Multiplayer games are divided into two categories: deathmatch and capture the flag (CTF). Like many other games, mastery of deathmatches and similar games requires several things: a great working knowledge of the game, a lot of experience with each of the game maps, and practice, practice, practice.

A working knowledge of the game is almost a given - you must know which weapons work against shields and which work against armor. Know the intricacies of shields, modulation, and auto-rotation, including how missiles work, how to jam or juke them, and how to disable hercs efficiently and precisely. If you don't know how these things work, chances are your opponents will.

	Hercs are very vulnerable sitting on a repair and reload pad.

Knowing the intricacies of the each map is also important, mainly because these maps were designed - so there are all kinds of nifty things, angles, structures, and ways of attacking people, sometimes without others knowing it until it is too late. Specifically to Starsiege, it is important to know where the repair and reload pads are, since they can be your salvation (and another's destruction if you catch an enemy on one). Knowing the ins and outs of a map can be the difference between winning and losing.

Finally, none of this stuff comes naturally - you must play, play some more, and play even more to become good or at least proficient. You can practice offline on the multiplayer maps, but the play is the thing.

Next: More multiplayer tactics