F.E.A.R. (FEAR) Dedicated Server

[James Bourne]

How To Run F.E.A.R. (FEAR) First Encounter Assault Recon Dedicated Server as a Windows Service with FireDaemon

F.E.A.R. is a first person military action game. The dedicated server component can be run as a Windows Service using FireDaemon. FireDaemon will allow you to have the dedicated server start automatically at boot prior to login, allow you to start multiple instances of the dedicated server and so forth. This HOWTO will show you how set it up. You can also use PanelDaemon to manage FireDaemon and other Windows services via a web browser.

F.E.A.R Dedicated Server Setup Under FireDaemon

1. Download the F.E.A.R. dedicated server (FEAR DS) from here. The current version at time of writing was v1.04 - make sure you get the latest version. The download is large - nearly 120MB. This download contains the dedicated server component only.

2. Install FEAR DS into the directory of your choice (typically C:\Program Files\Sierra\FEAR Standalone Server).

3. Install FireDaemon Pro into the directory of your choice (typically C:\Program Files\FireDaemon). FireDaemon can be downloaded from here.

4. Start the FireDaemon GUI from the desktop shortcut. Click on the "Create a new service definition" button in the toolbar (or type Ctrl+N) and enter the information into the fields as you see below. Obviously adjust paths to suite your installation. Pay special attention to the Parameters list.



The complete Executable line reads:

C:\Program Files\Sierra\FEAR Standalone Server\FEARServer.exe

The Parameters list defines how the dedicated server is to start. There are two optional arguments that you can pass to the dedicated server (these are documented in serverreadme.txt found in the dedicated server installation directory):

-optionsfile
Defines which configuration file to use when launching the server. By default the server looks in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\Monolith Productions\FEAR\ for configuration files. These configuration files (eg. ctf.txt) are typically created by hand from the template supplied. Information on creating these files can be found later in this guide.

-userdirectory
Allows you to change the default directory of the server allowing you to place your configuration files in another, perhaps more convenient, location.

-mpcustomizations
Allows you to specify an alternate MPCustomizations file (see below).

5. If you want / do not want to observe your dedicated server running, click on the FireDaemon Settings tab, and check/uncheck Interact with Desktop. I recommend you also uncheck Graceful Shutdown since the dedicated server doesn't respond properly to it.



6. FEAR DS uses a fair chunk of RAM (35MB+) and CPU. This may cause issues and slow the boot time of your server. If you want to delay the startup of the server and change its priority then click on the Advanced tab. Optionally change the Pre-Launch delay to 5000ms and the Priority to High (Real Time is a bad idea).



7. Check on the FireDaemon Dependencies tab. Add 'lanmanworkstation' to the list of Services to depend on. This will ensure the TCP/IP and CIFS stacks are in the process of initialisation before attempting to start the dedicated server:



8. Your done! Click on the Install button and your FEAR DS should startup!



Issues ... other problems? Please post in the Public Support Forums!

F.E.A.R. Dedicated Server SMCD

You can control your dedicated server via the SCMD.

F.E.A.R. Dedicated Server Configuration Files

The default set of configuration files is installed into C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\Monolith Productions\FEAR\.

The first two files you will be interested in are:

BanIPList.txt
You can IPs (one per line, dotted quad format: aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd) into this file to ban specific IPs. You will need to restart the server in order for updates to this file take effect.

MPCustomizations.txt

This file contains a large number of entries that are used to control the behavior of many game elements, such as:

• Weapon damage, accuracy, and movement penalties
• Armor, medkits, and SlowMo pickups
• Health and armor refill stations
• Initial health and armor values
• Gravity and falling damage
• Movement speeds
• Scoring for all game modes
• Server limits for proximity mines and remotes

Creating Your Own F.E.A.R. Dedicated Server Configuration File

You will find a file called ExampleServerOptions.txt in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Monolith Productions\FEAR\ServerOptions. Copy this file to another file name and leave it in the same directory (eg. ctf.txt). This file is the one you reference with the -optionsfile command line parameter. Here is an example configuration file (if you check in ExampleServerOptions.txt you will find all the options you need for various game types including CTF, Slowmo CTF, DeathMatch, Elimination, SlowMoDeathmatch, TeamSlowMoDeathmatch, TeamDeathMatch and TeamElimination):

[ServerSettings]
GameType=CTF
UsePassword=1
Password=password
AllowScmdCommands=1
ScmdPassword=password
Port=27888
BindToAddr=172.16.1.10
BandwidthServer=3
BandwidthServerCustom=1500
LANOnly=0
Dedicated=1
AllowContentDownload=1
MaxDownloadRatePerClient=0
MaxDownloadRateAllClients=0
MaxSimultaneousDownloads=0
MaxDownloadSize=0
RedirectURLs=
ContentDownloadMessage=
EnableScoringLog=0
MaxScoringLogFileAge=0
AllowVoteKick=1
AllowVoteTeamKick=1
AllowVoteBan=1
AllowVoteNextRound=1
AllowVoteNextMap=1
AllowVoteSelectMap=1
MinPlayersForVote=5
MinPlayersForTeamVote=3
VoteLifetime=30
VoteBanDuration=60
UsePunkBuster=1

[CTF]
RunSpeed=1.2
SessionName=FEAR CTF
FriendlyFire=1
TeamReflectDamage=0.0
ScoreLimit=8
TimeLimit=20
SuddenDeathTimeLimit=5
NumRounds=1
MaxPlayers=8
RespawnWaitTime=4
UseWeaponRestrictions=0
RestrictedWeapons=
RestrictedGear=
CTFDefendFlagBaseScore=10
CTFDefendFlagBaseRadius=1000
CTFDefendFlagCarrierScore=10
CTFDefendFlagCarrierRadius=700
CTFKillFlagCarrierScore=10
CTFReturnFlagScore=5
CTFCaptureFlagScore=75
CTFCaptureAssistTimeout=5
CTFCaptureAssistScore=10
CTFFlagLooseTimeout=15
Mission0=Worlds\ReleaseMultiplayer\CTF_Facility
Mission1=Worlds\ReleaseMultiplayer\CTF_Streets

F.E.A.R. © 2005 Sierra Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. F.E.A.R., Vivendi Universal Games and the Vivendi Universal Games logo are trademarks of Vivendi Universal Games, Inc. Sierra and the Sierra logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sierra Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. The Monolith logo is a trademark of Monolith Productions, Inc.