Rob is the official frontend for the mod Rob The Strogg (RTS). With this frontend you can easily run a server for the mod or play it in SP. Theres a tonne of features to make your RTS life as easy as possible and this manual is here to boost you along your way.
Installation
First unzip the contents of the zip into a temporary directory, goto that directory and double-click on the program file setup.exe This will bring up the installation program, simply follow the onscreen instructions to guide your through the process with ease. A suggested directory for rob would be below your quake2\rts directory in a subdir called rob. Once you've installed Rob, all you need to do is double click on the icon on your desktop and Rob will boot up, select your quake2.exe when prompted and your ready to use rob.
Important! If you get the runtime error '13' and rob doesnt work, then check in your rob dir in 'rts.ini' in the section headed '[Quake2exe]' and change quake2exe to the directory containing your quake2 executable, eg 'c:\quake2\quake2.exe', if this doesnt work then change the options, firstuse to '0'. If that doesnt work, then I'm not too sure.
Using Rob
Rob couldnt be simpler to use. All that is necessary for you to do is select the options you wish to run and once your ready just click on the run button to startup your SP game or server. Take a look at the below section for a run down on all the windows and options within Rob.
Brief runthrough
Follow the simple commands below to setup a server to your desired requirements. Please note that Rob has a status bar that briefly displays the use for each command, below just gives a little more indepth information but is not totally necessary. NB!, please note that these images are not totally uptodate, they where taken from version 0.35b so they wont have all the features included
The General Tab
Quake2 executable: This option is necessary for the program to work properly, please make sure you have selected the correct executable. Also, make sure that the RTS mod is in the quake2/rts subdir else the program will crash on you.
Gametype: This option changes what kind of game you are going to run, the options are Single Player/Deathmatch/Teamplay with monsters andTeamplay without monsters.
Monster Respawn: This determines wether monsters will respawn after being killed.
Transparent Gems: Set this option if you want the gems to be transparent, it looks much better than solid gems but is not advisable on slower systems.
Use VWEP: I'm sure all of you are familiar with the VWEP addition to Quake2, use this option to switch it on and off.
Forcejoin: This option only applies to team games, it makes sure that when a player connects to the server that they are automatically assigned to the team with the lowest number of members.
Gem Goal: Use this option to set the gemlimit (like fraglimit) that you need to reach in an SP map for it to go onto the next level.
Timelimit: Sets the time duration per game.
Maximum Gems: Sets a limit to the amount of maps to appear in the map.
Startmap: Use this option to choose which map the mod will start on, the dropdown list shows all maps contained in your rts/maps directory. You must select this option otherwise RTS will not run.
Edit Maplist: See below
Wizard.. This is a simple wizard that will run you through the basics of setting up a server, currently it does not sport all the necessary features and you will still have to set some for yourself, use at your own risk, it hasnt been fully tested yet.
The Server Tab
Deathmatch Spawnflags: These options are used for a deathmatch/teamplay server. Each option is pretty much self explanatory.
Dedicated Server: This options runs a proper server version of Quake2, it doesnt allow you to join the game yourself.
Maxclients: Set this option to the maximum amount of clients your server can handle.
Fraglimit: The game ends once this amount of frags is reached.
Show Commanline: Click this to open a window that shows the commandline quake2 will run with.
Connect To...
Add: Click this button to bring up a little window in which you need to enter your Server Name and Server IP, if you dont have a port use the default one selected.
Remove: Simply removes the server which you have selected in the list (use the option buttons the the left to select your server.
Connect: This will connect you to the server you have selected, if you have inserted the correct IP then you should connect to the server, but please note if you do not connect it is not my fault, there are many things affecting connecting to a Quake2 server, if you cant connect go elsewhere, sorry.
Click for picture of mapeditor
The Rob maplist editor is like a simplified notepad (with a few rts specific options of course), for starters theres no need to check the rts.ini file, if you have selected the correct directory in the 'general' tab then rts.ini should load fine. The purpose of this file is to allow you to create a map cycle with each map having its own individual settings, these range from, gemgoal for SP games, to timelimit. Simply select the values you wish to enter from the right hand menu, select a map and then move the cursor to the bottom of the .ini file, once there simply click 'Insert Map details' and all the settings for that map are added to rts.ini If you wish to edit the file by hand then it is easy to do, just like a normal text editor.
Contact Information
If you have any problems with Rob then please send then to me at trebz@planetquake.com I will be very grateful for any feedback offered. Please do not send any flames/abuse or inapproriate material, no matter what the reason I will not respond to any mail of this kind. I'm a busy man and only have so much time in a day, I'm not going to waste it on pathetic emails, be concise with your suggestions/bug reports and I will most likely help you out with them.
Todo List
See todolist.txt
Disclaimer
If you dont read anything else in your life then Please read this, if 'rob' messes up your system in any way, I am in no way to blame for this.
'Rob' is the sole property of Daniel "Trebz" Nolan, all elements of this program where designed and created by him. If 'Rob' decides to raid your computer and delete all your files then I am in no way responsible, the program was made for my use and has been released to give the 'opportunity' to easily use Rob The Strogg so if you use it and it messes you about, I apologise, but it is Not my fault, so no abuse please.
Thanks
Special thanks goes out to Tony Browneller (bspbuild) and Semprini (botjohnny) for helping me out with my visualbasic skills, without them I couldnt have made rob.
Thanks goes to the Twisted matrix team for creating the mod and helping me test rob.
The 'Rob' Logo is copyright to Sascha "mne[MON]ik" Otterbein.