FAQ - Read this thread first !

[Exploding_Silver]

Welcome to TacticalGamer ETQW !

1. What is TG all about ?
2. What is Enemy Territory Quake Wars like ?
3. Where do I find the Tactical Gamer server ?
4. What are the server rules ?
5. Is there a good newbie guide to ETQW ?
6. What's a 'Learn TG' fireteam ?
7. Why was I kicked or banned ?
8. What should I do if I have been banned ?
9. I am a Supporting Member, how do I claim my reserved slot ? updated
10. How does the reserved slot system work ? updated
11. How do I say hello to TG ?
12. Does TG use the ETQW in-game 'clan' system ?
13. Can I wear the TG tags ?
14. How do I join a TG In-House Squad ?
15. What's the latest patch & how do I get it ?
16. How can I Alt-tab from ETQW ?
17. How do I set up teamspeak ?
18. How do we use VOIP at TG ?
19. How does server seeding work ?
20. How do I disable the splash movie ?
21. What are peer to peer ribbon nominations ? new
22. What graphics are available for forum signatures ?
23. What special events or scrims do TG do ?
24. How do I report a problematic player ?
25. Who are the server admins ?

1: What is TG all about ?

• Tactical Gamer is the PREMIERE Online Community for mature players
• TG is a large community of hundreds & hundreds of players across all kinds of games (TG servers)
• Tactical Gamer Primer
• TG news items
• TG FAQ

2: What is Enemy Territory Quake Wars like ?

• "The team that works together best, wins. It is not about being the most skilled shooter or the most cunning covert ops. Winning a game depends upon one thing teamwork. The game can be a nail biting experience that requires massive amounts of situational awareness, teamwork, fire discipline and skill" quote from TG NEWS ITEM: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars - Overview and Review
• The developers made a good video showing how the game is designed around teamwork, to see it click here
• For Battlefield players interested in ETQW

3: Where do I find the Tactical Gamer server ?

• IP: 64.34.180.110 Port: 27733
• The TG server is ranked
• The TG server plays campaign mode
• The TG server has VOIP
• The TG server is a hosted through WOLFServers and hosted in the Virginia Datacenter

4: What are the server rules ?

• ANNOUCEMENT: Tactical Gamer ETQW Server Rules

5: Is there a good newbie guide to ETQW ?

• If you are a new player and you don't know what’s going on in this fast paced & tactically intricate game, then you are not alone! Once you learn how things work, you can explore the many ways to contribute to your team winning the map objectives
• Luckily there is an excellent guide over at ETQW 4Newbies
  
• We also highly recommend a series of training videos, they are great for learning the fundamentals, to see them click here
• Battlefield players trying ETQW should read this thread
• To get some help understanding how the game works, post your questions here
• To get some help about any VOIP problems, see this thread

6: What's a 'Learn TG' fireteam ?

• This is where an experienced TG player shows new players how the game works, TG style !
• The normal procedure is for the experienced TG player to say over teamwide VOIP, in the 30 secs warmup before game start, that they are creating a 'Learn TG' fireteam. Then new players can join the fireteam and ask questions using the fireteam VOIP. As the game progresses the TG player will explain how the maps objectives unfold and what are the key things to look out for !
• If you are a new player listen for these fireteams forming at the start of a map, or even ask for one to be formed ! Once you have the hang of it, try starting one yourself!

7: Why was I kicked or banned ?

• There are a few several reasons why you may have been kicked or banned;
  1. Kicked to make room for a supporting (paying) member. Supporting members are entitled to reserved slots on all TG servers and we kick the longest playing non-supporting member to make room for them. This kick is automatically carried out when a supporting member joins the server
  2. Kicked when joining our server on the last two slots. If you are a non-supporting member and join on the last two server slots then you will be kicked automatically on map load. This is because the server is actually full at 22/24 and the last two slots are reserved for supporting (paying) members.
  3. Banned for teamkilling. If 4 people filed a complaint against you for teamkilling in a round then you are automatically banned for the remainder of the round. After the map is over you can rejoin. If you believe you have been punished for accidental teamkills then jump on teamspeak and find an admin to lift the ban
  4. Kick or ban for breaking the server rules. This is where a TG server admin manually kicks / bans a player for breaking the server rules. Admins follow a warn / kick / ban policy.

8: How do I request a ban is lifted ?

• IMPORTANT: Do not start a thread in the public forums about being banned
• Make sure you have been banned by trying to rejoin the server, there are two situations where players can assume they are banned when they are not;
  1. The server is actually full at 22/24, if you join on the last two slots you will be automatically kicked, these slots are for supporting (paying) members. We understand that being kicked on these last two slots can unfortunatly give the impression a player is banned
  2. If 4 complaints are filed against you for teamkilling then you are automatically banned for the rest of the map. After the map is over you can rejoin. If you believe you have been punished for accidental teamkills then jump on teamspeak and find an admin to lift the ban
• If you have investigated the two above possibilities and now you are clear you have been banned then post a thread here <click here> This is a private forum where only you and the admin can see your thread
• Your private thread should state as much factual information as you can, for example;
  1. Which admin you believed banned you
  2. What date & time you were banned
  3. What map it was on and what side you were playing on
  4. Why you believe you were banned
• Getting emotional and demanding this or that, is not the way to get a ban on you lifted
• TG policy is that you will first receive an acknowledgement saying that your request to have a ban lifted is being discussed by the admin team. After the admins discuss a request, you will receive an of the outcome in the private thread you started

9: I am a Supporting Member, how do I claim my reserved slot ?

• You will need to edit your player profile, to do that click here
• Then you need to enter your ETQW account name in the field 'ETQW Player Name'. This will be the same as your player name, but without your tags or color codes

• Only supporting (paying) members will be able to see the field 'ETQW Player Name' and reserve their slot. To become a supporting member click here
• When you click 'save changes' it will take up to a 30 minute for the forums information to feed through to the reserved slot program and then your reserved slot is activated
• If the reserved slot system is not working, for any reason, then the back up procedure is to contact an admin on teamspeak (they have <ETQW admin> after there TS name) and ask for them to manually open a slot for you

10: How does the automatic reserved slot system work ?

• TG has a reserved slot system so that supporting (paying) members can always get a slot on the TG server
• Up to 22 players anyone can join the server
• At 22/24 players, the TG server is actually full
• The last two slots are kept open for supporting members to join on. If a supporting member joined on 24/24, they would get a server full message
• Any non-supporting member that attempts to join after 22 slots will be automatically kicked, in order to keep the last 2 slots open for supporting members

Server message during map loading


Punkbuster kick message when joining server on one of the last two slots

• When a supporting member joins on one of the last two slots on the server the script kicks the non-supporting (non-paying) member who has been on the server the longest. 1 joins and 1 leaves, the server is kept at 22/24 players ready for the next supporting member to join
• The script determines the supporting member status based on the 'ETQW Player Name' field in player's forum profiles
• Only supporting members see the 'ETQW Player Name' field in their forum profile
• If you are a supporting member and are not receiving your reserved slot please double check that the player name in your profile matches the player name in game (excluding clan tags and color codes)
• We don't use the default reserved slot system because there are hundreds of TG supporting members, too many for the default system, so we had to create our own script. A fraction of the hundreds of the TG supporting members play ETQW but they all have the right to a reserved slot on ETQW and all the other games that TG supports
• Click here to become a supporting member

11: How do I say hello to TG ?

• Welcome to TG !
• Please post a 'Hi' in this thread

12: Does TG use the ETQW in-game 'clan' system ?

• Yes, we use the in-game 'clan' system, click here
• Please note that TG is not a clan but a community, you will understand that better as you learn more about TG

13: Can I wear the TG tags ?

• A player can self-appoint themselves as a TG person and wear the TG tags, as long as they know what it stands for. A player does not have to be a supporting (paying) member to wear the TG tags. For full information see this thread

14: How do I join a TG In-House Squad ?

• You may have seen TG players with tags like |TG-33rd| or |TG-7th|, these are In-House Squad (IHS) members
• Only supporting (paying) members can apply to be in an In-House Squad. For full details see this thread

15: What's the latest patch & how do I get it ?

• This is easy, just boot up ETQW and it immediately checks your version is up to date. If you need a patch then the game prompts you to download and you can see the %bar as it downloads there & then while still in the game menu

16: How can I Alt-tab from ETQW ?

• Access the console by pressing CTRL + ALT + ~ (top left of keyboard)
• Type in "seta com_useFastVidRestart 1" and press enter
• Make ETQW go into windowed mode by pressing ALT + ENTER
• Access other applications with ALT + TAB
• To make ETQW go back to full screen press ALT + ENTER
• This is the only method of window minimizing that has been shown to not crash your game
• With ETQW in windows mode you may experience a drop in FPS
• You can set this permanently in your config file

17: How do I set up teamspeak ?

• Teamspeak setup for ETQW

18: How do we use VOIP at TG ?

• You must be able to hear team and Fireteam VOIP.
• The admin team are currently writing a VOIP Teamwork SOP
• To get some help about any VOIP problems, see this thread

19: How does server seeding work ?

• A game starts when there are 6 players on the server who have pressed F3 to 'ready up' (you must press F3 otherwise you inadvertently don't help with the server seeding).
• Once a game starts the server generally fills to capacity in about half an hour.
• It's getting the game started that is the challenge.
• What is very helpful if you can't play at that time, is to just join the server and a team. Then ready up. Its one more towards the magic 6 to start the game. There is no idle kick at low player numbers so you can even join the server when its empty and help the server appear on people's browsers when they search for non-empty servers (a common search criteria).
• If you are seeding and playing then try contacting your buddies to join, ie by the ETQW buddy messages or xfire messages or teamspeak

20: How do I disable the splash movie ?

• In windows explorer goto this location "C:\Program Files\id Software\Enemy Territory - QUAKE Wars\base\video"
• Rename "intro_1024x512.bik" to "intro_1024x512.bik1" ie just put a "1" at the end
• In load up the splash movie is just skipped

21: What are peer to peer ribbon nominations ?

• What are ribbons ?
  • Have you noticed in forum posts where some people have in their signatures a small graphic with coloured strips like this This mean that the person has been awarded a ribbon
  • Ribbons are nominated on a peer to peer basis. Anyone can nominate anyone else for a ribbon
  • The ribbon nominations goto a TG forum account 'Ribbons'
  • The admins for a game vote on the ribbon nomination for their game
  • Site wide nominations are voted on by all game admins
  • Successful ribbon nominations are announced in the 'Awards Presentation' forum here
• ETQW ribbons that can be nominated
  • Vehicle ribbons
    • Distinguished Ground Vehicle, covers all ground vehicles, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Armor'
    • Distinguished Bumblebee, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Air Cavalry'
    • Distinguished Icarus, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Air Cavalry'
    • Distinguished Anansi/Tormentor, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Jet Combat'
  • Player class ribbons
    • Distinguished Soldier/Aggressor, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Assault'
    • Distinguished Medic/Technician, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Medic'
    • Distinguished Engineer/Constructor, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Engineer'
    • Distinguished Field Ops/Oppressor, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Support'
    • Distinguished Covert Ops/Infiltrator, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Special Ops'
    • Distinguished Sniper, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Sniper'
  • Fireteam ribbons
    • Distinguished Fireteam Leader, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Squad Leader'
    • Valorous Fireteam, can only be nominated by the fireteam leader for their fireteam members to receive, nominate ribbon 'Valorous Unit'
  • Other Ribbons
    • Distinguished Defense, can be for a person or a group, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Defense'
    • Distinguished Tactician, for someone that designs and implements a great tactical plan, usually in a TG scrim, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Tactician'
    • Distinguished Conduct, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Conduct'
    • Distinguished Volunteer, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Volunteer'
    • Distinguished Drill Instructor, nominate ribbon 'Distinguished Drill Instructor'
• Ribbons are also awarded for partaking in an internal (TG vs TG) and external scrims
• How to submit a ribbon nomination
  • You can nominate anyone for a ribbon where you believe they deserve it !
  • Ribbon nominations are made in private (award ethics) and submitted to 'Ribbons' forum account here
  • The Official TG guide to writing up a nomination is here
  • A complete list of ribbons that TG supports across all games is here
• 'How to wear your ribbon' guide is here

22: What graphics are available for forum signatures ?

• TG forums have rules on graphics for signatures, see this thread, make sure the graphic you choose is within these limitations
• Here are several options for you; TG ETQW specific , TG server details (good banner for other peoples forums) ,
  Gametracker banners , QW-stats , Game monitor server status

23: What special events or scrims do TG do ?

• Sundays are ETQW gamedays, starts 2pm EST, read more here
• Scrims are annouced in the TG ETQW public forums

24: How do I report a problematic player ?

• Admin policy
  • Reporting rule-breaking is a good contribution you can make to server quality
  • TG admin policy is warn >>then>> kick >>then>> ban
  • A serious offense can bypass a warning and go straight to kick or even a ban
  • TG tag wearers are expected to uphold a higher standard, so if they break the rules there is no warning, it goes straight to kick
  • TG admins will issue a warning/kick through a console message and/or verbally over VOIP
  • Experience shows that the most effective admining is by talking to the problematic player immediately after they break the rule
• Dealing with problematic players yourself
  • If there is an admin on, then report it to them and let them deal with it
  • Make sure you are clear on the rules
  • Make sure your VOIP is working, ingame text chat is ok but not as effective as VOIP
  • Before saying anything check your emotions, if you are angry and you act on that, then that comes across in your voice & wording and it just won't work out
  • Do not threaten people with a ban or you yourself will be on the receiving end of an admins discipline
  • Admins use the 'I'm telling you' attitude and can back it up with warn/kick/ban. You can use the 'advising' attitude or the 'appealing' attitude
  • eg 'advising' attitude; "hey there MrBlack it's against the server rules to xyz"
  • eg 'advising' attitude; "hey there MrBlack if you teamkill for a vehicle again I'll report you to an admin"
  • eg 'appealing' attitude; "hey there MrBlack let's work together with this hog, you drive and I'll gun"
  • eg 'appealing' attitude; "hey there MrBlack come and join us storming their right side, there's four of us here ready to go and we need more help"
• Reporting when the rule breaking happens
  • These are the routes for reporting in order of preference;
    1. Teamspeak
       • This is the ideal method, you can report quickly to an admin as it is verbally reported, you can report immediatly after the rule breaking happens
       • You can give the admin the full story before they begin to communicate to the problematic player
       • On teamspeak our admins have <ETQW admin> after their name
    2. In-game VOIP
       • The second best method as the report still gets to the admin quickly
    3. In-game text chat
       • This is not as good as a verbal report as an admin can miss the text if it scrolls of the screen quickly
    4. Other methods
       • Xfire text message to an admin
       • Forum private message to admin if they are on the forums
       • Admin's public profile (click on their name on the forums), they may have other communication options available like MSN
• How to make a report to an admin
  • Reporting DON'Ts
    • DON'T make false reports
    • DON'T tell the admin what action to take
  • Reporting DOs
    • DO call out the admins name to get their attention
    • DO stick to the facts
    • DO give the offenders name and the rule they have broken
    • DO answer any further questions the admin may ask
  • Example reports

  • Originally Posted by example report

    TG.Player "Can I get an admin?"
    TG.Admin "Yes, go ahead"
    TG.Player "Mr.Black is spawncamping"
    TG.Admin "Give me more details"
    TG.Player "Twice in a row I've spawned in our main base and he's immediatly sniped me"
    TG.Admin "Thanks for the report, I'll deal with him now"
    TG.Admin then procedes to warn Mr.Black

  • Originally Posted by example report

    TG.Player "Is there an admin on?"
    TG.Admin "Roger admin here"
    TG.Player "Mr.Black is using bad language"
    TG.Admin "Was it text chat or VOIP"
    TG.Player "VOIP on the strogg side"
    TG.Admin "I'm on GDF, how bad was it?"
    TG.Player "Really offensive he said ****"
    TG.Admin "Thats a ban, just to check its Mr.Black"
    TG.Player "Yes Mr.Black"
    TG.Player "ok thanks"
    TG.Admin then procedes to ban Mr.Black

  • Originally Posted by example report

    TG.Player "Admin I have a report"
    TG.Admin "What's the report?"
    TG.Player "Mr.Black is in my fireteam and he keeps teamkilling for vehicles"
    TG.Admin "Have you spoken to him about it"
    TG.Player "Yeah he said that player can just respawn and anyway he wanted the titan, he's just got a bad attitude"
    TG.Admin "I see, well, I warned him earlier in the game so he's getting kicked"
    TG.Admin then procedes to kick Mr.Black

• Reporting rule breaking at a latter date
  • After a game is over you can still report a player by sending a private message to an admin (admin list is in this post)
  • In a retrospectve report please include all the facts;
    • Date & time
    • Map name
    • Problematic player's name and the side they were on
    • What the problematic player did
    • Screenprints are preferred if you have them

25: Who are the server admins ?

• This is a list of active ETQW admins
• We can be contacted by PM, IM, in game VOIP, and teamspeak
  • Game Officer (Head Admin)
    • sc1ence (Prefered contact method is Xfire, click here to add science to your xfire buddy list)
  • Admins
    • Demarcus
    • Dismay