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The Ancient Lost Samurai Art of Concussion Grenade Jumping

Learning How to `launch' your Scout or Medic character off his concussion grenade blast is one of the most challenging skills you can learn in Team Fortress Classic, and also one of the best. The following is a detailed `how to' guide which should help anyone who wants to master concussion grenade jumping.

Okay, first things first. As already hinted at, the only two classes in TFC that can do this kind of jumping are the Medic, and the Scout, because they are the only two classes that have concussion grenades ( special secondary grenade ). So if you are trying with anything else, you are probably getting very dead, very often ( but it is amazing how far the Demoman MIRV grenade can throw a DEAD body right? Heh. ).

The Mechanics

As an overall concept, I'll describe briefly the actions you do in order to successfully concussion jump, then, with that in mind, I'll give some finer details which should help just about anyone learn how to do this trick.

Select the Medic ( or Scout ) as your class. Find an large open area on a map. Press the key that primes your concussion grenade and DON'T let go. Begin counting backward from 3 to 0 with one second gaps between each count. While still holding the special secondary grenade key and continuing your steady count backwards, start running/walking in any direction that you have a lot of room to move in, as you reach 0 in your downward count press your jump key. It is important to remember that you don't let go of your concussion grenade key till AFTER it has gone off so that you can maximize the jump strength and control. If you are lucky enough to have successfully timed your 0 count with the grenade's explosion and your jump upwards, you should have suddenly rocketed across the map.

Okay, whether that did work for you or not, the following information should help refine your attempts to the point where you can count on, and use the concussion jump as well as you use any other class skill.

The hardest part of the jump, is getting the timing right, and a way to make that much easier is by setting up a .cfg script that will play an audible countdown every time you prime your grenade.

Grenade timers are useful for every class, as even the standard grenade can kill mid and lightly armored classes, and severely damage heavy armor classes in a single well aimed, well TIMED lob.

Yes, that's right, the trick to making grenades a lethal weapon in your arsenal of death dealing equipment is timing. Trigger your grenade, and instead of throwing it straight away so that everyone can see it, and run away while it ticks out its primer countdown, hold it for a second and a half to two seconds, THEN lob it at your foe/foes and backpedal out of range. Even if they see it, they have only moment of time to get out of the way, and, providing your aim is reasonable, only a very experienced player using a fast class has a hope of escaping with minimal damage.

Anyway, back to grenade timers and concussion grenades in particular. Here is my script for an audible grenade timer.

Make a new text file in your Team Fortress Classic directory. Team Fortress is in a sub directory in your Half-Life game directory labeled TFC. If you are confused already, close this document, start Half-Life, and just play the game, because what I explain from now on here is going to be far too complicated for you to figure out.

I am going to assume throughout this guide that you do have some basic understanding of your computer system and how to use it. Although I will go into a fair amount of detail, I'm NOT going to describe each step from the point of you booting up your computer to this script being setup and fully operational on your system. If you understand how to find things on your computer, how to create a new text file, how to rename files, and how to open and edit .cfg ( configuration ) files in notepad, then you will be fine with my instructions.

Okay, so, in the TFC directory, create a new text file, then rename it timer.cfg. Now, open it up in notepad, and put the following lines exactly as they are written here in the timer.cfg file.

      // Audible Countdown Script for Grenades
    speak "three _comma _comma _comma two _comma _comma _comma one _comma _comma _comma zero"
      // End Audible Countdown Script for Grenades

Now save the file and exit out of notepad.

Using Notepad again, open the .cfg file labeled autoexec.cfg from the TFC directory.

Insert the following lines at the bottom of this file, taking care NOT to overwrite, or delete any other lines that are already present.

      // Grenade Primer with Countdown
      alias "+timedgren1" "primeone;exec timer.cfg"
      alias "-timedgren1" "throwgren"
      alias "+timedgren2" "primetwo;exec timer.cfg"
      alias "-timedgren2" "throwgren"

      bind "MOUSE2" "+timedgren2"
      bind "MOUSE3" "+timedgren1"
      // End Grenade Primer with Countdown

IMPORTANT NOTE - In the two lines above that start with the command bind, you should replace the phrase MOUSE2, and MOUSE3 with whatever keys YOU normally use for your standard grenade, and your class special grenade. So, if you use the F key for your standard grenades then one of those lines would look like this.

      bind "F" "+timedgren1"

If you used the G key for your special grenade, then the other line would look like this.

      bind "G" "+timedgren2"

Uppercase/lowercase isn't important here, just the proper key label. Keep in mind also, that in this script +timedgren1 will always activate your standard grenade and the audible timer, and +timedgren2 will do your class special grenade and timer. So make sure you bind each alias grenade command sequence with the correct key that you are use to using for that particular type of grenade.

Okay, once you have the right bind keys set up, save the file, and close notepad. Now you have yourself a grenade timer. Time to test it!

The next step is to run the game, but read the rest of this section so you know what to do to make sure the timer is working properly.

So, start the game, and before you actually enter a game map, go into the configuration area of TFC and change the two grenade keys that you have set up through this interface so they are blank. This doesn't matter that much, if the special key binds for your grenades that you put in the autoexec.cfg are the same as the keys you have set up here, because the autoexec file setup should override the keys here, but do it anyway. NOW TROOPER! Heh, sorry, got a little carried away.

Okay, now enter a game map. For testing, I recommend that you start a Lan Match, that way you can test this stuff on the regular TFC maps without having to deal with Internet lag, and angry enemy demomen trying to see if you'll go pop if you swallow a pipe bomb. Choose the Medic ( or Scout ).

Next step, drop down the console interface using the tilde key ( ~ ), and type this.

    /exec autoexec.cfg

Press the Enter/Return key, then the tilde key again to close the console.

As suggested by its name, the autoexec.cfg file automatically runs whenever you start Half-Life TFC, however, the bind commands that are in the config.cfg file override them as this file is executed later in the TFC startup sequence. So the new setup in autoexec.cfg needs a kick-start to force the config.cfg file to reset to the new configurations, and the way to do that is buy re-executing the autoexec.cfg file after TFC has finished it's startup. You only need to do this once, after you put any new bind commands in the autoexec.cfg ( or any of the other .cfg files ).

Now you are good to go! Prime one of your grenades, and if all has gone well, you should hear the male announcer voice intone, "Three… Two… One… Zero", and at zero, the grenade you primed should go off.

Now, start practicing priming your concussion grenades, holding them, and jumping as the announcer calls zero. In no time at all, you should be flinging yourself across the map in a single concussion boosted jumps, and slapping far off walls, ceilings, lights, beams, rock cliffs, and so on. Once you become good at concussion jumping, there is virtually nowhere you can't jump to in a single bound, and your ears should resound with the echo of beefy Heavy Weapon Men jealously grunting, "Yeah, that's lovely prettyboy, but can you do anything useful with it?".