Equipment

Sometimes the only thing standing between you and a certain, bloody death is your set of tools. In fact, this is a pretty common occurrence in the savage setting of Night's Edge. So it's important to know your instruments and know them well.

One important thing to remember about equipment, beside the fact that you onlt have a limited amount of space about your person, is that the more weight you carry, the slower you'll move. You can carry a few kilos without any speed penalty, but after that you'll start to notice the difficulty in moving quickly. Jumping will become harder too, and not only will you find yourself not getting the height or distance you used to, you'll also get winded a lot faster (your stamina will drop more).

Weapons

Not surprisingly, weapons play a big role in achieving victory in Night's Edge. So it's a good idea to know your weapons, how they're used, and what they're capable of.

Aiming: The first thing you may notice about the weapons in Night's Edge is that there are no crosshairs in sight. This is because you're going to have to use the weapon model's actual sights in order to aim.

Each weapon has two possible aiming states: high and low. To switch between these two modes, you use the ToggleAim command (bound in the Night's Edge Preferences menu). All weapons, when actived, are brought into low aim mode by default. This can also be referred to as "point shooting" or "shooting from the hip". In low aim mode, the sights aren't aligned with your eye so aiming can be difficult. However, reloading is quicker when initiated in low aim mode, it's faster to switch to another weapon in this mode, and the weapon model will block less of your view in low aim mode.

High aim mode brings the sights of the gun up into alignment with your eye. You can now look down the sights and be assured that where you put the gun's front sight, the bullets will hit. The tricky part is then getting the sight to line up with your target! Any person holding a gun will have a slight tremor in their muscles, because of the weight of the gun and even the weight of their arms. This tremor is visible as a slight random bobbing of the weapon and its sights as you stand still. It is made worse by high fatigue and some types of drugs. Crouching lets you help redistribute weight better, so it lessens the weapon tremor somewhat, especially with heavier weapons.

Movement, though, makes it very difficult to hold a gun steady. The motion of the body makes it harder to keep the gun trained on a particular spot, and the rhythmic slapping of your feet on the ground as you walk or run jars your arms (the faster you move, the more pronounced this effect). This weapon bounce caused by movement is slightly reduced if you're holding the gun in low aim mode.

When the sights form the proper sight picture with your target, you can fire and expect to hit. Now keep in mind that the recoil of most guns will throw your well-placed sights off the target. Generally, the more powerful the ammunition, the more recoil will affect the angle of your gun. You can either pause before your next shot, as the gun sights will settle back to the center of the screen, or you can try and compensate manually by using the mouse to rotate your view until the sights again line up with your target. This is why most weapon experts recommend short, controlled bursts when using fully automatic weapons. It becomes very difficult to keep up with the sights of a wildly recoiling weapon.

Scoped weapons (rifles) don't have iron sights, so when you switch them to high aim mode, you will be looking through their telescopic sights. Your view will be zoomed, and the scope's crosshair will be visible. Switching back to low aim mode returns your view to normal.

All of these effects apply both to high and low aim modes, however they are generally more noticeable in high aim mode since you can see the sights and tell exactly where the gun is pointing. In low aim mode, the gun will still react to a player's movement and recoil. It just may be harder to tell.

A pistol reloading

Reloading: Weapons that use ammo (firearms) can only contain a limited number of rounds. Once all the cartridges are used up, the gun needs to be reloaded, using the Reload command bound in the Night's Edge setup menu. Initiating a reload begins to fill the weapon with fresh rounds, either all at once in the case of guns with removable magazines, or one-by-one for those without (such as shotguns). If you try to attack several times with an empty weapon, that will initiate a reload (assuming you have spare ammo).

Firing modes: Some guns can be fired in more than one way. For example, some assault weapons can fire on full-auto, or be set to fire three-round bursts. The weapon's primary firing mode can be used by the key or button bound to the Fire command, and the secondary mode is accessed through the AltFire key or button. The firing modes available will be displayed at the bottom of the HUD using icons. You can also cycle through the available firing modes by setting up key binds in the Advanced Controls tab on the Night's Edge Preferences menu (see page 2). Some weapons have more than 2 firing modes and since only two are available at a time, the others can only be accessed by using those keys to cycle through them.

Cycling zoom factor: When you are zoomed in with a scoped weapon, you can cycle the magnification with the Cycle Zoom key (set up in the Night's Edge Preferences menu). The available magnification levels are x4, x8 and x12. If you cycle past x12, it will return you to x4 (the default).

Selecting weapons: Probably the easiest method of selecting a different weapon to use is the NextWeapon and PrevWeapon commands (usually bound to the mousewheel). However, if you only want to cycle through a sub-section of your weapons, a specific category, you can do so with the "SwitchWeapon <number>" command. This is usually bound to the number keys (1 is bound to "SwitchWeapon 1", and so on through 0 bound to "SwitchWeapon 10"). As you cycle through your weapons, the weapon bar will appear in the bottom left of the screen, displaying the category you are viewing, as well as all the weapons you're carrying from that category. The numbers and their corresponding categories are:

Ammo

Ammunition in Night's Edge is carried loose... that is, you keep track of the number of rounds you are carrying, not the number of magazines or clips. Ammo can then be grouped in terms of inventory slots, which can be thought of like an ammo pouch. Smaller ammo (such as pistol cartridges) can fit more rounds per slot. Larger (like .308 or 12-gauge shells) won't be able to fit quite as many. The amount of total inventory space all your ammo takes depends on how many rounds can fit in a slot. The number you're carrying divided by the number per slot, rounded up. Rounded up, because even if you only have a single bullet, it still has to get its own ammo pouch as different ammo types should never be stored mixed together.

Gear

Everything not considered a weapon, ammunition, or armor is lumped together in the category of "gear". These are generally tools that give you a tactical advantage in the game. Active gear must be deliberately used by the player. These items can either be used through key binds (Night's Edge Preferences menu) or the Inventory Menu (left-clicking on a tool will use it).

Drugs: There are a number of advantageous medications available in the world of Night's Edge. These have varying effects, but all work the same way. They can either be used through the Inventory menu or with an individual key bind. Drugs, while taking effect immediately, will still have a pause of about 1 second between each use, so you cannot multiple doses one right after the other. Be warned, mixing different types of medication can cause dangerous side-effects and drug interactions.

Flashlight: Every player is equipped with a flashlight. This small but powerful device puts out a dazzling amount of illumination and contains enough battery life for 20 hours of continual use. The flashlight can be toggled on and off using the key bound in the Controls menu.

Armor

Armor is almost as important as weapons in the world of Night's Edge. While weapons kill and maim, your armor may be the only thing preventing you from getting killed and maimed. Let's face it, no one wants to get killed or maimed. So be sure to stock up on armor, and keep those bullets on the outside from getting on the inside, if you know what I mean.

Available armor comes in different levels, and each piece can cover a different part of the body. The higher the rating level, the more resistant the armor is to puncture. A helmet protects the head and face from attack, while chest armor clads the arms and torso. Leg armor defends the legs, feet, posterior, and crotch from harm. Players should feel free to mix and match their armor levels if they want (for example, you might buy better armor for your head if you can't afford armor that good for your entire body).

Even though armor may prevent a bullet or other attack from penetrating into your soft, tender flesh, even the impact from the attack may be enough to cause harm to your person. Don't get it into your head that armor makes you invulnerable to harm. It doesn't.

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