Tracking, Flicking, and Leading in FPS Games

This video is about explaining my thoughts on the three most common shooting types in FPS games.
EDIT: Sorry about ads, copyright strike.
I am making no money off of these videos.
uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yes?
Music by Underworld and Tim Legend

[@mesoforte]

Don't know if someone pointed it out, but leading is the most human. Humans evolved to throw things at moving targets as their primary way to attack while hunting. Let the monke brain take over for leading. That's why not thinking about it works better.

[@CripplingMemeAddict]

Erh. Yeh in TF2 maybe. Try any other shooter and ya can't go monkey mode and expect to hit anything consistent.

[@CripplingMemeAddict]

Also you did not point out that while yes we did evolve to throw stuff, it was not how we preyed on animals. We ran them dry of energy via our superb dexterity

[@Majima_Nowhere]

An archer fish can hit a moving bug with a ball of water while compensating for refraction and leading the target, purely on instinct alone. Evolution is a powerful thing.

[@demolisherman1763]

@@CripplingMemeAddict ancient humans exhausted prey with their high stamina for marathon length chases and ability to cool down while running via sweat. Sweating is something pretty much no other animal can do giving humans a huge advantage, this is because their prey would need to stop and pant or something to cool down. Dexterity is used when doing something like sewing or other activities that require small precise movements.

[@ksweew7476]

@@CripplingMemeAddict traps and and ambushes are way more effective tho im not really sure it was the main way of hunting judging by the ammount of energy it costs.

[@daddysempaichan]

Your thing about projectiles being intuition reminds me of what Zach of Mikeburnfire story of when he had a M203 grenade launcher when he was in the Army. He used it so much to where he doesn't really aim with it but instead just eyeball it and still manage to hit the target. So I can say projectiles does, in some part, comes down to intuition.

[@P-Bean]

Woah that's really interesting

[@thegrandnil764]

@@P-Bean The reason you suck at flicking is that you need to turn your brain off for it as well.

[@DallinBackstrom]

AH! Yes! "Just turn your brain off" is a viable strategy, or maybe even the best strategy, because the human mind is AMAZING at learning to approximate physical systems, very quickly, and very well. Standing up, walking around, running, throwing a basketball-- all of these actions require immense computational power and literal years of training. By "turning your brain off" you are really just relying on your intuitive understanding of physics, which is, as it turns out, really, REALLY good at that. If you're interested in *just how difficult* these seemingly simple tasks really are, have a look around the internet for AI systems that are trained to do simple physical tasks, like walking. It's not anywhere near a solved problem in computer science, but the hilarious flailing and falling might lend some perspective to the heavy lifting your brain does during every waking moment.

[@Kaadjoisanavaliwithtoomuchtime]

the brain is good at "just working"

[@joethebabygrabber3861]

Leading is more up to game sense and muscle memory, so yeah you can kinda just turn your brain off when you use projectiles.

[@durgun8247]

Maybe there's some sort of subconscious system in the brain that helps with leading, It would make sense for that to evolve because humans have used relatively low velocity projectiles for most of our existence, and so if you're better at leading, you're more likely to kill what would've otherwise killed you.

[@m1rac1e]

I think the opposite when it comes to lqeading

[@aidelai4098]

Yea man it kinda just clicks in your brain and boom the shot landed

[@CripplingMemeAddict]

Isn't game sense using the brain 🤔🤔🤔

[@aidelai4098]

@@CripplingMemeAddict Well kinda like that but you don't even think about it I can't really explain but it's done automatically i guess like looking back

[@karu7982]

lets pray the yt algorithm recognizes you eventually 🙏

[@campellodasilva]

He did it boys

[@engineer5092]

it did for me

[@tugazu]

It has

[@melon4738]

Here it is

[@Claire25252]

But late here

[@offandsphere6788]

oh hey, phantom forces, arsenal, and big paintball didn't think you'd bring up roblox games in this video, but they ARE first person shooter games at the end of the day

[@reversevisible2692]

also RooM too, basically the roblox copy of doom

[@P-Bean]

For sure, pretty fun ones actually too

[@series9085]

@@P-Bean Play tc2 (: (actual name is typical colors 2)

[@P-Bean]

As memed on as tc2 is, it's actually a really faithful recreation of tf2 and was made out of passion for the original game. I used to play it a lot lol, fun game, good suggestion.

[@reversevisible2692]

you could play blackhawk rescue mission 5 its like a really good fps game

[@kdi8028]

These are the reasons why syringe gun feels so bad to use. It requires 2 skills(Tracking and Leading) and doesn't reward you enough, that's why many people dismiss it as a trash weapon. but you have to think about it. Valve intended it to use medi gun more and statistically, it's actually not a bad weapon. It's just not good enough to kill people, but good enough to deter enemy and run away for safety.

[@P-Bean]

Good analysis, from experience though it's still a worse 'get off me gun' than the crossbow, but yeah if you can actually get good at it then it's a good deterrent, well said on your part

[@badideagenerator2315]

There's also the fact that it has random projectile deviation, has more falloff than rampup and its projectiles are painfully slow. Its only any good in tight corridors, whereas the crossbow and a melee are better in virtually any situation.

[@jmurray1110]

Well it failed as a deterrent as your seem as a free pick for using it

[@badideagenerator2315]

@@jmurray1110 it might've been more effective as a deterrent if it did slightly less damage and had smaller clips in exchange for a stacking debuff. I've recently played a game called "the flappy men", a game on Roblox that takes heavy inspiration from tf2, in which the medic has a "tranquiluser gun" which is effectively the tf2 syringe gun, exept it has a 30 round magazine and applies a powerful debuff after a certain number of hits. In tf2 the debuff could perhaps be something like healing reduction, which becomes more potent with each consecutive hit. That way scouts, who have low maximum health, would think twice before trying to gun down medics.

[@crouton7070]

You can lead with single fire weapons, take a look at guitar hero aim

[@P-Bean]

This video is almost two months old, what's bringing you all here now?!?

[@syntax2679]

Yootoobe algorithm at it again

[@mishael1339]

Your new vid

[@marisanya]

Your other videos were boosted by the algorithm. From there KZbin tends to recommend videos from creators you just watched a video all the way through from :)

[@benismann]

4 months now. Thats all YT magic

[@GoodlyData86596]

Ehh I’m watching this due to the recent bringing up of everyone suddenly growing a brain and realizing “wait is instant killing at any range even if it takes a ton of skill still balanced?”

[@Chungan333]

underrated

[@Twisted_Logic]

This is something I think about a lot, actually. In games with a two weapon limit I tend to try and have two different aim types because I find the different types of aiming are better for different situations. That said, I also tend to avoid precision flick weapons because frankly I'm pretty awful with them (probably because I tend to treat them like tracking weapons), so for my flick weapon I tend to stick with shotguns. Something you mentioned, but I think deserves more focus is stacking aim types, which usually means leading and something else (the only track/flick combos I can think of are the Spartan Laser from Halo and the Charge Rifle from Apex Legends). While stacking aim types definitely makes weapons more difficult to use, it often also makes them more interesting, which I think is part of why they're so common. Well, that and a lot of games looking to emulate some sense of "realism" like Battlefield use projectiles that you have to lead in order to sell that fantasy.

[@P-Bean]

Glad to hear I'm not the only crazy person, also good point on the stacking types thing, there really is a lot of opportunity for interesting weapon design just based off these core principles.

[@timothygooding9544]

Something strange I've noticed is that the game BPM: Beats Per Minute actually has me tracking instead of flicking even though most weapons are single fire. This is probably because the beat limits when you can fire so instead of flicking which requires your own timing you track as the weapon will fire when ready depending on what rhythm your firing and reloading create separately

[@cookie0329]

honestly the unholy trinity in arena shooters perfectly summarizes these points the unholy trinity is your three most important weapons in an arena shooter, electric gun, rocket launcher, and rail gun rocket launcher - leading electric gun - tracking rail gun - flicking

[@jonathanhamstra3319]

"Only focus on one or two of these" *quake approaches ominously over the horizon*

[@emcdermott3602]

as a pyro main in tf2 i'd say that the flames are more similar to tracking then leading because you're so close to them that all you need to do is point in their general direction

[@boof600]

the balls in this man to feature phantom forces in the video and the thumbnail

[@Earadon]

Leading is 100% intuition, it takes alot of play to get to that point, so feel proud, because if you're leading accurately then you're probably a veteran~

[@dubiousSanguine]

thinking about this, the one alt. fire mode in ULTRAKILL for the revolver, i think it's called marksman, allows you to flip a projectile coin in the air and you'd have to actively aim to shoot it and hit more targets, while the revolver (especially the alternate revolver) is also really good at flicking to headshot enemies. The marksman revolver in ULTRAKILL requires tracking, flicking, and leaning to master, which is actually really interesting. i've heard of games where you can use a weapon that uses one or two of them, but never all three. anyways enough of this rant, i highly suggest y'all play ULTRAKILL, very fun.

[@skinnywhiteboy5590]

As a demo main, leading is honestly just "I see man, I shoot gun, I *kill* man."

[@cinemalazare4850]

YES SAME, as a demomain i also i have the privilage to not think about aiming and just shoot gun big explosion

[@badideagenerator2315]

Then there's the secret 4th type of aiming: spray and pray. You aren't following your enemy with your crosshair, you aren't predicting where they will go and you aren't intentionally clicking on them. You're flailing your crosshair around eratically. The philosophy of spray and pray is the following: if i don't know where my bullets are going, neither will the enemy. Its usually most efficient with any weapon which deals splash damage, somewhat effective on wildly inaccurate automatic weapons or shotguns and highly ineffective on anything which requires precision to be remotely useful.

[@klevmeister1g]

excellent video! i love the large diversity in fps games used in your clips (I even spotted a few roblox games which are usually quite uncommon in these types of vids)

[@disfuncionexe]

quake and unreal have all the aiming styles. this is why old arena shooters have such interesting weapons and high skill ceilings the lighting gun is tracking the rail gun is sniper aim the rocket launcher is leading the plasma gun is leading and tracking. in unreal the link guns primary fire is lead tracking the link guns secondary fire is tracking the ASMD primary and sniper are sniper aim the ASMD alt fire and rocket launcher are leading the flak cannon has a arcing projectile alt fire and a projectile shotgun primary with projectiles that bounce

[@Inoxigj]

I knew it was a lazypurple drunk reference the moment you spoke about "Just turn off your brain" and then having a bottle roll out. Good job on that one

[@BakersDozenOfYogurt]

Wonderful video, I don’t think I’ve actually seen other people cover this. Good insight friend!

[@SuperCaitball]

"Flicking" is actually fairly inefficient when it comes to sniper weapons. It's usually better to lead your crosshair, and then fire. You make a reference to LazyPurple's demoman video and then completely forget his sniper video, man.

[@P-Bean]

Eh i dunno, I've been practicing with aim trainers and my flicking ability has improved a lot, i get that lazy and a lot of others find it better to wait until others enter your crosshair but from my experience it's inefficient because you have to rely on people passing your crosshair and in games outside of tf2 where your enemies can shoot back at you from a decent range it's just far too slow unless you're scoped at a corner waiting for someone to come out.

[@joewaid]

Damn dude this is a really well done video

[@superchillandmentallyill4074]

Very educational video, thank you king

[@Coffe_dough]

Nice, as a scout main, begin able to flick to the position of mi enemy in less than a second is a dopamine rush that I need for keep playing.

[@risingSisyphus]

Just occurred to me that in competitive Quake, the Unholy Trinity represents all 3 styles of aiming. Lightning gun tracks Railgun flicks Rocket launcher leads

[@clementej03]

Never noticed it but definetly true. Good video!

[@linear1224]

Funny enough DRG (Deep Rock Galactic) has a lot of tracking weapons as opposed to flicking and leading, keeping in mind the new Rival Escalation update will add 4 new weapons, 1 of which will be a leading type weapon being a crossbow for Scout, all of this makes sense when you take into account that the enemies don't do a lot of strafing, therefore having a lot of tracking weapons is very beneficial for the average DRG player, showing a game's environment can greatly influence what types of weapons you'll find in said game.

[@shybandit521]

Leading is just like "it feels like they're gonna be here, it feels like if I shoot here, my thing will be there when they're there.... yeah, sounds about right" And that's why turning your brain off works, if you think too much about how to hit that air shot, you're gonna miss when and where you're supposed to shoot. Instead you have to just figure out where it FEELS like shooting there will get a hit, and hope it hits.

[@FIowersForMe]

Nice video keep it up :)

[@mnov1234]

Quality videos man, keep getting them subs

[@sharkhawst105]

Nice choice in music, I love electro swing

[@Tarrmantis]

Tracking, flicking, and leading happen to be important components of eyesight.

[@mcfighter2923]

I think projectile weapons are like throwing and catching a ball: it just feels natural, eventually.

[@alacer8878]

The algorithm brought me to your doorstep, and I was pleasantly surprised.

[@SOKAR_EX]

also with leading weapons like demos pipe your brain just sometimes goes auto pilot for a sec flicks and hits the enemy and the feeling of that is amazing

[@KrahYT]

God bless the recommendations

[@Goallpeashooters]

as a Pyro main Pyro is a mix of leading and tracking your flamethrower requires tracking skills to airblast effectively you need great leading skills and your flare guns also require leading skills

[@dougthedonkey1805]

It’s funny because, in real life, all shooting is leading. Since bullets do have some amount of travel time, very long-range shooters like snipers have to lead their shots to account for the finite speed of the bullet. At close range, though, this travel time is practically zero, so I suppose it’s a fo-“flicking”.

[@ThatBeePerson]

4:09 this is because projectiles are ENTIRELY muscle memory, although you can augment and speed up your learning by thinking harder about your projectile and visualizing it, at the end of the day it's just like you gf said, once you learn your weapon, leading becomes second nature. in games with variable speeds tracking becomes about learning your projectile speed and the enemy gamer's speed in games with set flat speeds it's all about just knowing where your opponent will be before they know as many of these comments have pointed out, our brains are already wired to deal with approximates and vague "shoot here for results" because we have to in order to walk, jump, roll, move our fingers in a certain way to type faster and faster as we do it more.

[@mystictortoise5404]

Gotta know the guys a chad when he includes arsenal, phantom forces, ROOM, and BIG Paintball in a video thats just about fps games in general.

[@mishael1339]

The best way to shoot projectiles accurately is opening your mind's eye, feel the future, and use your intuition to shoot your arcing projectile there. Don't think, Feel.

[@dawiggul1870]

that was a great opening

[@Archersforeal]

I think one of the most fun things for a medic is using the crusaders crossbow, it’s so rewarding and can turn a medic into a god healer when used correctly, not to mention how it can also be used as a good weapon when need be

[@nerdsunscripted624]

It’s almost like humans hunted using projectiles for tens of thousands of years, and we might be pretty good at predicting them haha

[@emerson-biggons7078]

Love the fact you are a Heavy main with a literal medic girlfriend

[@victorvirgili4447]

I used to be soooooo good at leading, I could snipe someone from halfway across the map with one of the slowest projectiles in a game I have. Ah the good old days of Battle Bay

[@LJThePerson]

did NOT expect to see phantom forces

[@walnut6684]

The leading one is simple. The reason why it feels like turning off your brain makes you more effective and accurate is because you're getting better. Your brain is calculating it faster and subconsciously, giving that feeling of "shutting your brain off"

[@maounobbu8128]

A little bit late to the conversation but I always found it fascinating how in Apex Legends they are these weapons that mix these three points to define how they feel and their general difficulty. Bullet velocity dictates how much you must lead, and all bullets being projectile requires understanding the different bullet types as each changes how bullet fly. Light ammo is fast in velocity and low in bullet drop but results in less damage per bullet. Energy ammo is even faster and barely any bullet drop but its less common to find. Heavy Ammo had slower bullet velocity and high bullet drop requiring more skill in understanding how to lead, with more damage per bullet. Sniper ammo is pretty self-explanatory. Super low bullet drop, high damage per shot, but its the rarest and you can't hold as much of it, Shotgun is the same just flipping distance travel, having a static spread pattern, and low bullet velocity. Many of the Light weapons are general use working in almost any situation, with high BPM but needing a lot of ammo as a result. Heavy weapons reward a bit of extra effort for more damage but farther ranged will need more effort in leading overall, and Energy rivals Light for being reliable in farther ranges but the weapons have weird attributes besides the SMG which is a more reliable-at-range variant than the Light ammo version which absolutely burns through players like swiss cheese.

[@ksweew7476]

I personally think that click-timing, tracking and leading are all pretty much the same thing the big difference lies in how far you are trying to predict the next enemy's movement the faster the projectile the less you need to predict same for the closer or futher. With hitscans you still need a tiny bit ammount of leading just because you need to know a little bit where the other guy is going at.

[@jounindreamplayz2136]

U sir, are a man and a scholar.

[@captaincrackhead904]

there is something very special and very important about parabolas to humans specifically. idk if its something about hunting or just the happenstance that our brain is super good at predicting parabolas but nearly every sport has some sort of throwing in it or parabolic aiming. it seems hardwired in our brains probably do do with monkey ancestors swinging in trees or generally being mobile. i also think that most species that deal with hunting have a pretty good grasp of physics we are basically a giga computer specialized to do physics calculations I mean just think of how many variables there is riding a bike or even just walking and we do millions of calculations a minute.

[@nobodygoodfr9556]

As I was watching this video, I got “inspired” to find out which of the three types I’m most drawn to in an FPS game. Checking my playtime of each class in TF2, I noticed that my most played classes use flicking most often (Spy (I almost exclusively use the Ambassador), Sniper, Scout) and my least played classes use tracking/leading (Medic, Heavy, Demo). Learning that, I wondered what exactly made me drawn to flicking as a method for shooting the funny bullets at the moving people. I mean, there had to be some source of influence, right? After thinking about it for a bit, I came up with that exact source: my younger brother. When I was wee lad, I very rarely played FPS games. I was more of a platformer and fighting game kid with my Marios and my Street Fighters. The few times I would slap a Modern Warfare 2 disc into a console, I gravitated towards automatic guns that revolved around tracking rather than flicking… until my brother started playing them. He’s only like 4 years younger than me but that short amount of time led to him getting into FPS’s around the time epic MLG sniper montages were popular. So, every single time he’d manage to convince me to play with him, it would *always* be a 1 v 1 (or 1 v 1 v 1 if my cousin was around) on Nuketown with sniper rifles. Since my brother exclusively used those weapons, he’d constantly whoop my ass hardcore until I got frustrated and quit to go play fuckin Angry Birds or something on my iPod Touch… but I still kept coming back to play with him and I slowly got better and better until I realized something. Landing a sick ass quick scope felt fucking awesome. Ever since then, it has been subconsciously etched into my brain that flicking my reticle at something until it dies felt rewarding and it has influenced my choices in FPS games ever since. What’s the moral of this story? Well, it’s that, despite how annoying I thought my brother was growing up and how different I felt compared to him (he was sporty and likes FPS games while I was nerdy and liked playing Beyblade during summer camp), our interactions have greatly formed who I am today as a 22 year old. tl;dr: This video made me realize that I might’ve truly cared about my brother a lot more throughout my childhood than I’ve ever cared enough to think about and I decided to tell all of you even though no one asked.

[@kimeiga]

I feel like many of your videos are things that I’ve encountered a long time ago when i was first starting making a first person shooter in Unity and i thought deeply about every mechanic and what they each represented. I remember distinctly having an idea for a weapon system where there were three classes of weapons: auto, semi-auto, and projectile, instead of them being primary and secondary. Now it’s really cool to see someone put words to those concepts in a well made video so it can be an accessible concept for people who have never made fps games before or never thought deeply about their mechanics. Very cathartic

[@mitochondria1730]

The marias during the leading section 🙏

[@randomationstudios24x68]

You also forgot guitar hero aiming, it’s like the inverse of flicking, you place your crosshair to where you think the enemy will be next instead of where they are and shoot them only when they get the that spot

[@gendalfgray7889]

There is much more going on. Flicking or tracking detemined by rate of fire. Then projectile determines is it instant or with some time wich is leading. Leading itself determined by projectile speed, trajectory and is enemy movement allows to avoid said projectile. If projectile much faster than ability to dodge then its flicking. If projectile speed allow do dodge then its regular leading that require some mind games. If projectile is slow that dodge almost guaranteed it then its tactical area denial, examples are quake grenades, ut shock rifle core. If ability to dodge is none but projectiles not instant then you have artilery game xD. There is still no fps artilery games aside from Worms 3d when scoping. There also projectile mechanics that adds variety: explosion allow to aim at surface near enemy, ricochet allow to shoot behind corners, homing projectiles easier to hit, forces enemy to use maneuver, controlled projectile trajectory, examples half-life and xonotic rocket, controlled explosion allow aiming in general area, shock rifle combo from ut, demo stickies from tf2. There may be more. Trajectory and size of projectile significantly change how you aim with projectile. Leading is satisfying because it works with predictions and humonkey very glad that it prediction is correct. Leading tracking is hard to hit, because you need to aim at enemy destination and if enemy trying to dodge you need to change direction very rapidly to catch with rate of fire. Games compensate that with very high damage, but they don't compensate for nerd that can predict you dodging pattern and shoot 100% hit volley on you xD. If you meet such dude it can be scary, quake plasma can kill player without armor for 4 shots! Leading tracking is best when player on predictable trajectory, like on jumppad or falling. If you want more there can be weapons that require little to no aim, but require positioning, like overwatch reinhart with his hammer.

[@kleiton__]

If we're talking leading and tracking, a good game to bring up is War Thunder, the game almost exclusively works with leading: A plane shooting across your screen? Well you better know how to estimate it's speed and your muzzle velocity to get the correct lead! A tank shooting from far away? Well you have to know how quick your shell drops and how much you have to lead by to hit it! A boat shooting at you across the control point? Well you better be good at 3 dimensional leading because I assure you you are not going to be moving perpendicular to each other. War Thunder by design is built around leading, and tracking to get multiple shots on target, but since turret traverse and turn speed are a thing, it focuses much less on flicking, only way to "flick" would be using more modern tanks and also taking advantage of movement tricks to turn your gun faster

[@ItsWoodSK]

I mean you can lead with snipers on tf2 by just aiming ahead and letting the guys movement go to your crosshare definitely makes hitting shots on harder targets way easier

[@pinkguycomments69]

Tracking with a mouse feels way different than a controller but the only fps I played on pc is TF2

[@jakman8515]

probably because on controller your tracking with your thumb (hopefully) and on pc your tracking with your hand or wrist

[@badideagenerator2315]

Aiming on console is drastically different, because on console you're guiding the crosshair and have acceleration whereas with a mouse you have direct control over the crosshair and it moves as fast as you move the mouse. Its why pc aim is usually considered better, since you have total control over your aim.

[@ZaTrapu]

Leading can be played brainless and do well only applies to the soldier and demoman's primaries as well with stickbomb launchers of demoman's secondary weapons (and as well with huntsman and dragon's fury technically, and I say technically they can be played since huntsman's huge hitbox for its arrows and dragon's fury's splash damage can allow the player to play brainless, but to reach both of their max potential you do have to turn the brain on: for huntsman is still aim for the head and knowing how long to charge as well as knowing how the weapon curves (demoman's primary weapons have an arch with their projectiles) and with dragon's fury is aim for preferably for the center of the body (aka meatshot) like you would with a scattergun or a shotgun since the damage bonus on burning targets (including buildings and mvm tanks and not just robots in mvm and players) requires you do a direct hit and to keep the fire going so keep landing shots and don't panic. Yes you can weaken the weakness of it's 3 seconds of afterburn (1 second on pyros and danger shield snipers) to the max of 10 on players that aren't a pyro or a danger shield sniper. The only projectile weapon that takes 100% skill to master that I know of is the crusader's crossbow since it doesn't have splash damage or an abnormally large hitbox for its projectile as well as it learning how its arch and how affects the projectile

[@smyleypop8857]

Leading/projectiles feels like that mostly due to the fact that it's all muscle memory that's repeated over and over so it feels like an intuition or second nature after years of experience, so it is less based on creativity and focusing and more on the sheer mechanical skill you've built and learning how your projectiles operate

[@xavibun]

When you have enough intuition you can turn your brain off, if you train yourself enough in a skill you are eventually going to be able to do it with less brain power then before

[@alexkaplan6581]

Once your unconscious can pick up the slack, it feels easier.

[@KanyeFan90210]

Awesome

[@clouds2502]

I think the algorithm boutta take off

[@strawberrana]

surprised you didn't bring up weapons that combine multiple aiming types (fusion driver in overwatch, charge rifle in apex legends, kraber in titanfall)

[@theailingsword4674]

Nah, with tracking you don't really turn your brain off, you just don't overthink the shot and let your instinct take control

[@cockmqn]

The reason why "turning your brain off" works for leading is because your brain has a few diverse ways of calculating one of which your eyes to naturally. Your brain uses both your eyes to triangulate distance which is why people can experience depth. Try leading while wearing an eye patch you will never be able to do it.

[@RomanianThief]

I love you and I love your content

[@RomanianThief]

Oh damn, that's cute

[@rydz3442]

Yes finally another good representative of the heavy community

[@uppishcub1617]

I guess that means i main flicking weapons. Whenever I play shooters I always pick a weapon that does really high damage in one shot and the primarily use it. Whether its the Mosin Nagant in COD WaW, the python in Half-Life, or the ssg in Dusk, I always do this.

[@Lightning-ig2do]

My favorite is flicking, but with a shotgun, like Scout or Reaper.

[@adamtaurus7840]

WAIT WAIT WAIT IS THAT ROOM?! I THOUGHT IT WAS DEAD

[@tsunarisgaming2601]

we human have been mastering the art of throwing a rock for thousands of year thats why leading is the easiest to get a ground level at

[@randomguy3708]

3:16 Playing that in the background like we aren't going to notice the caravan palace?

[@Imirui]

Is that a roblox arsenal gameplay???? I LOVE IT

[@basileusbasil4041]

nice reference

[@hoangtran4736]

Instead of saying that games mostly focus on 2 out of the 3, I think it's more accurate to say that most *situations* focus on 2 of the 3. I think a good way to demonstrate this would be games that utilize "very fast projectiles" - projectiles that are so fast as to be practically hitscan at close ranges, but with noticeable travel time at longer ranges. This is more popular in tactical shooters, particular those that take place in large open environments. Let's take one of my typical arma 3 king of the hill matches as an example. The game mode takes place in a mostly urban area surrounded by large open fields, interjected by large main road with long sight lines. When moving from building to building, there is an emphasis on positioning on positioning (to expose as little of yourself as possible) and flicking (to hit what little bodypart the enemy as exposed). When I'm perched on a balcony watching down a main road, there is an empasis on flicking and tracking to hit crossing enemies at the other end of the road where bullet travel time become significant. When I'm positioned on a window watching the large open fields, the focus shifts to tracking and leading. The area is so large and the enemies take so long to cross that flicking is no longer important. However, at such long ranges, weapon inaccuracy and damage drop offs means that it's no longer about making 1-2 good hits on the enemy but rather to get the cone of fire centered on the enemy for long enough that eventually enough shots will hit to make a kill. Finally, there is also the situation where all 3 shooting types come into play: shooting down enemy vehicles, especially helicopters. Because of their fast moving nature, a truck or helicopter can flash past your view fast enough that flicking would gives you a significantly larger time window before they move beyond your effect range. Their high speed also means that leading is a necessity, else your shots will just trail behind them. Finally, their status as vehicles means that instead of the few shots it takes to down an enemy infantryman, it now takes several seconds or more of continuous small arms fire on target to disable an enemy vehicle. Additionally, what you said about leading being intuition is quite apt. (Most) people aren't calculating the target's speed and projectile velocity in real time to figure out how to lead their shots. While precalculated values can help give a general idea, the actual leading is done with past experience. What happens is that when you first see an enemy, you fire off a shot and see how much forward/backwards the projectile (tracers, dust strikes, etc) is when it gets to the enemy. Then you adjust your next shot accordingly and try again. The cycle repeat until you hit the enemy. The next time you get into such a situation, your brain subconsciously knows from the previous encounter how much to lead your shots, and it takes fewer tries until you are able to hit the target again. The more experienced you are, the fewer tries it takes until you can more or less reliably hit the target with the first projectile.

[@kimeiga]

Ok last thing but there are also projectile tracking weapons! Like the syringe gun from tf2

[@ziguen465]

I am just thinking that the way the weapon delays to shoot as sniper tf2 makes it a totally different gameplay mechanic compared to csgo awpers and other games such as PUBG or Fortnite, or even roblox pf.

[@Dosor72]

Agree with everything, except the fact that tracking and leading cannot coexist. A sustained-fire + projectile can be seen in TF2's Flame Thrower, and (non-crossbow) syringe guns.

[@waziendiny]

It doesn't matter if you're using hitscan or projectiles. Both of them uses tracking, flicking and leading. It only depends on the game's specialization like you said in the video. I've played TF2 and Planetside 2 for a very long time whether you use a shotgun, smg, sniper, assault rifle, rocket launcher etc. you are constantly using these fundamentals of aiming as you aim. Tracking is just muscle memory and hand-eye coordination. Flicking requires good instinct and reaction time. Leading is basically timing and prediction.

[@engineer5092]

u got a sub

[@krzysztofd9761]

Nice ssg headshots in csgo mate

[@revolusionotaca]

It's easier to lead than track and flick because in real life we evolved using projectiles that take time to reach their destination, such as spears and arrows.

[@ksweew7476]

firearms are also projectile weapons

[@revolusionotaca]

@@ksweew7476 Yes, but they aren't the projectiles themselves, they shoot bullets at a far greater speed than humans could ever throw spears or rocks

[@kimeiga]

Another thought I have is that tribes ascend is one of the best implementations of different projectile weapons I’ve seen, and in a very high velocity game no less. That doesn’t make me any good at it though

[@AedilVtuberClips]

Then you have us tracking projectile bois on Orisa, but, thats only one character, in one game.

[@KazumiyaEnthusiast]

Now i get it why i just love bows in games. They are the most braindead

[@plsdontbanmeagainyoulibtards]

I think you ignored the fact that tracking and flicking can be two sides of ones technique or preference. You can "track" while sniping or using semi auto guns just like you can flick while using automatic guns. Projectiles are simply an added layer to both tracking and flicking, there is no "leading" without one or the other.

[@badideagenerator2315]

I'm pretty sure following your target with a single shot hitscan is called planting.

[@awedhawd9330]

I wouldnt say tracking is understanding players, id say its more about your smoothness and reactivity (reading fast strafes, not predicting) and if you ask me, that is mechanical skill but idk maybe biased torwards tracking or smth

[@nightcoreperson9972]

I'm so good at leading (I just flick my crosshair across the entire map and hope for the best and usually I hit for some reason)

[@thegungeonologist7362]

I would like to go to Jupiter now please

[@thonk1914]

flicking is the first one my brain jumps to when aiming and i really suck at it

[@svu1191]

The second thumbnail gun is an INTERVENTION from roblox game Phantom Forces.

[@heyjarhead]

Me watching this video: *A blessing from the lord!*

[@hroom8430]

I play a projectile combat mc game and have a few clips on my yt if anyone wants to see what its about. Its hard to see with shit quality but ya know. Since player movement is incredibely high and most projectiles have speeds I do a lot of leading. Leading feels like its turning your brain off because it relies a lot more on automatic processes. You are taking in the opponents move speed, making a general prediction on their path, basing the amount of distance to lead infront of them off projectile speed, basing the amount of distance to lead infront of them off the distance between enemy and player, and finally doing just basic aiming and tracking. It feels like your turning your brain off because you dont have to think. You don't have to take in feelings off hearing footsteps, or do any higher level thinking. Aiming in general is just a feedback loop, you take in information sometimes it is hard due to super small hitboxes or unpredicitable moments but leading implying you already have that info. The opponent is infront of you and you are at your highest attention state.