- 1Installation
- 4Cheating Prevention
- 7Popular mods/addons
Installation
Windows-based Server Installation
For a step-by-step guide on setting up a basic Team Fortress 2 Windows Dedicated Server, see the Windows dedicated server page.
Indie - Released: Oct 3, 2008. Age of Chivalry is a total conversion for Half-Life 2 from Team Chivalry, a close group of friends dedicated to creating a fun, story-driven multiplayer experience set in a fantasy world in the medieval ages. On June 10, 2010, Team Fortress 2 was released for OS X, shortly after the release of Steam for OS X. The release was teased by way of an image similar to early iPod advertising, showing a dark silhouette of the Heavy on a bright green background, his Sandvich highlighted in his hand.
This short tutorial will guide you on how to create a Dedicated Server for Team Fortress 2 on a Windows-based computer. The current tool used for doing this is the Steam Console Client Tool (or Steamcmd). Steamcmd is an application that will completely install the latest version of the server content to your computer. If it is already installed when running Steamcmd, the tool will update the existing Dedicated Server installation to the latest released version.
You can install TF2-server by downloading the Steamcmd from: http://media.steampowered.com/installer/steamcmd.zip
Once you have downloaded this, run the tool from a command shell and a text windowed installer will automatically update/install your server. To save time and bandwidth when downloading files, it is wise to install the Steamcmd into the root folder of an existing Half-Life Dedicated Server installation.
An example command line option:
steamcmd +login anonymous +force_install_dir C:tf2_server +app_update 232250 validate +quit
You may save this command line to a text file, rename it with the .bat extension which will convert it to a batch file. This batch file can be run any time your server needs an update.
For more detailed installation instructions visit: SteamCMD on the Valve Developer Community
MOTD
The MOTD ('Message Of The Day') is the message which appears upon successfully connecting to your server. A MOTD can be a simple message, or a complex website page. To modify the message, navigate to your orangebox/tf folder and edit the text in the files named motd_default.txt and motd_text_default.txt.
The difference between the two files, is that if the motd_default.txt file contains any web programming language of client side (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), whether writing directly to the file or displaying the content by providing a URL to the file, but the user has decided to disable HTML MOTDs - the content of motd_text_default.txt file will be used instead.
If the motd_default.txt contains any web programming language in it, whether directly or via a URL, the game will render the code using Internet Explorer.
Both files are limited to a size of 2 KB (2,048 characters).
A possible workaround for the files limitations (i.e., the size limit) is to place a link to a hosted .html file on the web. For example placing this as your motd.txt: http://www.your-clan-website.com/motd.html will display the motd.html file.
For a tutorial on how to create a MOTD that seamlessly fits into the TF2 chalkboard, go here or here.
Maplist
The Maplist is a file used to list all maps that are playable to the server. If you decide to use a custom map voting plugin, make sure you put the map name in both the maplist.txt and the voting list for it to work correctly.SRCDS (Source Dedicated Server) allows for easily editing of this list of playable maps. which is found in orangebox/tf/maplist.txt
To add custom maps, drop the .bsp file into the orangebox/tf/maps directory and then find the maplist.txt at orangebox/tf/maplist.txt in your server directories and then add its name on a new line to the list (when listing map names, use the exact name of the .bsp file, without including the .bsp extension).
Cheating Prevention
VAC
Valve Anti-Cheat will automatically detect and ban many users that are using programs used for playing unfairly on server (examples being speed hacking and aimbot use).VAC is enabled by default on all servers and requires the administrator to expressly disable it by adding the -insecure line to the launch options
Server Settings
Outside of VAC securing a server, the first line of defense against cheating is the server variable (console command) sv_pure. This variable controls where a client gets its information and acts as a means to restrict what kind of content and files can be modified/substituted on the player's side. This can be easily exploited by players if not configured properly. It's optional (but not vital) to set this variable to 1 or 2 if you don't want to allow any form of cheating on your servers. By default sv_pure is set to 0 which restricts nothing. Possible values are 0, 1, and 2 which are explained below.
- sv_pure 0
- allows the client to specify the location of ANY game file. A client can potentially use modified files to gain an unfair advantage by doing things such as replacing enemy player models with ones that use bright colored skins, make walls invisible, add beacons onto the intelligence, or just about anything else you can think of. VAC doesn't protect against these kinds of exploits because they don't modify the game process itself. It's up to the server to decide what its clients can do.
Team Fortress 2 Steam Market
- sv_pure 1
- restricts where the client can get information from based on a white list (list of allowed content). The default white list is still set to allow custom player models as well as any potential exploits such as bright skins. The default whitelist also allows for custom weapon models such as re-animations of viewmodels.
- sv_pure 2
- forces the client to ignore ALL user content, and instead forces them to use the information supplied by Steam. While this is the most secure, sv_pure 2 will prevent the use all custom skins/models and even custom sprays.
For more information on sv_pure servers, including information on the white list format, see Pure_Servers on the Valve Developer Community.
Many servers typically run sv_pure with a value of 1 together with a modified white list either to allow directories of content that are difficult or impossible to cheat with, or remove the ability for players to supply their own models.
Third Party Plugins
Several Third Party Plugins/Addons give extra protection against malicious players. See SRCDS Hardening @ alliedmods.net for more information and additional plugins.
Command Line Options
Team Fortress 2 Steam Download
Command Line Options on the Valve Developer Community
Example Server.cfg for TF2 dedicated server
Popular mods/addons
Additional Protection
- DoS Attack Fixer for TF2 - A server plugin used to prevent against Denial of Service attacks.
- DBlocker - DBlocker is an anti-cheat plugin.
General
Team Fortress 2 Steam Link
- Metamod:Source - Base for many other plugins
- Event Scripts - A powerful scripting Environment
Admin Management
- SourceMOD - Also provides a large scripting platform for misc. plugins
See also
Team Fortress 2 Steam Page