Dont understand

[Harry]

Dont get me wrong i'm not the greatest FPS player but i'm not bad i've never played quake before but i cant kill anyone i put a whole clip into someone and they still dont die what am i doing wrong?

[Blindlight]

your post makes me really happy, not at your feelings of misfortune but because I also remember the feeling of everyone else seeming untouchable and how it was the beginning of a long progression in the game with many milestones and 'a-ha' moments which I'm nowhere near the end of and never will be. The answer to your question is no, there is no 'one thing' you are doing wrong, besides having to crawl before you can walk before you can fly.

[Simon // //]

this game is full of hackers and cheats.

[mapamapa]

Every weapon does different amounts of damage but I'm guessing you are talking about the machine gun, heavy machine gun or lightning gun.

I think you are just not hitting enough. In most FPS you die pretty quickly and have things such as headshots meaning you don't have to hit an enemy nearly as many times as in QL to kill them.

Before I played quake my aim in other games was very LAZY. I didn't care about hitting every shot, I just aimed in the general direction of an enemy and hoped I would hit them.
In Quake you have to aim dead on, especially with the lightning gun since it doesn't have any spread. Your crosshair should never leave the enemy while you are firing, that's called tracking aim. If your accuracy is only 20% with the lightning gun you won't be dealing enough damage to kill anyone that's trying to kill you with a Rocket Launcher.

Another factor might be that your enemy has picked up more armor than you. That means they can have double(or more) the amount of hitpoints as you have even though you haven't lost any health.

And the normal machine gun is weak as ♥♥♥♥ unless you hit with very high accuracy.

[DeeDoubleU]

And don't forget the armor! It takes about 60% of damage you receiving.
Make a habit of picking up health bubbles and armor whenever you pass them by.

[Bardiche]

xDDD

[Draco_2k]

Quake, just like DOTA, Counter-Strike or Modern Warfare, is VERY hard to get into.

Unless you're already good at arena shooters, expect to die messily, and often. Even if you ARE good at arena shooters, don't expect anything higher than 3rd place in any given match. I've beaten Xaero to a bloody pulp back in the old days, and QL players still kick my ass.

[Majki]

Aim better. Remember that there are things like armors and megaheatlh or Battlesuit power up. You have hit bubbles enabled - you see how much dmg you inflicted.

125 health has freshly spawned player.
200 health and 100 armor has player in Clan Arena mode.