Counter-Strike:Source

Hello, my name is Doug Lombardi and I am currently employed by Valve Software as VP of Marketing. In short what that means is I manage and coordinate third-party relations, marketing and other press activities.

It has been my understanding that the Counter-Strike: Source community (not only the competitive community) is under the impression that Valve is neglecting CS:Source. While it is true that Valve is focusing more on releasing new games and supporting said games, it is not our objective to kill games or in any way shape or form stop supporting them.

As proof of this I'd like to focus on how a recent exploit was found by the CS:S player base which would effectively crash a dedicated server. The exploit was promptly fixed and an update was sent to all Counter-Strike: Source players.

It's true however that there have been no recent content updates to the game and of course we know about the other bugs such as the hitbox alignment while planting the C4 while crouching/moving, defuse points being given before the side_win event, defuse kits blocking bomb defuses and other minor bugs like that.

I assure you that we will have all of those issues addressed by June 1st 2009. That is our deadline. We will also be adding more content to the game before then. In previous instances (Dynamic Weapon Pricing, Radar Change, etc.) we did not come in contact with the competitive community before releasing such changes. The competitive community is in fact pretty small compared to the rest of the CS:S community. However, we (Valve) do acknowledge that the competitive Counter-Strike community (both 1.6 and Source) are a very important part of the game. And thus it would be both rude and unwise to ignore it.

That is where this post comes in. This post serves to temporarily connect the competitive community with Valve. Here is a small list of things to expect prior to June 2nd:
A readyup system for matches (enabled with sv_readyup, sv_readyupcfg)
A match-finder type interface integrated into the game (outside of the Community system. In other words it will not require the overlay) which will be somewhat similar to the Left 4 Dead finder. However it will include settings for game-type, map, skill level and other misc. things (Please respond to what you think could make or break this feature!)
Achievements (like TF2, L4D, etc.)
Movement delay after jumping
Projectile "boosting" removed (however the development team is not planning on removing model-to-model "boosting" or "super boosting"
Bomb planting hitboxes will be fixed
Bomb defuse points/win events will be reversed
Dropped defuse kits will not prevent defuses
2 new player models (1 Counter-Terrorist, 1 Terrorist)
Purchasing weapons will no longer come with full ammunition
Weapon switch exploit will be fixed
We will be releasing some screenshots through the Steam Updates window on or around March 1st. It should include early versions of: new player models, readyup system and the match finder.

Then in mid-may we will likely have a beta version of some, if not all, of these features available to the public.

We at Valve hope that this post serves as a form of "heads up" or feedback forum. Will these changes improve the game? What would you say to the development team? We're really serious about speaking with the competitive community this time around so please reply with your thoughts. I will be checking up on this thread throughout the week and forwarding the feedback over to the Source team so they can re-evaluate things based on the feedback received.

If you choose to e-mail or call me then please understand I will not be in the office until Tuesday.

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Doug Lombardi
[email protected]
(425) 889-9642, ext. 160
VP of Marketing
Valve Software
Bellevue, Washington


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I spoke with the development team. They say that the last change affects the following weapons:

AWP
Scout
HE Grenade
Flashbang Grenade
Smoke Grenade

They say that if you shoot and then use the "last weapon used" button you can effectively get past animation sequences. At the moment the fix would force the client to go through the entire animation before being able to change weapons.


Orange Box engine has had some setbacks. I can't make an official statement on when it will be released for CS:S.

The jumping delay will make "bunnyhopping" much more difficult and/or impossible. It's considered a glitch by the development team.

Also, the animation bug with nades should also be fixed.