TLDR: Find specialists you like playing and have fun. Play the objective.
ALso there's s diff between being new vs actually terrible
You can also go into portal with AI bots (moderate exp ones) or solo / coop. Ideally you could make your own portal but hosting is tough ATM. They do have good players in portal but you run into them a lot less than in regular games.
It's part skill / ppl been playing for years. Then there's the weapon meta. Game mechanics is closer to COD MW III (the bad reboot one) than BF 1 or 3. So it's run and gun and finding hip fire that can kill in fewest hits possible.
Sometimes its a team and they are good at their role / playing as a team.
Finally there are those that cheat.
Most games I go into, the win depends on how many top players (tend to get 30+ kills, assists with zero to maybe 3-4 deaths the whole match) are on my side. Sometimes if the other side has them, its ouch. .. .
Details:
Just play the objective, find a class you like and have fun with (I like playing Lis and TV missiling and using a DMR) or support and smoke nading and ammo boxing and using their specials like the temp walls and grenade interceptor or the healing revolver. or the sniper sniper guy with the DJ Mavic and playing the mini game of spotting the whole team before losing the DJ Mavic.
Also diff between new / terrible. Terrible players know what they are doing, and do stuff like die as you smoke around them while running up to them as support or pop out turrets to get potshots at guys while the armor takes the cap and that extra engineer would have gotten shots in. Or in friendly fire, that guy who equips with the draugr to napalm his team or team kill b/c its faster than bot farming for weapons XP or risking by going after the opfor team.. Or the gal that keeps selecting the A-10 and helos and lose them in first few seconds and our team pilots ask to let them fly as opfor have great drivers.
The only time I get kills of these good players is if a I do a mad flank and catch them with their sides or backs at me, but I only can kill one before others notice and I get deleted or sometimes someone knows I'm flanking process and killed.
I also like flying / driving but learning that so I do it solo or in portal games. Yes i've gotten the brawler stuck in the two wall area near orbital's b and I said sorry out loud and some guy goes, "Women drivers." I was mad but everyone was laughing so I lol and we jumped out before the enemy helo came in for a pass.
Best bet is to host your own portal (hard since so many AFK grind XP games) or join the bot ones with XP (moderate). Regular MP the veteran players, sweats, and cheater dudes make it more a headache.
The bot ones though will have few players as you describe but in the 128, you can have some normalcy as you'll tend to run more into AI that players.
YOu can disrespect COD, even COD die hards and fans hate it. Look at Black Ops 7 trailer ratio-ing . . . my games crew went all in B06 given it a chance after their beta (their beta had cheaters by the afternoon opening beta day, and not usual aimbot or walll hax but rage ons like tomahawk one hit on hands and feet from across the map to perpetual killstreak calls etc or die as soon as you spawn for several mins before they let you leave and then lol in chat as their constant helo door gunner X2 head shots as we exit) by season 1 we left that and warzone and went back to private COD MW golden era servers (like H2m remaster of original COD MW 2).
I do appreciate some stuff in 2042 / here, like how the F-35 is actually the USMC one and does its VTOL conversion. Or how after a few weeks, I can land a heli and take off (still working on shooting), or how Lis screams "We hit something!!!!" , or that grapple hook dude like bionic commando or taking the pond up to the arch in the desert map to get that 12 X scope or the rocket launch at the space port. I remember trying to chase it in the Felon.
Its everything. I've been playing BF 1, and pacing def is slower, and less chance. BF 2042 has COD MW III (the new junk ones) movement in it. So in COD, its about quick, quirky run and gun. Position doesn't matter its about speed and aiming without ADS or using guns that ADS so quick AND allow full movement its like hipfire, and a rapid fire rate, and hits so 2-3 shots anywhere on the body is a kill. in COD they have tons of guns that allow this. Plus the soft auto game (if you go game controller) kicks in and you.
I notice there is a "gun meta" meaning certain guns are op. Like I never win vs the prototype gun owners (give that weapon can tag you thru walls but thats a different story b/c how'd they know I'm there), like there is a sniper rifle that kills in one body shot (and you can get with red dots or low mag scopes to quick scope) or like BF 6 beta, some guns can be configured so hip fire is ADS accurate.
I notice in some matches its usually 2 or 3 or 4 team and they basically wipe the objective. It's like they are john wick and wiping the floor with the extras n hired guns or Greek demi god heroes wielding weapons forged in mt Olympus imbued with all powers and elements of nature into part time non Spartan hoplites with trash shields and spears.
It could be skill or just knowing what to use. Like I've seen a tank that is responsible for caps, and then they run into opfor armor, and 4 engineer jump out, the TV missile lady, the turret guy, the gatling gun station dude, and TV missile lady in BF V and saturate the op for vehicles with rockets and missiles in one hit, be it sky or ground with the tank driver adding his hit, and then they all jump back in and drive off.
Even in bot lobbies, its kinda hilarious, because they enter in 2 players vs 12 bots at once and come out on top.
Then there is cheaters. Given how DICE quickly addressed the Battle Pass by double XP etc, and how many cheaters they banned in Beta, but 2042 I'm thinking they are just watching and gauging. Cheating is hard to tell but some cases I've seen (like where I get shot by the prototype gun dudes in one hit, and of course tis behind wall and they are the next room . . . ), or I'm waiting for a revive and there's a guy that engages 7 ppl at once and his hp meter drops to low but never dies and he manages to finish everyone off. Or my favorite, the little bird that flies in one strafing pass and half the friendlies including me are dropped on the spot.
