ST-CS-10-339-75
March 2002

3.  Projectile Impact Momentum  (U)

Being shot is a traumatic event. Counter-Strike represents this by loss of health but also by making a shot player physically stagger from the impact of the bullet.

Any walking or running motion stops, and acceleration back to walking or running speed is reduced so that about three seconds pass before the player returns to normal movement, rather than accelerating up to speed almost instantly as is normal.

A curious oversight in this is that the player can continue to jump. The most common sight in Counter-Strike is watching a player being filled full of lead jumping up and down like a bunny rabbit to try to dodge the incoming fire since it is not possible to dodge by moving because of the effects of having already been hit; all experienced players have a jump-when-shot reflex.

There are two types of stagger effect, stun and push.

Some guns will only stun a player; he is robbed of his walking or running movement but remains where he was when shot.

Other guns will stun and push a player; not only is movement stopped, but the bullet impact imparts momentum to the player and pushes him.

When a player is in contact with the ground, friction (the property of the ground to slow a player down if he is moving but no longer applying a motive force) stops the player from moving very much - although during the brief time of movement, a sniper's aim will be destroyed.

However, if the player is airborne when shot by a push weapon (especially if shot more than once), the degree of movement can be large, suddenly throwing the player back up to a few body lengths in distance.

As far as is possible to determine, weapons all push the same amount; degree of push does not relate to damage.

Following is a complete list of weapons and the type of stagger they induce. In general the pistols and SMGs, being low calibre rounds, stun, and the assult and sniper rifles, being high calibre weapons, push.

Pistols	Stun	Push
USP
USP (S)
Glock18
Glock18 (T)
Desert Eagle
SIG P228
Dual Berettes
Five-Seven
Shotguns
M3
XM1014
SMGs
MP5
TMP
P90
MAC-10
UMP45
Assault
AK47
SSG-552
M4A1
M4A1 (S)
AUG
Sniper
Scout
AWP
G3
SSG-550
Machine Guns
M249
Grenades
HE gren

Note the two anomalies; the M3 pushes but the XM1014 only stuns, and the M249 only stuns. This table has changed since CS 1.1. Formerly, both shotguns and the Scout only stunned.

Assuming the current fix rate of two weapons per CS release is maintained, this problem should be resolved in CS 1.4.