Getting started with anticheat on your server

[R1CH]

This thread is designed to help you get started with setting up anticheat on your server.

Setup your IP addresses in the allowed list (no longer necessary)
See this thread: http://www.r1ch.net/forum/index.php?topic=1392.0

Anticheat Server Cvars
The first order of business is to setup the anticheat specific cvars, either by reading the anticheat cvars thread or using the Q2 config generator. Remember, all cvars and commands must be set before any "map" command runs, so make sure that loading a map is the last thing in your config or on the command line.

File Checks
Next you will need to set up file checks in a file called anticheat-hashes.txt. There are two ways of doing this - if your server is part of a group of servers used for a league or tournament game, the admin of the league will likely already have an anticheat-hashes.txt file which you can simply drop into your mod directory. Be sure to check with the league admin often for any updates.

If your server is standalone, you will likely have to configure the file checks yourself. There is quite a bit of work involved to create a good file check list as you will need to include checks for any models, sounds, skins, etc that could possibly be modified by a player to gain an advantage. Luckily there are several tools to help you with this process. See the anticheat-hashes.txt configuration for full information on setting up file checks. Please do not skip setting up the file checks, without them anticheat will not stop any spiked models or similar cheats.

Cvar Checks
Now we come to anticheat-cvars.txt, this file allows you to clamp down on specific settings on every anticheat client. For example, you may not wish to allow EGL's 3rd person camera or AprQ2's cel shading or you may wish to limit the maximum gl_modulate value. Using anticheat-cvars.txt allows you to restrict cvars in a secure way. See the anticheat-cvars.txt thread for more information. Again, if your server is part of a league or tournament, check with the admin as they may provide an already configured anticheat-cvars.txt for you to use.

Tokens
Finally, not every client will be able to run anticheat. If you force anticheat on your servers, some legitimate players may not be able to play if they are using an unsupported OS version. The anticheat-tokens.txt file allows you to create "tokens", essentially passwords that allow a single client to bypass any anticheat requirements. The format of anticheat-tokens.txt is very simple, just one token per line. A client that is unable to use anticheat can then set the token in their client before connecting using set actoken token where token is one of the tokens from the anticheat-tokens.txt file.

If you have any questions or problems, feel free to make a thread about them.