8.0.0 - SERVER SETUP & ADMINISTRATION
8.1.0 - General Server Administration Info
While it is always possible to make changes to the server settings on the fly, using the console, it is generally a good idea to make the changes in the server.cfg file instead. This way if the server needs to be restarted your changes will not be lost. All the settings that you will need to properly setup a server are in the server.cfg file that was included with the install of Urban Terror. All the commands used in the server.cfg to change settings, can be used on at the console by adding a / to the beginning of the line (ie. /set friendlyfire 1).
8.1.1 - What game types does Urban Terror support?
Free-For-All ( gametypes 0, 1 and 2 )
You are against everybody and everybody is against you. After a preset number of minutes the round will end and the winner is the person with the greatest number of kills. If you are killed you will respawn at a random location on the map after a short delay.
Team Deathmatch ( gametype 3 )
Your goal is to accrue kills for your team. After a preset number of minutes the round will end and the winner is the team with the greatest number of kills. If you are killed you will respawn at a random map location after a short delay.
Team Survivor ( gametype 4 )
Your goal is to annihilate the opposing team. The round ends when all the members of one team are killed; the team left standing is awarded a point. If you are killed you cannot respawn until the next round.
Follow the Leader ( gametype 5 )
At the beginning of each round the server selects one person on your team as a leader. The leader and is marked by a red or blue helmet. A flag also spawns with your team. Your goal is to score as many points as you can. Points are awarded as follows:
If your leader touches the enemy flag: 3 points
If you kill the other team, with your leader still alive: 2 points
If you kill the other team, but your leader is dead: 1 point
Only the leader can get points from touching the enemy flag. The round ends when a leader on a team touches an enemy flag, or either team is killed. If you are killed you cannot respawn until the end of a round.
Capture & Hold ( gametype 6 )
Numerous flags are positioned around the map. When you walk over them, they get changed to your team's color (red or blue). Every minute your team scores a point for each flag of your team's color. Your goal is to have as many flags a possible at each scoring time. If you get killed, you can respawn after a brief delay.
Capture The Flag ( gametype 7 )
Each team has a home base which holds a flag. The team's goal is to get their flag from the enemy base and bring it back to their base. You must prevent the enemy from doing the same. If you are killed you must wait a short time before coming back into the game.
To set a gametype: set gametype [value]
8.1.2 - How do I get a map rotation going?
Map rotations in Urban Terror have been redone to make them easier. Now, instead of having strange commands in your server.cfg, Urban Terror loads maps and sets information from a simple text file.
By default, the map rotation file is called mapcycle.txt. This file must be placed in the q3ut2 folder of the server. You can change the name of the map rotation file by setting the g_mapcycle cvar to the name of the alternate file. For example, to use a map rotation file called mymaps.txt, you'd go to the console and type:
/g_mapcycle "mymaps.txt"The map rotation file is a basic text file (you can use notepad, BBEdit, vi, etc to create it). In its most simple form, the file is just a list of maps, one map to a line. When the last map is finished, the first map in the file is loaded and the process repeats. So, for example, a mapcycle.txt that looks like this:
ut_ricochet
ut_swim
ut_uptown
Would load up ricochet, then swim, then uptown, and then start again.
You can also use the map rotation file to set any server cvar. The format for this is:
[mapname]
{
[cvar] [value]
[cvar] [value]
...
}
[cvar] is the name of any Urban Terror server cvar (eg: g_gametype) and the value is the value you want it set to. In the following example, the first example has been extended to set cvars on ut_uptown:
ut_ricochet
ut_swim
ut_uptown
{
g_gametype 6
g_friendlyfire 1
}
In the above example, the server would load up the ut_uptown map and set the gametype to 6 (Capture and Hold) and turn on friendly fire with auto-kicking of TK'ers.
The cvar bit is optional. If you don't want to set any cvars for a map then just leave it out (in the example, ricochet and swim don't have then set). Beware however that most cvars will carry over, so in the above example, when gametype is set to 6, it stays that way until it gets changed either by another map or by the console.
A default mapcycle.txt is included with Urban Terror that should give you a good starting point for experiementing with this feature.
8.1.3 - How do I get my server to display as a Q3UT server in GameSpy?
Make sure that this line is present in the server.cfg file:
set gamename "Q3UT2"8.1.4 - How do I set the warm up time?
There are two settings for warmup time. The first is to activate/deactivate it:
set g_doWarmup [1=on, 0=off]The second is to set the time, in seconds, that the warmup should last.
set cg_warmup [secs]8.1.5 - How do I get my Urban Terror server to show up under GameSpy?
You need to add the Gamespy master server to the master server list in the server.cfg file. By default sv_master1 is set to the Id master server. You are able to add up 5 master servers in total.
set sv_master2 "master0.gamespy.com:28900"8.2.0 - What new CVARs does Urban Terror support?
First off, a CVAR is a value you can set in the console. To check the value of a CVAR you type the CVAR's name into the console with a slash in front of it. The console will then tell you the value that the CVAR has been set to. To set a CVAR, you simply type the name of the CVAR [with a leading /] and then the value you want to set it to. For example, /cg_drawgun 1. Urban Terror has added a number of new CVARs. You don't need to use them, but people who like to tweak the game may want to find out about them.
Client cvars can be changed by anyone, but they only affect what happens on your computer - you cannot affect what other people see or hear by changing client cvars. To change a cvar, go to the console (press the ~ key) and type a slash (/) followed by the name of the cvar, followed by the value you want to set it to.
For example: /cg_maxFragments 16
Would set the cg_maxFragments cvar to "16". You can enter the name of the cvar without a value to see what it is presently set to.
| CVAR | Default | Description |
| cg_maxFragments | 32 | Determines the maximum number of fragments a breakable object will break into. The map sets this value for each breakable object, so if you have maxFragments set at 32 and the map only asked for 16, then you'll still only see 16. |
| cg_markTotaltime | 10000 (10 seconds) | Number of milliseconds that a mark, like a bullet hole will stay on a surface before it disappears. The more marks you have the slower the game gets, so setting this value high is only useful if you have a fair bit of grunt on your system. Recommended to leave at 10000. |
| cg_visibleBleeding | 5 | Maximum number of places you see people bleeding from. When a player gets hit, they bleed from the location they were hit. This can cause a small performance hit, so people on low performance systems should set this lower. |
| cg_drawHands | 1 | If set to 1, you'll see hands holding the weapon in first person (normal) view. If set to 0, the hands won't be shown. Turning off hands can produce a small performance boost. |
| cg_chatHeight | 4 | Number of lines of chat text that you see. Longer lines means you'll be able to follow a conversation longer, but it will clutter up your screen more. Less lines makes it harder to read discussions when it's busy. Most people drop to the console (press ~ key) if a big conversation is happening. |
| cg_chatTime | 4000 (4 seconds) | Number of milliseconds that a chat messages stays on the screen before it goes. |
| cg_msgHeight | 4 | As cg_chatHeight, but for messages (for example, console messages, server messages and hit locations) |
| cg_msgTime | 4000 | As cg_chatTime, but for messages (for example, console messages, server messages and hit locations) |
| cg_maxPrecip | 128 | Maximum number of drops of rain, or flakes of snow you will see on maps that have it. Normally a map will define the maximum amount of drops, but the effects can impact on performance a great deal. Cutting back on maxPrecip can make a big difference. You can even turn off weather effects altogether with cg_maxPrecip 0, if it is slowing you down too much. |
| cg_gunSize | 0 | If set to 1, makes the size of the in-view weapon smaller for people who prefer it that way. |
| cg_gunCorrectFOV | 1 | If set to 1, fixes the perspective on the in-view weapon so it doesn't look so distorted. Normally you'll want this on. |
| cg_showBulletHits | 1 | If set to 1, prints messages about where you were hit and where you hit others. Some people find these messages distracting, and prefer them to be turned off. Set cg_showBulletHits to 0 to turn them off. |
| cg_standardChat | 0 | Urban Terror separates chat messages from other messages in the main view. If you prefer not to have them separated (ie: the normal Quake 3 way) then set this to 1. |
| cg_sfxMuzzleFlash | 1 | If set to 0, the muzzle flash from weapons won't be shown. Please note this is not a cheat. You only turn them off in your view: you will not be able to see other people's muzzle flashes, but they'll still see yours. |
| cg_sfxSurfaceImpacts | 1 | If set to one, shows bullet impact effects on hitting surfaces. There may be a small performance boost to be gained from turning this off, but it needs to be balanced against the difficulty of seeing where shots are hitting. |
| cg_sfxBreathing | 1 | If set to 1, allows you to hear heavy breathing when a player is exhausted. Set this to 0 if you find the sound distracting. Note that others will still hear you breathing if you turn it off. |
| cg_sfxThirdPersonLadder | 1 | If set to 1, the view will automatically pop into third person (camera view) when you are climbing a ladder. This can be distracting for some players, and can be turned off by setting cg_sfxThirdPersonLadder to 0. |
| cg_sfxZoomedWeapon | 0 | Controls whether you see your weapon in first person view when zoomed or not. Usually zooming changes the perspective of near things a great deal, so by default the in-view weapon is removed from your view when you are zoomed. Some people may prefer it on. |
| cg_sfxTeamBands | 1 | If set to 0, removes the arm bands and leg bands from players in team games. Note, this will only affect what you see; others will still see you wearing arm bands and leg bands. This is included so people who don't like the arm bands and leg bands don't have to see them. |
| cg_sfxBrassTime | 2500 (2.5 seconds) | Number if milliseconds that brass (ejected shells) stay lying around on the ground. A lot of shells can cause a performance hit. If you have a beefy system then you can extend this time so ejected shells remain on the ground much longer. |
| cg_sfxShowDamage | 1 | If set to any number other than 0, will use damage skins on models when a player gets hit. Setting this to zero will save a small amount of memory. By default damage skins are on. |
| cg_sfxParticle | 1 | If set to 0, will turn off all particle effects except hit effects. This can be used to reduce the frame rate impact caused by particle effects, which can potentially become large if there is a lot of action going on. |
| cg_sfxParticleSmoke | 1 | If set to 0, turns off smoke effects associated with some particle effects, including blood clouds caused by player hits. Setting this to 0 can improve frame rate a small amount. |
Server cvars can only be changed by people with access to a server. Generally, if you are playing in an online game then the server cvars cannot be affected by you. The only time you need to worry about server cvars is if you are running a server or playing a single-player game against bots.
g_friendlyfire
Setting g_friendlyfire to 2 enables friendly fire but disables automatic kicking of offenders. Normally you would set g_friendlyfire to 2 for closed LAN games or during matches.
| CVAR | Default | Description |
| g_survivor | 1 | Is set to 1 by the server for survivor (last-man standing) gameplay types. This is used internally by Urban Terror code and cannot be changed from the console. |
| g_survivorRoundTime | 5 | Number of minutes a survivor round should last before the server calls a draw. Normally this value should be set to 5 or lower so that dead players don't have to wait too long before the next round. |
| g_survivorRoundDelay | 5 | Number of seconds between rounds in survivor (last-man standing) gameplay types. This pause is useful so players have a moment to recognise the round has ended, see who won, and to prepare for a new one. |
| g_aries | 1 | If set to 1, the server will use ARIES hit detection, which provides much more accurate locational damage than normal Quake 3 hit detection. With ARIES off, players won't be able to hit any locations on the enemy. Generally you will always want this on. |
| g_captureScoreTime | 60 | Number of seconds that scores are calculated on a the capture and hold game type. For example, at the default of 60, the scores for each team will be incremented every minute. |
| g_enablePrecip | 0 | Set to 1 to enable rain, and 2 to enable snow. Works in conjunction with g_precipAmount. This will usually be set by a map, but has been left open so people can see the effects on maps not specifically designed for them. |
| g_precipAmount | 0 | Set to any number up to 1024 that will determine how many drops or flakes a player sees falling. Only works if g_enablePrecip is set. Players can cap this on their systems using cg_maxPrecip. This will usually be set by a map, but has been left open so people can see the effects on maps not specifically designed for them. |
| g_respawnDelay | 0 | How many seconds people have to wait to respawn after being killed in non-survivor type games. This is mainly in place to encourage players to be more careful about being killed in respawn type games (like free for all). Admins should be careful setting this too high as players will get bored if they have to wait too long (even 10 seconds is a long time in Urban Terror) |
| g_allowBulletPrediction | 1 | Normally when players with high latency (high pings) fire, they see the effect of their shots some time after they fire, as it takes time for the server to receive the fire message and to process the effects and send the effect event back to the client. If set to 1, players with high latency (high pings) will have their lag accounted for and will not need to lead their shots much (if at all). Should be set to 1 for Internet servers, but can be turned off in LAN games (because latency is normally low). |
| g_mapCycle | mapcycle.txt | This cvar should be set to the name of a text file in the /q3ut2 folder on the server that will be used to read map rotation information from. See elsewhere in the manual for more information about the format of the map cycle file. |
| g_allowChat | 2 | If set to 0, globally bans people from being able to chat. If set to 1, it stops people from being able to chat to the other team, and if set to 2 (the default) removes any chat restrictions. |
| g_refPass | none | This is the password that referees use to login. Set g_refPass to a string value to set the referee password to be used by the reflogin command. Please note that although referees have less power than players with rcon, they can still do a lot of harm to other players. Changing passwords regularly is strongly advised. |
| g_refClient | - | Read only variable used internally by Urban Terror code. Cannot be changed from console. |
| g_referee | 0 | If set to 1 enables the referee function on the server. If you don't want to enable the referee function on your server, set this to 0. It defaults to no referee support. |
| g_refNoBan | 0 | If set to 1, prevents referees from being allowed to ban players from the server. Because referees can ban players for up to 3 hours, the feature can be abused by untrustworthy referees. This should be set to 1 if a number of people are likely to have access to the referee password. |
| g_maxteamkills | 4 | Maximum number of team kills allowed before a player is auto-kicked. Only has an effect if g_friendlyfire is set to 1. Server admins may choose to knock this value up higher if they find people are being kicked too regularly. |
| g_respawnProtection | 5 | Number of seconds that a player should be invulnerable for after they have respawned. This has been added to make spawn camping more difficult, because players can still fire but cannot be damaged. It should also stop TK'ers lobbing grenades at the start of a round and wiping out the entire team. |
| g_followEnemy | 1 | If set to 1, prevents players from following people on the opposite team. If set to 0, players can follow members of both teams. |
| g_followForced | 0 | If set to 1, players will not be allowed to go into ghost modes when they are spectating. Servers should set this to 1 if there is concern about players using spectators as a way to spy on players in the game. It is off by default. |
| g_removeBodyTime | 5 | Number of seconds to wait before a fallen body sinks into the ground and is removed from the field of combat. Setting this high should only be done in survivor games, because a large number of dead bodies will eventually bring player's performance down. |
| g_bulletPredictionThreshold | 5 | In Urban Terror, bullet impacts can be predicted by the server so the client sees the effect of their hit immediately. A side effect of this is the potential for low ping players to be hit after they have ducked behind a wall. The code accomodates this problem by ignoring some hits if it is determined that the low ping player would have been behind a wall when the high ping player fired. This cvar sets the distance a player needs to have travelled (in map units) before the wall check is done. Smaller values can impact server performance, while larger values may result in players behind hit after they have ducked behind cover. In general, this cvar should not be modified. Admins should only change this value if they REALLY know what they are doing. |
| g_maintainTeam | 1 | If set to 1, will allow players to automatically be placed on their old team after a map rotation or restart. Most of the time this should be set to 1, although some servers may prefer to force players to reselect their teams after a rotation or game restart. |
There are a few things to be taken into consideration before starting your Urban Terror server.
8.3.1 - What command line should I use to start the server?
There is only one thing that must be included in the command line:
+set fs_game q3ut2There are other things that you will probably want to add and that can only be added to the command line:
+set dedicated 2 (this makes the server startup as dedicated. Set it to 1 to stop it from reporting to the master servers)
+exec server.cfg (this will load the settings from the server.cfg file)
+set net_ip [ip_address] (sets the IP address for the server, default = same as host computer)
+set net_port [port_number] (sets the port number for the server, default = 27960)
8.3.2 - What are hunkmegs and why should I care?
com_hunkmegs is the amount of memory that Quake will set aside for running the server. A good way of determining the amount of hunkmegs needed, is to multiply the number of maxclients by 2.5 (ie. 20 clients * 2.5 = 50 hunkmegs). com_hunkmegs must be set in the command line when starting the server (+set com_hunkmegs 50). The default for Quake 3 is 56. This does not need to be changed for Urban Terror. As a general rule of thumb, you shouldn't set this value too high or Quake3 will start using virtual memory, which will slow down your computer a lot.
8.4.0 - What the hell is the Rcon and how do I use it?
"Rcon" is short for remote control, it allows you to make changes to the server and gives you access to administrative commands when your connected to a remote server. To use the rcon, you first need to enter the password by typing:
/rconpassword [yourpassword]After you have enter the rconpassword you can access all the rcon capabilities, by typing:
/rcon [command]8.4.1 - How do I kick someone from the server?
There are two ways to do this. The first is to kick them using their player name:
/rcon kick [playername]The second is to use their user number on the server:
/rcon status (this is to get a list of players and their user numbers)
/rcon clientkick [usernumber]
8.4.2 - How do I restart the server using the Rcon?
While you can't actually restart the server, you can reload the server.cfg, which amounts to about the same thing.
/rcon exec server.cfgThe first thing that you have to do before banning anyone is to add this line to the server.cfg file:
set filterBan 1Now you can add an IP to the ban list by typing at the console:
/rcon addIP [ip_address] (you can also use IP masks)
To remove an IP from the list:
/rcon removeIP [ip_address]To list the IPs currently banned:
/rcon g_banIPsSee the section on new commands above for extensions added to banning functions in Urban Terror.
8.5.0 - Server Troubleshooting
8.5.1 - Why can't I get Urban Terror to run under Linux?
Due to the fact that the Linux 1.29h Point Release is still in beta form, it is set to run off of binaries (.so) rather than the QVM files that Urban Terror (and all other Quake3 mods) are contained in. To get an Urban Terror server running properly, you need to add this to this command line when starting the server:
+set vm_game 2 +set vm_ui 2 +set vm_cgame 28.5.2 - Why is the hostname and other settings not showing up properly?
There is a file that Quake3 uses to store default settings called q3config.cfg. For some reason, with the lastest Point Release, Id has set things up so that this file is the very last thing loaded when starting a server and changing maps. The problem with this is that the settings contained within this file will override some of your settings in the server.cfg file. There are two ways to fix this. The first will work if you plan to run only one server on the computer that you are working with. Just delete the q3config.cfg file and let Quake recreate it with your server.cfg settings as the default. The second way is to clear the contents of q3config.cfg, so that it is an empty file, and then make it read only (Linux- chmod 444 q3config.cfg, Windows - right click/properties/select read only). NOTE - If you do this, you must exec a server.cfg file when starting the server or the server will crash, due to not having any default settings to load.
8.5.3 - Why does the server try to give connecting clients files they don't need?
This is another bug with the Linux 1.29h Point Release. Even if you turn off autodownloads on the server side players will not be able to connect unless they turn off autodownloads on their side. They can do this through the menus by:
1. Loading up Urban Terror
2. Clicking on "Settings"
3. Clicking on "Options"
4. Finding the autodownloads setting and turning it off.
It can also be done in the clients.cfg file:
seta cl_allowDownload "0"8.5.4 - Can I get a default server config to set up my Urban Terror server?
If you are running a server 24/7 then please contact oswald@urbanterror.net. We're really keen to build up a community of server ops so we can distribute patches and early releases. We also want to be able to give you as much support as we can.
There is a special Urban Terror forum [click the Forum link on the Urban Terror web page] for server admins. If you are running a server and have the time, drop in there are leave a note about your server [address and so on]... the more the merrier! Also, we'll answer any technical questions in there.
8.6.0 - How do I find an Urban Terror server to play on?
This is the eternal question of all players. How do you find a server that is running Urban Terror? Perhaps the most efficient way to do this is to get hold of GameSpy 3D or GameSpy Arcade. GameSpy offers a utility software that searches for game servers and then lists them for you. For the Macintosh community, you can download GameRanger. In order to help GameSpy 3D find Urban Terror servers, you need an Urban Terror GameSpy tab. There are other utilities that offer similar service, such as, PingTool, Q3Informer, Bspy and XQF for the Linux gamers.
Referees are an experimental feature that has been added to help server admins manage their servers. This feature will expand and be modified as more servers start running beta 2 and admins start giving feedback about what needs to be implemented.
The referee is like a less powerful version of rcon: you can set a password and give it out to trusted players. Unlike rcon, the referee has limited control over how they can affect the server. It gives them the ability to do things like mute annoying players, kick them and even ban them from the server for up to 3 hours.
All referee commands start with the ref command. The basic referee command looks something like this:
ref {refcommand} [{paramaters} ...]Referee commands can only be used by a client who has logged on as a referee using the reflogin command with a valid password. If a password has not been set, or if the server has disabled the referee function, nobody will be able to login as a referee.
8.7.1 - Enabling referees on a server
To enable a referee, a server admin first needs to set the referee password:
/g_refpass "password"Then set whether the referee can ban people:
/g_refNoBan 1 (to give them ban power)
/g_refNoBan 0 (to stop them from banning players)
Finally enable referees:
/g_referee 1Be very careful with allowing referees to ban players on your server, unless you can trust them to use the power with responsibility. Otherwise, you might find angry players boycotting your server!
8.7.2 - Logging on as a referee
To login as a referee you need to ask the server administrator for the referee password. Once you have it, you can login by pulling down the Q3 console and typing:
/reflogin "password"If you enter the password correctly and the server is set up to allow referees, then you will receive a message telling you that you have successfully logged in. Once logged in you can use all the referee commands. These commands and their effects are listed below.
| Command | Usage | Description |
| Kick | ref kick player [reason] | Kicks a player from the server but does not ban them. You can enter either a player name or a client number (use the status command to see client numbers), so a you can either do: /ref kick dokta8 or /ref kick 5. You can also give an optional reason that the player was banned. |
| Mute | ref mute player seconds | Mutes a player for some number of seconds. Useful to shut up trolls. The player can be either a player name or a client number. |
| Forceteam | ref forceteam player red|blue|spectator|free | Forces a player onto a team or into spectator mode. The player can be either a player name or a client number. Use "free" as the team name to ask the server to place them onto the team with the least players. |
| Ban | ref ban player minutes | Bans a player from the server. After using this on a player, the player cannot rejoin the server for a specified number of minutes. The player can be either a player name or a client number. Using this command, a referee can ban a player for up to 3 hours (180 minutes). |
| Resign | ref resign | Use this to make yourself a normal player again. You are also automatically un-refereed if you disconnect from the server. |
| Help | ref help | Prints out brief information about ref commands and what they do. |