Does Dice even have it in them?

I am not saying that BF2042's netcode is absolutely perfect (I certainly noticed a few problems here and there), but my experience is nowhere near yours. As the game servers (for any multiplayer game, not just Battlefield) can compensate for various network conditions and troubles only to some extent and as your experience seems to be constantly bad, I would rather "blame" your connection or something "on the way" for the troubles you describe. Either issues with the traffic shaping, unstable latency, or something similar. Especially as everybody else, as you wrote, seems to have no such problems on the server.

For example, for the situation you describe, there can happen that your target will get hit by a first few bullets from your gun but then the rest of your bullets get delayed (will arrive from your client to the server late and also you will get the information from the server late), your target had time to turn around and send bullets your way meanwhile and when you finally get this information, it will look like he magically knew in an instant where you are (of course, I am not saying that's what exactly happened, but it's one of the possible explanations). The server can try to compensate situations like these, but as I said, only to some extent.

From what I heard, DICE did some improvements for BF6's netcode also since the beta, but if it will help to mitigate your network conditions is something you will need to test on your own, I am afraid.

I have all my networking stuff visible while playing, I never see anything fluctuate or get any sort of warning icon. So what else would I be testing exactly? You and I can speculate, but only a professional would be able to clue us in with what's actually happening. Plus, systems vary from game to game, they all handle things a bit differently, or have different things they focus on. As a player though, even though I can't pinpoint the issue, I can absolutely tell something feels way off. 

There's tons of threads on this issue in here, Reddit, and Steam, so I'm definitely not alone nor an outlier with my experience. Some people probably don't have any issues at all, while some probably couldn't tell one way or another. I primarily play shooters, and I have several thousands of hours in 2042 alone, so I'm probably a bit more dialed in than most. I know the maps well enough to understand what angles are very hard to fight against, and what's possible in the game.  

When my first few bullets are not registering, I'm getting hit markers, so what I'm seeing in game has to be somewhat accurate. The server is ignoring it, because having lower ping most times, it's putting me behind others on the server. That's what it feels like at least. 

Hard to say exactly without details. But I am just curious, if you have any screenshot - how your network graph/stats in the game look like (ALAT, LAT, TN, PL IN/OUT, etc.) during the problems?

Posting a gameplay video with the network graphs on-screen is the best way to see what's going on.

@mention me and I'll take a look at the video and try to understand what's happening.

Keep in mind that lag compensation actually time travels high ping players into the future. I know it sounds crazy but it's true.

There's a game clock running on the game server and there's also a game clock running on each individual gaming PC connected to the game server.

On a 64 player server this means there's a total of 65 game clocks. A game clock running on each individual gaming PC, plus the game clock running on the game server.

The game server controls the game clocks on each gaming PC and adjusts the time depending on their ping.

Picture game clocks as stopwatches. Game clocks start at zero milliseconds at the beginning of the round, and count up as the round progresses. Just like stopwatches that time athletes running laps around a track.

The game server compares the stopwatch times (game clock) of all 64 gaming PCs through network packets. The game server then sends network packets back to each gaming PC telling them to adjust their stopwatch time forward or backward depending on their ping time.

If a gaming PC has a high ping time then the game server tells it to adjust it's stopwatch time further forward into the future. The game server does this to compensate for the network delay it takes packets to reach the game server.

If the game server didn't adjust the stopwatch of high ping players into the future. Their network packets would reach the game server with a stopwatch time in the past due to ping time network delay.

A 100ms ping player will have their stopwatch adjusted 50ms into the future to compensate for network lag. 100ms ping is round trip time. 50ms is one way trip time from the gaming PC to the game server.

The end result is the game clock of high ping players are running further into the future which gives them more time to react than low ping players. It allows high ping players to pop out of doorways, come around corners, and start shooting low ping players before they can even see it happening on their screen.

That's lag compensation in a nutshell. It's the adjustment of game clocks to compensate for network delay (ping time).

That sounds like exactly what's happening. I always feel like soon as I see someone, I'm already taking damage. I seriously have to be a wizard at positioning to win fights, and pre-fire. If I rely solely on what I see, not going to win a single 1v1.

Dice is aware of this. I'm sure to some extent this is intended, like you're saying, to comp high ping players. My issue with this is not the existence of lag comp or prediction, it's how they're generously tuned towards higher ping players. After a certain point, let's say 60-70ms, those players should start receiving less and less compensation. I know they can tune it that way, and I'm pretty sure other games do already. It's a design choice. I just think this modern, lets make it "fair" for everyone mentality blows. Apex does it, and it's garbage in that game as well. 

RaginSam​ I agree. I think the old server-side movement and hit detection of Battlefield 1942-Bad Company 2 was more skill based.

It rewarded low ping players and punished high ping players.

Yeah we had to lead the target to land shots and movement inputs were delayed. More so for high ping players, but it felt more fair and skill based to me. Everything felt more in sync.

During Battlefield 3. I suggested server-side movement with client-side hit detection. I felt this would keep player movement in sync while eliminating the need for leading targets.

It never caught on because it would make movement feel laggy for high ping players.

So now we have high ping players who can move instantly which allows them to pop out of doors and shoot before even being seen.

I have this alot too, my ping is always <30.

Yep I can confirm 2042 is pretty broken.

If there's one thing I've noticed is that stacking big damage is what gets you wins in Battlefield 2042. Either by getting a high-RPM bullet hose like the AC-9, KFS2000, or by getting high-damage per shot weapons and focusing on headshots. You need to reduce that TTK as much as possible, so the game doesn't give the enemy the chance to turn around.

From what I've observed, I sometimes start shooting and the damage isn't verified until at least half a second later. I've had situations where I started shooting, stopped shooting and nothing happened. A short moment later, I suddenly see the enemy health go down out of nowhere and I'm granted the kill.

Aside from this delay, there's also this lag compensation system in the game, where it invalidates your shots as soon as you die. It's most noticeable when you shoot an RPG at a person that's shooting you. The person kills you first and the RPG just disappears. There is a reason for this. Just after the release of Battlefield 2042, there was this issue where you'd constantly get into situations where two people starting shooting each other and they both died. 

So if I'd have to make a guess, you just have to imagine what happens when you combine the two issues. You've got yourself a pretty toxic situation where the server frequently messes up the synchronization. Leading to the situation where you started shooting first, but the damage isn't applied immediately. Yet if the enemy kills you in the mean time, it'll incorrectly invalidate your bullets.

I pre-ordered BF6 because I was happy with what I saw in the beta. Bought 2042 only because it was on massive sale. It was fine at first but over time I started facing what you've described. 

I just uninstalled BF2042 today as it's no longer enjoyable when there's so little time to react to enemy players. Twice in the same game the same player has done a knife takedown on me whilst I was looking at them or they were clearly facing me, and there's apparently there's nothing that I can do but to wait for the animation to complete or hope that someone takes them down in the process.

From what I've been reading about lag compensation/netcode, I'm understand that they must have somehow managed to run behind me on their screen, while on mine they're still shown as in front. My ping on the network display is shown as between 11ms to 40ms for most games.

Maybe I'm wrong. But anyway, please stop trying to make things work for high ping players.

I've been knifed several times from the front as well. Super annoying. 

Games need lag comp, prediction, and all that, but my grievance is that they're trying to cater to everyone. Which just leads to mushy game play. They need to target a certain ping, and the closer you are to that, then the better the game should feel. Something like 40-60ms of ping. This way you can pick a server that gets you closer to that optimal ping. 

If someone plays on a wired connection, pays for good internet service, why should someone who doesn't really care about that stuff have the same experience? The answer is because even people with horrible connections are potential consumers for micro transactions. This is the fundamental issue with triple A games. They spend a ton to make games, marketing, and then they get desperate to "earn" it back. 

I pre-ordered as well, there's a lot I like about what they're saying. So here's hoping they can actually deliver.