NAME

Vote40 Ent Generation Utility

DESCRIPTION

Vote40 is a map that allows players to choose which map to play next. It can handle 1 to 40 different maps.

Voteent is a Perl script that takes as input a simple map listing, and as output creates the proper entities for Vote40. These entities enable sys admins to customize Vote40 to suit their particular needs.

In addition, Voteent will create the proper MAP.cfg files so that custom options can be activated for each map. For example, you could restrict the number of engineers on rock1 to 2, and allow unrestricted engineers otherwise.

SYNOPSIS

% voteent.pl [-testing] [-map mapfile.txt] [-team] [-nocells] [-cycledir dir] [-health N]

% cp vote40.ent [dir containing vote40.bsp]

% cd [dir containing vote40.bsp]

% qbsp -onlyents vote40.ent

Windows

Windows people should run voteent as either:

D:\GAMES\QUAKE> perl voteent.pl [...]

D:\GAMES\QUAKE> voteent [...]

INSTALLATION

Simply unzip the Voteent.zip file into your fortress directory (e.g. quake/fortress). There will be a number of supporting files and some documentation associated with voteent. Voteent documentation will be placed in the doc/ subdirectory of voteent.

USING VOTEENT

  1. Run voteent.pl / voteent.exe with appropriate options. This will generate vote40.ent.

  2. Move vote40.ent to your maps directory. This will normally be quake/fortress/maps.

  3. Run qbsp on vote40, as follows: qbsp -onlyents vote40.ent. You'll probably need to do that from a MS-DOS prompt if you use windows.

  4. Adjust your server.cfg options. You can just put ``map'' as vote40, and make sure that qwmcycle dir only has two files: map0.cfg and map1.cfg, which should be contain respectively:

    map0.cfg
    map vote40

    map1.cfg
    samelevel 0

ADDITIONAL APPLICATIONS

Voteent is, unfortunately, not entirely self contained. But as a sysadmin, you're undoubtably familiar with all the other helper programs! :)

You will need Perl, which windows folks can get from http://www.activestate.com. It's a free program, and really awesome to write utilities in. I've included a .exe file of voteent compiled from the perl2exe program, although I'm still experimenting with this as a viable distribution method (thus I'm still using the shareware version that has the obnoxious warning! :)

You will also need qbsp, a program from idsoftware that will compile in the entities created by voteent into the map file, vote40.bsp. You can get qbsp from ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/source/qutils.zip, as well as other places.

MAPLIST

The file maplist.txt (or alternative one, specified by the -map flag) is a text file that contains one line per map. For example, here's a quick 5-map file: 




Notice a few things. First off, all you really need per line is the map
filename minus the .bsp, e.g. ``2tech4'' or ``2fort5.'' You can leave off
the Health, in which case a default health will be used (currently 5000,
but you can set this with the -health flag). You can also leave off the
description, in which case the mapname will be used. Or you can leave out
both. Cool, huh?





In addition, you can specify map-specific options after the map line. For
example, if you want to limit the number of engineers in rock1 to 2, you'd
use the syntax shown above. You can also modify serverinfo settings, like
timelimit or fraglimit. The only restriction is that the string begin with
``serverinfo'' or ``localinfo.'' (This also means there can never be a map
named ``serverinfo'' or ``localinfo'' but such is life). Otherwise, map
defaults will be used (contained in the file mapdefaults.txt).





Remember that the MORE health there is, the HARDER it is for users to
select that map. So, if you want to make it easier for folks to pick well6
over 2fort5, set the health of well6 low and the health of 2fort5 high.










FILES






master10.txt



Master Entity file for 1-10 maps






master20.txt



Master Entity file for 1-20 maps






master30.txt



Master Entity file for 1-30 maps






master40.txt



Master Entity file for 1-40 maps






maplist.txt



Configuration for maps (see MAPLIST for details)






mapdefaults.txt



Default map configuration (see MAPLIST for details)












AUTHORS



by Erik Selberg

>V< SPEEDenator
speed@cs.washington.edu





For use with Vote40 by Jim Kaufman

Sgt. Thundercok







Get the latest version from: http://huskysearch.cs.washington.edu/fifth