Circlestrafing
In video games, particularly in first-person shooters (FPSs), circlestrafing is the technique of moving around a target in a circle while facing it. It allows a player to fire continuously at a target while simultaneously dodging attacks (as the target remains roughly in front of the player, while the player rapidly circles the target, presenting a moving target). Circlestrafing is most useful in close-quarters combat, where the apparent motion of the attacking player is greatest, and thus the chance of their opponent becoming disoriented and "losing" track of them is highest. The effectiveness of the circlestrafing maneuver is mitigated when the opponent's weapon fires projectiles that travel instantaneously, or fires a large number in a machine gun-like fashion.
Manual circlestrafing is achieved by walking sideways while turning smoothly. On PC games such as Quake, the popular control combination of using the mouse to control angle and the keyboard to move the character makes circlestrafing fairly simple to perform, although the inevitable (and often panicked) "pedaling" action of the mouse can give the circling avatar a jerky, febrile path.
Some games feature a system to handle the turning automatically, which means that the player only has to move sideways to travel along the perimeter. A prominent example is Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with its "Z-targeting" system (the name is due to being activated by holding the Z button on the gamepad).
Many players of first-person-shooters circlestrafe continually for most close-quarters battles, often combining this with unpredictable changes of direction and transverse dodging. Two skilled players fighting in this manner will frequently attempt to circlestrafe around one another, their movements describing intricate and complex patterns like spirals and figures-of-eight. Circlestrafing is an effective means of lessening the advantage held when one player has a more powerful weapon than the other, and by closing to melee range and circling, an attacker with an otherwise puny weapon can defeat an opponent whose powerful explosive weapon (such as a rocket launcher) cannot safely be used at such close quarters.
Some players also combine circlestrafing (and similar rotary dodging motions) with dodge-jumping, in the hope of avoiding splash damage from rockets fired at the ground at their feet, while simultaneously affording them a better (i.e. steeper) angle at which to fire such ground-directed shots of their own (with the rocket being fired at the apex of the jump's trajectory). There is also some additional dodging value due to the jumper's added vertical motion. In older FPS games which allow rocketjump allows one player to leap high above the field of combat, avoiding her circlestrafing nemesis and pelting her with gunfire from above.
- Keeping close to an obstruction, such as a pillar or, ideally, a wall, allows a player to prevent her opponent from flanking her. Mutual-circlestrafe conflicts often end when the action spirals into a confined space such as a corridor or doorway in which the required free movement is blocked.
- A target with an indirect (or area-denial) weapon can use it to confuse her opponent or disturb the delicate pattern of her circlestrafe. Bouncing weapons such as grenades, or delayed-action weapons like time-bombs, can have this effect, allowing the target the opportunity to flee and regroup.
Many bots are programmed to employ circlestrafing, and inhumanly rapid and fluid circlestrafing is one telltale sign that a player is in fact either a bot or an aimbot-assisted human.
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