Rocket jumping

In first-person shooter games, rocket jumping is the technique of using the explosion of a rocket launcher combined with a jump.[1] The aim of this technique is to reach new heights and distances. Although the origin of rocket jumping is unclear,[2] its use dates back at least to play in Quake. The biggest downside of rocket jumping is that it usually injures the player, either from the blast damage or fall damage.[3] This effect makes the technique less useful in games where the damage from the blast, fall, or both is high. The technique is used especially in advanced/competitive play where it is used in order to gain quick bursts of speed, reach normally unobtainable heights, secure positional advantages, or in speedrunning.[4] Rocket jumping is impractical in real life, and would be almost certainly fatal if attempted.

In the Quake series

While using explosives to propel oneself was first seen in Doom, the modern technique became a core mechanic in Quake, taking the technique to literal new heights. By exploiting the various quirks of the Quake engine, many advanced movement techniques were spawned: such as circle jumping, strafing, bunny hopping, and of course explosive jumping. The community quickly became accustomed to using these various methods of gaining speed, and so was born the first speedrunning community. Rocket jumping was kept as an intentional mechanic for the leading games in the Quake series. In Quake III: Arena some of the computer-controlled opponents use rocket jumps.[5]

Forms

Rocket jumping has appeared in several games in a variety of forms, sometimes as a form of emergent gameplay.

Horizontal

A horizontal form of rocket jumping appears in Doom (1993), where it is used to reach the secret exit in E3M6 (it is possible to reach the exit without rocket jumping, but this technique was the intended method according to John Romero).[6]

Vertical

The first games to feature vertical rocket jumping were Bungie's Marathon and 3D Realms' Rise of the Triad (coincidentally, the two games launched on the same day, although the full version of Rise of the Triad came later). It was featured as well the same year on The Outfoxies, an arcade 2D plataform versus game released by NAMCO. The character Betty Doe can be seen performing one in the attract mode, so it might be the first time it was depicted as such. Rocket jumping became very popular in the original Quake (1996), and was used as an advanced technique for deathmatch play[7] as well as for the Quake done Quick series. In Half-Life's (1998) multiplayer mode, the tau cannon can be used to launch the player into the air.[8] In the Halo game franchise, players often use guns such as the Concussion rifle or Frag grenades to launch the player faster or higher for speedrunning purposes, or to reach normally unreachable areas or easter eggs.[9][10] Rocket jumping also appears in Unreal (1998) and Unreal Tournament, where the player can fire Eightball rockets beneath their feet and gain altitude. In that game it is also possible to perform a similar move, the "hammer jump" with the Impact Hammer.

In the game Team Fortress 2 (2007), players can use the explosive knockback of a Soldier's rockets to rocket jump. Rocket jumping in Team Fortress 2 is a crucial skill required for players playing the Soldier class in high level play, especially to quickly move back to the next map objective after respawning.[11] The Pyro class is able to perform a rocket jump of the same magnitude (at the cost of a higher quantity of health lost, due to the fact that reflected rockets deal 'mini-crit' damage) by reflecting the rockets of an enemy Soldier towards their own feet with the use of a compression blast, and may also use either the Scorch Short or the Detonator, two of their unlockable explosive flare gun secondaries, to create a smaller explosive jump. The Engineer class is also able to use his Sentry Gun's rockets, if said Sentry Gun is upgraded to the third level, to reach higher places if he equips the Wrangler, a secondary weapon that enables the Engineer 'wrangling' his sentry to obtain total control over its aiming and firing. A Medic may, using the Quick Fix, a secondary weapon, mirror his heal target's rocket jump. A Demoman may use a method similar to rocket jumping to traverse long distances using his Stickybomb Launcher, known as Sticky Jumping, and can also perform a similar action with his primary Grenade Launcher by timing either the grenade's detonation with the jump, or charging the unlockable Loose Cannon's shot to reduce the detonation time limit. In certain maps that contain explosive objects (such as the Halloween event maps' pumpkin bombs, or 2Fort Invasion's crashed UFOs), any player can perform an explosive jump to a similar (if not greater) magnitude, at the cost of a large quantity of health (killing ligher classes if care is not taken) by placing themselves near to the explosive and shooting it in the similar vein as rocket jumping. The Soldier and Demoman also have unlockable weapons to practice rocket and sticky jumping that do no damage to the player, named the Rocket Jumper and Sticky Jumper respectively.

Also, in Overwatch (2016), while playing as the hero Pharah, you can fire rockets beneath your feet to jump to high places without using fuel to fly around. Soldier 76 can use his helix rocket ability to shoot helix rockets at his feet which allows him to rocket jump as well. Zarya may also use her Particle Cannon's secondary fire to create a very minute explosive jump, while Junkrat is able to use his Concussion Mines in a fashion similar to rocket jumps to propel himself at great velocity upwards and forwards, and Bastion is also able to rocket jump using his missiles when he is in his 'Configuration:Tank' ability.

Other variations

  • Grenade jumping is the same action, except throwing a grenade underneath the player while jumping to achieve the same effect.
  • When rocket-launched weapons were added to the battle royale game Fortnite: Battle Royale, players discovered that it is possible to ride launched missiles to reach other places that are time-consuming, difficult or impossible to access on foot, provided that the rider safely disembarks at a nearby platform before the missile explodes.[12] This technique, called rocket riding,[13] does not follow the typical definition of rocket jumping (in that it does not leverage the force of a rocket explosion), but can be seen to be related to it in that it inherits its risks.

Other adaptations

Rocket jumping has appeared in other media as well.

  • In the live-action film Transformers, the character Ironhide performs a rocket jump over a screaming woman after transforming from his truck mode.[14]
  • In the film Planet Terror, lead character Cherry Darling uses her false leg, a machine gun with underslung grenade launcher, to rocket jump over a tall wall.
  • In the film Tokyo Gore Police, lead character Ruka uses a bazooka to rocket jump to a building's rooftop.
  • In the online MOBA League of Legends, the character Tristana uses an ability of the same name.
  • In Freddie Wong's and Brandon Laatsch's video "The Rocket Jump", the rocket jump is featured as the main part of the YouTube short. This later influenced their channel and studio into being renamed "RocketJump".[15]
  • In the episode "The Librarians and the Point of Salvation" of the first season of the 2014 TV series The Librarians, rocket jumping is specifically referred to but done using grenades.

References

  1. ↑ Victor Godinez (August 2, 2007). "With sponsors and big prizes, gaming is serious business". Dallas Morning News.
  2. ↑ "From whence came that rocket?". Quake Speed Demos Archive. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  3. ↑ Josh Blodwell (9 October 2007). "The complete guide to Team Fortress 2". Custom PC. Archived from the original on 2007-11-28. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  4. ↑ Turner, B. (2005). "Smashing the Clock". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2007-12-03.
  5. ↑ "The Quake III Arena Guide - Bots". PlanetQuake. GameSpy. Archived from the original on 2007-12-02. Retrieved 2007-12-02.
  6. ↑ Lee Killough. "Doom Level History". Archived from the original on December 17, 2013. Retrieved 2014-03-27.
  7. ↑ Dennis Fong. "Thresh's Quake Bible".
  8. ↑ "Half-Life SDK v2.3". 2002. gauss.cpp line 350: "In deathmatch, gauss can pop you up into the air. Not in single play."
  9. ↑ "Tyrant's Halo 4 Mythic Walkthrough (LASO) - Composer". Retrieved 10 May 2014.
  10. ↑ "Halo 3 "Floodgate" Speedrun (Legendary Zero Shot)". Retrieved 10 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "Competitive dynamics - Official TF2 Wiki | Official Team Fortress Wiki". wiki.teamfortress.com. Retrieved 2016-01-27.
  12. ↑ Hall, Charlie (9 April 2018). "Fortnite's enhanced 'rocket riding' could be a game changer". Polygon. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  13. ↑ "Guided Missile - Teaser Trailer". YouTube. Fortnite. 28 March 2018. Retrieved 1 September 2018. Description: "Everything you need for your rocket riding taxi service."
  14. ↑ Cameron Solnordal (October 13, 2007). "Guest gamer". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 15.
  15. ↑ "rocketjump.com".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.