F.A.Q

: What are the minimum requirements for a Quake 2 Server? A: This depends on the max amount of players you want on the server. There is no set recommended specifications, but you need at the very least a 486. A high-end Pentium CPU is recommended. More CPU horsepower is required for more players. RAM should be at the very least 16 megs, with a recommended amount of 1 meg per player. Requirements also depend on the map(s) being played, as some maps need more horsepower than others. Last but not least, you need a good steady connection to the Internet. This means a digital connection, like a ISDN, DSL, T1, T3, or OC-12 connection. If you don't know what most of those connections are, best not set a server up quite yet. Remember, each q2 player requires about 2.5-2.8 kbps of bandwidth. Q: What OS can I use? A: You can either use Windows 95 or 98, although it's highly recommend you not use either one. Windows NT would be a better choice. Quake 2 has also been ported to Linux, Solaris (dedicated server only), and Windows NT DEC Alpha. Ports to other systems like Rhapsody (MacOS) and other Unix platforms are being planned. Q: How do you set up a dedicated server on Win95 or NT? A: The easiest way is to just run the install program off the CD. Then download and install the latest executable for Win32. (The filename for the latest setup package for Win32 is q2-314-x86.exe. The new deathmatch maps are in the file q2_313.exe, which is located in the 'old' subdirectory. Then run the game with: quake2 +set dedicated 1 +set deathmatch 1 Q: How do you set up a dedicated server on Linux, or on Solaris? A: Here's a step-by-step guide to set one up manually (manually is the only way possible with Linux) Create a quake 2 directory. Call it anything you want, calling it 'quake2' is recommended. Create a subdirectory under that directory, named 'baseq2'. Under baseq2, create another subdirectory named 'players'. And under players, create two subdirectories, named 'male' and 'female'. (For Linux, v3.14's filename is quake2-3.14-i386-unknown-linux2.0.tar.gz. Solaris v3.14 is q2ded-3.14-sparc-sun-solaris2.5.tar.Z. If you want the new deathmatch levels too, download and untar quake2-3.13-full-i386-unknown-linux2.0.tar.gz in your 'quake2' directory first. Whether or not you have Linux, just ignore the executable in that tar.) Ungzip and untar the file, place the quake2 executable in your quake2 directory, and the gamex86.so file in your quake2/baseq2 directory. Change your working directory to quake2, then type in at the prompt: quake2 +set dedicated 1 +set deathmatch 1 Q: What game settings can I set? A: Here are some settings: dmflags - A bitflag that controls gameplay options fraglimit - Number of frags until the next map is loaded timelimit - Time before map end map - which map to start maxclients - Maximum players hostname - Name of server deathmatch - Set to 1 if you want to play deathmatch game - What mod directory you want to use port - What port you want the server on dedicated - Start a dedicated server You can set all these settings from two places: 1. Either in the command line by using the parameter: +set 'settingname' 'settingvalue' 2. Or by typing in the console: set 'settingname' 'settingvalue' Note that some settings cannot be changed in the console, but only on the command line. These settings are said to be "write protected" when you try to change them in the console. Q: Bitflags?!? What do I do with dmflags?? A: The dmflags setting uses bitflags to control specific rules on the server. Each rule has a number, which is a power of 2. For the rules you want to implement, you add their numbers together, and enter that as the dmflags value. An easy way to get your dmflags configured is to go to menu, select multiplayer then select 'Start Network Server', select 'deathmatch flags', and you'll see a screen full of options. Set these up to what you want, start the game, then type 'dmflags' at console, it'll re