Friendly fire

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Friendly fire (or simply FF), is a gameplay mechanic when a player inflicts damage on his teammates, either by mistake or intentionally.

Overview

Friendly Fire is when a player attacks his teammate(s) and victim(s) will suffer from health loss. It can be enabled or disabled by using the server cvar "mp_friendlyfire" or in the options while creating an server. If it is enabled, players should keep in mind of utilizing different combat tactics and increased cautiousness to avoid hurting their teammates. In a game with bots, friendly fire is off by default but a player can turn it on if desired.

In earlier games, when a player gets shot by a teammate, the damage is roughly reduced by 50% but has increased knockback to the player. However, damage from the HE grenade will inflict full damage to a victim. In Global Offensive, HE Grenade friendly fire damage is reduced to 85% at default.

When being fired upon by a team member, the player's screen will shake when not wearing armor, they will move slower, and a damage indicator will appear on their screen. The message "{Player} attacked a teammate" will appear at the chat box that is visible for all players of the same team. The attacker will receive the text "Try not to injure your teammates!"

Hurting team members can hinder movement and aim. It can also result in mistakes when determining the position of enemies, especially in a firefight. Even when not in combat, players shouldn't attack teammates just for fun; this can cause some trouble and will give the others a bad impression. In some cases, the player will be subjected to a kick or ban for griefing. Inflicting damage on a player of the same team is frowned upon, especially if a victim is low on health and that player may perish.

When a player kills a teammate, the messages "You killed a teammate" and "Careful! Killing your teammates is not tolerated" will appear and that player will suffer a money penalty of -$3300 (-$300 in Competitive mode) and receive 1 point in deduction in the scoreboard.

In some servers, if the option "Kill teamkillers" is enabled, the player who did kill a teammate will die in the next round and the text "You're not allowed to play this round because you TK'd last round." appears. Furthermore, if a player kills too many teammates, he may eventually be banned/kicked from the server. For the hosting user, the "teamkill ban" count can be set in the server setting.

Players killed by the C4 does not count as friendly fire and there will be no penalty. Regardless, killed players will lose all their weapons (and equipment) in the next round.

In Tour of Duty in Condition Zero, friendly fire is disabled on easy and normal difficulty while it is enabled in hard and expert difficulty.

When a teammate is shot with a weapon that uses low caliber rounds (mostly pistol rounds), bullets will not penetrate through even if friendly fire is disabled. Meanwhile, high caliber rounds (rifle rounds) will continue to travel after hitting a victim. Although damage to teammates is reduced, rounds will still deal full damage to any enemy player behind a victim. (Example: if an AWP shot hits a teammate and an enemy is behind, the shot will kill the assailant but the teammate will not be killed as long as his health is sufficiently high.)

Intentionally attacking a teammate is known as fragging.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

In Global Offensive, the effects of friendly fire will always be enabled regardless on which gameplay mode. When shooting a teammate, a bot (if present) will say friendly fire quotes and the message of the person who attacked will appear. However, the damage depends on which gameplay mode players are competing in. To help prevent friendly fire, aiming on a teammate will produce a circle with an "x" in the crosshair.

On Deathmatch, Casual mode, and in Demolition (after the Operation Vanguard update), friendly fire does not deal any damage but can still cause teammates to flinch and bleed. Meanwhile, it can hurt teammates in Arms Race and in Competitive mode, and causing too much team damage or killing too many teammates will result in a kick and a cooldown in Competitive.

In Global Offensive, weapons that have a Penetration Power of 0% will not penetrate through friendly players while other weapons will deal reduced damage to enemies. However, after the Operation Vanguard update, if friendly fire is off, bullets will never penetrate through teammates.

Bots can be banned from friendly fire, but will be immediately be replaced by another bot.

Tactics

• If you accidentally inflict damage to a teammate, hold your fire and find another spot to shoot at.
  • Sometimes, a handful of your teammates may rush head-on so be careful when providing cover.
  • Stay out of teammate's firing line.
  • Avoid bunching up, especially if you or your teammate has high ping. A player can "teleport" into your (teammates') crosshair and inflict unintended damage.
• When you are leading your team, crouch so you can allow teammates to cover you. Do not stand up when the enemy is still in your sight otherwise, your teammates can hit you.
• When using shotguns, switch to a sidearm when there are teammates at close proximity. The pellet spread can hurt your teammates.
  • Alternatively, you can be the first to lead an assault. A shotgun tends to be more effective when a target is sufficiently close for an instant kill.
• When using sniper rifles, refrain from shooting when your teammate and enemies are in your crosshair. Although sniper rifles have high accuracy which usually minimizes friendly fire, the high damage output can cause serious damage to an allied player.
• Avoid throwing a HE grenade when groups of teammates and enemies are at the same area. This also applies to the Incendiary Grenade/Molotov cocktail in Global Offensive.
  • Moreover, take great care when preparing to throw any of these grenades. If you have pulled the pin and you die, the grenade will detonate/ignite, greatly injuring or even killing your allies.
• If you are blinded by a flashbang while you are following your team, avoid spraying bullets with your weapon!
• If an enemy target and a teammate are in the cloud of a smoke, abstain from shooting!
• When throwing a flashbang, make sure your teammates are not in the view of it. If it is is thrown poorly, it may end up blinding yourself and your allies.
• Be sure to look at your radar when you hear footstep sounds before enemies/teammates approach you. Often times, many players will shoot and will hurt you.
  • However, a player should also be careful to not run too often or approach teammates while they are walking.

Achievements

• Counter-Strike: Source

Special

The Road to Hell Blind an enemy player who then kills a teammate.

Trivia

• In GoldSrc games, when bots are shot when friendly fire is disabled, they will still say their quotes regarding to friendly fire. This is removed in Source.
  • If friendly fire is disabled and a player shoots his teammate that is wearing a helmet, sparks will appear.
  • Also in Source games, if a player shoots at a teammate who is not wearing a helmet, the impact will still disorientate the victim but will not damage him. This is common occurrence when playing with bots as they will shoot through their teammate if friendly fire is disabled.
  • It reworked in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, even when friendly fire is disabled in Casual matches.
• Prior to Counter-Strike: Source, the damage knockback from the friendly fire can be used to "help" a teammate reach areas that are otherwise inaccessible (such as the space above the pipe of the garage in Nuke). Weapons like the FAMAS or the Galil are often used due to their high knockback.
• Toggling off friendly fire does not affect vehicles on maps such as Jeepathon2k or other custom maps. Killing teammates with a vehicle will still penalize the driver.

External link

• Friendly fire at Wikipedia.