Counter-Strike: Global Offensive/Game Modes/Retakes

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This page documents information about a game or software, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, that is no longer available for purchase or download digitally.
It is covered here for historical and technical reference.

Retakes is a game mode in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive where Terrorists defend a planted bomb against Counter-Terrorists. This game mode features loadout cards that are dealt to players before each round starts.

To launch a map in this game mode, invoke the console commands game_type 0; game_mode 0; sv_skirmish_id 12; map <mapname>, or shorter: sv_skirmish_id 12; map <mapname> casual.

This page describes how to add proper Retakes support to Bomb Defusal maps, as well as how to customize the loadout cards.

Gamemode Description

On official servers, this game mode is like Casual, but with the following differences:

• There are 3 Terrorists playing against 4 Counter-Terrorists.
• Each round, the Terrorists already spawn on a bombsite and the Counter-Terrorists spawn around it. One Terrorist holds the bomb and plants it automatically, so that the bomb has been planted exactly when the freezetime ends. The planter cannot stop themselves from planting. The bomb is planted even with no players on the Terrorists' team.
• During the freezetime, players can neither shoot nor drop weapons. The Terrorists, except for the planter, are able to move, but are restricted by blockers until the freezetime ends.
• The buy menu is replaced with loadout cards that players are shown during the freezetime. When picking one, they get the specified loadout. Opening the buy menu will show the cards again for a new choice. If the freezetime ends without a player's choice, they get a random card. This is always the case for bots. The MVP of the last round gets an additional grenade in one of his cards.
• During warmup, players respawn and can choose between four cards: an upgraded pistol round card, a full buy round card, the enemy card and the bonus card, see below. As bots never pick a card, they have no gun during warmup, except they pick one up from the ground.

Server configuration

The provided csgo/cfg/gamemode_retakecasual.cfg file can be used as a baseline for a Retakes server.

Adding Retakes Support to a Bomb Scenario Map

With no support at all, Retakes will already work on any map with two bombsites: When the map loads, the game prints in the console: [ RETAKE RULES ] - Error loading 'maps/<mapname>_retake.txt' - Players will spawn at their opposite sites.. The players will spawn on opposite bombsites (within a radius of about 256 units from the bombsite's center) and no one can move nor shoot in the freezetime while the bomb is being planted, not even the Terrorists.

Warning:If there is exactly one bombsite, the game crashes with a probability of 50 %. If not, CT spawns are not generated, so CTs spawn at default spawns.

However, the placement of player spawns and bomb plants will follow a best effort algorithm that might yield unfair setups. In order to provide the best experience for players, the following entities should be added and configured on your bomb scenario map:

• Brushes that restrict Terrorist movement while the bomb is planted.
• A list of spawn points for both Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists.
• A list of bomb plant points and how likely they're supposed to happen during a match.

Movement blockers for Terrorists

The tools/wrongway_timer tool texture is only visible to players close to the origin of the entity that this material is applied to. Which means every wall should be its own func_brush.

If there are blockers for the current bombsite, Retakes allows Terrorists to move during the freezetime.

In Hammer, create clip brushes around both bomb sites and tie them to func_brush entities. Name them either retake.asite or retake.bsite and make sure they start disabled. The game enables and disables them automatically at the beginning and the end of the freezetime.

Tip:They follow the same pattern as the blockers used in Wingman. You can use the tools/wrongway_timer material, similar to the tools/wrongway material, which fades into view when approaching it.

Placement Tip:The idea is to create an enclosure that allows Terrorists some level of flexibility to position themselves in preparation for the retake. The boundaries should be set so that Terrorists cannot run too far and get too close to the CTs who are never allowed to move during this time. If you use generated spawns, the bounds should also not be too tight around the bombsite due to the spawning radius; Terrorists could spawn inside a blocker brush or on the other side of it.

List of Spawn Points and Bomb Plant Locations

Alongside the map's BSP file one should create a KeyValues file named <mapname>_retake.txt, located at csgo/maps/, e.g. csgo/maps/de_mirage_retake.txt. One can copy one of the active duty maps' files, rename it, and edit its contents accordingly. There are instructional comments in their first lines.

The following examples are from Valve's csgo/maps/de_mirage_retake.txt when it was last modified on 2020-12-03.

The syntax for each spawn point is:

"<id>" "<x> <y> <z> <pitch> <yaw> <roll>"

Example:

"0" "-1677.126709 -1634.004761 -199.909851 -1.040606 -70.527283 0.000000"	// ct spawn towards stairs
"1" "-1656.067993 -1312.397339 -198.956573 -9.220211 46.770073 0.000000"	// ct spawn towards window
"2" "-1900.843750 -501.388794 -103.906342 -0.048411 -35.025795 0.000000"	// market
"3" "-1098.085815 247.777573 -108.550049 0.483987 -24.305056 0.000000"		// short/cat
// ... and 5 more

The <id> can be any string, just be sure not to use any of them multiple times, as the last of them overwrites the first. For simplicity, use indices (0, 1 , 2, ...) just like Valve.
The other values can be obtained in-game using getpos on your console.

At the start of each round, the game will choose the spawn points for each player randomly with equal probability from the corresponsing list, using each <id> at most once. If there are less spawn points than players, the game generates more.

Tip:If you don't want unpredictable spawn points, include at least as many spawn points as the maximum number of players. Include even more to have a variety of different spawns; This concerns especially CT spawns, as it influences where Ts have to expect CTs to come from.

The syntax for each bomb plant spot is:

"<id>" "<weight> <x> <y> <z> <pitch> <yaw> <roll>"

Example:

"0" "10 -253.968750 -2134.075439 -172.946960 0.000000 121.827393 0.000000" // default
"1" "10 -554.968750 -2103.693359 -179.968750 0.000000 129.375000 0.000000" // default
"2" "1 -495.546356 -2031.964600 -179.968750 0.000000 191.541138 0.000000" // advantageous
"3" "1 -627.257385 -2000.988037 -179.968750 0.000000 296.834106 0.000000" // advantageous

There's an additional weight factor, indicating how often this bomb plant location occurs during a match. For example, if you have a bomb plant location with a weight of 1, and another with a weight of 10, the latter is 10 times more likely to occur during a Retakes match than the former. If all bomb plant locations have the same weight, they are all equally likely to be picked during a match.

Note:The bomb will be lying or floating at exactly those coordinates, so make sure to use getpos_exact. If you use getpos to obtain a position, subtract 64 units from the <z> coordinate, otherwise the bomb will float at head height.

Note:The bomb will be planted, even if the player does not touch a func_bomb_target. The Retake scenario could take place at any location on the map.

If any information is missing, the game will do a best-effort algorithm to generate spawn points, but it is not guaranteed to produce fair results.

Customizing Loadout Cards

The deck of cards for player loadouts can be customized using specific ConVars. The game comes with a default deck of cards that has been tested on all active duty maps.

Note:Changing these ConVars in-game has no effect! ^[Clarify] You should set the following ConVars on your Retakes server configuration file, see #Server configuration section above, or set them in the file csgo/cfg/gamemode_retakecasual.cfg.

Card deck ConVars

The card distribution has the following system: Each round, the round type determines a deck of cards that each teams gets. These cards are distributed to all players within each team. There are the following round types:

Round types and their card deck ConVars

Round Number	Round Type	Card Deck ConVars
1	Default Pistol Round	mp_retake_ct_loadout_default_pistol_round "<deck string>" mp_retake_t_loadout_default_pistol_round "<deck string>"
2	Upgraded Pistol Round	mp_retake_ct_loadout_upgraded_pistol_round "<deck string>" mp_retake_t_loadout_upgraded_pistol_round "<deck string>"
3	Light Buy Round	mp_retake_ct_loadout_light_buy_round "<deck string>" mp_retake_t_loadout_light_buy_round "<deck string>"
4, 5, ...	Full Buy Round	mp_retake_ct_loadout_full_buy_round "<deck string>" mp_retake_t_loadout_full_buy_round "<deck string>"

Each of these ConVars is a <deck string> with special characters that determine the deck of cards for the given round type and team. All <deck string>s have the same syntax:

Expression	Syntax	Example
<deck string>	<# of defusers for team>|<card group>|<card group>|...|<card group>	4|<card group> 0|<card group>|<card group>|<card group>
<card group>	<# of cards from this group in deck>;<card>;<card>;...;<card>	3;<card> 2;<card>;<card>;<card>
<card>	<card title>,<0/1 for armor>,<0/1 for helmet>,<item>,<item>,...,<item>	#GameUI_Retake_Card_FlashOut,0,0,secondary2,grenade2 Heavy Weapons Guy,1,0,heavy3

Remarks:

<# of defusers for team>	This number indicates the number of defuse kits available for this round type. These will be randomly assigned to players on the team in question.
<# of cards from this group in deck>	This is the number of cards from a group that is added to the deck of a team. Each card of the group can be added multiple times. Example: The card group 3;<card 1> will always add three times <card 1> to the deck. The group 1;<card 1>;<card 2> will add one card to the deck, either <card 1> or <card 2>. The group 2;<card 1>;<card 2> adds either two times <card 1>, or two times <card 2> or one of each to the deck. This process of adding is random.
<card>	A card with the above syntax, representing a loudout. Any syntax errors in a card make it invalid. Invalid cards have no title and provide only a P250.
<card title>	This string is the card title. It can contain spaces if the whole command expression is quoted. It makes sense to use string tokens here, for example #GameUI_Retake_Card_TheAWPortunity. Existing string tokens can be looked up, e.g. in the file csgo/resource/csgo_english.txt by searching for GameUI_Retake_Card.
<0/1 for armor>, <0/1 for helmet>	These characters are either 0 or 1, indicating whether this card provides armor and/or a helmet, so the only possibilities for these are 0,0 (no armor), 1,0 (kevlar), 0,1 (kevlar and helmet) and 1,1 (kevlar and halmet). Invalid values behave like 0.
<item>,<item>,...,<item>	This is a comma-separated list of weapons and grenades that a card provides. The first one in this list will be displayed with a big image, subsequent items are shown as pictograms below. If the first one is not a pistol, a card with this will also give a player his default pistol. If multiple weapons for the same slot are given, all but the first are dropped. An <item> can only be one of the values secondary, heavy, smg, rifle or grenade, appended with a number (0-5), for example rifle4 (AWP). Consider the table below. This semantics comes from the buy menu.

<item>	0	1	2	3	4	5
secondary	Glock-18 / USP-S / P2000	Dual Berettas	P250	Tec-9 / CZ75-Auto / Five-SeveN	Desert Eagle / R8 Revolver	nothing
heavy	Nova	XM1014	Sawed-Off / MAG-7	M249	Negev	Riot Shield
smg	MAC-10 / MP9	MP7 / MP5-SD	UMP-45	P90	PP-Bizon	nothing
rifle	Galil AR / FAMAS	AK-47 / M4A4 / M4A1-S	SSG 08	SG 553 / AUG	AWP	G3SG1 / SCAR-20
grenade	Molotov / Incendiary Grenade	Decoy	Flashbang	HE Grenade	Smoke	nothing

Warning:The game can crash at the end of the freezetime if a player has no cards to choose from. This happens if there are less cards than players on a team.

Bug:If you give the player more than three grenades by setting ammo_grenade_limit_total to 4 and assigning four grenades in the loadout card, they will keep the first-slot grenade from the previous card if they switch their card before the round starts.

Confirm:Check if this issue occurs with every loadout or only with MVP cards that grant an extra grenade.

Bug:Picking up a Riot Shield is not possible unless a func_hostage_rescue is present in your level.

Fix:Place a func_hostage_rescue in your level or create it dynamically

Code Fix: SourceMod solution for picking up Riot Shield's without a func_hostage_rescue in your level:

#include <cstrike>
#include <sdktools>

public void OnMapStart()
{
    if (FindEntityByClassname(-1, "func_hostage_rescue") == -1)
    {
        CreateEntityByName("func_hostage_rescue");
    }
}

This will place a func_hostage_rescue in your level when the map get's started

Example:Consider the default card deck for CTs for the default pistol round (mp_retake_ct_loadout_default_pistol_round):

"1|3;#GameUI_Retake_Card_4v3,0,0,secondary0|1;#GameUI_Retake_Card_FlashOut,0,0,secondary0,grenade2;#GameUI_Retake_Card_HideAndPeek,0,0,secondary0,grenade4"

To get a representation that is easier to read and edit, we split it up into its components in a text editor:

"1|3;<card 1>|1;<card 2>;<card 3>"                                  // One CT gets a defuse kit. The deck consists of 3x <card 1> plus 1x <card 2> or <card 3>.

<card 1> = #GameUI_Retake_Card_4v3,0,0,secondary0                   // title "4v3",           no kevlar, no helmet, P2000/USP-S
<card 2> = #GameUI_Retake_Card_FlashOut,0,0,secondary0,grenade2     // title "Flash Out!",    no kevlar, no helmet, P2000/USP-S + Flashbang
<card 3> = #GameUI_Retake_Card_HideAndPeek,0,0,secondary0,grenade4  // title "Hide and Peek", no kevlar, no helmet, P2000/USP-S + Smoke

Enemy cards

In some full buy rounds^[Clarify], a player is dealt an additional enemy card that they can choose from. The special thing about this card is that the first <item> is picked from the enemy team's default loadout. For example, if a CT gets this card with the first <item> being rifle0, the weapon is a Galil AR instead of a FAMAS. This card is defined with the ConVars:

mp_retake_ct_loadout_enemy_card <card>

mp_retake_t_loadout_enemy_card <card>

Bonus cards

In full buy rounds, there is a certain number of additional bonus cards in each team's deck. Currently there's only one bonus card definition per team. The ConVars are:

mp_retake_ct_loadout_bonus_card <card>

mp_retake_t_loadout_bonus_card <card>

For the format, see above. The default value for both teams is "#GameUI_Retake_Card_TheAWPortunity,1,1,rifle4".

There's a ConVar that controls the availability of bonus cards in full buy rounds per team:

mp_retake_ct_loadout_bonus_card_availability	"1,2"
mp_retake_t_loadout_bonus_card_availability	"1,1,2"

The value is a string of comma-delimited integers. Each integer represents a number of bonus cards dealt for a team in a full buy round. In the first full buy round, the first integer determines the number of bonus cards. For the next full buy round, the next integer is used. If all integers have been used, the first is used again and this pattern repeats.

Example:
A value of "1,2" indicates that during the first full buy round, 1 bonus card will be dealt; The second full buy round will feature 2 bonus cards. Then, only 1 bonus card will be dealt, followed by 2 the next round.
For the value "1,1,2", the availability is instead "1 card, 1 card, 2 cards, 1 card, 1 card, 2 cards, ..."

Warning:The game crashes at match start if the value is "" or if the first integer is 0 or invalid. If set to one of these values, the bonus card during warmup is empty.

Todo: Is the above explanation really the case? Values like "4", "4,4", "99", "99,99" should increase the probability to get a bonus card, but apparently they don't.

Other Console Commands

Command	Default value	Description
mp_retake_ct_count	4	The number of players on the CT side.
mp_retake_t_count	3	The number of players on the T side.
mp_retake_max_consecutive_rounds_same_target_site	2	The maximum number of rounds in a row on the same bombsite.

Bug:Placing mp_retake_ct_count & mp_retake_t_count in a config or in the gamemode_retakecasual.cfg will not be executed and will have no effect.

Fix:Instead of putting them in a config, set them as startup parameters via +mp_retake_ct_count <amount> +mp_retake_t_count <amount> or change them at runtime, followed by a level change.

Bug:Setting those startup parameters without sv_skirmish_id 12 will result in the convar values being subtracted by 1.

Example:If you set +mp_retake_ct_count 5 +mp_retake_t_count 5 without sv_skirmish_id 12, it would interpret them as mp_retake_ct_count 4 & mp_retake_t_count 4, making it a 4v4 instead of the intended 5v5.

Fix:Add +sv_skirmish_id 12 to your startup parameters.