Looking For A Particular Map

[Mr.Burns]

Sounds like cr-mod is the best way to go, so this should help not cause a new map download and keep the map as is intact, correct?

It's my understanding that if you use the server side CRMod to place/change entities then the players would be still using the original map so no need for further downlaods. The server tells the clients where the entities are on the existing map (Peg, please jump in here if I'm wrong). I only ever did this once on my old server to even up the weapons distribution on e1m7 and attempt to reduce camping.
It did work, however if your looking for 'on-the-fly' placement there are mods around if you look hard enough like Quake DeathmatchPlus (DMP) that allow admins to place weapons/ammo/powerups wherever they want - in game. It really depends on how you want to admin your server. I have to say that the CRMod option is certainly the more permanent option and reduces the admin overhead as I seem to recall that you can set it and forget about it.

Perhaps the following snippet from the manual may help...

    /---------------------\
9.0 Entity and Camera Files
    \---------------------/

When running a DEDICATED server it is possible to add cameras and edit level 
entities.  The entities directory contains, optionally, one entity file for 
each level.  The cameras directory contains, optionally, one camera file for
each level.  When a level starts, the server attempts to read the entity and 
camera files for that level.  The general format for an entry in an entity 
or camera file is as follows:

scr_ofsx <x-coord>
scr_ofsy <y-coord>
scr_ofsz <z-coord>
v_ipitch_level <pitch>
v_iyaw_level   <yaw>
v_iroll_level  <roll>
<entity declaration>

Use the administrator command 'spot' in walk or fly mode to obtain coordinates
in a level.  The following sections describe specific declarations which can 
be used.


[...EDIT...]


9.4 makeitem

scr_ofsx <x-coord>
scr_ofsy <y-coord>
scr_ofsz <z-coord>
skill <item number>
makeitem

This creates a new item at the given location.  The item is specified by skill
as follows:

skill        item
-----        ----
  1          15 health
  2          25 health
  3          mega health
  4          green armour
  5          yellow armour
  6          red armour
  7          20 shells
  8          40 shells
  9          25 nails
  10         50 nails
  11         5 rockets
  12         10 rockets
  13         6 cells
  14         12 cells
  15         super shotgun
  16         nailgun
  17         super nailgun
  18         grenade launcher
  19         rocket launcher
  20         lightning gun
  21         radiation suit
  22         quad damage
  23         pentagram
  24         ring of shadows

9.5 changeitem

scr_ofsx <x-coord>
scr_ofsy <y-coord>
scr_ofsz <z-coord>
skill <item number>
changeitem

The server looks for an item at the given location and changes it to the 
specified item.  The new item is specified by skill as in section 9.4.

9.6 killitem

scr_ofsx <x-coord>
scr_ofsy <y-coord>
scr_ofsz <z-coord>
killitem

This removes the item at the given location.

Hope this helps

Monty

[=peg=]

yup that is the way to do it in cr-mod.. you probably want to make a script for doing the replacements so that you can do it all with the push of 1 button since it needs to be done every time the map is reloaded.. so take some time to gather all the coordinates of the items you'd like to delete/replace/make using the spot command.

(in theory u could get them from opening the .bsp into quark and checking where the entities are placed.. but the problem there is that items are placed somewhat into midair and fall down to their final position after spawning.. and in doing so changing the coordinates from where they are in the editor..)

here is a little example of how to make a script for placing a new item (a pentagram in this case) on the map with one push of a button (remember you need to be admin level 0 and observer for this to work):

//Multy Waits
alias w1  "wait"
alias w2  "w1;w1"
alias w5  "w2;w2;w1"
alias w10 "w5;w5" 
alias MW "w10"

//coordinates fo new pentagram to be placed
alias xpos "cmd scr_ofsx -768"  //these values are jsut an example..
alias ypos "cmd scr_ofsy -768"  //replace them with whatever the correct coordinates are
alias zpos "cmd scr_ofsz -146"  //use the "spot" command ingame to obtain them (or open up .bsp in editor)

//set the item we want to make or delete
alias setpenta "cmd skill 23"  //dont use "setpent" as an alias since it is an existing cr-mod command allready
alias makepent "cmd makeitem"
alias killpent "cmd killitem"

//make the item (i used "MAPNAME" here so i can replace that for whatever map this is used on)
alias setMAPNAMEpent "xpos;MW;ypos;MW;zpos;MW;setpenta;MW;makepent" 
//kill the item
alias killMAPNAMEpent "xpos;MW;ypos;MW;zpos;MW;killpent"

//bind it to some key (replace "x" and "y" with whatever key you like)
bind "x" setMAPNAMEpent
bind "y" killMAPNAMEpent

//eof

copy/paste the script above into a text editor and save as something like "makenewpent.cfg"

then in quake make sure you are admin level 0 and observer, then type "exec makenewpent.cfg" into console.

now u can just push the "x" button to make a pentagram at the given coordinates and push the "y" button to kill it again..

all this may sound like a lot of work to do something simple.. and well yeah it is.. but.. once you got it all sorted out.. you can simply run the script every time you want to play the map and you'll be done..

[Mr.Burns]

Isn't he a diamond! :d

I that's too scary a prospect then run DMP, log in as admin, walk around the map to where you want the entity to be placed, type place in console and select the entity you require from the onscreen menu. Job done. Hope this helps

Kind regards

Monty

[PapaSmurf]

actually, i think entity placement only matters server side. So once you go ahead and introduce new entities without changing the .bsp, you put it up on the server, and when everyone connects to that map they have the same bsp, but with different entities.

This is how original ctf worked, how do you think they put all those new weaopns/ammo/armor/health in the bases on the id levels and have everyone connect without having to redownload the .bsp's.

[=peg=]

yes you are probably right about that.. i was gonna say that but i wasn't 100% sure..

as long as the .bsp are exactly the same on both server and client the mod (progs.dat on server) can modify the entities serverside.. i'm not 100% sure if a manually modified .bsp on the server has the same effect.. it might crash the client or server on maploading.. its probably save but i have not tested this..

[PapaSmurf]

Yah, what you have to do is create a .ent file for the map, so a hipdm1.ent file. Put that file on the server in the id1/maps directory and it should work. Now i'm not positive about this working for vanilla DM, so I don't know if the ctf mod somehow does something to read in the .ent files. If that's the case, then you would need a mod to support the .ent files.

Now that i think about it, DM1 is a great example of this. If you load up DM1 on your own server (ie, start a single player or multiplayer game and goto DM1), you'll notice that there is no rocket launcher on the level. However, if you goto a CRMOD server and warp it to DM1, you'll find that they've placed a rocket launcher on the level (this was probably done to make the map more interesting).

[Zop]

If I recall, .ent files are used when recompiling the map. You'll need a compiler like qBSP. This page has a good description of what to do: link. The section called "ThunderVote Entities" doesn't really apply exactly, but those are the entities they want to add, so see how they do it.