🥔 HotPotato - CS2 Keep-Away Gamemode

A chaotic party gamemode plugin for Counter-Strike 2, built on CounterStrikeSharp.

A "hot potato" is assigned to a random player. The holder gets a speed boost, a golden glow, and shows on everyone's radar, but their health drains every second. Pass it by getting close and pressing E, or by knifing someone. If the fuse runs out or the holder dies, they explode. Last survivor wins the round. Most round wins takes the match. A shrinking safe zone keeps everyone moving.

Features

• 🏃 Configurable holder speed boost: the potato carrier moves faster
• 💛 Golden glow visible through walls, plus gold model tint and forced radar blip, so the holder can't hide
• 🔪 Two pass mechanics: press E near a player, or land a knife hit (knife passes deal no damage)
• 💥 Fuse timer + health drain: hold too long and you explode
• 🏆 Multi-round matches with a scoreboard: round wins tracked, medals in chat, champion announced
• 🌀 Shrinking safe zone (battle-royale style) with a visible beam ring and out-of-zone damage
• 🗺️ Deathmatch-style spawn spreading: players scattered across all map spawn points each round
• 🛡️ Player-vs-player damage disabled during games (configurable), only the potato kills
• ⚙️ Fully config-driven, every mechanic tunable without recompiling

Requirements

• Metamod:Source (CS2 build)
• CounterStrikeSharp v80+

Installation

1. Download the latest release (or build from source, see below)
2. Upload the plugin folder to your server:

   game/csgo/addons/counterstrikesharp/plugins/HotPotato/
   ├── HotPotato.dll
   └── HotPotato.deps.json
   

3. Restart the server
4. Verify with css_plugins list in the server console

The config file auto-generates on first load at:

game/csgo/addons/counterstrikesharp/configs/plugins/HotPotato/HotPotato.json

Usage

Command	Description
!potato start	Start a match (needs 2+ alive players)
!potato stop	Stop the match and restore the server

Both require the permission flag set in CommandPermission (default @css/generic).

Starting a match automatically ends warmup, disables respawns, and prevents rounds from ending mid-game. Stopping (or finishing) a match restores everything.

Configuration

Option	Default	Description
SpeedMultiplier	1.15	Holder movement speed multiplier
HealthDrainPerSecond	2	HP the holder loses per second
FuseSeconds	40	Seconds until the potato detonates
PassRange	60	Max distance (units) for an E-key pass
PassCooldownSeconds	1	Minimum time between passes
GraceSeconds	5	Countdown before drain/fuse start each round
CommandPermission	@css/generic	Admin flag required for !potato
HolderColorR/G/B	255/200/0	Holder tint & glow color (gold)
ExplosionSoundPath	sounds/weapons/c4/c4_explode1	Explosion sound (empty = silent)
KnivesOnly	true	Strip everyone to knives during games
DisablePlayerDamage	true	Block all PvP damage during games
RoundsPerMatch	5	Rounds per match
IntermissionSeconds	6	Scoreboard pause between rounds
HolderRadarBlip	true	Force the holder onto everyone's radar
HolderGlow	true	Through-wall glow outline on the holder
DeathmatchSpawns	true	Spread players across all spawn points
SafeZoneEnabled	true	Enable the shrinking zone
SafeZoneStartRadius	0	Starting radius (0 = auto from map spawns)
SafeZoneMinRadius	350	Final radius after shrinking
SafeZoneShrinkSeconds	90	Time to shrink from start to min
SafeZoneDamagePerSecond	5	HP/s damage outside the zone
SafeZoneBeamSegments	24	Beam ring detail (0 = no visuals)

Building from source

Requires the .NET 8 SDK.

git clone https://github.com/Arsynator/CS2-Hot-Potato-Plugin.git
cd CS2-Hot-Potato-Plugin
dotnet build -c Release

Output: bin/Release/net8.0/HotPotato.dll

Known limitations

• The safe zone ring draws at a single height (based on spawn-point average), so on multi-level maps (Nuke, Vertigo) the visual may sit at an odd height. The zone damage logic is 2D and works correctly regardless.
• Uses the deprecated CBaseEntity_TakeDamageOldFunc hook (still functional; migration to OnEntityTakeDamagePre planned).

License

MIT