Hot take - Rocket jumping shouldn't exist.

[Kenny G official gaming]

Yes, I know, that's basically blasphemy, hear me out.

-Rocket jumping is and was always a bug. A mechanic that was not intended to be in the original game design, and thus the game was conceived without the mechanic of rocket jumping taken to mind.
-Soldier is a very high damage dealing class, basically as much as heavy. Soldier has a smaller health pool compared to heavy but has slightly better mobility. His mobility is reduced because he deals much more damage than other classes.
-Rocket jumping annuls the handicap that was placed on Soldier in order to make him balanced.
-Now, because of rocket jumping, Soldier has better mobility than every single class except Scout, with some scenarios even being better than Scout.
-The result is a high damage, high mobility, high health class (i.e. unbalanced)

As for other classes? Heavy is stuck in the dust, he was never given a huge mobility boost like Soldier was. Medic, despite having the highest move speed along with Spy, still can't catch up with a rocket jumping soldier. This combination of high damage, high mobility, high health is a big reason why soldier is picked by so many players. This leaves other classes which were designed as offensive classes (Pyro, Scout, Heavy) to be considered "worse" and "less efficient" versions of Soldier, considered by many to just be bad classes.

Now the common objection: "But Kenny G, rocket jumping costs health, so the advantage evens out!" This is a stupid argument for the following reasons:

-When rocket jumping, one of two scenarios happens:
-First, Soldier rocket jumps, thus costing health. However, the player, being a competent soldier and knowing his map, knows exactly where to land in order to be near a health pack when he lands. The player will take a health pack to regenerate his health. This takes away a health pack that could have been used by another player that lost his health by trying to complete the objective (fighting the enemy team). The health pack is instead wasted on self-inflicted damage that could have been avoided willingly, instead of used to heal someone who was legitimately damaged by the enemy.
(the same scenario can happen with a medic, the soldier is wasting the Medic's time by forcing him to heal avoidable self-inflicted damage, thus preventing him from healing other teammates)
-Second, Soldier rocket jumps, thus costing health. However this time he does not have access to a health pack or medic. The soldier is thus handicapped, and will most likely die before being able to contribute to the objective, or in the best case will contribute less than he could have had he been full health.

In both scenarios Rocket jumping withers hinders the team by taking potential health away from legitimate damage and using it for unnecessary damage, or dies before being useful.

Yes, the rocket jumping meta is heavily developed nowadays, and items have been made to encourage rocket jumping, and I don't expect that to ever change. I do believe however that it was a mechanic that should not have been left in, which gives an advantage Soldier has that he should never have had in the first place.

Ok you can roast me now.

[lorinsyn]

first of all, skibidi toilet or the amazing digital circus
second of all, op or po?

[Eighteen-Counts Trevor]

If rocket jumping gets removed a suitable replacement should be added.

[Mina]

A good scout counters a Soldier, or defense.

[Grace!]

counterpoint that kind of tarnishes your argument: it's not a bug, it's fully intentional

you can very clearly see in a 2006 trailer for tf2 that rocket jumping was an intended feature for the game. they place emphasis on it, they show it from multiple angles, hell that entire SECTION of the trailer is just him (the soldier) rocket jumping. why would they showcase a bug like it's a pivotal game mechanic, isn't that NOT what you'd want for a gameplay trailer? now sure, the ORIGIN of rocket jumping is rooted in a bug, but you can NOT say the same in regards to tf2 it was 100% intentional

[Spartykins]

what about other forms of explosive jumping?

[Kitt 🌟 Stargazer]

Nah, they're not changing or going away ever.

[Stormy]

"Rocket jumping is stupidly overpowered" and "Rocket jumping does nothing but hurt the team" are mutually incompatible statements blud

[LQIM]

Originally posted by Kenny G official gaming:

Yes, I know, that's basically blasphemy, hear me out.

Rocket jumping is and was always a bug. A mechanic that was not intended to be in the original game design, and thus the game was conceived without the mechanic of rocket jumping taken to mind.

I am extremely curious as to how you came to this conclusion. Please elaborate

[Bob]

Give soldier a jetpack so he wouldn't hurt himself.

[azzy]

He maybe possibly perhaps have a point if without gunbots soldier wouldn't make more then 4 jumps without dying

[vid23]

Originally posted by Kenny G official gaming:

Yes, I know, that's basically blasphemy, hear me out.

-Rocket jumping is and was always a bug. A mechanic that was not intended to be in the original game design, and thus the game was conceived without the mechanic of rocket jumping taken to mind.

Rocket jumping is absolutely intended and always used to be in this game. as you can see it from the meet the soldier video, which came out roughly at the same time as the game.

Rocket jumping existed since Quake came out in 96, it was a bug at first, but instead of removing it they just made it into a feature, and by quake 3 (99) even bots used rocket jumps

[solar controller]

How was rocket jumping a bug? Even in doom 93, wasn’t there a secret exit only accessible by blast jumping?

Maybe unintentional in quake but it was kept nonetheless and was officially apart of tf2.

[Vror]

Ok but like gunboats make soldier a healthy class to fight

[Cozy-Pixel]

For one TF2 was designed with rocket jumping in mind as it was only a bug in the doom multiplayer and maybe quake fortress but by the time Team Fortress was made in Gold Source and Source it was intentionally designed with rocket jumping as a feature.

This is seen by the fact soldier has built in self damage reduction to insensitive rocket jumping, alongside there being parts of maps that allow for soldiers to get around quicker like the drop down in 2Fort.

Also when you mention the point about offence classes, only Scout, Soldier and Pyro were initially designated as offence classes hence why their base kits and unlocks allow for much more mobility than the other classes, meanwhile despite Heavy's offensive ability he was destined as a defence class that helped retain ground and push advantages. Heavy was never given high mobility for a very good reason as Heavy's damage out put is monstrously high at his effective range and if he had too high mobility he would be able to wipe out most teams fairly uncontested.

Regardless rocket jumping doesn't make soldier unbalanced as there are a lot of things keeping him in check like sentries and alert players.

[ilt]

It was intended tho