Paintball Net isn’t the simplest game you’ve ever played. But once you’ve mastered a few basics, you’ll be good to go.
The Beginner Server
Paintball Net has a number of servers:
- Beginner Server
- Primary Server
- Tournament Server
New players will want to log into a Beginner Server. There may be some veteran players on the Beginner Server (you can tell a veteran player by their splat count; yours is 0, theirs… isn’t), but these players are usually going to be more helpful than competitive. This is especially true of the admin players (look for the A by their name).
Feel free to ask questions. That’s what the Beginner Server is for.
Still, let’s see if we can answer some of those questions before you ask. 🙂
The Holding Area
When you login to Paintball Net, you’re dropped in the “holding area.” The holding area is where players prepare for the next game and/or just hang out.
The holding area is also where the various stores are:
- Guido’s Gun Shop (upper left) – for all your weapon and ammo needs.
- Supply Depot (middle) – backpacks, decoys, and more.
- The Armory (lower middle) – camo jackets, padded helmets, flippers, you name it.
- The Chop Shop (upper right) – mods for your weapons, shoes, and everything else.
You might see other players moving around the holding area. You don’t need to be afraid of them. No one can shoot (splat) you in the holding area. You can shoot your gun and throw grenades and what not, but doing so mostly just paints the landscape (and wastes money).
We’ll talk more about the stores in a bit.
Starting Equipment
You begin with basic equipment:
- A paintball gun, loaded with 30 paintballs.
- A down-filled jacket with woodlands camouflage.
- Running shoes.
- And $1000 in starting cash.
You’ll see this the first time you log in:
To see all the details of your current loadout, in the lower left, above the buttons, where it says “chat or type /commands here,” type: /stat
The “stat” command gives you detailed information about your character, including how much money you have, how much you’re carrying, what items you’re wearing or carrying, and more. Like this:
Curious how much ammo is in your gun? Type: /look gun
You are already “wearing” the gun, so you can shoot it. Right-click on the map (or press the Target button and touch the map) to shoot your gun at that location. For example, right-click on one of the “mountain” locations across from you. Heck, right-click twice.
If you do “/look gun” again, this time you’ll see there are only 28 cyan paintballs in the gun.
You can reload your gun by going to Guido’s Gun Shop (above you and to the left). Left-click (or touch) the store to move there. When you arrive, the store UI pops up, but you can ignore it for now. Just press the “Reload Gun” button along the bottom of the screen.
That button executes a number of commands:
- Buy a box of paintballs (buy box).
- Dump the box of paintballs into your gun (dump box gun).
- Sell the box and any remaining contents back to the store. (sell box).
As you may have noticed already, Paintball Net is a game based on commands. This shows the MUD (multi-user dungeon) roots of the game. The GUI for the game hides a lot of the underlying commands. For example, left-clicking to move around actually sends a series of move commands, such as “north”, “west” and so on to get you to the specified location. Sometimes, though, you just have to talk directly to the game. More about that later.
Buy a Backpack
There is a very useful (but not very expensive) piece of equipment you don’t start with: a backpack.
Click on the middle store to go there. When you arrive and the store UI pops up, you’ll see this:
Click on “a small backpack” in the list to select it. Then click on the “Buy Item” button (or, if you think you’re getting the hang of this command thing, you can type: /buy small backpack).
Once you’ve done that, you’ll notice that where it says “Left Hand:”, you now see this:
Body Parts
In Paintball Net you have 2 hands, left and right. Your right hand is your primary hand. Your left hand isn’t.
In fact, you have a lot body locations: head, eyes, neck, left and right shoulders, body, left and right hands, waist, legs, and feet. Every item you use in Paintball Net has one or more body locations that it requires. For example, your gun has to be in your right hand for you to fire it.
Right now, your backpack is held in your left hand. Which isn’t a convenient location for a backpack. So type: /wear backpack
Your backpack is no longer in your left hand. So where is it? Type: /stat (or, you know hit the “Stat” button)
You “wear” items to make them ready to use. You “remove” items to put them away or sell them. Removing an item will put it in your left hand.
Now that you have worn your backpack, you can put stuff in. Like your gun. Or, say, small valuable items you find during a game. Type: /put gun back
Your gun is now in your backpack, leaving you with 2 free hands. Which can be useful. To retrieve your gun, type: /get gun back
Wrapping Up the Basics
You now know how to:
- Move around.
- Shoot.
- Reload your gun.
- Type in commands.
- Buy and wear items.
- Use a backpack.
That’s enough to get you started. Click on the “Ready” button to be included in the next match.
Happy hunting!
