[Riser]

Lets move the discussion here.

Well since we moved away from admin abuse to actually getting better, here's a guide I used a really long time ago when I was still roaming the streets of cs_office. I had two people I looked up to, one of them was `Saur who was really active in a CSS community a long time ago but it died.

Unlike you, he got banned for being too good (he was unbanned) and he created a guide to help other players.

Here it is, a cached version.

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In light of my current ban, and with time to burn, I've taken it upon myself to finally get around to typing up this shooting guide I'd been planning on for some time. It has been created at the request of a handful of regulars from the WiH community. Some of whom I've already offered a few suggestions, and with noticable improvement.

Therefore, I now offer the community these simple principles to follow to keep you and your buddies alive in the (very) hostile world of Counter-Strike: Source.

This is kinda lengthy, so you may not want to read it in one sitting. Instead, take it a step at a time.

Here I've broken it down into the 3 core sections that I feel are relevant to better shooting.

1.) Hitboxes
2.) SAFE Shooting
3.) Training
+ notes

And so we begin...

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HITBOXES
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First and foremost, if you're going to start shooting accurately, you must make sure your hitboxes are in good alignment. This requires tweaking a few client-side command variables (cvars) to optimize your computers networking abilities. These are the 7 Core Cvars I feel are necessary for more accurate shooting:

rate
cl_rate
cl_cmdrate
cl_updaterate
cl_interp/cl_interpolate
cl_smooth

If you want a more detailed explanation of these cvars, you can check here: http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...hreadid=272677


For now, I'll simply offer my suggested values for these cvars. I assume the vast majority of you are on broadband, therefore, I'll provide values for broadband only. If you require further assistance, feel free to PM me.

I recommend:

rate 18000
cl_rate 18000
cl_cmdrate 85
cl_updaterate 64 //(wih's max allowed updaterate)
cl_interp 0 //(or .015625 [from 1/cl_updaterate])
cl_interpolate 1 //(1 = use cl_interp, 0 = don't use cl_interp. Turn to 0 if having severe hitbox issues)
cl_smooth 0

I went ahead and commented the comments out in case any of you decided to go ahead and C&P this to a .cfg. I suggest you put it in your autoexec.cfg. If you don't have one, make one via Notepad. Also, you'll wanna put the autoexec.cfg into your yournamehere/counter-strikesource/cstrike/cfg dir. If you name it "autoexec.cfg" it'll automatically apply the settings for you when you start CS:S, otherwise you'll have to type them into console manually every time you start CS:S.

You may have to experiment with the values a bit, but if you decide to, please read about their properties first at the link I provided above before you make any drastic chances. And to dispel a current myth, a cl_cmdrate of 5, 1, 0, or any low number like that isn't adviseable. While it does mask your ping and allow you to play on servers w/ ping limits, it hinders your performance as a player by limiting client-server communication. You can test this yourself by lowering your cmdrate and turning cl_interpolate to 0.

Now on to the juicy bits....


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SAFE Shooting
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This is my original acronym to good shooting in fps games. It works. I know, because I follow it to the letter. If it didn't, I wouldn't be as good as I am as a shooter (though I have a much longer road to quality shooting than many of you may believe).

In the beginning, it stood for Stop, Aim, Fire, Evade. It's a good message, but not quite what I was looking for. Sure, it's simple, and powerful, but the connotations weren't quite what I wanted. Anyway, I was reading one of Marcinko's books when I came upon one of his many one-liners and it stuck with me. As an adaptation for CS:S, it became:

Sight, Acquire, Fire, Evade

Now it has everything I could have wanted it to have. Allow me to break it down and explain it more thoroughly.

1.) Sight: You can't hit what you can't see, as the saying goes. This is why flashbangs, when properly utilized, are devastating tools of war. If used in a singular sense, sight merely means seeing, but, to take it a step further, it can also be used to mean mental perception, or awareness. Both definitions apply because you must be able to perceive the location of the enemy. I believe this to be the most important aspect of SAFE shooting.

In order to improve your "sight" you must develop situational awareness. Let's take a look at how the military defines SA.

According to the Navy, "Situational Awareness refers to the degree of accuracy by which one's perception of his current environment mirrors reality." I couldn't have said it better myself. Lol, though I must warn you... a developed SA will get you plenty of wallhax accusations. Many folks across many forums have remarked on my ability to find the "last man". I blame SA because it's SAFE. Situational Awareness Finds Enemies.

So, in order to have a strong SA, you've got to depend on your perception of actual reality -- of what you think is happening and what IS happening regardless of what you think.

Your perception (or Sight) therefore must come from not only your eyes, but by everything made available to you. Sight, sound, Radar, an AK shot, death of a team mate from the corner of your screen to the blip that just disappeared from your radar, where your team mates are positioned on your radar, and the areas you suspect are occupied. All this is information.

It's only fitting that we live in the Information Age. Business is capitalizing on it, the military is, our everday lives are affected by it one way or another. So it's only natural to employ the skills we have in reading information and applying it to our advantage in this game. It sounds complex, but it's not.

It's simple, and that's what makes it SAFE.

Pay attention to your environment. Know what the fux, who the fux, when the fux, how the fux, where the fux, and most of all, why the fux. You've got a HUD, CS:S has sounds, you know the maps, you know the camping hot spots, you know the Regulars and their favorite spots, you know so act off of what you know. Check those hot spots, watch for rushes, know when the enemy is afraid to come forward.

The way you use your information should be free of bias, but anchored with intelligent anticipation. That is the way to develop SA. That is the way of perception. That is the way of Sight.

2.) Acquire: Now that you know how to find your enemy, you must now know how to acquire him as a target. Acquiring your target means more than simply putting him in your crosshairs, although that's the key concept behind it. It's the step before actually fragging your opponent. The calm before the storm, the focus before the action. You literally prepare your opponent to be destroyed.

The most undesireable position is to be aiming at your opponent while he's trying to aim at you. A square up toe-to-toe match up. This is simply a test of aiming ability, a skill easily enough developed (over time, that is ) and I will go over that later on in this guide.

The BEST position is to be aiming at your opponent from his flank or back, catching him unaware. Sweeping away all his skill and techical know-how, dropping him in one fell shot, and moving on.

You do this primarily by timing. In order to have good timing, you'll have to know the map well, the "spawns" well, and the popular movements of both teams. Knowing the maps is default, basic stuff, knowing the spawns means knowing exactly where you are when you spawn at your spawn, and, if from that position, you can beat your opponents to another position.

A good example of this is on Office. When as a T, you spawn between the front double doors, you can easily rush to the office area before the CTs and set up your ambush there.

But it doesn't necessarily have to be an out-right surprise flanking maneuver. You also have the option of engaging the enemy directly, being careful to stay out of his crosshairs. Again, on Office, an excellent position for this is the Bathroom at the end of Long Hall. you can successfully guard both the Short Hall leading to Office or the Sniper Hall from the Stairs. (If you're skilled, you can even watch Garage forces, but if not, your team should be able to hold that easily enough).

The cabinets are what provide you the cover you need for the advantage. They guard you from snipers, and remove a firing angle from your opposition. You, however, can shoot them as they enter from the stairs, or as they move into position to assault the Long Hall. Most of the time, you can catch them off guard this way.

You acquire your target by disrupting his timing and using your own to your advantage. Just when they think its clear to come Sniper Hall, you throw a few rounds at'em and rush back to Short Hall as their grenades go off in Bathroom. But you don't stop, because as you round the corner, there's a couple in Short Hall either aiming for you or for Long Hall. You take them out as well, and quickly move back in position. You do this back 'n forth until A.) They're all dead, B.) You're overwhelmed and must retreat or C.) one hall clears.

C is your objective. Say Sniper hall is clear, you move behind the cabinets, flash the stairway (in case of stragglers) then move to the hall junctioning the two and flank the Short Hall force. Vice versa. (There's a tidbit for Jeff who wanted some Office ideas )

Now that's simply a tactic for holding Office as a T, but it applies to SAFE. SAFE is tactics. Everything in SAFE is interconnected and blends in with each other. But the concepts you should remember are upsetting your opponents rhythm, whether by harassment, surprise, threat 'n danger (as in 'oh fux i have a glock and he has an awp :O') and developing your own rhythm (such as the spawn example).

You can develop your own rhythm in all instances, whether spawn rushing, weapon combos, routes, camp spots, etc. But remember to keep your rhythm fluid and changing, and not stagnant and predictable. Most of all, don't allow your opponent to disrupt you. Take comfort in your abilities and know that the opponents you face have nothing to do with whether or not you can take them down.

3.) Fire Ahh, yes. The destruction of opposition. My personal favorite among the SAFE methods -- and it just makes sense. The SAFEst way to keep yourself safe is to eliminate the threats against you. And in CS:S, you can't negotiate the threat away. Oh, heaven's no. You blast it away.

But Firing in CS:S can be a little different than in other games. Again, I'll digress a moment to remind you that my former acronym was Stop, Aim, Fire, Evade. I chose "Stop" because I felt it was integral to not move while you took your shots. But then the aforementioned realization came to me that it's not always the case. There have been many times where I've had to keep moving and shooting, tactically of course, to defeat my opponents. As any of you popular rushers would know, it's and integral feature to SMGs. And lately, I've been experimenting with running shots with the deagle and have had marked success.

But to serve the purposes of better shooting, and as a tribute to one of my favorite weapons, I'll say this about the AK-47. You want to do a 2 round burst MAX at medium to longer ranges ranges. The first shot is extraordinarly accurate, and the second shot is usually the killer. Sometimes it takes up to 4 hits to kill with the ak. That's only 2 bursts.

Be wary even at closer ranges. A fully automatic AK is horribly inaccurate. 5 round bursts... very. 3-4 maybe. And don't jump with the thing for crying out loud. :T

Fire, strafe left, fire, strafe right, fire. 6 shots, more than enough to kill anything that moves. Simple. Powerful. That's why I like the AK. It's SAFE to use.

4.) Evade: Also, in order to survive in CS:S, there will be times when you and your team are overwhelmed, outgunned, and outnumbered. But it's possible that you can not only survive the situation, but thrive on it, and become better for it. I can attest to this personally because I've single-handedly decimated 9, 10, 11, and even 12 players flying solo. Against a well organized team, it's almost hopeless, but since for the vast majority of the time you'll be playing in pubs, hopefully you'll be able to play off their inherent lack of communication.

Always try to use as much cover as possible, or at least unique areas that are unexpected by the opposition. When you fire your shots, move. When they fire at you, move. When you know they're gonna rush, move and get in position to mow'em down. Always keep moving, pausing only to destroy your enemy (ambushes/aiming/firing/etc), whether by walking or running. And don't forget to use the sound you make to your advantage. Just like Snake in Metal Gear, lure your opponents to their doom by running or firing a shot, or reloading or something. When strong, appear weak as Sun Tzu says.

When you're being over run, dance circles by running all the way around them (something unexpected) instead of "away" from them. Or when rounding a corner, immediately stop, crouch, hug the wall, and shoot'em as they rush around it expecting you to be long down the hall. Evading isn't hiding. It's repositioning yourself to gain tactical advantage and then taking the initiative.

Finally, that concludes SAFE shooting. I hope it wasn't too much of a disappointment, some of the principles may seem barren or obvious, but really they're overlooked and underappreciated.

I know that was a lot, but to recap:

Sight
- Situational Awareness
- Check camping hotspots intelligently
- Watch Radar
- Listen to Sound
- Pay attention to frag reports on screen
Acquire
- Timing, aiming, & breaking rhythm.
- Win by surprise.
Fire
- Fire intelligently by weapon or situation
- burst shooting for rifles
- up close 'n personal for SMGs/shotties.
Evade
- Keep moving
- Set up ambushes


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ON TRAINING
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I know some of you may have been disappointed by the lack of "something-to-do" with the above material, that's coming up shortly. But seriously, read the above if you haven't. It's good stuff. Most importantly, think that I've written this just for you. Don't try to memorize everything here as a guide to gameplay, because it's merely a guide. It can't cover all eventualities. Instead, believe that you've reached these methods yourself -- and improve on them. Don't imitate. You've got the know-how. Think about the concepts behind SAFE shooting and try to implement them into your CS:S gameplay.

Improving Aim (Getting those Headshots!)
Now that you've both aligned your hitboxes and familiarized yourself with the principles of SAFE shooting, you can begin training to improve your aim.

There are a few things you need to pay close attention to. They are: The first shot, reflex shooting, weapons, and recovery.

Below, I go into more detail... (tired yet? lol)

The First Shot...
For learning to make that first shot count, I recommend, no not sniping, though it's good, but the deagle. In essence, you're firing a first shot every time. You have to click and maintain aim every time. I suggest the deagle because it's powerful enough to carry you throughout the round and has the range you'd come to expect from using rifles. Other pistols just aren't strong enough (until you get hs good). You should be able to frag at least 3 people with the deagle per round.

Sometimes using a deagle to practice isn't practical. So try and select the rifle you wish to practice (because they are different). Again, work on acquiring your target first, THEN firing. Because, as Marcinko says, the Fire, Aim, Ready method is bullfeces... and, as I say, its FAR from accurate.

Developing Reflex Shooting...
Sometimes it's better to select the losing team to develop speed shooting, or reflex shooting, or twitch shooting, whatever it is you call it (you'll know you're developing it correctly when others call it aimbot ) The reason for this is because losing adds a sense of urgency to each round, and the potential for danger is high. Threat response trains speed. The knowledge that you have to act faster and more accurate than your opponent demands your nerves to react faster. But in order to train reflex shooting, specifically for headshots, you've got to first practice headshots.

For headshots, select the FAMAS and set it to 3 round burst. This is a natural skull buster if I ever saw. Don't let it's short ammo clip get you killed, it's an 8 shooter.

This is where ASMS comes into play, from the Patriot, Aim Small, Miss Small. Aim for their head, and don't miss. If you have a deagle or famas, there's little room for error. A mistake will cost you your round. But in practice, you shouldn't let this get you frustrated. Instead, when your time comes and you must spectate the rest of the round out, reflect on what you did and what happened.

Actively try to aim for the head. Force yourself to move the cursor onto your opponents face and THEN fire. At first, you'll be as slow as molasses in december. But gradually, you'll get faster and faster. It'll be hard at first. Everything's hard at first. But you WILL get better because you're training your nervous system not just to act 'n react, but to interact and respond under pressure. 

Weapons...
In order to develop accurate aiming, you'll have to familiarize yourself with the variety of weapons CS:S has to offer. I don't advise randomly selecting any weapon, or a weapon you don't normally use. Instead, do it in a planned, methodical manner so that you can measure your success.

I advise that you choose a set of Core Weapons and incorporate them as your main arsenal. Train in them and only them. For example, master the Glock and USP since they are the default weapons at the beginning of any map. Or perhaps the Deagle.

Also, do weapon combos. Work M4A1/USP action or /deagle. AK/Glock. Get used to switching between weapons in combat, and get used to dropping dry weapons for others scattered around you. This has saved me a number of times.

It's faster to switch to your pistol, or to drop and pick up another weapon than to reload. Investigate this for yourself thoroughly

Recovery...
Training for better shooting is just like training anything else. You need to give yourself a break from time to time. Most of you can do this easily enough because you have your lives to attend too. When training you'll have to do it rigorously to shock your nervous system into action, but you MUST stop before fatigue. And yes, you can get fatigued playing CS. You can tell when you are getting fatigued when you're not doing nearly as well. When you're getting caught off-guard, having no "luck" or just plain sucking. You'd do more benefit in developing skill by stopping and taking a break than by continuing gameplay.

In fact, every so often, put CS or any of your games off for a week. Yes, a whole week. That'll give your CNS plenty of time to develop the neural networks it needs to produce the results you desire. It's not psycho mumbo jumbo. It's physical fact. When you get back, you'll actually be better.


Conclusion...
As the saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And you can only proceed step by step. So don't rush it. Don't try to run when you're learning to walk. Think. Put to practices these tenets today and leave behind the poorly skilled tomorrow and over come the skilled later. When you begin to unconciously take shots accurately, even headshots, in surprise or what not, you will know you're closer to mastering reflex shooting. Remember, until you've internalized these techniques, and until you've investigated them for yourself, you won't get any better.


For now, that's enough. I'll let you chew on that for a little while before I move on to tactics & strategy. It's almost 8 and I've got dinner at the Red Lobster and a movie planned for the evening

GL & HF

<3 Saur