Q2 RR Karmic — a MuffMode server build for Quake II Rerelease

A customized server-side mod for the Quake II Rerelease (Steam), built on MuffMode. It's a single drop-in game_x64.dll with player map voting (votemap), population-aware map rotation, a persistent leaderboard, Steam-ID bans, techs in FFA, several upstream bug fixes, and more.

Just want to play? You don't need to install anything — join a Karmic FFA server from the in-game browser. This download is for hosting the build yourself.

Windows x64 · Quake II Rerelease · listen server

Grab the latest from Releases:

• KarmicMuffMode-Installer-vX.Y.exe — one-click: backs up your vanilla DLL, installs this build.
• KarmicMuffMode-vX.Y.zip — the same files as scripts you can inspect first.

See INSTALL.md for step-by-step instructions and how to restore vanilla.

Prefer to compile it yourself? See BUILD-HOWTO.md — clone vanilla MuffMode v0.60.0, apply karmic-features-vX.Y.patch (in this repo / attached to each release), and build. That patch is also the corresponding GPL source for the binary.

• ⭐ Map voting (votemap) — players choose the next map by vote from a clean, map-only call-vote menu: the menu shows only what's actually votable on this server (no clutter of disabled categories). Vote via the in-game menu or callvote map <name>. The votable pool is server-curated (g_map_pool).
• Population-aware map rotation — the next map is chosen from a size bucket based on how many humans are playing (bots don't count): small maps at 1–2 players, medium unlocking at 3+, large at 5+. Keeps small games off cathedral-sized maps.
• Drop bots when humans arrive — bots fill empty servers, but once N humans are actively playing (default 2) all bots are removed for a pure-human match; they refill if players leave.
• Anti-camp powerup respawn — powerup pads respawn on a randomized timer so they can't be timed/camped. The delay is re-rolled every cycle (tunable via g_powerup_respawn_min / _jitter).
• Cross-session Elo leaderboard — persistent per-player rankings (human-only, pairwise Elo) that survive restarts. View with the leaderboard console command.
• Bans by Steam ID — a persistent ban list keyed to the engine's stable account id, with in-game admin ban / unban / banlist and an admin-menu picker. Bots are never banned.
• Default / boot map — a configurable fallback map used when the rotation runs dry, which also becomes the map the server boots into; the admin's pick survives restarts.
• Techs enabled in FFA — the four CTF runes (Disruptor Shield, Power Amplifier, Time Accel, AutoDoc) spawn in free-for-all (off by default in stock MuffMode's FFA).
• Instant-start friendly — no warmup/countdown by default; players auto-join straight into the match.

• Powerup activation sound now plays on the default Quake II Rerelease ruleset (was silent — e.g. Quad Damage). Upstream PR #232, merged.
• Match-stats menu now shows real K/D, accuracy and damage instead of all zeros. Upstream PR #233, merged.
• Auto-join (g_dm_auto_join / g_dm_force_join) now works for human players. Upstream PR #234.
• Techs no longer double-spawn on instant-start servers (you'd see two of each a few feet apart).
• Call-vote menu hides vote categories your server has disabled, instead of listing all of them.

• Hard map-rotation workaround — sidesteps an intermittent engine crash on the soft "reconnecting" level change at match end by doing a full map reload instead.

The server is driven by net.cfg (included). It sets the hostname, map rotation and votable pool, bot fill, voting rules, techs/powerups, and the population thresholds. Edit it to taste — keep it under ~8 KB (the engine drops the tail past that). Start a listen server with the Steam Launch Option +exec net.cfg (auto every launch), or by typing exec net.cfg in the in-game console (one-off, or to reload after editing).

This is a fork of MuffMode by DarkMatter Productions, itself built on id Software's Quake II game source (Quake II Rerelease by Nightdive Studios). All credit for the underlying mod framework goes to the MuffMode authors. Bug fixes here are contributed back upstream where they're general-purpose.

Licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0 — see LICENSE. This build is derived from MuffMode (GPL-2.0) and id Software's GPL Quake II source.

Source availability (GPL §3): the complete corresponding source for this binary is available on request — open an issue here or email [email protected], and see the upstream project for the base framework. Quake II and its assets are property of id Software / ZeniMax; this project ships no game assets, only the game logic DLL.