Here is a FAQ detailing General, Server, Technical and Gameplay related questions. Please feel free to post additional content that I, or another dev, will include as needed.
LAST UPDATE: 7/21/06
Tremulous Resources & LinksWebsitesTremulous Infobase - Maps, links, downloads and everything else
Italian Tremulous Alliance - Fansite in Italian
Planet Tremulous - Coming Soon
Tremulous.de - Coming Soon
Soubok's Maps - A Tremulous map designer's website
Tremulous Masterserver List - Lists all servers running Tremulous
Blasted - Tremulous Webcomic
GuidesLavaCroft's Builder BindsOrc's Guide to Kicking Other PlayersTremulous ManualNorfenstein's Introductory GuideNorfenstein's Common Base Locations & NamesBug Reportinghttps://bugzilla.icculus.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=TremulousNote: Please LOGIN to Bugzilla before submitting a bug, and make sure it hasn't already been reported.MappingJex & Catalyc's Tremulous Mapping GuideGTK Radiant DownloadSetting up GTK Radiant for TremulousGeneral IssuesQ: What is Tremulous?A: Tremulous is a free open source, multiplayer only stand alone game based on the Quake 3 engine. Quake 3
is not required to play.
In Tremulous two teams -- aliens and humans -- compete for victory by destroying each others bases. Bases are built and maintained by each side. Once a team's base is destroyed, the game ends.
Tremulous also features mutli-tiered advancements for each side referred to as 'stages'. Once a new stage is reached, new weapons, abilities, and structures are available to each side. Stages are reached by a defined number of kills the team must reach. This number can vary server to server due to customizable server settings.
Tremulous is a deep game and may seem overwhelming to new players at first. Give yourself a few games to get adjusted to the feel and gameplay elements, and try reading the
manual. If you have additional questions please feel free to ask them in the forum. While asking while playing in the game may provide quick answers, if you are asking multiple questions the forum is the best place to ask.
Q: What operating systems is Tremulous available for?A: Tremulous is available natively for Windows and Linux. There is also an unofficial
Mac version you may try.
Q: What does Open Source mean?A: Tremulous is based upon the GPL source release of the Quake 3 game engine. As a result the Tremulous code is also licensed under the GPL. This means that not only is Tremulous free in terms of monetary value, it is also free in the sense that you are free to use and examine it.
Q: How do I color my name?A: Colors in your name can be added by using the ^ symbol followed by a number and the letter you wish to color. The color chart by number is:
0-Black
1-Red
2-Green
3-Yellow
4-Blue
5-Cyan
6-Pink
7-White
8-Black
9-Red
To change the color of the characters in your name:- Open up the Tremulous console by pressing the tilde (~) key
- Now type your name in the according format: ^(color number)(letter of name)
For example, if we wished our name to be in pure black, we would type:
/name ^0DOLBY
The name Dolby would then be colored in black. Likewise, we could create a name with multiple colors using the following command:
/name ^1D^2O^3L^4B^5Y
Q: I still have questions not answered in this FAQ!A: Please create a new thread in the appropriate forum with your question. If you think your question should be included in this FAQ please reply to this thread and it will be considered for inclusion.
Server IssuesQ: How do I start a Tremulous Server?A: You can begin a Tremulous server by doing one of the following steps:
For a dedicated server:
- Go to Start -> Run -> type in 'cmd' (without quotes)
- Change directory to the Tremulous installation folder (i.e. cd C:/Program Files/Tremulous)
- Type trem.exe +set dedicated 2 +set fs_game base2 +exec server.cfg
For a non-dedicated server:
- Once Tremulous has launched, pull down the console with the tilde (~)
- Type '/map niveus' or whatever map you wish to play
- Give your friends your ip so they can connect
Q: My server doesn't show up on the Tremulous Master Server List!A: Quake 3 uses a function called the 'heartbeat' to broadcast the server as a public server. Otherwise, if the heartbeat is not enabled, the server is up and functioning but is not listed in the Tremulous Master Server list.
To correct this:
When launching the server, ensure you are setting the +set dedicated variable to 2. Setting your server to 1 will not send the heartbeat.
Q: People complain about lag on my server!A: Most consumer broadband connections cannot handle bandwidth intensive applications such as game servers. You can always rent a server from a shared or dedicated server provider as an alternative. Two providers I've had first hand experience with are Gameservers.com and
Krypt.com. Both come highly recommended. It's important to note when choosing a shared or dedicated server provider to choose one that hosts servers in a geographical location that is near you. For example, if you live in Germany try to find a server in that vicinity, as the geographical location can affect ping.
Q: What is TJW's mod? Why is it useful?A: TJW's mod is a version of Tremulous that is available as a server and (optional) client. It's important to note that you can run the server without needing your clients to run the TJW client. The standard 1.1 Tremulous client works just fine on servers running the TJW Server. The TJW client simply provides additional capabilities when paired with the server.
The main benefit of TJW's mod is that it applies many fixes and additional server administration functionality over the 1.1 build of Tremulous. While Tremulous releases can take months to prepare, TJW can update his mod as soon as new changes are ready.
Here's a few enhancements the TJW mod provides:
- Robust server side administration
- Mute capabilities for abusive players
- Vote based temporary ban system
- Permanent banning
- Unlimited banning (overcoming Quake 3's limited ban storage ability)
- user/Administrator rights (i.e. cannot be kicked, cancel vote, protected names)
- Administrator level based priveleges (i.e. Admin 1 can kick, Admin 2 can ban, etc.)
- Allows administrator access without need for the rcon password
- Varoius bug fixes to the 1.1 release of Tremulous
You can find TJW's Server mod
here. You can also find the TJW Client
here. It's important to note that while the TJW Client is not needed for the TJW Server enhancements to be available, they are both better used when paired together.
For a list of the TJW Server features
click here.
Q: What is the admin.dat file in TJW's Server mod?A: The admin.dat file holds all the player based configuration information for the server including: Level registration, banned users, user/administrator rights and flags, etc. This file can be directly edited by opening it up in Wordpad or a similar text editor.
Q: I'm using TJW's Server mod and need to make a change to the admin.dat file. How do I load it?A: Directly editing the admin.dat file does not cause an instant change to the server. You need to use the command !readconfig which will load your new changes onto the server without restarting the server itself.
Note: This only reads the admin.dat file, not the config.cfg.
Q: I'm using TJW's Server mod and my Administrators are getting kicked by player votes!A: First, open the admin.dat file and make sure you have set the flag 1 for any Administrator levels you do not want to be able to be kicked (this is not enabled by default for any Administrator level except for 5).
Q: How do I ban users from my server?A: To ban a player when running the standard Tremulous 1.1 server:
You will first need to find the client's ip that you wish to ban. To do this, pull down the
Tremulous console with the tilde (~) then type the following:
/rcon (your password) serverstatus
This will provide a list of currently connected user names, their client number, and their ip.
Clients can be banned by using the standard Quake 3 console method of addIP. For example:
/rcon (your password) addIP 23.455.42.22
Would add 23.455.42.22 to your banned IP list. You can also do a subnet ban by just adding 23.455.42. Please note this method has a few limitations:
- It does not prevent a dynamic IP user from changing their IP then reconnecting (unless doing a subnet ban)
- The addIP function only allows a certain number of IPs to be added, it then fails to accept new ones
To ban a player when running TJW's Server:
Type !listplayers either in the console or in the say prompt (t by default)
Type !ban (username) or !ban (client number) or !ban (ip address)
Note: You can only ban ips based in the !namelog
Technical IssuesQ: Is there a Mac version of Tremulous?A: There is an unofficial version of Mac Tremulous available
here which is maintained by tjw. Please note this is not officially supported, therefor you may run into issues while running this version. However, early reports suggest it works fine.
Q: I can't see the servers!A: If you are looking at the server browser and cannot find any servers, first make sure your 'Source' setting is set to Internet instead of Local. Next, click 'Get New List'. Servers should then populate.
Q: When I connect to a server it boots me with a message 'Couldn't load map X'.A: Some servers run maps that are not included in the default build of Tremulous. You can download most maps from
http://tremulous.megavoid.de/index.php?module=downloadSimply unzip them into your Tremulous base directory once they've finished downloading.
If you installed via the default path the folder should be in C:\Program Files\Tremulous\base. Make sure to restart Tremulous for the changes to take effect.
Q: I get the error 'GLW_StartOpenGL() - could not load OpenGL subsystem' when I try to run Tremulous!A: This error is caused by the game not being able to detect your Open GL drivers for your graphics card. There are two things you can try to resolve this issue:
-If you are using your vendors graphic card drivers (i.e. Asus, Abit), try using your manufacturer's graphic card drivers (i.e. ATI, Nvidia)
-If you are using the manufacturer's graphic card drivers, try using the vendors card drivers.
-If the above steps fail, try uninstalling your graphic card drivers completely, rebooting, then reinstalling the latest set of drivers, rebooting a second time, and trying to run Tremulous again.
Note: ATI's Windows Vista Beta 2 drivers DO NOT INCLUDE OPEN GL. There is currently no known work around until ATI updates their drivers with open gl support.Q: The game is very choppy. What gives?A: One of the most major causes of choppy gameplay is that the default network setting is 33.6 modem. Users can set the proper net setting at options -> system -> net & sound or by setting /rate 25000 (broadband setting).
If the above does not solve your issue, try these other options:
For videoTremulous has many engine enhancements Quake 3 did not feature. Maps in Tremulous are also of a more complex variety than original Quake 3 maps, and in addition most online games consist of many, many objects on screen at once.
Some optimization techniques to help performance include:
-Close ALL programs and run Tremulous by itself (i.e. Photoshop, Outlook, etc.)
-Close ALL taskbar programs (i.e. ICQ, Quicktime, etc.)
-Set the graphical settings in Tremulous to a lower setting (i.e. resolution, texture bit depth, etc.)
-Defragment the harddisk (start -> program -> accessories -> system tools -> disk defragmenter)
-Update and run your antivirus program to ensure a virus is not hindering your peformance
And, if you still are suffering from poor performance...
Consider upgrading your 3d graphics card. Tremulous doesn't require the latest whiz-bang graphics card, but if you have a sub-$1000 computer with a built in graphical card most likely it's not optimized for gaming. Spend $50 and buy a Radeon 9600 or a Geforce 5600 or higher card. You'll probably find the performance will improve drastically.
For internetThe main issue that will cause problems in Tremulous regarding your internet connection is a firewall. Firewalls can either slow down internet traffic or block it altogether. If you have a firewall, try disabling it temporarily to test and see if the game improves. If you cannot disable the firewall, try plugging your internet connection directly into your computer to bypass the firewall altogether.
Q: I tried changing resolutions and the game crashed. Now when I try to restart it won't run.A: The only known solution at this time to work is to uninstall and reinstall Tremulous.
Gameplay IssuesQ: Is there a Tremulous manual?A: The Tremulous manual is included with the installation in PDF format. You can find it in C:\Program Files\Tremulous. An online version is also available at
http://www.tremulous.net/manual. The manual is very comprehensive and should explain everything you need to know about the game.
Q: The game is too dark!A: While in game you can change the brightness by clicking on options -> system -> gfx software and setting the brightness meter to a higher level.
Q: Why is there no Options button on the main menu? A: There's one in the next version. To get around this limitation, though, you can (at the main console), bring down the console with ~ or ` and then use the following command:
\menu ingame_options
That is, of course, until the next version. That command will still work then, and it is arguably more useful than the new button, as the new "Options" button has a smaller list of changeable settings.
Q: I can't alt+tab out of the game!A: To return to the Windows desktop while playing Tremulous, use alt+enter.
Q: What is the console? How do I use it?A: Tremulous features the Quake 3 console which allows you to input a number of text commands through a command line prompt to the game (ala DOS). To use the console, hit the tilde key (~) then type in a command. Note, all commands must be entered with a preceding forward slash (/).
Some example commands:
/disconnect - Disconnects you from the current game
/reconnect - Reconnects you from the last game you played
/name Jerry - Sets your in-game name to Jerry
/quit - Quits to the Desktop
/callvote kick John - Call a game vote to kick a player named John
/kill - Kills your character
/status - Display information about the current server
There are many, many console commands for Quake 3 which can be useful. You can find a comprehensive list
here.
Q: What is a 'feeder?'A: A feeder is a term for a player that constantly dies, giving the other team credits or alien points for little effort.
Q: Where can I meet other Tremulous players?A: There are a few ways to find other Tremulous players to play with. The first option is to login to our mIRC chat room. You can download mIRC
here. After installing mIRC on your computer, follow these steps:
To configure mIRC to connect to our channel:- Launch mIRC (start -> programs -> mIRC)
- Click continue
- Click the 'servers' option on the far left of the settings box
- Click 'add'
- For description put 'Freenode' or a similar descriptive name
- For IRC Server put irc.freenode.org
- Leave the rest of the text boxes at their defaults
- Click Add
- Click 'Connect to Server'
- After the connection process is finished you will be prompted to enter a channel, type #tremulous
- Congratulations, you're ready to chat!
You can also find players by location using the
Tremulous Frappr.
Q: Server administrators boot me all the time from games for no reason!A: There are a few situations that cause this. One common problem is having the name Unnamed Player. If you have not changed your name in Tremulous you can do this by either pulling down the console by using the tilde (~) key by default and typing in /name <your name>, or by clicking Options and changing your name there.
You can also be team killing (aka Griefing/TK'ing) accidentally. Some servers have friendly fired enabled which lets teammates kill each other. Make sure not to shoot other players to avoid this.
You could also be accidentally destroying structures in your team's base by shooting them or using the construction kit to remove them from play. This is known as 'deconning' (aka deconstructing) and annoys people greatly.
Note: You can always deconstruct whether friendly fire is on or off.Q: When I try to buy a weapon other than the rifle at the Armoury none are listed.A: First, you need to sell your rifle in order to buy a new weapon. The same goes for armor -- if you have light armor equipped (and a helmet) you will not be able to buy a battlesuit until you've sold both the light armor and helmet.
When I try to use the Dragoon's secondary attack it doesn't jump.In order to use the Dragoon's pounce ability, you must first hold down your secondary attack key for a few seconds then aim upwards. Aiming horizontal does not deploy the attack -- only upward directions engage the ability.
Q: I killed someone as an alien but I didn't get any points!A: Points are given to the person who did the most damage. If you dealt a death blow to a marine but did not cause the most damage, no points are awarded.
Q: Why do I get points for just standing around?A: Points are awarded to individuals who are not killed within a certain time period. This is meant to encourage builders to maintain bases instead of having to rush out to kill people in order to earn points/credits.
Q: How do you earn credits for new weapons/equipment as a human?A: By killing aliens you earn credits. Credits can be spent at the Armory and are earned depend on the level of the alien that was killed. Credits are also shared amongst the humans that did damage to the alien when it dies.
Note: more equipment/weapons become available for purchase the more reinforcement your teams receive.Q: How do you become an alien other than the granger/dretch?A: You have to kill a human in order to earn points that allow you to upgrade to another alien class. Alien classes vary in their costs depending on their potency, but at least 1 kill is required to attain the first alien upgrade (Baslisk).
Note: more alien classes also become available for purchase the higher your hive has evolved.Q: What causes evolution/reinforcements to trigger for the teams?A: Upgrades (called stages) are triggered by the amount of kills each team has. Once a certain amount is attained the next stage for that team is then activated. There are 3 stages in total for each team detailed further below.
Q: How many stages do the teams have? What does each stage do?A: There are 3 total stages of enhancements for both teams. Different classes, equipment, weapons and structures are available during these different stages. The higher the stage the more potent these items become.
AliensStage 1
Structures: Overmind, Egg, Acid Tube, Barricade
Aliens: Granger, Dretch, Basilisk, Marauder, Dragoon
Stage 2
Structures: Trapper, Booster
Aliens: Advanced Baslisk, Advanced Marauder, Advanced Granger
Stage 3
Structures: Hovel, Hive
Aliens: Advanced Dragoon, Tyrant
HumansStage 1
Weapons: Construction Kit, Blaster, Rifle, Painsaw, Shotgun, Las Gun, Mass Driver, Chaingun
Upgrades: Light Armor, Battery Pack
Structures: Reactor, Telenode, Machine Gun Turret, Armoury, Medistation,
Stage 2
Weapons: Advanced Construction Kit, Pulse Rifle, Grenade
Upgrades: Helmet, Jet Pack
Structures: Repeater, Defense Computer
Stage 3
Weapons: Flamethrower, Lucifer Cannon
Upgrades: Battlesuit
Structures: Tesla Generator
Q: How do I recharge energy weapons?A: You can recharge energy weapons either at the Reactor or Repeaters.
Q: Sometimes I can't place structures when I try to build them.A: Areas you can build on are indicated by a green coloring of the structure before it is placed. If the area is not one you can build upon, the structure will indicate this by turning red. Structures can also only be placed when near a Reactor or Repeater.
Q: It's tedious to do buy/sell/select with the menus in the game.A: There are many binds that are by default not set by Tremulous that are incredibly useful and circumvent repetitive menu interactions. 'Binds' are keyboard shortcuts that can issue commands through a single keystroke to the game. To use these, bring up the Tremulous console by pressing the tilde (~) key, then type:
bind <key> <command>Where <key> equals the key you would like to bind the action to, and <command> equals the command you would like to execute once the key is pressed.
For example:
bind a sell rifleWould bind the a key to sell your rifle when pressed.
Some of the more useful include (from the Tremulous manual):
Bindingsdestroy - As a builder class, destroy the structure in front of the player.
itemact<item> - If held, activate the specified item. For weapons this selects them.
itemdeact<item> - If held, deactivate the specificed item.
itemtoggle<item> - If held, toggle the state of the specified item
sell <item> - If held and within range of an Armoury, sell the specified item.
sell weapons - If within range of an armoury, sell all upgrades.
sell upgrades - If within range of an Armoury, sell all upgrades.
buy <item> - If within range of an Armoury and sufficiently wealthy, buy the specified item.
class <class> - Given sufficient kills, evolve to the specified class.
build <structure> - As a builder class, build the specified structure.
Item, class and structure names:
<item> – blaster, rifle, ckit, ackit, shotgun, lgun, prifle, mdriver, flamer, chaingun, lcannon, psaw, gren, medkit, jetpack
<class> – builder, builderupg, level0, level1, level1upg, level2, level2upg, level3, level3upg, level4
<structure> – eggpod, barricade, booster, acid_tube, hive, trapper, overmind, hovel, telenode, medistat, mgturret, tesla, dcc, arm, reactor, repeater
