So... I'm looking for ways to improve my "mansshooting".

Here's a little "insight" before anything else:
I'm 34 years old (Yeah, this is not a dating site, I know. But age -DOES- matter "skill-wise", right?), wrist aimer (my table isn't big enough to use my whole arm to aim), aware of the minimap existence (that is how I take action depending of a certain situation. But most of the time I just "go in and see what happens."), with a logitech g402 mouse (Currently set up @ 800 DPI, 1k pol. rate), a "improvised" mousepad (You know those cheap materials you buy on artisan shops and all that? Yep. That's my "mouse pad".), Windows 7 (6/12 sens, no smooth mouse, etc), with a very low (?) sens. set up ingame (You can check my current UserOptions.ini right here. )... and with a somewhat "trashed" PC (GPU fans died, mouse sensor seems to be defective, etc.). Average FPS fluctuates between 60 to 30 ingame (it gets worse when I'm getting shot -- sometimes it feels like my cursor "locks up" in place for no reason due to (massive?) input lag.). Here is my dasanfall profile. With that said...

...how do I improve my shooting skills ingame? Which good behaviors I need to learn and which bad behaviors I need to stop doing in order to top up with the pros? What should I pay attention to while shooting someone? Does aiming for the chest and waiting 'till the cursor goes to my targets head works? Should I antecipate (and even predict) where my target will move to or should I always aim for the head, no matter if he is spazzing left and right with the orion shuffle (ADAD)? How do I keep my cursor in place like the pros?

tl;dr: Am baddie. Pls gib good behaviors.

Thank you.

Turn off all mouse accel.
Stick to that really slow setting.
Whatever number you use for sensitivity, double it exactly for your ADS sensitivity. This means when you have found a good tracking rate to track a moving target, you're aim won't have to compensate when you then ADS while tracking.

Go for the head first while your gun is accurate, then pull down to the torso as your CoF blooms.

Go for the "snap shot". Aim and shoot fast. If this makes you miss the head, so be it, continue to pull down to torso. Your aim will eventually work during these snap shots. If you try to get that perfect headshot you never will. Do the snap and eventually it will come.

Pre-aim, Pre-aim, Pre-aim!!
When you are walking around, be ready to fire a headshot at any moment. Have your crosshairs already there. When you go into a room, you should already be level crosshairs at face level. If you find multiple targets in the room you'll finish one then move to the other fairly easily. You should never have to move your crosshair much or things aren't going to end well.

Learn "Client Side".
Short version: You drag a "ghost" around 100ms behind you. So do the other players. You do not see them, only their ghost. Same for them when viewing you. What that means is this: The person that *initiates* line-of-site will see the other players ghost, while that other player cannot yet see your ghost. You'll get about 100-200ms of shots in before they even see you (and add 250-300ms of reaction). In practice this means to play aggressively. Be the one going around the corner rather than waiting for someone to come into view.

Learn to play your environment.
"Pie" every door - hang back 1-2 meters and slowly strafe to get a view.
When waiting on someone to come around a corner, Pre-aim and strafe in a fidgety way. (to defeat clientside advantages)
When guarding stairs, hang far back so only your crosshair peeks over.
When guarding a door, do so from a long distance in a straight line. Dodging enemies won't require much adjustment. Do NOT guard doors next to the door. Someone running in will sweep 90 degrees of firing arc in a split second. no good.

Disengage constantly then reengage.
Go out there, fire your shots, get your kill. If you didn't get your kill, don't pursue. Break off behind cover, reload and attack again immediately but *not from the same spot*

Learn the Zen of the battle.
Check the minimap. Two sets of colored dots thrown at each other like marbles. They all collide along some invisible line and that's where you see the skull and crossbones of dead players. You want to operate near that line of death but not on it.
You want people walking into your sights. To far back and this won't happen. Up to close and you'll be walking into theirs.

Learn the Zen of the Farm.
Basically whoever has something that the other team wants is going to get some yummy farm, while the other guys are going to BE farmed.
What does this mean?
During an offense, you want the point. That means the other team gets to farm the everliving crap out of you right? Yes. But only if you choose to let them.
Because remember... They want something too. They want your sunderer.
Let them come to you and get farmed. When you've put the hurting on them you'll have to move more and more forward to keep getting the farm. Win your battles this way.... let the other guy constantly fail to get what you have. Do not try to win battles by taking what the other guy has... you can do that, but just don't get all "thirsty" about it.


There is more, but that's enough wall of text. Hope it helps.

It sure does help. Specially regarding the 2x sens. ADS and the snap shot part -- I never realized that until now. Then again, wouldn't make more sense to increase my ADS sens. by 1.5 times more instead of 2x? Due to sights zooming in by 1.5 and not 2x? Unless there's something I may be missing. That aside... you've just gave me a reason to try a whole new playstyle. Thanks for helping me out.

Mmm, the number may vary depending on sight.

I use 1x sights most of the time and setting the ADS sensitivity to 2x the normal let's me sweep an arc zooming in and out of ADS and the rate of the sweep stays constant.

It may vary with other zooms. Now that you know the concept we're going for, test it out.

But that does segue into another tip: Use 1x sights a lot. Carbines, SMGs, Even LMGs. I put a 2x scope on my longest range LMG in certain configs but mostly run 1x on it.

Only use higher power scopes for battle rifles, CQB sniper rifles, long sniper rifles and the like.

Constant aiming... heh, that's one of my problems, alongside tracking. Most of the time I'm always "God, why my crosshair went all way up!I thought it was over my target's head all this time!". Pretty sure I will be able to remedy this by snap shotting just like you said -- body shots first, and then headshots when I'm feeling comfortable enough for headshots.

Oh, and another thing: should I -always- disengage if the other guy has the jump on me first? Or if I'm getting shot at a certain range? And what about bullet drop -- should I even bother about it at all? Because most of the time it feels like there's no bullet drop and I never felt the need to compensate for it. And how do I deal with ADAD/crouch spammers? Is there a "trick" or something I should do?

Thanks once again.

Your probability of returning fire and killing someone that gets the drop on you is almost zero. If you start taking fire, break for cover and pop a medkit. Spin and fire only if there isn't any cover.

If you have someone on your screen, vaguely near your crosshairs and they open fire first, definitely return fire. This is where the headshots count. Go for that head or you die. Body shots will not save you. Go for the headshots. If you die because you missed every damn one of them then so be it. It was still the right move to make.

Also, record yourself and watch it. When you go to snap to a new target if you over aim then adjust back it means your mouse sensitivity is too high.

Get that mouse sensitivity sorted first with heavy adjustments. For most players this means drastically turning down sensitivity. Once you get it "good enough" though, stop messing with it and allow muscle memory to form.

For ADAD spammers, no... not really much to be done. Start with head, pull down to torso as it blooms. If they start doing ADAD then you've already gotten your headshots in and ADAD won't help against body shots. For ducking, same kinda thing. It can almost backfire on them.

For yourself though, do add a single duck to your playstyle. If you get into a 1v1 in close range, pop a single duck just once fairly early in the engagement.

Hard to add much to what Jib's already said. A couple of things you may or may not find useful, they certainly helped me:
- On Sensitivity:
If you play other shooters it may help to equalize your sensitivity levels to match what you are already familiar with. Measure out your Hipfire, 2x, 3-4x, and if you snipe 8x 360s, match those up in Planetside and adjust from there as necessary.
- Tracking:
Burst fire and semi-auto weapons are helpful because then you only need to pull the trigger for that split-second when you are on target. They also help in training for headshots.
- Positioning:
Positioning trumps aim. Players don't tend to look up, and they tend to rely heavily on their minimaps. Suppressors in elevated positions tend to work wonders, especially with the recent changes.

Not much else to add, everything else I would have mentioned has already been covered.

Just wanted to say that matching my hip and ADS sens. (alone) has given me a fairly noticeable improvement -- I tested it for 1 hour and for the first time ever I managed to chain headshots two targets at once. Crosshair still feels fairly "jumpy" when I'm aiming -- which I believe this won't be a problem anymore after I'm getting used to the current sens. And as someone who is used to be a "baddie" in FPS'es -- I'm impressed at how something little can do such a difference in First Person Shooters. And all thanks to you, Jabba.

Crouch once before start shooting... got it. And talking about hotkeys -- do you have any suggestions regarding specific hotkeys that may help me improving? Like, for example -- switching "S" to "crouch" so I can tap it easily while ADAD'ing myself.
Once again, thanks for helping me out.

You've just gave me an idea to play with sidearms only (I unlocked the "sidearms primary" ASP perk) with the sole purpose to get used to snapping and tracking (Which will get me killed a lot, but hey...). And how I'm supposed to proper position myself -- considering the odds of a enemy sniper standing way far from my current spot and tracking me with Q-spotting/recon darts? As a non-inf class... if someone spots me... I'm pretty much screwed/with my position compromised.

Keybindings. Oooh, yeah didn't think of that.

I still carry over a key config from like Quake II days. Left shift is crouch. It let's me duck and jump with pinky and thumb in a kind of "hang loose" way that doesn't interfere with my WASD.

I think that's normally the sprint key which I moved down to control. I still have the *toggle* crouch bound to C key I think.

I still use the F key to activate my equipment. It introduces this odd weakness that few notice. Heavy Assaults tend to make their first dodge to their left instead of their right. They can't go right and raise shields at the same time.

"

Crouch once before start shooting... got it."

...mmm, not quite that. Fire right away. It's just once you start the "dance" with your opponent throw a duck in there kinda early as that's when he's trying to get a bead on your head.

On the subject of keybindings, you can bind a lot of stuff to your mouse and it'll save you some time so you're ont stuck keyboard mashing in combat. I have both Equipment slots and Grenades bound to mine and I would never go back.

*One thing I didn't mention earlier is that when you inevitably are stuck in Koltyr Purgatory, run downstairs to the shooting range and just practice plinking targets while you're waiting. Just practicing chaining headshots and rapidly switching targets is good warm-up and a better way to pass time if the queue is lengthy. It also gives you the opportunity to try new guns and see if they jive with you (I never would have looked twice at the TORQ-9 unless I was goofing around with different ARs to pass time).

*Wasn't going to bring this up since I assumed you were too low level to be stuck in queue but if you're packing an ASP perk that clearly isn't the case, haha. Good luck and good hunting!

As for me, I'm current using WAD with S for crouch. X for abilities. And left ctrl to backtrack. And now that you mention it -- shift for crouch seems to be a better idea due to how it leaves me with most fingers free for the orion shuffle (I just tried it out on my keyboard while reading your post -- feels like a "no brainer" improvement.). Think I'll switch S to run (derp) and shift for crouch, take it a whirl for 1 hour and see what happens. Pretty sure that'll raise another notch on me just like matching hip and ADS sens., as well.
Oh, and here's a few other questions to get you busy:
Pros seem to have a some sort of "trick" to deal with headshot flinch (which is massive -- I lost count the number of times someone chain headshotted me and my crosshair went all way off my target's head). What is it?
Recoil compensation. Is there a "rule of thumb" for every weapon? (Like, say... if I go a certain direction... I must compensate it to the opposite direction.)
Do you think it's wise to "strafe aim" (pull my mouse all way down and aim with ADAD)?
Thank you once again.

...which will get him unaware and even fetch me a easy kill. This (almost) makes me want to give catlike another go -- with the sole purpose to "abuse" this a little bit. Mmm. This "might" flag me as a "crouch spammer", but what the heck.
Thanks!

Indeed it is. If only it had moving targets....
Thanks.

crouching makes easy headshot sauce for people like me that like to hit the body lol..yeah squat down and meet your maker.

My probs mainly with my shooting has been body shots(if there wasnt sheilding that would be a different story) but the past week or so i been getting lots of head shots..and dont use a supressor it jsut makes your hits weak.I went to no supressor and my shots have been putting people down alot.Dont worry about being spotted because 10000 players with the letter Q on the keyboard and the use of motion detector..supressor isnt helping anyways.

im 42 years old so yeah i understand the late timing in reflexes.When i played earlier games like bf2 and stuff i was younger like prob late 20's and i was pulling off clutch shots like no ones business!But then the mmorpg crap had me for 10 years and that puts a hamper on your reflexes but in time it wil lcome back!

but really if you can get 100+ fps and if they drop to 80 fps your gonna be better since the game wil lbe smoother and not a slide show..go take a look at people playing the game at 1080p or greater and running the game smooth as hell..thats where the good stuff comes in.

Im guessing alot of people have already said this but, turn off mouse acceleration asap, I entirely forgot it was on by default because its the worst thing to ever curse FPS games and I went a full month using it after reinstalling and got used to it then after turning it off it took me like a full 2 weeks to get used to not having it and I had to find a new sensitivity.

I don't know if someone have mentioned, but grab a gun that has high ROF and good hip fire precision. Allows you to stay mobile while landing most of shots. If we're speaking about carbines it also helps to engage the enemy midflight if you're playing as LA. But those guns also do nice job while ADS, they're not that hard to control and keep accurate stream of bullets, although at most of cases guns like those have inferior damage at ranges.

I would highly recommend picking up the most recent Doku SMG’s. I have 10k kills with gladius but the other 2 are great aswell.
With those great guns and a 0.75 ADS movement speed multiplier you will be mobile whilst having decent accuracy and having to burst.
Also, turn down render quality and turn of mouse acceleration. Tick reduce input lag and use raw mouse input in the settings. Most important remember that practice makes perfect , it took me 3 years of consciously aiming for the head before getting a 40% HSR.

Just wanted to chime in (again) to say that everything has been said here is legit and should be followed by anyone who is willing to improve. Specially the "match hipfire and ADS sens." tip: it was night and day difference, for me.

As a TR main, the Jackal feels too "shaky" to lead and track targets while ADS'ing. Unless you know a trick to deal with horizontal recoil -- then I'm all ears.

Indeed it does. Then again, high rof guns seems to be extremely forgiving regarding burst firing -- it's like you don't need to burstfire at all. Which might create a bad habit on me to just "hold and shoot" instead of burstfiring every now and then.

Yep. Done it already.

Jabba suggested a single tap -- not to hold it. Pretty sure that could save me a few extra seconds if I time it right (just like some engagements I had where I was chain headshotting and the other guy crouched, making me miss all my shots and getting me killed right after.)

Indeed it does... probably why I lose at mid range fights...

Nothing you can do about horizontal recoil. Just put a forward grip on there.
Vertical recoil is some down pull which you should be doing to transition from early headshots to body shots.

But, do learn the "song" of each gun. There is a certain bullet where the CoF Bloom during sustained fire starts to feel kinda exponential. It will vary from gun to gun. Experiment to see what bullet this starts to happen on. NC Gauss Saw for example starts doing it real bad after the 4th bullet or so. So for that gun the "song" is bam-bam-bam-bam-PAUSE-bam-bam-bam-bam-PAUSE-bam...etc..

Counting the bullets is impractical. Watching for the bloom is something that happens to fast to notice before it's already gone wrong. Instead, listen and make that song. If targets are at a long distance you can shorten the song for tighter bloom control. If closer, you can let it drag out just a bit.

Don't try or not try to do the strafe aim. Aim with mouse and just let the strafe aim happen when it happens. Concentrate on the snap. You'll catch yourself doing a tap of strafe here and there to make an adjustment when the snap is off.

But, we're reaching the limits of my advice. I'm not some MLG killing machine myself. Just sharing all the tips that others have given me that I'm trying to apply in my own play. I pull a 2-3 KDR as an assault class when I'm focused on killing. My actual KDR though is like 1.1 or something? My headshot ratio is the only stat I care much for. I pull about 30-40% on the NC Promise with it.