hostage_entity

GoldSrc

Source Engine

← Creating a Hostage Rescue Map

hostage_entity is a point entity available in Counter-Strike: Source and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

A hostage_entity in Hammer.

A GIF with the four hostage models in CS:GO. Their bbox is 16x16x64.

Note: Identical to info_hostage_spawn.
In VScript, when trying to find hostages using Entities.FindByClassname(handle, classname), remember to look for both classnames. No matter how it was obtained, any hostage's GetClassname() function will return "hostage_entity".

Entity description

This is a spawn point for a hostage NPC. By +useing it, a Counter-Terrorist player can tell the hostage to follow them or to stop doing so. Hostage NPCs will not use nav areas with the NO HOSTAGES attribute which can be toggled with nav_no_hostages. There is no limit to the amount of hostages in a map, but maps tend to have 4.

This is a potential spawn point for a liftable hostage. By default, 2 of these entities (if existent) will be chosen to actually spawn a hostage, respecting exclusion groups, see below. CTs can pick one hostage up by +useing it for 4 seconds; 1 second if they have a rescue kit, 5 seconds in Co-op Strike and Guardian. Hostage carriers move slower and hear the hostage's breathing. When touching a func_hostage_rescue, this is reverted and the CTs win the round. Tip:In VScript, if hostage is the handle of a hostage_entity, then the VScript function hostage.IsBeingCarried() returns true if this hostage is being carried.

• For the round ending logic, see Creating a Classic Counter-Strike Map#Game Mode Description.
• Players earn money by interacting with a hostage or rescuing it and get money penalties for hurting or killing hostages.
• Hostages are solid to player clip and they are not solid to NPC clip!
• The model for each hostage is randomly chosen.

Placement Tip:Keep this entity away from things that it could get stuck in when spawning.

Related ConVars

Some ConVars are deprecated in since hostages have been updated to no longer run themselves.

ConVars in both games

ConVar	Default Value	Description
hostage_debug	0	Shows hostage AI debug information. If non-zero, Terrorists can pick hostages up with no pickup delay. Bug:The carried hostage's model and collisions remains and it keeps teleporting inside the Terrorist carrier, making them stuck.  [todo tested in ?]
nav_no_hostages	ConCommand	Navigation Meshes: Toggles the hostages cannot use this area flag used by the AI system. Deprecated in .
mp_hostagepenalty	5 10	Terrorists are kicked for killing this many hostages and are warned if they need only one more kill: "If you kill one more hostage, you will be removed from the server." The ConVar is inaccessible? Killing hostages requires mp_hostage_takedamage 1.
sv_pushaway_hostage_force	20000	How hard the hostage is pushed away from physics objects (falls off with inverse square of distance). Deprecated in .
sv_pushaway_max_hostage_force	1000	Maximum of how hard the hostage is pushed away from physics objects. Deprecated in .

ConVars only in CS:GO

ConVar	Default Value	Description
cs_hostage_near_rescue_music_distance	2000	Non-functional?
hostage_is_silent	0	If non-zero, hostages won't play any code driven response rules lines, i.e. speaking and hurt sounds. The breathing while being carried remains in both cases.
mp_hostages_max	2	Maximum number of hostages to spawn. The number of hostages cannot exceed the number of hostage entities on the map.
mp_hostages_rescuetime	1	Additional minutes added to round time if a hostage is reached by a CT for the first time.
mp_hostages_run_speed_modifier	1	Deprecated:Slow down hostages by setting this to < 1.0.
mp_hostages_spawn_farthest	0	When enabled will consistently force the farthest hostages to spawn. Bug:Inconsistent?  [todo tested in ?]
mp_hostages_spawn_force_positions	""	Comma separated list of zero based hostage_entity indices to force spawn positions, e.g. "0,2" or "1,6". Invalid indices are ignored. Tip:Overrides exclusion groups and mp_hostages_spawn_same_every_round.
mp_hostages_spawn_force_positions_xyz	""	Comma separated list of xyz locations to force spawn positions, e.g. "x1 y1 z1,x2 y2 z2".
mp_hostages_spawn_same_every_round	1	0: spawn hostages randomly every round, 1: same spawns for entire match.
mp_hostages_takedamage	0	Whether or not hostages can be hurt and killed. Warning:Killing a hostage that a bot is about to pick up will crash the game! Killing a hostage while a player is freeing it makes them stuck, as if they kept +useing the hostage. Terrorists killing 10 hostages are kicked, even with mp_autokick 0. Overall, there is certain undefined behavior going on.
mp_only_cts_rescue_hostages	1	Determines if only CTs can escort hostages or any player. Note:Terrorists bringing a hostage to a func_hostage_rescue win the round for the CTs. To simulate a Terrorist rescuing a hostage, fire OnRescueZoneTouch to the player after avoiding a CT win, e.g. by winning the round for Ts with game_round_end or by ignoring win conditions with mp_ignore_round_win_conditions 1.
mp_roundtime_hostage	0	How many minutes each round of Hostage Rescue takes. If 0 then use mp_roundtime instead.
sv_cs_player_speed_has_hostage	200	The maximum velocity that hostage carriers can reach by running.

Note:The 8 cash_ ConVars and 3 contributionscore_ ConVars concerning hostages have been omitted.

KeyValues

Hostage Model (HostageType) <integer> 

Deprecated.
Not used; hostage models are chosen randomly by the game. Leftover from and , where custom models could be used.

Hostage Spawn Random Factor (HostageSpawnRandomFactor) <integer> (only in )

Allows to increase probability of this hostage being picked during random spawn selection process, essentially considering this spawn point specified number of times.

Hostage Spawn Exclusion Group 1 (HostageSpawnExclusionGroup1) to Hostage Spawn Exclusion Group 30 (HostageSpawnExclusionGroup30) <choices> (only in )

Hostages sharing any exclusion group will never spawn together, unless overridden with mp_hostages_spawn_force_positions or mp_hostages_spawn_force_positions_xyz.

0	n/a
1	Do not spawn together

Inputs

OnRescueZoneTouch

Rescues the hostage, making it fade out. This can win the round for CTs.

Outputs

OnHostageBeginGrab  (only in )

Fired when a player starts +useing this hostage successfully.

OnFirstPickedUp  (only in )

Fired when this hostage has been picked up for the first time.

OnDroppedNotRescued  (only in )

Fired when the carrier of this hostage dies.

OnRescued  (only in )

Fired when a player carrying this hostage touches a func_hostage_rescue.