What is Rocket Jump? #
Based on the Soldier class from Team Fortress 2, players shoot unidirectional, fixed-speed rockets and take advantage of the explosion they create to propel themselves throughout maps.
History of Rocket Jump #
The origins of rocket jumping can be traced all the way back to the release of Doom in 1993. Players could sacrifice health to cross gaps not originally intended to be crossed by firing a rocket at a wall nearby and use the outward horizontal velocity emitted by the explosion of the rocket (sometimes called the “splash” or “splash damage”) to strafe across a gap. Other games, like Rise of the Triad (1994) and Marathon (1995), also had similar mechanics, leading to the rise of Rocket Jumping as a “Pro Strategy” for beating certain levels fast or showing off in deathmatch. This was refined in Quake, where the verticality offered by the Quake Engine allowed for players to be able to launch themselves upwards using the rocket launcher, skipping parts of levels, finding secrets, or gaining height advantages in classic Deathmatch gamemodes. Quake is arguably the true beginning of Rocket Jumping as we know it, as it was the most popular early example of rocket jumping, and the first to truly demonstrate how large the skill ceiling for rocket jumping could be due to it utilizing a full true 3D environment. This is also the beginning of players making maps specifically dedicated to practicing rocket jumping.
As Valve built their (new for the time) Goldsrc engine on top of the Quake Engine’s foundation, this mechanic was brought into Half-Life 1 and its mods. It should be noted that Half-Life’s Tau Cannon functions similarly to a rocket jump, but varies slightly in execution and player damage. Half-Life’s rocket jumping was used in similar vein to Quake’s rocket jumping within the main game, utilized by speedrunners or deathmatch players, but also began to take on a game mode of its own around this time. WIth the release of the mod Team Fortress Classic, and the inclusion of the Soldier as a playable class, rocket jumping began taking a new role outside of deathmatch. Players began creating maps in droves to practice new rocket jumping techniques like pogo, sync-shots, and more. As Valve were developing their sequel the Team Fortress, they took note of the community’s interest in such a mechanic, and so designed TF2’s Soldier to include rocket jumping as a key part of gameplay for the class. From there, we are brought to today’s rocket jumping, and all of the complexities and mechanics it comes with. Momentum Mod intends to improve upon the standard set by the TF2 Soldier’s rocket jump mechanics, seeking to remove issues that have cropped up over TF2’s long lifespan, to create the best possible Rocket Jump experience for players. (TODO; check sources, proofread, describe each games nuances a bit more, maybe add a few videos?)
How Rocket Jump Works #
TODO (TF2 wiki seems like a decent source)