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get their gaming fix.

If you're looking for a friendly place to play a few rounds or so, you can sign
up for membership on the MSN Gaming Zone. Nowadays, there are only about 50
players in the room at a given time (and even less people who are actually
playing instead of chatting), but I find the community to be the most open and
friendly out there.

For those unwilling to sign up, you can go to www.gameaholic.com/servers/quake2
and find the IP numbers of servers. Afterwards, you can connect to them by
using the 'connect' command in the console, or use the address book in the Menu
screen. Make sure that the game you are connecting to is something you want to
play. For example, you just want to play some FFA DM and the server contains
the word CTF. The word CTF means that this is capture the flag, a team-based
game.

So, if I wanted to play on the 'kansas.net Quake II' server, I would get the IP
(199.240.92.36). Now, I can place it into my address book in the multiplayer
menu and then join it from the menu, or type 'connect 199.240.92.36' in the
console.

An even easier way to find Quake 2 servers is to use utilities like GameSpy and
All Seeing Eye. These will find almost all of the active Q2 servers for you and
place them in a single list. You can download GameSpy at www.gamespyarcade.com
and All Seeing Eye at www.udpsoft.com/eye2/index.html . You can even organize
your favorite servers to play on, and you don't have the hassle of writing IPs
down on paper. Good luck, happy fragging, and stay from the europeans,
especially the swedes :)!


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.2 Console Commands
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are a bunch of console commands, but only a few are necessary to know.
You can find a whole list at www.planetquake.com/console/commands/quake_2.html
if you require one, but I will tell you a couple of commands that should be
useful to you.

bind
-------------------
This assigns a command to a key. Use this to make changes to your keyboard
setup on the fly. If you don't enter an action, the console will display the
key's command that has been previously assigned. Binding multiple commands
requires the use of a semi-colon (;). Make sure you surround the multiple
commands with quotation marks ("). Binding keys such as Delete and End require
that you type their full name. If you want to bind something to the number pad,
use 'kp_' before the keyname.

Ex:
]bind kp_rightarrow
kp_rightarrow is not bound
]bind kp_rightarrow +moveright
]bind kp_rightarrow
kp_rightarrow is "+moveright"

These are some things you can bind to keys:
+forward - move forward
+back - move backwards
+moveleft - sidestep/strafe left
+moveright - sidestep/strafe right
+moveup - jump
+movedown - crouch
+attack - fires your weapon
use - uses/selects that item
drop - drops that item
say - say this phrase to everyone
say_team - say this phrase to your team (if playing a team game)
messagemode - the message mode for typing something to everyone
messagemode2 - the message mode for typing something to your team mates


unbind
------------
Removes the command assigned to the specified key.


unbindall
---------
Removes the commands from all the keys except for the tilde (~) and the Escape
key. Use this at the top of your config files to get rid of unwanted binds.


alias
---------------------
This stores a list of commands and allows you to execute those commands by
binding a key to that alias name. If you just type 'alias', the console will
show a list of alias names. Make sure to surround the multiple commands with
quotes. When you begin to understand the power of aliases, this command will be
quite useful. For now, look at the following example:

alias rldrop "say_team Here you go!;wave 4;drop Rocket Launcher;drop Rockets"

If I binded a key to 'rldrop', it would do the following. I would say 'Here you
go!' to my team, point forward, drop a RL and drop a rocket pack.

There are also aliases that involve a plus and minus sign before the name.
These alias are the ones that will execute the + command until the key is
depressed, which will then execute the - part. One example is this simple
sniper zoom:

alias +sniperzoom "sensitivity 2; fov 30"
alias -sniperzoom "sensitivity 6; fov 110"

Once I bind this to a key, whenever I hold that key down, my field of view will
be smaller and my sensitivity will be reduced. When I let go, the settings will
revert to my normal settings (if these were my normal settings, of course).


vid_restart
-----------
Restarts the video system display. Use this if you find something wrong with
the system, or if you make a change to your video settings and want them to
take place.


vid_gamma
------------------
This is the video gamma setting. Set this to a lower number for a brighter
display. Make sure to restart your video display after you change the number.


gl_polyblend
------------------
The blending effect that comes into play when you get a weapon, sustain damage,
or when you grab a powerup. I recommend turning it off so that you won't get
distracted when someone hits you, and you'll be able to see under water more
clearly.


gl_dynamic
----------------
Dynamic lighting effects from fired weapons and such.


gl_flashblend
-------------------
Causes the lighting to blend into a sphere of light. Keep this off along with
gl_polyblend so that you won't see red when being hit.


gl_modulate
-----------------
The brightness of a texture when affected by dynamic lighting. Change this
around a bit to brighten up the map and 3D model lighting. The default setting
is on 1, but you can set it higher (5-10 is good enough).


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.3 Paks
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You might have seen customized pak files around. What exactly are these files?
Basicially, they store all the graphical and audio files with just one file.
You can find the original Q2 pak in your baseq2 folder, which is about 175 MB.
By making your own pak, you can customize Q2 a bit to your liking. You can
change the weapon sounds, change the font, or even replace the original
textures with something better-looking. Keep in mind that certain modifications
to your pak is considered cheating to the community. Things that give you an
obvious advantage such as altered footstep sounds or giant, easy-to-see models
are not legitimate changes. Making paks are not necessary, but they can make
your gaming experience a tiny bit more enjoyable.

To start off, download a utility that allows you to produce paks, such as
PakExplorer (http://quakestuff.telefragged.com/pakexplr.zip). Now, when you
open up a pak file, you will see a bunch of directories. The graphical and
audio files are kept here in the directories. Here's a list of the directory
names and what they contain:

models - contains the 3d models of items, players, objects, etc.
pics - contains picture files for various things, such as the menu display.
sound - contains sound files. They must be monaural and in .wav format.
sprites - contains sprite data, such as the explosion graphics.
textures - contains the textures for the maps.

Now, if you want to change something, you just replace the appropriate file
with whatever. I don't recommend modifying the original paks because you might
mess something up. If you don't know what you're doing, find a custom pak and
play around with it until you get the hang of things.

Let's say you want to change the original out-of-ammo sound to something else.
Well, open up the original pak and find the sound file that produces the sound
you want. The out-of-ammo sound is saved as noammo.wav, so in the pak that you
want to make, the file name should be the same thing.

Now, to use your pak, rename it to 'pak#.pak' where the number is something
bigger than 2 (the original paks use 0, 1, and 2) but less than 10. Store your
pak into the baseq2 folder. The bigger the number is, the later the file will
be processed. Let's say pak5 has a noammo.wav sound and pak9 has another. When
you run Quake 2, you will hear pak9's noammo.wav sound.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.4 My Config Files
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just in case you're curious, here are my config files, organized and commented
for your understanding. My config.cfg file hasn't been included since it isn't
too helpful to play with settings made for a low-end computer :). If you have a
question, just toss me an e-mail. By showing my controls, you will hopefully
grasp enough knowledge to modify them to your own liking, or make your own.
You will most likely have to modify them, because I play with the arrow keys
and I'm quite comfortable with the settings :).


autoexec.cfg - where my alias and binds are stored
--------------------------------------------------
unbindall
//this alias allows me toggle between running and walking
alias walkon "set cl_run 0;bind / walkoff;echo Stealth Tactics."
alias walkoff "set cl_run 1;bind / walkon;echo Hustle it up, now!"
bind / walkon

//a sniper alias I...borrowed
alias +sniperzoom "fov 20;m_pitch 0.005;m_yaw 0.005"
alias -sniperzoom "fov 110;m_pitch 0.022;m_yaw 0.022"
bind pgdn +sniperzoom

//stuff I don't touch for some reason
bind TAB "inven"
bind ESCAPE "togglemenu"
bind SPACE "invuse"
bind ' "invdrop"
bind + "sizeup"
bind - "sizedown"
bind . "fov 90"
bind 0 "use BFG10K"
bind 1 "use Blaster"
bind 2 "use Shotgun"
bind 3 "use Super Shotgun"
bind 4 "use Machinegun"
bind 5 "use Chaingun"
bind 6 "use Grenade Launcher"
bind 7 "use Rocket Launcher"
bind 8 "use HyperBlaster"
bind 9 "use Railgun"
bind = "sizeup"
bind [ "invprev"
bind \ "+mlook"
bind ] "invnext"
bind ` "toggleconsole"
bind a "+lookup"
bind c "+movedown"
bind g "use grenades"
bind h "wave 0"
bind j "wave 1"
bind k "wave 2"
bind l "wave 3"
bind p "use power shield"
bind t "messagemode"
bind y "messagemode2"
bind u "wave 4"
bind x "score"