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Maps

The maps in Counter-Strike determine the gameplay and mission objectives. There are three official types of maps in Counter-Strike:

Terrorist Escape maps were tested in the beta, where the terrorists' started in a jail and had to reach a checkpoint within a time limit, finding better weapons along the way. It was discontinued as it gave the counter-terrorist side too much of an advantage. During beta, player-controlled vehicles were tested on a racing map which was also discontinued.

Professional tournaments only involve bomb defusal maps. The Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Source map de_dust2 is currently the most played first person shooter map in history. [citation needed]

There are hundreds of unofficial prefixes in Counter-Strike now, including:

Players also have the ability to create their own maps using the Valve Hammer Editor.

Weapons

One of the features of the original incarnations of Counter-Strike was that it did not feature fictional weapons like most games, instead using only existing firearms used the world over by real terrorist cells, counter-terrorist squads, armed forces, and law enforcement units.

The weapons are, however, only semi-realistic; many of them are incorrect in small details such as the caliber of ammunition or in their naming. Part of the reason for straying from realism is to balance the game; the Glock 18 pistol for instance lacks the auto fire mode as that would have given the player a potent submachine gun, the Five-seveN and P90 lack Kevlar piercing capabilities, the Colt M4A1 Carbine had its scope removed since it was positioned as a closer-range assault rifle in contrast to the Steyr AUG, and SIG 552 is not used by real terrorists (because of its high price). The Beretta Elite 96G dual pistols (the game incorrectly lists the ammunition as 9 mm instead of .40 S&W) and Desert Eagle are not practical weapons for special operations and were added as a homage to popular movies.

Others do not operate their firing movement quite as their real-life counterparts do, and many of them are inaccurately 'mirrored', wherein the spent cases are ejected from the wrong side of the weapon. This is attributed to the fact that one of the designers was left-handed, and modeled the weapons being held in the left hand. They were then mirrored to the right side, resulting in these inaccuracies. The Counter-Strike team acknowledges that "not every weapon will be perfectly accurate or realistic".

When early versions of the mod were released, the weapons were presented in the menus with their actual names and manufacturers such as Colt M4A1 and AK-47, but versions from 1.6 on featured fictional manufacturers (and some models) instead, such as "Maverick M4A1" and "CV-47" respectively. Fictional names had to be made up as the actual weapon names were trademarked by their respective manufacturers. However, the internal names used by the developer's console, key bindings and macros were not changed and thus often preserve the original designations; for example, the "Bullpup" (Steyr AUG) is still named "aug" internally, and so is the M4A1.

List of weapons

Counter-Terrorists

Terrorists

Players are permitted to carry a pistol as a sidearm and primary weapon, whether it be a shotgun, submachine gun, rifle or machine gun. Shotguns are useful in a handful of maps for ambush situations. Submachine guns are affordable and moderately effective at medium and short ranges, but ineffective against armored players at longer ranges. Rifles are generally the most expensive weapons, however they are long-ranged and can penetrate crates and doors.

The Desert Eagle is unique among pistols in the fact that it can penetrate soft objects (such as wooden crates and doors) like rifles. The P90 has the second largest magazine (the largest magazine belongs to the M249 and its belt-feed system) of any weapon in the game. After several rounds, with enough money accumulated, players opt for the assault rifles, most commonly the M4A1 and AK-47, and the next most popular being the scoped AUG and SG 552.

With the exception of the Steyr Scout, sniper rifles will significantly weigh down a player's movement, so one member of the team will perform a sniping role. The most popular is the AWM (often misnamed the AWP) which is much feared since it can kill an enemy with one shot, with the Steyr Scout being a less powerful but lighter and cheaper alternative. The G3SG/1 and SG 550 are less powerful than the AWM but are semi-automatic and have the option of full-automatic fire, thus giving room for error. (The G3SG/1 and SG 550 Sniper are classified as sniper rifles in the game, but they are properly named battle rifles due to their large size and auto fire capabilities.)

Cheating

Counter-Strike has been a prime target for exploitation by cheaters since its release. In-game, cheating is often referred to as 'hacking' in reference to program or 'hack' executed by the user.

Typical cheats are:

Valve has implemented an anti-cheat system called Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC). Players cheating 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 permanent. Many cheats are still not detected by VAC, and often the only effective anti-cheat device is a human administrator watching an online game; however, it can be very difficult to differentiate between skill, luck and cheating (however, there are some obvious signs – for example, if a player's screen shakes all the time while being spectated, they are most certainly using an aimbot) and server admins only have the power to ban users from their server. VAC, while being effective in some ways, has also provided a boost in the purchasing of private hacks. These hacks are updated frequently, as to prevent detection, and are only available to those who pay to use them.

Player skins

Before a player may join a match, he or she must first choose a faction (either Counter-Terrorist (CT) or Terrorist (T)) and select one of the following player model skins, a visual representation of the player in-game.

Counter-Terrorists: Counter-terrorist player skins are based on real-world international counter-terrorist forces.

Terrorists: Terrorist player skins are based on fictitious terrorist cells.

A former terrorist skin was the Irish Republican Army. The old SEAL model was similar to the current GIGN model, though the SEAL had a darker uniform and thicker vest.