Absolute beginners

[Blacktom]

Hi, I'm a complete greenhorn, new not only to RE but to modern gaming in general (the last time I played anything was Bungie's Marathon series). I found RE and like a lot about it, but obviously it takes time to get good. I've been playing Offline Practice, which I assumed would be playing against the computer, but when I launch it a message reads 'waiting for players'. During play, friends and foes alike seem to be other online gamers (i.e. they have unique usernames and no 'Bot' graphic) even when my network connection is offline. Could anyone explain how this works to a gaming dunce like me? In the meantime, I'm trying to improve, but getting wasted every 30 seconds.
Thanks all!

[qreeves]

It probably just isn't that obvious you're playing with bots in offline practice, they all pick unique-ish names and their nickname emblem can be hard to distinguish. For a complete "greenhorn", when playing offline you can try things like /gamespeed 75 (for a 3/4 speed game, you could go lower), the bots run on this clock as well, so they will get slower accordingly. You might even want to try some race maps, to get a proper hang of the parkour and impulse systems; they're pretty much no pressure (and no bots) so you can go at your own pace.

[bonifarz]

Welcome to the forums, Blacktom
Here are the icons for bots and for (unregistered) players for you to compare:
I hope that helps to verify that you've been in offline mode. You can look up the other player icons and their meaning in the help menu or on the wiki, http://redeclipse.net/wiki/Privs
If the bots are too though in offline mode, you can adjust them with a bunch of variables. For details, see http://redeclipse.net/wiki/Bots

For the upcoming release, we have added a small welcome screen for new players with some tips to get started. Again, there we refer to the help menus, which contain some useful information. The other recommendation there is to join a multiplayer game and just watch the action in spectator mode. This is a very nice way to pick up tricks and game strategies. (Just press the Home key and then use the mouse wheel to snap to different players. F9 toggles first and third person, while spectating and also while playing.)

One more tip: Have you seen the parkour tutorial server? This might be helpful to learn more about the movement system.

[Blacktom]

Thanks for your replies, that's a great help. I'll try all these tips out and see if i can extend my average lifespan Thanks again!