This page is to address multiple quirks in Phantom Forces that you may not have seen anywhere. These are things unexplained by the game and are to be added as more is discovered. Feel free to add more stuff!
Black Sniper Scope Screen
Sometimes, when you go into the sniper screen, it turns completely black. This can get you killed, as you cannot see your enemy. This is caused by the game not registering the switch between the sniper scope and the hip sight (which usually looks black) into the scope's reticle. If this problem occurs frequently to you, try switching to a high zooming non-sniper scope, like the ACOG or PK-A . The VCOG has this same problem. Another way that helps is not pressing shift until you are fully into the sight and you can see through it. Most players go into shift immediately out of instinct.
Extra Round in the Chamber
Overview/Short Reload
In Phantom Forces, if you reload before you ammo runs out, you get an extra round in your magazine. This simulates the property that there is still an unfired bullet in the chamber from the previous magazine plus the bullets in a fully loaded magazine.
Fun Fact: You can reload after deploying.
Long Reload
When you reload without any bullets left in the magazine or chamber, you will perform a "long" reload, which is when you have to manually chamber the bullet in your magazine. In that case, you don't get the extra bullet and the reload is a bit longer as you need to rechamber the round.
Exceptions
Several weapons, such as revolvers, belt-fed guns like M60 , and shotguns do not use the "Round in the Chamber." Feel free to empty your mag as there is no reload penalty for doing so. These weapons do not benefit from the extra bullet because the revolver is not a magazine but a mechanism rotating as the barrel sequentially expends the ammo in the cylinder, thus there is no real chamber. The M60 simply uses a belt system in which the chamber does not siphon the bullet from the belt but simply locks the belt in place and fires from the belt. The next round is intact and still attached to the belt, so there is not a round in the chamber after taking the belt out.
These exceptions are not glitches. Even though shotguns don't have this mechanic in-game, it still applies to them in real life, so it's unknown why it's not in the game. However, in cases like the Serbu Shotgun, which has 2 shells in the magazine but has 3 in-game, it may just be that the developers had chosen to load the round in the chamber upon deployment instead of requiring the player to do it themselves in magazine-fed weapons.
Suppression
When you get shot at, your camera will spike to simulate suppression, but the gun model itself will not "move" with it as it did before. This alters the dynamics of your aim as bullets shoot in the direction of the physical gun model. - Game description.
You may have noticed that your screen shakes when you are being shot at. This is the suppression mechanic and your accuracy is notably reduced. Getting behind cover and not getting shot at will lower the effect, but is still present. It is especially easy to suppress enemies with heavy hitting weapons, like machine guns or sniper rifles. Suppression will depend on the calibre of the gun or the type of weapon used for suppression.
Diving
Sprinting (Shift) and pressing X or Z will allow you to dolphin dive. You momentarily jump quite a bit and surprise your enemies with the sudden change in distance. This is good for rushing, dodging sniper rounds, or for quickly getting behind cover. For some reason, you also take less fall damage when diving from a building onto the floor.
Tip: If you Sprint + Spacebar and quickly press (x) twice you will perform an even higher dive.This is what alot of people call "air diving",because when you press (Spacebar) it will make you jump + double (x) this will make you dive while up in the air which will help you dive onto crates and escape battles.
Suppressors and the Mini Map
If everyone knew how the mini map works, suppressors rock. The mini map is a very important piece of your HUD (Head up display) in the lower right corner. At anytime the player were to fire their gun, their position would be unknown to the wider world. Without a suppressor, the player would show as a red dot on the mini map every time they fired their weapon (Primary or Secondary). Taking advantage to this is great for snipers and flankers, being able to essentially spot everyone who doesn't have a suppressor. As well as firing a suppressed firearm, a player will ALWAYS show on the mini map when spotted. Using this advantage, a player could locate and snipe an unsuspecting target, flank large amounts of players, and spot anyone in the player's vision with the assistance of the mini map.
Sliding
Sprinting (Shift) and pressing C will allow you to slide. You slide down to a crouching or prone position. This is good for surprising enemies as they have to move their view. Another common tactic used by high ranking or generally knowledgeable players is "slide cancelling." This is when you begin to slide, but press shift before you have stopped moving. This cancels the slide and returns to sprinting. This allows for short bursts of speed when running, letting you dodge bullets and confuse enemy players who may be trying to kill you. It can be an invaluable skill to have when used properly.
Quick-scoping and the Point of Certainty
When you aim down sights, the cross-hairs get closer and closer together until they reach something known as the Point of Certainty (POC). This POC is where the bullet will ALWAYS go, not counting bullet drop and lead. If you are aiming down, and are using semi and shooting carefully, you will be totally accurate. If you fire rapidly, or are being suppressed the recoil shakes the POC and makes your bullets miss.
Quickscopers take advantage by holding the right mouse button for the cone of fire cross-hairs to come together, but before it goes into zoom mode. This is quite difficult as while transitioning from hip mode to scoping, the POC is not shown, but the cross-hairs simply disappear once they reach the POC. Some quickscopers fire right when the screen turns black for the aiming. Some also switch out the default scope with another, such as the PKA-S . Another way is to draw a small dot in the middle of your screen with an erasable marker for a pseudo-cross-hair. That way, you do not have to rely on the PKA- S and can snipe correctly at long range.
However, it generally is not a good idea to quickscope, since with snipers, in order to guarantee a one shot kill, you have to aim for the head, which in many cases isn't easy. If one really wants to quickscope, the best rifle to use is the BFG 50, since that guarantees a one shot kill in any body part.
Bullet Drop
Currently, all guns are affected by bullet drop. This is where you might need to aim higher than the enemy to land a head-shot. While in close quarter combat it is unnecessary to compensate for bullet drop, snipers, DMRs or long range rifle engagements will need to take note of this. Bullet drop is caused by gravity on the bullets making them land lower than where you are aiming. Suppressors further intensify bullet drop because of their ability to slow bullets down drastically. You can check how much bullet drop will be caused by the suppressor by its stats (15% for example).
Quickscoping
Why You Lag
Sometimes when you play Phantom Forces, you are doing fine but when you engage with another person, your screen starts to lag, and you die/get accused of lag switching. Why do you lag when engaging?
Well, the endless list of reasons are: you computer has a low RAM, your internet is poor, the server just sucks, there's a lag switcher, etc.
Here is why all these will cause lag:
CPU: It's the most important thing if you want to play a heavy Roblox game. The Roblox is processed 90% on the CPU. Even with a low graphic card but a powerful processor, you can play your Roblox game without any problems (Other than bad frame-rate at the HIGHEST possible setting).
Demonstration about the Phantom Forces performance on a mid-low laptop:
(900p with GT 520M)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LgfabJ4mjCA
GPU: If you wish to play at the HIGHEST possible settings at either 1080p or higher, at 60 FPS, you should get a dedicated GPU or highest APU. You will not be able to achieve 60 FPS at 1080p or higher at the highest settings on an integrated GPU (ex: HD 5000 from Intel) for MANY of the following reasons.
- Anti-Aliasing: Anti-Aliasing is used to make objects more smooth on screen, it is known to take a big impact on GPU performance as Multi-sampling can be set up to x16 times to smooth jagged lines. Reference: http://blog.roblox.com/2016/05/a-whole-new-world-roblox-adds-post-effects-and-anti-aliasing
- Dynamic Lighting: Dynamic Lighting is used to create the high quality lighting in a building or the flashes from shooting guns. The GPU renders theses with shadows and objects to blend the lighting so it will not bleed through a wall for example. Reference: http://blog.roblox.com/2013/05/lights-on-dynamic-lighting-and-shadows-are-here/
- Meshes: Meshes are currently used for some gun bodies that allow a weapon to only use up one part, meshes require rendering of the textures and shape but they are usually not that big of a impact in gameplay. Reference: http://blog.roblox.com/2016/06/uploadable-custom-meshes-come-to-roblox/
- Particles: Particles put out high res texture images(ex: Gun Flash). The more particles will cause the GPU to have to render. Blending of particles also causes the GPU to use power. Reference: http://blog.roblox.com/2016/06/customize-particle-colors-with-the-new-colorsequence-editor/
- Post-Processing Effects: Post-Processing Effects are similar the effects you can put on videos, such as Color Correction, Sun Rays, Bloom, and Blur. These effects requiring rending power from the GPU. Reference: http://blog.roblox.com/2016/05/a-whole-new-world-roblox-adds-post-effects-and-anti-aliasing/
- Shadows: Shadows will render based on the lightning and the placement of the objects, can be heavy on the GPU during a match when the sun is out. Reference: http://blog.roblox.com/2015/11/new-shadows-bring-more-realistic-effects-to-humanoids/
- Virtual Reality: VR will require rending for basically 2 screens which causes a lot of work to be put on the GPU. On top of that, the enjoyable FPS for VR is 90 FPS, lower FPS can cause discomfort to the eyes and dizziness. Reference: http://blog.roblox.com/2016/04/roblox-enters-the-vr-space-with-launch-on-oculus-rift/ and http://devforum.roblox.com/t/vr-developer-alpha/22144
A low end GPU will not be able to handle all of the above. VR will require a next-gen GPU and will NOT work on iGPU, 2 HDMI ports are required. If you already have a good GPU and notice your performance is not similar to other users, your CPU may be holding you back.
Low computer RAM: When you first get a computer it is lightning fast, but after a couple of years, it slows to a snail's crawl. Why? Over time you download a TON of stuff, new apps, documents, etc. All of these siphon a bit of the RAM, even if it doesn't show it (RAM stands for Random Access Memory, basically where everything is temporarily stored for the computer's Control Processing Unit (CPU) to use quickly - Like unsaved Word files but you can still edit it quickly). More files means more taking up space on the RAM. To fix this, you gotta delete files you never use, apps that are not necessary, to speed up the computer. Engaging with a person puts stress on the RAM as it has to process both your and your opponent's shots at the same time and display everything. Calculating all of the projectiles that everybody is firing (including that M60 user who is spamming his bullets) can be a stressful task for a "potato" or low-performance computer.
Poor Internet: When you engage with a dude and you both fire shots and you lag, it is also possibly due to a poor internet. This is where your connection to the server is disrupted. The game is not registering your shots in time, so it detects your opponents are shooting first. You get more damage, and to your opponent you appear frozen, teleporting around the area as you move, but the internet isn't registering it. The opposite of this, where the connection to YOU is disrupted is called Lag Switching (Or just losing the connection.). Really is no cure, except you need to get closer to your internet or use an Ethernet Cord. Sometimes, the server might be too far and lag is caused by ping, or the action by the server and your internet of bouncing actions back and forth so that you get to play the game. The farther the distance, the longer the signal has to travel, which is the difference in the time that you've clicked to shoot and actually shot.
Weak Server: When programmers program, they need to make sure they don't put too much stuff in their games. The amount of things going on could create lag as gaming processes (such as a firefight) are run. This is why single piece guns are less laggy (And less likely to break, but lack in design). If you are in a terrible server, just leave. People will complain, and the creator may change things soon enough.
Lag switchers (Artificial Lag): This is for the cheaters, the bad players, and those who want their enemies to rage. Lag switching (Or the creation of artificial lag) is done ON PURPOSE. How do cheaters do this? They purposely disrupt their own connections to the internet (Through an Ethernet cord or disconnecting their WI-FI). This actually doesn't affect them. And signals that they got shot are blocked. If any of you have ever been in a game, and then the server just shuts down, or you lose connections, you find that you can still move around a bit and the guns/tools still work. This enables you to shoot people.
When you reconnect, the "traffic jam" immediately continues and the damage registers. However, since for a couple of seconds you were non-existent in the game, the damage to your frozen body to players shooting at it simply doesn't register as it harming a player. When you rejoin, the body despawns and becomes you again, but the damage isn't registered. Good news is, you can't create this lag for a certain amount of time as Roblox will automatically kick you for a lost connection, which is 3-5 seconds after starting. Smart lag switchers are capable of building (Or buying) devices that cut the connection for a certain amount of time. So sometimes that dude you are engaging and you lagged was really just preventing your shots from hitting him.
Client Storage: This is sometimes prone for those players who have high rank, alot of guns, alot of attachments. This would rarely happen if it was accompanied internet is slow or have alot of storage. And believe it or not, playing as guest is slightly faster than playing on a high-rank player.