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How-To Section
CS Server Setup Section.

The Counter-Server team have devoted this section to the basic requirements of running your HLDS (Half-Life Dedicated Server).

Hopefully this will serve as a good basis for your server set-up. If you would like to see something else posted up here, let us know.

Basic Requirements
» Windows
» Linux/*nix
» The Configuration Files
» Maps
» Server and Client on Same Machine
» Rcon
» Kicking and Banning
» LAN Server

Server Tweaks
» Minimum/Maximum Rates
» Using Screen With Linux

Client Tweaks
» Enhancing Your XP Installation

Other
» Writing Progams/Scripts for hlds

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» Maps

Next thing, in order for your map to have a map cycle, you have to edit the default. This is what is called the mapcycle.txt file. There should already be, within your cstrike dir, a file called exactly that. It will have in there what yours should look like, but just in case you delete yours, or it's empty for some reason, we're going to go ever what it takes to make this file, and some commands to use in relation to maps while running your server. In here is where you put the maps that you want your server to cycle through. When I say put in the maps, I mean the names of the maps, not the maps themselves. I'd be really impressed if you put the actual maps inside a txt file. At any rate, you put the map names minus the .bsp part of the map name in the text file, with one map name per line. In effect, your mapcycle.txt should look something like this:

as_oilrig
as_tundra
cs_747
cs_assault
cs_backalley
cs_estate
cs_italy
cs_militia
cs_office
cs_siege
de_aztec
de_cbble
de_chateau
de_dust
de_dust2
de_inferno
de_nuke
de_piranesi
de_prodigy
de_storm
de_survivor
de_torn
de_train
de_vegas
de_vertigo

Now, some of the newer players and admins might not know what cs, de, as, and es are. Well, it's simple.

cs_ is a hostage map (CT's job to rescue the hostages, T's job to make sure they don't)
de_ is a defusion map (T's job to plant the bomb at selected targets, CT's job to eliminate the T's or defuse the bomb, whichever comes first)
as_ is assassination (CT's job to guard the VIP so that he can escape, T's job is to eliminate the VIP)
es_ is an escape map (T's trying to escape from a prison scenario, CT's making sure they don't).

You can customize your server so that it runs only a specific type of maps (hostage, defusion, etc) if you so choose. The file can be edited at will if your tastes change, even if it's every hour. If you're not sure what map is next in the mapcycle.txt, and you want the server to move on to the next map, type mp_timelimit 1 in the console, and the server will go to the next map in the file. If you just want to change it to another map period, the map has to be on the server for you to change it to. Let's say you want to change it to cs_doggydoo. You type changelevel cs_doggydoo, but it tells you it can't find the map, because you don't have it. The only maps that you can change to on the server are the ones that are within the cstrike/maps directory. Very important about this changelevel thing. If you use map <map> to change the map, you will drop all the players off the server in changing the map. If you use changelevel <mapname without the .bsp>, then the server will change maps and retain all it's clients in the process. If you choose to add a new map to your server and the zip file that you got has two files, a .bsp and a .wad, we know where the .bsp file goes. But what about the .wad???? Well, that's easy. Put that lil wad file in the cstrike directory. That's all. You'll notice it will have happy lil friends there if some of the other maps you are running have .wad's, too.

There are some server admins out there who like to have 32 player deathmatch *cough* I mean coopertitave servers, but some maps only support 20 people. Here is a list of spawn points(max players at a time) for each map:

as_oilrig.bsp 36
as_tundra.bsp 25
cs_747.bsp 26
cs_assault.bsp 20
cs_backalley.bsp 20
cs_estate.bsp 20
cs_italy.bsp 20
cs_militia.bsp 20
cs_office.bsp 20
cs_siege.bsp 20
de_aztec.bsp 32
de_cbble.bsp 32
de_chateau.bsp 35
de_dust.bsp 32
de_dust2.bsp 40
de_inferno.bsp 32
de_nuke.bsp 20
de_piranesi.bsp 32
de_prodigy.bsp 20
de_storm.bsp 32
de_survivor.bsp 20
de_torn.bsp 32
de_train.bsp 24
de_vegas.bsp 20
de_vertigo.bsp 32

Don’t ask why de_dust2 has 40 spawn points. The max HLDS was made to hold was 32. Maybe someone was going to make it a Quake3 map ;)

Now let’s say you have edited your mapcycle.txt and the server is still using the old one. It is a simple solution that not everyone knows. All you have to do is type “mapcyclefile mapcycle.txt” and the server will then reload it.