Looking for a specific console command...HELP!

Ok, so I figured out how to get rid of all the annoying stuff in the arena game mode. That being, not being able to pick which team you join, having to sit out, and teams not being able to be uneven. For those of you wondering how, all you need to do is enter mp_tournament 1 at the END of the server.cfg (NOTE: don't do that unless you're running a 2/7 arena server). Unfortunately, doing that also comes with a slightly annoying bug. When I join the server, I keep racking up wins when the round starts, because no one is on the other team, and the server reads that as a round win for me. While that isn't terribly bad, it skews the round win count for the entirety of the time the game is being played, and it's an inconveniance that I think I might be able to do without. So what I was wondering was if there was a command I could enter in the config that would keep the round from starting until there was at least one player on both teams...

To add to that, this config has another problem...when the 30 minutes per map are over, the mp_tournament interface shows up, and doesn't allow the map to change...any command to force the map change to override mp_tournament 1?

Maybe have mp_tournament 1 in config_arena.cfg, and mp_tournament 0 in server.cfg? That way tournament's enabled on arena maps and disabled on other maps. Also, in order to prevent your server from becoming a 24/7 arena server, your config should look something like this:

maxplayers "25"
hostname "brbuninstalling.com #2 - No Crits - Arena Server"
mp_timelimit "20"
mapchangecfgfile "server.cfg"
tf_arena_preround_time "10"
mapcyclefile "mapcycle.txt"
tf_arena_max_streak "2"  // set it to 2 because 5 wins in a row usually has people rage-quitting in droves, cycling the teams more frequently cuts down on steamrolls somewhat


The two settings that keep futzing with servers are the mapchangeconfigfile and mapcyclefile. Normally, these are set to "config_arena.cfg" and "arenamapcycle.tct" respectively. Change them, and your server should be free from the 24/7 Arena Server problem. It's too bad Valve hasn't done much to document this, or even inform server admins of this. Hopefully it will all get sorted out by word of mouth.

The issue is that tournament mode is a little messed up on arena...I allready tried putting it in the config_arena.cfg folder and that didn't work the way I wanted it to. I emailed Robin Walker asking him about my problem so maybe I'll get a reply from him...some day.

I guess I'll try to help clarify my issue...

OK...So my intentions were to create an arena server without a "bench" team, and that allowed players to choose whether they wanted to join red or blue, rather than being auto-assigned. I also wanted to remove the team scrambling function, and allow for teams to be unbalanced. After tinkering around with the servers config for a few hours, the only way I was able to make this happen was to enter mp_tournament 1 at the very end of the config. For those of you who don't know what mp_tournament 1 does, it's the command that brings up the "hit F4 to change team state" box in scrims. It also also allows players to join either team, no matter how many people are on it. By placing it at the very end of my config, it was the last command to be executed, forcing the game to begin before that command did. This allows for the game to start without anyone having to press F4 to change their team state to ready. Unfortunately, I've found that this command comes with two errors. For one, it allows players to join the game while the server is empty, and until another player joins the other team, the server reads that the player is winning rounds over and over again. While this is something I can deal with, the other issue I definately can't. When the map time expires, the mp_tournament menu shows up, and doesn't allow the map to change. If I don't change the map manually, the server eventually crashes. The only way I can think of preventing these two problems, is by a method that I have no idea how to execute. First, I would need a way to have mp_tournament 0 change to 1 as soon as there was at least one player on red and blue. Second, I would have to have mp_tournament 1 change back to 0 once the timer reaches 00:01. I'm not sure if this solution is possible, but if it isn't...maybe there's another way to achieve what I'm going for without using mp_tournament.

Turning tournament mode on and off is a backwards way to get what you want. By definition, tournament mode stops the map cycle and will reset at the end of the timelimit on the same map. There is no way around it.

What you want to do is turn auto balance off (which tournament mode does for you)

mp_autoteambalance 0 //can't remember the exact name of the cvar and don't have access to my config files.

If you set this cvar to an extremely high number like 30, then teams will not be scrambled before a map change.

tf_arena_max_streak 30  (max wins before team scramble)

There are a couple ways around having a bench. The first is this plugin for sourcemod http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=76466 which allows you to set your max team limits and if you set it to your maxplayer/2, there will never be a bench.

This should solve your bench issue as well.

maxplayers 32 //to increase the team size to 11
sv_visiblemaxplayers 22 //

Hope that helps.

its quick and dirty, but... you could add