This page explains how to set up automatic map cycling in a multiplayer game.

Servers can set up a sequence of maps to cycle through automatically. This is done by defining the cycling rules with the console variable server-game-mapcycle and then, after starting the server, issuing the command startcycle. The command endcycle ends map rotation.

For example:

server-game-mapcycle "F:10 22 23"

The cycling rules have a simple format (brackets [ and ] enclose optional sections):

(rule)[,(rule)] (map) [(map) [...] ] [(rule) ... ]

(rule) can be either Frags:X or Time:X, where X is either the maximum number of frags or maximum amount of time in minutes. The words “Frags” and “Time” can be abbreviated down to one letter. The comma between rules can be replaced with a semicolon, a plus character, a forward slash or a backslash. Map numbers always consist of two digits. Either or both digits of a map number can be replaced with an asterisk (*), which makes the server replace it with a random number.

"F:10 11 12 13 14 2* T:15,F:5 37"

This cycle consists of maps E1M1, E1M2, E1M3, E1M4, a random map from the second episode and E3M7 (assuming this is not Hexen or Doom II). For the first five maps the rule for changing the map is a maximum of 10 frags (defined by the F:10 in the beginning). The last map (E3M7) will end when either 15 minutes (T:15) has passed or someone gets 5 frags (F:5).

"Frag:5 **  25  24  23 Tim:1 11"

The cycle consists of a completely random map, E2M5, E2M4, E2M3 and E1M1. The first four maps will end when someone gets 5 frags. The last map (E1M1) ends after one minute of gameplay. The extra spaces between the map numbers are ignored.