Playing Quetoo

Quetoo is a fast-paced, arena-style first-person shooter. This page covers the default controls, voice chat setup, available game modes, and core mechanics.

Default Controls

Controls can be rebound in-game from the Controls settings menu.

Movement

Combat

Communication & UI

Voice Chat

Open Settings > Sound to enable Voice chat, select your Capture device, and choose a Voice mode:

• Push to talk is the default. Hold V to transmit, or change the Push to talk binding on the Sound page.
• Voice activated transmits automatically when your microphone level crosses the Activation level threshold. No talk binding is required. Automatic voice is public in the included game modules.

Automatic transmission only runs while connected to a live game, not during demo playback. Disconnecting, disabling voice chat, or switching back to push-to-talk stops automatic transmission.

Microphone Setup

The Microphone level meter shows raw Input, with a line marking the activation threshold, and gain-adjusted Output, which turns red near clipping. Both use a logarithmic dBFS scale so quiet microphones are visible.

1. Check that Input moves when you speak. If it stays flat, check your selected device, operating system microphone permissions, and any hardware mute switch.
2. For voice activation, set Activation level above room noise but below normal speech. Lower values are more sensitive.
3. Adjust Microphone gain so Output is healthy without turning red. Auto-level can boost a quiet microphone. Neither gain nor auto-level changes the raw-input activation threshold.

Menus keep the microphone active for calibration even when you are disconnected. Disconnected calibration never transmits to a server; disabling Voice chat stops microphone capture.

Voice activation is a loudness gate, not speech recognition: keyboard clicks, music, and loud background noise can trigger it. It uses a lower closing threshold, about 250 ms of trailing silence, and 60 ms of pre-roll to avoid cutting off the beginnings of words.

Team Voice

Push-to-talk still forces transmission in voice-activated mode. Hold Shift alongside the talk key, or bind +voiceTeam to a dedicated team talk key, to override automatic public voice with team-only voice. Automatic detection resumes on fresh audio when you release the key; captured team speech is never replayed publicly.

If Shift itself is your talk key, it does not also select team voice. Use the other Shift key as the modifier, or use a dedicated team talk binding.

Console Settings

Game Modes

Deathmatch (DM)

Every player for themselves. Frag as many opponents as you can before the frag limit or time limit is reached. Each map sets its own frag limit and time limit (30 frags and 20 minutes if it sets none), and a server can override them with g_fragLimit and g_timeLimit.

Team Deathmatch (TDM)

Two (or more) teams compete for the highest combined frag total. Enabled by setting g_gameplay team_deathmatch on the server. g_numTeams sets how many teams there are; left at default it picks the valid number for the map, or 2. Team assignment is automatic while g_autoJoin is set, unless players choose a side manually.

Capture the Flag (CTF)

Two teams — Red and Blue — each defend their own flag while attempting to capture the enemy’s flag and return it to their base. CTF is a separate game module, so the server starts with +game ctf on its command line. The g_captureLimit cvar controls how many captures are needed to win (default: 8).

Instagib

Every player has a one-shot railgun. Enabled by setting g_gameplay instagib on the server, or g_gameplay team_instagib for team play.

Arena

Players or teams spawn with a full loadout of weapons, ammo and armor. Self-damage is disabled, so you can rocket jump and plasma climb to your heart’s content. Last player or team standing wins. Enabled by setting g_gameplay arena on the server, or g_gameplay team_arena for team play.

Core Mechanics

Health and Armor

Players start with 100 health. Health pickups restore health up to 100 (small/medium/large) or briefly boost it above 100 (mega health). Armor absorbs a portion of incoming damage:

• Jacket Armor — Green, light protection
• Combat Armor — Yellow, medium protection
• Body Armor — Red, heavy protection

Weapons

Quetoo features a classic Quake II-inspired arsenal:

Movement Mechanics

• Rocket jumping: Fire a rocket at your feet while jumping to reach high areas.
• Hyper climbing: Fire the hyperblaster slightly downward along a wall to scale it and reach high areas.
• Strafe jumping: Combine forward movement with strafing and jumping to build speed.

Power-Ups

• Adrenaline: Instantly boosts your health to 100 (respawns every 30 seconds by default).
• Megahealth: Increases your health by 100 (respawns every 30 seconds by default).
• Quad Damage: Multiplies your damage output for 30 seconds (respawns every 60 seconds by default).

Connecting to a Server

From the main menu select Play → Find Servers to browse the server list. You can also connect directly from the console:

connect <ip>:<port>

The default server port is 1998.

User Data Directory

Quetoo stores your configuration, screenshots, and demos in a platform-specific directory:

Within that directory:

Migrating from an older install: If you have a legacy ~/.quetoo directory (POSIX) or Documents\My Games\Quetoo (Windows), simply move its contents to the new location before launching Quetoo.

Getting Help

Join the Discord to find games, ask questions, and connect with the community.