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A hostage is an artificially intelligent NPC in the Counter-Strike series.

OverviewEdit

Hostages are the basis of the Hostage rescue scenairo. After a group of Terrorists capture them, the Counter-Terrorists must safely escort them to a nearby Hostage rescue zone, while the Terrorists must prevent them from doing so.

Counter-StrikeEdit

A hostage will follow any Counter-Terrorist if the use key (default = E) is pressed on them. They will not stop following their rescuer until the use key is pressed again, the player is killed, or they get separated. Once a hostage has stopped, they will remain stationary. The AI was modified from the original NPC monster code used in Half-Life. Hostages are the only unique NPCs in the game.

Counter-Strike: Condition ZeroEdit

Turtle Rock Studios introduced new AI for the hostages. In addition to similarities of Counter-Strike, these hostages are able to wander around their detention point, escape on their own (though rarely), and warn Counter-Terrorists of nearby Terrorists.

They can also climb ladders, crawl into air vents, and traverse through other tight spaces. In fact, they will crouch and avoid being targeted if they are caught in the middle of a gunfight. They were also given a "coward attitude", which forces them to go back to their detention point if a Terrorist witnesses them attempting to escape or a firefight occurs in the area.

Notably, hostages react differently to each team; hostages will shout and wave to get the attention of Counter-Terrorists while they will respond in fear by trembling if targeted by terrorists. If a hostage sees both a CT and senses a Terrorist nearby, that hostage will give off a warning by shaking his head silently and wait until the Terrorist is eliminated or has moved away.

Often times, they utter phrases such as "Why are you doing this?" and "I'll do whatever you want, just please don't hurt me" to any Terrorist while for the Counter-Terrorists, hostages will say "When can we get out of here?" and other quotes.

The hostages are also sensitive to each type of grenade. If an HE grenade is thrown into their sight, they will shout, "Watch out! Grenades!". If a Flashbang explodes in their sight, they will shout, "Oh my eyes!" and "I can't see!". If a Smoke grenade spreads near them, they will begin to cough.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Deleted ScenesEdit

Although unavailable in multiplayer game, the hostages still exist in missions. Every hostage rescue missions have different hostage models. For example in mission Recoil, the hostage is a Delta Force Sniper. He can climb ladders and fire his grabbed Steyr Scout.

Counter-Strike: SourceEdit

With the exception of new models and sounds, the hostages in Counter-Strike: Source are identical to the ones found in Counter-Strike. All changes made in Counter-Strike: Condition Zero are non-existent.

Counter-Strike: Global OffensiveEdit

Before the March 21st 2013 update, the hostages behaved the same way as in Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Source. They were completely static and did not react to their surroundings. The most notable change was their overall appearance. This includes having bandages covering their faces and rope tying their hands together.

On the March 21st update, however, the Hostage rescue scenario was completely overhauled. Now, each map only has two, rather than four hostages. These NPCs are spawned randomly at designated areas (generally near the Terrorist spawn zone). This spot is then used for the hostages for the entirety of the match. The hostages still remain in the same spot, but now they kneel down rather than stand up. The rules have been changed as well. In order for the Counter-Terrorists to win the round, only one hostage needs to be rescued.

But, the player must carry this hostage in order to rescue them. Even before that, they must "untie" his hands, taking four seconds (one with the new Rescue kit). The Counter-Terrorist carrying the hostage can still use his weapons but his movement speed will be drastically reduced. If someone is killed while carrying a hostage, the hostage will be "dropped" at the spot and remain unharmed. This overhaul to the game mode was in order to make it more balanced, an issue since the original Counter-Strike.

There is also reused radio announcement from Beta and retail Counter-Strike that broadcasts "Hostage down!" when a player kills a hostage.

CurrencyEdit

TasksEdit

RewardsEdit

Task	Individual Reward	Team Reward
Leading a hostage	$150	N/A
Rescuing a hostage	$1000	$150 (at the end of the round)

PenaltiesEdit

Task	Penalty
Injure a hostage	-$150
Kill a hostage	-$1500
Kill 5 hostages	Kick

GalleryEdit

Main article: Hostage/Gallery

TriviaEdit

Four of the Counter-Strike hostage models use Half-Life scientist models, while all of them share the same animations as the Half-Life scientists while it appears hostages use the scientists coding and A.I. modified.
The Counter-Strike: Source hostage models are based on the beta versions of the Citizens and Dr. Kleiner from Half-Life 2 (Hostage 1 to 3 are based on the Citizens who originally were actual characters, 1 re-uses from Samuel/Lazlo, 3 appears to be Captain Vance and 4 is based on Kleiner's beta facemap).
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is currently the only CS game that includes "enhanced" hostages that have considerably better A.I. guidence system than the other CS games.

External linksEdit

Hostage at Wikipedia

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