How not to suck?

[Kugerfang]

Any tips? For some reason, my enemies see me but I can't see them. That seems to be my main problem. Any of the pros here have any tips to keep me from dying every minute?

[Ts4EVER]

First of all: There is no shame in having a negative k/d rate, especially as infantry. FH2 is a mod where you will die often and in many cases there is not much you can do about it other than going a different route next time. I played since 2.0 and die more than I kill over all, because I play infantry only. As long as you are ending up in flagzones or spotting enemy targets for artillery you are still "pulling your weight".

Still, there are some basic rules that should help you stay alive a bit longer:
As a new player, join squads, follow your squadleader or squadmates around and watch what they are doing. Where are they shooting, where are they pausing, what weapons do they use in different situations?
If your squadleader is a bum and flies a plane or something just join another one until you find a decent sl.
When you are traversing any space, be it a room in a house or some fields, always make mental notes:
from where could an attack occur? What is a likely position for an enemy? Where do I get the most cover? Basically, keep your head down.
Much of this is obviously experience. It helps to be able to tell apart the different gunsounds. Knowing the difference between the  popopop of an enemy mP40 or rtrtrtrtrtr of a friendly Thompson can make all the difference between running into an enemy unprepared or meeting him on your own terms. It is also important to know the different player models or tracer colors (yellow: german / red/green: allied)

Then, as I said, there are the threats you can't do much about except hiding (as infantry). If oyu see a tank and don't have an AT weapon, ignore it and stay out of its sight. There is no shame in hiding if it keeps you alive and closer to an objective.
If an offmap artillery strike comes in, you are usually screwed, unless oyu run into a house or similar enclosed space. Plyer controlled artillery can be avoided by often changing positions or leaving the vicinity to get out of the spotters sight.

Last but not least: Hang in there! Success comes with experience. Fh2 is very hard for beginners, at times frustrating, but if you take the time to discover its quirks you will be able to pwn newbs yourself in no time .

[Slayer]

Hi Kugerfang,

Welcome to FH2. You did the right thing: instead of ragequitting the game and throwing your keyboard out of the window, you came here and asked for help. Good job!

This is what I wrote a while ago for someone who had a similar question as you do:

Like others before me, I suggest you join a squad. If you ever see a squad with members of this forum in it, feel free to join and ask them stuff. Most people here are polite enough to guide you through phase 1.

When you die a lot, try the following:

- Be patient. Don't move for a while, just look at what's happening around you (esp on Africa maps this is useful).
- Don't walk in open spaces, but sprint/run. Use walk for areas which have enough cover, like the inside of a building.
- Never walk/run/sprint in straight lines, because then the enemy can predict your position and shoot you from miles away.
- Use cover! Crouch behind crates, static wrecks (learn which ones are static, the non-statics blow up after a while and it hurts), barrels, hedgerows, etc.
- Go prone A LOT. In this position it is the hardest for the enemy to hit you. Plus, it makes your aim a lot better.
- Learn the hot spots. All maps have spots or routes which attract a lot of enemies. You can now choose: either you avoid them (less chance of being killed) or you hide near them (more chance of killing).

There's more, I'm sure, but this is from the top of my head now.

Good luck!

[Unleashed]

when you hear a bullet missing you (or an enemy yelling or something), duck into cover ASAP. After that, try to locate your enemy while moving from cover to cover. With some luck he will make the mistake of exposing himself while searching for you and that's your chance to kill him. Also, if you have a rifle and he has a mp or a mg that's already set up to fire, try to 'nade him and avoid close combat because in 99% of all cases he will win that battle.

Oh, and use your sound. These days I can avoid these most unpleasent close encounters with tanks because I hide when I hear their engines. Don't listen to music while playing (I know sabaton or Wagner produce a great atmosphere but you won't hear the important things).

And I think dying a lot is normal in this mod... you don't always need to stay alive to complete your objective. Indeed, it is often better do sacrifice yourself so that your SL can live on and you can respawn on him

[Nerdsturm]

First of all: There is no shame in having a negative k/d rate, especially as infantry. FH2 is a mod where you will die often and in many cases there is not much you can do about it other than going a different route next time. I played since 2.0 and die more than I kill over all, because I play infantry only. As long as you are ending up in flagzones or spotting enemy targets for artillery you are still "pulling your weight".

Seconding this. FH2 is not your typical shooter, and score means next to nothing about how good you are. A decent SL might not score a single point in a game yet still throw the round in his teams favor. If you're just worried about dieing a lot, it's going to happen if you're infantry, and it's a lot more helpful for your team than if you were camping in the middle of nowhere in a tank getting kills.

Plus, you'll get better the more you play. I don't think anyone can give you enough verbal advice for you to significantly improve by that alone.

However, I'll give a few hints for locating enemies before they kill you that might not be too obvious.
-Make sure you have anti-aliasing turned on, even if you need to turn down other graphics settings. This makes a huge difference at long ranges in my experience.
-In the BF2 engine, there is a bit of an exploit where you can see out of your peripheral vision further than area behind your crosshair. This is really only useful in tanks, but in rare occasions people can locate enemies before they come into range.
-In small games(playing 16-player rounds is great practice for combat) pay attention to the birds
-Above all, just don't sit still. If someone sees you camping somewhere they will usually come up behind you. At worst enemies will be more likely to miss their first shot, allowing you to look for them.

[Raziel]

Start by playing in single player (download Drawde's patch - check the Single player section in the forums).....get used to the commands, weapons, procedures......Then go online! Enjoy!! 

[Moreke]

Nerdsturm already mentioned anti-aliasing. He's probably right about the benefit it provides. Overall, the settings, I think, are the first thing to look at. Personally, I use pretty much the lowest settings (no anti-aliasing, either) and a low resolution, because of my outdated hardware. A high ping is a significant disadvantage, but you can always play in a role such as fireteam leader, and try to avoid face-to-face confrontations.

Teamplay is the most effective way to go. You should use your own head in addition to following commands, though. The most serious mistake is to follow pre-established guidelines or to do the same thing all the time. Instead, you should anticipate the thinking of your enemy and surprise them with your every move.

Some things should be more or less a routine, though. Move fast and unregularly, stick to the borders (edge of map, walls etc.), flank the enemy, maintain situational awareness, think about your teammates, stay patient, shoot accurately when you shoot, and have fun.

[Tunza]

First things first

Take it slow, dont rush into situation, let the situation rush into you. And while most people hate "camping" tactic it's usually very effective. If you see advancing enemy coming towards you, you have to know when to open fire. No point opening fire with smg when enemy is at long range. Always remember, slow is fast. Take your time when you aim your rifle.

Learn how to handle your weapon effectivily. Smg is great when you have to clear houses or rush into flags. Be aware with your ammunition situation always. Try to use burst fire when you are engaging target.
Automatic fire works best when you have to make diversion or bluff enemy.

Rifle is good when defending area with high visibility or when weakening opposition before the final assault. Try not to engage enemy in close quartes fight when you have rifle. Always search place with some protection and good visibility.  Make sure you know how to handle your rifle, it's the weapon you are stuck with in most cases.

Join a squad that plays as a team. When your squad is capping a flag never be too close to somebody cause it's good target for grenade. When attacking, stay little behind and make sure nobody flanks your squad. Make sure you have enough stamina for long sprint left and depending of your weapon rush into reasonable position. Never run like mindless zombie. Take breaks and try to make some kind of picture
of the situation.

Always take it slow

[Cory the Otter]

It helps to be able to tell apart the different gunsounds. Knowing the difference between the  popopop of an enemy mP40 or rtrtrtrtrtr of a friendly Thompson can make all the difference between running into an enemy unprepared or meeting him on your own terms.

Is it weird that I know the weapon behind each specific sound?

[:| Hi]

No, I have that too. The PAH of a carcano, the sharp crack of a No.4, the buzz of a mg42, etc. etc.

[DAzLAYER]

Focus on one weapon until you are good at it.
Never stand still between shots with bolt-action rifles.
Rifles are the best tool most of the time except against armor.

[Dukat]

- Set your view distance to 100 percent.
- Grab a wrench and join a tanker boarding the hull MG and watch him advance.
- Follow a squadleader or his men into combat. While your enemy will aim at your squadmate ahead, you can shoot in revenge.

[Mud Buddha]

Welcome!

Probably a lot of overlap with these tips but here are my thoughts:

- Don't give up. You came to this mod for a reason and it will provide eventually, it only takes a while to get used to the rhythm of the game.

- Learn the sounds of the game. For instance, if you can't see anyone but hear a Brengun go off near you while you are on the german team chances are there's an enemy nearby (even though it could still be a teammate with an enemy weapon - check the minimap). Learn to anticipate what you can't see yet through the sounds of the game.

- Join squad. Teamplay can make or break a level/round and it's a good way of learning the lay of the land (bottlenecks, assault routes, hiding spots) and gameplay. If you join a team, check what kits the rest of your team is playing. Maybe they're all scouts and could use an MG gunner for support, or something like that. Your teamleader is driving a tank but has picked the officer's kit? Spawn on him as an engineer so you can repair his tank. You get the idea.

- Keep an eye on the whole battle (especially if there's no commander). For example: If you're on your way to join your squad and see the flag you just spawned at going blank on the map (or you maybe even see it start moving down in-game)  don't hesitate to let your squadleader know you're first gonna help get that flag back before following your SL's orders. And keep an eye on the (mini)map for where your teammates are. Maybe you'll spot an undefended friendly flag (especially so in Push-maps) and you can spawn there or let the rest of the team know what's going on.
Another example: if your tanking, watch where all the friendly tanks are on the map and check where your tank can be of use and where it is just overkill.

Well, as I probably state at every one of these kind of topics: I can go on for hours, but the key thing is just play a shitload of rounds and don't give up. Oh, and tell your friends of course! ;-)

[city hunter]

Dont feel too bad, I still get shot all the fuckin time from god knows where that seems to be outside of viewable distance. I'm on a old 22" crt witht ehg raphics up quite a bit, but IO cant aim for crap with my mouse sample rate. Seems like it's always jerky on win2k with this game. Any time I play a populated server without bots I always have a 200+ [ing so you never really get a chance when a guy comes around a corner... Half the time it seems like guys are running about 40mph and it's about impossible to track a shiot when they are like that. Then when you think you do get the jump on a guy and fire point blank dead gut centered at them, and nothing happens... Well that really pisses you off. Thats the game though. I prefer the armor as I have a better chance of surviging and reacting unless everyone on the opposing team is using piats...

[Mud Buddha]

Wow, and I thoughjt I had it bad. 

But recently I upgraded my PC and it finally FH2 is looking somewhat decent now. Altough lag still causes me to lose a lot of confrontations. Even on servers like hslan, with a average ping around 40. Indeed like how you described: you have a guy dead-center in your sight, pull the trigger, nothing happens, he turns and shoot you, you die. But hey, war is hell.