Adding custom maps to Source based servers

Adding maps to your Source based game server

Adding custom maps to your server can increase its popularity, however adding them can be a bit of a hurdle for some newcomers. This simple guide will teach you how to add custom maps onto your server.

This tutorial will assume you know how to connect to your gameserver FTP. If you don't, then please see this guide.

Once you have downloaded your maps, which normally come in a .zip or .rar file, extract them locally to your hard drive. You should see a handful of files appear. These are generally .nav, .bsp and .txt files. Connect to your FTP server and browse to this directory:

srcds_l/<mod>/maps

<mod> refers to your game, so for Counter-Strike:Source goto 'cstrike'. For Day of Defeat servers goto /orangebox/dods, likewise for Team Fortress.

Once there you will need to upload your files, simply drag and drop them into the maps folder located on your server. They will take a few seconds to upload depending on their size and your upload speed.

Thats it! The map is now on your server, you can now change map to it using the rcon commands 'rcon changelevel <map name>'. You may want to add them to your map rotation file (mapcycle.txt) or maplist.txt file for use with Mani Admin Mod/SourceMod etc.

Things to do if this doesn't work

1) Check you have uploaded the individual files and not the zip file.
2) Ensure you have correctly typed the map name whilst trying to change level.
3) Contact support. Whilst we cannot upload maps for you, we can double check where you have gone wrong.