Swedish Strike Clan Online Gamers

BEGINNER’S ADMINISTRATION TUTORIAL

for

MEDAL OF HONOR: ALLIED ASSAULT

by Crow King

crowking@autokick.com

For more Administrator Support, please visit

Getting a Server Up and Running

Setting Up the Server

You have two choices when setting up your server – you can run it in
dedicated mode or non-dedicated mode. Dedicated just means that no one is playing the game on the server’s machine – the machine is dedicated just to acting as a server. Non-dedicated means the opposite – the server is also being used (probably by you) to play on the server. This guide applies equally to both types of servers. You also have two choices for starting your server. You can start it up from the command line using a config file or from within the game. Starting from the command line gives you much more control over the server and only this option will be covered in this guide. See your game manual for instructions on how to use the in-game server setup.
The Server Command Line

The easiest way to start your server from the command line is to create an icon on your Windows desktop, so you just have to double click it to start the server running. To create a Windows icon, right click on your desktop and select "New - > Shortcut". A short wizard will walk you through finding the program you want the icon to run (you’ll find MOHAA.exe in \Program Files\ EA GAMES\ MOHAA). Next, you’ll need to add the arguments to your command line. Do this by right clicking on your newly created icon, selecting "Properties" and making your changes in the "Target" text box. A good all purpose command line would be

"C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\MOHAA\MOHAA.exe" +set developer 1 +set dedicated 1 +set ui_console 1 +set sv_maxclients 16 +exec server.cfg

This tells the server to run in developer mode (+set developer 1), which, among other things, allows the server to keep a log. It also runs the server in dedicated mode (+set dedicated 1), activates the console (+set ui_console 1 – not really needed, but useful if you need to do testing on your server), sets the maximum number of players to 16 (+set sv_maxclients 16) and configures the server using the settings stored in server.cfg (+exec server.cfg). If you intend to run your server in non-dedicated mode, you will need to change the "+set dedicated 1" to "+set dedicated 0". You should get used to using a 1 to mean ‘yes’ and a 0 to mean ‘no’, as it is common in many other server commands and variables. You can set just about any game setting from the command line, but usually, there are just a few that you’ll want to use. You can also include many of these same settings in your server’s config file, but they will be overridden by whatever you have set in your command line. So, if you set sv_maxclients both on the command line and in your config file, whatever is on your command line will be used for setting sv_maxclients. Why is it set up this way? Overriding settings with the command line allows hosting companies to control specific game settings, such as the maximum number of players on the server. Since servers are usually priced by the player (and the bandwidth each consumes), you can see why a host would want to have some ability to manage the server from the command line.

The Server Configuration File

Once the server starts up, it has to know what kind of game you want to run, what the name of the server is, what maps you want, etc. This information is all stored in the server configuration file, or ‘config’ for short. This file can be saved anywhere, but you should keep it in your EA GAMES\ MOHAA\ main directory. To run your game from the command line, you will have to build a config. Below is a template for one that you can use. Whenever you are editing your config file,you should use Notepad and not your favorite word processor. This is because MOHAA will only understand the config file if it is in plain text format. Most word processors store their files in a proprietary format which will cause MOHAA to choke. You can access Notepad from your Start -> Accessories menu. In the config below, the text that comes after double slashes (ie "\\") is a comment and ignored by the server. To use this template, just copy and paste it into a Notepad text document, make your changes and save it in your MOHAA\main directory. Items that you should modify are in

// Generic MoHAA Server Config File

// This block of settings controls the info players will see about your server in game

// browsers, like GameSpy. If you don’t want your server to appear in GameSpy’s server

// list, change the 1 to a 0 in sv_gamespy.

seta sv_hostname "

sets Admin "

sets URL "

sets Connection "

seta sv_gamespy "1" // Change to a "0" if you don’t want your server on GameSpy

//This block of text controls the network settings for your server. Unless you have a

// specific reason for changing them, you should leave these as they are.

net_noipx 1 // disables the IPX protocol

net_port 12203 // specifies port 12203 for client connections

// This block of text controls your server’s security. If you don’t want to enable rcon

// commands, comment out the rconpassword line.

set rconpassword "

seta sv_floodProtect "1" // won’t allow players to flood server

seta flood_waitdelay "10"

seta flood_persecond "4"

seta flood_msgs "4"

set sv_pure "0" // requires players to have pure game files

// This block of text controls your server’s performance variables.

seta sv_allowDownload "0" // if players don’t have maps, don’t send them

seta sv_maxRate "9000" // allow players to pull up to 9,000 bps

seta sv_fps "20" // process 20 frames per second on server

seta sv_maxping "

// This block of text controls the number of players on the server

// If you don’t want private slots on the server, you should comment out

// the sv_privateClients and sv_privatepassword lines

set sv_maxclients "

set sv_privateClients "

set sv_privatepassword "

// the password for the private slots

// This block of text controls the game play variables on the server.

seta timelimit "

seta fraglimit "0" // maps will not end based on frags

set g_gametype

set g_teamdamage "

set g_inactiveSpectate "

set g_inactiveKick "

// the next line is the list of maps the server will run, in order

// if you change to tdm maps, don't forget to change the gametype

seta sv_maplist "

map

200" // players must ping below 200 to connect16" // Maximum of 16 players on server3" // 3 of 16 slots require a passwordyour private password here"15" // maps will run for 15 minutes4 // map will be objective (2 = TDM)0" // friendly fire is off (1 = on)30" // players go to spectate after 30s of inactivity120" // players kicked after 120s of inactivityobj/obj_team1 obj/obj_team2 obj/obj_team4"obj/obj_team1 // the first map to run

Once you’ve made your changes and saved the text file, double clicking the icon you created will start up your server. A couple of things to note:

Adding Mods and Maps to the Server

Most mods and maps will come with directions for their installation. You should read any documentation the author has included (usually in a readme.txt file) for any special considerations. In the vast majority of cases, the file you download will be a zip file. This will most likely contain a .pk3 file (a "pack" file). To install the map or mod on the server, just unzip the file you downloaded and move the pack file it contained into your server’s MOHAA\main directory (you’ll see other pack files in there, too). That’s it. If the file you downloaded was a pack file, then there’s no need to unzip. Just move it to the MOHAA\main directory on the server. Note that players will also have to have the map installed on their machines to play it (they will be disconnected when the map loads if they don’t have it on their machines). On the other hand, many mods are "server side only" mods, meaning that the pk3 file only has to be present on the server. The documentation included with the mod should tell you whether players need to have it or not.

As usual, a couple of things to note:

·

·

Running a Server

Console

The console is where you type commands in to tell the game things you want it to do and it is accessed by pressing the tilda key (~) while in the game. However, before you can access the console, you have to make sure it is turned on in your game’s settings. Make sure the "Console" checkbox is checked in the Advanced options screen for the game on the computer you will be playing from. If you don’t, pressing the tilda key will only open a chat window. When you run the console on your own computer while you’re playing the game, you have to tell it whether you want the command to run on your machine (ie locally) or on the server (ie remotely). For example, if you want to change the setting for sv_hostname (ie the server’s name as it appears in GameSpy), you have to tell console that you want to change it on the server, because both your machine and the server machine have sv_hostname variables (even though your machine isn’t hosting anything). You tell the game to run commands remotely by using the ‘rcon’ command. So, if you type "set sv_hostname ‘The Big Kahuna’ " into the console, your server’s name won’t change because you set the variable on your local machine, not on the remote one. What you needed to type was, "rcon password set sv_hostname ‘The Big Kahuna’ " which tells MOHAA to send the command to the server.

Remote console commands have the following format:                  rcon <password> <command> The <password> is the rcon password as set in the server’s configuration file. The command is any valid console command (map, set, etc.). So, if you typed "map ‘dm/mohdm1’" into the console, it would load the Southern France map on your own computer. However, if you typed in "rcon mypassword map ‘dm/mohdm1’ " while you were connected to a server, it would load the Southern France map on the server.

Setting Passwords

You have to be very careful when type in rcon commands while you’re playing on the server. If you don’t have the console turned on in your settings, pressing the tilda key will bring up the chat. It is very easy to not notice this, type in your rcon command and thus broadcast your server’s password to anyone reading the chat. Not a good thing. To prevent this, you should create a text file called "rcon.cfg" in your MOHAA\main directory and put the following lines in it:

Loading Maps

Sometimes you’ll want to load maps on the server while you’re playing. You can load any map installed on the server, regardless of whether or not it is in your sv_maplist (set in the server’s config file). To load a map, type the following into the console:

rcon map "<

This will load the map located in directory

Kicking Players

Probably one of the most bothersome chores as an admin is maintaining order on the server. To keep things under control, you will sometimes have to kick players. You have two options for doing this. The first option is the easiest. Just pull down the console and type

rcon clientkick xx

Some players just don’t get the message, even after they’re kicked. Unfortunately, MoHAA’s banning function does not work. If you need to ban players from your server, you’ll need a third party tool (like Autokick, which can be downloaded

Speaking to Players Through Console

Sometimes, folks will be causing trouble and, while you don’t want to kick them, you may want to let them know you’re the admin. One way to do this is to use the console to chat with players. When you do this, your in game name does not show up in the chat window. Instead, it says, "console: <your message>". Only someone with the rcon password can do this. To speak through the console, use the say command. For example, typing the following into the console:
rcon say Please don’t sit on the spawn and rape – that is not allowed! would cause, "console: Please don’t sit on the spawn and rape – that is not allowed!" to come up in the chat where everyone (dead or alive) can see it. One thing to note about the ‘say’ command. If you’re running a non-dedicated server, your name (instead of ‘console’) will appear in the chat.                                                                                                     Good luck!from http://www.autokick.com/ ).where xx is their client number.rcon kick "<playername>" This will kick the player with name playername. Note that you should use quotes around the name in case it contains spaces. Unfortunately, some players have figured out ways to make this method of kicking difficult for you by using names that can be very difficult to type in or by copying other players names. For this reason, you can also kick players by their client number. The client number is just a unique identifier that the server assigns to each player. To see players’ client numbers, you run a status command from the console by typing in rcon status and you’ll see a list of players with info about each one. The left most column, next to the player’s name, gives you their client number. If the list of players is too long to be seen on the screen, you can scroll the console up or down to peruse the list. To kick a player using this number, type the following into the console:dir with the bsp file name mapbsp. But how do you know what to type in? If you look on your hard drive, you won’t find any maps sitting there. That’s because they are stored in the pack files. Most map authors include the bsp file name in their readme.txt files that came with the map. If they don’t (or you forgot), you can always get a list of the maps and their locations on your server by running the maplist command in the console (you don’t need to run it with rcon – just type in "maplist" and press enter). This will bring up a little window with the maps the server has – just click through them to find what you want. CAREFUL – do not double click on the map you want in the maplist window! This will load the map on your local machine, not the server (remember – this isn’t run using rcon – you’re just using it to find the map name and directory). Maps are stored in directories based on what gametype they were designed for – "DM" for deathmatch and "obj" for objective. So, to load The Hunt, you would type the following into the console: rcon map "obj/obj_team2" including the quotes. When you run maplist, you’ll see these directories. Just double click on them to drill down and see what maps they contain.dir/mapbsp>"rconAddress "xx.xx.xx.xx"                                                 rconPassword "password"                                                           Replace xx.xx.xx.xx with your game server’s IP address and replace password with your rcon password. Be sure to include the quotes. The first time you connect to the server, bring down the console (tilda key) and type in "exec rcon.cfg" (don’t include the quotes). This will tell your computer that whenever you type in an rcon command, send it to the server at rconAddress using rconPassword. So, instead of typing in "rcon mypassword map ‘dm/mohdm1’" to load Southern France, you can just type in "rcon map ‘dm/mohdm1’". Now, you never have to type the password in where people can see it, so you’ll never give it away. You don’t even need to be connected to your server as a player, since rconAddress tells MOHAA what server you are sending commands to. The remainder of this guide will assume you have run the rcon.cfg and so the password will be omitted from all console commands. Each time you run MoHAA to play on your server, you will need to exec rcon.cfg.The name of a mod file is very important. Mods work by overriding the contents of the game’s pk3 files with their own contents. Modders do this by giving the mod’s pk3 file a name that is alphabetically "higher" than the game’s pk3 files. For example, MOHAA will use the contents of "z_mymod.pk3" over the contents of "mymod.pk3". Because of this, some mods can interfere with others if they both try to mod the same thing in the game. If you’re having problems, take all of the mods out of your server’s MOHAA\main directory and add them back one by one until you isolate the problem.To load a map you’ve installed on the server, you will need to use the remote console (rcon) and know the name of the map’s bsp file. The map author should have included the bsp name in the map’s documentation. If he/she didn’t, you will have to look inside the map’s pk3 file. See the section "Loading Maps" for more information.· If you want to use admin tools like Autokick or issue console commands from inside the game, you will need to set your rcon password in the config file. To use rcon, you should also check the ‘Console’ box in the Advanced Settings in the MOHAA setup screen.                                                                                          · MOHAA does not allow you to mix maps of different game types in the same rotation. If you want to do this, you will need a mix maps mod. Otherwise, you can save two copies of your config, one with tdm maps and the other with objective maps (or whatever game type you want).                                                                                            · The default server port is 12203. If you are behind a firewall, you will need to open this port to the outside world. You should also open port 12300 so services like GameSpy can see your server.server name as it will appear in GameSpy"your nick goes here"www.yourwebpage.com"T1" // Your connection type (you can type whatever you want here)your password here"red.http://www.autokick.com/