The build running on graffiti is over 8
months old. I had to go back 59 news updates to find it.
Here's some of what's changed since then:
Gameplay Changes
- KOTH (King of the Hill) support -- there are ent files included for ksplat2, koth, and yoy that allow you to play them in KOTH mode. Teams get a point for each x number of seconds they stay on the hill (controllable by “koth_hilltime”). There are no rounds and the respawn time, controllable by “koth_elim”, is defaulted to 5 seconds.
- "flagmustbeatbase" cvar requires all of the flag carrier's team's flags to be at home before the carrier can capture the flag. This makes maps like castle1 much more interesting and no longer a rabid capfest.
- “flagcapendsround” cvar (actually implement in a previous version, but I’ll mention it here since it works well with the above setting) ends the round as soon as the flag is captured. Especially handy when you have that one newbie left alive hiding in the corner while the other team keeps doing flag runs -- this way they can only get one capture.
- Gun freezing. In order to discourage the squat-n-spray tactics that are becoming ever-so-prevalent (two guys sitting around the corner from each other spraying a stream of paint waiting for the other to walk into it), this was added. As long as you don’t spray nonstop it shouldn’t be a problem. “guntemp_inc” and “guntemp_dec” control how quickly the freeze bar increases and decreases. The default values are pretty forgiving right now, but I’d like to make it stricter in the future.
- Overtime. If the scores are tied when the timelimit is reached, the map goes into overtime for 2 minutes (or whatever is specified by the “overtime” cvar). There are also some fine-tuning options. If “overtime_0” is set, the map will go into overtime even if the scores are all 0. If overtime_4team is set, all teams must have unique scores (useful for a 4-team tournament that requires specific rankings for each team).
New Rotation System
- mapinfo files allow you to specify the minimum and maximum player counts for a map to load, thus eliminating overcrowded servers on tiny maps and near-empty servers on gigantic maps. They also allow for the cycling of game modes, so you can play something like midnight in 1-flag mode or halfpipe in deathmatch mode.
- Map voting. Rather than simply changing to the map with the most votes, votes accumulate. Each person gets one vote per map. One person voting for a map over the sequence of 5 map changes counts the same as 5 people placing a single vote for the same map. All maps also get one auto-vote. That keeps things cycling in a normal rotation. Basically voting for a map bumps it up one position in the rotation. The map with the most votes gets played then its vote count gets reset to 0. You can also vote for different game modes. “votemap <mapname> <gamemode>” is the command, but there’s also a GUI menu for it in build 12. You can even vote for maps that aren’t in the rotation and they will be added but get no autovotes. They must be voted to the top of the list. The “sv_votemaptime” cvar controls how long (in seconds) players have to vote at the end of the map.
- Remote admins can easily alter the map list with the “rotation” command. It allows for the dynamic addition, deletion, and saving of maplists.
- "newmap" command supports a gamemode parameter. Example: "newmap midnight 1flag"
Misc. Stuff
- can now specify "requiredfiles" in the map worldspawn and the client will download specified
files (requires client build 11 or higher).
- In order to make things fair and reduce wasted bandwidth, "sv_maxfps" limits the client cl_maxfps (Quake2) and cl_cmdrate (Paintball2). Default is 80. Note: There are some issues related to joysticks on the standalone Paintball2 client that cause it to send more data than it should and may result in getting you kicked for repeatedly exceeding the limit.
- "fadetoblack" cvar fades screen to black when a person is eliminated so they can't ghost recon.
- "observerblackout" cvar makes observer's screen black during rounds so they can't provide recon.
- Code reworked to allow for client-side scoreboard, encoded messages, etc. Lots of cool stuff for players using build 12.
