Hey.

Had a little bit of a party at my place the other night and someone thought it was a good idea to drop a Staropramen on my good old Icemat. I learned two things; it actually is not a good idea and a Staropramen bottle is stronger than a glass mousepad.

I have a friend who works for Microsoft and he said he could get me any Steelseries pad I wanted, so my question is: which pad (or "surface" which it apparently is called nowadays..) should I go for?
I think I wanna try o cloth one and I generally want my mouse to be as slippery as possible.. suggestions?

http://www.steelseries.com/int/products/surfaces

Well, cloth is actually one of the least 'slippery' or, shall we say, friction-free materials you can get. Plastic, glass and metal have far less friction than cloth. A good compromise would be the SteelSeries 5L, which is a cloth pad (technically it has 5 layers, not all cloth, but the top layer is cloth), but is very hard for a cloth pad, so it has very low friction. I've seen it wears out quickly though, so dunno. I'm quite happy with my S&S plastic pad except the rubber stuff on the back is wearing off, so it doesn't stick so well to the table any more. I do take it with me far more than most people would do so your mileage will vary. The most important thing, I think, is to get good 'feet' for your mouse, or 'gliders' as they are also called.

Read this

I have to say Razer eXactmat is even more slippery than any of those reviewed and probably the best of them all. However my review for that one will come later.


No, it is not a good compromise. Also, it has ANYTHING but low friction, being one of the worst purchases I ever made (like I said in the review too). Avoid at all costs.

Low friction for a cloth pad, no? Guess I should just have said 'compromise' not 'good compromise', since I don't really know that much about the pad.

Thanks for your suggestions!
But actually now I'm thinking I'll get the new SteelSeries Xai mouse with the Roccat Taito mousepad.. seems to be a killer combination..

Actually no. Even QcK+ has less friction out of the mousepads I have, and it's a really cloth and not some hybrid. 5L is just total garbage (for me at least).

Well, is there a general rule about pad surfaces and quakeworld? What are the good and bad things about cloth and hard surfaces regarding aiming, playability, etc...?

The general rule is: Get what you feel comfortable with and practice the game.