Map cycle setup

Squiffy101

Hi all,

I picked up an NS2 server yesterday from Gameservers.com as they are the first to offer UK based servers (with a decent ping) for us at a good price but, being new to having a server, I'm a little lost on setting up the map cycling.

If anyone could "spell it out" to me, that would be great.

As per the dedicated_server_usage.txt within the server files, I have created mapcycle.txt (with the example given). What I'm not sure about is the <i>"On the server, the cyclemap console command can be used to force the server to switch to the next map in the map cycle"</i>

Where does this go? In the server.xml, on the server.exe (in which case I have to ask the providers to change it) and what is the format? i.e. is it just "cyclemap"

Along the same lines, I wanted to test the server out last night and tried to enable "cheats 1" (which has always worked on the local host). Is there something i need to add to the config files to enable this?

I've spent quite a bit of time trawling for answers before posting this, so I will be very embarrassed if someone say look at this, so apologies if this is the case :-(

Any help would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to learning something new :-)

player

A dedicated-server has no idea when its owner joins the server, and obviously it cannot allow random players to enable cheats, as such the "cheats 1"-command wouldn't work for you. This is different for a listen-server. You will need to use the webadmin-interface. *cough* or set-up a 3rd-party admin-package *cough*.

Squiffy101

<!--quoteo(post=1908347:date=Feb 29 2012, 06:33 PM:name=player)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (player @ Feb 29 2012, 06:33 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1908347"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->*cough* or set-up a 3rd-party admin-package *cough*.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

LOL player, your next on the list after getting the map rotation working. I notice that I have to request a mod addition through a support ticket so I will be doing that soon. Expect questions (although I have read your brilliant guide over and over already!)

Many thanks for replying...was thinking that you had to have a funny handshake to get questions answered about servers :-)

Got to say that I had a trial from Tempest on his servers and he set up your mod automatically and it was great, can't wait to get back to using it.

ScardyBob

The mapcycle.txt file going in the same directory as the game_setup.xml file, I believe. If you named your server folder NS2Server then it would be \NS2Server\ns2\mapcycle.txt.

Squiffy101

Appreciate the reply Scardybob and yes, that's what I've done, but the problem is where do I put the "changemap" command and what is the format? Do I need to remove the designated map in the server.xml and replace it with something else or does it go else where?

I just can't seem to find any more information anywhere!

kingmob

I think the drunken gorge has maps rotating.

player

"cyclemap" will make the server change the map into the whatever next map the map-cycle(-file) dictates. "changemap <mapname>" will make the server change the map into <mapname>, ignoring whatever the map-cycle dictates. As mentioned before, these console-commands do not work for pleb-players.

ScardyBob

You just need to have the following info in your mapcycle.txt file:
<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->min_time = 45
ns2_mineshaft
ns2_summit
ns2_tram<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->
min_time = the minimum time the server will be on the current map
ns2_xxxx are the maps in the server rotation (so you can include or exclude whichever ones you want)

That's all you need. If you want to test the map cycling you can type 'cyclemap' into the server console. You can also include the command 'mode = random', which is supposed to make it rotate through the map list randomly (though it never seemed to work for me).

autograder

ScardyBob is awesome, great answer.
Note that once the file is in the correct location it is picked up by NS2 on server launch (<i><b>so you do not need a specific command anywhere to turn it on, just the file</b></i>).

I recommend setting the min_time to 5 until the current memory leak is fixed.
Hey devs, please fix this for 199, <3.
The memory usage slowly increases until the server crashes or the map changes; by setting the timeout low we hope the map changes before a crash.

Squiffy101

Many thanks for all your replies. I think that I confused the issue by asking where the "changemap" command went when I meant the "cyclemap". Busy day at work and not concentrating at home.

Scardybob, thanks!. I was thinking that "cyclemap" had to be added to the server.xml or appended to the server.exe to make the server look at the mapcycle.txt file.

I will add the min_time value you suggest and remove the "random" command to the file.

Thanks to you all and expect to see more noob questions on servers in the near future ;-)

Regards, Squiffy101