This guide is
for all the newbies who want to play in one of the many great Noob Anonymous Noob Cups.
You should
have a working Quake
3 Arena CPMA installation. If not follow
the easyq3.txt guide.
Right before
you start playing on some random servers it is highly recommended to learn the
basic CPM movement. The best way to learn it is to watch the excellent demo tutorials and
try out everything on your local server.
When you
installed CPMA it has already created a decent config for you. However you
might want to tweak your network settings. Click on Setup, then System. Change Packet Rate to 25000 and Maxpackets to 125 if you are on a fibre/cable/ADSL connection.
Further information can be found in the CPM Quickstart
guide.
The easiest
way to connect to a server is to use a seperate server browser like HLSW or QTracker
instead of the built-in one. Another direct way is to launch CPMA and open the
console (^ or Shift + ^) and type \connect IPaddress:Port (Hint: You can paste
with CTRL + V). Some servers need
you to know a password to connect. Use the console and type \password Serverpassword (works before
connecting and while connecting).
Maps in the
Noob Cups are decided by a coin-toss. The higher seeded player chooses heads or
tails and does a \callvote random 2, the second player
presses F1 to vote yes. The winner of the coin-toss selects the map
from the maplist (\callvote map
Mapname). The maplist can be found in the rules on the cup page (probably
any combination of cpm1a, cpm3a, cpm15, cpm22, cpm24).
In the warmup check if all the map and gameplay settings are correct. Turn on the Show
Arena Settings option in Setup, Game Options. For example if you notice that gameplay is set to VQ3 do a \callvote mode cpm.
When everything is alright you are \ready.
Before signup
begins, make sure you have a list of servers you can play on. Check if you can
play CPM on them and check if the ping is ok for you (everything below 100
should be fine). You can find some servers in the server section of the cup
page or on QuakeServers.net.
The announcement has already let you know how the
signup process works. First of all you need an account on Noobs Anonymous. Signups open mostly
45 minutes before the cup. So if the cup starts at 19:00 CET/CEST you should be
in the #cpma.na IRC channel at around 18:00. At 18:15 the Admin will let everyone know that
signups are open. Now go to the website and bring up the cup page, make sure
you are logged in. Click on Signups and you get a list
with already signup players and a signup button. Click it and you are done.
When enough
players signed up or it is 19:00, the admin will create the tournament
brackets. You can have a look at them by clicking Winner brackets on the cup page so you get a rough
idea of whom you will play against. Because the tournaments are mostly
double-elimination you are not out if you lose one match, but you are in the Loser bracket.
A very useful
page is the Next match page. Not only that
you know who your opponent is, but you can also report the results after the
match. It is recommended to attach a screenshot of the results for easier
validation by the admin. CPMA is able to automatically create demos and results
screenshots for you. In CPMA open the console and type \cg_autoAction 23. Screenshots are stored in %Quake-3-directory%\cpma\screenshots. If there is no
opponent for your next match it means that you have to wait until other matches
have finished. You should check the page every couple of minutes.
Now that you
know who your opponent is, contact him/her on IRC. According to the rules
he/she should be in the same channel (#cpma.na) and will probably have voice
(+v) given by the the cup admin. You two now have to find a server that both of
you can play on. Remember to check all settings as described in the "Map
selection and warmup"-section. If you can't find your opponent contact the
cup admin.
And now:
Good Luck and Have Fun