Complete Noobs Guide to

Not-so-Noob
The following guide is what you might expect to
pay good money for, if you are a complete and
total noob-case, that is. This is just a little history
and general info that actually is being pedaled
elsewhere as useful strategery, but if you really
want to be recognized wherever you go, you'll need
the Counter-Strike Source Guide with CS Pwnage
Training Videos
Otherwise, enjoy the article...
Game Play
Counter-Strike is a team-based, first-person shooter
in which players join either the terrorist or counter-
terrorist team. Each team attempts to complete their
mission objective and/or eliminate the opposing
team. Each round starts with the two teams
[[spawning (computer gaming) |spawning]]
simultaneously, as one of eight different default
character models (four to choose from for each the
counter-terrorist and terrorist teams. ‘‘[[Counter-
Strike: Condition Zero]]'' added two extra models,
bringing the total to ten). Each player generally
starts with $800 (although the starting amount can
be edited by a server administrator), two magazines
of ammunition, a knife, and a pistol: a [[Heckler &
Koch USP]] .45 Tactical for counter-terrorists, and
a [[GLOCK 18|GLOCK 18c]] for terrorists. Players
are generally given a few seconds before the round
begins (known as "freeze time") to buy equipment,
during which they cannot attack, be attacked, or
walk/move. Players are given a certain amount of
time (90 seconds is the default) to buy equipment
whilst in a "buy zone" (some neutral "buy zones"
can be used by both teams). Once the round has
ended, surviving players retain their equipment for
use in the next round; players who were killed
begin the next round with the default starting
equipment.

Standard monetary bonuses are awarded for

winning a round, losing a round, killing an enemy,
instructing a hostage to follow, rescuing a hostage
or planting the bomb.
The scoreboard displays team scores in addition to
statistics for each player: name, score (kills),
deaths, and [[Ping (video games)|ping]] (in
milliseconds). The scoreboard also indicates
whether a player is dead, carrying the bomb (on
bomb maps), or is the VIP (on assassination maps),
although information on players on the opposing
team is hidden from a player until his/her death, as
this information can be important.
Killed players become "ghosts" for the duration of
the round; they cannot change their names until
they spawn(come alive) again, text chat cannot be
sent to or received from live players; and voice chat
can only be received from live players and not sent
to them (unless the [[CVAR|cvar]] sv_alltalk is set
to 1). Many of the new FY (fun yard) maps allow
dead players to communicate with living players.
Ghosts are generally able to watch the rest of the
round from multiple selectable views, although
some servers disable some of these views to
prevent dead players from relaying information
about living players to their teammates through
alternative media (most notably voice in the case of
[[Internet cafe]]s and [[Voice over IP]] programs
such as [[TeamSpeak]] or [[Ventrilo]]). This
technique, known as "ghosting," is considered
cheating in many tactical shooters.
Realism
Counter-Strike is meant to be more realistic than
futuristic [[first-person shooters]] such as ''[[Quake
III Arena]]'' and ''[[Unreal Tournament]]'', but is
also built to keep the action flowing faster than
more realistic tactical shooters such as the
''[[Rainbow Six (computer game)|Rainbow Six]]''
and ''[[Ghost Recon]]'' series. Relatively few hits
are required to kill a player, and shots to different
parts of the body inflict varying amounts of
damage. However, damage has no permanent
bearing on ability to run or jump, allowing a player
with just a few hit points remaining to keep
fighting just as well as any other player. Movement
and running speed, however, are momentarily
restricted for about a second after taking damage
from enemy attacks. All weapons have a 1 shot
head shot kill unless shot through a wall or from
long range. Many weapons can be fired through
walls for half damage.
Maps
The maps in Counter-Strike determine the game
play and mission objectives. There are three official
types of maps in Counter-Strike: ''[[Hostage]]
rescue'' maps, identified by "cs" before the name
(e.g. cs_militia), where the counter-terrorist team's
objective is to free several [[non-player characters]]
that are present near the terrorist base; ''[[Bomb
defusal]]'' maps, identified by "de," (e.g. de_dust),
where the terrorist team must try to plant
explosives at specific sites in the map and protect it
for a set amount of time while the counter-terrorists
attempt to defuse it; and ''[[Assassination]]'' maps,
with an "as," (e.g. as_oilrig), in which one member
of the counter-terrorist team becomes a ''[[Very
Important Person|VIP]]'', and must be protected
from [[assassination]] until he reaches an escape
zone (this type is absent from Counter-Strike:
Source). In earlier beta versions of the game
another official type called ''Terrorist Escape'' also
existed.
Players also have the ability to create their own
maps using the [[Valve Hammer Editor]].
 Culture
''Counter-Strike'' is famous for its surrounding
culture, which includes everything from
professional gamers and leagues to excessive
cheating and Noobile behavior. Certain
professional teams (such as SK Gaming, Team 3D,
and fnatic) have come to earn a living out of it.
Super-noob Cheating groups, such as myg0t, JAPS,
Rage-Xtreme, and 187ci, have been known to
create chaos in the game by sporkng the mic, using
wireless commands, or even offing the whole team
in one go. This latter act of madness is also known
as raging or griefing.
Mods and scripts
Though ''Counter-Strike'' is itself a mod, it has
developed its own community of script writers and
modders. Some mods add Computer game bot bots,
while others remove features of the games which
some less-than-imaginative players found
annoying, while yet others create different modes
of play. Some of the most popular mods give server
administrators more flexible and efficient control
over his or her server. "Admin plugins", as they
are commonly called, have become very popular.
There are some mods which affect game play
heavily, such as Gun Game, where players start
with a basic pistol and must score kills to receive
better weapons, and Zombie Mod, where one team
consists of Zombies and must "spread the
infection" by killing the other team (using only the
knife). Other mods provide new weapon skins.
==Cheating==
Counter-Strike has been a prime target for
exploitation by cheaters since its release. In-game,
cheating is often referred to as 'hacking (though this
is not proper geek-speak- it is the coders, not the
end-users, of the cheats that might be rolled on as
hackers).
Typical cheats:
* Wallhacks, which allow the player to see through
walls. These work by altering the display driver to
display objects that are normally obscured.
* Speedhacks, which give the player increased
speed. These work by sending false
synchronization data to servers.
* Norecoil, which keeps the players gun shooting
straight without a kickback by removing gun
physics.
* Aimbots, which help the player aim at enemies.
These work by moving the player's view to
anticipate an enemy's position.
* ESP, which shows textual information about the
enemy, such as, health, name, and distance
* Barrel hack, which shows a line that depicts
where the enemy is looking
* Anti-flash and anti-smoke, which remove the
Hand_grenade#Stun_grenades flashbang and
Hand_grenade#Smoke_grenades|smoke grenade
effect.
* Grenade Dodger, which moves player farther or
closer to a grenade, depending on settings.
Valve Software|Valve has implemented an anti-
cheat system called Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC).
Cheating Noobies on a VAC enabled server risk
having their account permanently banned from all
VAC secured servers.
With the first version of VAC, a ban took force
almost instantly after being detected, and the
cheater had to wait 2 years to have the account
unbanned. Since VAC's second version, cheaters
are not banned automatically. Rather, they are
banned according to a delayed banning system, and
bans are never lifted. Many cheats are still not
detected by VAC, and often the only effective anti-
cheat device is a human administrator watching an
online game.
Cheaters beware- the next generation of ant-cheat
software could very well involve a Kiss-of-Death
Ant-Noobbot Ping Stng. Oh, that it were so. Well, I
can dream, can't I? What fun we could have...
That's all i have in this version of your C/S
educational series... But if you're serious
about applying more than noob-like skill to your
strategies in the world of counter-terrorism, then
get your fresh backside over to the merchandise
table and pick up your copy of the Counter-Strike
Source Guide complete with 60 pages of hard-core
strategy that will plummet your no-name persona
into instant gamer hall-of-not-so-lame. Includes 5
action-packed videos and growing. Get the full
scoop