Armagetron Advanced - User contributions [en]

Servers

2007-04-18T13:57:40Z

61.144.122.45:

This is a list of current servers, in alphabetical order. To see a list of old servers that no longer exist but were interesting enough to write about, visit the page about [[Old Servers]].

== Flynn's Arcade - .:Avl:. Clan Server==

Flynn's Arcade aims to be similar to the actual movie game grid, with emphasis on maneuvering skill, not just speed and rubber (although high speeds are quite possible). Settings include relatively low rubber, moderate speed and acceleration, infinite walls, and a turbo instead of brakes on one server, and good brakes just for fun on the other server. Brake server is usually used for clan training. Servers are run by .:Avl:.C10ud:. (formerly ianthetechie). Homepage is http://flynns.servegame.org/

== [[GP-Clan server]] ==

Low rubber, not infinite, rim makes speed.
Fun to test your LR skills.

== [[Ion]] ==
Ion is a test server hosted by zero. It allows players to test out new server settings and maps without having to use their own server. For more information, please contact [[User:zero]].

== [[MicroBusCity]] ==

This server has long walls and high speeds. Brake users need not apply. This server is a standard gladiatorial-style arena where you are expected to kill or be killed. Server settings change at the end of every month, but MBC is always winzone-friendly.

== Norms Place ==

A classic style server with friendly people. This server combines the best aspects of classic and fast play minus any bugs or much hated lag. To be among the best here you need skill and a range of strategies; however all are welcome whatever your ability.
For server stats, FAQ and links visit [http://norm.ds-media.eu norm.ds-media.eu]
== Race Server ==

This is the first server of its kind, but the setup is simple: You all start at about the same position of a long narrow alley with many obstacles in it. Whoever arrives first at the other end and hits the winzone there gets declared the winner

Server Administration Guide

2007-04-18T09:24:52Z

61.144.122.45:

Setting up a server for Armagetron Advanced isn't terribly difficult, but there are a few things you need to consider when you do it. Taking a few minutes to figure out what you're trying to do will save you a whole lot of headache/heartache later on when people start playing your server.

== Starting out ==

Before you consider what OS you're going to use, what version of the game to run, and so forth, you should figure out a few basic parameters of the server. Here are some you should consider.

=== Private or Public? ===
The setting <code>TALK_TO_MASTER</code> is off by default. To make your server public (available on the master server list), you must turn on this setting. If it is off, players will only be able to connect to your server through the [[Server Bookmarks]] using your IP address. If you are connected to the internet through a router, normally used so that multiple computers can share the same internet connection, you will also need to open a port.

More information on both of these topics is available below.

=== Moderated? ===

Armagetron Advanced supports a limited but expanding set of in game administration commands(in 0.2.8, it will be a fairly comprehensive set). The catch is that you can only have one administration password. So in order to make moderators on your server, all you have to do is give out the administration password.

The alternative is to use the voting features that are intended to allow players to moderate the server as they see fit.

You can go either way, of course. It's entirely up to you. ...........................10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)10:56, 3 March 2007 (CST)[[User:69.120.15.178|69.120.15.178]]

=== Round or Match ===

There are plenty of ways to setup scoring on a server. A common setting is one point for each kill. While this scoring method encourages competitive play, it's not always desirable. On some servers, just surviving to the end of the round is quite an accomplishment, and you may wish to reward players for doing so. Too much of a reward will encourage players to just screw around instead of fighting.

You should also consider if you even want the standard gladiator-style fighting. It's certainly possible to set up scoring to allow for different games, such as [[Roulette]], and to encourage different playing styles. So just take a few minutes to think about it. It'll pay off in the end, because the default game server settings aren't necessarily the most popular scoring rules, and unless you really want the default scoring, you could lose most of your audience in the first two hours of operation if you didn't think about scoring.

== Requirements ==

=== If you fall short ===

If you cannot meet the requirements to host a server yourself (or simply don't want to leave your computer on 24/7), don't despair! There are companies that specialize in hosting colocated servers-- you can use many of them (such as [http://www.sevenl.net/ SevenL] or [http://www.vr.org VR Hosted]) to host an Armagetron Advanced server. If you don't have the expertise or want to bother with maintaining a full Linux server, you can get hosting specifically for Armagetron from [http://lightfoot.dashjr.org lightfoot.dashjr.org] without needing to setup anything.

=== Hardware ===

Hardware requirements are fairly small. The game itself will only need around 10MB of RAM or so, more for more players. So whatever the minimal requirements for your target operating system will usually suffice. It is important to make sure that the game will not have any of its parts swapped to disk, just like with any other server, but memory usage is minimal.

CPU requirements are also pretty slim. Again, whatever the requirements for your target operating system will likely suffice. A common number provided for a server CPU is a 600mhz Pentium II or greater. Some popular servers have run on as little as 800mhz AMD Duron! Starting in 0.2.7.1, it is possible to limit the framerate of the simulation itself. This gives several important traits to the game. First, it makes it play nicely even on a computer that runs other tasks (such as a web server). It also provides for more stable gameplay. Finally, it allows you to tailor the simulation for your hardware, so on a smaller CPU, you should consider limiting the framerate of the simulation to improve gameplay.

=== Network ===

The size and speed of your network connection is more than likely going to be your first and most serious performance bottleneck. Generally you'll want to consider that each player connected requires about 6KB/second of upstream bandwidth. So for 16 players, you'll need 96 KB/sec of upstream bandwidth. This doesn't consider any other bandwidth usage on your network, such as web browsing from a different machine. Use MAX_CLIENTS to limit the number of players accordingly.

More information is given for both of these topics in the [[Advanced Server Administration Guide]].

== Setting Up ==

So now you've figured out what kind of server you want and how you want people to play on it, and you want to know how to set it up and optionally make it available on the master server browser. Setting up is fairly straightforward.

If you do not wish to bother with setting up a server yourself, and be left to simply administrate your server, [http://lightfoot.dashjr.org lightfoot.dashjr.org] provides managed hosting for Armagetron servers-- you can just configure it how you like using a simple web interface and be ready to play.

=== Install the Server ===

First you need to install the server. It's common to think of any given "server" as a special machine built by old women in third-world countries, but actually, a "server" is just any machine that makes a "service" available to other users. In this case, you're going to install software on a computer, possibly your desktop computer, that will make a game service available for other users to use.

So first you need to acquire the package called "armagetronad-dedicated". If you're using Linux, get one that says "linux" on it. For Windows, get the one that has ".exe" on the end of it. For Mac OS X, there's one with a ".dmg" extension for you. Usually the CPU architecture and OS are embedded in the filename, so pick the right one and install it.

We won't go into too many details here about installation, consult the regular documentation for how to install the server for your architecture.

=== Test the Server ===

After installing the server, the first thing you should do is test it. So start it up. If you're in Linux, you will want to become the superuser and type, in a terminal, "/etc/init.d/armagetronad-dedicated start". If you're in Windows, find the icon in your Start menu and click it. Then fire up a client and see if you can connect to it as a LAN game (under Network Game). If you can do this, then you have successfully tested the server. Now you need to shut it down. In Windows, go to the console window for the server (it opens when you start the game) and type "QUIT". In Linux, just do "/etc/init.d/armagetronad-dedicated stop".

== Public Servers ==

If you want to host a server at home. You have to open UDP port 4534 in your firewall and possibly forward the port from your router to the PC running ArmagetronAd (and is hosting a game).
=== Firewalls ===
*Windows XP: Either your firewall will ask you if you want ArmagetronAd to open port 4534. You can also follow [http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308127 these instructions] use name: "Armagetron Server" the port is UDP 4534 (leave TCP blank).
*ZoneAlarm: TODO: popular? should it be added ?
*Mac OS X: Go to System Preferences → Sharing → Firewall. One way to let all traffic through is turning it off, but you may not want to do that. If you decide to leave/turn it on, look for a button labeled “Advanced…”. If it exists, go there and ensure “Block UDP Traffic” is not checked. If it doesn't exist you have an old version that never blocks any UDP. For the curious: this is a limited GUI to ipfirewall.
*Linux: TODO Lucifer ? Link to a site ?

=== Port forwarding ===

If you have a router with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation NAT], you'll want to forward a port to your server so others can reach it. Armagetron uses the UDP port from configuration option SERVER_PORT, which is 4534 by default. You'll probably want a forwarding entry that looks like:
* Local/internal address:

Console

2007-04-18T05:17:16Z

61.144.122.45:

==Console==

Many players ask, "How did you change your name within the game?" or "What is the wall length in this server?"
There is a very easy way of changing your name or cycle color and finding out the settings within the game.
The [[Console]].

=== The Console Button ===
The first step in using the console, is figuring out which button it is bound to it. To bind a new button to the console go to:

1. [[image:console1.jpg|center|thumbnail|system setup]]

2. [[image:console2.jpg|center|thumbnail|Misc Stuff]]

3. [[image:console3.jpg|center|thumbnail|Global Keyboard Configuration]]

4. [[image:console4.jpg|center|thumbnail|Console Input]]

5. Set a button for console input. You are now qualified to tell people that you have ub3rl33t ron h4x.

=== Using T3h Console ===
The console can be used inside or outside of the grid. So. Press the button. You now see "Con:" where it normally shows "Says:".
You may now type in commands to alter your settings or view server settings.

== Commands of T3h Console ==

If you do not know a command you may input a search word into the console. You will be given a list of commands containing the given word. You may also find a complete list of [[Console Commands]] here.

=== Various Personal Settings ===

Player_1 xXx
This would change your name to xXx.

----

color_r_1 n
color_g_1 n
color_b_1 n

Replace n with a number. Any number. Put red at 16 and blue and 4 and green at 0 for example. It's best to figure out the combinations yourself.

----

ping_charity n
This setting determines how much of your opponent's you are willing to take over. If you have a slow connection, set it to 0, if you have a fast connection set it to however generous you feel. But keep in mind, the server has a habit of deciding your ping charity for you! So setting this is more like asking the server nicely for something, but usually has no effect.

----

camera_custom_back -- The position of the camera behind the cycle.
camera_custom_pitch -- The angle the camera is at.
camera_custom_rise -- The height of the camera.

The [[Custom Camera]] page can help you decide your settings for the custom camera.

----

Raoul_Duke_Ping 0
This never works, unfortunately.

=== Server Settings Commands ===
cycle_walls_length
cycle_speed
cycle_accel
cycle_brake
cycle_brake_deplete and cycle_brake_refill
cycle_delay
cycle_explosion_radius
cycle_rubber
win_zone_deaths (if set at 1, watch out, it's a kill zone)

Type these commands in the console when:
* You wish to find out the settings of the internet server you are playing in (do not type values after the words).
* You wish to alter your own single player game settings (type values after the words, ex: cycle_speed 30).

There are many other console commands. I do not know all of them. Try typing keywords such as '''cycle''', '''speed''', '''ping''', '''walls''', '''rubber''', or any other setting you can think off.

==0xffoo==
Players can change the color of their text by using oxffoo code.

*Example: Type in, "0xff0000 Hi I am new at using oxffoo" without the quotations marks of course, and use zeroes, not the letter "o".

0xff0000 codes are RGB triplets, just like you would write in html or something. Basically, split it up like this:

0x ff 00 00

The 0x can be ignored. It's required to tell the game you want to use color here, but otherwise you can throw it away and not think about it. The first number is the amount of Red to put in the color. The second is Green, and the third is Blue. Hence the phrase "RGB triplet".

The tricky part is that these numbers aren't in base 10 like your normal counting numbers. They're in base 16. So ff=255. Just think of it as a two digit number where you can choose from numbers 0-f. The counting progression is { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, b, c, d, e, f }. As you can see, "a" is number 10. You don't really need to know much more than that 0xff0000 has more Red than 0xaa0000, and stuff like that.

See [[Bases]] if you do want learn more about hex.

Developer's note: these color codes were not intended for use by the players; the choice of 0x as intro string was a bit unfortunate. Some servers will filter away your codes, so do your testing in a local game. Since it was not intended for use, no thought was given on usability, and for example upper case codes are not accepted. So use 0xff0000 for red, not 0xFF0000. And don't be angry about future unannounced changes to the format.

== External Resources ==
For 0xff00 codes and for bike and trail colors visit [http://www.firstdigital.plus.com/iceman// Iceman's site.]

[[Category:Client Features]]