HOW-TO play sauerbraten

This document is now unmaintained since wiki:Multiplayer Guide has more current information and more contributors to edit it :)
[2006-08-22] (updated link:2006-12-10)

First off : Read the documentation,
it will help you understand the more intricate aspects of the game,
as well as telling you how to setup your personal configuration.
It is in HTML format and located in your
sauerbraten/docs folder.

I'll try and give you some hints to get you kicked off a little faster though.

• create a "autoexec.cfg" file in your sauerbraten base folder,
  if it doesn't already exist.
  This is where you will place all your configuration settings.
  You can modify everything in the game too, but to keep settings you
  should enter them there. This file is read once upon start of the engine.
  If you shut down normally (no crash) the engine will write it's current
  configuration to a file called "config.cfg", sometimes it has been known
  to hold bad data so you might need to delete it if you encounter any
  troubles (key bindings not working or the like). But this is rarely the case.
• write into the autoexec.cfg file (using your favourite text editor)
  name "myname"
  team "1234"
  choose the values to your liking, name is limited to 16 chars,
  team to 4 chars.
  Other settings you might wish to place into "autoexec.cfg" are
  soundvol, musicvol, sensitivity, sensitivityscale, gamma, fov and maxroll.
  See the documentation to find out any more commands.
  Also - users of ATI and NVIDIA cards sometimes are required to have
  special commands in there to avoid troubles with their graphics cards.
  oqmm, ati_texgen_bug, nvidia_texgen_bug and the likes.
  I'll try and update these as I become aware of more.

• fire up sauerbraten
  (using the sauerbraten.bat or sauerbraten_unix shell script)

• press ESC(ape) to call up the menu, select "multiplayer"
  and then "update from masterserver"
  This will in turn give you a list of currently available servers
  to play on the internet.
  The list shows number of players, current map and game mode.
  Simply select one to join to it.

• while playing online you should keep track of what is output to
  the console, if it scrolled past you can either backtrack
  with the "-" key (numeric keypad) or call up a maximized console
  via the "F11" key. The "+" key will reset it to the current line.

• previous to 2006-07-22 release :currently servers in PRIVATE mode are not marked in any way in the
  server browser, you'll only see a message about being denied access
  on your console ... so watch out for that.
  Since the 2006-07-22 release private and locked servermodes get displayed with a "P" or "L" (respectively),
  this character is appended to the number of players.

• when in play you will probably soon see some line like
  "foo suggests instagib on map curvedm (select map to vote)"
  This means that another player has decided it would be more fun
  (for him/her) to play on that map in that mode.
  To agree with them - and force a map/mode switch on the server -
  simply go into your menu, multiplayer and use the vote submenus
  to set the same map and mode as in the line you saw in your console.

• some modes are team modes. In case you have joined or voted for a
  match in team mode it is suggested you modify your team setting
  so as to end up with two distinct teams on the server.
  Best to do this before the vote is accepted too, so probably you'll
  chat about going to team mode before actually voting for it.
  In some cases more teams can be considered but generally two should
  be the number to go for.
  To change your setting during play simply call up the chat console
  and type any commands with a preceding "/".
  So - like in autoexec.cfg - to change your team just type:
  "/team red"
  For ease of use red & blue team settings are available from the
  multiplayer menu too.

• There are some mastermodes to consider as well;
  the first player to join (or next in line if he/she disconnects)
  is considered the MASTER, the current player with this power
  is depicted in green letters on your scoretable ("TAB" key).
  If the MASTER sets mastermode to 1 anything he/she votes for will
  become active immediately - MM1 is called VETO.
  MM2 is called LOCKED, this means any new players to join the server
  will automatically be made SPECTATOR. This is useful especially
  for team mode matches, where the players would like to keep the
  (hopefully balanced) teams and avoid distraction by people joining
  and disconnecting all the time.
  Only a MASTER can change SPECTATORS back into active players,
  you can always make yourself a spectator by typing "/spectator 1".
  MM3 is called PRIVATE and will deny anybody from joining the server.
  To relinquish any power the MASTER can type "/mastermode 0" to reset
  the server to MM0, which is called OPEN.

• Enjoy the game and respect your fellow players, if you don't the current
  MASTER might see it fit to BAN you. This BAN will be lifted as soon
  as the server is empty once again.

Passa has written a nice tutorial (with screenshots) that explains some of this too and goes more into depth about setting up your sauerbraten for a Win32 system.
E.g. screen resolution, shortcut properties and a look at the basic folder where it all begins ...

Another FAQ, more focused on Cube so some aspects only apply to that, but installation for linux is discussed which remains valid for Cube2 (Sauerbraten) and will probably get you going even if your getting going with Cube3 (Eisenstern) [unreleased as of 2006-06-07].

In case you haven't you should definitely check the documentation regulary.
Be sure there isn't a command you've forgotten completely about -
but which at your current level of involvement -
will help you do what you want in the game.

Another good call at this point is : Keep Backups!

If you regularly perform a task, you might think about scripting it.
Bind an easy to remember command to an alias and thus enable yourself to call a set of actions
at any convenient time.
After all you can always place stuff you seldom need but then dearly always place into your menus.cfg.

When using scripts for maps remember that _before_ any map is loaded default_map_settings.cfg is executed.

When having trouble with scripting and/or general behaviour of the engine it helps to send config.cfg to it's room and deal with that later, apart from autoexec.cfg the general settings of the game (from defaults.cfg) will be used for the next run of the engine.

If you are running into problems with your graphics card note precise card specifications, operating system and release date of your currently installed engine.
please always ensure for yourself to have installed most adequate driver and that other applications already work as advertised.
But if you didn't find anything in the local documentation HTML about some switch to test for lower compatibilities you might find it via the
cubeforum-search : "texgen_bug"