Getting Started

Get the right equipment

You’ll need at least a Pentium or K6 based machine with at least 16MB of RAM, and a WIDE net connection. The power of your machine and the bandwidth of your connection will determine the maximum number of players you can host.

NOTE: ChaosDM takes a bit more server CPU and bandwidth than a normal Quake 2 server, so keep this in mind if you’ve been running a different Quake 2 server in the past

Get the neccessary software
All you need is regular install of the latest version of Quake 2 and the ChaosDM. You don’t need any special server packs to run a Chaos server.

Set up your Settings.cfg
The settings.cfg is where you set up all your game settings variables, such as start-up weapons, banned weapons, and settings for items like turret ammo and poison grenade time. Most of the variables in settings.cfg are easy to figure out and set up to your liking.

NOTE: The variable “dntg” stands for “Dynamic Node Table Generation”. It is strongly recommended that you set this variable to 0. Otherwise, your server will probably suffer significant slowdown. NOTE: The Tech powerups(autodoc, strength, disruptor and haste) can only be configured by the dmflags tag in the server.cfg

Set up your Server.cfg

The server.cfg should be where you set up all your important server variables. The most important vars are maxclients, fraglimit, and timelimit. The dmflags are also useful

Here’s a good starter server.cfg file for a public deathmatch server… just copy, paste, and edit to your liking. This server setup will send a heartbeat directly to Planetquake, so it will appear in Gamespy about 5 minutes after the first player logs in. With new server, you’ll probably want to “jump-start” this process by logging into your server from another
————————-

exec settings.cfg
set deathmatch 1
set maxclients 12
set rcon_password “my_rcon_password”
set hostname “Homeboy’s ChaosDM Server – Proxies in Da Hood”
set ctf 0
set dmflags 279060
set fraglimit 40
set timelimit 30
map q2dm1
sv ml mix
sv ml 1

setmaster q2master.planetquake.com

Start it up!

Use the following command line to startquake2.exe +set public 1 +set dedicated 1 +set game CHAOS +exec server.cfg

You’ll probably want to create a desktop shortcut icon for this command line so that you can start your server with a simple double-click.

Setting up a Map Rotation

The map rotation files are kept in the \chaos\maplist directory

sv ml <maplist> – Selects the file “<maplist>.txt” from \chaos\maplist as the map rotation.

sv ml <X> – Starts the map rotation. “X” must be 1(for sequential rotation) or 2(for random rotation).

sv ml– Returns the current maplist that is running.

Feel free to write your own map lists but be sure to use this format: <mapname>-<ctf><lightsoff>. chaosdm1-01 for example stands for map chaosdm1, ctf off, lightsoff 1. Here’s a sample file:

;
; Chaos Deathmatch maplist file
;
; Syntax: —
; Do not delete the semicolon at the end of this file!
;

chaosdm1-00
q2dm1-01
q2ctf1-10
q2dm3-01
chaosdm3-00
q2dm4-00
q2dm5-00
q2dm6-01
q2dm7-02
chaosdm2-00
q2dm8-00
;

 

Custom maps, models and skins should be installed on the server exactly as they would be on a client.

To add client download support for maps, models and skins, just add the following lines to your server.cfg:

allow_download 1

allow_download_players 1

allow_download_models 1

allow_download_maps 1

allow_download_sounds 1

Useful Server Commands

Once you have your server up and running with a bunch of players on it, these will be helpful for administration and server control.
You can get a complete list of console commands at The Console.

  • status –   This gives you a report of the current map and the stats of each player, including the “playernumber” which you can use to execute other commands.  Very useful.
  • dumpuser <playernumber> –   gives you detailed info on that player, including their model/skin choice.
  • kick <playernumber> –   Kicks a player off the server.
  • say “”  –   This command allows you to speak as “console”.  For examplesay hi quakerswill appear to all players on the server asconsole: hi quakers
  • set lightsoff <X> –   Setting X determines the lights – 0 is day, 1 is dusk, 2 is night.
  • sv ml –   Returns the current map rotation list