How do I disable map rotation entirely on my TF2 server?

I have a private server. Before use, I just go in, exec a config, and change the level. Annoyingly, the server will sometimes switch to hydro or 2fort if we wait too long before starting a scrim.

I considered removing all maps but one (my desired default) from mapcycle.txt, but it seems like then, it would just switch to that one. I don't want to change mp_timelimit like "24/7 whatever map" servers, because it will get reset whenever I exec a match config anyway.

Can I just remove everything from mapcycle.txt and add something to my server.cfg to load up some particular map, say mge_training_v8_beta2, every time I restart? If so, what would I add? Does mapcycle.txt have to be populated?

Solution 1:

There are lots of things you can do when running a server. I highly suggest you read up on https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Windows_dedicated_server and https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Dedicated_server_configuration

You can do a few things. First off, you can have more than one map cycle file. Second, you can have a config file per map. Just name a file mapname.cfg and put it in the cfg folder. Whenever your server changes to that map, it will run the cfg. This allows you to do things like change timelimit, switch the map cycle file to something else (like one that only has one map in it so it keeps changing to that map).

If you want to start your server with a specific map, add the +map mge_training_v8_beta2 command line option when running the server.

Use the mapcyclefile "my_mapcycle.txt" command to set the map cycle file to my_mapcycle.txt.