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d e v e l o p m e n t | m a n u a l   a n d   f . a . q . | m e s s a g e b o a r d
contents | about | how to install | keys and cvars | tutorial | units and buildings | modify tsw | copyright notice | f.a.q.

Starting a Server | Joining and Preparing
Moving around | Controlling your Units | Building Stuff

Starting a Server

To start your server, choose the way you already know from Quake 3:Arena. In the main menu choose 'multiplayer' and then 'create'. You see the map-selection screen. Here you can choose the map you want to play on and below that the gamemode you desire.
The gamemode TSW:War is the usual one against all others. The last party that has any surviving units or buildings wins the match.
TSW:Mission requires you to fullfill special objectives in order to win the match. These objectives may include the protection of a certain building, the defense of a certain area for a given period of time, the elimination of all enemies. Missions contain also AI-driven-scripts that allow you to play TSW in a single-player-mode, without any other human clients. If you are done, press 'next'.
If you have choosen TSW:War, you'll reach this screen.

Tutorial Image: start a TSW:War server

The lines 1 to 5 show you possible player-settings that are explained in the following. These settings allow you to define how many clients will be allowed to play and you may even specify special clients by their IP-adresses.
Each client-line consists of three fields. The type of client that is playing, the IP he's playing from and the team he'll be playing in. The possible client types are none (...), open for any client that connects (Open) and reserved for a special client (Human). The IP field can hold either a reserved word an IP-adress that can be specified by the server-admin, by clicking on the field. The team field can hold five values, team choosen in the lounge (-lounge-) and pre-defined position in a certain team (Red, Blue, Green, Yellow).
1 : In the first line the client-slot is reserved for the client that is playing on the server as this one is a listen-server. This is indicated by the 'localhost'. The player will join the red team.
2 : The second line shows the general line for a specified client. Only the client whose IP is '196.0.0.1' is allowed to play at that slot, and he has to play at the blue team. The game won't start before this client has joined the game.
3 : In Line #3, the settings are still to set, clicking on the empty field opens a dialogue to enter a special IP-adress, the team-field is set to Lounge. The client may choose his team on his own.
4 : A totally open slot can be seen in line 4. Any client may join and this client will have then free choice where he wants to play.
5 : Closed slots look like in line 5. Clicking on the '...' will 'Open' the slots, clicking on 'Open' will set them to 'Human'.
So the current settings will feature 4 playing clients, where one is the server-admin, one comes from '196.0.0.1', one has still to be specified and one client can come from anywhere.
The lines at number 6 are the options that define how the server and the game are operated.
Time Limit defines how long a battle will last in minutes. Setting it to '-1' will make the match last until one side is victorious. The Frag Limit setting has been removed.
Warmup Time sets the countdown for the lounge in minutes. '0' disables that countdown. If that time is up the match will start, even if not all players have joined the match. Read more on this at Joining and Preparing.
Max Units is the most important setting here. It tell how many units can be in your match. Settings this value to high will cause the game to crash due to memory problems. '40' works very well on a 128MB system.
Friendly Fire tell if your units can hurt each other. You decide what you want.
Pure Server avoids hacking as if the server is a pure one, only clients with exactly the same pk3-files in their TSW-directory may join the game.
Dedicated defines if you want to play on the machine that runs the server or not. You will receive an extreme performance boost when you play TSW on a dedicated server.
Hostname is the name that is displayed when other users are searching for active servers on the net. Your Hostname will always start with 'TSW:'.

If you have choosen TSW:Mission in the map selection, you'll reach this screen.

Tutorial Image: start a TSW:Mission server

Here you can't see much differences to TSW:War. There is just another option.
[ new in 3.1 ] Line 7 says which ini-file will be read to load the mission for TSW:Mission. The default value is the map's name ini (e.g. e1m1.bsp and e1m1.ini). Clicking on the string will cycle though the available ini-files for that map, so you can can play different missions on the same map. See the modify page for more informations about this.
Fore more informations on how to set up a server, see Keys and Cvars.

Joining and Preparing

To join a game, you'll have to go the same way as in Quake 3:Arena. In the main menu choose 'multiplayer', there wait for the server list to be updated. Choose your game and click 'fight'. As soon as you've finished the precaching you will reach this screen. It doesn't matter if you are the host or just a client, from here everybody will see the same.

Tutorial Image: Game Lounge

You have reaced the ingame-lounge. Here you will wait until everyone is ready to start the game.

The lines 1 and 2 show you the players that are currently in the lounge.
You can identify yourself by your name (let's hope you've choosen one). This line will be the one you can modify. If nothing else has been specified by the server you will find yourself at the bottom 'unassigned' like in line 2. You may use the up- and down-keys on the keypad to move yourself through the available teams. If you've found a suitable one, move your mouse over your line. It will be highlighted just as in line 1. Clicking now left, will toggle you to 'ready' (also line 1). Clicking again on your line will remove you from 'ready'-state, but you cannot change your team anymore!
If your team has been pre-specified by the server you will find yourself already placed at your team. You may only get 'ready' then.
The game won't start before all clients that are needed have joined and declared 'ready' or the warmup timer has reached zero. If there is any client left that hasn't found a place in a team, the game will set him as spectator, so he can watch the match.
[ new in 3.1 ] Line 3 is the chat-window. Just type your text and press ENTER and everyone will see it in the green window.

After all clients are ready to play, the pre-caching will start. During this period, the classes are registered from the server to the client. All special game media like models, sounds and skins will be precached in that time. The server will wait with precaching until all clients have finished registering.
It may occur that a client gets out of memory at this point of the game, as a lot of data is loaded into RAM, the server will chrash then due to a sync-lost!
As soon as all data is stored into the memory of all clients, the game will start.
Causing the Quake3-renderer to restart by changing your graphics-settings at that point or a later point, will let the game crash for the client that did the changes, he'll disconnect from the game if that happens. So you should make all necessary settings in advance!

Moving around

You may move through the world in three different movement modes. This are the 1st person action mode, the 3rd person tactical-mode and the top-down-view (strategy-mode).

Tutorial Image: Movement modes

The game always starts in the 3rd person tactical-mode, also called 'observermode'. In this mode you can navigate freely through the entire level, noone can see or hit you, it's similar to being a spectator. You may turn your view and move yourself as you have defined it for the usual Quake3 game (forward/backward, strafe, jump, ...). Use 'jump' and 'crouch' to move yourself up and down.
To change to the top-down-view, also called 'sattelitemode', use the 'sattelitemode'-command. You will find yourself at the sky, looking straight downward. This mode resembles the wellknown RTS-views. Move your mouse-cursor, that is freely-moveable in that mode, to the edges of the screen to move yourself along the sky in that direction. You will stay in a constant distance to the ground, so if you're moving towards a hill you'll move farther away from the surface and come closer to the surface when you reach a lower area. Besides that you will see the build sidebar on your screen. To leave this mode, either use the 'sattelitemode'-command again or the 'observermode'-command or enter the 1st person action mode.
[ new in 3.1 ] The 1st person action mode is the mode you'll know from your Quake3 games. So nothing new to learn. To reach this mode, you
need a unit. Select this unit and double-click on it. Now you are inside the unit. When things are getting messy during a battle, you are maybe not able to double-click a unit. In this case just use the 'observermode'-command. This will automatically put you into the unit you are pointing at or into a unit you currently selected. To leave this mode, either enter the observermode with the 'observermode'-command or give the 'sattelitemode'-command a chance.

The units you are building, are bots. Entering the unit will release the bot's control from it. If you leave the unit, the bot will take back the control over the unit.
The commands and keys this part refers to are described at the Keys and Cvars! You should have a look!

Controlling your Units

In the current version of TSW, you may control your units only if you are in the 'observermode' or in the 'sattelitemode'. The 'tool' to control your units is your crosshair. If you have a sidebar on your screen, the crosshair behaves like a mouse-cursor, else it will stay at the center. If you can move the crosshair, your viewangles will be fixed!
To select a unit, you need to find one at first. Move your crosshair over the unit. Now click the left mouse-button. Your unit will be selected, indicated by the cool graphics you can see now.

Tutorial Image: Selecting units

The first unit is a selected one. The yellow circle indicates the selection. The bars above it's head show it's health-status (green) and it's armor-status (yellow). The bar to the right is the ammo-indicator (blue).
The red circle around the second unit is a 'hotspot'-marker. If you are coming close with your cursor to a unit or a building, no matter if it's your's or the enemy's, this hotspot will appear. If you are now initiating any commands, they will be performed on the spotted object. This makes it easier to track moving targets as you don't have to directly target it to hit it with your orders.

Selecting another unit while you have one unit selected, will deselect the current one and select the new one. To select multiple units, either hold down the SHIFT-key (or walk/run-key) while clicking the units you want, or use the rectangle-selection.

Tutorial Image: Selecting multiple units

To select multiple units with the rectange selection, hold down the left mouse-button and drag your crosshair, you'll see how you're spanning a white pulsing rectangle. All units within this rectangle will be selected if you release the left mouse-button.
It might happen that the rectangle partially disappears as you move it over terrain with different height-levels. Nonetheless, you will still select all units that are between the two points where you start and end your selection-drag. This visual bug will be fixed in a later version.
Selecting units with the rectangle will remove any previous selection, except your pressed the SHIFT-key (or walk/run-key) during that operation.

To deselect your units, either select an empty space with the rectangle-selection, or - if your view is fixed and you can move the crosshair - press the right mouse-button.

If you have selected one or more units and then do a left-click on an empty space of the world and the unit(s) will move there. Left-clicking on an enemy unit (also when they are focussed by the hotspot), will issue your unit(s) to attack the enemy. This also works with enemy buildings.
If your units fail to move to their destination or target, they might either block each other or aren't able to reach that area, because an obstacle is blocking their path. In a later version this problem will get a better workaround.
Your units will also take care of themselves. If they are attacked by an enemy or don't have any orders and an enemy is in range, they will attack him. If they are getting low on health, they will try to get medkits and seek for a safe place near their comrades, who will protect them. In such cases the units will eventually not respond to your orders, as their desire for their own life is larger than their obey to your orders.

The commands and keys this part refers to are described at the
Keys and Cvars! You should have a look!

Building Stuff

Extending and equipping your forces will be crucical to your success in the majority of the TSW games. To build anything, you need to be in 'observermode' or 'sattelitemode' and have the build sidebar opened. To open the build sidebar change the way your crosshair behaves to the moveable mode (mousecursor) with the 'mouse_mode'-command. You will see the sidebar on the right side of your screen.

Tutorial Image: building

1 : The main build menu. Click the arrow to show or hide the menu as you play. As you can see, you have three submenus available. Simply click with the crosshair on either item to get the submenu which will displayed instead of the mainmenu (submenus have been re-arranged on the screenshot for a better overview). You may switch the submenus by clicking the respective button. Clicking the same submenu button again will close the submenu.
2 : Your credits can be seen on the top of the screen.
3 : The build submenus show you the list of all buildings, units and items you can build. Click the icon of the object you need and the production will be intiated. To build a building,
you have to place it after you've clicked the icon. To be able to build, you need a productive building. Read more on this at the Units and Buildings page.
[ new in 3.1 ] 4 : The build queue shows how much of the current build has been processed and which builds are waiting in the queue. Only one build-queue is currently supported. Using two productive buildings will prevent correct displaying of the queue.

When you've clicked an icon in the buildings menu, you will get a placement cursor to give the building you need a place where it should stand.

Tutorial Image: placing buildings

The cursor has the form of the building you want to build. Below the cursor you can see the edges that show you how much space the building will take when it is placed. If one of the edges turns red, the part of the world that is within that edge is occupied by something else (another building, a unit, a wall, a rock, ...). You cannot place the building there, so you will have to move the cursor to another position until all edges are green. Then you may click the left mouse-button to build.
If you are too far away from your base with the building cursor or your want to place on terrain that is too steep, you will also get red edges.
To cancel the placement of the building, you may either right-click or you may click the 'cancel'-button in the build submenu (see the screenshot above) and the cursor will disappear. To switch the building you want to build, simply click on the icon that represents the other building.
For a complete list of everything you can build, go the
Units and Buildings page.

The commands and keys this part refers to are described at the Keys and Cvars! You should have a look!

contents | about | how to install | keys and cvars | tutorial | units and buildings | modify tsw | copyright notice | f.a.q.

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