Setting Up a Server

Setting up a server in Return to Castle Wolfenstein is pretty easy, but as my mom would say don't expect to make silk out of a sow's ear. (Yeah, my mom's weird.) What that means is that if your machine and 'net connection aren't beefy enough, your server will be chock full of lag and may suffer from performance issues. Experiment and see if you got what it takes.

Creating a Server

To set up a server on the 'net, click on the multiplayer option from the main menu. From there, you should see the server browser. Near the top of the page, find the Create Server option and click on it. This will take you to the server creation page (blow up the picture on the right to see what it looks like).

Basic Options

Here you choose various server settings for your game. Here's a rundown:

Friendly Fire
Determines whether or not fire from the same team hurts teammates.

Game Type
Choose between Objective, Stopwatch, or Checkpoint modes. The map list on the left will change to show what maps are available for each mode.

Dedicated
This is an important setting! It allows you to choose from "No" (you can play on the server from the same machine), "Internet" (creates a dedicated server that closes Wolfenstein, but performs better), or "LAN" (creates a game only accessible by people on your local area network). For best results for your server, choose a Internet Dedicated server.

Host Name
The name of your server. This is what will appear on server lists.

Friendly Fire
Turns friendly fire (i.e., fire from teaammates hurts) on or off. Maxiumum Players
Sets an upper limit on how many players can join your game. Generally, more players means more lag and more stress on your machine.

Min/Max Ping
Lets you set the minimum or maximum ping for your server. Useful if you only want those with high or low pings on your server. Leave both at 0 to set no limitations.

Even Teams?
Setting this to "yes" will automatically spread players out when one side has too many.

Synchronous Client?
This synchronizes the client and the server. It's necessary to have this turned on to record demos.

Max Rate
Allows you to set the max rate for your server.

Zombie Time
Allows you to set the zombie time for you server.

Reconnect Limit
Allows you to set the max number of times that someone can repeatedly try to connect to your server. Enable Voting?
Setting to "Yes" allows players to vote for things like map changes and player kicking.

Pure Server
If set to "yes" this will require clients connecting to the server to have the exact same pak files as the server is running.

Password
Sets a password for the server, making it private.

Advanced Options

There are also some advanced options you can access by clicking on "Advanced".

Time Limit
Sets the time limit, in minutes, for each map.

Allied Respawn
Sets the time, in seconds, between Allied respawns.

Axis Respawn
Sets the time, in seconds, between Axis respawns.

Max Lives
Sets the maximum number of times each player can respawn per round. Set to "0" to give infinite lives.

TK Compliant Limit
Number of complaints that a team killer can receive before being booted from the server.

Stopwatch Round Mode
Sets the structure of the stopwatch rounds.

Enable Tourney Mode
Lets you turn on Tourney mode. This mode keeps players from switching teams or joining a game in progress so that things can be run more like a tournament.

Min Clients Before Tourney Starts
Lets you determine the minimum number of players you want in your tournament round before it begins.

 

Once you have everything how you want it, hit "Accept" to launch your server!

Getting Your Server Listed in the in-game Browser or GameSpy Arcade

Both the in-game browser and GameSpy Arcade's server lists work off the same master server list at id. If you run a Internet Dedicated server (see above), then your server should automatically be picked up in these lists. It may, however, take a few minutes.