ST-CS-10-339-75
March 2002

3.  Extreme Range Headshots  (S)

A second consequence of random bullet dispertion is the frequency of - indeed even the existance of, since they're so unlikely - extreme range headshots.

At extreme range, the vast majority of the time when a weapon is fired at a target it is simply off-target; the target is simply too small and too far away for deliberate aimed gunfire. If in Counter-Strike rounds actually went more or less where the crosshair pointed, then almost always the rounds fired would be off-target and that would be that (although of course the zoomed sniper rifles would function properly in this scenario and be a major threat).

As it is, because of the random bullet dispertion, the rounds fired from a weapon form a "cloud", uniformly covering an area centered around the crosshair. So despite the fact it is impossible to actually aim properly at the target, the way the bullets form a cloud means any players within the cloud are likely to be hit and a headshot is as likely to occur as a hit to any other point on the body, and it often only takes one headshot to achieve a kill.

And of course within all of this, there is no skill or aiming; just impossible behaviour caused by the implimentation of weapon behaviour.

In the footage, it is clear that at the range combat is occuring an unscoped weapon such as the MP5 in use cannot be meaningfully aimed at such a tiny moving target. If the bullets went where the crosshair pointed, all nineteen rounds fired would simply have missed their target.

However, since this is Counter-Strike and firing roughly at the target creates a cloud of bullets with the target inside that zone leading inevitably to hits occuring regardless of range and indeed one of those hits found the target's head.

A second major issue is that in one particular way, Counter-Strike is actually far too accurate; the first round fired from almost all weapons is always exactly on target.

This is simply wrong. Trigger pull issues are a significant factor in weapon design. For example, consider a 1.5 kilogram pistol which has a trigger requiring 2.5 kilograms of force to pull. Obviously, this is not conducive to accurate fire.

In a similar vein, a typical AK-47 weighs just under 4.0 kilograms. Having a trigger which is not only a heavy pull but is also gritty has a significant effect upon first round accuracy, and in fact in mass-market AK-47s is the main cause of inaccuracy; the AK-47 design itself is basically accurate, but any design can be compromised by cheap parts.

This issue affects all weapons to a greater or lesser extent and it means the first shot fired should never be exactly on target - the exceptions here perhaps being the sniper rifles since their design is explicity orientated to being physically balanced so that trigger movement does not disrupt aim.

In Counter-Strike it is possible to snipe at extreme ranges against stationary targets with almost any weapon because the first shot is always dead accurate. This is a major failing and gives the assult rifles in particular far more long range combat effectivenss than they have - which in turn devalues the sniper rifles, especially the semi-auto sniper rifles, since they are out-shot at sniping ranges by the regular assult rifles because of their impossible first shot accuracy and greater rate of fire.