3. Connexionless messages

The connexionless messages are no more than text messages, with a special header of four bytes containing the value 0xFF (255). The rest of the message is made of text, which may be ended by \0 or \n(newline).

Header Content
0xFFFFFFFF text

Such messages may be exchanged between the Server and the Clients, and they must not be confused with ordinary game messages. Hence the special header 0xFFFFFFFF, equivalent to a sequence order of -1, which is not possible in a game message.

3.1 Client to server messages

Message Explanation Expected reply
status Status command sent by a client to the server.
This causes a "status" message to be issued.
n[variable bindings] n\fraglimit\0\timelimit\0\...
ping Ping command sent by a client to the server. single byte packet containting l
(0x6c), positive answer
rcon [password] [command] Remote command sent by a client to the server.
This is used for remote administration of the server.
n[printable text]
log ??? get server log? single byte packet containting m (0x6d), negative answer
getchallenge Sent by a client to know about the challenge number
that is specifically associated to it's unique combination
of address and port. A random number.
c[challenge]
connect[version] [qport]
[challenge] [vars]
version is 26 for Quakeworld.
qport is an internal Quake port, randomly chosen by the client,
so as to prevent cheaters to send forged messages to the server on behalf of the client.
vars are a list of name values bindings, separated by antislash.They represent client settings.
j

3.2 Server to client messages

Message Explanation Expected reply
c[challenge] Indicates the challenge number associated to a client.
Beware that the challenge can be a negative integer.
connect
j Indicates that the server accepts the connection command "new"

3.3 Examples of connexionless messages

 getchallenge
 c-975431124
 connect 26 13662 -975431124 "\name\unnamed\topcolor\0\bottomcolor\0\rate\2500\msg\1\noaim\0"
 j