, which, for a while (or until healed by a medic) makes them see and hear random stuff, which helps you slip past them.

Right - now onto the mechanics of their class specific abilities.
Prime ability. You can disguise - changing your skin to that of any class and any team.
While disguised, you will see a readout in the bottom right saying what you are.
Your teammates, if they centre you in your crosshairs, will see your real name and health readout - but if they don't get a good look at you might well just start firing at the 'enemy' they see - so it's a good idea to tell your teammates what you are disguised as and where. (but not incessantly, thats annoying)
Now - members of OHER teams, when they look at you, get a name and health readout as though you were somone else.
They will see you as:
1. A random member of the class and team you are disguised as (so if there is only one blue medic, you steal their name, if there are two, you get one of their names)
2. A random member of the team you are disguised as (So if there are no blue medics, you might get the name of the blue pyro)
3. Themselves. (So if there are no blue players at all, the yellow team sees you as themselves - this is a dumb disguise)

When I say 'random' however - it's not VERY random - it seems to steal the name of the person looking at you a LOT more often than it ought to.

This name can give you away in several ways - first off, if it's their own name, then you MUST be a spy.
Second off, if it's the name of someone dead, the health and armour appear negative, so you MUST be a spy.
Third, if the person who's name you have is in combat, the numbers will CHANGE - and you must be a spy.
Fourth, if the person you said you were DIES (top right) then you must be a spy (they don't have to keep looking at you to realise this)

Next. While you are disguised, you appear to have the *DEFAULT* weapon of the class you are disguised as.
This is:
scout - nailgun. Sniper - Sniper rifle (held oddly). Soldier - Rocket launcher. Demon - (blue) pipe launcher. Medic - Nailgun. HWG - Autocannon. Pyro - flamethrower. Spy - Tranq gun. Engineer - railgun.

The *big* give away is the engineer. Sniper is a bit odd, since you can't look like you are chargin up. Medic and pyro have good reasons to use other guns a lot...
The others are probably be fine, but one way to catch a spy is to say that people MUST change weapons. A spy cannot.

OK - you do NOT automatically get the speed of the class you are disguised as. This can give you away too.

When disguised, and on a team damage OFF server - armour damage only (the default for most public servers, WRONG for real matches and admin servers) then you do NOT bleed when a teammate shoots you, and you DO bleed when an enemy shoots you.
This is a give away.

A disguised spy will have his disguise REMOVED by an enemy scout or spy (even a disguised spy, though you'll remove their disguise too)

The final, BIG thing a spy cannot do while disguised is fire a weapon.
You can toss grenades, but firing a weapon instantly gives you away.

So be aware that you may only get one shot, and make it count.

Oh - on *most* maps, picking up the flag (or key or whatever) or capping a command point removes your disguise too.


Next special ability (as if that wasn't enough)
You can feign death.
Either quietly collapse into a conrner, and look corpse like, or noisily, and hope to convince someone they killed you.
Ok, some points.
If you look about while on the floor, your corpse rotates. This is a dead giveaway, and once the enemy stops laughing, they'll kill you.
If somoene stands on you whilst you are feigned, or an engineer builds something on you, you can't get up. Suicicde is your only escape.
You can't move while faking death. At least not unless a bug has come back.
You cannot fake being gibbed. So people may not be fooled.
Unlike a real corpse, you don't disappear after a time - so don't stay in one place too long.
If someone steps on you, you make a noise (sort of squishy) which can give you away.
Your 'noisy' death doesn't throw out a backpack...
Your 'noisy' death doesn't do the spy corpse bug thing (both of these can be got around by scripting, or mad hammering on keys)
Also, of course - real corpses don't bleed when shot at. Splash damage can give you away.

The spy corpse bug thing.
A spies corpse, while it is still there, has the same skin the spy does.
So if they die disguised, it stays disguised a while.
Then the spy respawns, and the corpse goes back to a spy skin.
Then it changes as they disguise to something else....
This can be a real pain, but if the enemy is using it, you can trick them by disguising as one thing, waiting for the corpse to vanish, then changing disguise.

Wow. Thats a LONG description of the class.
So, how do we *use* it.
The hint is in the name. You are a spy. You get into the enemy base, you convince the enemy you are a friend. You relay information to your team, and when the time is right, you betray the enemy.

Ok, lets start with the betrayal, because this is where most people focus, and its easy to do, but easy to get wrong.
Oh, and because you can do it even when the enemy realises you are a spy.

First, and most obviously, you can nab the flag (or whatever)
This can work, causes a LOT of distraction, but will get you killed because you can't disguise while you have the flag (notable exception to this is the map bases_r - but that map has a LOT of bugs, even though this is an intentional change, the other bugs make the map unplayable IMHO)

Secondly, you can kill a key defender, or destroy a key sentry.
This can work REALLY well. If you do it while no one is looking, then you an destroy a sentry without losing your disguise, and leaving them not quite certain how it happened.
Destroying a key defender pretty much gives you away as a spy (unless you do it from behind, with a grenade and then HIDE) but can still be well worth it.

Thirdly, you can cause a lot of chaos. Halluc grenades can make things very confusing, and the enemy is often VERY afraid of a spy, an so will devote a lot of effort to catching you.


Ok - now to a more general look at the spies role.
The *main* advantage of this class is simply that it exists.
Simply because it exists, the enemy has to institue elaborate spycheck procedures, or shoot each other, or generally spend time worrying about it. It's one more thing to think about.
Now - you get this advantage even if you aren't being a spy.

If they AREN'T using such procedures (some of which I will detail a bit later) then they are easy to fool - and being a spy has the obvious 'I dont get sdhot at on the way in' advantage

Now. Assuming they DO have some such procedure, getting in is a LOT harder. You've got to go for the cracks.
Cracks open up, basically, at the following times:
1. One of heir teammembers is out of position / dead. You don't have LONG until they come back - but you can pretend to be them, and they (esp if they are rear line def) will be in a hurry, and going toward the flag room... mmm...
2. Middle of an attack - they've got higher prioority targets, people they KNOW are enemies, rather than someone who MIGHT be a spy. You can get in in the confusion, change disguise or feign, and work it from there.
3. TWO spies. The enemy will surely wipe one of you out, but will often not think there might be a second one. Exploit this blind spot.
4. Friends firing at you. Run away screaming 'medic' it might not work - but it can help - after all, the enemy of your enemies enemy is your enemies friend, right?

It's hard - there's definately a knack for looking innocent.

Right, thats pretty much plumbed the depth of my 'how to really spy' knowledge. It may look like a lot, but if you try to spy only knowing that you'll soon find yourself smeared across the base wall.

So - here's a couple of different things.
First, spycheck regimes.
If you do NOT implement one of these regimes, and instead do something less rigourous (HINT - spies can jump too... so 'jump when you come near me' doesn't work) then you deserve what you get.

1. Spies cannot fire. If they do not fire when approaching you as you guard an area, then they are a spy, and must die. Teammates who do NOT follow this regime can be a pain, since they distract you - but they soon learn.
Works REALLY well in an area you can afford to let a spy live a while and you can easily knock them back (such as a soldier guarding the well flagroom lifts)

2. Spies HAVE to use the default weapon. A medic with thier kit out (ooerr) an engineer with a wrench - these are NOT spies. Shotguns are easy to connfuse with pistols though, and at long range you have an excuse. Firing is safer.

3. Friendly attackers run AWAY from yor flag (as a rule, some maps are oddly designed) - if it's going TOWARD your flag, chances are, it' a spy.

Ok? FIRE when entering an area, or expect to die. Firing AT the defender is bad manners.

Humm - I've found a chunk from one of my 'random' tips thats appropriate here:

11. Spy he is! shoot him I will!
*shoot*at*spies*
Even if you aren't certain they are a spy.
Unless they prove that they aren't,
{3 acceptable methods - 1. use a non-standard weapon, 2. fire a shot, 3. scream 'what are you doing shooting at me??'}
And don't stop shooting, until they have eaten 3 rockets (a spy dies from that) or gib.
If they fall over dead on the floor, put another rocket into them. (I don't beleive in cruelty of standing on them, often they get up and stab you just as you are about to. Put them out of your misery)

I think that sums it up (also has the 4th method of identifying non spies - constant comms as you enter an area, but that spams up the comms channel, and if you're not paying attention a spy on mm1 can fool you)

Oh - and one further advanced spy method:

Spies. A couple of good spies can make the enemy team *really* paranoid, and really aid your offence (I was on the receiving end of this - *despite* the fact that we had spycheck in place) *but* This tactic only really works if the enemy has:
a) no comms
or b) no forward defence. Heres a hint people - any person walking *in* to your base, who isn't carrying the enemy flag, is an enemy! (spies, escorting the flag carrier out of your base is a costly, but almost surefire, method of infiltrating the enemy - they don't usually shoot at (or spycheck so rigorously) people helping someone get to the cap point.

Ok - now, on to "how to be a spy when the enemy knows you are a spy"
Seems a bit daffy - after all, we just spent AGES trying to avoid the enemy realising you are a spy - but then, we spent just as long trying to spot spies, so...
At some point, the enemy will realise that you are a spy. Then they will get that look in their eyes, that 'aha!' look - you'll soon see what I mean, ven though the models are expressionless.
And then you've got a fraction of a second to do somthing about it.
Get out of there. Somehow convince them you aint a spy. Kill them. Die.
Those are your choices.

First, getting out of there - self explanatory, easiest in places like the well flag room, where you can drop down a hole. If possible, try to make it look natural, leave some doubt in their mind that maybe you weren't a spy after all. If they're firing at yu, this may not be possible.

Second, persuade them you aren't a spy at all. Spray a decal. Do a silly dance. Jump. Shout "Don't shoot, I'm a spy" over global talk (you'd be amazed how often that works)
The idea here is to persuade them that ou are a teammate playing silly buggers (or a spy on their team) or at least buy yourself an extra second or two to do something else. Do NOT expect to get away with it, but sometimes you do, and that's nice.

Third, Kill them.
you've got only a fraction of a second before they start firing, they know you are a spy anyway, so fir. Make the shot COUNT. The first shot being a well aimed tranq to the forehead really helps. Grenades are your real killer weapon against heavy classes - halluc is nice, shotgun chunky.
If you CAN - kinfe them in the back - but since they think you're a spy, trying to sidle up behind them makes them even surer, and gets you killed quick.

Fourth, dying may seem like a 'fail' option - but it doesn't have to be. You get to come back from a different route - their team will be a bit spy panicked, you get your armour back...
And, you don't HAVE to come back as a spy - and if they're geared up to expect a spy, and are roaming, a quick scout can do wonderful things.

Ok, so that's if one person figures out you are a spy - what if you don't care that the WHOLE enemy team finds out?
Thats when you act like a medic. You can't fly, you don't have the long range power, but you have tranq, and sentry guns can't see you till you fire (hence rmeoving the need for long range power to take them out)
Charge in, unload your grenades, cause chaos, deathmatch a bit, and die often.
Great strategy for attackers on warpath is to use 3 spies until the enemy stops building guns. Then you can all be scouts or medics instead.

So - as a set of tips, this is a bit disparate, but hopefully you can mine it for the good stuff.

Don't ALWAYS be a spy.
Know what to DO as a spy (advancing that flag another yard, before the SG locks on and kills you may well be worth it, or you may prefer to wait while your grens kill the SG, hope the dozy HWG takes a while to realise it was you, and THEN run the flag the whole way)

Oh - tip for killing SG - walk up to it as engy, crouch behind it, THEN drop the grens.
WIth the new 'just whack it no menu' sentry gun prepair, a LOT of mediocre engineers spend all their time crouched behind the gun, so it looks fairly natural, and people can't see that your spanner isn't out. They also can't see the grenades till it is too late.
It *may* be worth letting yourself get killed, so that they just see the SG killed by grenades, and the engineer died, so it wasn't a spy...
Or you might prefer to get the hell out of there before it blows.

Ok - have fun, be sneaky - and I want to see all you spies managing to occasionally fool me (it happens, though rarely) and I want to see all you twits on my team being fooled WAY less often.

i