Hostage

“Okay, I'm ready, let's do it.”
―Hostage^[src]

A hostage is a type of NPC in the Counter-Strike series. They are the objectives in hostage rescue scenarios. Counter-Terrorists must rescue the hostages by bringing them to a hostage rescue zone or eliminating Terrorists, and the Terrorists must prevent the CTs from extracting the hostages by either running down the clock or eliminating the CTs.

Gameplay and history

Counter-Strike Beta

Since hostage rescue is the first scenario ever created for the series, hostages have been appearing since the Counter-Strike Beta. Originally, their role was somewhat different. Although still requiring to be rescued by Counter-Terrorists, the round win wasn't determined by it. In fact up until the fourth beta, hostages were nothing more but a means to earn more cash at the end of each round, should the team earning the bonuses win the round by eliminating the opposing team.

Hostages weren't automatically rescued, requiring user input once they'd reach their spawn point as separate hostage rescue zones were not implemented until the second beta. Even then, the interface didn't show that the player was in a hostage rescue zone making it difficult to know when hostages could be rescued. Perhaps as an artifact of the lack of separate zones, maps that lack separate hostage rescue zones will still substitute the Counter-Terrorist spawn points as hostage rescue zones.

Originally the hostage path finding was also considerably worse and hostages would often get stuck in walls, doors or surfaces. However, perhaps to compensate for the poor navigation, hostages had the ability to scale walls in order to keep up with the player. Hostages could also be moved by Terrorists and be used as meat shields when needed. They could also be moved around simply by walking up against them. The third beta saw a significant improvements for hostage path finding.

The gameplay was overhauled at the fourth beta, hostages became more than a simple monetary and became the keystone of the rescue scenario we know today. 50% of the hostages had to be rescued by the Counter-Terrorists to ensure their victory, otherwise the match victor would be either determined by elimination or running down the clock, which in most cases would lead to Terrorist victory.

The fifth beta would cause any hostage entering in contact with the hostage rescue zone to be rescued, no longer requiring Counter-Terrorist input. Hostages were also given new models as so far, all the hostages re-used the Half-Life scientists model or the G-Man model.

The sixth beta finally introduced a kick penalty for killing hostages, as it was common practice for Terrorists, despite the presence of a monetary penalty, to execute hostages so that the match outcome would be solely determined by elimination.

Counter-Strike

The full release of Counter-Strike kept most of the core changes that were brought over the course of the beta. Hostages are held in a Terrorist stronghold and must be rescued by Counter-Terrorists by being led to a hostage rescue zone. Counter-Terrorists are either required to eliminate the entire opposing team or rescue ALL of the hostages before time runs out (at-least half amount of hostage should some have died). Any other scenario lead to a Terrorist victory.

In Counter-Strike 1.4 a few changes were implemented to the hostage AI. For one, hostages stop following the player should they be too away from their position, unlike previous versions where hostages will attempt to follow even from very far ranges. The general way they follow the player was also made more realistic and smooth which included removing the ability for hostages to scale walls. Finally as of this version, Terrorists can no longer approach and make hostages follow them.

Counter-Strike (Xbox)

The Xbox version of the game did not bring any significant changes other than giving each hostage rescue map a different hostage model and giving said hostages new quotes.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

When Counter-Strike: Condition Zero was originally released, the hostage rescue scenario was identical to that of the original Counter-Strike. However, in version 1.2 a major change was made to the scenario.

Although the core of the hostage rescue scenario hasn't changed, Turtle Rock Studios' newly implemented hostage AI has brought significant changes to the gameplay of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.

Hostages received significantly improved mobility, gaining the ability to jump, crouch, and crawl to reach their intended destination. This opened up additional rescue routes that were previously impossible due to the limitation of the hostage AI in the previous games. Their navigation is improved compared to Counter-Strike.

Hostages also received a much wider array of lines and reacted to their environment and situation.Counter-Terrorists would be warned of nearby Terrorist presence, waved at and called to indicate current location and constantly ask to be saved and/or encourage their rescuer. Hostages can also be told to follow from a distance unlike any other game in the series, as it required face-to-face interaction.

Atop of being discouraged and talked into surrendering, Terrorists would have to pay much closer attention to the hostages as when left unguarded, they would wander off and attempt to reach the Hostage rescue zone on their own or contact the nearest Counter-Terrorist. A Terrorist can force back a hostage to his initial captivity point by having a crosshair pointed at them. Terrorists can also know when hostages are being rescued as they speak to their rescuers.

Hostages also react to grenades. They will yell when blinded by Flashbangs, cough when passing through a smoke grenade's smoke and run for their lives when being near a live HE grenade. Out of self-preservation, they also cower when being near firefights and run when injured. Hostages can also be pushed around by Terrorists instead of staying unmoving.

Since this updated logic is based on the bot AI, the absence of a bot navigation file for the map will revert the hostage logic to that of the original Counter-Strike.

On the other hand, hostages in the Deleted Scenes are closer to their Counter-Strike counter-parts. Although not having as many features, they are critical to hostage rescue scenarios as a single one of them dying automatically results in mission failure. Their model and language depend on the setting and location of the mission.

Counter-Strike: Source

Counter-Strike: Source, while still developed by Turtle Rock Studios, opts away from the AI introduced in Condition Zero to revert back to the original simple behavior of the hostages. The hostages have models recycled from Half-Life 2, quotes recycled from Condition Zero, and improved navigation AI compared to the hostages from Counter-Strike, but without the more advanced interactions seen in Conditon Zero. In addition, gameplay has been altered so that if hostages died during the match, Counter-Terrorists can still win by rescuing the remaining ones (however if only one hostage is rescued and the remaining three die, the Counter-Terrorists will not win).

Unlike in Counter-Strike and in Condition Zero. If the map has no bot navigation file, the hostages will never move and makes winning by rescuing hostages impossible.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

During the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta and during the first year after release, the Hostage rescue scenario and hostages worked and behaved the same way they did in Counter-Strike: Source. This was changed during the March 21, 2013 update, where the rules of the mode and the hostage "behavior" received a massive overhaul.

All Hostage Scenario games no longer had four hostages, but instead had two that would be assigned to random positions from an array of spawn points on the maps. The hostages are on their knees and tied, and are no longer escorted, but instead carried by CT operatives on their backs. Rescuing them requires a CT player to reach them, untie them in a process that takes 4 seconds (1 with the Rescue Kit, 5 seconds in Co-op Strike), and finally carry them to the hostage rescue zone. The untying process produces a sound anyone can hear. If a CT dies while carrying a hostage, then that united hostage can be picked up by another CT player after a 1 second pick up process regardless if they have a Rescue Kit or not.

Only one hostage can be carried by one CT player at a time and only one rescue is needed to secure CT victory, though another Counter-Terrorist can rescue the other hostage for an extra monetary reward.

Hostages are also now invulnerable, but still induce cash penalties when wounded or killed (should the right console commands be called). When carried, the rescuer will be slowed down significantly, with one additional minute added to the round timer as compensation.

Outside of the multiplayer Hostage Scenario, hostages can also be found in co-op Guardian missions.

Rewards and penalties

~ There is no limit to how much damage a hostage can take. Even if the damage is higher than their health, money will still be deducted for every point of damage dealt. This can result in extreme cash penalties for a single hostage casualty. For instance, a point blank AWP headshot will result in a -$11980 penalty.

The maximum amount of damage a hostage can take per shot is 100, thus -$3000 is the maximum penalty per shot. Because hostages cannot die and cannot die under normal circumstances, it is possible to lose an infinite amount of money by hitting hostages. If damage is enabled through console commands, one can have a maximum penalty of -$4000 for killing a hostage (Health * Damage Penalty + Death Penalty)

Update History

Appearance(s)

The Counter-Strike Beta re-used a lot of assets from Half-Life. This extended to the hostage models, reusing the scientist models for the most part and the G-Man model on rare occasions. The orange jumpsuit Worker (also known as construction worker) and African American Suit models commonly used in the retail version were added later in the 5th Beta, their model is simply known as "Hostage".

The models used in the retail versions are the same as the Beta. With the High Definition Pack made available to Counter-Strike, when high definition models are enabled, all scientist and G-Man models will be swapped with their Half-Life HD counterpart. This does not apply to the Worker or Suit models as they are not part of the Half-Life High Definition Pack.

The Xbox version of Counter-Strike features higher shader version of Ritual Entertainment models. "US Gal", "Businessman", "NPC" and "Worker" renamed to "Blonde" and "Latina" for the first one, Businessman staying the same, "NPC" to "Young Businessman" and "Worker" to "Jumpsuit". "Schoolgirl" remains the same.

It is not known for a fact which models Ritual Entertainment's build would have utilized but it is likely that the orange jumpsuit hostage model was to be used.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero introduced four new models for Hostages, all four workers in orange jumpsuits and blue jeans of varying ethnicity: "HostageA", "HostageB", "HostageC", "HostageD"

Ritual Entertainment included a wide array of models and variants for use as hostages even including Counter-Terrorists being held hostage. The known models are as follows: "US Gal", "Businessman", "Schoolgirl", "NPC", "Seal Scientist", "Japcop scientist", "Worker", "Worker-Pilot".

The Counter-Strike: Source hostage models and face maps are recycled Half-Life 2 citizen models, both retail and beta:

• The first model re-uses the face map of the cut character Samuel, modelled after former Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm developer Art Min. Model male 05 in the citizen list.
• The second model re-uses the face map of Winston, modelled after former Valve employee Sandro Consi. Model male 06 in the citizen list.
• The third model re-uses the face map of the cut character Captain Vance, modelled after basketball strength and conditioning coach Joe Cairo. Male 08 in the citizen list.
• The fourth model re-uses Dr. Kleiner's beta face map, "Cohrt".

Five variants of one hostage model exist in the current version of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, all are wearing orange jumpsuits, are bare feet and tied, forced to wear a blindfold. Hostages also show signs of abuse as indicated by their bruises. Four other variants wearing suits are also present in the game files, but only function correctly on the console versions of the game and on PC beta versions preceding build 1.17.1.3, due to a bug in newer releases of the PC version that restricts these models from loading correctly. While all the current models are forced into their knees and static, the console versions of the game still feature them standing as said versions never receive any updates.

Achievements

Console commands

Bugs and exploits

• During the Counter-Strike Beta, hostages would often be used as platforms, allowing their leaders to reach normally inaccessible areas of the map.
• Ping of Death bots will kill hostages should they block their paths.
• If forced into a cramped space, a hostage may become stuck. Although they cannot be moved by anyone, there is a small chance that they automatically reappear at their spawn point.
• Due to a lack of multiple hitboxes, the G-Man model possessing only one cannot be headshot. All damage dealt to him will be considered chest/arms damage.
  • In addition, the G-Man model lacks any death animations. This causes him to remain in an idle animation on death without any collision.
• Early and Beta versions of Counter-Strike allow players to "steal" other people's hostages by pressing the use key on already following hostages, causing them to change rescuer.
• A visual bug in Counter-Strike: Condition Zero causes dying hostages to replay their death animations after leaving and re-entering the room they were in.
• Activating the debug mode for hostages in both Counter-Strike: Source and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for Terrorists to lead and carry hostages. This feature is bugged in the latter game as carrying the hostage will spawn a duplicate atop of the carrier, preventing any movement until the hostage is dropped (on death) or until the user noclips.
• If a hostage is killed in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive after mp_hostages_takedamage is enabled, their ragdoll will clip halfway through the ground atop of having a duplicate play the kneeling animation a last time before disappearing.

Trivia

• The Counter-Strike: Source hostages are the only in-game characters in the entire franchise to have full facial animations. All other characters have either static expressions, mouth only movement or are only seen in trailers.
  • Originally Counter-Strike: Source's playermodels would have facial animation as well. This was later cut due to unnecessity. The Valve leak included unused facial-expression models that was last edited on 2006 suggesting they originally would update the models.^{[citation needed]}
• The Suit hostage model introduced in the Counter-Strike Beta was used to create the VIP playermodel.
• Arabstreets and Motel are the only multiplayer maps in the series to feature DOA hostages.

Behind the scenes

• Unused quotes from the hostages in Deleted Scenes suggest that wounded hostages would be either slowed or immobilized, requiring first aid before moving any further. Said quotes thank the player for giving them a "shot". This suggests that either the Syringe gun or the Portable Medkit were to be used on hostages.
• The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Beta features four other hostage variants wearing semi-formal suits. These models were used for Office but were ultimately removed and replaced with the four original variants on release.
  • A console error occurs when loading any maps featuring hostages, stating that the game failed to load the map's hostage models. This indicates that each map was to have its own hostage models, a feature seen in Counter-Strike (Xbox).
• The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Game files in "characters" foulder there four hostage models that was meant to be hostage in canceled console port version of Counter-Strike: Source, These hostage models seen on development screenshots, however, they still show up in the Hammer Editor when you place a hostage.

References

External links

• Hostage at Wikipedia
• Hostage entity on Valve Developer Community
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