I recently had some time to
harasspolitely chat with Chet Faliszek about some of the topics we at GameBanana had on our minds in regards to Valve's upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.Below is Part Two of the entire interview, Part One can be found here
Hi Chet, when we first spoke there were several questions you were unable to answer on the spot and wanted to go back to Washington to check with the development team. Thanks for taking the time out once again to answer these for us.
No problem.
First off will CS:GO use .GCF files or files similar to L4D2's vpk files? - [Asked by: TwistX]
Yes, in Global Offensive. Custom content will be packaged up into VPK files similar to L4D2.
Will the game [CS:GO] support DX10 and or 11? [Asked by: TwistX]
We have made the decision to be DX9 across the board. Using the Steam hardware survey, we found the sweet spot of allowing the most people access to the game and still having it be high fidelity.
Will model files be the same as in Counter-Strike Source? (.Mdl, .vtf, .vmf etc) - [Asked by: Mak3ttaja]
Yes the same formats will be supported.
Will CS:GO use a c\_model system akin to the ones in TF2 and/or Left 4 Dead or stick with the old v and w models? - [Asked by: AsteroidRules]
They will be the older V and W models.
How will weapon models work? Will they be like Left 4 Dead where the weapon contains the animations and the arms are attached to it, or TF2 where it's the hands that have the animations, or like CS:S where the arms and weapon are the same model? - [Asked by: AsteroidRules]
This is not final yet, so we can't say for sure.
Will the map files remain as the .bsp format or have you been working on a new file type with increased vertex/polys? - [Asked by: Eagle Xander]
No, they will remain .bsps.
How many MORE entities/ overlays/ props/ details can the updated engine handle compared to CS:S, and still have relatively decent FPS? - [Asked by: Bobpoblo]
The simple answer is, we don't know yet. We haven't done that type of testing.
Will the updated engine feature any new techniques to optimize custom maps? Aside from the usual areaportal, hint/ skip, nodraw, etc. - [Asked by: Bobpoblo]
No, it will still be using the same techniques you've seen in previous versions of the source engine.
After looking at the above posts, can we import our old map files into the SDK (if there is one) and update them accordingly? - [Asked by: Bobpoblo]
Probably. Hopefully. If you are working in a current version of Hammer there will be a patch for you.
Can you tell us of any technical improvements this game brought to the source engine? - [Asked by: tsaweeos]
I can't really say too much at the moment, however we will see as the game goes into release and can talk more about them then.
Due to time restrictions at the EuroGamer Expo in London there we several questions I didn't have time to ask you on the day. Would you be able to answer a few of these for us now?
Sure.
Will CS:GO have a contribute system similar to TF2 for new community made items/maps?
For any game we have going forward that does have community items, making sure the community is rewarded is important to us. Whether we do that in CS:GO or how that will look are the real questions and we aren't answering those just yet.
If you had to compare CS:GO to 1.6 or Source, which is it closest to in gameplay or is it different from both? - [Asked by: Amen]?
To be honest it's both different and the same. It really is a cross of both games.
Will there be the option of 100 tick servers for Bunny Hop and Surf gamemodes? :D - [Asked by: yaznee]
Not at launch, but eventually 100 tick will be an option for server operators.
Counter-Strike, in General, has never been released by itself. In the norm, Valve (you guys) have released CS with major titles, such as Half-Life and Half-life 2 bundles. Is CS:GO going to be coming out with possible Half-Life 3? - [Asked by: BigDog]
CS has been a stand-alone package for a long, long time selling the bulk of its 25 million copies in this form.
You guys announced that we will have Ranked Match Making. Can you explain a little bit more about this? How will players be told apart, experience points? Overall kill/death ratio? - [Asked by: BigDog]
It will be about the win/loss ratio over a time period. However we will divulge more on this as the beta is released.
What was the Idea behind adding the molotov cocktail? Couldn't it be a game killer when overused by the players? - [Asked by: Alex']
Have you used it? Questions like these are best answered in the beta.
Seeing as you have stated that this is NOT "Counter-Strike: 2", what would classify such a game to be an official sequel to Counter-Strike: Source? - [Asked by: FlyAwayNOw]
We don't classify it as anything and aren't worried about that. All we are worried about is making a good game.
Do you think many of the PS3 players are going to plug a mouse and keyboard in when playing CS:GO, or stick to the more familiar controller format?
Who knows? It will be interesting to watch, and find out.
Will there be a protection/mobility tradeoff based on the amount of equipment you are carrying? - [Asked by: Marxman]
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will continue to be Counter-Strike. That isn't Counter-Strike.
Will damage/flinch animations be used when a player is hit, like back in 1.6 and Condition Zero? - [Asked by: Doneh]
There are damage indicators and this is one of the things we have been playing around with, but we are still yet to decide to what extent this will be implemented.
What were (you) most looking forward to when they were first told to develop a new CS game? - [Asked by: tsaweeos]
Getting to play CS non-stop while getting paid!
What have the team done to ensure players will choose different weapons? - [Asked by: Hopek]
We have adjusted the weapons to let people have more choices along the way. However this is something that we will be monitoring during the beta.
CS:GO Interview with Chet Falizek (Valve Software, September 2011) [Part 2]
For use on GameBanana.com ONLY.
Jonathan Higgins: Jon.Higgins@GameBanana.com
