Quake2 Battleground is, basically, a Quake2 mod which allows Teamplay. Its characteristics are a unique skin for each team, and the announcement of the winner at the end of the game.

This mod creates a Battle folder within the Quake2 directory.

Here is a brief explanation of the commands you need to know to play.

NB : All these commands MUST be typed in the console, NOT in Chat mode ! (To bring the console down press the ~ key just under Escape).

Overview : Two clans fighting each other.

Two teams have got their own skin and name.
For example :
team Dudes male/claymore, team Girlz female/athena.

Goal : Kick the other team's ass. In fact it's just deathmatch with teams.

The Beginning : Choose a team.

To choose a team you can either use the menu displayed when the Tab key is pressed (like in CTF), and navigate within with the inventory keys (usually [ and ]).
Or you can type in the console :
team Girlz
If the match has already begun, you can join a team only if you have its joincode, only known by the playing team members.

NB : Entering a team makes you endorse the skin chosen by the team. All members of a team have the same skin (like in CTF).

Once you're in the team : may the fight begin !

Once you have chosen your team, you can walk through the map, but you cannot injure other players. For the game to begin, you have to wait for all players to be ready.

ready : to indicate that you are ready. When everyone is ready, the countdown begins. The fight truly begins once the countdown has reached zero.

notready or unready: Crap my screen just fell down down on the floor, nope I'm not ready after all. This command is to prevent the countdown from beginning while you're under your desk untangling wires.

At the end of the countdown a little message is displayed (like May the fight begin, or Good Luck), as well as your team's joincode. This joincode is generated randomly, and is 4 chars long.

For example :
Your joincode is 7yT5.

 

During the gameplay (i.e. at the end of the countdown), someone who logs onto the server (a new or a disconnected player coming back) starts as an observer, and needs the joincode to join a team.

To join a team while in observer mode :
team <name> <joincode>
For example :
team Girlz 7yT5

To find the joincode assigned to your team, go to the console and scroll it using the PgUp, PgDn End and Home keys (just as if you were using a text editor).
You can otherwise type the command:
joincode

You can also choose your own joincode (to remember it more easily than T6g7). Type joincode followed by a 4 chars code. You can do that whenever you want.
For example :
joincode LIPS
So, to enter the Girlz team now you will need to type :
team Girlz LIPS

NB : It is not possible to switch teams after the end of the countdown. To do so, you will need to disconnect and reconnect.

The score : How frags are counted.

Each time you kill a member of the other team, a point will be attributed to you and your team.

Each time you kill a member of your own team, you will lose a point, and so will your team (unless the tp option is set).

If you quit during a gameplay, your score (positive or negative) will still be accounted for in your team's total score.

Looking at the fight without fighting : the observer mode.

The observer mode allows you to travel all around the map without being "physically" present (other players cannot see you). You can walk in the map like in Quake2 single player mode with the noclip option.

Use the fire button to switch between TrackCam, EyeCam and ChaseCam modes. In one of these modes the jump button will select the next player. Really cool to observe a frag god!

Be Unique : Change your team caracteristics

Each player of a team can change its name, its model and its skin.

to change the team's name :
teamname <previous name> <new name>
For example : if the team name is A and if you want to change it to BigFat
teamname A BigFat

To change the skin of your team, type in the console :
teamskin <name> <model/skin>
For example : to select the claymore skin from male model:
teamskin BigFat male/claymore

User related Commands : customize your game

To display the names of the players you are viewing while you play:
id
use the same command to toggle the display off.

To display your game stats (kills, suicides, killed, ...), type :
stats

You can speak to your teammates only : type say_team message , in the console
For example :
say_team I know this clan, they suck!
Or use the command messagemode2 :
bind y messagemode2
You can put this line in your .cfg file. The T key will then allow you to speak to all players, and the Y key only to your teammates.

When you type a message for your teammates, your name appears between parentheses.
For example :
BrainBooster : Good Luck gentlemen!
Everyone sees this message.
(BrainBooster): Let's kick their ass
only your team can read this message !

You can even speak to only one player:
talk <player number> <message>
For example :
talk 1 Kill this lamer of [HEY]Dude

To see the player list and their number, use this command alone :
talk

Customize the game : a democratic mod !

Each player can ask to change several game options, by a really democratic vote.

When a proposition is submitted by a player a message is diplayed:
BrainBooster wishes to change map to Q2DM1

If you agree with this proposition, just type in the console:
vote yes
If you don't :
vote no

 

You can ask for all these changes:

vote map <map> : ask to change the map.
For example :
vote map q2dm7 (I'd say no immediately !)

vote dmflags <number> : change dmflags.
For a complete description of those extremely important dmflags, please refer to the excellent Q2_DMFLAGS freeware download page, where it is all explained.
Example : to ask for the standard options *and* the 'weapons stay' option :
vote dmflags 20

vote tl <number> : Change the timelimit.
For example : for a 20 Min game .
vote tl 20

vote fl <number> : To change the Frag limit.
For example : for a 30 kills limit:
vote fl 30

vote powerups <0/1> : Switch on/off the use of powerups.
Example : to deny use of powerups :
vote powerups 0

vote bfg <0/1> : to enable/disable the use of the BFG.
Example : to disable BFG (this fucking lamers' weapon ;-)
vote bfg 0

vote tp <1/2/3/4> : to change teamplay mode (will you hurt or not your teammates ?).
values :
1 : You can't hurt anybody in your team (including youreslf).
2 : No protection (Default)
3 : You just damage your teamates' shield
4 : You can't hurt you teamates.
Example :
vote tp 3

NB : These changes can only be done if the server administrator enabled the capability of changing them. On certain servers you may be able to change the map, but not the tp option.

Don't forget these commands : The Post-it Alias

This alias helps remembering all these commands just by hitting a key during the game.

Create a Battle directory in the quake2 directory. Create a memo.cfg file in it, and paste these lines :
 

echo .  echo ---------------------  echo BATTLEGROUND COMMANDS  echo (c) Ozh^HighPing - French Frag Factory  echo ---------------------  echo .  echo id : display users' name echo joincode [code] : display or change joincode  echo ready : I'm ready to play  echo noready : I'm not ready  echo stats : display game statistics echo talk [<userid> <msg>] : list players or talk to a specific one  echo vote yes / vote no : vote yes or no  echo vote tl <timelimit> : change timelimit   echo vote fl <fraglimit> : change fraglimit  echo vote bfg <0-1> : enable/disable BFG echo vote powerups <0-1> : enable/disable powerups echo vote tp <1-2-3-4> : change teamplay mode  echo ...1 : teammate and self protection  echo ...2 : no protection (default)  echo ...3 : teammate health protection  echo ...4 : teammate health+armor protection  echo vote dmflags <value> : change dmflags  echo teamname <team> <name> : change team name  echo teamskin <team> <skin> : change team skin  echo .  toggleconsole

In the same directory, add these line at the end of the autoexec.cfg file (create it if it doesn't exist):

//post-it alias  // (c) Ozh^HighPing - French Frag Factory  //  bind F2 exec memo.cfg

During the game, just hit F2 to bring the console down, with a list of all commands already displayed. Easy to use.

That 's all folks : And that 's enough !

Now, you know the most commonly used commands for the battleground mod.

If you want any further information, in particular regarding administrator-specific options,please refer to the official mod Battleground web page.