What am I missing?

(dommafia) #1

Here’s the thing, I’m no pro player but I know for a fact that I should be doing better than I am. I’m sure that comes off arrogant, but I assure you that it is not.

There’s something about the game that just hasn’t clicked with me yet. I try playing it more like ET, then more like ETQW, then even more like battlefield and I still don’t feel like I’m part of the game. When I try to fight up close it feels like I have no control of the outcome. Even when I get the kill I feel like I just sprayed and prayed and got lucky. I hardly ever feel a satisfaction when I get a kill like I do in previous games. I don’t feel like it was my aim/movement that got me the kill.

This is not to bash the game, I just want some of the ex-ETQW players to share some light on this. How are you adapting to DB in this sense? do you feel that you had to change at all? I don’t know I just feel very disconnected from my character’s movements/aim and the gun’s size is really starting to get on my nerve.

I thought maybe I’m just getting old, but I’ve been playing ET and my aim/movement is still very much on point. I see players like Valdez and inferno ripping it up so what am I missing? (queue the “…skill” jokes :wink: )

(warbie) #2

I think I know what you mean, maybe just in parts. DB clicked more for me when I start playing it more like CoD. Being a little bit more sneaky, trying and get the drop on people, and just spraying as soon as you can get the crosshair on them. Everything was about headshots in RTCW/ET, but I find that level of precision doesn’t work so much here. Aim roughly in the chest area and go to town. That and you’re getting old :wink:

(Loffy) #3

I adapt by switching weapon/class, e.g. switching from medic to engi just to test the engi’s gun for a couple of minutes. Aim comes and goes. Whenever I feel my aim goes away in DB, I test changing weapons, tactics/movement (e.g. “moving back”, fighting from a distance) and other things, just to “force” my aim to “come back”. Also, ping/lag must play a major role here, don’t you think?

(Kendle) #4

I don’t think the game properly rewards things like burst firing to control spread or aiming for the head. Headshot damage is not high enough IMO to make it worthwhile doing anything other than spray ‘n’ pray, especially at close quarters. Plus you never know when you’re getting those head-shots due to the lack of a head-shot hit-sound.

It’s difficult for me to give an opinion because I’ve played other games for so long I’ve completely lost the RTCW / ET feeling and it’s taking a while to come back, but I’m getting better every time I play. Just need to shake some of the habits I’ve acquired from other games, like crouching / bursting / scoping, none of which really help in this game.

(spookify) #5

I totally agree with this thread! I played for a little bit last night and noticed that the first 2 shot on every person I 1v1’ed were headshots. You would think that with such a great start to a 1v1 I could bunny hop and pop a few body shots and move on, that is not the case. What I found out that happens is after my first 2 headshots right off the bat I go into ET/RTCW mode and strafe. As soon as you start to strafe side to side the game turns into luck or spray and pray. I constantly aim for the head but as soon as you try to evade something your spread does nutz!

To be honest after the first few shots it feels like BF3 and the crazy suppression they put in place! I quit BF3 as soon as they stopped rewarding good shots. I got headaches from trying so hard aiming for the head and my bullets doing whatever they wanted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxsbTjPe2fs

I will try tapping the mouse tonight but I loved ET/RTCW full out whoever hits 3 hs’s first wins with no really worry about spread or WTF moments because you are tracking a guys head perfectly and nothing happens.

(EnderWiggin.DA.) #6

TBH I would love to see 10 minutes of video from Inferno, Valdez, Leestyle, or -Cup. NOT a frag video. 10 minutes of uninterrupted play. Cup never misses with that ****ing knife and I can’t seem to connect with it. Never going to be like those guys and I’m cool with that but that doesn’t mean I can’t try.

Dom, I land a lot of bodyshots but have trouble finding the head hitbox. Do you? Get fraps, DxTory, or Bandicam. I know Bandicam lets you record 10 minutes without registering. Record 10 mins of play after 1 round of warmup and see what you are doing.

(Apples) #7

I’m with you on this point, I have a recurrent problem in DB is that i dont “feel” like I’m in the game, feel rather disconected and aiming doesnt come as natural, I have to think to aim and that makes me lose many many firefight, to get my aim more natural I just go full rambo, you’ll see me dying twice more as anyone else on my team (without getting most kill neither ^^) because i dont play precousiously at all, I just rush and try to force my aim to become natural, aiming directly for the head and then strafe (I’m not a good tracker as long as there is anything disturbing me on my screen, bobbing or blood or whatever red stuff).

Knowing the maps very well and timing your attacks (choke point / backrape) are IMO still too proficient on this game because with the bullet dmg its pretty hard to counter a backshooter if he already landed 2 bullets on you.

I will tell you the little advice I use in every game, don’t care about KDR and play rambo (real rambo, not rambo “hello i’m a medic i’ll camp a corner with 4 health packs around me”), you’ll train your aim (twitch shot, reflexive aim) pretty fast, then you can start to play more tacticaly and get your tracking on par with your twitch shots, and then its bingo :stuck_out_tongue:

Sadly I suck for the last part, tracking, even if I never had any problem with the lightning gun in Q3 / QL, I cant track properly in games without perfect smoothness of the engine / ping / fps.

Well, you can get positive Kdr easily if you camp / sneak, but I’m pretty sure it’s not the solution for your aim, it can be a solution to be a better asset to one team yeah, but for your aim I would suggest to just stop looking at KDR and just go full rambo vs 2-3 ennemies, you’ll train your intuitive memory this way.

Oh, and Im far from being super duper good at DB, take this into consideration before starting a cult to the Awesome Apples :slight_smile:

(Samurai.) #8

For me there’s a couple of things that are making firefights a bit unusual/feel like im not performing/less rewarding and from what i can tell so far im putting it down to these kinds of factors

  1. Performance, i need a consistant 125+ fps otherwise i feel my sensitivity is sluggish and not consistent and therefore i don’t feel like i have pixel control over my aim which at the moment i don’t have…(feels like im gliding on ice, to running through mud if you can understand)
  2. The crosshair - the colour white just blends in with alot of the models, and there is no single point in the middle showing exactly where you are aiming which makes it a struggle to constantly track i find.
  3. The models i find are quite hard to visibly distinguish parts of the body, such as the head… especially on models like soldiers… i find they are camouflaged pretty well with the scenary and in the heat of a fight, its hard to re-adjust your aim back to the head.
  4. I feel like the feedback from hitting people is missing, i have hit sounds enabled an they are nice, but i also do like visual feedback in sense of quake wars having the red hit flash around the crosshair… (edit - ignore this point for the first time today i saw hit flash feedback with red markers around the crosshair)
  5. After killing someone, the label is really small and hard to find out who you killed, also on my screen it appears at the bottom in the centre, im sure you could move this around but i like the “You just killed XXX” at the top of the screen, its more noticeable without making an effort.
(Maca) #9

The lack of center dot has bothered me for the whole time I’ve been in this alpha. I know all kinds of crosshair customization will be added to the game later, but couldn’t we for now just get an option to have a simple brightly colored dot on the center? Would I be right in saying it wouldn’t be that hard to implement? It would honestly help many people to get a feeling for the aiming.

(OwNLY) #10

My 60-90 FPS are playable, 120 would be nice ofc…

For me the crosshairs are annoying.
Once you started shooting&moving they get 3 times as big as the enemy model.
My aim gets really sloppy if that happens. It would be perfect if i would be able to customize them to a more stable form.

And there seem to be some hitreg issues,
they become obvious when you play against a player with really good ping like samurai here^^
Most of the times i can hit fast moving enemys with good precision (except him, while he places perfect hits). Kinda annoying -.-

(warbie) #11

I hear that.

(Valdez) #12

I plan on streaming as soon as the NDA is lifted. Just comes down to getting the xhair on the melon then maintaining it with tracking. Having awareness helps also.

also keep an eye on http://www.dirtybombers.com ImageOmega plans on having tips/strats on there.

(Anti) #13

Out of interest, how many of you having this issue are playing from North America but mostly on EU servers?

I’d love to see video of you guys playing who are having this issue as well, or if you know the time and server at which you’ve played a game let me know and I’ll grab the server demos and take a look. It always helps to observe players and then apply their feedback to what you see.

Personally I find I have most success when burst firing at mid range, only spraying if I’m super close. To me that helps me get more head shots. I also aim at the top of the chest, rather than the head, so natural recoil takes the crosshair through their head. I still control the recoil but there is always a touch of jump and I find this helps me.

(Humate) #14

Also, ping/lag must play a major role here, don’t you think?

Did not realise by how much till I started playing on the new aussie server with 20 ping. It was night and day for me.

(SinDonor) #15

I don’t understand why people keep complaining about the head shot sound. I wear a mid-level $80 pair of “over-ear” head phones and I clearly hear every time a head shot is registered. It sounds like someone is tapping a melon but much louder. If anything, I’d maybe like a different sound for when I’m getting head-shotted vs when I head-shot someone else.

(Samurai.) #16

Yes i also hear a different sound for headshots, was pretty confused when a few people were complaining about no headshot sound…

Im using Sennheiser PC350’s with an Asus Xonar U3 USB Soundcard

(radi) #17

[QUOTE=dommafia;428766]Here’s the thing, I’m no pro player but I know for a fact that I should be doing better than I am. I’m sure that comes off arrogant, but I assure you that it is not.

There’s something about the game that just hasn’t clicked with me yet. I try playing it more like ET, then more like ETQW, then even more like battlefield and I still don’t feel like I’m part of the game. When I try to fight up close it feels like I have no control of the outcome. Even when I get the kill I feel like I just sprayed and prayed and got lucky. I hardly ever feel a satisfaction when I get a kill like I do in previous games. I don’t feel like it was my aim/movement that got me the kill.

This is not to bash the game, I just want some of the ex-ETQW players to share some light on this. How are you adapting to DB in this sense? do you feel that you had to change at all? I don’t know I just feel very disconnected from my character’s movements/aim and the gun’s size is really starting to get on my nerve.

I thought maybe I’m just getting old, but I’ve been playing ET and my aim/movement is still very much on point. I see players like Valdez and inferno ripping it up so what am I missing? (queue the “…skill” jokes :wink: )[/QUOTE]

Could be alot of reasons. maybe something with your hardware? what’s your setup? Also, what mouse are you using. Could be your settings in game. Could also be that you are getting old, how old? If you can manage to keep your crosshair on the person while firing you should be able to take him out. I asked about the mouse because i changed to the logitech g400 from a steelseries sensei and for some reason I dont have input lag anymore. Or it could be you just suck :slight_smile:

(ImageOmega) #18

[QUOTE=Anti;428821]Out of interest, how many of you having this issue are playing from North America but mostly on EU servers?

I’d love to see video of you guys playing who are having this issue as well, or if you know the time and server at which you’ve played a game let me know and I’ll grab the server demos and take a look. It always helps to observe players and then apply their feedback to what you see.

Personally I find I have most success when burst firing at mid range, only spraying if I’m super close. To me that helps me get more head shots. I also aim at the top of the chest, rather than the head, so natural recoil takes the crosshair through their head. I still control the recoil but there is always a touch of jump and I find this helps me.[/QUOTE]

Anti, I just hopped on a UK server (I think UK Obj 1) and shot around a bit. I think you’ll find some of the things people are talking about as far as hit registration and being “shot around corners”. There’s a clear death ghost where I am around the corner on my screen, but being shot through the wall. Ping was right around 150ms, but firing sure did feel sluggish compared to 60ms. It’s only about 10-15 minutes of gameplay, so, short and sweet.

(MrFunkyFunk) #19

I was a bit surprised too at the number of players asking for different hitsounds since it’s already the case.
For some reason I thought I was making it up after reading through multiple threads.

(Sennheiser headset with Asus Xonar X1)

(Rex) #20

I totally agree with dommafia here. Aim and movement still don’t feel right, especially the movement. Personally I play the game more like CS, I try to hit a headshot with the first shot and the rest some burst fire towards the chest/head. It got better with the latest build but it is still more “spray and pray” than pure tracking.
And yes I had to change a lot coming from QW, where I was most relying on my movement skills. One great thing was always that you could distinguish each player only by their movement, which is not giving in DB. I could for example jump fast out of crouch and control my crosshair, land crouched and jump out of crouch as quickly as before. Many movement techniques are just not possible in DB.