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The Rise Of Counter-Strike
b0r1s writes "Business 2.0 is running a story about Minh Le, and his now famous Counter-Strike mod for Half Life. The article explains the origins and motivation for the development of the mod, as well as explains the virtues of making code freely available for those who wish to hack games."
As in head shot hack?
According to the article, Valve bought the rights to CS. If there's a lawsuit, it's probably because the original author is working on a second mod - and valve is concerned that he's using some of the code he had already sold.
Um, actually as of a year or two ago Valve owns all the rights to counter-strike and are putting lots of $$ into it's continuing development. (The exact date of aquisition was just before CS hit version 1.0)
Valve knows that the only reason they are still selling half-life is CS and other such MODS. Half-Life was a great game but it says a lot about the engine if it is this flexible to still be in use for a continual mod making community.
This article basically explains what a mod is, briefly touching on counter strikes conception but most of it is jut bragging about it's success.
Not sure this was really worth posting on slashdot.
Most of my gaming friends have moved on to more technologically advanced games such as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault or Return to Castle Wolfenstein from Counterstrike. Recent server data shows that this shift is reflected across most servers, as Counterstrike population is decreasing, RTCW is up a little, and MOH:AA is up dramatically.
The new Counter-strike:Blue Zone may help increase the number of gamers, but only in the short term as games such as No One Lives Forever 2, the new RTCW expansion pack, and the much-anticipated Doom III come out.
So, don't look for much more success stories like Counterstrike, because the technological fickleness of gamers will cause mods based on old engines to become unpopular quickly.
"But his main goal has been accomplished. In the two and half years since he left college, he hasn't set foot in a cubicle."
BUT, he still lives in his parents basement. That Valve buyout must not have been anywhere near the $5,000,000 figure.
The majority of players are annoying 12 year olds. At least, that's how they behave. And of course there's always the everpresent cheat/aimbot/wallhack (l)users. Online games are fun for the first month or so after release. Then when the hackers get up to speed or the kiddies find out about the latest game, it all goes to hell.
Well, a large part of HalfLife still being a popular game today doesn't have to do solely with the game engine, but the fact that Valve released the source code and SDK. Try here
Before counterstrike, he was best known for a little quake2 mod known as ActionQuake2, a mod that makes q2 play more like an action movie. great fun if you can find some active servers. There was eventually an ActionHalfLife, but as far as i know he didnt take part in the development of it.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
Wow, it's amazing that halflife was so open to let their fans freely modify their code and give them all the tools to do it. This flies directly in the face of corporate logic, where companies sick their lawyers on their most loyal fans for copyright infringement or DMCA violations for modifying their products. And how did their fans react?
"We've actually sold more of the overall Half-Life family of products each year since we shipped back in 1998, which is very unusual in a market typified by three-month shelf lives"
It really is in corporate best interests to let their fans run with their products, create communities around their products and thereby add value and promote their products for them. I wish they'd understand that the fastest way to kill the very communities that support them is to send lawyers after them.
Looking for a computer support specialist for your small business? Check out
I almost flunked out of college because of you ;)
Thanks for a great game and many wasted hours.
There is not that much code to counterstrike. 95% of the size of the cs mod download is textures and graphics. Very little of it is code. From what I understand the new version of Counterstrike(counter-strike:condition zero) is being developed by valve in conjunction with the creator of CS.
Personally, I know he's not out to create a fun game and uphold ideals of sharing code and such. I mean, have you played Counter-Strike?
He's out to conquer the world, and with each new person who plays, it's one less person who can operate normally in life. I mean, I started playing CS 3 years ago, and while I havn't died of any marathon sessions, I've come awfully close.
Sounds like a bad Pinky and the Brain episode, but... it's too scary not to consider.
I just got MOH:AA, but it seems to me that there are only FOUR team-based missions! (Omaha, Bridge, Rocket and 1 other I forget). I think you can deathmatch a lot of others, but only four counterstrike-like boards. Am I wrong here? I sure would love to be...
Not needing the game CD stuck in my box is what sucked me in. I could play half-life, UT, and a few other games, but most would require the CD to be in the box. CS did not. I could jump in, it checked my CD key over the net, and I was off getting pasted by people who were way better than I.
After scratching a couple CD's and having oodles of hard drive space, I just don't like to play games that require the media. Granted, I can wander and get the no-cd 'fix' for the game, but you end up looking for a fresh crack every time the game does a service pack. As someone who actually pays for the bloody game - this pisses me off.
I'd say no media 'copy protection' was key for me...
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Economist Article: Counter-culture
I'm not sure if anyone's heard, Oprah Winfrey had an 'expert' on the other day, who tied the recent sniper killings in the D.C. area to Counter Strike. The 'expert' said that Counter Strike had trained this individual to kill and how to handle a gun.
;)
Excuse me, but how does playing a game teach you how to properly handle a gun? I've told my friends that Counter Strike isnt a game, it's a simulator. But a gun simulator it is not. I view it as a very good tactical simulator. But no-where during its gameplay does it teach you how to properly handle a gun, let alone teach you how to shoot someone at great distances.
I guess I just needed to get that off my chest. Oprah Winfrey is ugly too.
*DrugCheese rants*
This is pretty much stating what we already know. What it does not touch upon however is that Valve seems unwilling to leave CS (or HL alone). Now, do not get me wrong, Valve has been a great developer, especially when it comes to mod makers; very few companies have done what they have done with their mod community. Nonetheless, its growing irritating to constantly hear about all this updates and new versions of CS when the company's original new flagship product has seemed to dissappear. The product I speak of is Team Fortress 2, which was supposed to come out a while back, but has all but dissappeared off the planet. Everyonce in a while you might hear a slight peep from Valve with the letters TF2 in them, but its next to nothing ('We are working on it'). CS is good, I still play it, but it is definitely time for something new. They should continue supporting HL, but in a much more limited way, and start moving towards a point release patch. Riding on the success of the last game you made 4 years ago gets a little old after a while. I do not mean this literally, but its annoying that they talked about TF2 like it was going to revolutionize (yea, its hype, but hey, it looked cool) multiplayer FPS games, but now all they're giving us is addons to Half-Life, which as I said is 4 years old, going on 5. This is all pretty much hopeless since CS still kills all other multiplayer fps games in terms of pure amounts of players & servers; where there is a demand, the publishers will go. I hope this isn't the result of Sierra's pressure, but from the attitudes of the Valve dev team that does not seem to be so.
"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
Actually he is working (I believe exclusively at this point) on a second mod. A follow-up to Counter-Strike for Valve's next game.
He is, to my knowledge, on their payroll. As such, I'd say he's fairly unlikely to to be the subject of a lawsuit of any kind from Valve or Sierra (the game's publisher).
Game... blouses.
Next step : Move out of your parent's house. I mean, how are you going to use that newfound fame as a hot shit game designer to get chicks if you still live in your 'rents basement?
He needs to give John Romero a call.. Romero can teach him how to get chicks, and he can teach Romero how to make a game that doesn't suck shit. If a piece of shit like Daikatana can get you Stevie Case, imagine the kind of girl writing a good game like Counter-Strike will get you.. ;)
All movements for social change begin as missions, evolve into businesses, and end up as rackets.
"Terrorists Win."
Its been gettnig respect for some time now. It has been adopted as an official mod by Sierra and now you can buy it retail. It has been featured in many articles about computer games and really is considered a great success story.
unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
- This article basically explains what a mod is, briefly touching on counter strikes conception but most of it is jut bragging about it's success.
This article basically explains what a mod is, briefly touching on counter strike's conception but most of it is jut bragging about its success.the follow up to counter strike is Counter-Strike: Condition Zero official site : http://www.cs-conditionzero.com/ "2002 Valve, L.L.C. All rights reserved. Valve, the Valve logo, Counter-Strike, the Counter-Strike logo and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Valve, L.L.C." seems valve are pretty much the driving force for the next version of counter-strike
The #1 problem with this mod, cheating, wasn't mentioned anywhere.
This would be a bigger game if that was fixed, personally I have zero intrest in it because I constantly hear those who play bitching about cheating.
Too bad.
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
I'd hardly consider Deus Ex to be shit. Neither would most reviewers as a matter of fact.
Ok I don't hate Counter Strike per se, it's a fine game, but I am bitter about its complete dominance in online FPSs. There are countless of very cool mods but you can't find anyone to play with because _everyone_ is playing CS. For example on several occasion I've been exited about some new and innovative Quake mod, but have been unable to find a single human player to play against. Infuriating.
But the "BSD is dying" type trolls are a lot better and more believable then this sorry attempt.
Imagine the virtues if all code (not just for games) was made freely available to developers.
Then even Microsoft developers could freely use the development versions of software without the large cost overhead. That might spur on Windows development by the masses, just as has been done in the Linux and OpenSource realms.
My favourite memory was exploiting the map cs_siege. On this map there was a room with hostages that the CTs had to rescue. If the terrorists started losing and couldnt buy good guns, I would take all the hostages into said room. The only way into that room was a door. There was a window to that room that was unbreakable. I would spray a black spray over the window on the outside so the CTs couldnt see inside. Mind you, due to halflife mechanics, the terrors could see out of it fine, thus we had a sort of one way viewport. We would camp out there and just wait until a CT would bumble in (this first CT is usually the "rambo" who had a cable modem back before they were as common and he has a good gun and no time for teamplay). Voila, their LPB is down and we have his gun. Chances are, his gun shoots through walls and we just mow the rest down as they come into the room our window faces.
Later on, the window was made breakable and a vent was added to make another way into that room, but that was some of the funnest gaming I've ever had.
Never overestimate the end user. -jeramy b. smith
Counter-Strike used to be great, and while it continues to provide others with hours of entertainment, I found Day of Defeat to be much, much more enjoyable. If you would like it, its availible here.
In college, really poor, need a flatscreen.
Id has done this with every game since Quake. So the mere fact that they've released modable source can't be the sole factor.
The judges have found that Valve can't sue Counter-strike because a) Counter-strike is a game, and b) it is developed by Valve.
When are you people going to learn that you can't trust someone called "Trusty"? And when are the moderators going to learn that before modding something as "informative", they should (at least) check that the information is true?
RMN
~~~
Ratings, ratings, ratings.
That's all Ms. Oprah is after. If you want a real news source, listen to the Army Ranger (I think) Sgt Major who dissected the sniper's tactics and such.
The Sgt Maj believes this is a terrorist action, with more than one person.
Personally, I believe the sniper(s) are way too organized to be some slack-assed kid with a mod and a gun. She's just saying that to get ratings from the FWNC*.
*Folks With No Clue.
PS. Oprah is a terrorist. Playing on the fears of people makes you almost as bad as the people doing the activities.
Sent from your iPad.
Upon further checking on http://www.gamespy.com/stats, CS is alive and well. To all the naysayers proclaiming that CS is "dead", they are not looking at the simple numbers of people playing it. As of the time of this post, there are over 92,000 people playing this game. How far does that eclipe MoH (~8,000 players), the next closest competitor?.
The numbers speak for themselves, CS is alive and well. It'll take another "CS like" game to take people away from something they like.
I'll tell you this, if Valve ported the base client to Linux, I'd say their install base for CS (and other mods) would grow even further. Being that the engine is mainly Quake2, it can't be too difficult to port. Let Valve create the linux client and the numbers for their games will grow even further.
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is being developed by Gearbox Software (they've done various Half-Life official expansions), for the most part independent of Valve.
I believe Valve is working on another game (hopefully Team Fortress 2, yeah right) and Gooseman/Minh is working on a true CS sequel for that game.
http://www.counter-strike.net/faq.html (at the bottom) says that the actual CS team is not involved in the production of CS:CZ beyond ensuring the game stays true to the original.
Game... blouses.
So, don't look for much more success stories like Counterstrike, because the technological fickleness of gamers will cause mods based on old engines to become unpopular quickly.
On the contrary; as engines become more advanced, their lifespan will increase. And with more and more games supporting mods, chances are we'll see more and more user-created games like Counter-Strike (or Team Fortress, etc.).
One of the problems with this is that game developers prefer to release games that are complete crap "out of the box", hoping that someone will make a "killer mod" for free, and that they (the game's authors / publishers) will profit from it.
By contrast, HL is probably the most polished action game I've ever seen. Very few games released since then come even close to its balanced and addictive single-player gameplay. I hope Valve are dedicating the same amount of time to TF2's playtesting and refinement.
RMN
~~~
Now personally, I don't like CS and never have. The realism is cool but the gameplay lacks the hyper adrenaline rush one gets from deathmatch games (of course, these are also boring after seven years of online play). Furthermore, the engine is pretty unimpressive technically. The best parts were in the single-player game with its scripted events and lifelike characters. When I first played Half-Life multiplayer, I thought the engine was laughably bad. My point isn't to troll - I just think the longevity of Half-Life has less to do with the engine and more to do with market forces and the exceptional design of Mr. Lee.
Valve released TFC (Team Fortress), the first well-known teamplaying mod for halflife, then everybody noticed halflife was also working great for something else than deathmatch, i.e. realistic gameplay (Action Halflife mod anyone?). The Counterstrike concept came naturally then.
HL started out using Quake's netcode, so if you used the same connection, the latency would be exactly the same. Later, with the upgrade to TF 1.5, HL's netcode was changed to incude latency compensation, so what you shoot is what you hit, regardless of your ping (as long as it's under 500). This also applies to the current version of CS.
Of course since the release of OGC, UrT has been all cheating all the time.
You should also consider giving Navy Seals Covert Ops a try, and True Combat. They're both good Q3 realism mods.
I bought Half-Life after seeing a friend play counter-strike. I thought CS was very cool, so Valve got my $$$. If it wasn't for CS I never would have even looked at Half-life.
because I own a Mac, and Sierra cancelled the Half-Life port.
THANK YOU Sierra
-the Macman
and release some source code.
Not that theres anything in there that is very secret.
DoD is so much better than CS. I used to play just CS for a long time, then someone turned me on to DoD and I have never enjoyed CS since. DoD has some great maps, of which dod_avalanche is probably the best.
If you play CS and like it, and haven't tried Dod, you need to check out Dod!!!
Can someone please explain to me why this article refers to modders as hackers? Everything they do to the game is done with complete permission, and they're given all the necessary tools to mod with ... granted, modding is an achievement of its own, but to call it hacking is to suggest that these boys require no external support. Or at least not the level Valve, the OWNER, offers.
I'm all for the media portraying the fact that there are benevolent hackers, but they're dirtying the word by applying it to some kid who hacked nothing.
ShaunDon
There is a mod for Quake3 on beta stage called navy seals. It plays and feels very similar to counter strike, except the engine (Q3) is better.
And they have a Linux version.
I have played it and it is rock solid and good fun.
You can find it here:
Navy seals: covert operations
When his defense asked, "Which computer has Jon Johansen trespassed upon?" the answer was: "His own."
Counter Stick?
Too many zeros, not enough ones
You made the claim "CS is dying" and your comment is pretty similar to "BSD is dying" trolls, but why don't you provide evidence besides telling me to just google search for the # of server playing game x? Or would you just provide the same slanted results as searching for "why Nintendo suxxors." Provide us with some evidence instead of making shit up, this sound just as bad as the claims MS and even Linux sites make up.
Anyone who thinks CS is dying obviously hasn't seen the upcoming 1.6. Among the new features : 2 new guns (they both look sweet!), a counter-terrorist bodyshield, instant messaging system, demo viewer, auto-update, bugfixes, and more! Click Here To See 1.6
That being said, the people who play Counter Strike should be beaten over the head. I've never seen a more contentious, petty, jealous bunch. Anyone who is even moderately good is *obviously* cheating. God forsake someone would forsake their precious little egos and admit to themselves they lost a round legitimately. If you beat someone, it *must* have because they were doing something unscrupulous.
Worse, are the people who actually do cheat. I don't know what their deal is, but they suck even more than the people who accuse everyone *else* of cheating. Tipping the board in your favor defeats the purpose of playing. How can you say you won if you didn't win fairly? It's much more satisfying to beat the pants out of another team knowing it was just your own skill and strategy that did it, not some goddamn program you downloaded off the internet. Those people should be rounded up, put on barges and set adrift into the pacific.
are you replying too you're own post's in a attempt too make them seam more interesting?
Incidently, i Went to a grammer school four sevaral yeers before I realised i was speling it
rong all the time.
Well, technically Half-Life was built on the licensed Quake and Quake II engine. John Carmack gets a piece of the pie any way you slice it.
Confucious says: Man who runs behind car gets exhausted.
// jeku.com
We've had over 70,000 unique players in the past 3 months on our Counter-Strike server.
http://www.mshmro.com/hlstats/hlstats.php
We even wrote a paper about it.
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/sysl/projects/cstrike
Okay, so guns stayed after you died. If someone with an AWP died near the enemy base, this gave them a big advantage after respawn (guns were expensive). So I started hitting the "drop gun" button which throws your weapon down in front of you and started chain picking up dropping my own gun and the other gun all the way back to my respawn. This kept my team from having to buy guns the next round. Then _everyone_ started doing it and before you knew it a team would have all AWPs and a total beatdown was in progress until the level changed. At one point I was on a team that stockpiled over 50 guns at our respawn. Needless to say after everyone started doing it they made guns dissapear at the end of a round.
Never overestimate the end user. -jeramy b. smith
Now let me guess , all american patriots are on the
counter terorist team , and the rest of the world
( evil doers ) are on the terorist side ?
Since Doom actually.
mp3: l33t term for empty.
For those that like CounterStrike, check out UrbanTerror. It's a TC built upon the Q3 engine, and it's quite nice.
I used to be big into CS, very much so. I actually wrote one of the first CS Strategy guides (since modified), worked briefly for CSN, and was on of the founders of Clans United. Anyways, CS was good. That is, back in the olden days of the first betas it was. For all the complaints of CTs and Tangos looking the same in the first beta, that was actually somewhat fun.
When CS really went bad though is when Goose stopped writing and coporate did. CS, to an old-schooler like me, was a victim of its own success. When too many people got interested in it, the pro-shops started monkeying with the code. Did you ever hear of a cheat in the first few betas? (Any yes, I know that Valve changed the netcode in Half-Life, and that THAT opened up many of the security holes.) So, yes, cheating was a major issue, but that wasn't the root of the problem.
Not to mention back in the early betas everyone was basically at the same skill level. You didn't have people playing for years yet. Instead, everyone was still learning the game.
Personally, I stopped playing CS when it got "polished." I don't exactly have the fastest machine, and run on a shared modem, so the new netcode, models, and all the other tweaks made to CS over the years made it unplayable for me. Even if that wasn't the case, all that made it just plain not fun, to me.
So, I may be the one of the few who thinks that CS isn't all that its cracked up to be, but I do.
CitrusTV (http://www.citrustv.net): the Nation's Oldest & Largest Entirely Student-Run Television Station
Not to mention the fact that you could gun run!
I loved amassing an arsenal of automatic weapons to switch between.
CitrusTV (http://www.citrustv.net): the Nation's Oldest & Largest Entirely Student-Run Television Station
Who needs Sierra? WineX not work on OS X?
I mean, all you need to do is install XFree, KDE, WineX, all from sources, of course. That'll only take what, five ten minutes?
CitrusTV (http://www.citrustv.net): the Nation's Oldest & Largest Entirely Student-Run Television Station
> Valve released TFC (Team Fortress), the first well-known teamplaying mod for halflife,
Actually, TFC stands for Team Fortress Classic. Team Fortress (TF) itself was a mod for Quakeworld. Valve hired the developers of TF
> something else than deathmatch, i.e. realistic gameplay (Action Halflife mod anyone?). The Counterstrike concept came naturally then.
Actually, the first counterstrike beta's (and if anyone still remembers, the alphas too) before Action Halflife did. Action Halflife was never as popular as it's predecessor, Action Quake2 was. Coincidently, Counterstrike's creator, Gooseman, was a programmer for the A-team in their Quake2 days, which was the maker of Action Quake2 and later on (and without Gooseman), Action Half-life.
If Quake3 and UT had come out six months before, CS might have ended up being a Quake3 or (less likely) an UT mod. Gooseman was a Quake2 and a Quake1 mod maker. As he said in various interviews over the years, he moved to Halflife because it had a much nicer SDK than Quake2 did.
Of course, since he is a Valve employee now, he won't admit it, but Quake3 and UT both have much better engines and SDK's than Halflife does.
I stopped playing HL because too few servers which were fast for me used anti-cheat software, and too many of the players are chumps. Tacops seems to have a better breed of player for the most part (Obviously some CS players are great people) and I just enjoy the gameplay more as well.
If you have UT, check it out.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Isn't that better than movies like Hackers, Swordfish, etc?
I mean, modding is closer to hacking than cracking is. And, personally, I think that the term has to be broadened to fit the times anyways.
CitrusTV (http://www.citrustv.net): the Nation's Oldest & Largest Entirely Student-Run Television Station
Actually, Halflife is based on Quake1 only. Valve updated the engine to match much of Quake2's functionality and implements parts of the Quake3/Unreal engine's technologies.
I beg to differ on the changes in the netcode. I run a modem, always have, always will where I live until Verizon puts in the DSLAM they promised before Sep 11.
My point is that for me, at least, latency got worse with the "latency compensation." My ping went up, my lag went up, and I was killed before I could even see my assailent.
Right arround then I stopped playing CS. For some reason TF wasn't as bad.
CitrusTV (http://www.citrustv.net): the Nation's Oldest & Largest Entirely Student-Run Television Station
I don't give a shit how good their games are...when they start to sue legit open source projects I refuse to do business with them or play their products anymore.
> Wow, it's amazing that halflife was so open to let their fans freely modify their code and give them all the tools to do it. This flies directly in the face of corporate logic,
Well, you sound a bit ignorant about FPS gaming history.
Have you actually heard of little ole company based in Mesquite, Texas called Id Software? They made the first FPS game (wolfenstein3d), the first popular FPS game (doom), and the first widely FPS game that was playable over the internet with lots of other people. Oh yeah, this game also had it's game code available, and it's engine code completely GPL'd several years later.
Oh yeah, Valve based halflife on this little game. It's called Quake.
UrbanTerror is quite good, but it has a few problems. First, the netcode is horrible. They should have just stuck with the Quake3 netcode or tweaked it slightly like the creators of OSP or CPMA did. The second problem, and indeed, the most major problem, is that the creators of the mod don't release new versions that often. It's been quite a while since the last version, 2.5 came out. There was a huge gap in time between the release of 2.3 and 2.4 as well. UrbanTerror has actually lost many players (over this last summer), unlike other quake3 mods like OSP and promode. At this rate, I don't think the mod will survive to a 1.0 (non-beta) release, because by then, Quake3 probably would have died. The development team really needs to look to alternative releasing plans, such as fixing a few bugs per release and having a new version every few months.
Also, cheating has been as rampant in Quake3 mods over the last few months (hint, hint, release of OGC for Quake3) was it was with CS at it's cheating height. Of course, this has stopped for now with the release of Quake3 1.32, equipped with Punkbuster, but this is only temporary. The next version of OGC will be quite more advanced. It already automatically disables itself with Punkbuster is updated, and the next version (1.92), will have an auto-update system itself.
Valve may be making sierra money, but I don't think relations between Valve and Sierra are exactly peachy.
What do you think Sierra thought of "Steam", a program from Valve which would cut Sierra out of the publishing loop?
It's impossible to 'fix' cheating. John Carmack had a great .plan on the subject where he broke it down to a choice between how much network latency matters and how much cheating will be possible.
The only way to be completely cheat-free is to turn the client hardware into a dumb terminal. At that point the only cheats possible are things like turning the brightness up on your monitor. But this means that the entire game has to be simulated on the server, including the graphics. If you send polygons down the wire, a malicious client can analyze the polygones and provide visual cues to the user.
When Valve released the "network patch" for Counter Strike, they introduced client-side prediction like that found in QuakeWorld, and that meant that the client software got to decide whether a hit was accurate or not, and where it landed. They did this because they wanted the game to be responsive for modem users who might have latency spikes as high as 200ms. This makes the instantaneous frame-rate of the game about 5fps. Client-side prediction assumes everything carries on as it was before when the latency is too high, and then re-sync when latency returns to normal. The actual result was that proxies could manipulate the network traffic to give the user perfect aim and perfect knowledge, and sometimes the ability to shoot through obstacles.
As someone else mentioned, the solution is not technical, it's social. Have LAN parties, or use some form of distributed trust to restrict cheating at the personal level. Refuse to play with anyone who has a poor rating. This is an imperfect solution, like SlashDot moderation, but it's a lot more feasable and efficient than technical solutions.
Oh, and why should I trust someone with the name trolling spelled backwards?
Lag comepnsation is done at the server; it's a simple operation that does not influence your connection.
It is possible, however, that the latest versions of CS try to transfer more data, and get choked more easily on slower connections, which would cause your ping to be higher and, especially, less stable. I know that in TFC they actually simplified several things (ex., in old versions, nail grenades in TFC transmitted the position of each nail; now the nails are shot in a standard pattern so they don't need to be transferred).
The latency itself depends on the network connection. Do a traceroute to the server and you'll see where the delay is being introduced. You will also see your "true" latency (ie, without any game data being transferred). If this is much lower than the latency in the game, chances are the game is trying to transfer more data than your modem can handle. Try lowering the rate (ex., "rate 3000" in the console).
RMN
~~~
But while CS gives Valve time to fiddle and tweak, in another respect it's bad for the gaming industry. The mod's amazing success discourages innovation even at the very developer whose original great innovation led, inadvertantly, to its one day being out-innovated by a fan. Meanwhile, every kid who's playing CS 24/7 isn't buying new product. Given the quality of most product out there, you can hardly blame them, but it would be nice to see something approaching the mid-to-late 90s period of game creativity; sadly, we probably won't any time soon, and CS is one reason why.
Wow I am fast!
Good Lord, I rock.
Hey Jennifer, sorry about blowing you off while you were visiting me. =(
"gnillort?" Umm that's trolling spelled backwords. Does anyone check a posters name+post history+Journal as well as think about the comment before modding it up?
This is one reason why I will never enjoy on-line games as much as LAN games. If someone on-line is cheating, I have to wait for the admin to become convinced and boot him. If I'm at a LAN, I get vengeance by installing Sub Seven on his machine when he makes a bathroom run.
On-line games require that a player communicates with the admins. I'm an admin for the flagen.com server. When people come to us saying 'ban this person he cheats' then we usually ask the regulars before taking action. When a regular accuses someone of cheating, their opinion is held higher and their evidence is taken more into consideration than people who we've never heard of.
I just got MOH:AA, but it seems to me that there are only FOUR team-based missions! (Omaha, Bridge, Rocket and 1 other I forget). I think you can deathmatch a lot of others, but only four counterstrike-like boards. Am I wrong here? I sure would love to be...
Let's put this DC "sniper" in perspective.
He's shot 11 people, nine have died. He's only hit three headshots out of 11, and one shot he missed entirely (went in the window of a craft store).
His longest shot so far has been approx 150 yards... That's something anyone with a few hours on a range can do. A trained professional sniper should easily be able to keep his rounds inside a half-dollar at that range... This DC rifleman is clearly not up to that standard.
Most of his targets have been sitting still. But as for hitting "moving" targets, he has shot people who were moving either directly toward him, or away from him; that doesn't count. Hits on a person moving laterally or at an oblique angle are more indicative of real snipercraft.
This guy is nothing more than a crazed gunman. Do not besmirch the reputation of professional long riflemen by calling this guy a "sniper."
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
I started gaming comparatively recently, with Quake 2. From there I moved on to (among others) Q3A, Unreal Tournament and now UT2003. I've only read about DN online or heard other gamers talk about it, but I find the whole idea behind Duke a blast. I don't know what 3D Realms major malfunction is but if they don't release Duke Nukem Forever right effin' now it'll be too late! Hell, it may already be. The screenshots on their website look like crap next to friggin' Alice, never mind Wolfenstein and the new UT.
I think you guys should try tactical ops. This game is a mod of UT. There are no cheaters most of the time or no cheaters at all in the servers. Its a great game, better graphics than CS and no 12 year old's calling you names. If you have UT installed, you can download this game for FREE. If you dont have it, you can buy it at a store, just look for Tactical Ops Attack on Terror. or visit their website at www.tactical-ops.to
Now, thats your perogitive, but to be fair, the bnetd guys were violating the license agreement in any case.
(from Diablo2 License.txt - I don't have starcraft so I can't quote that, however I'd gather it would be the same)
YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT BEFORE INSTALLING THIS SOFTWARE PROGRAM. BY INSTALLING, COPYING, OR OTHERWISE USING THE SOFTWARE PROGRAM, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, PROMPTLY RETURN THE UNUSED SOFTWARE PROGRAM TO THE PLACE OF PURCHASE OR CONTACT BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AT (949) 955-1382 FOR A FULL REFUND OF THE PURCHASE PRICE WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS OF THE ORIGINAL PURCHASE.
C. You are entitled to use the Program for your own use, but you are not entitled to:
(iii) host or provide matchmaking services for the Program or emulate or redirect the communication protocols used by Blizzard in the network feature of the Program, through protocol emulation, tunneling, modifying or adding components to the Program, use of a utility program, or any other techniques now known or hereafter developed for any purpose, including, but not limited to, network play over the Internet, network play utilizing commercial or non-commercial gaming networks, or as part of content aggregation networks without the prior written consent of Blizzard;
If you disagree with this, license.txt contains details on how to contact blizzard for a full refund.
I don't exactly agree totally with their reasoning here either, but its their product, and I am willing to comply with it to play the game - I can see there reasoning even if I don't agree with it.
smash.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Give me Quake 1 + Quakeworld + CTF Pak 1
or Give Me Death
"Thousands of gamers with hacking skills and too much time on their hands have done similar things with other popular titles, like Quake and Doom"
in the same way, i could easily call education is for people with too much time on their hands because they havent got a job.
sigh.
I can't find a link to verify it anymore, but the young terrorist guerilla who is talked about here was somewhere else said to have been playing in an Internet Cafe not just any video game but -- Counter-Strike.
Anssi Porttikivi / app@iki.fi
Not really, licensing is a fixed fee. After Valve coughed up a quarter million dollars (I think that's what the licensing for Quake 2 is today, might have been more back then), Id really couldn't care if it flopped or flew.
i hate counter-strike. it isnt that fun, its very unrealistic, cheaters run rampant, and it is SO over-hyped. it keeps people from playing the tons of better mods out there because they are all are addicted to counter-strike. give Day of Defeat or Front Line Force a try. Or hell, give another GAME a try. UT 2003 is quite sweet.
... by stats and apperances: BattleField 1942 - lets hope that EA get the finger out and actually release som modding tools instead of procrastinating...
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
>>Why not use Daemon-Tools
>The recent revisions of Neverwinter Nights can
>detect daemon-tools and they won't even start if
>it is installed (even if the real cdrom is in a
>real drive).
And that matters?
Every time the producers of any copy protection scheme tries to prevent people from making their legal backups by black listing DeamonTools, the makers of Deamon Tools update the program to avoid the blacklist - and usually add a few features.
A bother you say? To keep updating DT? Well, how often do you buy games? Once a month? How often do they update the blacklist? Not that often it seems.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I've seen people with new children before, they go from ultra happy to
looking like something out of a zombie film in about a week.
-- Alan Cox about Linus after his 2nd daughter
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