Enemy Territory Server Owner Guide

[phantasm]

When your rent a new server, you will be given account information that will allow you to access and control the server from within. You will use a control panel and a program like Filezilla to transfer files.

 

Your control panel will allow you to easily turn the server on or off. It uses scripts that are executed when you click on the button so you do not have to type in a huge command string by hand.

 

A file transfer program like Filezilla will allow you to upload and download files to and from the actual machine that your game is running on. Filezilla is free and relatively easy to use.

 

You need to set up a server config so that your server name and many other settings are set the way you want it. A default ET server will very rarely get any players.

 

You need to copy over any additional maps or modified files you want to run. There are hundreds of maps available. Over 200 of them work with the newest version of omni-bot (omnibot 0.81). There are also many mods and various add-ons available. These all have to transferred to the server into the proper file to work properly.

 

The most popular mods are jaymod, silent mod, no quarter, n!tmod, etpub, and etpro. Each mod is quite unique. You will need to download the mod and unzip it to upload it to your server. Put it in the game on the same folder level as your etmain folder.

 

Each mod has its own server config. This runs in place of the server.cfg inside etmain. If you change your server config name from the default, be sure to get the name changed in your command line.

 

You will need to decide how to run your maps. By default, ET runs the standard 6 maps over and over forever. To add new maps, first locate a reliable copy that has not been modified. This is very important. Some admins modify the maps without changing the name, or they open and rezip them and change the size without even realizing it. They may be trying to fix a map bug, or trying to make it fun, but they end up making every player who downloads it from their server to get kicked off the next server they go to that has the proper copy.

 

As a server manager, you have a responsibility to ensure that you are not distributing bad copies of maps or mods. Always remember to change the name if you change anything that gets distributed to the clients.

 

You can change the order of your maps in the objectivecycle.cfg file. Then when your server runs, use "exec objectivecycle.cfg" at the end of the file to start up the cycle of maps that you have chosen.

 

You can also use a config file for each map. These files are named after the map and executed when the map in question loads. This config will change game variables for that map. These changes will be in place on the next map unless another config or mapscript resets the variable.

 

The default.cfg file in your mapconfigs folder allows you to set values for every map that would otherwise be reset by the server. It is good for changing a variable such as g_gravity that would otherwise be set back to normal each map. Also it is good for running forcecvars each map.

 

Anything else should go into your server.cfg file, to be run once when your server is first started. Running many cvars at the beginning of each map is unnecessary, and may cause problems with the game (especially jaymod).

 

Remember that every ET mod has its own bugs, and that they are made for free by busy people. When you have trouble on your server, be sure to use Google to look for the problem. Very often you will find other people have had the same problem. Sometimes there are fixes, sometimes not.

 

Most of your problems initially will be server config issues. There is a large jaymod.pdf file inside jaymod that has about 300 pages of notes. Learning jaymod can be daunting. Think of it as a college course and put forth the same amount of effort you would use to get good grades in school.

 

Learn every cvar and study what happens when you change them. You might be surprised at the infinite ways you can customize this old game.

[nikolov]

Where is this control panel?