Is there a trick to knife wielding. I come across players all the time who appear to be able to knife me from range, or quick knife to finish me off after unloading their mag into me. Sometimes i'll spot a knife wielding infil coming towards me - and despite backing up whilst unloading a whole mag into them, they can just decloak with a couple of swipes and i'm dead, even though they appear to be well out of knife range (and no - they aren't wielding the NSX long range knife). However, no matter what I try I cannot seem to hit anything that is moving, even at point blank range, my knife swipes seem to hit nothing but thin air. The only knife kills I seem to be able to score are people I have snuck up on and who are completely stationary - and even then they often spin around after the first hit and ping me. What's going on?
You've been in this game and on this forum long enough to have heard of Clientside right? The position of your enemy isn't their actual position. Due to the latency system, that thing that allows 100vs100vs100 battles in one continent while several other large battles take place that dwarf the 32vs32 that the top triple-A games have, you actually see where your enemy was a fraction of a second ago. So on their screen they are already in hugging range while on your screen they are still a meter or two away while you are backing away from them. If you or the server are experiencing lag then they might seem to knife you from longer distances.
^ 100% this. Its also how you sometimes just die before/right as you hear a infiltrator uncloak, on their screen they uncloaked and shot you in the head before you even had time to react on *your* screen. Same with people going around corners, since their character is actually a little behind of where they truly are, it gives them a slight advantage since they see you camping the corner before you see their character coming around the corner. Edit: Its why old grumpy veterans like to just keep moving at all times even if its just wiggling side to side, both because snipers and not to give someone free headshots if they come around a corner and you are just standing there drooling. On the flipside, Clientside also means that when you are trying to run people over with a vehicle it seems you have to hit them on *their* screen so you should aim almost a full character infront of the direction they are running in. #TheMoreYouKnow
Client side might explain why I seem to get knifed from a distance - but it doesn't explain why I hit nothing but air even at point blank range. The enemy can completely fill my screen as I swipe - yet I hit nothing.
Still funny that this clientsite leads to everyone being hit when on their screen they shouldn't be and not hitting themselves when they clearly should. How does ANYONE get hit with knives and roadkills if it seems so difficult to get hits in? Seriously, I tried this out one day, ran through a big blob of people in a Harrasser. Killed 1 out of probably 15 that I hit full force. And that is how it always is, with every vehicle. And I can be roadkilled when standing 1 m outside the path still. Roadkills more happen as a coincidence than as the result of a - however ramshackle - plan. Knifing is a bit more consistent than that, but still wonky. It sure is odd how the system can be rigged against both sides at once, or at least feel like it is.
OP makes a great point at highlighting the massive flaw of PS2: this clientside system or netcode that does allow for massive scale battles does not treat every player equally; some mostly experience its drawbacks, others mostly its advantages. This goes beyond some simple peeker's advantage with high ping which also has disadvantages. The end result is some players leave a much more delayed 'shadow' than others, so fighting them is like trying to fight a ghost - yeah your shots will register, but that ghost will teleport around so good luck tracking something that effectively ceases to exist and reappears left or right randomly, and the hit registration on their end will be ("I'm not saying it's nanites, but nanites") instantly detected by that player who will be responding without you ever seeing them, while your own position gets mostly locked into place even if you never stop moving. Sure, I benefit at times from this, seeing how certain engagements leaves zero chance for the other player as I also sort-of lock their position into place - the player dies outside of cover but their dead nanite body teleports behind cover. I sometimes see my own position in game get teleported back into wherever the shooter was shooting, even if I'm not there, just to drop dead. This gives for easier headshots as the target, on your end, appears to slow down. Sometimes your own bullets do not register on a 1vs1 because they already killed you. Really fun trying to fight those ghosts when your perfect instant headshot aim and recoil control is not allowed to even count, since you didn't even get to SEE the other player while they were killing you. Awesome. Planetside2 10/10 will recommend very competitive much wow. Only a few pointers: recognize the flawed, unfair system, try your best but don't get mad when it's clearly this. Use peeker's advantage to try to nullify high ping players by running in and out of cover repeatedly, or use it if you have high ping to balance out its drawbacks. Team work with squad or randoms, hopefully competent players, as this reveals the ghosts locally as things slow down and damage ticks forces their actual locations somewhat. For knifing, I've heard it said the tiny damage projectile which has nearly zero range impacts from left to right despite animations and hand holding and swinging right to left. Only witnessed this once from an accidental friendly fire from the player to my right farming space carrots. Unsure also but I wonder if power knives have worse response for quickknifing. Roadkills, imagine a trail behind you, that's your actual road kill vehicle. Teamkill roadkills though seem to happen much easier, maybe due to not speeding as fast, though it too is strange how easy it is to do this versus enemies.
client-side and high-ping favors moving players. It is another good reason for moving always. That's why peeking corners favors who takes the initiative.
What you are describing is serverside. PS2 has 3 sides: Clientside. Includes things like bullets, rockets and other direct fire weapons. Victimside Includes getting hit with vehicles, can't think of anything else right now. Serverside Includes empty vehicles, grenades, mines, deployables, C4, Spitfires etc. Clientside is designed for making the user feel good. If you shoot at someone and see a hit, you get a hit. Even if due to latency the enemy felt he was already behind cover or somewhere else entirely. If this was put onto victimside then you would have to aim where your enemy is now, rather than where you actually see him. This changes with how much latency there is at that moment, making aiming and hitting anything a freakshow of guesses. Victimside is for calculating collisions. This is why you can stand on a vehicle on your screen. This does have drawbacks: If you are trying to hit someone with the vehicle you are in you have to drive over them on their screen. Here you do have to figure out where they are and where they might have gone in that time. This is also why driving a Flash through a Sunderer convoy is essentially suicide: You function on double victimside. If you don't get hit on your screen, he might hit you on theirs and still deal damage. If you get hit on your screen you also get damage. Then there's serverside. Mines can go off even if you are at the other side of the continent, and if you used clientside that can only see and hit players that render you wouldn't hit a damn thing. So these are server-side objects. Since the player is less likely to see a discrepancy between when the mine should go off on his screen and on the victim's screen it can be handled by the server. However that's not impossible though, as floating mines or C4 that explodes in your face seconds after throwing it can attest to. Funny story about that: When you throw C4 the visual brick is clientside, but the actual position is serverside. This is also why an ESF with 2 C4 stuck on it can survive their explosion, it takes a moment for the server to update their position and the explosion can happen behind the ESF instead of on top of it where the C4 is. Vehicles also become server-side objects the moment you exit them. This is why a tank rolling down a hill while you are on the other side of the map can still exist and kill players (although any collisions will be victimside). My guess is that this is also where the Scythe-flipping comes from: If you exit the vehicle just as you press a button, server-side will momentarily still assume that button is pressed and act like that is happening to the vehicle. If you pressed space+a direction just before exiting it will execute that and flip the vehicle. With tanks you can see the same when it keeps turning or drives away from you if you do the same thing.
