Newb Training: How Do I Get Better?

i see nothing about mouse sensitivity.

I still assume you didn't read (at least not well), since you tell him to buy said weapon. and the pulsar with 4x scope is so much better then the serpent unless you like CQC.

By playing the game.....

http://donewmouseaccel.************.au/2010/03/markc-windows-7-mouse-acceleration-fix.html
Get the right version tells you which one,

buy a Destructor 2 mouse mat, and buy a gaming mouse, optical ones are probuly better but you laser are fine as long as you use a destructor 2 mat with them they also work for optical mice as well.

Are you serious?

If so, then I don't think first-person shooters are your thing.

From what I've seen, good fps players who've never played this game usually start with a kdr of around 1 and average fps players will average around 0.5

If you're that far below average after getting killed 1500 times, you're playing the wrong game.

You say this is your first shooter, so I presume you're still very young.

My advice to you as a man with 20 years of fps experience: don't waste your precious time and energy on online games. There's a lot of things you need to do in real life before you can really afford to spend a lot of time in virtual reality - and online games are incredibly addictive and time-consuming.

I played nothing but single-player games for 15 years and only started casually playing online 5 years ago.

Even tho K/D ration is not that precise in this game because many things will alter it, it's still a pretty good indicator of how you're doing, if you mainly play infantry and not a support class.

Long before coming to PS2 I was a quite good Counter Strike player and I consider myself above average when it comes to FPS. When starting PS2 I had a K/D ratio of 0.7 approximatively, and I achieved the 1 ratio after 50 hours. Now, with 150 hours I'm quite stable at a 1.3 K/D ratio. But in the end, that number doesn't mean much, but I saw my skill getting better and better with that number going up.

You'll get a feel of how well you're evolving by checking your session by session stats. Before closing the game, take a look at your kills and death, and try to compare it with the last time you played. Honestly, when I started doing better, it was really making me want to play even better and it motivated me. Maybe it will help you to "measure" your skill.

Appart from that, many people here made point that I won't make again. You need a decent setup to play the game, an outfit is necessary if you have trouble finding objectives, if not, it's not that much of a necessity. I'm lonewolfing this game since the beginning (only learned from Wrel, Wikia and this forum) and I'm just fine. Speaking of Wrel, you should check that video below if you didn't already (it's long but worth the time), it's crucial to know how this work, it will help you understand why you die when you think you shouldn't, and how you lost a fight when you though you had the lead.

Practice, practice and more practice - stick with the same weapon that will help you improve on that specific setup.

The mini map is your best friend.

I want to sincerely thank every one of you that took time out of your day to share your knowledge and experiences. I didn't expect the overwhelming support to get better. I have taken detailed notes and plan to systematically improve at this game.

Thank you again. See you all on the battlefield. : )

Just in case you weren't aware, you have the only post of so many that comes across as condescending. I'm a 41 year old man just trying to get better at a game, not to be told how old I am and what I should be doing with my time. Thank you

Unless you spend 100% of your time as Heavy Assault, Light Assault... K/D ratios are a bit meaningless. The more important stats are:

• Did your squad hold off a superior force?
• Did your side capture (or defend) the objective?
• Are you having fun?

I obviously meant no offence and simply made presumptions based on what you wrote.

In any case, I can't imagine how you could possibly enjoy a game where you get killed dozens of times before you can land a kill yourself.

You are by far the most determined man I've ever met. I would have given up long ago. To be honest, once you've got a handle on the game, if you care at all what anyone ever sees in your stats, make a new character. Yes, you will lose all the things you've unlocked with certs, but I promise you now, you will never dig yourself out of that hole.

Moving on. I would honestly say, since you are new to the FPS genre, put Planetside aside for now. Pick up something easier to help you get used to tracking rapid mouse movements and aiming. Try battlefield, Titanfall, or maybe even COD, though I haven't played it on the PC since the very first one so I don't know what it's like anymore. But you need to start out on a smaller scale, it will be much easier for you to learn. Then once you've gotten the hang of things, come back here and try again. This is a very difficult game to play if you aren't used to having so many people trying to kill you at once, it's very unforgiving.

If you really do want to stay, do as others have said above, hang back a bit, let some others go ahead of you, and try to get a feel for the flow of battle. Stick to fights where you always have a population advantage, there is a large power in numbers. Try to stick with teammates at all times.

Learning how to circle strafe targets is huge, being able to move rapidly in any direction while still tracking your target is one of the most difficult things to pick up for new FPS players. Keeping mobile is the key to survivability in FPS games.

One pitfall i fell into a lot was buying the most magnified scopes I could and focusing way too much on getting head shots. The more magnified scopes means that with each shot you're firing you're going to experience more kick, thus with a lower magnification, recoil was much more manageable. Aiming for the head is obviously optimal, but not always easy. Many situations will get you a kill by just focusing on landing hits the best you can. This is not to say that higher magnification is bad! In fact it tends to reward high skill players in my experience, but toning it down to iron sights or x1/x2 reflex scopes really helped early on.

Don't worry about getting "better" - just have fun in a way that doesn't piss anyone else off and you'll be fine

Get the Pulsar C or Serpent, but the Solstice is good to stick with for a while.

Well, here's the usual advices I give to FPS newcomers:

* Keep your aim about neck-high, it helps you go for headshots much faster. It doesn't mean "never look around" either, just keep it at that level when you are moving around.

*Love your minimap, it's an extremely useful tool. [ and ] buttons control the zoom, zoom in to the max and you will have a watered down form of a legitimate wall-hack Unless you are actually firing at something, it warrants to have a glance over the map every few seconds.

*Reload whenever you get the chance, but if enemies are close and firing at you, go for the pistol (as much as VS pistols suck)

*Don't be the first to run into a room. Forerunners are a fancy way of saying Meatshields.

*Flank! That means don't go head-on, but approach the enemy from the side.

* High rate of fire weapons are generally the ones to take into close quarters, where distances between you and the enemy are very small, low rate of fire are generally the long-ranged ones due to smaller recoil. However, low RoF weapons can still be very useful in close quarters if you can go for the headshots, as they are generally more reliable in terms of accuracy.

*Never stand in the open. In fact, try not to stand at all, moving target is harder to hit, and assume that there is always someone gunning for you. When you move, move in zig-zag pattern.

*Snipers sound much more threatening than they are. Unless you stand still you will find that the vast majority will give up trying to hit you (or they won't, and get rustled jimmies in the process)

*Unless you are at pretty much point blank range (up to maybe 5-10 metres) or you have laser sight equipped, spraying from the hip is generally not a good way to fire, you want to aim down the sights most of the time. It slows you down, yeah, but it also boosts your accuracy considerably.

*Fire in short bursts (as in tap the mouse button, don't leave it pressed for the whole magasine) over medium and longer distances.




And here's some stuff that's more or less specific to Planetside 2:




* Spam the Q button, it spots enemies in the direction you are looking in, even if you don't notice them yourself. It has the benefit of alerting your teammates to them, and also highlights them on your screen with a triangle, making it easier to aim for them.

* At the start, stick to one class to play with, as it's more beneficial than trying to upgrade them all. A medic or a Heavy Assault are the best choices IMO. If you go as medic, put some certs into your medi-tool and the radial heal ability, they will help you rasie certs (and dead teammates) to fund the upgrades for other stuff. If you go as Heavy Assault, I suggest immediately swapping out the nano-mesh generator for a resist shield, and putting a foregrip on your Orion.

*Upgrades are actually more important than buying new weapons. The defaults are fully competent (and in the case of Orion the HA has, it's very VERY competent)

*You generally want to avoid pulling out vehicles unless you have them upgraded, so if you want to have a taste of vehicular combat - look for someone who will let you ride as a gunner.

*Ordinarily I'd say screw outfits, but since you are new to the FPS, it's actually a very good idea to find yourself one to play with.

*Don't pull MAX units until you get a pair of same-purpose weapons (i.e. you get 2 anti-infantry or 2 anti-vehicle guns, by default you have 1 AI and 1 AV) and instead use the infantry resources to stock up on your grenades.

*Unlock a restoration kit (the one that restores health over time) and stock up on those too, they can be equipped by any class.

*Try not to go anywhere alone, it always pays having more bodies if a firefight starts, even if you don't get the kill.

*Never ever run in front of anyone who is aiming in the direction of an enemy, or indeed is firing. Sounds logical, but you'll be surprised how many people still do that.

*Try not to stand behind or even right next to vehicles, especially tanks. If they have to rapidly pull out they won't look who they are running over.

*Cover is essential, but that doesn't mean you should camp it until the end of time. As soon as you feel you can make it run to the next spot of cover. It depends on how much friendly support you have though. If you feel that you are outnumbered, or that your team won't follow you/cover you, generally better to stay where you are and keep firing at the enemy, you will at least slow down their advance. Camping is when you have the opportunity to go forward and push, but you sit back instead, thats a big difference.

*There is no such thing as a "dishonourable weapon", or "noob weapon". Use whatever's at hand to kill. Dead pwople can whine all they want, the simple truth is: they're dead, you're not. You win.

*Don't listen to anyone saying "X is the most important in this game" or "You should always do Y, only noobs to Z" etc. Play any way that you find fun. If you think teamplay with an outfit is up your alley - go ahead. If you find that you like lone wolfing - fine. If you want to give your life to take that objective - all the way man. If you want to farm the hapless enemy from an advvantageous position - go for it. Or maybe you play all of those combined depending on the situation - your choice. Play for what you find fun, or it will be a very horrible experience for you, and ignore the naysayers.

IN all seriousness, the only real way to get KD up is avoid getting in tanks, they get hosed by 100 million different objects in this game, to include the occasional buggy terrain. Also, avoid the massive fights. Join no bigger then maybe 12-24v12-24 and then ensure your side is atleast matching the enemy. Dont try to go hero into 1v5 battles, or 80-20 pop...it just wont work.

Next, when you get to a post, learn and try to figure out where the enemy is coming from and where they are likely to appear. Dont let the enemy surprise you. Improve situational awareness. Avoid being bombarded by planes as much as you can. You can annoy them, but really, your just a farm. You say you got the lock on launcher? Thats a joke lol. It takes far to long to do anything with it.


Also OP, you play VS? On which server? I know overall VS weapons are highly inaccurate and have low damage, despite what the numbers say. They bloom hella fast and are best used in short bursts of maybe 5 rounds. Next, avoid fighting with VS weapons beyond maybe 50m. Beyond that their damage degradation and accuracy becomes to useless to accomplish much.

You will prolly want a Hand Grip on ur weapons. VS Weapons jitter alot, grips help reduce that. Learn to compensate recoil, learn to burst fire.

You say you bought the Serpent? Its a largely Close quarters weapon. Its pretty decent, that 845RpM is nice. But its a limited weapon. Its not accurate.

Last advice (see others from me earlier).

If this is your FIRST FPS GAME. Whew. Man I reeeally want you to stay and play but the best advice I can give is:

Play a single player FPS game to completion. My Dad (in his 60s) took up FPS games a few years back after watching me play Once you have the WASD controls figured out in one game you can transition to anything. He's probably played 20 games to end now.

Plus this is such a rich genre of gaming. So many awesome FPS games out there.

If you are just starting with FPSes it's like suddenly knowing how to read. There is *classic* literature out there. By all means keep playing planetside or make plans to come back but in parallel go and play a single player game from beginning to end. You'll enjoy the storyline, gameplay, and have a blast of a time. You'll also come back into PS2 with skills an order of magnitude better than you have now.

A "reading list". All of these are available very cheap now, will run perfect on any PC that can do PS2, and are all just as fun today as when they released:

Portal - It is pure movement skill based, no twitch shooting. Awesome fun game.

Halflife / Halflife 2 - One of those top X of all time games. It set the bar for story that others have followed.

Fear 2 - Hard to play in a dark room, terrifying game. It also begins to really crank up the tactical shooting.

Quake III Arena - A multiplayer game that you can do single player against bots. This is the Ferrari of twitch shooters. If you can load up a railgun in this game and kill stuff like the finger of God then you can beat anything.

the [] keys zoom your mini map in and out and H I believe makes it smaller/bigger. With a KDR that low you need to become more aware of your surroundings. Once you learn where the enemy is likely to be you'll find yourself in better positions to survive and kill people.

EDIT: just read your last post about taking notes and are going to work on certain things. I can only suggest picking one thing at a time. If you get too caught up in all the things you need to do to improve you'll get no where fast.