DEVELOPER

Everything Quake 3 can do, it does through the console. The menus are a thin shell over the same commands. Learn the console and you can drive a server without ever opening a menu again.

▪OPENING A CONSOLE

~, the key left of 1. On many non US keyboard layouts that key does not produce a tilde and nothing happens. ioquake3 has a fix:

seta cl_consoleKeys "~ ` 0x7e 0x60 F1"

That cvar is a separate list from your normal binds, and it is what the engine checks while the console is open. This matters: a plain bind F1 "toggleconsole" will open the console and then be unable to close it, because once the console has focus your binds are not being read at all. Put the key in cl_consoleKeys and it works both ways.

A dedicated server has no window to press keys in. It reads typed commands directly, with no leading slash and no console to open.

▪RCON, DRIVING A SERVER REMOTELY

rcon sends a console command to a server you are connected to. Set a password on the server:

seta rconpassword "something long"

Then from your client, once connected, tell it the same password and prefix commands with rcon:

/rconpassword something long
/rcon status
/rcon map q3dm6

▪RUNNING THE SERVER

▪EXCESSIVE PLUS EXTRAS

Commands the mod adds on top. Most work as /rcon commands, as referee commands, or as votes, depending on how the server is configured.

▪VOTING

Players call votes with /callvote. Stock Quake allows a fixed handful. Excessive Plus reads a vote definition file instead, so you decide exactly what can be voted on and what arguments are allowed:

seta xp_vote "callvote.txt"
seta g_allowVote "1"

Typical votes once that file is enabled:

/callvote map q3dm6
/callvote config instagib
/callvote gametype tdm
/callvote timelimit 15
/callvote restart
/callvote nextmap

The vote file can restrict arguments per command, so config only accepts configs that actually exist on the server. That is worth having: an unrestricted vote command is a way for players to break your server by accident.

▪CONFIG FILE SYNTAX

A config file is a list of console commands, one per line, executed in order. // starts a comment.

A cycle built with vstr, since it is not obvious the first time you see it:

set fov1 "set cg_fov 90;  set fovtoggle vstr fov2"
set fov2 "set cg_fov 110; set fovtoggle vstr fov1"
set fovtoggle "vstr fov1"
bind F5 "vstr fovtoggle"

▪THE COMMAND LINE

ioq3ded.x86_64.exe +set dedicated 2 +set com_hunkMegs 512 +exec server.cfg

▪TESTING WITH CHEATS

These need sv_cheats 1, which is why you start a test map with devmap rather than map. They are invaluable when checking a weapon config or hunting for coordinates.

▪RECORDING AND CAPTURE

▪CVARS WORTH KNOWING

Type cvarlist or cmdlist in any console for the complete list. Both accept a prefix, so cvarlist sv_ narrows it to server variables. That is faster than searching the internet for a cvar you half remember.

Quake 3's bots are not a black box. Every part of one, how it moves, what it picks up, how it talks, what it looks like, is a plain text file the game reads at startup. Nothing here needs a compiler and nothing here needs the source code. This page covers the whole set, in the order you would actually touch them.

▪THE FILES

Paths below are relative to your mod folder, or to baseq3 if you are not running a mod. The mod folder is searched first, so anything you put there shadows or adds to what shipped in the pk3s.

▪THE ROSTER

The game reads scripts/bots.txt, then also scans scripts/ for any file ending in .bot and adds those on top. That second part is the useful one. A .bot file is purely additive, so you never have to copy or edit id's list to add your own bots.

{
name    Wraith                           // what you type after addbot
funname ^0W^0r^0a^0i^0t^0h               // scoreboard name, color codes ^0 to ^7
model   bones/black                      // model/skin, head follows automatically
aifile  bots/wraith_c.c                  // the personality file
}

Color codes run ^0 to ^7 only: black, red, green, yellow, blue, cyan, magenta, white. ^8 and ^9 do not exist and print as literal text on the scoreboard.

▪WHICH BOTS ACTUALLY SHOW UP

There is no cvar for "use these bots". bot_minplayers fills empty slots by picking at random from the entire roster, and gives you no say in which. With 30-odd bots registered, the three you carefully built will rarely be the three that appear.

Two ways around it, and they are opposites:

addbot Wraith  4 free 0
addbot Vandal  4 free 1500
addbot Sable   4 free 3000

▪PERSONALITY, THE _c.c FILE

Each character file holds several skill blocks, and the game loads the one matching g_spSkill. Stock files define 1, 4 and 5. If your server runs a skill number with no matching block, the bot falls back to defaults and everything you tuned is ignored, silently.

Values run 0.0 to 1.0 unless noted. The ones that genuinely change how a bot feels to play against:

Edit every skill block, not just one. It is easy to change skill 5 and then wonder why nothing happened on a server running skill 4.

▪WHAT THEY SAY

Two separate systems. Confusing them wastes an evening.

type "kill_insult"
{
	"look up";
	"same corner";
	"ur loud";
}

["lag", "lagging", "ping"] = 9
{
	"yeah its bad";
	"my ping is awful";
	"i thought it was me";
}

[("do you like ", 0)] = 8
{
	0, " is alright";
	"never tried it";
}

▪MODELS AND SKINS

Written as model/skin, for example bones/black. The head follows the body skin automatically, so no separate headmodel line is needed. Write just bones and you get the default skin.

Anything you reference must exist on every client. A skin the player does not have shows as a default model on their screen, not yours. Two things make that work:

• Put skin pk3s in the mod folder, not baseq3. Baseq3 pk3s are only sent to clients when the current map needs them, and player skins never qualify.
• Run sv_pure 1. That is what makes the server advertise its full pk3 list, including files it has not opened itself. Under sv_pure 0 a client only fetches what the server actually touched.

▪ADDING A BOT, START TO FINISH

rcon addbot Wraith 4

▪CVARS WORTH KNOWING

▪WHEN IT GOES WRONG

Excessive Plus replaces Quake 3's hardcoded weapon numbers with a text format you can rewrite and reload without restarting anything. Damage, knockback, fire rate, spread, projectile speed, visual effects, how heavy a gun makes you, what happens when you die, all of it is editable, and a whole new mode is one file.

▪WHERE THINGS LIVE

Three ways to load one:

rcon load chaos                    // live, right now
seta xp_config "chaos"             // at server start
q3dm6 { $xp_config = "chaos"; }    // per map, in a rotation file

▪ANATOMY OF A CONFIG

Config {
    Name = "Low Gravity";
    Version = "1";
    Author = "you";
}

Misc {
    // everything that is not one specific weapon
}

Rocket Launcher {
    Damage = 60;
    Splash Knockback = 400;
}

Weapon block names are the human ones: Gauntlet, Machinegun, Shotgun, Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Lightning Gun, Railgun, Plasma Gun, BFG, Grapple and Suicide.

Anything you leave out keeps its default. A config is a list of differences, not a complete description, so short files are normal and good. Three lines is a valid mode.

▪THE IDEA THAT MATTERS MOST

In stock Quake 3, how hard a weapon shoves you is tied to how much it hurts. Excessive Plus splits the two apart, and that single separation is where nearly every interesting mode comes from.

Set Damage = 0 with a large Knockback and you get a weapon that cannot hurt anyone but throws them across the room. That alone is a game mode: no kills, win by shoving people into the void.

Set knockback negative and it pulls them toward you instead:

Machinegun {
    Damage = 5;
    Knockback = -180;    // a tractor beam
    Spread = 60;
}

▪FEEL AND TIMING

▪WEIGHT, GUNS THAT SLOW YOU DOWN

An underused one. Movement speed becomes player speed divided by weapon weight, so a heavy gun makes you slow while you are holding it.

BFG {
    Weight = 2.5;           // half speed while carrying it
    Firing Weight = 4.0;    // crawling while actually firing
}

That is an entire balance system on its own. Powerful weapons cost mobility instead of being rationed by ammo, which changes how people move around a map far more than damage numbers do. Firing Weight applies only during the shot.

▪STYLES, LOOKS AND BEHAVIOR

Style is a bitmask, combined with |. Some flags are purely cosmetic, others change what the weapon is.

▪THE MISC BLOCK

Everything that is not one specific gun.

▪THE SUICIDE BLOCK

A weapon that fires when you die. Give it damage and a radius and every corpse explodes.

Suicide {
    Damage = 200;
    Knockback = 400;
    Radius = 250;
    Style = WPS_IMPACT_ROCKET;
}

▪WORKED EXAMPLES

Each of these is a complete, working config. They are short because a config only states differences.

Misc {
    Start Weapons = WP_RAILGUN | WP_GAUNTLET;
    Start Weapon  = WP_RAILGUN;
    Weapons = WP_NONE;          // no guns lying around
    Items   = IT_NONE;          // no armor, no health
    DM Flags = DM_INFINITE_AMMO;
}

Railgun {
    Damage = 1000;
    Cycle  = 1500;
}

Misc {
    Start Weapons = WP_GAUNTLET | WP_MACHINEGUN | WP_ROCKET_LAUNCHER;
    Start Weapon  = WP_ROCKET_LAUNCHER;
}

Misc {
    Start Weapons = WP_ALL;
    DM Flags = DM_INFINITE_AMMO | DM_NO_FALLING_DAMAGE;
}

Rocket Launcher {
    Damage = 0;
    Splash Damage = 0;
    Splash Knockback = 900;
    Radius = 250;
    Style = WPS_IMPACT_ROCKET;
}

Misc {
    Start Weapons = WP_MACHINEGUN;

    Team Red {
        Start Weapons  = WP_GAUNTLET;
        Start Powerups = PW_INVIS | PW_REGEN;
    }
    Team Blue {
        Start Weapons = WP_ALL;
    }
}

▪BUILDING YOUR OWN

rcon load yourname

q3dm6 {
	$xp_config = "yourname";
	$timelimit = 15;
}

▪WHEN IT GOES WRONG

conf\default.cfg is the real documentation. Every key that exists is in there with a comment explaining it, including a good many not covered on this page.