I suck at Counterstrike

happyshark

I spent $30 on CS:S and day of defeat but I cant get my head around them. I just get completely destroyed. Obviously people have been playing this game for years so I have that against me. I mean, I'm a pretty good halo2 player but thats like apples and oranges......I'm playing the popular maps like dust2 and office. My latency is low, and my frame rate is high. Im missing something and I know it...halp

YodaTuna

You named the problem. People have been playing this game for years, longer than you've been Halo for damn sure. I played for nearly a year every day and I was still only a midrange player.

Aim for the head.
Fire in bursts.
Reload only when you know it's clear.
Don't rush unless the rest of your team is.
Never go anywhere alone.

Shurakai

I got CS:S in a package with HL2 a couple years ago and have hardly touched it since.

Online PC FPS multiplayer is leaps and bounds beyond console multiplayer in terms of skill and the inherent difficulty that can accrue thereof. Unless you are willing to practice until your hand falls off, I dont think its worth the effort. Or at least I didn't.

The best time to play a multiplayer FPS is right when it releases, since everyone is still confused about whats going on and they dont know the maps very well. I for one am waiting for Team Fortress 2 in that respect.

Lucky Cynic

YodaTuna wrote: »

Aim for the head.
Fire in bursts.
Reload only when you know it's clear.
Don't rush unless the rest of your team is.
Never go anywhere alone.

I'd also like to add always use some kind of cover. Be it running along side of a wall or something. Standing out in the open is just suicide but you'll never really find a spot that is perfectly safe, only safer.

Saved

CS takes a loooong time to get used to. It has one of the biggest skill gaps possible between a brand new player and an experienced player.

You'll probably find you'll do better on the larger/less popular maps where there's more room to get around the enemy and attack from an unexpected position. People have played Dust and Office so much that they've memorized pretty much every strategy that's going to be used against them, so it's very easy for them to predict your behaviour.

Zeromus

Take your time. Move around when you are in a shooting match with someone - don't just stand still or crouch.

Play reverse gun mod.

Hoz

CS is more about knowing how to play the maps than the game.

LewieP

When your learning, play in matches with teams of 3/4 people, and try to take a back seat as much as you can, watch your teammates and follow their actions.

All other advice so far is good too.

Hoz

Yeah, I've done very well with the "don't go in first" strategy.

Aqua Dark

I love CS, but have never been a good player. One thing that helps alot is playing reverse gun game like someone mentioned before. Crouching increases accuracy but leaves you dead in the water if you dont get a headshot.
Play less common maps.
Find deathmatch servers, while you still die alot you do not have to wait on respawns.
Become awsome w/ the awp, if you can awp like a pro then your gold. I know it is taboo but if you want to practice no scoping put a tiny tape dot on your screen where you would be aiming. Taboo, yes, but awsome for practice.

Spore Cloud

There isn't really a lot to learn in CS:S that you haven't already learned from just about any other FPS ever created. There are few things that are game specific but the things that stick out are what weapons are good/shit, where there is good cover, and what places are complete death traps.

As far as weapons go...

Pistols - Desert Eagle is the best, every other one is for the most part shit, especially the Glock

Rifles - AK-47 and the M4 are the best, they are team specific weapons. M4 CT and AK for the T's

SMGs - MP5 is a good all around weapon, its what you'll most often be using before you can afford a rifle

Sniper Rifles - AWP, AWP, and lets not forget the AWP. A weapon that can kill in a single shot unless that shot is in the toe or some shit, a weapon so over powered that some servers ban use of it.

EQUIPMENT - ALWAYS buy kevlar and helmet, grenades don't do as much damage as you hope they well, flash bangs can help you get easy kills under the right circumstances.

Hope this helps

BahamutZERO

I learned CS by playing with people from PA for a week or two every few months for the last three or four years. I'm still not great at it, but I like to think I'm competent. Playing with a group of people you know is so much more fun and better for learning the ropes than playing with random assholes.

Aqua Dark

Spore Cloud wrote: »

There isn't really a lot to learn in CS:S that you haven't already learned from just about any other FPS ever created. There are few things that are game specific but the things that stick out are what weapons are good/shit, where there is good cover, and what places are complete death traps.

As far as weapons go...

Pistols - Desert Eagle is the best, every other one is for the most part shit, especially the Glock

Rifles - AK-47 and the M4 are the best, they are team specific weapons. M4 CT and AK for the T's

SMGs - MP5 is a good all around weapon, its what you'll most often be using before you can afford a rifle

Sniper Rifles - AWP, AWP, and lets not forget the AWP. A weapon that can kill in a single shot unless that shot is in the toe or some shit, a weapon so over powered that some servers ban use of it.

EQUIPMENT - ALWAYS buy kevlar and helmet, grenades don't do as much damage as you hope they well, flash bangs can help you get easy kills under the right circumstances.

Hope this helps

Just rember fire slow w/ the deagle or else you will not hit anything due to recoil.

Matt!

CS is all about knowing the maps and understanding where your opponent is going to be.

Learn the maps, use the walk key when you don't know where your opponent is, and don't rush in too fast.

BahamutZERO

Heh, I remember one time on compound I think it was, I was T, we were rushing down the long hallway you reach if you go out the big doors from the T spawn and around a few corners, we were getting slaughtered by the CTs taking full advantage of their ability to get in great sniping positions and behind cover there. One round I somehow managed to run down the hallway like a maniac and kill all 3 or 4 CTs with a deagle and a hell of a lot of luck. It was silly.

TheSuperWoot

When I was learning how to play CS I found it easier to get used to one gun then move on to learning another one after getting competent with the first one. Doing it this way helped me learn the game a lot faster as i wasn't constantly having to remember how an AUG fires vs a mp5.

It can't be stressed enough that CS is all about map knowledge and control, because of this I'd also suggest maybe only playing a few of the more popular maps just to get started.

imbalanced

I find that the Sig and the Aug are the best two guns in the game. If you know the maps well, not only can you take frontal assaults, but you can also snipe people who don't know where you are. In order for them to work though, you HAVE to strafe your shot fire. Especially with the Sig.

But put me up against someone with an AK or M4 and I'll win a majority of the time. They just don't have a chance.

BahamutZERO

My favorite guns have always been the scoped rifles. And my favorite pistol has been the CT one with the huge clip since the time they rebalanced the pistols a bit.

YodaTuna

BahamutZERO wrote: »

Heh, I remember one time on compound I think it was, I was T, we were rushing down the long hallway you reach if you go out the big doors from the T spawn and around a few corners, we were getting slaughtered by the CTs taking full advantage of their ability to get in great sniping positions and behind cover there. One round I somehow managed to run down the hallway like a maniac and kill all 3 or 4 CTs with a deagle and a hell of a lot of luck. It was silly.

On my own, I flanked the entire CT team once and killed about 8 of them. That's my best CS story.

Aqua Dark

I love the servers w/ unreal and quake voices.

"Headshot!" or "Dominating!"

Look at what servers you play on, some servers are more noob friendly. If you get owned on one try another.

Hoz

The P90 is a god among SMGs.

BahamutZERO

Aqua Dark wrote: »

I love the servers w/ unreal and quake voices.

"Headshot!" or "Dominating!"

Look at what servers you play on, some servers are more noob friendly. If you get owned on one try another.

That's funny, I hate servers with unreal and quake voices. :P

SkyGheNe

There's more depth to CS than meets the eye and it is by far one of the more arcady shooters out there.

There are a lot of guides out there on youtube...many of them are horrible, but there are a few gems such as...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OZ2TI_13I4

Also - worldofpwnage.com offers a guide for money and it has gotten a lot of positive reviews from the community. Has video lessons and an e-book.

But yeah - don't get down about not holding up at first. Join a pub and try to have fun. Use an auto shotty and go to town :P

TheSuperWoot

BahamutZERO wrote: »

Aqua Dark wrote: »

I love the servers w/ unreal and quake voices.

"Headshot!" or "Dominating!"

Look at what servers you play on, some servers are more noob friendly. If you get owned on one try another.

That's funny, I hate servers with unreal and quake voices. :P

The worst ones are where you are stuck downloading mp3s for god knows how long.

expendable

Don't listen solely to what others say about weapons. It's all about your style as a player. Sure, they're generally right about the technical aspects of how weapons behave and how to use each one, but it comes down to being able to find stuff you're comfortable with.

For me, the Galil (the T rifle before the AK-47). I was a server-dominating machine with that. The same goes with the Bullpup and Krieg, though those are more expensive, I bought them less, but always picked them up when I found them.

Don't play Dust. Just don't. It's horrible as a map. Dust2 is okay, but way too popular, it's rather punishing to new players.

I like Office. I was a borderline Office whore. Office is a good map to learn when you're new, and you'll find yourself coming back to it. It's small, the routes are easy to figure out, and it's a great way to learn the game.

I'm also a fan of Cbble, Italy, and Nuke.

If you want to really practice headshots, play zombie servers.

Finding a regular server is a must. You get to know players, and if you find a good, solid server, regulars will recognize you as you play more, and some will start to help you out if you act intelligent and ask questions. Ill Skillz had some servers back in the day, and I played almost exclusively on those.

http://illskillz.techwarrior.org/forums/index.php?act=home

They're generally a good group. Mind you I haven't played in a few years.

There's also my old clan, =VX9=. They're multi-game, and I just played AA at the time, but they're a great bunch. Their website is being rebuilt (design changes, yay!) but here it is http://www.vx9.com/index.html

There's many others, but this is where I was commonly found.

I was never "good." I was probably average. I kept a frag rate of about 1 normally, but I had a bunch of spurts where I was in the top 5 on servers. Don't be afraid to experiment and get your ass handed to you. You'll learn from your mistakes, and who knows, you may be like me and find that you can do pretty damn well doing a Glock Rush

Panickd

I used to play CS:S regularly once I found a server where the players (and more importantly, admins) were a laid back group. It was fun and there wasn't any pressure from anyone to "perform" at a certain level. Everyone there recognized that it was just a game and we were all there to have fun. I played on that server for over a year before real life took it's toll on my game playing time. When I first started playing I would rank near the bottom every game (usually I was 3 or 4th worst player) but by the time that year was up I was consistently in the top 3 or 4. Now granted if I were to take the "skillz" that I picked up there to another server (and I did try once or twice), I would only be a middle ground player (unless I got hold of a sniper rifle).

Anyway the real point is that you can't compete with the jackasses that do nothing but play the game all day every day, and unless you're willing to give up your real life (and have the financial wherewithal to support such a lifestyle) you're better off finding a server where no one gives two shits how bad you suck.

zanetheinsane

Alot of the game is listening to footsteps and looking at the minimap. Although it's not true 3D (no up or down), the directional sound is very good. Once you learn the map, you can hear a single footstep and know exactly where someone is (that will be why you see people getting kills through walls legitimately sometimes).

Make sure you have a decent pair of headphones and use the walk key. There is a lot of twitch involved, but a large portion of the strategy is also knowing which way to point your gun beforehand.

UnKnown Soldier

Spore Cloud wrote: »

There isn't really a lot to learn in CS:S that you haven't already learned from just about any other FPS ever created. There are few things that are game specific but the things that stick out are what weapons are good/shit, where there is good cover, and what places are complete death traps.

As far as weapons go...

Pistols - Desert Eagle is the best, every other one is for the most part shit, especially the Glock

Rifles - AK-47 and the M4 are the best, they are team specific weapons. M4 CT and AK for the T's

SMGs - MP5 is a good all around weapon, its what you'll most often be using before you can afford a rifle

Sniper Rifles - AWP, AWP, and lets not forget the AWP. A weapon that can kill in a single shot unless that shot is in the toe or some shit, a weapon so over powered that some servers ban use of it.

EQUIPMENT - ALWAYS buy kevlar and helmet, grenades don't do as much damage as you hope they well, flash bangs can help you get easy kills under the right circumstances.

Hope this helps

Pump.mother.fuckin.shotty.

SolidGobi

My advice would be to learn the game using the P90 if you are good at games like Halo, kind of pretty familiar. It's a good gun and it does not really have to be fired in bursts to be effective. Me and a buddy learned the game that way. My buddy is much better then me but he spent an entire semester playing basically, so yeah it takes a lot of time to get good at CSS. I'm no pro but I think crouching to aim in a one on one fight has a better chance to kill the other guy if you are new to the game then strafing around and shooting would. Sure not the best long term strategy but it is a good way to sort of force yourself to aim. Oh here is something to help one better understand the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at2lvumG7T4

and part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppSfPWquSS0&mode=related&search=

happyshark

Is there a way to buy things faster? I spend a long time at the buy screen, more than anyone else it seems.

Aqua Dark

memorize the Hotkeys, my buddy can litterally be out of the buy screen in a second where as it takes me a minute. But if you take longer in the buy screen you wont be the first through the door.....

expendable

happyshark wrote: »

Is there a way to buy things faster? I spend a long time at the buy screen, more than anyone else it seems.

Learn the numbers. There's also scripts that can buy things automatically. That way, say F6 buys kevlar and helmet, and F7 buys primary ammo, etc.

I didn't use those much, I just remembered the numbers. B-2-1 for Galil, for example.

SkyGheNe

SolidGobi wrote: »

My advice would be to learn the game using the P90 if you are good at games like Halo, kind of pretty familiar. It's a good gun and it does not really have to be fired in bursts to be effective. Me and a buddy learned the game that way. My buddy is much better then me but he spent an entire semester playing basically, so yeah it takes a lot of time to get good at CSS. I'm no pro but I think crouching to aim in a one on one fight has a better chance to kill the other guy if you are new to the game then strafing around and shooting would. Sure not the best long term strategy but it is a good way to sort of force yourself to aim. Oh here is something to help one better understand the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at2lvumG7T4

and part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppSfPWquSS0&mode=related&search=

I don't really think the p90 is a good idea.

Stick to this set:

Deagle
MP5
Galil
Famas
Colt
AK
Awp
Scout

Feel free to dabble, but the p90 is really a joke for the most part.

SolidGobi

SkyGheNe wrote: »

SolidGobi wrote: »

My advice would be to learn the game using the P90 if you are good at games like Halo, kind of pretty familiar. It's a good gun and it does not really have to be fired in bursts to be effective. Me and a buddy learned the game that way. My buddy is much better then me but he spent an entire semester playing basically, so yeah it takes a lot of time to get good at CSS. I'm no pro but I think crouching to aim in a one on one fight has a better chance to kill the other guy if you are new to the game then strafing around and shooting would. Sure not the best long term strategy but it is a good way to sort of force yourself to aim. Oh here is something to help one better understand the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at2lvumG7T4

and part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppSfPWquSS0&mode=related&search=

I don't really think the p90 is a good idea.

Stick to this set:

Deagle
MP5
Galil
Famas
Colt
AK
Awp
Scout

Feel free to dabble, but the p90 is really a joke for the most part.

Trust me the P90 is better than the MP5 plus if you can get good at using it the Colt is easy to use. I only recommend it on maps where money is pretty easy to come by. Maybe that's why we disagree. The P90 is not a gun to stick to necessarily, but it is a great gun to use if you are only used to playing games like Halo. It's gun to make the Colt easier to use in the future. Also if you don't think the p90 is a good gun try rushing with it in office once or twice the results will speak for themselves. :P

dmauro

I couldn't find a GAME ON thread for CS:S. Is anyone regularly playing this (no mods, just default maps)? I would love to get some games in with some PA'ers.

nexuscrawler

On a closeup map like office the p90 rocks hard. Once you get past medium distance its accuracy blows though. It's huge clip makes spraying tempting but try not to unless you're very close. Keep in mind the longer clip will let you wait before reloading long than someone with a rifle. Keep a deagle and use that for longer range shots.

Other tips:

Careful where you reload but do it everytime you're fairly safe.

Headphones help you hear people around corners and such. That's how all the good players know where you are when you rush around the corner.

If you can't buy a gun just hang back for a minute or follow your teammates. Someone will die and drop a gun. Beats rushing in with a glock.

Don't try to be an awper till you're good. You'll just waste money and really suck at it. The scout is slightly easier to use for a new player.

The shotty is fun and you can jump around like a jackass while you shot it.

Learn sounds. Every gun has a very distinct sound. You can usually tell what you're up ahead of time. The Awp in particular has a very loud BOOM sound.

slacktron

Yeah, think of the P90 as a chainsaw. The closer you can get, the better.
It isn't very accurate, but on the plus side, this means it doesn't hurt your aim any if you simply dodge side-to-side and fill the hallway with bullets.

Lurk in the corners, wait to hear them coming, flashbang, rip 'em to shreds. Good fun. It's incredibly satisfying to see the 3-4 kills rack up on a single clip.

Oh, and if you're in a firefight and your rifle runs out of ammo, don't reload. Pull your pistol, kill everybody, then reload.

Edit: Where is my office spray? Here it is:

tarnok

Counterstrike taught me that the best place to shoot someone is in the back and the best time to do it is while they're shooting at your buddies.

btw, is it still possible to play the original CS without having to deal with Steam?

iusehappymod

I play plenty of CS with lots of very good players... I'm decent myself, certainly not the best of the best, but I've played with enough good people to know whats going on...

Aim for the head.

Listen.

With the M4, fire the first 6 shots at the head, and as you spray more, drag your aim down to their waist.

With the AK, the first two shots are dead on, (when you aren't moving) and then drag it down to their feet for best results.

Learn to avoid awpers. Learn to avoid flash bangs.

With those things, its gg, you win.

zanetheinsane

tarnok wrote: »

Counterstrike taught me that the best place to shoot someone is in the back and the best time to do it is while they're shooting at your buddies.

btw, is it still possible to play the original CS without having to deal with Steam?

Yes and no. There is a version we use at LANs that has to do with "CS 1.6 No Steam" that's pretty easy to find, but since there are no more master servers it's LAN only.

HyperAquaBlast

Hey anyone remember that YTMND that had some kid calling Valve saying his Counter-Strike was broken then broke into tears because he sucked really badly?

That was awesome.






Anywho I really got into CS when it was free for HL2 preorders but then dumped it like a two bit ho after HL2 came out. I try every so often but then those damn servers with the mp3 downloading sends me into a fit of rage.