How can I be a better soldier ?

I am a quite experienced soldier (over 300 hours as soldier), but still I am not a very high skilled player.
Ok, I am not a noob, but I am no Wonderwall either...

However,  just cant see how I can improve myself.
I have watched a lot of demos and studied elite soldiers, but I dont see what they are doing much better than I.
Ok, they are better since they kill much more people, but I just can't see exactly what they are doing better...

Sure, if I watch Wonderwall playing, I can see that he is more skilled than me in performing quick horizontal rocket jumps, but what else ?

My aim is good and my "lead he target" skills also.

Any ideas what they are doing better ?

I would really like to get better to make my clan win a bit more..

Make sure all of your rockets are making a difference, not just most. (but dont go all emo cos you missed one, just learn from it).

If your not going to win a fair fight, dont fight fair. Use health kits, high ground, and always always use that medic on your team. Its your job to keep him alive; its his job to keep you alive.

If an attack isnt going to work at that time, then defend, let them come, kill them then push up.

What is your graphics card, and how many frames per second do you get? 

When I switched from my laptop (with very low fps and res) to my desktop with a nice gpu, the improved framerate + visibility made my whole game improve.

Which reminds me, in console type cl_interp 0.03. It makes your rockets leave quicker after firing, than when its higher, like 0.3.

Iller, its hard to tell you what to improve when we haven't seen you play. Maybe you could provide us with a demo?

Quote:

-Can't stress enough how important having the height advantage is.
-Don't be afraid to rocket jump back to safety.
-When a enemy soldier rocket jumps to attack you, counter rocket jump.
-When in battle and out of rockets, use your shotgun. Also keep track of how much hp you believe the enemy to have and know when you should run to reload rockets or shotty him.
-Ask medics to give you a boost at beginning of round, don't expect them to stick to you, just go back to them when you need healing.
-Flank people, nothing more annoying then getting juggled by someone you can't see.

Hi again and thank you for your answers !

Dish : You certainly have a point there. I play on a laptop on the lowest possible resolution on the lowest possible settings.
Still it gets a bit slow sometimes. I have the 8600m GT 512 MB graphic card. Quite decent for a laptop, but still not quite enough.

Renegade_26
"Which reminds me, in console type cl_interp 0.03. It makes your rockets leave quicker after firing, than when its higher, like 0.3."

I didn't know that. Is that really allowed ? Is it not considered cheating ?

Fanlaen :
It is of course true that you havn't seen my playing. I was just a bit courius what the elite soldiers do better than the average one in general.

"-Can't stress enough how important having the height advantage is."

Yes, this is very important. Itsmuch easier to hit someone below you than for himto hit you and he will have to make a direct hit to kill you, while you on the other hand can kill him with splashdamage.

"-Don't be afraid to rocket jump back to safety."

Well, I am a bit afraid of that..
When I am so desperate that I think it is time to retreat I usually don't have enough health to rocketjump safely..

"-When a enemy soldier rocket jumps to attack you, counter rocket jump."

Yes, this I do. However the other soldier have an advantage of being ahead of you in the air. He can then kill you in the air with a rocket.
But on the other hand, he will of course have a much easier time killing you on the ground...

"-When in battle and out of rockets, use your shotgun. Also keep track of how much hp you believe the enemy to have and know when you should run to reload rockets or shotty him."

Yes, this is something that at least I have to practice a bit.  I do use my shotgun, but too often I use it too early or too late..
Also the distance to the enemy is very important to consider here.

"-Ask medics to give you a boost at beginning of round, don't expect them to stick to you, just go back to them when you need healing.
"

Yes, this is important.
It is especially important to know when to retreat. If you retreat when you have 10 hp left it is usually too late..

"-Flank people, nothing more annoying then getting juggled by someone you can't see"

Yes, this is good. Or even better, shoot them from above, hide, shoot again...
Remember a comment I got yesterday from a guy I killed that way: "Red team has a complety invinsible soldier !!". :-)

Well for rocket jumping back to safety, its usually best to do it when you are around 60 hp and you are facing certain death. If you aren't, fight.

As for counter rocket jumping, you have to be quick here, as soon as you see him do it, you do it.
He just wasted 1 rocket to RJ, another one to where you were.
You used 1 to counter RJ and you have the advantage of seeing where he lands to get a shot on him.
Technically speaking, if you hit him, he's down ~150 hp and you're down ~50 hp. He can't RJ again, you should be able to finish him off.

Really need a demo Iller You do most of the things were saying already, so the only tip that's left might be to practice.

I don't think what renegade put in is a cheat, i never knew about it but its the same as a config. Should probably check league rules before using it, just in case.

Pray to the TF2 Gods for Crit Rockets. Lots of them.

I'm in a similar situation. I've played soldier a lot, and I've definitely improved, but I seem to have hit a plateau that I'm having a hard time getting over. I've been practicing rocket jumping techniques a lot the past few days. The really good soldiers seem to rocket jump everywhere. If you're good at it, it can really put you into positions that the enemy doesn't expect.

I get frustrated, but that's perhaps because I keep comparing myself to the really awesome soldiers that play on the TF2F servers. Seriously, we've got some amazing soldiers here that I'm trying to learn from, but I also am having a hard time putting my finger on that *one* thing that they're doing that is so much better than what I'm doing. I think it's all about timing and situational awareness.

I don't know that they're necessarily killing dramatically more people than me, but they die far less often. One thing I've noticed that I do a *lot* is gib myself by using rockets for close-in fighting. I'm really trying to learn to switch to shotty sooner. I also tend to try to rocket jump when I'm too low on health. I also tend not to be one of those guys always calling for a medic. I should probably change that and start calling for a medic at the beginning and more often during the game. I tend to call for aid when I'm really low on health, but by then it's too late.

Ammo management is an absolute must...I know this sounds obvious, but he who fires the last rocket usually gets the kill. Always keep one in the chamber. Also:

• Know when to run away, and who to run away from, i.e. you're probably not going to be able to take down a heavy/medic combo by yourself, and you're probably not going to be able to get to his medic if he's aware of you. I personally will drop everything I'm doing to chase/kill spies, pyros, and medics. Your teammates will thank you.
  
• Control the high ground, and control the middle section of maps. Soldiers are the only all around class, similar to mid-fielders in soccer. Soldiers are intimidating, so use that to your advantage.
• Work with other soldiers. It's my opinion that 2 soldiers are actually 4x as effective as one. Two soldiers can also share a medic...with a good medic, this is a VERY formidable force.
• When going against demos, try to minimize the space between you as much as possible. I recently learned this, and am much more effective against demos now (they were my weakest 1v1 matchup). Demos are terrible at point blank range.
• Lead scouts by about 10 virtual feet, and wait for them to double jump...predicting where they will land is easy when they double jump.
• Shoot pyros in the feet, this will almost always knock them backwards and get you out of the range of their flamer.
• Go for full body shots against heavies...they are slow enough when they are firing that you don't need to aim for their feet. Direct hits cause much more damage.
• If you see a sniper, always spam a few rockets at them. Again, your team will thank you.
• Use splash damage to your advantage against enemy engie hardware (sentries, dispensers, etc). Many times you don't even need a direct line of site to take out a SG if you know where it is.