Miscellany: Spawn protection, Jump height, Deathmatch Podiums, Export & Debug commands, Disabeling JumpPads, Max Intermission Time

 

Setting Spawn Protection

Coliseum2 allows for spawn protection that gives players a brief time that they are invulnerable after spawning/respawning.  This safety period will last for a specified period of time or until the player fires a weapon.  Firing the hook will not remove the spawn safety.  Also, spawn protection will not protect against telefrags.

CVAR:  g_spawnsafety

Default is zero(0) and is measured in seconds.
Example:  To set a 5 second spawn protection period, set g_spawnsafety "5".

 

Setting Jump Height

Coliseum2 allows server admins to adjust how high a player can jump.

CVAR:  g_jumpheight

Default is 270.

 

Turning Off Deathmatch Podiums

Some server may have a map rotation scheme with some typos that may cause the deathmatch podiums to "artifact" after a map restarts. This is, the deathmatch poduims may hang around and still be visible during play.  This problem has been determined to be caused by some rare typos in the map rotation command portion of config files.  You may turn off deathmatch podiums completely.

CVAR:  g_dmpodium

0 - Off
1 - On - default

 

Exporting Server Game Variables

Server admins invariably spend large amounts of time tweaking variables and other settings to make the perfect Quake3 server.  It can get rather cumbersome jotting down variable settings on paper and have to manually edit config files later.  Enter the export command:

Command Usage:

export <filename>
!export <filename>

Server admins may, at anytime, use the export command to dump out all server game variables to a designated file.  Simply enter the export command followed by the filename with any extension and all variable settings and command permissions will be written out to that file.  It's as easy as that.  An error will be returned if the filename already exists and an override may be issued with the !export command.  The filename q3config.cfg is reserved and can never be used with the export or !export command, for obvious reasons.

Latched variable changes are not effective until after a map restart.  Make sure you have properly restarted a map before you use the export command.  Otherwise, exported latched variables may not reflect the correct desired values.

Currently, variables g_password and g_ref_password are not exported.

 

Debug Commands

There are two commands available to the server and one on the client that will hopefully assist in reporting bugs.  These commands are entered at the console and must be preceded by the "/".

Command Usage:  /runestatus

If you should suspect that runes are not spawning correctly for any reason, this command will tell you the min, max, total and allowed runes.

 

Command Usage:  /clients, /players, /who

This command is available to both the server and clients and will tell you what version other clients are playing with, their client number, the type of code they're using (VM, DLL or Linux LIB), the name of the player, their team and roles.  Players playing with versions older than 1.8 will show a version number of zero (0).  Role indicators are [R]eferee and/or team [C]aptain.

 

Disabling JumpPads

Coliseum2 v2.1 contains an experimental feature that will allow the server to disable jumppads to try to enhance hook play.  By disabling jumppads, players would have to use their hook skills more effectively.  However, server admins are strongly cautioned to carefully consider whether or not to use this feature since users may not like it at all.  Disabling jumppads will "break" bot logic since they do not yet know how to see an alternate path and will get stuck on the jumppads.  Also, for jumppads to be disabled, the hook must be enabled.  If, at any time the hook becomes disabled, the jumppads will immediately re-enabled themselves.

CVAR:  g_jumppads

0 - Off
1 - On - default

This is an experimental feature and may be retained or removed in the next version depending on user feedback.  Please post your comments and suggestions on the Coliseum2 home page message board.

 

Max Intermission Time

Starting with Coliseum2 version 2.3, server admins can set the absolute max time for the intermission before the name map/game starts.  By design, Coliseum2 is designed to display the intermission until 50% or greater of the active (ie. non-spectating) human clients click "ready".  This will help prevent players who may walk away from their PC and leave others waiting until he returns.  However, the server admin a set the absolute max time, in seconds, for the intermission regardless of the number of people who have indicated "ready."  Once this time has elapsed, the next map/game will start.

CVAR: g_max_intermissiontime

0 - off - server will wait until 50% or greater non-spectating human clients are "ready"
10 - default - wait ten seconds at intermission until next map or game starts.
values greater than zero(0) represents total seconds for the intermission

 

CTF Spawn Locations In Non-CTF Games

Some 3rd party CTF maps do not make allowances for playing then in non-CTF games.  In these maps, there are no spawn locations for DeathMatch or Team Deathmatch games.  Thus, there may be no spawn locations so all players will be forced into spectator mode and a message "No spawn locations in map for current gametype" will appear.  In such rare cases, server admins may optionally choose to "convert" CTF spawn locations into "regular" ones so the map can be played.

CVAR: g_useCTFspawn

0 - off (default)
1 - on

 


Table of Contents Enhanced IP Banning Role:  Referee