Counter-Strike 2 has accidentally removed collaterals
In the CS2 Beta's recent updates, a perplexing glitch concerning bullet penetration and potential collateral kills has come to light.
While collateral frags have a long history in Counter-Strike, they appear to be impossible in Counter-Strike 2, at least temporarily. CS commentator Jack "Jacky" Peters found what is likely to be a bug and dissected it in a Twitter video.
A CS2 bug surfaces
Click to enlargeJacky's Twitter video clip was both an observation and an explanation for what is likely to be a bug. He demonstrated that in CS2 Beta, a bullet that should ordinarily pass through multiple player models curiously stops upon hitting any body part of a player, thereby negating any damage to a subsequent player.
This is a departure from the typical CS mechanics where, under the right conditions, players can achieve kills on two or more enemies with a single shot. It's most frequently observed by shots from the sniper weapon AWP.
These line-ups, while infrequent in matches, are celebrated moments of skill and precision but also sheer luck. Interestingly, Jacky's experiments revealed that bullet penetration remained consistent and effective through other in-game surfaces.
This peculiar inconsistency led the commentator to delve deeper and speculate on the cause behind this irregularity.
A solid explanation for the faux pas
After some meticulous sleuthing involving in-game console commands, Jacky unveiled what might be at the root of this problem. "It seems like the bullet is ignoring any contact with entities marked as 'playerflesh'," he claimed in his Twitter video.
Piecing together the puzzle, Jacky put forward a sound theory. He suggests that the game might currently be configured to prevent double-dipping of damage if a penetrating bullet was to strike two body parts of a single-player model. This could ensure fair gameplay and prevent accidental double damage from a single shot.
However, in their attempt to remedy this potential issue, the developers might have inadvertently cast a wider net, causing bullets to halt their trajectory upon hitting any player model, regardless of how many are lined up behind the first.
While Valve, the game developer, has not commented on the curious phenomenon, CS fans anticipate a fix soon. Given Valve's track record, it's likely only a matter of time before this glitch is ironed out in an upcoming patch.