Counter-Strike: Source

Counter Strike: Source (CS:S)
Developer(s)	Valve Corporation Turtle Rock Studios
Publisher(s)	Valve Corporation
Engine	Source Engine
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	August 11, 2004
Genre(s)	First-person Shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Counter-Strike: Source (commonly shortened to CS:S) is a computer video game developed by Valve Corporation. It is a remake and update of an older version of the game, which originally started as a modification of Half-Life, a single-player first person shooter. As in the original version, Counter-Strike: Source games pit a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in a series of rounds. Each round is won by either completing a mission (such as detonating a bomb or rescuing hostages) or by eliminating all members of the opposing team. Unlike Half-Life: Source, the game is a complete remake using Valve's Source Engine, instead of a port with additional content.

History

Pre-loading of Counter-Strike: Source to cybercafe owners (as part of the Cyber Cafe program) began on 9 August 2004, being released for play two days later. Vouchers for the pre-release game were available with the purchase of ATI Radeon video cards and with Counter Strike: Condition Zero; the pre-load for these users began on 16 August 2004, with the game again becoming available two days later. The game can be bought individually on retail boxes or in "game packs" which Counter-Strike: Source comes bundled within, with prices varying from US$ 19.95 to US$ 99.95 The game is rated M for Mature by ESRB for ages 17+(digital download in Steam software).

Only 1 day after the initial cyber-cafe release Valve began what would become the first in their long line of updates for CS: Source. By the time of its official release almost two months later, Valve had eliminated numerous bugs and added several updates and patches.

The betas and official release versions shipped with only two player models (one per team) - the "Phoenix Connection" terrorist (a member of the fictional Phoenix Faction) and the SEAL Team 6 counter-terrorist. Being an early version, the player models were low quality and out of proportion, giving rise to being commonly described as having "peanut-heads". Valve released several successive versions of the two original characters.

Around Christmas 2005, an update was released for CS: Source, adding two new player models - the GIGN and Guerilla. This was followed by the addition of the Leet and SAS player models on March 1st, 2006, and the GSG 9 and Arctic models on April 12th, 2006.

Changes from Counter-Strike to CS: Source include the improvements inherent to the Source engine (such as better graphics and modified physics), as well as updated models, animations, maps, sounds, and some small gameplay changes.

Clans and Communities

Clans and Communities are groups of players which play together under a single name, usually displayed as a shortened version known as a "tag" in their in-game name. Clans tend to be more tight knit than communities, and are often made up of around 10 - 50 people. Communities are typically much larger and generally consist of more than 50 players. This group aspect of the game is one of the reasons it is so popular many years after its release. Clans and Communities often run or rent their own servers which they administer themselves.

Professional Competitive Gaming

Main articles: Clan (computer gaming) and eSports

Competitive gaming for Counter-Strike: Source includes many leagues, ladders, and tournaments. There are many amateur leagues for the game, including the Cyberathlete Amateur League, Electronic Sports League, ClanBase, Enemydown, theSGL, the TeamWarfare League, and the Online Gaming League, as well as the professional league, the Championship Gaming Series. The Championship Gaming Series had announced that they give away a total of USD 1 000 000 to the winners of the World Finals in November of 2007. The total number of competitive teams for this game is in the thousands and is approaching the tens of thousands. Also, there are often tournaments at Local Area Network centers or other large venues in which the top teams win prizes. These tournaments are very frequent and consist of a few teams to a few hundred teams. Sometimes clans/groups would stay together but go up against a group of random/unknown players played on a match server, normally called a MIX.

Customization

Because of the large fan-base that Counter-Strike: Source has accumulated, there are a wide variety of different customizations and addons that can be used with the game. There is a large fanbase for the game that creates customized sounds, textures, weapon skins and player skins. However, under the rules of Valve Anti-Cheat(VAC), models for objects within maps cannot be edited, so that a player using a different model other than the standard does not have an advantage over another person.

Maps

Maps are frequently made by players for the game, and the easy-to-access Valve Hammer Editor allows anybody to create their own. The number and types of custom maps (and indeed, custom map categories) for the game is constantly rising, which means that most people can find something to their taste.

There are several types of maps available, such as DE (Defuse), CS (hostage rescue) and AS (assassination). For further information, see the Counter-Strike article.

Other maps from the previous Counter-strike series have not been released on Counter-Strike:Source, however some of these maps were remade with Valve's Editor Tool.

Mods

Like many other modern first-person shooter games, Counter-Strike: Source has been heavily modded by its developer community. Server-side gameplay customizations are typically implemented using Valve's Source SDK for Server Plugins. Server-side mods like Sourcemod and EventScripts build on to the basic RCON commands as well as with the gameplay customizations.

The Quake Sound Pack, the popular game sounds available with Sourcemod is actually a misleading title. The sounds, which include: "First blood", "Godlike", "headshot", "dominating", "ultra-kill", "m-m-m-monster-kill", "holy shit!", "multi-kill", "unstoppable", "team killer", "rampage", "ludicrous kill", "killing spree", and "wicked sick" are all from Unreal Tournament 2003. The only sounds from Quake 3 are "Prepare to Fight!" and "Humiliation", which occurs when a player kills another player with the melee weapon.

Skins/Models

The ability to add new models and skins (thanks to the Valve SDK) to CS: Source is possibly the biggest part of the CS customization community. Skins (or textures) refers to the actual images applied to parts of the game - the player models, weapon models, and even maps themselves can be retextured by anybody. Models refers to the actual 3D-elements displayed on screen - VAC offers a server side variable to ensure only certain models and materials are used (sv_pure) intending to stop material based wallhacks etc. however, not all servers use these limitations as they are optional.

Models can be changed either by the player, by adding files to their cstrike folder, or by the server they are playing on using a server side plugin such as sourcemod. The difference is that if a player changes a model on their own machine, only that player will see the changes; However if the model is altered by a server-side plugin or tool, then the model that the player wearing is seen by everyone on that server at that time but the player can also edit those models too.

Map types

There are many different map types in Counter-Strike: Source, identified by the prefix before the map name (e.g. prefix_mapname). A list of common map types is provided below, many more map types also exist:

• AIM - Combat/Skill/Aim Practice
• AS - Assassination
• AWP - Sniper War
• BA - Battle Arena
• BHOP - Jumping map
• CL - Climb Map
• CS¹ - Hostage Rescue
• DE² - Bomb/Defuse
• DM - Death Match
• ES³ - Terrorist Escape
• FUN - Fun Type
• FY - Fight Yard
• GG⁴ - Gun Game
• GLASS - Glass Fun
• HC - Happy Camper
• HE - Grenade War
• KA - Knife Arena
• KZ - Climb Map
• JK - Pistols Only
• PA - Prepared Assault
• PB - Paintball
• SCOUT - Scout Sniper War
• SG - Shotguns Only
• SLIDE - Sliding Floor Map
• STARZ - Custom Starz-made Map
• SURF⁵ - Surf Style
• XC - Climb Map/Bunny hop Map
• ZM⁶ - Zombie Mod
• MVP - Marines VS Predator ⁷

¹One of the two original Counter-Strike: Source game type. Terrorists have to "guard" the hostages, whilst the Counter-Terrorists have to reach the Terrorists base (where the hostages are held - the Terrorist starting point), and take them back to their base (starting point). The game may also end by the elimination of a whole team.

²The other original Counter-Strike: Source game type. Terrorists have to plant the bomb at a bomb site (usually A or B, but there are sometimes 3, which is called C). The Counter-Terrorists have to then defuse it, before it blows up (the bomb timer varies by server). The game may end early if all of one team has been killed.

³A modification of the game. Terrorists are unable to buy weapons on these maps. There are often armouries hidden somewhere on the map, to help escaping terrorists.

⁴A modification of the game, which is installed on the server, not local computer. Players must progress through a series of weapons, consisting of all the guns in the game, by earning a kill with each of them. Once all of the guns have been completed the player must achieve a final knife kill to win the game.

⁵Surf Style maps consist of ramps that you can slide on (hence surf). This works using a flaw in the game engine: when a player strafes upwards respective to a surface with an angle of less than ~45 degrees, he doesn't slip off the surface, but 'cuts' into it, allowing him to slide in the direction he is looking, as long as he uses the d/\a rule. The rule works as follows: if he surfs on the left of a ramp, he holds down the 'strafe right' key. If the player surfs on the right of the surf, he would press the 'strafe left' key. There are normally no guns on surf maps, unless a player has "completed" the map, by getting to the end of the map or by reaching certain difficult-to-access areas.

⁶A modification of the game. In Zombie Mod the Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists are replace by the Human team and the Zombies. At the start of the round all the players are human, but after a short period (2-10 seconds) one player is changed into a zombie and can now only use the knife (mêlée weapon). The zombie's objective is to infect all of the human team by hitting them with the knife. Once a human is hit they are transferred to the zombie team. The humans' objective is to eliminate all the zombies. Zombies have several advantages over the human team to help them: they can run much quicker, have 5000 health (100 is normal), are provided with night vision and have a 125º ‘Field Of Vision’ instead of the ordinary 90º. However, when hit with bullets from the humans they are knocked back. This means working together as a swarm they stand a much better chance of infecting the humans.

Some zombie games run on non-zombie mod maps. For these servers, the game-play is similar but still different: Zombies do not have an increased field of view, nor do they have night vision. They have around 300 health instead of 5000, which regenerates very quickly if lost. Instead of one person starting off as 'the' zombie, the server automatically balances the teams so that the zombies outnumber the counter-terrorists. Zombies don't 'infect'; they simply kill. Again, they can only use a knife.

⁷ A Modification that is only on one server where terrorists are cloaked predators and counter terroists are marines. in this mod you can only see the knife of the Predators so it is harder for the marines but the main advantage is for marines is that they have guns while the preds dont. but the predators have 500 health adn the marines have normal health.

New beta version

Shortly following the Day of Defeat: Source beta program on Steam, the "Counter-Strike: Source Beta" game filter was added to the Steam Server browser, possibly implying that a reworked version with Steamworks features is in the works. It is currently unknown what changes the new beta will bring to the game.

It is worth noting that after the May 27th Steam Client update, the Counter-Strike: Source Beta tag is still available in the Server browser, implying that the tag's appearance was intentional.

Hacking/Cheating

The action known mostly as "hacking" is when a player purposely runs a program, known as a "hack", which aids them whilst playing. There are a variety of hacks such as "aimbots", which move the cross-hairs of the player automatically over other players, meaning the player no longer has to aim. "Wall Hacks", which let you see directly through walls of any kind, are some of the most popular hacks. On most servers, hacking in any way is not tolerated and punishable by a server ban, however the hacker can still play on other servers. In order to combat hacking, Valve introduced the VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) service. If caught hacking on a VAC secured server, a player can be globally banned from all VAC secured servers, requiring them to purchase the game again before they can join any VAC secured server. Any internet server can be VAC secured for free.

Kigen created an anti-cheat program for sourcemod platforms. It's more effective than VAC.

References

Kigen Anti-Cheat for Sourcemod