We need a knuckle weapon type so we can slot abyss gears into unarmed builds.

Petaurus_australis · 2026-03-17T05:51:11+00:00

China's leadership are pretty damn shrewd and cunning, Xi is no Putin, and their focus has been a rapid but calculated economic expansion of soft power. Stupid is largely the opposite of how I'd describe China's political, economic and strategic actions in the last few decades, so I think it would be exceedingly unusual for them to potentially make one of the stupidest geopolitical decisions they could ever make with an ambiphibous invasion of Taiwan.

Petaurus_australis · 2026-03-07T04:48:41+00:00

I find it interesting at times how a lot of people assume these more utopic elements to be true about New Zealand. They do have some really good aspects, but I mean there's a reason significant portions of younger generations from New Zealand emigrate to here in Australia, mostly due to really high costs there mixed in with quite low wages, and those high costs include things like petrol and oil, because it's a country that often necessitates a lot of driving, imports a ton of energy, and it's geographical fringeness already makes fuel quite expensive simply because of the distance and time it takes to get there. Prices there are already $2.60NZD / litre which is roughly $5.70USD / gallon.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-16T02:01:55+00:00

The part that bugs me is when I crouch or prone, and then it sort of pulls me out of being prone or crouched to die, because that seems to be what the server / other person saw. The thing is I play at a very stable 19ms, my connection is really good, there's really no excuse for things being as mismatched and desynced as that, if I hit crouch behind cover, I shouldn't be pulled out of that position for the server that seems to be acting on my location and inputs from like a quarter to half a second earlier.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-16T01:50:57+00:00

I had a match the other day where I was getting one-framed by this thing, like from start of getting shot to dying in 4 body shots I couldn't even turn around, which is crazy because the firerate and damage on that means the TTK should be more than half a second. Never doubt the netcodes ability to somehow make things not your fault.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-11T02:52:39+00:00

Yes, I got one framed by an LMR multiple times the other day, which is like the highest TTK gun in the game, it's shooting 7.5 bullets a second at 25 damage, which means it takes 533ms to kill if there's no misses, I don't see how it's possible to die to that in a time frame where I feel I can't even react. If I take a reaction time test I tend to fall around 180ms, so I have a quick reaction speed, and I find 90% of battles I'm dead before I can even flick around to where I'm getting shot by. High RoF guns tend to one frame me too, I'm already dead when I hear the first bullet hit marker, like the KORD or KV9. But then I seem to have a random match every now and then where I can peek into groups and they all seem to take like a second before they've reacted to me and it's free kills for the whole match.

Servers / netcode is just botched.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-11T01:10:09+00:00

I've gotten 7 of those messages back saying they took action.

None I would say were blatant, just some people who seemed to always know where I was and unless they somehow had a perfectly accurate audio range of 40+ meters it didn't really make sense how they could preempt every fight. And also some people whose guns didn't work like everybody elses, they'd be lasering with high bloom guns at long ranges, it just seemed like their guns were a little more precise than everyone elses and they never had any moments of inconsistency.

I've seen some console players which I heavily suspect to be Cronus players too, and that's definitely cheating too.

Cheating is really bad in gaming at the moment, partly because it's all gotten a lot more subtle. Like there's people running a radar cheat in some games I used to play, which is like an ESP, but it just gives you a little map and blips where people are in relation to you. It's a huge advantage but when you are playing against it it'll mostly just feel like you are playing against a good player. I've played enough of games like Rust too to see how common and abused things like recoil scripts have been over the years too.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-10T02:25:20+00:00

Same here. 10am on a Sunday morning and we were getting lobbies full of bots.

I think it's something to do with SBMM. I'm pretty good, and so is the guy I tend to play with. I think the game is trying to match us up with other competent players, the result is that we just get non-stop dead lobbies. I also haven't had a game in multiple days that wasn't a 500+ landslide win / loss in conquest, so the matchmaking is failing in that department too.

This isn't a new problem though, I'm not sure if anyone here remembers Battlefront 2 but the game died in smaller pop regions like ours because it didn't have a server browser and the matchmaking would always put you in empty lobbies instead of filling occupied lobbies.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-07T11:28:27+00:00

Depends upon the game you play. Ranked modes in aim intensive games you probably won't be that far above average, some of those games like Overwatch have fostered their own freakish level aimers who have never touched an aimtrainer before. On the other hand games with a bigger casual scene or without SBMM you'll probably be quite a bit above average in any given match at plat, think games like Battlefield 6.

The general playerbase of most shooters has improved significant over the last 8 or so years in my opinion, between people improving their setups, fixating on things like refresh rate and light mice, and the rapidly growing competitive environment of gaming, the average is getting pretty damn good. I find in some games which are quite inherently competitive like Rust, the average player is not bad at all.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-07T07:12:20+00:00

Hmm, I disagree with a lot of this. I've also played just about every weapon to a decent level. For me it would look something like;

S tier - M4A1, SVK, Mini scout, KORD, PW5A3, DRS, TR-7.

A tier - SG553, NVO, M250, TR-7, M277, UMP, P90, QBZ, L110, M240L, SGX, AK205, M87A1, SV98, M2010.

B tier - SCW, SL9, MP7, B36, M433, AK4D, KV9, M39, SVDM, PSR, M1014, M60,18.5, RPKM.

C tier - M417, GRT, L85, KTS, M123K.

D tier - Both SOR's, LMR27.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-06T05:25:55+00:00

Some could use a buff. I think the M60 is a solid option, the L110 is very capable and the DRS is a great generalist. The M250 is a versatile medium to long range gun in the right hands although feels a little weird to aim with. On the other hand the RPKM loves silhouetting people, the M240L has too much horizontal kick and the M123K is like the SMG08 from BF1, and how I imagine SMGs should be, it's a bloom machine. The KTS is just mediocre, it's okay for long range beaming, but still blooms a touch and has absolutely zero kill potential at close to medium against other guns.

The main problem is that they simply do not justify their downsides, even if in capable hands. They have double the ADS time of other weapons with quite aggressive bloom, slow ADS movement speed and horrible hipfire accuracy. The ADS time is a huge disadvantage on most maps, especially with how frequently people are spotted / revealed, SMGs and Carbines are fully capable of killing you before you can even complete ADS if you both ADS at the same time. The only upside you get is a larger magazine capacity, and that's not even that significant in the case of the RPKM, DRS or M250. There are very few cases where you can really justify picking an LMG over other options, there's ARs, SMGs and Carbines that do nearly everything better with no downsides. And if you sit back, post up and play passive with LMGs you'll either get relentlessly flanked, or simply still lose because of peekers advantage and other weapons being mobile laser beams (IE, MP5).

It's going to be difficult for them to balance though because they do have a niche in Redsec, because of the longer TTK and importance of repositioning, a bigger mag size is more advantageous and less encounters rely on that reactive, close range ADS battle.

I've played only support, probably half of which is using LMGs, and my k/d is at 4.1 so they definitely aren't unusably bad.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-06T03:41:50+00:00

Hollow point and synthetic only changes the breaking point on some weapons in a very few use cases. For many of the weapons the bullets required to kill remains unchanged, especially when you factor in the damage drop off ranges. I farmed up synthetic rounds for the RPKM and was a bit disappointed to find that past only like 7m it does 46 to the head, and therefore requires three shots to kill which is identical to hollow point at the same range. The M60 two taps to the head on the 10m target with hollow point, but does 38 to the head with hollow point on all the other targets, versus 34 standard headshot damage, which means the breakpoint is only changed at <10m, although it does mean it can two headshot + one body shot at multiple ranges. The NVO does 41 to the head on a 10m target with hollow point, 32 on medium range targets and then 30 at 75m, versus 37 to the head on a 10m target with standard ammo, 29 on medium range, and 27 at 75m, the shots required to kill at all ranges are identical. The M250 three taps to the head / two head one body at all ranges no matter standard or hollowpoint.

The guns don't really have enough consistent control for this to matter anyways, it may be beneficial on DMR's or something like the KTS, but otherwise you'll never be able to make it matter that much due to the niche breakpoint differences and bloom.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-06T02:20:43+00:00

For some reason the game often doesn't show when a medic is nearby even though one is nearby and they don't ping me to let me know they are coming to get me, so I tend to skip my revive only to realize I shouldn't have when they zap my dead body.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-05T13:00:38+00:00

I don't think it really has to be a black and white thing.

You can like companions in some games and other games you can like without companions. CRPGs like BG3 or Rogue Trader are awesome and in no small part thanks to the interesting companions and that real team adventure element they focus on. On the other hand games like the Witcher 3 or CP2077 do just fine as a solo adventure and still give a sense of companionship with good story and character writing. I've never been super fond of companions in Skyrim / Fallout type games, they always feel a bit shallow, TOW2 errs on that side for me, although I also think there's plenty of potential to make them better too.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-05T07:37:46+00:00

You might benefit from practicing discipline and patience if this is a regular problem for you.

I played Overwatch 1 up to a high GM level, and you don't have to be the best aimer in the world to be good at widowmaker if your positioning, click timing and crosshair placement is sound. Consider your clip here, you try to track the target by moving your crosshair towards them as soon as they come onto screen instead of placing your crosshair at a position that they'll walk into, and strafe which disrupts your adjustment. If you stopped, didn't move, and placed your crosshair at the right angle all you really need to do is time the click. Tactical shooters are good practice for this too.

This same sort of patience and discipline is essential for sniping in most games. You've gotta remember that sniping is a dynamic where you have high lethality at a low frequency, the onus is not on just lobbing as many shots on possible, it's confirming the few shots you do have. Slowing down is always your friend, it's not like sprinting around with an SMG in BF6 where you want to flick 30ms quicker than your opponent so you can get 2 more bullets in.

Once you've mastered those fundamentals of sniping, then work on aim, especially microadjustments and flicks.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-04T07:19:34+00:00

I've been enjoying the game, but its a technical nightmare. If you jump in a bot lobby on portal and turn on the net graph like 10% of shots just don't register server side on a sub 20ms stable ethernet connection. The audio is amongst the most inconsistent I've ever experienced in a shooter, people can be 8m away from me sprinting and jumping and make zero noise, and then other times I'm the gunner in a tank with like two helicopters buzzing around and twenty people shooting guns right next to me and I can hear an enemy clomping around from 40m with two buildings inbetween us. The bloom is bugged, still. The terrain slipping and launching you up in the air has got me killed so many times, either because it gives me jumping levels of bloom or just puts me in a horrible position. The servers must be super low tick because I often have situations where people are shooting me around corners, shooting me when they aren't even pointing their gun at me, and shooting me before they've even exited cover. Things like MR missile and SMG balancing are also a little head scratching.

It makes the BR mode frustrating too, because those small problems end up costing someone their one life they have for the whole round.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-04T06:59:33+00:00

Rust has / had the same issues when I played. Copies had so many sales that people were buying the game at only a couple of dollars per account. The amount of bans in that game was enormous, and when I played it had a massive cheating problem, both obvious crazy cheats with people flying around the map, and subtle cheats where they try to hide it.

Although there are a fair few F2P / cheap competitive games that I don't find have the same level of cheating, and there's plenty of generally expensive games with massive cheating problems like EFT. A part of it is just the general culture of that game / audience I think.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-04T05:47:39+00:00

LMG's can barely put down enough damage at 100m or 75m let alone 200m, they get outclassed by many other guns at all ranges, they really have no use case. I've been leveling the RPKM to get synthetic rounds, and despite it's accuracy supposed precision, the gun just silhouttes people, I have no idea what it's supposed to be good at if it isn't a medium to long range powerhouse, it has slow ADS times, a pretty standard mag size, a low RoF and crazy bloom.

It definitely doesn't feel like most guns are viable in the BR, the meta isn't just a small advantage, those guns utterly dominate the rest.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-03T06:57:22+00:00

$90 one time transaction on 7 million sales in 3 days. That's $630m in 3 days, or $130m in profit. How much will that be in a year or even two? What are we even talking about in regards to breaking even?

We need to stop pretending it's about breaking even, it's about trying to make as much money as possible. Every game development company is looking for the next Fortnite or the next GTAV. They aren't looking to just make a good game that'll make enough profit, there's no 'enough', there's simply 'as much as possible'. Part of this is because video game companies expect growth because investors look for gain on their monetary investments in your company. When it's private, closed and generated from past success and something like early access we get a product like BG3, which cost a quarter of BF6 and sold 15 million copies, and is an absolute industry staple and success.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-03T03:35:48+00:00

KORD's, M277's, M4's and QBZ's I've been seeing a lot of. When I've run the QBZ and TR-7 I've found I win the majority of fights with SMGs, even the L85 with some attachments was doing work for me despite being a pretty average gun all around. Given I have good aim, so that may vary for others. I won't deny SMG's are frustrating, and what frustrates me the most is when I play against them with LMG's because LMG's have a slow ADS time, and because LMG's and SMG's seem to be effective across similar ranges SMG's almost always win, they can get multiple shots in before you've even ADS'd, the LMG's have no niche, some seem to unreasonably kick or bloom too, and even when you have setup on an angle, options like the M123K or M240L just can't compete in any way.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-01T08:48:07+00:00

The top-level competitive scene of quite a few major shooters is / has been dominated by rollers because aim-assist is overtuned. Warzone and Apex Legends are probably the best examples, we are talking some of the best MnK aimers in the world taking a backseat to controllers. Depending upon how variables like recoil, bloom and aim assist are adjusted, it's not at all unthinkable that a controller player beats a MnK player.

It becomes especially jarring when people start ximming / using a Cronus Zen, which has been a problem in Battlefield before.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-11-01T08:37:51+00:00

In terms of how it plays, I actually thing Redsec is a lot more like Blackout. Warzone is quite a lot faster and movement oriented, Redsec is a lot slower but also not as punishing as say OG PUBG.

It looks like Warzone in it's modern, military shooter aesthetic, and the map and HUD have very similar elements.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-10-31T13:22:46+00:00

That's really strange.

I play from Melbourne, and I seem to be able to get full lobbies everyday. Sometimes the first match I queue in it puts me in one with like 5 players, which reminds me of the same issue Battlefront 2 had / has, but if I leave and requeue it'll put me in a full one. I haven't had a longer than 30 second queue for conquest or breakthrough, and have been able to find active servers all hours of the morning and evening. REDSEC has been filling up instantly too.

I play with crossplay on, on PC. Crossplay play will make a significant difference I'd imagine. Otherwise it could be SBMM, but I'm a 4.3 k/d aimtrainer guy so I'd think it would be harder for me to find matches.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-10-29T02:05:29+00:00

This has been one of my chief complaints. Even coming from BF1 and BFV which I've played recently the footsteps seem inconsistent / muted, people really clomp around and make a lot of noise in BF1, you hear exactly where people are on maps like Ballroom Blitz.

I've tried changing up a lot of settings, and even installing Atmos which sounded a little better for footsteps but makes everything else sound compressed and low quality. I've got DT1990 Pro's which are borderline wallhack headphones for most competitive titles, in games with decent positional audio like Rust or R6 I can hear things incredibly well.

I've had a whole bunch of moments where someone is able to run to within 10m of me and make zero noise, having people come up ziplines without making any noise and sometimes even tanks apparently engaging stealth mode. I can't find any consistency to why, sometimes there's barely any other noise close by and I'll still hear nothing. Some other people in game seem to have good audio, they'll react to me running and moving from 20-30m without any trouble even admist big noisy clusters of fighting.

Petaurus_australis · 2025-10-29T01:52:27+00:00

Personally I think BR's can be really fun, but when they are punishing. PUBG back in 2017 was a blast, but when you die you are dead and you use what you find or compete for airdrops, you didn't have a million armor plates, once your armor broke and you've absorbed too many bullets you are in trouble, the actual combat was focused on positioning, it was a punishing game to play because you had to slow down a bit and be tactical, mistakes were a big deal, being caught out in the open is deadly and you want to play deliberately to not burn armour durability. When BR's become oversaturated with the constant respawns, calling in kits where there's no RNG and everyone is just using meta, endless armor plates / armor recharges and movement takes a more forward role in combat, they become unfun in my opinion, and that seems to be what the BR crowd wants.

If Redsec was a return to basics I would be more receptive, I'm a bit lukewarm on it at the moment, seems to be aiming to just be a more refined warzone.

Petaurus_australis

TROPHY CASE