Frequently Asked Questions |
If the question or problem you're having is not addressed here then feel free to send me an e-mail about it. Instructions for sending me e-mail can be found at the Feedback page. Thanks for your interest in Deathmatch 101!
General Questions
There are a lot of different errors and problems that can occur when playing Quake 2 over the Internet. By far however the most common problem new players have is not playing with the most current version of Quake 2. This can cause all sorts of errors, and in all likelihood is causing your error when your try to connect to a game. Surf on by Download Central to find the links to Quake 2 patches.
I keep getting bad lag and ping times. I've got at least a 28.8 modem and a real ISP, what gives?
Bad lag and bad ping times can be the result of numerous factors. There a few general things you can check first however:
- Check to make sure your ISP is really giving you a quality connection. Do you notice frequently bad web surfing, bad download times, or are you being dropped by your ISP often? This can be the sign of a bad ISP and you may want to consider getting a new one.
- Is your phone line in good condition? Do you notice any static or line noise over your phone line? If you do this can affect the quality of your net connection. Call the phone company and have them trace the noise problem. If it's on their end they are responsible for fixing it. If it's in your house you are most likely going to have to pay to fix it.
- Make sure you have the latest drivers for your modem. Also make sure you have the latest version of Winsock from Microsoft.
I'm having trouble customizing my controls. How do I get the mouse to work correctly?
First, make sure you've reset the controls in Quake 2 to default. This will get rid of any existing control problems you may have had. You can reset them to default by selecting the reset to default option from the customize controls screen.
To get to the mouse to work properly in the game all you should really have to do is turn on freelook at the options screen (see the page on Basic Control). If that still doesn't work you can try typing this at the console:
in_mouse 1
How do I play a modem-to-modem game of Quake 2 with my friend?
You actually can't play a straight modem-to-modem deathmatch game in Quake 2 like you could in the original Quake. The reason for this is that one player will always have tons of lag and the other will have none, which doesn't make things very fair. There are workarounds out there however. Here's a site that explains one method:
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ncox/quake2.html
Please note that this can be a very technical topic. Be prepared to spend several hours setting things up and tweaking them to perfection.
There are a few common problems when working with CFG's for the first time:
- You named the cfg file one thing, and then typed a different name in. For example you named your CFG cool.cfg but in Quake 2 you typed exec neat.cfg.
- You didn't put the CFG in your Quake2/baseq2 directory. All CFG files must be in that directory for them to work when you type "exec mycfg.cfg"
- Your CFG got the .txt extension put on it by mistake. Sometimes when you're working on a CFG in an editor like Notepad and you choose Save As and then type mycfg.cfg as the filename, the editor will actually save it as mycfg.cfg.txt. To fix this go into Explorer, find the file, and then manually rename it to mycfg.cfg.
I'm having trouble setting up a Quake2 server, can you help?
I'm not an authority on setting up or running Quake2 servers - I just play on them - so I probably wouldn't be the best person to ask concerning any server questions you may have.
I'm having a Gamespy problem that isn't listed here, can you help?
Check out the on-line Gamespy help section over at: http://www.gamespy.com/teamqspy/
They have tons of great information and resources to help you.
When I try to connect to a server it says I don't have the map, or something. What's up with that?
This can be for a variety of reasons. First off, check to make sure that you have the most recent version of Quake2. You can find links on my download central page.
If you have the most recent version then you'll want to make sure that you have the map the server is running. Some servers are running special user made custom maps that don't come with either Quake2 or its official patch. Others are running special mods that require you to download another special patch and/or maps to go along with it. If you want to play these maps you're going to have to download the map/mod to your hard drive.
In the meantime your safest bet is to stick to the official id deathmatch maps which have names like q2dm1, or base2.
A topic I thought should be covered in this site isn't. How come you didn't cover it?
The goal of this tutorial is to present the sometimes inherently complex topic of Quake 2 multiplayer in an open and accessible manner which makes it easy for the less computer-savvy people to access this world. In following with that mission I may have purposely (or accidentally) left out topics I thought either weren't relevant or would take up too much space in this tutorial, which I want to keep as brief as possible. Still I am always open to suggestions so send me an e-mail about what you think should be added to this site.
I'm confused about a topic in this tutorial and I don't know what to do!
Try sending me an e-mail with a clear description of your problem. I'll see if I can't explain things better. If it is a technical problem however, please read all the questions on this help page first to see if you're problem is already answered.
Is there a way I can get a copy of this tutorial to browse off-line?
Yes! Head on over to the download page where you will find all the instructions for downloading and installing the off-line version of Deathmatch 101.
How did you make this site? I want to start my own web site but I don't know how!
I have a lot of information concerning the design and construction of this site on the About Deathmatch 101 page. If you would like to learn how to create your own web site then please visit Home Brewed HTML, another site written by me.