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Arena files

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Arena Files by Exaer

Welcome to the Arena file tutorial, this is my first tutorial so i hope i do good. I don't know if all the information i give here is right, but I test most of the it. just mail any problems or corrections to exaer@teamhuh.com ( if you come across any misspellings in English , don't worry. its because I'm from the Netherlands ).
Arena files are files that are mostly included in .pk3 files and give information to quake III arena to be able to put an icon for the map in the map select menu. This will be very handy because you don't need any more typing.

1 MAKING THE FILE

First you are going to need a standard text file, make it in any program you want ( if you are using Microsoft word make sure you save it as a text document, because if you saved it as the standard format , quake III arena wont be able to read it ). I used notepad, because its very simple to use. for now save the file, the name is very simple: give it the same name as the name of your map's .bsp file and add the .arena extension to it ( eg: testmap.arena ). You can save it in this path: quake III arena base path + \baseq3\scripts\ (eg: c:\quake3\baseq3\scripts\mymap.shader). Time to move on to the the next chapter.

2 ENTERING NEEDED INFORMATION

A requirement in with any .arena file is that all information is to be surrounded by a { and a }. First thing to tell quake 3 arena is the name of the map's file. this is done by entering a key map following the file's name ( leave out the extension ) . This is how your file should look now:


{
map        "testmap"
}

This wont do much if you put in your baseq3 folder. It will load the map but its not much use yet. Next we are going to tell quake III arena what bots to put in the level when playing against the computer. We do this by entering a key bots and the value contains the names of the bots seperated by spaces. ( check APPENDIX A for a list of gametypes ):


{
map        "testmap"
bots       "daemia wrack grunt slash"
}

Now quake III arena knows which bots to add to the level. Next thing is to set the title to be displayed when loading the map. This is easily done by entering the key longname and the value contains the long name of the map, like this:


{
map        "testmap"
bots       "daemia wrack grunt slash"
longname   "the empty place"
}

Were almost finshed now, two more things remaining. The fraglimit and the game types. First the fraglimit. Just enter a key fraglimit following the value.


{
map        "testmap"
bots       "daemia wrack grunt slash"
longname   "the empty place"
fraglimit  20
}

Now the last to do is setting the gametypes. This tells quake III arena in which gametypes this map can be used. The key is type and the value can contain some types seperated by spaces. Following is a list of types ( check APPENDIX B for a list of gametypes ):


{
map        "testmap"
bots       "daemia wrack grunt slash"
longname   "the empty place"
fraglimit  20
type       "ffa team"
}

When you have entered the needed information into your .arena file you should put it in your baseq3 folder, if yo are making a .pk3 file put it in the scripts folder. Your arena file should now be completed, if you want to know more head on to the next chapter.

 

3 EXTRA (UNNEEDED) INFORMATION

There is one key left to talk about and that is special. I only know of two values that it can contain, training and final. training is used in the very first map. final is used in the duel with xaero.



APPENDIX A

Here is a small list of all the names of the bots for the bots key:


ranger
phobos
sarge
orbb
bitterman
grunt
hossman
daemia
hunter
wrack
slash
gorre
angel
klesk
tankjr
lucy
biker
patriot
anarki
visor
razor
stripe
keel
uriel
cadavre
bones
doom
sorlag
doom
major
crash
xaero

 

APPENDIX B

Here is a list of all the gametypes:


single   (Don't use this one as you need four maps for it to work)
ffa
team
ctf
tourney

 

EXAER

 

 

 

 

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Bill Brooks © 1999
email contact: Bill Brooks