MÆST's Concusion Jumping Guide

MÆST’s Concusion Jumping Guide


I don’t claim to know everything there is to know about concussion jumping (CJing). There are, or at least will be, people better at CJing then me. However, I do think I am a pretty good source of knowledge on this subject. The reason being the years I have spent playing the Excessive Overkill mod for UT. Too me, CJing is just XMP’s version of RJing (Rocket Jumping) in EO which is the defining characteristic of the mod. As a result of my addiction to EO, in every game that I have played since I have experimented in the possibilities of projectile jumping. Thanks to Legend, for having the forethought to include, purposefully, the CJing feature (it’s mentioned in their readme).

I’m sure most of you have attempted CJing a few times. I bet the resulting blindness and ringing left you either dead from a long fall, or at the least, doubting its usefulness. However, I have found a trick that may have gunners CJing around maps like madmen. I truly hope people don’t consider this cheap or even cheating. In my opinion, it’s a feature based on skill that is not without its share of risks. You will need to make one change to your MyUser.ini before you begin. Add a line for any key, for me, I use the arrow keys so my bind looks like this:

GreyPlus=TOGGLEBEHINDVIEW | SwitchWeapon 3

[UPDATE]I now use this bind thanks to Andr01d:

MouseButton5=togglebehindview | switchweapon 3 | onrelease togglebehindview | onrelease | onrelease switchweapon 1

As long as you are holding it down, you are in 3rd person with the grenade launcher. As soon as you release you go back to 1st with the rockets[/UPDATE]

The SwitchWeapon 3 part is optional, I just like it because it automatically switches to your CJing weapon. TOGGLEBEHINDVIEW seems to just be a combination of the old behindview 1 and behindview 0 commands that for XMP, don’t work online.

The usefulness of this bind comes in in negating the blinding and deafening effects of a concussion grenade shot at your feet. It only works when the grenade is shot directly down at your feet. The 3rd person view is not very useful in fighting situations so as soon as you land (or in mid-air) hit the key you bound to TOGGLEBEHINDVIEW again.

That is the big trick. However, simply being able to see where you are going now is not enough. Now you must learn some techniques in controlling where you are going. This is the part where I have simply not put in enough time to be able to make the claim that this guide is all-inclusive. However, from some testing and my experiences in EO, I have some basic technique suggestions. The main difference between EO and XMP CJing is that EO has no self-damage at all (though if done right, CJing (not including fall damage) has very little). But the fall-damage is the big kicker. CJing straight up to maximum height results in a death in XMP, in EO you could RJ around the map and only huge missed jumps (like RJ from the top of one Face tower to the ground) would result in death. Anyway, here are some tips:

There are two general purposes for CJing. One being height, the other being distance.

For maximum height, this is how you do it:
1. Hit you CJing bind
2. Aim straight at your feet
3. Boost jump
4. Fire the secondary concussion grenade straight down as soon as possible after jumping
5. Enjoy the trip (but don’t miss your target because you won’t survive a fall back to earth)

(You can experiment with the timing that you use your jets)

For maximum distance, this is how you do it:
1. Start off in a sprint in the direction you would like to go
2. Hit your CJing bind
3. Aim straight at your feet
4. Boost-dodge
5. Fire the secondary concussion grenade straight down (the time you fire after your dodge determines how much horizontal distance you get compared to vertical. It will just take practice to get the timing right for max distance)
6. Rinse, repeat

The max distance jump mentioned above will take off quite a bit of health from fall damage (though not as much as straight up). Below is a compromise between distance and health loss:

1. Start sprinting in the direction you would like to go
2. Hit your CJing bind
3. Aim straight at your feet
4. Dodge (not boost-dodge)
5. Fire the secondary concussion grenade straight down
6. Hit your jump key mid-air to use your jets to cushion your fall

There are other slightly different jumps too that once you get these basics down, you can explore on your own.

Now, CJing is pretty much useless if you don’t know where to do it and survive. Here are some tips:

1. Practice offline or on an empty server. Most people won’t like their teammates CJing around a match as opposed to helping their team win. If you can, find other players to practice with and teach you their tricks.
2. Explore the maps. There are literally hundreds of spots that are normally unreachable even to the ranger without CJing.
3. The most important tip I can give is to know your target. CJing to a height much lower then your start simply doesn’t work in most cases.
4. Kind of like the previous tip, and equally as important, aim for a slope. One you can’t walk up. If you hit a slope before flat ground it slows you down enough that you can survive a jump literally from any height.
5. Air control doesn’t seem to be quite as high as it is in UT so your initial alignment is that much more important.

I have been planning on making a video with techniques and places that CJing can take you to that I would release with this guide but who knows when/if I will get around to it and people are getting impatient.

If anyone has any additional suggestions feel free to let me know and I’ll add it to this guide (with the proper source of course)

UPDATE #1

Someone, correct me if I'm wrong, but the new patch allows the togglebehindview trick to still work in some cases. There have definitely been some servers that have updated to the latest patch that still allowed my togglebehindview bind to work and some, it didn't seem to. I'm guessing they fixed it so via that server-side setting that Ðork mentioned, the server admin will be able to decided whether to allow behindview. In my opinion, this is the perfect solution. They also fixed the 'toggleUI' bind that would get rid of the HUD and allow you to bypass the effects of some of the weapons.

So basically what this means, is you can still CJ by the above mentioned method on some servers. Even if a specific server does not allow behind view, it is still possible to CJ using another, more difficult method that I will describe below:

Basically, you will have to shoot a timed concusion grenade (which requires you holding down the alt fire button for an extended time) and shooting it at the ground while standing still. It will not explode instantly like an untimed grenade, rather, it will bounce up and come back down, hopefully with enough time on its fuse to allow you to stand over it. You will want to have your back to the grenade so when it explodes you wont be blinded. It will take a lot of practice to get the timing right, but what you will have to do, is jump right before it explodes. Then, like before, simply enjoy the ride, using your jumpjets as needed.

Be warned, this method is a lot harder and requires even more practice but if done right, can get both amazing distance and height as before. For best results, you will want to do these jumps from a flat surface otherwise, when the grenade bounces, it will not come straight back down and you'll have to chase it down before turning your back on it and jumping-- making it much more dificult. With this method, it is a lot harder to get consistant jumps without practice. Have fun

UPDATE #2

Thanks to Famous, there is a way to survive a CJ to max height where you miss the ledge you were aiming to. Basically, what you do is after you realize, that do to a straight up CJ you are going to die when you hit the ground, switch to the gunners rocket launcher. Now, it will take some offline practice to get the timing right but what you need to do is shoot the rocket at a height so when it hits the ground just before you do. It's explosion, though damaging, will slow you down enough to survive the fall. I don't recommend this method except for falls that will kill you. It does do significant damage and should only be used as a final life-saving measure. The best option, would not to do primary CJ's that leave you falling from a great height. Another concusion grenade timed so that it hits the ground and explodes right before you reach it will have a similar fall damage dampening effect. It results in a fun little bounce too at times (though a perfect timing doesnt' bounce you and takes less health ) Both weapons end up doing similar damage. It's really just a matter of which one you can time better. This method can also be used to save your life during falls not as a result of CJ. For example, falling from the cloud platform in XMP-Alcazar, this method, in conjunction with a boost jump can greatly increase your odds of survival.

I'm honestly surprised that some people do think this is cheating. The official Legend readme isn't a full-fledged comprehensive manual by any means. However, it does mention both 3rd person and CJing.

4.3 First-person / Third-person
-------------------------------

Although U2XMP was designed to be a fully immersive first-person experience,
we know that some players prefer to use a third-person perspective for
piloting vehicles, and other things.

To switch between first- and third-person mode for vehicles, hit the tilde
key (~) to bring up the console, and type "TOGGLEVEHICLEVIEW". Alternatively,
you can bind a key to this command by bringing up the console and typing
"SET INPUT X TOGGLEVEHICLEVIEW", where X is the key you wish to use for
switching views.

You can also use third-person mode when not in a vehicle, although this will
put you at a severe disadvantage in combat. The command for this is
"TOGGLEBEHINDVIEW".

Click to expand...

and

5.3 Concussion jumping
----------------------

There's a reason why the bulk of the combatants in XMP stay reasonably close to
the ground: that's where all the action is. But if you want to get a bird's
eye view of the action, you can try something that's pretty risky: Concussion
jumping.

Just fire a concussion grenade at your feet, and jump when it explodes. You'll
probably be a little woozy, a little blind, and a lot hurt, but it's possible.

Click to expand...

I'm not going so far to say that they intentionally nulled the effects of CJing 3rd person but in every good game, players will find what first is considered an exploit, then become a mainstay in the game. I doubt the UT designers ever intented Hammer-Jumping to be so popular.

If, they deside to release a patch to put the blinding effect back in, I'd understand though not agree. I'd disagree with those who think this is really cheap. I've been doing it on servers for a while now and I haven't heard one person say "That's cheap". I remember one time, I was CJing from the base of the ramp up top, to the center platform and at the peak of my jump, bam, headshot. Just like in EO, a good sniper can easily take you out midair. You can't dodge in midair, because of the low air control you can't even cange dirction quickly. Also, I can't tell you the number of times when I've tried CJing with the art only to fall to my death. Many of those times, I could have survived if I would have fought my way back to base. Vehicles are still much more efficient then CJing can ever be. It just adds more depth to an already deep game.