History VideoGame / PhantomForces

''Phantom Forces'' is a FirstPersonShooter created by [=StyLiS Studios=] on the ''VideoGame/{{Roblox}}'' platform. It was first made playable in September 2015 for paid access, and became free-to-play with the first full release on December 8th, 2016.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* OffModel:
** Because of the more simplistic animations used for player models compared to viewmodels, it's possible for someone wielding the Buster Sword to look like they're gripping the {{BFS}} by the middle of the blade from someone else's perspective.
** For similar reasons, holding other two-handed melees may sometimes appear to other players as being held like a rifle.

* ShoutOut:

** The Frying Pan's FlavorText mentions that [[Memes/TeamFortress2 few things are scarier than a Scotsman charging at you with one while screaming at the top of his lungs]].

** Several snipers will gain ammo types that exchange their stopping power for raw speed or vice versa at several thousand kills.

** Dealing over 50 or more damage to an opponent counts as killing them if someone else finishes them off for the purpose of unlocks. However, the experience rewarded will roughly correspond to the proportion of total damage inflicted by the player.
** All cosmetic crates will boost the rates of rarer qualities the longer the player goes without them, resetting if a super-rare or legendary item is acquired.

* FridgeBrilliance: There are revolvers named the Judge, Jury, and Executioner. You can only equip 1 at a time, and even if you pick up another and put it in your primary slot, you can't carry all 3 at a time - [[spoiler: '''''you can't be the judge, jury, and executioner.''''']]

* {{Hitscan}}: Fully subverted; all guns have travel time and are affected by gravity; the speed at which bullets travel can be changed with certain modifications. It's for this reason that at 1500 kills for any weapon, the Ballistics Tracker is unlocked, which tells the player where to aim for a headshot even accounting for gravity (but not travel time) while looking down the sights.

* DifficultButAwesome: The ZIP 22 is a laughably weak pistol on paper, and the game even makes note of its RealLife status as a CreatorKiller for the company that made it. However, it boasts an extraordinarily high headshot multiplier that boosts its 15-12 base damage to 42-34, enabling it to go from seven-to-nine-shot-kills to three-shot-kills, provided the player has good aim - meaning that only those with stellar accuracy can properly use it. Additionally, at 1337 kills, a 50-round drum is unlocked for the gun, eliminating its main downside of having a poor ammo economy.

* DiscardAndDraw: Several snipers will gain ammo types that exchange their stopping power for raw speed or vice versa at several thousand kills.

** Using a flashlight sacrifices much more useful stat modifiers on a weapon (unless you're using a Ballistics Tracker), which would've been a problem in the Cataclysm event where every single map takes place at night or in pitch-black fog. As a result, four new attachments were introduced specifically to address this problem: an absurdly powerful flashlight that replaces the sight (useful for Chainsaw Grip and hip-firing users), a proper night vision scope with variable zoom (though this comes at the cost of the night vision being [[RealityEnsues realistic]] and the crosshairs jerking back when firing), a clone of the Angled Grip shaped like a [[InherentlyFunnyWords potato]] with an added flashlight, and a unique futuristic sight called the Hera CQR that also has a flashlight.

* MemeticMutation: Various.
** The Crane on Crane Site. [[note]]The Crane is unsurprisingly the most iconic structure in Phantom Forces, and early on in the game’s lifespan, it was a very frequent camping spot for snipers due to its cover and height, to the point where veteran players would often “farm” kills off of snipers on the crane due to the bullet penetration and squad spawning mechanic (just one player on the crane would allow the entire team to spawn there). Amped up in Crane Site Revamped until it was removed, where there were 2 cranes, one for each team, meaning that entire teams could have a massive sniper battle across the cranes. It’s popularity soon became a meme as the developers added a melee weapon composed of a miniature crane (the actual crane, not the bird) as a reward for an elaborate Easter Egg involving [[ItMakesSenseinContext the crane rotating itself quicker and quicker until it flies into the air like a helicopter and explodes while Ride of the Valkyries plays.]][[/note]]
** The BFG-50 and the Ballistics Tracker. [[note]]The BFG-50 is a breach action Sniper Rifle, which sounds weak at first until you realise it’s the first .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle in the game: it is a one shot kill from the waist up at all ranges unless it hits the limbs. Naturally, the existance of it was very debated in the early stages of the game (before other .50 Caliber Snipers were added), with many calling it overpowered and a “weapon for noobs” as no none .50 Caliber snipers in the game can one hit kill at all ranges without aiming for the head. Meanwhile, the Ballistics Tracker is an Other attachment that tracks the distance of all targets on screen and displays the point you would need to shoot for a headshot, which for every sniper, is an instakill at all ranges. Like the BFG, it was very quickly labelled as a no skill attachment, and it didn’t help that while more people used it as an auto spotter than its intended purpose (since at the time it highlighted EVERY enemy in the FOV even when just tapping the aim button), new players would also commonly purchase the BFG-50 and the Ballistics Tracker, sometimes putting both together, instead of unlocking it via ranks and kills respectively like it was intended. Eventually, after a series of nerfs, both items are considered resonably balanced now (though only because there are more overpowered items), and the BFG-50 and Ballistics Tracker are now commonly associated with noobs as a joke.[[/note]]
** Remove Metro. [[note]]Metro was commonly noted as a bland map early on, and especially since the entire map is underground, it frequently lagged low end computers. It was frequently described as a “clusterfuck” by most players, owing to its extremely tight flanks around the map. Ironically, the map is almost perfectly symmetrical in contrast to Operation Metro from Battlefield 3 (which many players have accustomed PF Metro to being inspired by, as with Ravod 911 and Zavod 311), which by virtue of its layout and placement of spawns/objectives, is a very one sided map from the very beginning. Fans of both maps have regardless requested the removal of both. It didn’t help that for some players, the map showed up as very dark at times, and was only amplified by players shooting the lights on the map, plunging it into darkness more. Due to the very frequent requests to remove Metro, it became one of the game’s earliest memes, as well as the shortest: As the game’s lifespan went on though, players began to accept Metro as a relatively balanced map due to its almost perfect symmetry on both sides, and the fact that while it was a clusterfuck, it was generally agreed to be a balanced clusterfuck at least.[[/note]]
*** Remove Warehouse/Surburbia. [[note]]When Warehouse was introduced, many players noted similarities to the old Metro: blind corner gameplay, frequent lags, the entire map being indoors etc. Naturally it was, along with Surburbia, instantly labelled as another grindfest.[[/note]]
** Cursed weapons. [[note]]Due to the game’s extremely diverse customisation for its weapons, many players have created very, very weird combinations of attachments, ranging from a Hecate II with its stock removed and barrel sawed off to its magazine, an AUG A1 with its stock scope attached on top of its stock scope, an AK with an AR-15 style carry handle as iron sights, a Mosin Nagant with an iPhone attached to the side, a Chainsaw’s grip under the barrel, a Halbek Device on the muzzle, and a cardboard cutout of an anime girl attached to a BUIS as an optic. Some have even photoshopped attachments together to add to the ridiculousness, such as a Desert Eagle but with its grip extended to accommodate an M107 magazine inserted into the grip, with a sniper scope on the top and the M107’s Muzzle Brake. Sound confusing? That’s because it is.[[/note]]

* SeriesMascot: A CatGirl named Anti, introduced in the unnamed sight customization update. She appears as the basis of three JokeItem sights, but later physically debuts as a zombie in the Cataclysm event.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The "👌👍" sight is based on a RealLife joke sight which is FlippingTheBird instead of giving a thumbs-up.

** Some ammo types that radically change the way a gun operates or feels will cause said guns to be reported in the killfeed under different names, making it more obvious if an enemy is using an ammo type to gain the upper hand.
** Using a flashlight sacrifices much more useful stat modifiers on a weapon (unless you're using a Ballistics Tracker), which would've been a problem in the Cataclysm event where every single map takes place at night or in pitch-black fog. As a result, the Potato Grip was introduced to alleviate this problem, which is mostly identical to the Angled Grip but also comes with a flashlight.