Getting Started

About KOTS The original KOTS Orbit was developed by Norb and Mother. After years of fun and fragging a new mod eventually evolved that was started by NoOne called KOTS2000. This mod was eventually taken over by BloodyKenny. Kenny eventually left the mod in order to start a similar Half-Life 2 mod called Art of Ascension (AoA). This is where the current iteration of the mod comes in. About KOTS2007 In late July 2007 amn3sia, heh that's me :),  (aka Smokin, Smokey, or just Steve if you know me) got bored and decided to go check up on KOTS2000 and see how everything was going. I hadn't played the mod in at least 2 years and I found that a number of things didn't work anymore such as the ranks page, some of the website links, and a number of players were disappointed with a number of bugs still left in the mod. There were a few threads discussing new ideas and talking about creating a new mod. After talking with a few people no one seemed to have the time to work on it. I took it upon myself to go ahead and start creating the mod from scratch since no source code was available from KOTS2000 and I didn't have any of the code from the orginal KOTS. With the help of the community and support of the KOTS2000 admin DaveIs we were able to get things going pretty quickly. In less than 2 months we had a rough beta version with a lot of the trees implemented, but still lacking a few things and definitely lacking a lot of the polish and features. There was a ton of support from the community since the start of the mod. Nearly all of the KOTS2000 community switched to the beta versions of KOTS2007 and began offering new ideas and helping test everything out. By the end of the year we had about 4 or 5 dedicated servers in 3 different areas around the world. One December 31st, 2007 the first official version was released accompanied by a reset of all characters. The reset was a bit rocky, but it eventually came together. Unfortunately with all this going on there was something major still lacking. The website basically just consited of a forum and a ranks page (which if I had my way would be fine, but that's not very newbie friendly). So that's where I am right now. Anyway, enough of this boring crap, get to the good stuff. Gameplay Concept KOTS is a mix between a role-playing game (RPG) and a first-person shooter (FPS). It uses a level system, has special player abilities that can be trained, and goals that you can try to reach. The most unique feature is the persistent characters. Each time you play under the same name, it will use the same set of stats from the last time you played. As you play through the game and increase your level your character will be saved to a central character server. Every server running this mod is connected to this same server. This allows you to join any of the servers listed on the servers page and connect at any time with all your character information saved.  You generally don't need to know much about how it works, just that it does. Some people refer to it as the GDS, but I just call it the character server. If you left the server last time with 50 rockets, you'll have 50 rockets the next time you play. If you made it to level 2 the first game you played, you will be level 2 the next time you play. From time to time we go through what we call resets where all characters are deleted and everyone starts from scratch. This generally happens about once a year so you don't need to worry about it too much. These are just good oppurtunities to give everyone a chance to catch up once again and become king. It also helps attract more players on the servers. Joining the Game Menu Navigation: When you first join a server you will be presented with the menu above. You can get to this menu at any time by pressing the button bound to inven (default is TAB). You navigate the menu by using either invnext and invprev (defaults [ and ]) or weapnext and weapprev (defaults to mouse wheel up and down). To pick a menu item once you have it selected use the invuse key (defaults to ENTER). Playing the Game: In order to play you will first need to create a character. You will need to create a password first in order to do this. To set your password bring down the console by pressing the tilde key (~) and typing kots_pass "your password". A good practice is to type kots_p and press tab to let it autocomplete the rest so you know you didn't misspell anything because you could accidentally end up saying your password that way. Once your password is set you can close the console by pressing the tilde key (~) again. You may want to leave the console open to set your name though or you can press escape and use the Quake 2 multiplayer menu to set it. You can now navigate through the menu to select "Create character." After the character is created you will automatically join the game. The next time you join the game you will want to use "Join game" from the menu instead. NOTE: Pay attention to the top left of your screen because this is where you will see any error messages that occur when trying to create a character such as if you have invalid characters in your name, you forgot to set your password, the character already exists, or the character server is down etc. If there was a problem saving your character at another server due to communication problems, server crashes, etc then it may say you are already logged in. If this happens it can take up to 10 minutes before you are able to login again. If an admin is around they may be able to help you with this. What Now? I would highly recommend reading the rules below and also checking out the FAQ page for more information before going much further. Remember that once you add points you cannot get them back. So if you mess up a character on a name you want to keep you're out of luck. Additionally we recommend you check out the forum section and the understanding KOTS forum post by corrupted here: Understanding KOTS There's also an online chat you can use with other players here (IRC users: #q2kots on Quakenet): Online Chat The Rules NOTE: The following rules can also be found on the forum. KotS2007 - Re-Start Your Reign Okay, before we get started there's a few ways rule breakers are dealt with. Server admins, this is also for you: Local Server Ban: This kind of ban is reserved for players who break server rules or as a sort of temporary block until a global ban or curse is able to be given. Local Server Bans are usually for cheaters who need an immediate ban for a given server, people who break the rules set forth on that server, or pretty much however the Server Admins see fit. It's their server, and their server is a priviledge that can be revoked for just about any reason. The only reasons not condoned are banning players for playing a certain class or with a certain weapon unless there's some sort of rule about it. But it would have to be on some sort of "That's a really gay way of doing such-and-such" rather than banning all cg users. Perhaps a certain camping spot on a map. It's up to the server admins so make sure you know their rules before playing there. K2K7 administration will allow server admins to do as they please for the most part so do not contact K2K7 administration regarding specific server bans. Curse: When a character is cursed the character name remains active yet it is impossible to log on to it. Essentially its like stringing the hung body up for everyone to see. This is what we use to deter cheaters and exploiters. If you cheat or exploit or whatever else debauchery not allowed (which will be covered in a bit) your character will most likely be cursed. This means that level 12 you've been playing for a month is now gone. You may QQ all you want, but its unlikely that it will be uncursed unless there is CONVINCING evidence otherwise. Just don't cheat damnit! Global Server Ban: This is the big daddy. A global server ban is reserved for when cursing simply isn't enough. When you are globally banned you are restricted from playing K2K7 entirely until the duration of the ban is finished (if you're lucky enough to get a duration, that is). Most people who deserve a global server ban probably will be permanently banned since it takes quite the repeat offender to merit something as strong as this. Repeat attempts to bypass this ban may be notified to your ISP so, yeah, K2K7 isn't really worth losing that pricey Cable contract your parents are paying. Now that that's out of the way... Da Big Rules THE NOTS: Do NOT bot. If you have to aim like a god, go get ocular implants. Or go practice. Do NOT use any misc. hacks like nosepak or any other advantage. Now since bright skins (bright, not fucking white or green shells) are allowed in tournament play, those are acceptable. But if there is evidence that you're using some sort of crazy pak that would not be acceptable in a tournament you could be cursed depending on how bad it is. Do NOT use any sort of client with clear advantages such as timers to even wallhacks. These are NOT ALLOWED in tournaments so they are NOT ALLOWED here. Acceptable clients include but are not limited to: R1Q2, EGL, APRQ2. Most, if not, all servers will be running R1CH's anticheat. We have ways of looking up your cheating record, so, seriously, think twice. Do NOT try to force your way into a character or the database through hacking or use DoS / DDoS attacks on the server. ISP will be notified. Like earlier, is K2K7 really worth it? Do NOT dummy kill or use the damage based exp system to get free exp (this doesn't necessarily include type killing). What this means is having a high level soak up damage, heal back up, and then soak up more. DONT DO THIS GOD DAMNIT. Do NOT use bugs, glitches, or exploits within the mod to gain a clear advantage or in anyway to support your character outside of acceptable play. This means don't abuse things that make you better or give your character aid that it wouldn't normally have. DO NOT TEST THESE BUGS. REPORT THEM TO A K2K7 ADMIN IMMEDIATELY AND DO NOT SHARE THEM WITH OTHER PLAYERS. ALL PARTIES ARE SUBJECT TO CURSES IF THIS IS NOT FOLLOWED!! THIS IS YOUR ONE AND ONLY WARNING!! Other Stuff Character Sharing - There's two parts of this. Character Sharing as defined by the active sharing by two or more parties of one character to collaborate and obtain more exp than would be possible than by themselves is NOT allowed. The character will usually be cursed. Now, for people who are trustworthy and mature about this, we DO allow people to let a friend play on their char for a map or so. Just so long as this friend doesn't play it often, you're allowed to let others play. We will not be treating this rule extremely seriously as the Zero Tolerance rules up above, but if this leniency is abused then we will take it away. Please respect this rule, we're trying to be nice about this. In-Game Cheat Accusations - People who repeatedly harass or accuse others of foul play can be candidates for an all-expense paid trip to mute land. Take a demo, show an admin, shut the hell up. TK'ing - Type Killing in this mod is handled a bit differently. Since you actually get exp for TK'ing, some server admins may prohibit TK'ing. This will be up to the servers to decide. The "I was here first and playing PVM, lemme play PVM damnit" guy - Come on, just let the man play PVM if he was there first. This also will be up to servers on how this is dealt with. A little common courtesy never hurt anyone. So yeah That wasn't so bad, was it? Oh yeah and by playing on any K2K7 servers you pretty much agree to follow these rules and shit, so if you say "I DIDN'T KNOW THAT" QQ BITCH, READ THE RULES. One more thing: the KOTS2k7 administration reserves the right to change these rules at any time for any reason.