How To: Map Rotation within a Map Rotation

[Dragonne-TRIAD]

Here's something I came up with that's pretty simple yet a great feature. It's for those admins that want to run more maps or custom maps on their servers, but keep the rotation itself small(like 10 or less maps) so that those favorite maps keep the players coming back. first, what made me think of it:

I run a CTF and a DM server. The regular players started requesting Custom DM and CTF maps a while back. Well, since there are so many DM servers out there, converting to mostly Custom maps on the DM server wasn't a big issue. The CTF server was a different story. Only die-hard CTFers download anything besides the 3-Wave packs and possibly JapanCTF by Gizm0. The requests for DM rotation updates also started popping up here and there.

So here's what I came up with for the CTF server, and eventually implemented on the DM server too. I made individual slots within the map rotation actually rotate custom maps. This way, the usual maps would show up every rotation, but the custom maps would actually chage each time through. Here's the code for a single rotating slot within the rotation:

set sl10 "map japanctf ; set slot1 vstr sl11"
set sl11 "map q3stronghold ; set slot1 vstr sl12"
set sl12 "map nedsctf2 ; set slot1 vstr sl13"
set sl13 "map harshg ; set slot1 vstr sl14"
set sl14 "map dboxctf2 ; set slot1 vstr sl15"
set sl15 "map halctf2 ; set slot1 vstr sl10"
set slot1 vstr sl10

set d0 "map q3ctf1 ; set nextmap vstr d1"
set d1 "map q3wctf2 ; set nextmap vstr d2"
set d2 "map q3ctf3 ; set nextmap vstr d3"
set d3 "vstr slot1 ; set nextmap vstr d4"
set d4 "map q3ctf2 ; set nextmap vstr d5"
set d5 "map q3wctf3 ; set nextmap vstr d0"

vstr d0

I really just set up two rotations using the fairly common code around the net, then used the custom map rotation's variable string in the typical rotation with the Q3 engine's nextmap variable.

For my DM server, I got a little more interesting. I set up multiple slots dedicated to various map authors that had multiple good custom DM maps:

set bal0 "map bal3dm1 ; set balmap vstr bal1"
set bal1 "map bal3dm2 ; set balmap vstr bal2"
set bal2 "map bal3dm3 ; set balmap vstr bal0"
set balmap vstr bal0

set auhsan0 "map auh3dm1a ; set auhsanmap vstr auhsan1"
set auhsan1 "map auh3dm2 ; set auhsanmap vstr auhsan0"
set auhsanmap vstr auhsan0

set charon0 "map charondm1 ; set charonmap vstr charon1"
set charon1 "map charon3dm2 ; set charonmap vstr charon2"
set charon2 "map charon3dm3 ; set charonmap vstr charon0"
set charonmap vstr charon0

set ned0 "map nedsword ; set nedmap vstr ned1"
set ned1 "map nedmaj ; set nedmap vstr ned0"
set nedmap vstr ned0

set d0 "map q3dm13 ; set nextmap vstr d1"
set d1 "map simetrik ; set nextmap vstr d2"
set d2 "vstr balmap ; set nextmap vstr d3"
set d3 "map senndm2 ; set nextmap vstr d4"
set d4 "vstr nedmap ; set nextmap vstr d5"
set d5 "map fr3dm1; set nextmap vstr d6"
set d6 "map lun3dm1 ; set nextmap vstr d7"
set d7 "vstr charonmap ; set nextmap vstr d8"
set d8 "map q3dm16 ; set nextmap vstr d9"
set d9 "map addict ; set nextmap vstr d10"
set d10 "vstr auhsanmap ; set nextmap vstr d0"

vstr d0

And that, as they say, is that. I hope this little How To gets some of the other servers out there running more dynamic, and hence more interesting, map rotations. Remember though, to keep the players coming back you have to keep the favorite maps in there somewhere, and you might want to put up a web site with links to get those maps then put your site's link in the MOTD for the server.

Enjoy and good luck! http://gameadmins.com/ubb/smile.gif

(If anyone wants to put this post in a permanent location, just send me an e-mail so I can go see it and give me proper credit on the page it ends up on. Thanks!)