I do better than “hold my own” in any other bullet shooter u can name, and quite well in all the non-bullety stuff that is the reason for this game even existing (quake, doom, etc.), but going toe to toe in this game, AR vs. Lacerator and vice versa, I lose far too often. For that matter, hip-fired GPMG, and sometimes even hyper, seem near-useless to me, yet I try to go against ppl hip-firing GPMG and often get chewed right up. (Hip-fired hyper not such a mystery, of course, being the newbtube that it is…)
One obvious tactical disadvantage I’ll cop to is that it’s usually me who is running in doing the “assaulting” and the other guy is doing the “lying in wait”, but still, the ferocity and speed with which I tend to get macked defy explanation. (Believe me, I would not resort to asking such vulgarly pointed questions on a forum unless it was A Real Problem.)
So I’m going to just start spitting out ideas and questions about what I think might be affecting the situation, and if anything rings true (or false) to you, or if you have any other tips to share, please do! At this point, it could very well make the difference in having one more (or fewer!) member of the dwindling ETQW community. The whole experience is getting kinda tiresome, but some more successes on the battlefield could probably go a decent way toward changing that. 
[ul]
[li]Is it cuz so many players in the last (2?) remaining active US server(s) are a bunch of 200-ping laggers from “across the pond”?[/li]
[li]Is it cuz these ppl are LW freaks and have LW3 in such a quick time that it just leaves me going “nah, they couldn’t have THAT so soon, right?”[/li]
[li]Do u guys get LW 3 or 4 stars often? (3 obviously, but 4?) In ~250 hours of ETQW, I have never got 4-star LW or BS once.[/li]
Minor side point of interest: noticed the other day, that these two disciplines are also the ones in which I have the greatest # of level one stars. In fact, in BS, vs. other disciplines, I have the greatest # of lvl 1, 2, and 3 stars, yet have never gotten 4. In LW, the “rank” of how many times I have attained that level of stars, vs. other disciplines, by tier, are 2, 3, 7, 8. Why the drop-off? Is it cuz, by mid-late campaign, I seem to always be stuck w/ some newb-brigade, thus requiring me to drop the “kill and have fun” approach and adopt a (usually pointless) “objectives only” approach, in hopes of actually getting a victory? On a related note, I think it’s no small coincidence that so many of these LW killers I run into are combat medics. (- respect, for that, and here’s hoping SD will tone that down if they ever wind up making another game. I’ll admit there’s a fine line between making medics “the class no one wants to play” and “the most powerful killing force on the battlefield” – neither of which is how it should be – but I’ll leave solving that problem up to the guys who make the big bucks).
[li]And an aside as far as campaign success in general: are “regulars”/“veterans” doing so well because you all have all the other “good” players on your friends list, thus know who to favor cuz of the little blue arrows, vs the green “rando newbs”?[/li]
[li]Of course I go for headshots AMAP. Do u headshot AMAP, or make use of the upper body/neck shots or whatever, etc.?[/li]
[li]Do u fire full auto, or “tap”/“burst”? It seems (sounds) like full auto, but, just wondering. Looking for any angle.[/li]
[li]Do u use ridiculously low-quality configs? I have mine set roughly medium, and according to com_showfps am getting ridiculously high framerates, so I tend not to think of that as the problem … but I have also come a LONG way from my old config to run this game on my Radeon 9700 or whatever, which was super lo-fi. So I know what is possible in terms of reducing the fidelity of the game to increase both performance and visibility. Sorry, but I’m not going back there, and if u have the hardware to run this game “properly” yet still run ultra-low configs to be “competitive”, well, that’s just weak, and I scorn u. It ruins the game for everybody, including you![/li]
[li]Would u agree or disagree that there is a rough analogue to Wolf ET where thompson was >power and mp40 was >accuracy AFA AR & Lacerator go, respectively?[/li]
[li]Do u scope? (seems like no, based on mobility)[/li]
[li]Do u use high or low FOV? I don’t even know what I use; I think 110, but possibly 90.[/li]
[li]Do u lead targets (massively? moderately? barely?) or aim at them? I generally lead slightly, like u would for the average latency-burdened shooter.[/li]
[li]Is the network implementation in this game as nasty as it feels? Are there SERIOUS untruths being portrayed by the client netcode, AFA my client indicating “you have pulled your weapon and fired a couple shots”, meanwhile the server is more like “you haven’t even pulled your weapon yet”.[/li]
[li]Related: Is there just some archaic “feel” in general, to this game, which the slayers have mastered, yet I am out of touch with, since, despite me having put in those 250 hrs, they were separated by years, in 3 distinct “eras” of my life: game in its “prime”, me w/ crappy computer; game dying, me w/ slightly-less-crappy computer; game all but dead, me w/ awesome computer. (And the “gaps” were filled in with me playing practically every other shooter in the book, of course.)[/li]
And, just for old times’ sake: those first two eras were back when I used to do :stroggbanana: this :stroggbanana: all the time on the forums. 
[li]Is there a certain critical config setting or settings? If so, will you share? Does it have much to do with net_clientprediction or whatever? (which I tend to keep set to a previously (i.e. Q3) accepted standard of (.5 * average ping in ms). For that matter, any tips on some pro configs in general, would be appreciated. I’ve done my own homework, scoured the web, and have quite a complex and finely crafted set of configs as it is, but other points of reference are always welcome.[/li]
[li]hate to even have to go here, but … are ppl cheating? (other than by config-hacking. :P) It seems like probably not, as they couldn’t sustain a presence in such a small community, being known cheaters, but hey, while I’m here asking all these other questions, may as well throw that in there… And obviously they are not blatantly, constantly aimbotting, as I know what that feels and looks like and it would be quickly recognized and not tolerated, but … y’know, “subtle” stuff, maybe? A little “help” here and there? I dunno.[/ul][/li]
Thanks for reading, and thanks for any input.
