Thank you for your interest in hosting a dedicated server for Kreedz Climbing! This guide will attempt to answer any questions you may have on the process and provide a guide during the setup.
Note: If you just want to create a server for your friends to play on, you can do so by hosting via Create Server on the main menu. You'll need to open port 27015 for it to be joinable - click here for more information!

Currently, only a Windows dedicated server is available, we hope to provide a Linux version at some point in the future, in the mean time if you still wish to host, the
Wine[www.winehq.org] project or a virtual machine may be suitable for your needs. We apologise for the inconvenience!

What are the recommended system requirements for a dedicated server?

A 2.4GHz processor and 1GB of RAM are the recommended hardware specifications, we also recommend a 1.5MBps+ internet connection. You may be able to do it with less than this (some have managed to host a Source Dedicated Server with an Intel Atom CPU!), we do not recommend a slow network connection however, as this may affect the game experience for players.

Do I need to create a Steam account to download the dedicated server with?

You do not need to create an account if you are using SteamCMD, simply login as "anonymous".

Can I download the server with the Steam client? Do I need to use SteamCMD?

You can download the server with the Steam client! You can find it in the Tools tab, known as Kreedz Climbing Dedicated Server. The server offers two launch modes, the normal mode will launch attached to Steam (you will show as playing Kreedz Climbing Dedicated Server) - you will not be able to play the game at the same time in this mode. Launch the server with the No Steam option to be able to play the game at the same time. We recommend launching in No Steam mode - this will not impact the server.

In order for auto-restart and auto-update to work, you must use SteamCMD, so please consider that if you are wishing to host a server that will be available at all times.

If I download via Steam, do I need to launch through Steam?

You do not need to launch through steam. You can find srcds.exe in the downloaded folder (usually in Common), and continue the guide from there.

What are plugins?

Plugins are 3rd party enhancements to the game that run on servers. These usually give the server owners additional abilities, like kicking users or changing game settings without having to use RCON, and may add features players come to expect, like the ability to vote for a map change. We recommend you use plugins on your dedicated server to allow for a better experience for players, you are in no way required to do so though.

SteamCMD is a text based version of Steam with one of it's primary functions being the downloading of dedicated servers. With Kreedz Climbing being on steam, there is significantly less setup required to get the server downloaded!

• Download SteamCMD from this link and save it somewhere in it's own folder, such as a folder named "srcds".
  
• Run SteamCMD.exe, and it will download the necessary files for itself to function.
  
• Login by typing login anonymous into the console. If done correctly, it will state you are logging in anonymously to Steam Public.
  
• Set the directory you will download the game files into with the force_install_dir command. This can be an absolute directory, C:\kreedzclimbing_server, or a relative one, ./kreedzclimbing_server/ for example. A relative directory is one from the same folder that SteamCMD is in (that's what the dot means), so ./kreedzclimbing_server/ would create a folder called kreedzclimbing_server inside SteamCMD's to put the game files in.
  
  Recommended example: force_install_dir ./kreedzclimbing_server/
  
  
• Download the server files. You can do this by typing app_update 638100 validate into SteamCMD. The server files will now start downloading into the folder you specified with force_install_dir. Note that if you didn't use force_install_dir, the game files will download into the SteamCMD folder and mix with SteamCMD!

It may take some time to download the server, once done, please proceed to the next section.

Quickstart:

• login anonymous
  
• force_install_dir ./kreedzclimbing_server/
  
• app_update 638100 validate

There are a few files you can change to configure your server, these are:

cfg/server.cfg

This file is executed when the server starts and every time it changes map. It's better to put custom commands in this file for easy tweaking rather than on the command line. You might need to create this file if it doesn't exist.

cfg/motd.txt

This is the Message of the Day that appears when a player joins your server. It is an HTML file, and thus can be configured to display web pages or HTML driven text. You need to create this file if it doesn't exist.

cfg/motd_text.txt

This is similar to the normal HTML file, but is plaintext and shown to clients who have HTML MOTDs turned off. You should provide one of these as clients can disable HTML if they would feel more comfortable.

mapcycle.txt

Found in the base kz folder, this file controls what maps your server will automatically change to (note that you can still manually change to maps not specified in this file). One map file per line.

Once the server has been downloaded successfully, the next step is to start it!

• Enter the folder you downloaded the server into, and look for srcds.exe - this is the server .exe, and depending on how the files were downloaded, you may have to go into a few folders to find it.
  
• Create a new .bat file in the folder with srcds.exe, and call it "run_server.bat". You don't need to create the batch file inside the srcds.exe folder, but for the purposes of this guide we'll do that.
  
• Open the batch file with a text editor, and enter the following:
  
  
  srcds.exe -game kz -console -autorestart +maxplayers 32 +map kz_cliffhanger +exec server.cfg
  
  This does a few things:
  
  -game kz Sets the game to load as Kreedz Climbing.
  
  -console Starts the server in Console (no gui) mode. You can still type things into the console window to execute commands. This is the most commonly used method to run the server.
  
  If you want to use the GUI (visual) version of the server, remove all options except -game kz (so srcds.exe -game kz), and you will be able to set most of these options visually! Note that the interface does not fully support Kreedz Climbing and you'll have to use the Console tab to set some options yourself).
  
  -autorestart Instructs srcds.exe to shut itself down if there is an update waiting. This is a key component of automatic update scripts (more on that later) which lets SteamCMD update the server.
  
  On other Source Engine games, such as TF2, -autorestart only works on Linux servers. In Kreedz Climbing however, -autorestart also works. sv_outofdate will be set to 1 when a server is out of date (2 if autorestart is on) for plugins to detect.
  
  +maxplayers 32 Sets the maxplayers of the server.
  
  Adding + before an option in the command line runs a console command. For example, +kz_sv_allow_art 0 would disable the Art Tool from the server command line. It's recommended you put custom configuration like this in server.cfg, however.
  
  +map kz_cliffhanger Instructs the server to load the specified map. If you don't do this, your server will idle without any map loaded and be unusable!
  
  +exec server.cfg Runs the script file server.cfg in the kz/cfg folder. It's recommended you put your custom KZ settings in this file, rather than on the command line.
  
  
• Run the .bat file. If you've done everything right, the server should start and be visible on the internet games list for others to join!

Kreedz Climbing is liable to be updated at any time, and in order to offer the best experience for players it's best if servers regularly update. So you (the server owner) don't need to keep restarting the server yourself, Kreedz Climbing offers some tools to help with this problem.

In the server folder where srcds.exe is, there are two files:

• automated_server.bat - The looping batch file which keeps the server online and up to date.
  
• update_kreedzclimbing_server.txt - The commands send to SteamCMD to update the server if it's out of date.

To get started, open automated_server.bat with a text editor and read the comments. In summary, it assumes a few things about how you installed the server. If your paths don't match the batch file paths, you'll need to change them to point to your steamcmd and srcds.exe path.

Warning: A looping batch file can do bad things for computers if not configured properly, specifically accidentally creating multiple clones of the server constantly. Make sure you are very careful when configuring the settings, and don't remove the /W from the start commands!

The batch file assumes two things:

• Steamcmd.exe is located one folder up from the current folder.
  
• srcds.exe is in the same folder as the batch file.
  
• The current folder is named "kreedzclimbing_server".

If these are true, you shouldn't have to change anything. If the -autorestart command line option is applied to your srcds command line in the batch file, your server will automatically shut down if there is a waiting update on map change, and then SteamCMD will automatically run to update the server. The batch file also restarts your server if it goes down for any reason, too!

If you use this method of running the server (we strongly recommend you do or use something similar), you run the automated_server.bat instead of the .bat created earlier. Now your server auto-restarts!

Server plugins are 3rd-party addons that give new features to the game server which aren't in the original game. Some of these features are the ability to vote for a map, nominate maps, and control the server's admin functions without using RCON.

Kreedz Climbing is a Source engine game, and thus uses the SourceMod and MetaMod plugin system that other Source games use.

You can find more information on this at the SourceMod install instructions on their website.[wiki.alliedmods.net]

What's the AppID for Kreedz Climbing's dedicated server?

The AppID is 638100.

Where can I find more plugins to use with the game?

AlliedModders[forums.alliedmods.net] is a hub for plugins on all Source games. Please note that some of these may be game-specific and you'll have to look around for ones that are compatible with Kreedz Climbing.

You can also find some premade Kreedz Climbing specific plugins on Aoki's GitHub[github.com], These plugins are very old and may not function, the source code is available though if you wish to modify them yourself.

How do I disable the Art Tool on my server?

Use the console command sv_allow_art 0.

How do I enable Auto-Bhop on my server?

Use the console command sv_bhop_auto 1.

How do I run the Tag Arena game mode?

Change the map to one of the kztag_ ones.

How do I enable Tag Arena Elimination / Configure tag arena?

Change the console setting kz_sv_tagarena_setting_elimination to 1. You can configure Tag Arena by changing the kz_sv_tagarena_ console variables.

Hopefully this guide has helped you set up a dedicated server for Kreedz Climbing. If you've encountered any issues, please post on the Community Hub forums and we'll be happy to assist you.

There are many console variables to configure for servers - to see them, launch Kreedz Climbing (the game), and in your console type "find sv_" and "find kz_sv_" - this will show the available settings.