Why Do I Still Suck at CoD?

[Tsun Tzu]

A lot of it has to do with twitch skills.

If you just don't have that...then you're kind of boned for twitch shooters.

I used to have the gift, once upon a decade ago, but now? I languish in the middle of the pack, breaking even in K/D. And that's if I even play competitive shooters, which I don't since they're boring as hell sprayfests now.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I got my aiming skill from playing Metal Gear Online for 4 years (the most skill-based shooter maybe ever); there was no crosshair when just moving around and you had to land headshots to kill as body shots did shit damage and the game had no aim-assist.

I would probably give that title to one of the tribe?s games, I only played tribes ascend but their combination of fast movement lots of momentum you have to work with, and slow projectiles made even hitting someone a feat in of itself. I think only one player in a hundred could actually use a sniper rifle to good effect, and any given shoot could be screenshotted, and used to make a good collage level physics problem.

I'd say MGO is at least the most skill-based console shooter. There isn't any console shooter that even comes to mind that requires anything near the aiming skill of MGO, hitting for 2-3 body shots in COD is really nothing. There's even quite a few shooters that actually punish you for headshots where a headshot has a multiplier for damage but can't kill in one-hit. It's really aggravating to land a headshot in close range (like 10m or less) and not get a kill regardless of the gun.

 

[Strelok]

Who cares about console FPS's in the first place? And while I'm on the subject, how am I better at console shooters but no goddamn good at using the mouse? They all say aiming with the mouse is more intuitive, more accurate, yet that doesn't seem to apply to me. This is really getting under my skin and subverting my perceived self-identity as a gamer.

Why are you better at console FPS? Already answered in here, auto-aim or aim assist as they like to name it, on PC it's called cheating with an aimbot. Even the console games they claim have no auto aim, have auto aim, hell Metal Gear Online has an unlockable skill to give the aimbot better range. Calling it "Lock-on" doesn't make it not aim assist/auto-aim/aimbot.

Surveyor = Extended lock-on range for auto aim. Damage enemy player's health or stamina while locking on to them with the auto aim.

Lvl.1->Lvl.2: 300 hits. Lvl.2->Lvl.3: 600 hits.

http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Metal_Gear_Online

The mouse and keyboard take practice, and you will never get any better playing against bots or using aim assist. I suggest jumping into something really hard, Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm. Now it will be frustrating, and it is incredibly hard on realistic mode, single shot to the chest or head (obviously) you are dead, hit in the arm? Can't aim as well, hit in the leg? Can\t sprint or walk properly. Kill/Death ratios are not even recorded on it, cause that is a meaningless statistic. Accuracy and helping the team/squad are important. I never liked CoD multiplayer, I prefer dedicated multiplayer like RO2 or Battlefield, closest I have come is Titanfall and I am getting not bad at that one, level 46 now, still prefer other online games to that though. So practice, offline will maybe help a little, I found my skills improving online after a lot of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. well that worked for me anyway.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

In all honesty, I suck at FPSs for the same reason I'm good at Fighting games:

I think about what a normal human would do in the situation. I knock someone down, their next move will usually to go for my legs or stand up and strike back. Back dash and a quick poke to come in with a quick combo. I won the game.

In an FPS, I sit and think about how a real people would come into a situation with a gun fight.

Then I get "Sephir0th4Prez2016" running around like a madman jumping and throwing grenades everywhere. I'm baffled and I get one shotted. I freely admit it's my fault, but when a game touts how realistic the combat is, I come in expecting to use actual tactics. It's never the case.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Who cares about console FPS's in the first place? And while I'm on the subject, how am I better at console shooters but no goddamn good at using the mouse? They all say aiming with the mouse is more intuitive, more accurate, yet that doesn't seem to apply to me. This is really getting under my skin and subverting my perceived self-identity as a gamer.

Why are you better at console FPS? Already answered in here, auto-aim or aim assist as they like to name it, on PC it's called cheating with an aimbot. Even the console games they claim have no auto aim, have auto aim, hell Metal Gear Online has an unlockable skill to give the aimbot better range. Calling it "Lock-on" doesn't make it not aim assist/auto-aim/aimbot.

Lol, no one used auto-aim in MGO (because its range was like 5m) so much so that the Narc skill which required opponents auto-aiming at you was impossible to level in normal play as you had to go to special rooms to level the skill. Oh, and the box cancelled an opponent's auto-aim.

 

[The Enquirer]

Or just about any online FPS for that matter. I've been playing the damn things since I was around 8, and as far as playing online goes, I don't feel like I've gotten any better at them. The only online FPS's I ever felt half decent at were CoD4 and Destiny. Who cares about console FPS's in the first place? And while I'm on the subject, how am I better at console shooters but no goddamn good at using the mouse? They all say aiming with the mouse is more intuitive, more accurate, yet that doesn't seem to apply to me. This is really getting under my skin and subverting my perceived self-identity as a gamer.

When I went from console to PC it took a lot of getting used to, switching from the controller to the mouse. Part of what I'd suggest is obviously playing around with your sensitivity, playing around with your mouse's sensitivity if it has one, looking into a new mouse pad, and as a last resort a new mouse. Granted those last two should only be after all options are exhausted. I'd personally suggest trying this stuff out in a single player game mode to just see whether it's just you, or your opponents that are giving you trouble.

This is coming from someone who used to play non-COD shooters at a higher level (still not really competitive though I did some smaller tourneys) and is now more of a fighting game player, sometimes the style of gameplay just doesn't suit you. For example, I was one of the top PvP players in DC Universe Online on the PC but I cannot stand fighting games in the style of Tekken or Injustice and regardless of how much I try, it simply doesn't work out for me. So it may just be the game as well. Are you good at other shooters?

As per actual advice pertaining to improving your gameplay, it isn't my area of expertise and I certainly can't help you without having seen you play but:
[li]Watch higher level games. Try to figure out what they're doing, particularly pay attention to their movement and attack patterns.[/li]
[li]If you can find some sort of play by play breakdown of even parts of games, those are some of the best to learn from[/li]
[li]learn the sounds of different guns. When I would play Rainbow Six knowing what type of gun someone is using would let me know around when they would need to reload. Plus being able to tell a SMG from an assault rifle will help when it comes to engagement range.[/li]
[li]Basic but learn the maps. Positioning is key. When I would play Rainbow Six Vegas I played against friends who could shoot slightly better than me, but couldn't position themselves very well (note, not talking about camping here but where to move and when to do it during a fight) it lead to extremely one sided fights.[/li]
[li] Work on your loadout. My personal advice to everyone in most games is to start with the most basic thing. In shooting games, it's generally the basic stock assault rifle or mp5 (or equivalent), in DCUO it was using The Huntress. From there slowly experiment to see what works well with your play style. [/li]
[li]Your play style in any game is pretty much your bread and butter. As you get better and better though, what works well against one group of opponents won't work so well against others. Hiding in a corner may work well against low tier players but against higher tier players it's a death sentence. If something isn't working don't keep doing it.[/li]
[li]Losing is the best way to learn. As long as you figure out what you did wrong and what the other person did right, it's not a waste of time. Were you trying to move too quickly, too slowly, were they simply better at aiming than you were, were they more familiar with the map than you were, etc?[/li]

Like I said, I'm no COD expert but those are pretty much my tips from my collective gaming experience that apply to really anyone looking to get better at a game.

 

[LetalisK]

snip

I like playing hardcore because I enjoy twitchier games and it makes the game less forgiving. The importance of situational awareness and efficient movement gets turned up to 11. And like you mentioned, distance battles are made more deadly, but that goes for everyone: snipers become a huge problem if you get lazy with your movement. I've also found campers are much easier to deal with since explosives kill anyone that so much as sees the explosion. The downside to that is explosives spam can be an effective, if maligned, tactic.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I like playing hardcore because I enjoy twitchier games and it makes the game less forgiving. The importance of situational awareness and efficient movement gets turned up to 11. And like you mentioned, distance battles are made more deadly, but that goes for everyone: snipers become a huge problem if you get lazy with your movement. I've also found campers are much easier to deal with since explosives kill anyone that so much as sees the explosion. The downside to that is explosives spam can be an effective, if maligned, tactic.

I assume from your initial reply that you play/played Warfighter so you'll know about leaning and sliding. I found there was barely any micro situational awareness on hardcore; leaning in a gunfight or sliding was almost nonexistent due to how quickly someone spraying a SMG could kill you. Yeah, distance battles were more deadly because everyone could kill at a distance, my AK-103 with high powered ammo should dominate a Spec Ops player at range but it doesn't on hardcore. In fact, there's like no point of even using the Pointman's high powered ammo on hardcore, you didn't even need it to take out an demolition player with armor on, even a SMG would do the trick whereas on normal a Spec Ops would run from a demo with armor on. Due to everything being balanced to normal health, changing that resulted in classes and guns getting nerfed big time to the point of uselessness. Most games, Warfighter included, have sniper rifles with one-hit body kill capability already so snipers are always dangerous; the TAC-50 became useless on hardcore because the next best damaging sniper rifle became a one-hit body kill on hardcore.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Question. Have you been playing on a console for most of your life when it comes to shooters? Because if that is the case, that is your answer. At least for why you're better on consoles and why aiming is better on consoles. Your muscles and muscle memory are trained to be close together, usually relying on your thumbs and your trigger fingers in a cocked position.

Switching to a mouse and keyboard set up shocks your system. You have to learn an entire new set of reflexes for your muscles. It might be more accurate for people who have played on PC their entire lives, but for a console player, a mouse and keyboard can be a nightmare.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Add to that, my reaction time feels so low. There are times when I've been killed milliseconds after being spotted, yet when I watch the kill cam the other person definitely had ample time to kill me, and it wasn't as instantaneous as I'd perceived from my end. I feel like my brain just doesn't register things quickly; I hate myself for it. I watch these kill cams, and sometimes it's as though two completely different things happened. Of course getting disheartened in the middle of a game all but seals my fate and makes me perform terribly from there on out. I've always let this stuff get to me :\

What you're describing there is a serious amount of desynchronization.

I suck at competitive FPSes too, at least those that just give you a gun and a slap on your ass, which drove me to seek out class-based games like Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Battlefield 2 and Team Fortress 2. I feel much better knowing I can make an actual difference, if I can't kill enemy players, I can at least keep teammates alive. Sounds to me like you're having the same problem, so give TF2 a go?

 

[LetalisK]

I like playing hardcore because I enjoy twitchier games and it makes the game less forgiving. The importance of situational awareness and efficient movement gets turned up to 11. And like you mentioned, distance battles are made more deadly, but that goes for everyone: snipers become a huge problem if you get lazy with your movement. I've also found campers are much easier to deal with since explosives kill anyone that so much as sees the explosion. The downside to that is explosives spam can be an effective, if maligned, tactic.

I assume from your initial reply that you play/played Warfighter so you'll know about leaning and sliding. I found there was barely any micro situational awareness on hardcore; leaning in a gunfight or sliding was almost nonexistent due to how quickly someone spraying a SMG could kill you. Yeah, distance battles were more deadly because everyone could kill at a distance, my AK-103 with high powered ammo should dominate a Spec Ops player at range but it doesn't on hardcore. In fact, there's like no point of even using the Pointman's high powered ammo on hardcore, you didn't even need it to take out an demolition player with armor on, even a SMG would do the trick whereas on normal a Spec Ops would run from a demo with armor on. Due to everything being balanced to normal health, changing that resulted in classes and guns getting nerfed big time to the point of uselessness. Most games, Warfighter included, have sniper rifles with one-hit body kill capability already so snipers are always dangerous; the TAC-50 became useless on hardcore because the next best damaging sniper rifle became a one-hit body kill on hardcore.

I actually never did play Warfighter. I was speaking in reference CoD, though the last one I played was MW3(I believe), and I do remember sniper rifles not being a one hit body kill. Hell, some of the guns in general aren't one hit head shot kills(with a few still not even in hardcore). Edit: just looked it up, I was thinking of MW2 and there are 11 guns (a few of those being silenced variations) that wouldn't one hit kill with a headshot in hardcore, but that is at "max" range. I put that in quotes because the damage drop off point can widely vary for each gun.

Edit2: another correction, again looking at MW2, sniper rifles were the only weapons that could one shot kill with a headshot on normal, but 3/4 of the sniper rifles could also one shot kill with a chest shot, which is differentiated from a body shot. As long as it was unsilenced for both head and chest shots.

 

[Joccaren]

Because of the natural imprecision of gamepad sticks, that auto-aim somewhat overcompensates for, there's less ability to actually put your bead EXACTLY where you want it.

The weird thing is I usually end up fighting aim assist the entire way. Still the same problem, but not so much an issue of pinpoint precision as "agggggh! Why is my reticle moving away from the guy I'm aiming at?????"

Yeah, I know that feeling, and its one most people put up with to some extent. Since the controller takes care of half of aiming for you, everyone is on the same grounds in that regard.

With a mouse, you don't have stuff like that happening, and so the aim is almost 100% the skill of the user. With a lot of practice, that aim gets very good, whereas on consoles its still dragged down by auto-aim and natural imprecision [I'm treating auto-aim as a detriment, as sometimes it really is].

 

[dystopiaINC]

It's hard to give tips without knowing how you play, but here goes

CoD is mainly about playing the maps, the more you play of each map you should get better. Try watching video of your matches and watch where people go, and figure out where you die and where you could have gone instead to get a better shot on people. I get most of my kills by sitting at a spot and waiting for someone to show up, and then moving to a different spot that is in view of the spot I just was, and killing the guy who re-spawned and came to kill me.

The one thing I noticed about players is that they don't shoot through walls as much as they could. If you see someone run into a building, light that fucking building up! I can't tell you how many kills I get because my enemy is stupid and stops shooting when I run into a building

I mostly play Hardcore and usually have a 1.3 k/d, and at best 10% accuracy rating, so I'm not a pro but I do well enough to have fun

The fact that your playing lots of Hardcore might be why you shoot through walls more often, most of the time in core modes the damage reduction isn't enough to secure a kill with out really spraying and landing bout 5-7 hits if they weren't wounded before hand. I do play lots of core and I do use walls to my advantage whenever I get a UAV I check the rooms around me and and I've gotten pretty good a picking people off if I can pin point them on the other side of the wall.

 

[Something Amyss]

Yeah, I know that feeling, and its one most people put up with to some extent. Since the controller takes care of half of aiming for you, everyone is on the same grounds in that regard.

With a mouse, you don't have stuff like that happening, and so the aim is almost 100% the skill of the user. With a lot of practice, that aim gets very good, whereas on consoles its still dragged down by auto-aim and natural imprecision [I'm treating auto-aim as a detriment, as sometimes it really is].

Call of Duty is pretty obvious about it, too. Makes it kind of worse. Like, I can sometimes forget aim assist in other games because I'm nto really that skilled a shooter anyway. But going back to Black Ops for the MP Beta, yeah. It's impossible for me to miss.