Setting and Using Enhanced Color MOTD

Coliseum2 has an enhanced color MOTD system that allow server admins to display a message for all clients once they successfully connect.  This MOTD system is an addition to the stock Id MOTD method and does not affect it in any way.

The MOTD message files are actually config files and must end with .cfg.  They must all also be in a separate directory called "motd".  Inside your coliseum mod directory, create a subdirectory called "motd"--this is where all the motd config files are to be placed.

There are a set of ten(10) variables called line0, line1, ... line9.  Each variable represents a single line in the message.  Each line can contain no more than 255 characters and the message can have a maximum of ten(10) lines.  The total number of characters of all the lines added together must not exceed 950.

The MOTD may not contain the following character combinations in any part of the message: "\n", "\r", "\0".  These are control characters used internally by the Mod and may have unpredictable results in affecting the message.  Double quotes (") are also not allowed in the MOTD message.  Also, do not use the Tab character in the MOTD files.  Each line may contain color control characters "^#" that will set the color for every character that follows it on the same line.  There can be multiple color controls characters on the same line.  Color control characters count towards the 950 character limit.

Example 1:

set line0 "Welcome to my server"
set line1 "Have fun."

Example 2:

set line0 "Welcome to Coliseum2"
set line2 "^1www.planetquake.com/coliseum2"

The second example will leave a blank line in the middle and the entire last line will be display in red.

 

Once the motd config file is created and placed in the motd subdirectory, you must tell the mod which message to load in and display.

CVAR:  g_motdfile

Example:  set g_motdfile "my_motd.cfg"

Set to zero "0" if you do not wish to use any MOTD file.  The default hardcoded message will be used.

 

The message will display in the lower left hand corner once a player connects successfully and will display for 6 seconds.  Server admins may change the MOTD file referenced by g_motdfile at anytime but it will not take effect until the next level.

Clients may stop the MOTD display prematurely by bringing down the console and type "/smotd".  Clients may also redisplay the MOTD at any time by typing "/motd" at the console.

 


The following section from version 1.7 is obsolete and is retained for historical reference only.  There were problems with getting Quake3 to open a text file for input with the file routines in the game engine while running a pure server on some OSes:

The MOTD message itself is contained in a plain text file and that file is limited to 1000 characters.  The file may contain any extension, usually .txt, but Mac and Linux systems may use different extensions if needed. The file itself may contain color control characters "^#" that will set the color for every character that follows it on the same line.  There can be multiple color controls characters on the same line.  Color control characters and carriage returns count towards the 1000 character limit.

The message may not contain the following character combinations in any part of the message: "\n", "\r", "\0".  These are control characters used internally by the Mod and may have unpredictable results in affecting the message.  Double quotes (") are also not allowed in the MOTD message.  Also, do not use the Tab character in the MOTD files.

The message file must contain a carriage return after the last line (i.e. Press return at the end off the last line).  Failing to do this will cause the last line to display twice.

Place the message file in the Mod directory and reference it with the variable g_motdfile:

CVAR:  g_motdfile

Example:  set g_motdfile "my_motd.txt"

Set to zero "0" if you do not wish to use any MOTD file.  The default hardcoded message will be used.

The message will display in the lower left hand corner once a player connects successfully and will display for 6 seconds.  Server admins may change the MOTD file referenced by g_motdfile at anytime but it will not take effect until the next level.

Clients may stop the MOTD display prematurely by bringing down the console and type "/smotd".  Clients may also redisplay the MOTD at any time by typing "/motd" at the console.

 


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