1337 guys, how do you do it?

If I may preface this, I appreciate skill. If I'm gunned down by a br100 I don't cry op, I think "damn, that guy was good". I'm not bad, but I'd like to be a lot better. So how do you guys do it? Are there any "pro tips" you could share? I've read a lot of guides, and perhaps my weakest point is cqc twitch reaction coupled with a gung ho attitude instead of aiming for the head, so perhaps more discipline on my part. Any advice greatly appreciated!

The only way to improve yourself is to play a lot more in the same manner. FPS is just like any sport. You have to practice a lot.

this.

Also I think it is important to find a fitting loadout for you. Weapons feel different and are made for different situations. Part of winning a fight is knowing when to pull which weapon, class or loadout. And never trust numbers. I am usually more successfull with lower dps weapons because they are more accurate and I can land most of the shots.Aiming for the head is not reliable for every weapon. Some are just too inaccurate and Body Shots can do better in that case.

Second is positioning. Dont run into the enemy fireline. Find a good Spot from where you and your weapon works best.

Secret of cqc: use a either a weapon that has high fire rate and advanced laser sight attachment or a shotgun. Both work well. You can hipfire them and that means you are not losing overview by zooming in and also are faster to attack. And practise it alot.

If you have Issues dieing to fast playing Heavy Assault can help. The Shield gives you a little Time Buffer to practise your aiming on the target and get a feel of how the weapon handles and how to compensate for the recoil. Once you get used to pressing F all the time you will find it to be quite helpful. I recommend the nanite mesh generator and when you are better at killing the adrenaline shield. and max out nanoweave armor.

And look at youtube. some people like Wrel or other players made some helpful videos.

It's as simple as this (for me at least); if something isn't working i need to adapt to the situation.
Planetside was my first ADS shooter, my history being a disgusting amount of Quake and other faster paced games like TF2 etc. I found that in order to be competitive i needed to understand the limitation of my character and class mechanics-wise before i can challenge those limitations. The main reason my overall KDR is so paltry is because i came into this game without understanding it, and now i can consistently hold down a 6+KD in a session even while being on the front lines (and my aim is nothing to write home about)

Use your team and their positioning to your advantage; if a friendly runs out across an open field or into a building it's easy to treat them as 'the canary in the mine' and assess what happens to them and what needs to be done to either avoid a respawn timer or get yourself some kills and make a notable contribution to your faction's effort.

And really use the map. If you have confidence in your primary wep (perhaps it's a fast reload or high capacity LMG) there's nothing stopping you from using the very basic detect bolts as a secondary, and if you don't have any way of showing enemies' movements on the map always proceed with caution and expect them all the time

Run, shoot, retreat, never stop. This is the cycle you have to follow. If you take damage and cannot kill enemy, retreat immediately.
Do not camp a place (there are exceptions), have a place to retreat to.

Decide if you go with the team or rather flank or support at range. Both can work, but totally different approach and loadout requirement.

Always watch what others are doing, do not rush enemy position mindlessly on your own.

Also a big decision: go to small fight to practice 1 vs 1 or go with a zerg? Support only works with a zerg, but some zerg fights could be unplayable: as soon as you are exposed to enemy fire you die.

Some tips:
- If tower is being overrun, the upper levels are death traps due to snipers/tank/ac and enemy light assault who run around. In this case go to floor level and fight from the stairs. All other places will get you shot in the back in my experience.
- If snipers kill you a lot, then you should fight in places where there is more cover or join a different battle.
- Use redeploy if the fight goes badly for you personally! There are plenty of places to fight.
- Indar or alert continent during primetime can be very bad experience, better leave the huge zergs if you cannot handle it.
- Before leaving spawn, look at kill messages, distribution of enemies / allies on the minimap. Assess the situation before going out.

Be adaptable to any situation

Bullcrap. First thing needed is stable high FPS, then you can start practice. There is no point in training, if you're not capable even running game smoothly.

Situational Awareness.
Situational Awareness.
Situational Awareness.
Situational Awareness.
Situational Awareness.
And Situational Thinking.

If you shot some guys who ran into a door and you then hear them behind you , turn around and kill them you are good.
if you shot some guys and then think "what would i do now" go there and shot them in the face again you are 1337

Practice. My reaction times are faster when all I play are shooters. I notice if I've been playing a lot of rpg when I come back to an fps it's takes time to get back into it.

Also time learn the game. I'm better at ps2 now than in my first month because I know the game. How it works. The lay of the land and where people hide etc.

High frame rate, get your graphics and mouse setting right then practice.

You may never get that twitch reaction. I've noticed lately that even though I get the drop on someone I still die, then I look at my ping and frown. Running around my ping is 50ms then in big battles goes to 350ms. I have a 20 mb cable connection and an i7 processor 16 gigs of mem and 690gtx sli.

Don't spam cheese/easy weapons. I used shotguns alot for about 2-3 months when they were OP as **** and my aim stagnated for that time period. As soon as I went back to Carbines again my aim continued to improve again.

First you get swag. Then you become MLG. Then you rek everyone and use color correction/ starburst/ whatever other special effects there are in your video editing software and put a really obnoxious dubstep track over it and bam, you are 1337.

Twitch doesn't matter as you think it might.

Situational awareness x3 is very important. Knowing the base layout.

Knowing when to advance and when to retreat.

Don't be in the place where your enemy expects you to be.

Work on not getting killed for stupid reasons.

Don't fight maxes and vehicles head on.

Take med packs.

Clay makes a great set of points and I would advocate following them as sound advice.
The following is based on my experience in bettering my game...

You will find yourself doing better with certain guns, some you might not yet have discovered. I started (and 99% main) on NC, and as I was an Alpha Squad member went with the AC-X11 as my 'first' gun - playing light assault. My DA stats are wrong, I was going about 1.6/1.7 : 1 with that gun and I didn't think that was bad. I then took up the GD-7F and easily cruised through 2:1 up to probably around 2.3 : 1 in 1v1s as it turns out I predominantly hip fire in twitch combat, and having the advanced laser/high ROF just gave me that extra boost for those situations. I probably would have done better starting off with a more 'TR' style of gun, or even playing TR.

Three lessons from that; 1) I play mostly in close fire fights, 2) I'm a hipfire player, 3) If you're not wedded to an empire, as I was, it's not too late to switch!

Just knowing that improved my game hugely as I now pick weapons to suit that style. e.g. GD22S/NS15M > Saw; Carnage/GR22 > Gauss or Reaper.

Thanks for replies. Framrate is not an issue, but my positioning needs work. Drum and bass pwns dubstep. Practice it is then, more game hours! I use a lot of high rof guns as tr and tend to fare better up close, it's just pushing past that 2:1 kd, although it's not all about that.

Positioning is important, that is true.

But sometimes there's nothing you can do if you want to hold a base. Sometimes this game is about attrition through volume rather than a series of 200 1v1 individual fights, and throwing yourself in to a tiny box room with a handful of grenades is what it takes to break the line...! No shame in dying if you tried.

You just need to decide what you define as criteria for being good (/having fun). If it's a team of you doing a point hold, then focus on your role in that. It's a much different definition of 'good' than that assigned to a pilot, tank driver, or even your light assault flanker. If you're concerned about improving your kdr or spm then weapon/role choice is probably going to determine this for you more so than any other element.

If you want headshot discipline, use a pistol (NOT COMMISSIONER OR UNDERBOSS). You will simply die over and over again if you don't headshot them. My headshot rating went from 11% which was a D to a 23% which is an A++.

If you can't hit their head easily, your mouse sensitivity is probably too high and needs to be lowered.

Situational Awareness. Nah, just kidding. It's good to have that perk so to speak, as it will help you NOT go out of that Spawn Room and into 12387 enemies which clearly show on your MiniMap... But nothing beats a good rig, good connection, the right gear for YOU for a given situation(Except when there is no option but to fight them on their own terms, such as bringing your own Shottie when you get InstaGibbed by one) and practice.
When I say "Practice" I don't mean banging your head on a wall; I mean honing your reflexes(This probably includes peeking or ADADA), your aim and learning about weapons, tools and so on. That's pretty much it. I'm pretty sure I've been in situations were I was the least aware of all the people there, yet came out on top. Because I was faster and aimed better. Or because I decided to throw a Grenade in, just in case.

In PS2's case there's also coming to terms with the fact that around that corner, there could be a barrel at your face's height- And that there's nothing you could do no matter how "Pro" you are. You'll also have to deal with lots of random and little sense or logic. Don't confuse it with that barrel being around that corner which I talked about, that's the PREQUEL to it.

This may or may not help you, it definitely helps me though, so since you asked what works for each of us... Here!

You can do like me and find the cheesiest, cheapest and most rage inducing playstyle in the game and then stick by it until you are bathing in the tears of your enemies.

I suck at FPS twitch action too, so my solution was to main infiltrator and always attack people from behind.