This knowledge was gathered by drawing some additional vectors in the game while running around in god mode.
Enemies need a fixed amount of time to take aim on a moving target once they get a LOS (line of sight) to it. Walking and running are both considered as moving and the time is the same for all kits but faster kits will travel over greater distance in the same time.
Once they do get their aimbot lock on you, it's impossible to escape it even if you are a freaking drell with adrenaline III mod. Letting go of the movement keys or bumping into cover or enemy makes you a sitting duck and will result in an instant inescapable lock, you can run all you want after that but your ass is going down if your are not behind cover by that time!
In order to escape the lock of death you need to break LOS for at least 3 seconds by hiding behind something. It's better to use soft cover or dismount before you get into enemy LOS because leaving hard cover animations will make your kit stand still for a very short moment which is not good, exception being front storm out of cover move.
When an enemy AI unit loses LOS to you it will snap to the nearest path node where it could see you for the last time and will move to that location until it sees you again but if other enemies see you first it will update it's goal position too. All enemies will also update their target location each 10 sec even if they don't see you.
When flanking enemies it takes them few second to notice you, that's why you can see them shooting at random walls sometimes, they think you are still behind it.
How does frame rate affect all this, what's different?
It's simple, the frame rate controls how long you have before the lock of death condition occurs when running in the open. Here are approximate values:
30 FPS: 5-6 seconds
60FPS: 3 seconds
120FPS: 1.5 seconds
Playing at very low frame rates (<20 FPS) has an aditional effect and let's you escape the lock of death simply by starting to move again making it possibe to run in circles forever.
5-6 seconds sounds like much but in practise the enemies will spot your before you get out of cover most of the time through small holes which also count as LOS and start the countdown to the lock of death and you can't shoot while running around.
There are also some other parameters which control the cone spread of enemy fire such as TimeSinceLastSeen, TimeInTheOpen, IsTargetMoving etc. The effects of those are multiplied with a random factor and are usually not that noticeable even at their max possible value but sometimes they do help to avoid a few bullets even when enemies are locked on you.
How to take advantage of this in the game?
Wait 3-4 seconds behind something before crosssing an open area instead of popping your head out to shoot something first and than running. That way you buy your self some free time before you start catching bullets. Nothing can hit you during this magical time frame as long as you keep moving but keep in mind that you need to get into safe area before the timer hits zero. Each enemy unit has a separte timer.
When running, try to run perpendiculair to enemy LOS because running away from a hitscan bullet in a straght line is a bad idea. Catching a seeking rocket will slow you down letting other small enemies to easily lock on you, so try to avoid that if possible.
If you need to shoot something while running, don't stop! Instead start walking sideways in the same direction, make sure to press move sideway key before releasing the move forward key or you'll be toast. In fact you should always hold at least one movement key at all times to prevent enemies coming from around a corner or flanking you from getting an instant aim lock on you.
Edited by Caratinoid, 09 September 2013 - 04:53 PM.
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