Shanksta

There has to be something done about intentional face stabs! I am not a moron and i do understand that it happens accidentaly sometimes. But here lately there has been people (1 that comes to mind all the time) that every stab is a front stab. This SHIT is getting OLD and FAST! If i can stop glitchin around douchebag spies can stop front stabbin, or play aa new class. Maybe i just needed to vent after a round of constant front stabs.

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jepzilla

75% of face stabs are getting stabbed normally and getting hit by a rocket or something else at the same time. The rest are artifacts of lag compensation (you got stabbed in the back, it just took you a while to realise it). It's funny watching people bitch about 'ANOTHER FACESTAB $%#$!%' in chat and seeing the normal stab icon next to their name.

icky

It's actually just 70%.

Santa

Hmm, i think most of the complaints are when it does show the backstab kill at the top right as opposed to the regular stab.

But I also dont think its something spys do on purpose--its something valve needs to fix. If its lag compensation, me getting hit by something else, or whatever causes it, the bottom line is that its absolutely retarded that im getting backstabbed by someone whose eyes and cig I can see.

And man, maybe I just notice it more now or something, but it seems like it gets worse and worse with each patch somehow. Either that or spys have just gotten better with time, and so the bug comes up the same percentage of the time but you see it more often since they get more kills overall.

Zoopy

You can backstab without doing the backstab animation, as long as the normal swing hits the back. In most cases its probably the spy hitting the side of your arm with a normal swing that makes it look like a face stab.

Although it is very annoying to turn around and have it look like the spy stabbed you in the chest and dieing instantly.

Conscript

Remeber the server looks back a split sec in time to see if it was on the back, you may have turned around but it was already to late. Its the same deal with running behind a wall and still getting killed, on the other guys screen ur still in view. Put a link to a valve page on some other post explaining it alot better.

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luuser

Also something to keep in mind: a few patches back the spy's normal knife damage was buffed. Before, they could (normal) stab you all they wanted and you wouldn't lose more than 50ish health, but now it does at least 30ish or more (I really haven't noticed exactly how much) per stab, which makes it a pretty valid tactic to attempt to simply stab an opposing light class to death.

While I have no confidence in those numbers I provided, I can say this: before, any spy that brought a knife to a wrench fight lost horribly. Now, if I miss with my wrench a couple times its pretty probable that I'm going to end up knifed to death. crank will attempt to knife damage you to death at least a couple times before backing off and using the pistol and if any time that he's in your face, you even look to the side a little you're going to get facestabbed (as in backstabbed from the front). Don't ask me how it happens cause I don't know. General rule of thumb is to pull out your melee weapon (given you have at least 50+ health) and hack crank to death face to face. do NOT look away.

I've seen him walk down a flight of stairs at an opposing pyro, jump over his head, stab downwards (registers as a backstab from the top) and continue on, in flames, and still have time to type a "lol" in team chat before running for my dispenser so if you make the slightest mistake you will get stabbed.

Tybalt

Almost all face stabs are explained by lag compensation and legit hits to your side/back when you look to the side momentarily.

It is exceedingly rare for a true face stab to register as a back stab. Extremely rare.

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icky

How rare? Can you put a number on that?

If it appears that spies are registering back stabs from the front, does it matter whether it is caused by lag or by a bug? It is a flaw in the game either way.

They could fix the lag issue by making it so that you can't register a back stab without being behind the target for a longer time. And by a longer time, I mean 2 seconds. The whole point of a back stab and the reason why it instantly kills targets is that the attacker has time to make the most effective attack. Just being behind someone for an instant doesn't fit that scenario.

Santa

Always have thought side stabs are ridiculous because not only does the name "backstab" become disingenuous, but it encourages un-spy like behavior. If a spy can get an instant kill by hitting 270 degrees around you, it means hes more inclined to just go up and hit ya rather than even pretend to be the enemy in order to ensure a backstab. They really ought to change the name of the class to assassin, cuz hardly anyone even trys to blend in anymore like a spy.

They also most definitely didnt fix the instant cloak that they claimed to fix in the last patch