While public games might be fun sometimes, they are somewhat messy most of the time. If you are more experienced or just want to play some serious games, it is recommended to use the pickup-system in the AfterShock IRC-channel(#aftershock in QuakeNet). If you don't know what IRC is or how to join our channel, please look at the How to connect to IRC page.
The gameID's[]
To organize pickup games, the AfterShock channel is using a pickupbot. When you join the IRC channel, you should be able to see the topic, usually on top of the chatwindow.
Example topic:
Next Games: [CTF3V3 4/6] [1V1 1/2] [CA2V2 2/4] [1V1PRIVATE 0/2] [CA1V1 1/2]
Here you can see the different gameID's(names might change): CTF3V3, 1V1, CA2V2, ... , where CTF means Capture the Flag, 1V1 means Duel or Tournament and CA Clan Arena. For a detailed description of the gametypes, please look at the Gametypes page. In the topic you can see how many players added themself to the pickupgame, for example [CTF3V3 4/6] means 4 of 6 ppl are ready to play CTF3V3 at the moment.
The Pickupbot commands[]
- !add : To add yourself to a game, type "!add [gameID]", if you want to add yourself to all available games, just type "!add" without any gameID
- !remove : To remove yourself from a game, please type "!remove [gameID]", to remove yourself from all games just type "!remove".
- !who : If you want to know who wants to play a game, type "!who [gameID]".
- !ip : Type "!ip [gameID]" if you want to know the server ip or hostname to join the game.
- !lastgame : To see who played the last pickupgame, type "!lastgame".
- !promote : If you want to promote a pickupgame because you are just missing a few players, you can do so by typing "!promote [gameID]". This will send a channel Message showing how many players are missing.
- !status : To see what map is played at the moment and how many players are on the server you can use the "!status [gameID]" command.
- !help : To see a command overview type "!help".
The game is ready to start[]
When enough players want to play a game(for example we found 6 players for ctf3v3), the pickupbot will send a notification to all players and a small channelmessage. The channelmessage contains the ip or hostname of the server and the players who want to play.
Example:
Game Ready @ 46.38.237.198:27962 - Players: aclown, Tiny
The notification contains again what game is ready(for the case you are not paying attention to the channel-messages) and a password if the server is password-protected.
Example:
Game [1V1PRIVATE] Ready to start in #aftershock !!! - Password: lknbmv
For some servers the pickupbot generates a password, so its different at every pickupstart.