Misc and Other Info

command: /play is used to play a wav sound it can be bound like

       /bind 0 play sounds/lol/(name of file) .wav gets auto attached  

Do you ever find it too tedious to go through menus in the armoury, or through the evolution menus? Do you ever find it too tedious to type Sorry, Thank you, or other things? Then binding is for you. An example is ‘/bind 8 say_team !!!ATTACK!!!‘. This command makes it when you press 8, it will team say (say to your team) ‘!!!ATTACK!!!’. What binding does, is that it assigns a command to a key. You can do this in two ways: in the text file in the Tremulous folder, or in the Tremulous console. Here we’ll do it in the console. The way to bind keys is to type (in console): /bind (key) (command) (sub-command). The ‘key’ part is simply the key you wish to bind it to, and the ‘command’ part is what you want to happen. Most commands have a ‘sub-command’, as in the example above. ‘say_team’ says (team says, really) the sub-command. The sub-command it usually the subject of the command.

Here is a list of commands and sub-commands:

Commands:

destroy - As a builder class, destroy the structure in front of the player.
itemact <item> - If held, activate the specified item. For weapons this selects them.
itemdeact <item> - If held, deactivate the specificed item.
itemtoggle <item> - If held, toggle the state of the specified item.
sell <item> - If held and within range of an Armoury, sell the specified item.
sell weapons - If within range of an armoury, sell all upgrades.
sell upgrades - If within range of an Armoury, sell all upgrades.
buy <item> - If within range of an Armoury and sufficiently wealthy, buy the specified item.
class <class> - Given sufficient kills, evolve to the specified class.
build <structure> - As a builder class, build the specified structure.
say <say> - Talk to the other players.
say_team <say> - Talk to your team.

Item, class and structure names (sub-commands):

<item>

blaster - Blaster
rifle - Rifle
ckit - Construction Kit
ackit - Advanced Construction Kit
shotgun - Shotgun
lgun - Lasgun
prifle - Pulse Rifle
mdriver - Mass Driver
flamer - Flamethrower
chaingun - Chaingun
lcannon - Lucifer Cannon
psaw - Painsaw
gren - Grenade
medkit - Medical Kit
jetpack - Jet Pack
battpack - Battery Pack
larmour - Light armour
bsuit - Battlesuit
helmet - Helmet

<class>

builder - Granger
builderupg - Adv. Granger
level0 - Dretch
level1 - Basilisk
level1upg - Adv. Basilisk
level2 - Marauder
level2upg - Adv. Marauder
level3 - Dragoon
level3upg - Adv. Dragoon
level4 - Tyrant

<structure>

eggpod - Egg
barricade - Barricade
booster - Booster
acid_tube - Acid tube
hive - Hive
trapper - Trapper
overmind - Overmind
hovel - Hovel
telenode - Telenode
medistat - Medical station
mgturret - Machine Gun Turret
tesla - Tesla Generator
dcc - Defence Computer
arm - Armoury
reactor - Reactor
repeater - Repeater

<say>

Simple. Replace say with what you want to say.

Hope this was useful!

A demo and a video are actually two different things.

A demo is a file that requires Tremulous to be running for playback and is played using the console in Tremulous. Is is actually a data file, not a video file. It tells Tremulous the map to use, the coordinates and actions that were recorded. To play a saved demo, type /demo demoname into the console. (Typically the command to play a demo would look like this: /demo demo0001.dm_69 )

A video is recorded as a stand-alone .avi file that can be played back in Windows Media Player, Linux MPlayer, Xine, etc. Unfortunately, the computer requirements to record an .avi during game play require an extremely fast system. Even then, frames per second (fps) will be a fraction of what is normally seen during regular play and may be almost unplayable on anything but the fastest systems.

Recording a Demo

Using the console (activated using the “~” key), type ‘/record’. Stopping the recording is done by typing ‘/stoprecord’ into the console. The file will be recorded in the Windows directory \Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Tremulous\base\demos (or in Linux, /home/username/.tremulous/base/demos) and have a file name of demoXXXX.dm_69 where XXXX is a number like 0001 or 0005 depending on how many demos are already in that folder. You can also specify a name for the demo beforehand in the console: ‘/record <demoname>’ (without <>).

Recording a Video

This is the same as recording a demo except in the console, type ‘/video’ to start recording and ‘/stopvideo’ to end the recording. The file will be kept in the Windows directory \Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Tremulous\base\videos (or in Linux, /home/username/.tremulous/base/videos) and have the name videoXXXX.dm_69 where XXXX is a number like 0001 or 0005 depending on how many videos are already in that folder. You can also specify a name for the video beforehand in the console: ‘/video <videoname>’ (without <>).

Because recording video is extremely processor-intense, it is impossible to do while playing. Rather, it is best to first record a demo and then, during its playback, use the ‘/video’ command to record video of the demo. You may need to lower your graphics settings to achieve an acceptable framerate.

Game chat (all players) and team chat are available through the standard keyboard binds, T and Y respectively. Two other types of chat, attack chat and target chat, can be accessed by holding another player’s character in the center of your screen and pressing U or I, although these are rarely useful and are almost never used to communicate in-game. Private chat, single player to single player or single player to a specific group of players, is done through the console.

To send a private message:

1. Open the Console (~ Key)
2. Type /m
3. Press the space bar, and enter the name of the player who you wish to message (partial names also work as long as they are unique). If you wish to message more than one player with a certain identifier, such as members of a particular clan, e.g. CDD|Player1 and CDD|Player2, then type the clan tag (CDD) here instead.
4. Press the space bar again, and type your message.
5. At this point, if you were sending a greeting to a player named Bob, the line in the console should look like this: /m Bob Hello
6. Press enter to send.

As with all other in-game happenings, previously sent or recieved private messages (PMs) can be viewed by accessing the console and scrolling up and down (Page Up and Page Down).

Ping is the time (in milliseconds) that an electronic signal takes to get from your computer to the server and back again. High ping times are also called lag. A ping of 500 would be 1/2 second. Obviously if you are playing with a ping of 500, it is not good. Your motion will appear to “warp” for other players, meaning you will move in stop action around the game. It will be difficult for you to kill your opponents and in turn, difficult for them to kill you. This is because when you shoot/claw at them, they are not really there and have moved to a different location in the game by the time your signal gets to the server. You can actually make the game server lag for everyone else as it struggles to compute and track your delayed movements. Typically, games should be played where your ping is under 100 for best results. (You can sort the server list by ping times to help you choose the servers with the best ping for your location.) Playing as a builder on servers where your ping is 250-500 is not a bad option either (provided you have some knowledge and experience building). Again, playing on servers with a ping over 500 should be avoided. Ping is usually directly related to distance between the server and the player, but other factors can come into consideration.

Some servers run a modification called Unlagged. This helps compensate for lag and helps to predict where lagging players would be based on their current motion and speed. Unlagged has it’s own set of problems and is not endorsed by many players as being a good solution to lag.

Besides choosing a server with low ping, server settings are an important criteria for deciding on what server to play on. Each server operator decides how the server is set up. Is Friendly Fire (FF) on/off? Can building and structures be damaged by FF? What maps are in rotation. How many Build Points (BPs) are allowed, etc. Some of these settings can be seen on the server selection page of Tremulous by highlighting the server and clicking on Server Info. Also remember that any of the four colomns of information can be sorted in order just by clicking on the header. This would help you find certain maps, high/low player count servers, low pings, etc. On this page you can also build your favorites list so you do not have to wade through the entire list every time you start up Tremulous. Just highlight the server name and click on New Favorite. In turn, you can delete servers from your favorite list by highlighting the server in your Favorites list and clicking on Del. Favorite.

Above all, remember that you are a guest on these servers. You can be muted, kicked or banned at the administrator discretion. They own the server. They pay for it. Be respectful and listen to what is being told to you. If you have a problem with the server, most servers have a forum where you can discuss what ever problem you are having. Otherwise, find another server. Also remember that sometimes there is not a reason for being kicked. Most servers are affiliated with a clan. If the server is full and a clan member wants to join, non-clan members may be kicked to make room. Most admins will inform you of the reason, but in busy games this is not always the case.