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Since I’ve been trying to get into the competitive side of TF2 recently, I’ve discovered a key component in the soldier’s skillset which I didn’t release I was missing, and surprisingly it’s rocket jumping. Sure I can rocket jump quite comfortably onto the battlements on 2fort, up the spires on Badlands, up to point C on Gravelpit etc, but I’ve only recently discovered how much more there is to it all and how much I was lacking in the areas I thought I was good at. This appears to be the single greatest obstacle preventing me playing the competitive soldier, so I’ve started taking steps to improve this side of my game, and I thought I’d share here because I’ve found some of the new techniques useful on public servers as well.
First of all this isn’t a soldier thing, as it’s a skill which applies equally to demo’s, but I’m not as good with the demo so I’m coming at this from a soldier’s point of view. Second thing is install rj_rckteer and as infuriating as it is at first, you’ll be amazed at how “easy” it becomes once you get the technique right, if you have the patience to practice to that extent. I tried the map briefly last night as a demo, and got as far as jump 6 before I accidently blew myself up, but I reckon a good demo would be able to complete most of it (though jump 13 would be ridiculously hard). Below are a couple of videos showing how far I still have to go, which Paddy at least will be able to appreciate
[youtube:3g681yx5]kT_V65dT_sQ[/youtube:3g681yx5]
The same guy is well known in TF2 circles because he plays for one of the pro teams, but if that video above doesn’t make you feel completely inadequate, the one below of him doing a speed run on the advanced rj_rckteer map, will for sure
[youtube:3g681yx5]brg-9Fb3cfw[/youtube:3g681yx5]
I remember having a look at this way back when we had our own tf2 server, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t manage even the second jump. Since then I’ve discovered two simple things which help immensely:
First, when wall jumping, you shoot at your feet while your’e still travelling upwards. If you wait until your jump stalls, or after, you won’t get much height.
Second, and by far the greatest discovery from my efforts on the rckteer map, is air strafing. If like me you had not heard of this, watch the video below which explains it perfectly, and if you’re a demo this is worth watching as well. Basically this adds swerve to your jumps, and using it actually increases the speed of a jump which allows you to jump further.
[youtube:3g681yx5]vcNhmrtAlkk[/youtube:3g681yx5]
Anyway I didn’t really intend to make a big post about this, it’s just sort of turned out that way as I’m a little excited by how much this has improved my game. It’s still hard to find an excuse to use on public servers, as you often don’t have a medic who knows what they’re doing, but every now and again you pull off that amazing jump which results in a kill you’ll honestly not forget 🙂
Damn, it’s amazing how quickly you can pick this up. Just the other week I was struggling on jump 2 on the rckteer map, and now I can clear the whole level in 5 minutes 😯 Still struggle on jump 3 and 13 though, but even the last one is only taking me a few tries now. I honestly can’t believe the speed of the improvement.
I’ve sort of reached a plateau in my attempts to complete the basic RJ map, though that may just be because I’ve had a few days off tf2, but still I’ve a long way to go with rocket jumping, and in particular jumps to mid on cp maps for competitive play (though I’m finding it useful on publics as well when a medic follows), so I’ve been on the look out for guidance to help improve. First thing I’ll say though is that to get even half good at this takes a shit load of patience and practice, but it’s not long before you see it paying off in terms of really impressive kills in game 🙂 Anyway thanks to one of the top US pro soldiers, and the Gotfrag website, there are some brilliant videos on youtube giving proper indepth tips on this. I certainly learnt something from all of these, so I’d recommend them.
Basic Rocket Jumping (worth watching even if you think you know the basics)
[youtube:2yddepa8]pRnw1SV06lk[/youtube:2yddepa8]
Advanced Rocket Jumping – part one
[youtube:2yddepa8]nm-BGnaBCgE[/youtube:2yddepa8]
Advanced Rocket Jumping – part two
[youtube:2yddepa8]ZxAXe6jQyvk[/youtube:2yddepa8]
There are some more specific videos covering the various soldier jumps to mid on the popular CP maps out there:
This one shows the quickest jumps to mid on all the main cp maps – no commentary
[youtube:2yddepa8]U0_XldTsyhw[/youtube:2yddepa8]
Commentary of various jumps you can perform on Badlands and Granary made by another US pro soldier.
[youtube:2yddepa8]zN2LQbvcN_Y[/youtube:2yddepa8]
These can all be practiced on your own by creating your own server on map of choice, and in console you can put the following:
sv_cheats 1
to enable cheats
hurtme -1000000
to enable practically unlimited health
To practice jumps to middle, it helps to be able to restart the round so you can judge how good you are (e.g. you should be aiming to exit the door of the house on badlands at 9:39 as soldier, but even 9:36/37 is reasonable. 9:44 is pro demo standard for the same spot)
You can bind a key (in this case J) to restart the round with the console command
bind J “mp_restartgame 1”
When doing this it can help to bind a key to the unlimited health thing as each game restart resets your health to normal. An example would be to bind to the K key
bind k “hurtme -1000000”
So there you are, have fun, get bored practicing/ignore this/whatever 🙂
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