Just sitting here with some spare time on my hands and figured I would write this. Hopefully someone will find it usefull.
Based on Soldat v1.12
Requierements and general information:
You will require a decent internet conection to run any server. You can get away with a cable/aDSL/ISDN for small servers but you will have to keep a close eye on your upstream bandwidth usage.
Most broadband conections have lots of downstream bandwidth but are generally limited in the upstream. A typical aDSL line may be rated at 256 Kbps (Kilo BITs per Second) but may only have 64 Kbps upstream.
From casual observations I have noted that a 10 player Soldat server spikes at 17 Kbps upstream. So a 64 Kbps upstream conection can easiliy handle the bandwidth as long as you don't also run a PTP server, etc.
If you have a broadband conection, this also means that you most likely have a dynamic IP. Check Google for free DNS services so that you can get a cool host name like Killersoldat.dnstogo.com. This will make it much easier to maintain the server and makes it easier for people to access your server.
You can use retail operating systems like Windows 9x for Soldat, but it is much better to use a server o/s like windows 2000. Win2000 is designed to run server applications and will default to having more buffers, stacks and other tecnical issues. Also, Win2000 is much harder to hack into than Win9x and is much much more stable.
You will require a machine capable of running soldat. While an empty server will not use any resources, this load will increase as players log in. This CPU load is exponential. If the CPU load of a server with 4 players is 5%, then the load when you have 8 players will NOT be 10% but rather 15 or 20. Generally, a P3 400 MHz can easily handle a Soldat server. This is not battlefield 1942 :-)
For this reason, it is very bad form to run a public server that is on the same machine that you are playing from. You will increase your CPU load and worse, the OS will give priority to running the graphics and sound over sending out packets to the network card. You will enjoy a ping free frag fest, but your visitors will more than likely be frozen with lag.
How to run the server:
- install soldat to a suitable directory. For security reasons, it is always advisable to install to a partition separate from your operating system.
- Go into your Soldat directory, right click and drag soldat.exe to the desktop. Select "create shortcut(s) here"
- right click on the shortcut and select properties. In the line that says Target and contains something like "G:\Soldat\Soldat.exe" add "-dedicated".
the result should look like this:
G:\Soldat\Soldat.exe -dedicated
- Note: the manual says that you can autostart the server by also adding -start. As of v1.12, this is bugged and will ignore your configuration. Do NOT add -start.
- Double click on your shortcut and press the big green OK button.
- At the top of the window that opens, you should see tabs labeled: Start Game, Join Game, Options, Player, Exit. Click on Options.
- Here you see all sorts of neat options that you can use to customize your server. The play settings are beyond the scope of this FAQ, we're here to get you started so we will leave the section Game alone. Under the central section called Network, we have several important options that we need to configure:
- Connection LAN or Internet. If you want an Internet server, select internet.
- Maximum Players. Set this to any number you like to a maximum of 10. From personal experience, a server with more than 10 players will lag.
- Register in Lobby Server. The quickest way to get people to come and play on your server is to select this option. This will also activate All Seeing Eye support.
- Game Name: Give your server an Ultra Cool name ;-)
- Game Password: If you want to restrict your server to a couple of friends or you want to host a clan match, add a password. otherwise, don't!.
- Now click the Start Game Tab and you will return to the game options menu.
- Game Style: Pick the style of game you want to host. The most popular are deathmatch and capture the flag.
- Set the kill limits, etc. to your heart's content. I normally leave these at default.
- Maps: click on the list box and then click on each map's name. If you really hate a map, do not click it and your server will not run it.
- Bots: Add some bots if you like. Most people though will not appreciate this.
- If you want survival or realistic modes, select them.
Now press the big green button, Start Game and your server should launch.
Commands:
Soldat comes with some usefull commands to help run your server and keep undesirables off. These commands are entered in the white text box at the bottom of the server output display.
- /adm Give a buddy control over the server. let him halp ban and unban people. This unfortunantly is IP based which means that everytime his IP changes, you'll have to do it again. use /unadm to take power away from an abusive admin.
The other way to do this is to open remote.txt using notepad in your soldat directory and add/remove the IP by hand. Restart your server after doing this.
- /ban & /unban kick people off of the server permanently or undo a ban. The other way is to open banned.txt with notepad, add or delete the IP and restart the server.
Other commands are found in the manual.htm in the soldat/manual directory.
Troubleshooting
- the server doesn't start/crashes. Install the latest DirectX (http://www.microsoft.com/directx). If you still have problems, update the drivers for your video card.
- The server runs but nobody can enter. Check to make sure that max players is not set to zero. If you have a firewall, you will need to configure it to open ports: 23073 to 23083. If you are behind a router that filters ports, you may have to configure it as well.
If you are running something like ZoneAlarm, you must configure it to allow Soldat to act as a server. Go to program control, find the soldat entry and click on ?/X under Internet Server.
Exile's Soldat!
www.frag.cl
Based on Soldat v1.12
Requierements and general information:
You will require a decent internet conection to run any server. You can get away with a cable/aDSL/ISDN for small servers but you will have to keep a close eye on your upstream bandwidth usage.
Most broadband conections have lots of downstream bandwidth but are generally limited in the upstream. A typical aDSL line may be rated at 256 Kbps (Kilo BITs per Second) but may only have 64 Kbps upstream.
From casual observations I have noted that a 10 player Soldat server spikes at 17 Kbps upstream. So a 64 Kbps upstream conection can easiliy handle the bandwidth as long as you don't also run a PTP server, etc.
If you have a broadband conection, this also means that you most likely have a dynamic IP. Check Google for free DNS services so that you can get a cool host name like Killersoldat.dnstogo.com. This will make it much easier to maintain the server and makes it easier for people to access your server.
You can use retail operating systems like Windows 9x for Soldat, but it is much better to use a server o/s like windows 2000. Win2000 is designed to run server applications and will default to having more buffers, stacks and other tecnical issues. Also, Win2000 is much harder to hack into than Win9x and is much much more stable.
You will require a machine capable of running soldat. While an empty server will not use any resources, this load will increase as players log in. This CPU load is exponential. If the CPU load of a server with 4 players is 5%, then the load when you have 8 players will NOT be 10% but rather 15 or 20. Generally, a P3 400 MHz can easily handle a Soldat server. This is not battlefield 1942 :-)
For this reason, it is very bad form to run a public server that is on the same machine that you are playing from. You will increase your CPU load and worse, the OS will give priority to running the graphics and sound over sending out packets to the network card. You will enjoy a ping free frag fest, but your visitors will more than likely be frozen with lag.
How to run the server:
- install soldat to a suitable directory. For security reasons, it is always advisable to install to a partition separate from your operating system.
- Go into your Soldat directory, right click and drag soldat.exe to the desktop. Select "create shortcut(s) here"
- right click on the shortcut and select properties. In the line that says Target and contains something like "G:\Soldat\Soldat.exe" add "-dedicated".
the result should look like this:
G:\Soldat\Soldat.exe -dedicated
- Note: the manual says that you can autostart the server by also adding -start. As of v1.12, this is bugged and will ignore your configuration. Do NOT add -start.
- Double click on your shortcut and press the big green OK button.
- At the top of the window that opens, you should see tabs labeled: Start Game, Join Game, Options, Player, Exit. Click on Options.
- Here you see all sorts of neat options that you can use to customize your server. The play settings are beyond the scope of this FAQ, we're here to get you started so we will leave the section Game alone. Under the central section called Network, we have several important options that we need to configure:
- Connection LAN or Internet. If you want an Internet server, select internet.
- Maximum Players. Set this to any number you like to a maximum of 10. From personal experience, a server with more than 10 players will lag.
- Register in Lobby Server. The quickest way to get people to come and play on your server is to select this option. This will also activate All Seeing Eye support.
- Game Name: Give your server an Ultra Cool name ;-)
- Game Password: If you want to restrict your server to a couple of friends or you want to host a clan match, add a password. otherwise, don't!.
- Now click the Start Game Tab and you will return to the game options menu.
- Game Style: Pick the style of game you want to host. The most popular are deathmatch and capture the flag.
- Set the kill limits, etc. to your heart's content. I normally leave these at default.
- Maps: click on the list box and then click on each map's name. If you really hate a map, do not click it and your server will not run it.
- Bots: Add some bots if you like. Most people though will not appreciate this.
- If you want survival or realistic modes, select them.
Now press the big green button, Start Game and your server should launch.
Commands:
Soldat comes with some usefull commands to help run your server and keep undesirables off. These commands are entered in the white text box at the bottom of the server output display.
- /adm Give a buddy control over the server. let him halp ban and unban people. This unfortunantly is IP based which means that everytime his IP changes, you'll have to do it again. use /unadm to take power away from an abusive admin.
The other way to do this is to open remote.txt using notepad in your soldat directory and add/remove the IP by hand. Restart your server after doing this.
- /ban & /unban kick people off of the server permanently or undo a ban. The other way is to open banned.txt with notepad, add or delete the IP and restart the server.
Other commands are found in the manual.htm in the soldat/manual directory.
Troubleshooting
- the server doesn't start/crashes. Install the latest DirectX (http://www.microsoft.com/directx). If you still have problems, update the drivers for your video card.
- The server runs but nobody can enter. Check to make sure that max players is not set to zero. If you have a firewall, you will need to configure it to open ports: 23073 to 23083. If you are behind a router that filters ports, you may have to configure it as well.
If you are running something like ZoneAlarm, you must configure it to allow Soldat to act as a server. Go to program control, find the soldat entry and click on ?/X under Internet Server.
Exile's Soldat!
www.frag.cl