How to not die so fast?

This is probably a mistake, given how the internet is, but, something has been troubling me more and more and I thought I'd ask and see what suggestions people might have.

I am not good at pvp shooters, I play rpgs and cover shooters mostly. I'm fine against AI but against people I suck. My KD is usually around 0.8. I play medic and engi, and spend most of my time healing, which I enjoy doing a lot, i always prefer support/healing in games.

My concern is, that I die so fast. It doesn't matter against which faction, which class, what weapon they use, what BR they are, or what range... I hear a 'tink tink' and I'm dead. Sometimes its so fast the sound bugs out. My question therefore is is there anything I can do to help that? I have the nanoweave level 5 (changes nothing), i tried a heavy (even with my shield up it makes no difference). It feels like another player, no matter what gun and range, I'm done for instantly. I don't even bother trying anymore a lot of the time, if i see someone, i know i'm already dead. They also have bullets that get me around corners and in cover so that doesn't work, though there is no cover system per se.

People say ''aim for the head'' but I'm dead before I can ADS lol. I've tried all kinds of different weapons and they seem to do a lot less dmg when i shoot them. I would just like to know if there is anything I can do to not die so fast, i understand its part of the game and everyone dies, but I just feel useless a lot because I die so quick. I don't have a chance to move, run, shoot back, anything. I'll never be good, but I'd like to feel like less of a hindrance to my side.

I've also tried crouching, jumping and strafing, and it makes no difference... they glance at me and im dead. People constantly need ammo but I never live long enough to run out.

This is not a complaint, I just feel like I either really am that bad at fps's or I'm missing something. I hope its the latter.

As a side note, i would really like it if the TAB screen and the 'you are dead' screen especially, had stats like 'healing done' 'revives' 'repairs done' etc. And would put your best stat at the top. It would be a little less soul crushing to see that I've done something useless in the three seconds I was alive, rather than just seeing a lot of 0 kills and ever increasing deaths.

Thank you in advance for any tips.

Edit: There is no edit button?? :S Anyway my KD should be around 0.6 not 0.8.

A .8 K/D isn't bad for a new player, there is a lot to learn about this game and a lot of the playerbase already has 1000s of hours in. Really a .8 K/D means that four out of five times on average you are killing someone before dying, for what ever reason you are remembering the one out of five when you die without getting a kill.

Dying after running behind cover is caused by lag, usually on your end due to not being near the server or a problem with you ISP. In general being a little laggy favors aggressive play. The same split second that can get you killed retreating can work to your advantage when pushing around corners. It doesn't make a huge difference unless you are extremely laggy but it is something to be aware of.

If you are playing medic get in the habit of pressing F to activate the self heal as soon as you take the first hit, it works like a weaker heavy shield and increases your total effective health. The other big mistake a lot of new medics make is feeling like they have to rez everybody. Kill enemies first, rez when clear or behind cover and don't run out into the open to rez and die in the same bad position as the guy you are trying to help.

Eng can get a K/D boost by using mines. Mines not only get you kills but can be used to watch you flanks or slow enemy advances. Likewise, while not great for getting kills, the Spitfire drone turret can provide additional firepower, protect your flanks and distract enemies. Weapon choice very much comes down to personal choice but I have had good results using a Shotgun for fights that I know will be inside. The automatic shotgun is especially good for players who are average shots, just make sure to switch to a difference weapon when fighting outside.

Finally get you know the vehicles, Eng is the best driver in the game and a vehicle provides an extra layer of armor. I'm a big fan of Sundies with Blockade Armor and a Kobalt machine gun. Drive the Sundy until you see enemy soldiers, press F2 to swap to the Kobalt and F1 to go back to driving to retreat. Jump out to repair to just run off and continue fighting on foot or deploy at an enemy base if you run out of enemies to shoot and give you faction an extra spawn.

And most of all just keep playing, everyday you get a little better. Good luck and welcome to Planetside!

Here are some personal tips:

• Burst fire, you will be surprised how many bullets will miss when you fire continuously when ADSing.
• Don't rush into combat When you are about to turn a corner in a combat zone, stop sprinting.
• This is not CoD, this is not Battlefield. A defensive playstyle will keep you alive longer and may get you more kills if you survive long enough.
• If you want to start fights, cert the Deployment shield on the Sunderer to keep the fight alive.
• Class abilities>unlocking weapons. I'm BR 52 and I've switched back to the starter guns after spending about 3k certs on guns. Other weapons I have were from promotional codes during events. That being said, cert into the anti-air lock on launcher for Heavy Assault.
• Tanks are very squishy, and will only OHK with a direct hit. Shell velocities are garbage as well due to poor balancing decisions a few years back.
• Asymmetrical balance is a thing in this game, but all the factions are fairly balanced.
• Ask around on the discord to join an outfit/run squads with them. If you want to join public squads, keep in mind that those leaders often don't care for the players and can only win with overwhelming force. Those fights are not fun for either side.
• Think outside of the box. This is an open world game, you aren't restricted to a few buildings.
• MAXes are a support class, and are terrible for new players unless you want to waste 450 certs. I myself have almost never used the MAX class.
• If you are an Engineer, pay attention to your MAX units! They have no easy way of self-healing! (Auto-repair only kicks in after 8 seconds of no damage and takes a long time to finish, and Fire suppression can only be used once per minute and only gives back 20% of it's health in over a span of 12 seconds.)

removed

My real KDR in session stays between 1-2 while I'm having fun. Ofc if I'm tryharding or abusing cheese, it can ramp up easily to 6-7 even 15 sometimes. But what's the point. I mostly just grind directives so I don't really care for kdr.

Although KDR doesn't mean much, I understand your frustration when a dude just looks at you and you die. To put it bluntly, there's really not much you can do against some dudes, they just have such a ping advantage over you that unless you destroy your router or move to asia as well, you won't be able to make up for. 8+ years in the game and there's still some people that I see, and I know I'm going to die to. Thankfully there's not that many extreme laggy bois out there, but just keep that in mind, there's some people who you will rarely be able to kill, even when you have the advantage on your screen, and there's not much you can do about it.

That said, if this is a problem you have with everyone, then I would suggest analyzing your playstyle. Headshots can kill pretty quickly, especially if you're an easy target. Learn to strafe, move unpredictably, jump while you're turning a corner where you know a sniper/camper is waiting, and crouch once as soon as you feel the guys starting to land headshots on you.

In return, aim for the head as well. Also please remember due to clientside, if someone starts shooting at you on you're screen, they've likely been shooting at you for quite some time on theirs. That's why you want to quickly evade, run to cover if you can, pop a medkit if needed, and switch to a fast killing pistol to surprise the guy as he's running towards you. Peek out and clientside him before he even realizes what happened.

That's really the main issue with the game, you have to exploit that split second where it's impossible for the dude to react to get the kill. Once you learn to do that you'll be fine.

I would recommend checking out cyriousgaming, moukass, camikaze78 for good tutorials or ideas for gameplay. Try to analyze what they do and why they do it, and apply it to your playstyle. Also if there's an outfit that can tutor you you should definitely join. Everything becomes easier as a squad (and that's coming from a solo main).

Also if you let me know what server you're on, I'll see if I can lend a hand if you need.


Don't worry, everyone learns with experience.

Other than practice there is no real answer,
This game features an extremely fast TTK with most deaths occurring in merely half a second,
Add that to the fact that there is no form of matchmaking, the best player in the world could face off against the worst,
And suddenly we have a recipe for dying fast and dying a lot!

It's best just to not worry about dying too much!

(Also there is edit functionality, but for some reason they put a 30 minute timer on it! XD)

Here is what I have learned. Mostly all the hard way.

1) Never stop moving, ESPECIALLY in large battles.
2) Always aim for the head, takes time to get good at it however but be patient
3) Find weapons that fit your play style and stick with them and also keep in mind your class build and weapons are often situational
4) Don't get discouraged you are going to die and die a lot
5) Don't get wrapped up in stats, drama and don't take silly stuff personal. Just have fun.

Unfortunately as a new player, one of your biggest problems is that you're quite literally playing against those of us who've been playing it for years. Veteran players know all the right hiding posts, weapon mechanics, general game mechanics. How to use what weapons, suit slots, utilities, implants etc to make the perfect loadout. We have the advantage of time.

Time is the one thing that you need in order to get better, and perhaps to make friends with somebody who has played the game for a while in order to learn how to play it well enough that you won't get gunned down every corner you take.

Sadly, the problem with playing as a support class, in any game, is a very thankless job. While it's a team game, unless you're playing with a dedicated squad/outfit, you end up being more of a meat shield that many people care to look after. As a supporting class, Combat Medics are often targeted first among a group of enemies because they are also actually the most dangerous. Though a veteran Heavy Assault can gun down a plethora of enemies, it will mean nothing if they leave a medic alive and around long enough to undo all their work. This is why Medics are targeted first. Engineers often come second. A group of friendlies are useless if they have no more bullets left to fire. A MAX survives far longer with an Engineer around and willing to repair them. Take out the Engineer and the MAX loses a lot of its survivability.

I wouldn't say I'm an A+ player at CQC. I hardly play Heavy Assault, and when I do end up in 1v1 it doesn't necessarily depend on what class the other person is, but how new they are to the game. I've played this game long enough to be able to pick apart the older and newer players quite easily, so know how and when to engage in CQC based on that alone. I've 1v1'd an enemy Heavy as an Engineer, and won, because I knew that person was new, and easy to engage. Whereas when I've had to 1v1 an enemy Heavy who is clearly not new, I've lost almost every single time.

Sometimes it's also about picking your fights. If you see a Heavy Assault, run away unless you really have to. If you're cornered, use pre-fire by firing your weapon even before you've rounded the corner. Compensate for recoil by pulling your mouse down at the same time, and avoid holding down the trigger for more than 7-8 shots at a time unless you're within around 8-10 metres of your target. Pre-firing reduces reaction time (which extremely important in FPS games) needed and can be a huge factor in the difference between a win and a loss in a fight.

Also, try going to VR and see which weapons may suit you best. Everything in VR is unlocked, and you can mess around with attachments, implants, loadout combinations, and so on. Each weapon is situational.

Ok this is long... 3 parts, several hours each. It's not "distilled" really. But it's good.



The BWAE Infantry training. Same stuff all their guys go through when they join that outfit (they go on to 1v1 coaching, video reviews, stuff like that later...)

You can't just watch it though. You have to go do "reps" of the things being discussed. After they teach how to work a corner, you gotta go practice that in dry runs a LOT. Then try to work that one thing into your gameplay for a week, then move to next thing...


Honestly the #1 thing I see when people are struggling:

1. They are not using the yellow lines in the buildings (or don't know about them) and not preaiming.
2. They are using a mouse sensitivity way to high, are stubborn because it works in some other game, and they are afraid of about a week of muscle memory readjustment to fix it. Thus headshot ratio is crap.

#2 is usually:

1. Battlfield sense is poor, minimap not used, and they are not controlling the engagements.
2. Not prioritizing self survival over winning the engagement. If you aren't certain to win, you shouldn't be having the fight.

Finally:
If you come across veteran players that are dunking on you, do reach out. Sometimes they'll be busy doing their thing, other times they may help out. The default mental state good players are in: "This guy is gonna hackusate me and be an *******" because that's all they ever hear. They have defenses up and may snark at first. Be actually nice to them and defenses will drop. You'll find most approachable and helpful. They love the game and helping others is a human thing.

Edit button should appear at the bottom of your post, I think your window of when you can edit is maybe 5-10 mins after posting so you probably exceeded that.

As far as your actual issue, what is your internet connection and framerate? Poor performance and/or poor connection could explain some of the things you're seeing, especially if it is happening so often and so consistently.

Even without this it's important to know that a fight in which you're caught at a disadvantage in this game is typically one you've already lost. If you find yourself in a situation where the other guy has the advantage it's always better if possible to take cover, retreat, and then re-engage instead of staying in a bad fight. This is something you will get a feel for the more you play. Even if you aren't getting many kills simply staying alive is beneficial, especially if you are spending a lot of time playing a support role.

Also don't be afraid to find a squad that is working together, especially if they have comms. By itself this can really make a difference in your personal experience, teamwork and communication are huge force multipliers. On top of this as a support you will see a lot more appreciation for your work in this scenario, and verbal appreciation from your teammates for keeping them supplied/healed is infinitely more satisfying than any number on a score screen would be.

Last I'll just make the obligatory note that by itself your K/D ratio is rather pointless in this game so don't read too much into it. Decent SPM means you are doing things, decent KPM means you are killing things, but all a decent K/D means is that you aren't dying.

To add to Kane's last point..

K/D is useful as a metric only because it is loosely correlated to "fun".

By that I mean: This is a sandbox "choose your own adventure" game. We've all played the "walking back from spawn" game and it's not so fun. Your *ingame* K/D (not true/recursion KD) is a reflection of this.

Don't chase a higher K/D. Chase higher "fun".

If you find your 1v1 infantry skills are too low and getting in the way of fun then invest some time fixing it. There are resources, and people willing to help if you are willing to put the time.

Try this ragetell text time you get dunked on by someone obviously good...
"If I switch factions, join your squad with ingame voice, would you help me a bit?"

I am shocked. Everyone has been so nice, and very helpful. Thank you all very much . I have read everything, though not yet watched the videos (I have however watched a lot of videos from the people listed before). I should just clarify that I don't mind dying, but it gets to the point where i feel like that's all I'm doing and that I'm a hindrance to my side. That's when it gets me down. And I know I shouldn't look at the KD and other stats, I try not to, but they are right there lol. That's why i'd like them to add 'healing done' 'revives' etc to the list.

I do the engi and medic things that are suggested. I think i am a good medic and engineer. I especially like when there is an armor convoy fighting over a bridge or a canyon, and it's night, with munitions flying over head and I'm running around repping tanks and dropping ammo.. I guess I am easily pleased lol I had a lot of fun in the battles over the old rock bridge, but they removed that

My frame-rate is usually 80-90fps, so I don't think that's a problem. And anytime I see the latency warning it's usually when other people are seeing it too because of a server issue, so i don't think i can blame those things for my troubles The point that was made about '' ...if someone starts shooting at you on you're screen, they've likely been shooting at you for quite some time on theirs." is very helpful too.

I will apply much of what was said here, though outfits and squads are out of the question, as I am not remotely good enough for that, too much pressure. I don't mind doing what I do, as long as I feel like I'm being helpful.

Thank you all again so much, you've been very helpful

P.S. I do have the lock-on rocket launcher for my heavy... you didn't think I'd have a hope in hell of hitting anything without it did you?

Today, after about two hours 0.25, and I was pretty useless, though in my defense we were losing everywhere without overpop, so it might not just have been me lol

My dpi is low, i did the thing where you swipe the mouse to the edge of the mat and it turns you 180. But i'm not sure, should my Aim and scope be equal to the movement? i.e. the numbers will be different, but the result is the same? I've tried to look up info on this but its either confusing, annoying to listen to or contradicts other info. I tried to make them all equal because i couldn't move the cross hair fast enough when ads'd.

The first thing to know is that you don't die as quickly as you think.

This game uses a latency system. It works mostly the same as existing games: Someone's PC sends a packet to the server, the server sends it to you. Your PC crunches the numbers and between packets predicts a continueation of the actions in the last packages, correcting their prediction after another package comes into your PC.

This means that if an enemy opens fire, your PC will predict that weapon to keep firing. If an enemy moves left, your PC will predict he'll keep moving left etc.
Unfortunately if packets take their time then you can come across the following situation: An enemy has his back to you just as their PC sends a packet. Then they turn and open fire. By the time the packet arrives that tells you this your PC has already predicted your enemy to be standing with his back to you for that time, upon correction he'll suddenly be turned around and you'll hear "dink dink dink" and you are dead. On his screen it took 7+ shots, on yours 3 or 4.
The solution to this: Make sure you have a stable connection to the servers, make sure you don't play when the server hamsters are tired.

Furthermore if you want to watch your KD the only thing I can say is playstyle playstyle playstyle.
I personally could have a lot higher KD if my playstyle wasn't one of going behind enemy lines and taking on 5 people on a chokepoint from behind while first having to fight my way passed snipers and other people doing similar things, I think my infantry-only KD is somewhere around 1,2 to 1,6. However if you want to watch that KD, then your best bet is to pick your fights and hang back a lot.
Picking fights is relatively easy: See where your team is outnumbering your opponent or where a nice big stalemate has formed. Join that fight.
You can hang back to minimize casualties. Hanging back means your allies are going to be shot first, and you just shoot from a bit more range and dive for cover whenever anyone finally thinks of trying to shoot you. This does mean that when you approach a doorway you aren't going to be diving through it and hoping you can murder those behind it, instead you'll check the doorway and engage anyone who fires at you, and immediately pop back should you see yourself outnumbered or outgunned. Then hang back and shoot anyone trying to pass the doorway until enough allies rush through for you to join in and kill any remaining enemies.

Also I'm an older player who can't be honing his instant-headshot skills for several hours a day so there's no way for me to beat them tryhards on their own turf. The way I fight is by trying to play my enemy. I hit them in the flank or rear, lure them away from their friends, cause chaos, hit them in transit to a fight when they think they are safe and try to dictate the battle based on my gun's characteristics. Don't do a mid- to long-range battle with a CQC weapon. Don't do a CQC battle with a long-range weapon (although most automatic long-range weapons are more than capable of CQC). With a few high-accurate weapon exceptions you can get extremely far just learning your weapon's characteristics without needing too much of that lightning instant-headshot-murder that most people will instantly tell you will make the opposite sex fall at your feet while you get showered in internet points and gratification.

Also check that you're using raw input from your mouse in the game settings.

I would lower the dpi when ads, it'll help you focus your aim better, while not having an impact on your regular movements. Ofc, don't lower it too much, you still want to snap from target to target.

You'll have to do what's right for you, and get used to it. Don't change these things afterwards or you will get really confused.

Absolutely correct!
I always give an advice to a new player: don't look and think about your K/D. K/D is nothing in terms of fun/objectives/alerts.

P.S. My infantry k/d is about 2 when I play for fun. And about 4-7 when I play for K/D

Thanks for the additional posts and information. I am not really making any progress, today my kd was 0.12. I do not ''play for kd'' but it seems to be a generally accepted metric for how badly I'm doing. This even I was playing as a Heavy to try and get a vehicle kill for the mission. I was two tapped at medium range by a guy, while I had full hp, full shield and full over-shield. I even asked him how he did it.. he said ''good question''. There are people that are facing away from me, I start shooting them, they get up, turn to face me, open fire and I'm dead... So i think the answer to my questions are that I'm just really really bad at pvp-fps (I'm fine vs AI).

I thank you all for your efforts in trying to help.

I think you'll find some usefull advices here https://forums.daybreakgames.com/ps2/index.php?threads/few-unobvious-tips-for-lmg-seals.254470/ Read the whole thread

Crouch spam when you see an enemy. It messes with hit detection on their end and you win 9/10 times. Its been part of the game for years and Daybreak has done nothing to fix it.