After playing around with many of TR's LMGs for awhile and doing good in combat with each one--except the Rhino, I don't know how anyone uses that thing--I've noticed that the weapons all do fantastic at medium range provided you crouch, stay still, and somewhat burst fire. The issue with this is that in this preferred, tactical and military firing position, any infil within a 1000m radius is going to bop you for deciding you want to be tactical rather than run-and-gun. So my question is this: what sort of trigger discipline methods do you guys use to still maintain accuracy at medium-long range whilst avoiding getting your head instantly sniped off? Do you only use trigger discipline indoors? Do you just throw it to the wind and spray and pray? Do you resolve to fire from the hip 50m away because why not with the terrible moving ADS accuracy?
I'll try to address each of the points you make. 1. There is no real reason to use the Rhino considering the Bull is basically the same gun but with multiple small advantages. That being said you should still be able to perform about the same with both guns. Any significant difference in performance is not really attributable to the stats of the guns. 2. There is no difference between crouching and standing accuracy if you are staying still, you only see a difference between the two when you are moving. But yes, the way to get maximum accuracy for medium range is to stay still and burst fire. In a given situation however, the boost in accuracy you get from standing still may not outweigh the benefit of being on the move. If you find yourself in a situation where you see a player shooting at your teammate in a base and you don't think there are any snipers around, stopping will give a boost in accuracy with little added risk. It is different if you are out in the open where you know a ton of snipers are around. Stopping to shoot will give you a boost but it may not be worth the increased risk. It'll be up to you to gauge the situation you are in to determine if staying still is worth it or if you need to strafe or if you need to do a quick burst, run, then another quick burst. Many players run into problems because they try to develop a single playstyle they use in all situations rather than adapting their playstyle to different situations. 3. When it comes to medium-long range, players too often get into the mindset of a sniper. A sniper rifle can kill in one shot at a distance, an LMG usually can't. If a player is 50-100m away, depending on the situation you probably aren't going to have the luxury of being able to keep popping off shots at them from one spot until they die. You don't have to engage an enemy just because you see one and just because you have engaged one doesn't mean you have to kill him. As a heavy your purpose and strong points are not geared toward getting long range kills even if you you are using your long range setup. If there are snipers around, be content with stopping for a second and getting a single burst off before you run for more cover. Keep moving until you are in a position where you have the advantage. Do what you can, when you can. You'll live much longer that way. 4. The spray and pray mentality that is often associated with hipfiring is probably the single biggest reason why some players never improve past a certain point. I'd assume its probably based on their playstyles from other games where a single bullet or two can kill a player that they adopt it in PS2 as well. Aside from a handful of situations where you are caught off guard at a super close range, no player should be hipfiring with an LMG (though the rule applies to almost all automatic firing guns in PS2). Any advantage a player has from the fraction of a second they save in equip time and not having their movement speed affected will be offset by the huge difference in accuracy. I don't know how many times i've seen players who basically had easy guaranteed kills but decided to hipfire for whatever reason, and just barely get by or even just die. Long story short, being effective at medium-long range isn't just about maximizing your ability to kill targets. Land some shots and then keep pushing. Be aware of what's happening in the battle and adapt to it. Hopefully this helps.
Interesting. So it's more contextual than a simple rule of thumb with medium-long range engagements. I feel somewhat embarrassedthat I didn't know crouching didn't increase accuracy (I presumed it did from real life experience and other games), but that aside I suppose it still makes you a smaller target at the cost of movement. With regards to the spray and pray mentality I think the decision to fire from the hip or ADS is contextual as well. If you're being shot at first in under 10m by a moving target, lets say an infil with a subby, then I feel aiming from the hip is justified because when you ADS your aiming sensitivity is likely somewhat lower and you'll have to perfectly follow the target with your weapon rather than just centering it inside your huge crosshair bloom. That said, when you're clearing a room, particularly one that an objective is in, you would almost always want to have your ADS up as you turn corners because you don't know if they're right behind the door or a little ways in. Thanks for the help, I think my biggest issue is I always analyzed the situation as the most efficient way to kill the target I see rather than the most efficient way to survive, so I'll have to adjust and opt to let a target in the distance go when it seems likely standing still to burst fire at him will probably result in a sniper round to the face.
Yes, I mean like i said there are a handful of situations where hipfire can be used and that would include when an enemy gets the jump on you at very close range. But yeah I'm glad I could help.
