To jump, or not to jump? (multiplayer FPS strats)

[IceForce]

So, I'll begin with a little disclaimer; I'm not very good at video games (including multiplayer video games).
With that out of the way, I wanted to get to the bottom of something that's been bothering me for ages.

I've heard and read from quite a few sources that jumping around a lot in multiplayer FPS games is a huge no-no and something you should never do. The reasoning usually given for this is that jumping around a lot makes it easier for the enemy players to hit you ...or something to that effect.

Now, regular readers of my posts will know that I've been playing a lot of Overwatch recently, I also follow a couple of Overwatch youtubers and peruse a couple of Overwatch subreddits. And I've seen the same "don't ever jump around" suggestion coming from these places too.

And... well... I don't get it.

As I said above, I'm not very good at the game (or at video games in general, tbf), but in Overwatch at least, when someone is hopping around like a fucking madman there's no way I'm going to have even the slightest remotest chance of hitting them.
In fact, it must be pointed out that Genji's main tactic for remaining evasive is to jump (in this case double-jump) around like a madman. And yeah, it seems to work, since he's ungodly difficult to hit when he's doing that.

But this isn't just about Overwatch. It also has to be pointed out that bunny-hopping and jumping around is a staple of many other (fast-paced) multiplayer shooters too. The Quake games are good examples of multiplayer shooters where jumping around is actually beneficial.

So yeah, I don't get it. Who is correct here? Is it a good or bad thing to hop and jump around a lot in a multiplayer FPS?

 

[tippy2k2]

I don't think there's really a set answer as the tactical situation and the game you're playing play a huge part in it.

Are you in a game where you can just spray and pray with the expectation to hit the bad guys (and I don't mean that in a "Down at your nose elitist asshole" way, some games you can aim just using the regular sites and some you can't). Then the Halo Hop (as we had always called it although I'm sure it's got many names but for the sake of the thread, I'm calling it the Halo Hop) is beneficial.

Are you in a game where you actually have to aim your rifle in a "realistic" manner so jumping will make you harder to hit but impossible for you to actually fight back? Then Halo Hopping is not beneficial.

Part of it depends on your own skills and what you can do. Even in the faster arcadey games where aiming is not necessarily needed, I have a very hard time Halo Hopping and hitting the broad side of a barn so for me, it's a bad tactic in just about every situation. If I can't hit my opponent, delaying them hitting me is not going to be helpful.

Part of that also depends on the tactical situation. Are you out in the open where the ability to change your direction is going to be more important than one static movement? Then Halo Hopping is just going to get you killed as most games, once you commit to the Halo Hop, you're in the air going in the same direction until you land. Are you around the corner and are expecting you so they likely are aimed center mass at that corner that you're going to turn? Then Halo Hopping would be the best as worst case, if they manage to hit you, they're hitting your feet rather than your chest.

So yeah...a big'ol "It depends"

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Well that depends, jumping around in most games decreases your accuracy a lot and slows you down. Some games encourages you to jump around though, in Overwatch it's great if you can jump around with classes like Genji or Lucio. I've been playing plenty of Black Ops 3 which also encourages the player to jump around and run on walls since you have jetpacks to your advantage. When it comes to games like Counter-strike, jumping is in general terrible, your shots will go all over the place and it will slow you down making you a easy target.

 

[Zhukov]

It's because in a lot of games, including Overwatch, jumping causes you to spend a second or so in a predictable motion.

If you're playing, say, Ana and I get in and start firing on you as Reaper and you jump I am going to know exactly where to place my next shot for full effect. Whereas if you zig-zag (and do it properly, not in a repetitive pattern) then you can change direction at any time and my job becomes a lot harder.

There are some exceptions. If you're in point blank range of your enemy then jumping can cause you to exit their vision entirely. Especially in first-person games with low FOV.

Genji can do it because of his double jump. It allows him to change direction in mid air, so his jump movements are about as unpredictable as normal movement for other characters with an extra dimension added in.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Generally speaking, it's really only advice for top-tier players - when you're experienced as hell with a game, you tend to be able to keep on target no matter how they're moving, and jumping willy-nilly at that level of play can be more detrimental for you since it's still easy to fall off something or jump into a wall or something and come to a dead stop. For any level of play outside of tournaments, however, jumping is still nice and useful since it can throw off enemy aim and can put you behind people who aren't paying enough attention to the action.

More specifically, it's a thing that's really dependent on the game more than anything - if the game has some form of momentum in it's physics engine or minimum ranges, then jumping can be super useful to move unpredictably (Quake's bunny-hopping) or to fuck up an enemy's ranging (not an FPS, I know, but World of Warcraft melee combat is a good example of that). If the game doesn't have those kinds of things, then you tend to just make a big target for yourself, like in the various Call of Duty/Battlefield games (jump-to-prone looks cool, but is also super predictable). Titanfall 2 is one of those games that's a little weird, since jumping is incredibly useful and when combined with other mobility tools can make you impossible to hit, but at the same time once an enemy sees you you're usually fucked.

I haven't played Overwatch so can't really comment on jumping in that game, but from streams I've watched it seems more character dependent than anything since some of the lighter characters seem really bouncy, while the likes of Roadhog and Reinhardt have zero momentum and just end up fucking themselves over whenever they hit the spacebar.

So, yeah, depends on the game and the level of play. Personally I just jump around anyway, sure beats walking everywhere.

 

[DoPo]

So yeah, I don't get it. Who is correct here? Is it a good or bad thing to hop and jump around a lot in a multiplayer FPS?

Depends on the game. I am not familiar with how Overwatch plays in practise, so I will refrain on commenting on it. However, as you say, in some situations it can be beneficial - in Quake it is indeed so - the arenas are very open and the player models stand out, so it's very unlikely that jumping will make you MORE visible. Furthermore, the weapons that hitscan are going to hit you anyway, although jumping can make it slightly harder, but hitting with non-hitscan weapons can actually be more difficult. Shooting rockets at the ground near your target is a decent strategy since you are very likely to hit with splash damage, but if the target jumps, they will receive less damage.

Not all games are Quake, though. In Counter-Strike[footnote]when played as a tactical shooter, as opposed to the deathmatch that most public servers do[/footnote] jumping is usually detrimental: first of all your aim is lowered a lot, next you do become move visible and you can definitely be spotted easier, third you make noise when landing in a game where sound can be incredibly important. So, jumping all the time is not a good idea.

Not all shooters are cut from the same cloth. There isn't and cannot be "one true way" to play all of them.

 

[KraQ]

It depends on the game, but as a general rule:

Jumping indiscreetly is bad form.

The example that you brought up, Quake, jumping is not necessarily good or bad; it's a tool that you can be punished for using poorly. Jumping in a specific manner in Quake allows you to gain incredible speed, but it's at the cost of maneuverability. Unless you're playing a version of the game (such as CPMA) that gives you hella air control, jumping in the air effectively commits you to a certain trajectory. Past a certain skill level, people will start shooting under you with a rocket and then will pin you to the ceiling with an LG for a free kill if you're not careful about when you jump.

Even if you never plan on getting to that level, you're still handicapping yourself by not putting yourself in the position to learn proper ground movement. When you rely on a crutch, you're not learning fundamentals. If you never learn fundamentals, you'll never move past the most basic level of play. It's the same reason that people will tell you to unbind your crouch key when you first start playing counter-strike, even though pros will crouch all the time? new/bad players will use it as a crutch to make up for bad aim and recoil control while good players mostly use it as a way of throwing people's aim off. Likewise, jumping sporadically should be a compliment to your play, not a fundamental part of it.