List of Unfair and Game-Breaking FPS Tactics

[Ninjat_126]

Ninjat_126's List of "Noobish", Unfair and Game-Breaking FPS Tactics

1) Camping
Sure, you might be having fun with your high powered sniper and your dark corner. But we're hating you right now.
NB: This mostly only applies in TDM and FFA game modes.

EDIT:
1) Camping (Especially Spawn Camping)
Sure, you might be having fun with your high powered sniper and your dark corner. But we're hating you right now. And just to be clear: Spawn camping is NOT part of ANY game and NEVER will be, it is nothing more than a disruptive and crappy tactic to unfairly win a game.
Thanks to doggie015.



2) Quickscoping/Noscoping

A quick/no-scoper can get off a single shot in the time it takes most SMG/AR users to fire a single shot. However, the no-scoper's single shot will kill you if it connects, unlike the other player's gun which takes multiple shots.
NB: This is technically a legitimate strategy and at least puts you on the battlefield with the rest of us mere mortals, unlike camping.



3) Dolphin-Diving/Drop-Shotting

If your hitbox drops to a crouch/prone before your character model does, you'll have to be really unlucky to find someone who can hit you. Fairly common in the Battlefield games.
NB: Not all games have this hitbox problem and the hitbox is actually in sync with the player model. In which case, this is just another bullet avoidance technique.



4) "Noobish" Weapons

Using weapons that are unbalanced, overpowered or just plain unfair will help you get kills, but won't help you make friends. Examples include the "Noob Combo" from Halo.
NB: These are the sort of things that will generally get patched rather quickly, or fixed in sequels.


5) Glitch Exploiting

Glitch abuse includes noclipping into rocks, climbing the skybox and basically exploiting any loophole they can.
NB: These aren't meant to be in the game. If you find a way to hide inside the rock, don't.


6) Hacking

The Holy Grail of players being complete assholes. Granting you unlimited ammo, homing bullets, indestructible skin and the like, as well as cheating everyone else out of a fair game.
NB: Players caught doing this will usually be banned or have their accounts deleted.

I just posted this on the Bethesda forums, wondering if our fine community of Escapists have anything to add or correct.


EDIT: By "Noobish Weapons", I mean things like an Assault Rifle in a World War 1 game. Unbalanced, a bit out of place and completely unfair to anyone trying to play the game with anything else.

EDIT 2: I'm judging this from the point of view of someone out to play some games and have fun, not someone trying to get a huge K/D and a spot on the leaderboards. In my personal opinion, FPS games are more fun when everyone mixes up their tactics and weapons a bit, rather than sticking with whatever they think is the best and kill-farming.

 

[redisforever]

Umm, could argue that chat spamming, or mic spamming could be unfair, as they distract other players from the game.

 

[Judgement101]

So basically you hate anything that kills you? Nothing is really considered "noobish" unless you take it in an offensive manor. Honestly, I have never seen a hack or glitch in a shooter. Also, your "Noobish" Weapons is more of a "Weapons that get the most kills", I'm certain that if you use it enough and get enough kills people will say your assult rifle is "noobish" as well.

 

[artanis_neravar]

Camping is not noobish, or unfair in anyway, it is using a proper tactic of war and if you can't find a way to fight back against it then it's your own issue, everything else I agree with (depending on what you mean by noobish weapons)

 

[Judgement101]

Camping is not noobish, or unfair in anyway, it is using a proper tactic of war and if you can't find a way to fight back against it then it's your own issue, everything else I agree with (depending on what you mean by noobish weapons)

By noobish halo weapons he is refering to the Sniper/Shotty combo.

 

[Sven_Untgaarde]

I smell a lot of Call of Duty basis from this.

I can't 100% take this article seriously without some other examples (I know he said Halo) .

 

[artanis_neravar]

So basically you hate anything that kills you? Nothing is really considered "noobish" unless you take it in an offensive manor. Honestly, I have never seen a hack or glitch in a shooter. Also, your "Noobish" Weapons is more of a "Weapons that get the most kills", I'm certain that if you use it enough and get enough kills people will say your assult rifle is "noobish" as well.

Modern Warfare 2 had hackers in it, as in people who had auto aim (where when you zoom the gun snaps to the nearest target and follows them no matter where they go) and hitbox (where every player has a box around them so the player can see where they are at all times)

 

[LikeDustInTheWind]

Umm, could argue that chat spamming, or mic spamming could be unfair, as they distract other players from the game.

The "mute" button can fix that so I don't think it counts.

 

[Krantos]

Sniping =/= camping, depending on how it's done.

Sniping = using an elevate/discrete location to cover a wide area with a long range weapon.

Camping = Sitting just inside a doorway with a shotgun so you 1 hit everyone who comes through. Also, sitting on a rooftop with grenade launcher and one-man army.

 

[Ninjat_126]

So basically you hate anything that kills you? Nothing is really considered "noobish" unless you take it in an offensive manor. Honestly, I have never seen a hack or glitch in a shooter. Also, your "Noobish" Weapons is more of a "Weapons that get the most kills", I'm certain that if you use it enough and get enough kills people will say your assult rifle is "noobish" as well.

"Noobish Weapons" as in "Weapons that are unbalanced with the rest of the line-up."
A good example would be an Assault Rifle in a WW1 shooter, or a revolver in a Medieval Europe setting.

 

[Sarge034]

Split screening/ friend on other team sand bagging.

You know when you have that guy on your team just standing there or even worse going 0-25. Then you look at their friends list and see they are friends with the ENTIRE opposing team.

I'm looking at you MW2, but it has happened to me in almost every FPS.

 

[artanis_neravar]

Camping is not noobish, or unfair in anyway, it is using a proper tactic of war and if you can't find a way to fight back against it then it's your own issue, everything else I agree with (depending on what you mean by noobish weapons)

By noobish halo weapons he is refering to the Sniper/Shotty combo.

As long as he doesn't mean my pro pipe I'm fine with it

 

[Aethren]

What's the point of posting that on the Bethesda forums? They're pretty much one of the few companies that DON'T have an exploitable FPS with those problems listed.

 

[Drummie666]

Well, when playing MW2 (Doing knife-only, to avoid the aim assist) I don't have any problem with quick-scopers because, this is a fact here, most of them suck at it.

Camping can be dealt with, though there are some times when it's really damn hard to kill them. Though I say that's more the fault of poor level design.

Cheap weapons are the fault of the developers for not balancing the game properly, but it's something I can forgive, as they normally correct it quickly.

Glitches are normally fixed by the developer.

Hackers can be stopped as well. yay for software updates!

Drop-shotting, well, yeah, that's a sync issue. Can it be fixed? I've no idea.

 

[Judgement101]

So basically you hate anything that kills you? Nothing is really considered "noobish" unless you take it in an offensive manor. Honestly, I have never seen a hack or glitch in a shooter. Also, your "Noobish" Weapons is more of a "Weapons that get the most kills", I'm certain that if you use it enough and get enough kills people will say your assult rifle is "noobish" as well.

Modern Warfare 2 had hackers in it, as in people who had auto aim (where when you zoom the gun snaps to the nearest target and follows them no matter where they go) and hitbox (where every player has a box around them so the player can see where they are at all times)

I never played MW2 so I guess I didn't know. The only FPSs I play now is Homefront.

 

[Trivun]

I have a massive one to add. This is probably the most unfair thing I can think of...

The opponents being given weapons!

Seriously, it's just uncalled for. Why should the other team be allowed to have weapons and kill me? It makes it so much harder for me to pwn everyone, they're all cheating by using weapons. They must be hacking the game to let them respawn and use weapons to kill me. Every time I die, someone on the other team must be using some cheat or something! It's so unfair!

Okay, I'm being sarcastic there. Seriously, I kind of agree with your points pretty much, except for camping (a legitimate tactic provided they aren't spawn camping) and 'noobish' weapons (they're in the game, the game is balanced, if you can't deal with such weapons then either play a different mode or learn how to deal with them, instead of complaining because you suck).

In the case of camping, it's a legitimate tactic, and something that follows real combat scenarios much more than anything else in most FPSs do. I tend to prefer sniping anyway in games, and the people who complain about campers tend to be (in my experience) limited to those who can't deal with campers. Campers can be defeated easily if you just pin them down, so they're no more overpowered than any other tactic.

As for 'noob' weapons, if the weapons really made the game unbalanced, then the developers wouldn't have put them in there. Case in point - everyone claims that the Spartan Laser and the rocket launcher in Halo 3 and Reach are overpowered. However, they fail to take into account that each weapon has extremely limited ammo, and a lengthy recharge time or reload time, which means they're good for one or two shots before leaving the player vulnerable. Whereas other weapons take much less time to reload and can pack a decent punch in their own right. If someone complains about a weapon being 'overpowered' I tend not to take them seriously unless they can back it up with hard facts, because I've heard it used so many times as an excuse by people who simply can't play the game well and want to pretend they're God's gift to gaming. I will now quote verbatim Cliffy B, who posted this on Twitter recently as a response to the people giving feedback from the Gears 3 Beta:

Dear Epic, can you please nerf Rock, it's too overpowered. Paper is fine though, good work there.

Yours, Scissors.

 

[Aeonknight]

Few problems with your list.

First, #5 and 6 are not "tactics". They are cheating. Big, big difference.

Second, camping is perfectly legit. You don't have to like it, but it's perfectly valid to do so. Why? Because it forces guys like me who rush in hoping to get a flank on 5 guys to re-evaluate that decision and play it safe or risk it. It slows me down and protects the rest of the team on the other side of the map.
Also, there are these things called grenades/flashbangs. They are not a camper's friends.

Quick/no-scoping is a ***** and should be removed, if anything for realism's sake. No you can't fire a .50 cal sniper rifle from the hip like an uzi. If someone were to even try that irl and they'd be knocked on their ass and/or break something.

 

[Judgement101]

Camping is not noobish, or unfair in anyway, it is using a proper tactic of war and if you can't find a way to fight back against it then it's your own issue, everything else I agree with (depending on what you mean by noobish weapons)

By noobish halo weapons he is refering to the Sniper/Shotty combo.

As long as he doesn't mean my pro pipe I'm fine with it

...Pro....pipe? May I ask what that is?

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

Quickscoping takes a lot of skill, though. It's mostly on consoles with the insane auto aim where it's apparent.

I think bad company 2 is the best contender for scrubby tactics. Recons with m95s, medics doing nothing but reviving teammates that die instantly again and constant nade spam. weakest title DICE has made so far.

Even after all my years of fps games, I have never realised the problem people have with campers. They're usually just shit people who sit in a corner hoping for free kills.

 

[Craorach]

Ninjat_126's List of "Noobish", Unfair and Game-Breaking FPS Tactics

3) Dolphin-Diving/Drop-Shotting

If your hitbox drops to a crouch/prone before your character model does, you'll have to be really unlucky to find someone who can hit you. Fairly common in the Battlefield games.
NB: Not all games have this hitbox problem and the hitbox is actually in sync with the player model. In which case, this is just another bullet avoidance technique.

5) Glitch Exploiting

Glitch abuse includes noclipping into rocks, climbing the skybox and basically exploiting any loophole they can.
NB: These aren't meant to be in the game. If you find a way to hide inside the rock, don't.


6) Hacking

The Holy Grail of players being [censored]. Granting you unlimited ammo, homing bullets, indestructible skin and the like, as well as cheating everyone else out of a fair game.
NB: Players caught doing this will usually be banned or have their accounts deleted.

I just posted this on the Bethesda forums, wondering if our fine community of Escapists have anything to add or correct.


These are your only valid points because they all hint at bugs or breaking the game deliberately.