Rocket League Catch All

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Tournament Credits expire when our next update goes live on Dec. 8. Make sure you spend yours before then, and check out the latest Reddit post for more details: https://t.co/yYiVlIwzvf

— Rocket League (@RocketLeague) December 2, 2020

FlamingPeasant wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:
pizzaddict wrote:

I like to use these 2 for warm-up and shotting accuracy. They might be more for gold+ ranking though as their are a number of aerial shots and long distance shots that require hitting the ball with power.

"Shots you shouldn't miss"
"Ultimate Warm-Up pack"

Thanks! There are some hard ones in there, but I count just hitting the ball toward the net as a 'win.'

Browse through the packs and find some that you like and are comfortable. Look for some that get you driving on the walls. Getting comfortable on the walls is important.

I favorited two wall packs and one that makes you clear balls that are on the wall above the net. I have a nice variety of packs now for a good warm up.

FlamingPeasant wrote:

I'm not sure if you can customize packs, but it has a ton of features. I think now it will let you actually restrict parts of the goal for accuracy. It's a no go on consoles though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjZw...

If you want to train shot accuracy the Aim Training Steam workshop map is great. Far easier to setup than the Bakkesmod option. The mode that gives you a random small green target is my favorite. It’s located here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...

Mixolyde do you ever use the built in Pro Goalie training mode? Far before I was able to save those every time I used to run that training at least once in my warmup routine. Its good practice early on.

Not sure what the highest level of Goalie I have done is, but I will add it to the rotation.

I have been using the highest level aerial training to practice powerclears and soft catches of long balls. That has helped some.

pandasuit wrote:
FlamingPeasant wrote:

I'm not sure if you can customize packs, but it has a ton of features. I think now it will let you actually restrict parts of the goal for accuracy. It's a no go on consoles though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjZw...

If you want to train shot accuracy the Aim Training Steam workshop map is great. Far easier to setup than the Bakkesmod option. The mode that gives you a random small green target is my favorite. It’s located here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...

Mixolyde do you ever use the built in Pro Goalie training mode? Far before I was able to save those every time I used to run that training at least once in my warmup routine. Its good practice early on.

Yes, that workshop map is great! Gotta start running that again.

Season 2 is neon

New field and player anthems. I think they play with goals.

https://www.rocketleague.com/seasons...

What did they do to this game on PS5?

I cannot hit the ball. Like at all.

Thought it was the Dualsense, maybe stick sensitivity or triggers or something, so I connected an old DS4. That should have same saved settings from my PS4, and that's what I use on PC as well.

Still could not hit the ball. Oversteering, no matter what speed, boost or not, just whiff, whiff, whiff. Driving around on empty practice field and completely incapable of making contact with the ball in any meaningful way for a solid 5 minutes.

Could it be an issue with the input your PS5 is plugged into? I have a friend with a TCL tv and he has to plug his Series X into HDMI 1 or else he’d get slight input lag, even in GAME mode. I don’t have a PS5 to try it on, so just throwing stuff out there.

I unlocked the Takumi RX-T this morning and it's gorgeous and I love it! Love the open engine window in the hood. Same hitbox as the Gizmo, my usual main, so I am gonna play it for a while and see how it feels.

Tron light bike mode in Rocket League looks really fun

I was in the middle of grinding out my remaining Season 1 Challenges yesterday when the game updated. Let me tell you, when the game switches from 60fps to 120 towards the end of a 6 hour marathon it really makes your eyes go wonky. Doesn’t help that I was a bit tipsy, but man I felt like I might be sick at some points. You know that feeling when you’re a passenger in a vehicle and you look up from reading something on your phone? That feeling x10. I was also missing the ball a lot after, but I don’t know if that was because of the higher framerate of the game or the lower framerate of my seltzerbrain.

A little bit of improvement for season 2:

"patch notes" wrote:

Players now need to complete 22 or more of 24 Challenges to earn the Season Challenge Reward

I just took a month off of Rocket League (my longest break since 2016) and my mechanics are rusty as hell now.

I'm one of those "dirty freestylers" so I'm still flailing through the air for no good reason but now I'm flailing and failing. I think I hit one aerial shot last night (of many tries). I keep messing up my flips and timing too. It probably looks pretty entertaining to my opponents.

To be honest I didn't think one month off would affect me so much.

I've always focused on more casual RL play and doing fun mechanics rather than focusing on winning but the last few seasons I've taken my rank way too seriously. This season I intend to dial back on that. We'll see how successful I am.

pandasuit wrote:

I just took a month off of Rocket League (my longest break since 2016) and my mechanics are rusty as hell now.

I'm one of those "dirty freestylers" so I'm still flailing through the air for no good reason but now I'm flailing and failing. I think I hit one aerial shot last night (of many tries). I keep messing up my flips and timing too. It probably looks pretty entertaining to my opponents.

To be honest I didn't think one month off would affect me so much.

I've always focused on more casual RL play and doing fun mechanics rather than focusing on winning but the last few seasons I've taken my rank way too seriously. This season I intend to dial back on that. We'll see how successful I am.

It's so much easier said than done, but playing for fun instead of rank is definitely the way to go. Frankly, I probably end up playing better with this mindset too. If I focus on making fun cool plays instead of trying to play correct, clinical rocket league it becomes a game again instead of a mission. I've sort of peaked rank-wise anyway so if don't find another reason to play the game it will soon be time to shelf it (sort of reaching that point anyway).

skeletonframes wrote:

I was in the middle of grinding out my remaining Season 1 Challenges yesterday when the game updated. Let me tell you, when the game switches from 60fps to 120 towards the end of a 6 hour marathon it really makes your eyes go wonky. Doesn’t help that I was a bit tipsy, but man I felt like I might be sick at some points. You know that feeling when you’re a passenger in a vehicle and you look up from reading something on your phone? That feeling x10. I was also missing the ball a lot after, but I don’t know if that was because of the higher framerate of the game or the lower framerate of my seltzerbrain.

How are you adjusting to it now? Going back to 60fps after getting used to higher is pretty rough but I’ve never had an issue adjusting to higher framerate. TBH I’m curious what framerate the Series X/S arw actually hitting. Is it a smooth 120 or does it dip a lot? They should do everything they can to make that fps consistent however they failed miserably to do so on consoles at 60fps so I’m not that confident in them at 120fps. Hopefully Digital Foundry decides to do a video on it.

Stele wrote:

A little bit of improvement for season 2:

"patch notes" wrote:

Players now need to complete 22 or more of 24 Challenges to earn the Season Challenge Reward

I was pleasantly surprised to see the rank reset this season was softer and they didn’t take away 3 full ranks like they did to me last season.

They did nuke unranked MMR for all high MMR players again tho. I’m ok with that but it’s gonna make 1500 MMR unranked lobbies a bit of a mess of skills for a while.

For more information pertaining to the philosophical portion of Rocket League in-game chat, where we ponder the universe's greatest mysteries, please find the below:

https://rangerplanet.com/where-do-sq....

pandasuit wrote:
skeletonframes wrote:

I was in the middle of grinding out my remaining Season 1 Challenges yesterday when the game updated. Let me tell you, when the game switches from 60fps to 120 towards the end of a 6 hour marathon it really makes your eyes go wonky. Doesn’t help that I was a bit tipsy, but man I felt like I might be sick at some points. You know that feeling when you’re a passenger in a vehicle and you look up from reading something on your phone? That feeling x10. I was also missing the ball a lot after, but I don’t know if that was because of the higher framerate of the game or the lower framerate of my seltzerbrain.

How are you adjusting to it now? Going back to 60fps after getting used to higher is pretty rough but I’ve never had an issue adjusting to higher framerate. TBH I’m curious what framerate the Series X/S arw actually hitting. Is it a smooth 120 or does it dip a lot? They should do everything they can to make that fps consistent however they failed miserably to do so on consoles at 60fps so I’m not that confident in them at 120fps. Hopefully Digital Foundry decides to do a video on it.

.

As with any other change in life, I'm used to it now and don't even notice the difference. My TV has VRR, so I have a really hard time noticing framerate dips. I discovered this after the Assassin's Creed Valhalla issues with Series X. I thought it ran fine. So, I'm guessing the Variable Refresh Rate masks a lot of wild framerate hiccups. Or else I just don't notice them in general. I don't know much about the technical side of all that. I will say that if it is having trouble keeping at 120fps, I don't notice much.

So I have whole game replays saved on my xbox, but I can't figure out how to cut clips out or make them appear on that game DVR site. Do I use the Xbox OS video capture while playing the RL replay, or is there something built into RL?

skeletonframes wrote:
pandasuit wrote:
skeletonframes wrote:

I was in the middle of grinding out my remaining Season 1 Challenges yesterday when the game updated. Let me tell you, when the game switches from 60fps to 120 towards the end of a 6 hour marathon it really makes your eyes go wonky. Doesn’t help that I was a bit tipsy, but man I felt like I might be sick at some points. You know that feeling when you’re a passenger in a vehicle and you look up from reading something on your phone? That feeling x10. I was also missing the ball a lot after, but I don’t know if that was because of the higher framerate of the game or the lower framerate of my seltzerbrain.

How are you adjusting to it now? Going back to 60fps after getting used to higher is pretty rough but I’ve never had an issue adjusting to higher framerate. TBH I’m curious what framerate the Series X/S arw actually hitting. Is it a smooth 120 or does it dip a lot? They should do everything they can to make that fps consistent however they failed miserably to do so on consoles at 60fps so I’m not that confident in them at 120fps. Hopefully Digital Foundry decides to do a video on it.

.

As with any other change in life, I'm used to it now and don't even notice the difference. My TV has VRR, so I have a really hard time noticing framerate dips. I discovered this after the Assassin's Creed Valhalla issues with Series X. I thought it ran fine. So, I'm guessing the Variable Refresh Rate masks a lot of wild framerate hiccups. Or else I just don't notice them in general. I don't know much about the technical side of all that. I will say that if it is having trouble keeping at 120fps, I don't notice much.

Switch it back to 60fps mode (quality mode in game settings) and see how it feels to you

The new limited time Winter Breakaway mode is pretty great. Throwback is the map Snow Day always should have been played on.

pandasuit wrote:

Switch it back to 60fps mode (quality mode in game settings) and see how it feels to you :P

Oh I am well aware of my "never look backwards" game brain. I booted up Red Dead after playing some 60 fps Assassin's Creed and 120 fps Gears 5 and it literally looked like it was missing frames. Crazy how quickly the brain becomes a refresh rate snob.

Is that an xbox option, too?

Mixolyde wrote:

Is that an xbox option, too?

Which option? The quality/performance option I mentioned above is only on the Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch versions right now but will come to PS5 eventually. I don’t see it ever coming to older Xbox/PS consoles since they don’t have the CPU power to handle higher framerates.

On Switch performance mode is 60fps but on Xbox it gets you 120fps.

On Xbox Series X/S going to 120fps should be worth it regardless of the hz of your display due to how input handling is done in RL. You might not see a difference (actually it might look worse due to more tearing) but you will feel a difference. The open question is how consistent the framerate is. If it rapidly fluctuates all over the place it might actually be worse than a flat 60fps because it will cause highly inconsistent input latency that could mess up your mechanics.

It seems like every RL content creator has a "top tips for each rank" video these days and while I agree with some of it I feel like they are usually going for the easy tips or keying in on particular mechanics that TBH you can totally live without.

Spoiler:

Personally my biggest RL advice has nothing to do with mechanics. These are meant to be constructively snarky but I know snark doesn't always come across in text so I'm prewarning you.

Edit: This is the advice I try to keep in mind myself because I suck at all these things compared to better players. If you aren't trying to improve then feel free to ignore all this. Only the point about having fun applies to everyone.

1. Have fun. Rocket League is not your job.

2. Learn some damn patience and stop going for every ball as fast as you can. If you have time with the ball use that time to do the best thing you can do not the first thing you can do. Does your teammate still have control of the ball? Is a teammate already in the best position to challenge a ball in front of the net? Are you the last man and about to go for a low percentage play? Then why the heck are you throwing yourself at it?

3. The reason you don't know if you have time with the ball or if your teammate should make the next hit is that your awareness sucks. Work on that. Look around. Know where everyone on the field is (or likely is). If you don't know where your teammates are that's likely because YOU aren't looking around. That is your fault, not theirs. Your teammates will do dumb things but it is your job to notice and adapt. Assume your teammates are also looking around and move your car in ways that indicate your intention. If you want your teammates to know you are not going for a ball then dont drive towards the ball. If you want your teammates to know you are rotating out make it clear. Your car is the main way you communicate intent to everyone else on the field. This is very true for your opponents as well. If you want to trick your opponent into thinking you are going to do something then keep in mind what your car's position and motion is telling them. They are watching you for information.

4. You suck at defense. No, you really do and it's holding you back. No I don't care if your defense is OK for your rank, that still means you suck at defense. Defense wins games. Defense is not "playing goalie" and it takes place on the entire field not just in front of the net. Just because you weren't the person in net when a goal happened doesn't mean it wasn't your fault. What could you have done to prevent that situation? Pretty much every single person I know is worse at defense than they are at offense and yet spend their time working on how to improve at offense. Don't only focus on improving your offense. A good defensive play followed by a counter attack leads to way more scoring opportunities than flip resets and ceiling shots.

5. Rotation is NOT about taking turns. It's about the right person doing the right thing based on the scenario and sometimes that is the same person multiple times in a row. If you complain about not getting your turn or go for the ball just because you haven't touched it recently then you don't understand rotation. Always move to the most useful place you can be and how on earth will you know what that is if you aren't paying attention to where everyone else is. See previous comments about awareness.

6. See all those little boost pads on the field? Pretend you are packman as you drive around and pick those up constantly.

7. Playing "fast" in RL is not about quickly going to where the ball is now. It is about quickly knowing where the ball is going next and being in the right position to take advantage of that. The "fastest" player on the field is the one who knows where the ball is about to be before anyone else does and adjusts their play first. They are "reading" and adjusting the fastest.

8. If you want to practice being fast and working on awareness constantly be thinking about who is going to touch the ball next and where it is going to go. Don't stop with "mine" or "not mine", actually know the individual player who is going to hit it next. Every time you get that wrong is a clue to a hole in your awareness and reading. The more aware of those holes you are the faster you will improve. Side note: One of the easiest ways for a team to comm together is to just always call out who the next hit is by calling out the player (teammate and opponent) as soon as you think you know who it's going to be. Again awareness.

A major theme of the above is awareness and the best videos I've seen on the topic come from FlowStateGG. I'm pretty sure I've shared them on here before but they are worth watching again:

Wonderfully said, Panda.

It’s all the advice I try to keep in mind myself because I suck at all those things compared to better players

Are you constantly tapping the right thumbstick and pressing it in to look around?

Mixolyde wrote:

Are you constantly tapping the right thumbstick and pressing it in to look around?

I flick the right stick in different directions constantly. I also turn ball cam off and on a lot.

Mix, it's not a great example but it is a recent one because I'm not all that great at it either. I was about to take control of the ball so I used the right stick to find the defender before I either just tossed the ball down field, passed to my teammate on the left, or whatever. Knowing where people were and taking it slow (using the space/time I know I had) made this goal happen.

The things I suck at in Rocket League are countless. The one that pisses me off the most is that I don't have a plan when I am about to get to the ball. That leads to me usually banging it down the field, giving control to an opponent or tossing it at the goal which always results in an opponent getting control of it.

Along with not having a plan, I don't have good skills in ball-handling. If I were better at controlling the ball once I have it and better at thinking about what to do with it once I do have it, I would be much happier with my play.

If I got better at those 2 things, then I could move on to the 100+ other things I suck at.

Sounds like a lot of work. I think I'll go take my 3D printer apart.

-BEP