Urban Terror Forums: Popular Server reviews and Tips for new players. - Urban Terror Forums

About Me: Came to Urban Terror from Action Quake 2 at the very beginning. Have played in old leages like TWL (The War Ladder) and others competitively in CTF mostly. I have A LOT of playing time now over 20 years. Urban Terror is the only game I play and it's been that way since it came out. I don't like slow paced FPS so this has been my home for a long time. I love this game, it is the best and the community has some of the most skilled and dynamic players of any game I've tried. Tried many, play one.


About these reviews: They are my personal opinions and experiences from playing in these servers for years. If you don't agree that's fine I'm sure new players will find my experiences mirror their own over time.


Top UrT Servers in 2022:


Let's start with the top servers who almost always have enough players to play a game. There aren't as many as there were 10 years ago but there are servers that always have players in them thankfully still in this day. Here are the most popular:


Sexy's CTF I && II:
This server located in the EU is the most played server and most played CTF server in the game at this point. In my experience and from listening to other players voice the same this server is a little "wild west" in terms of hands-off administration and suspected cheaters. This is discussed around the community as the server with the largest number of cheaters signing on. This is part of being popular. Even connecting with a ping of 150+ this server tends to have good hits and good performance. The B3 setup works well and they do an OK job at keeping games fair and balalced. I have noticed certain administrators there like any server stacking their own team and forgetting to !bal seemingly more often when they're winning than when losing. This is common. Being this server is known for bring overrun with cheaters this is typically my second choice when playing. One nice thing about Sexys is they seem not to ban users using VPN which if you value your privacy and you dont want potentially corrupt admins having your IP address this is a good thing. For me VPN banning is a futile effort even for moderately experienced users.


|RFA| CTF (Risen From Ashes) used to be |FA| (Fallin Angels)
The RFA/FA server has been around for a long time and bills itself as the "noob friendly" server of the bunch. I've found for true noobs this server is still advanced skill level with the typical group of players that show up here. You will find pros under alias etc... This is probably the most actively policed CTF server that always has players. If you have a lower ping this server can be good for hits but the administrative B3 setup constantly shuts down and the server turns into martial law because of that. Beyond that the server experiences frequent massive lag problems where your whole game will freeze for a period of 3-4 seconds, plenty of time for a person to take a flag without you being able to do anything about it which is really frustrating. This could also be the effect of players using lag creating proxies which is another issue all together. The server has a hard time keeping trolls from stacking teams constantly including mods who will play under alias, stack their own team. Moderation problems at this server have driven away long time players many times. I've personally seen a long time player get banned here by a well known mod for apparent spawn killing only to play against the same mod days later where that mod was doing the same. There is a group of maybe 50 players who frequent this server and they all know each other well. Many skilled players use an alias here so they do not get trolled or bullied by the clique that has been playing here a long time. If you become a well known skilled player here that some regulars don't like watch out. You will get gang trolled, team switched to the losing team by a corrupt mod after you make the first cap. Stuff like that is constant along with a long list of other shenanigans like winjoining, players who dont like you joining your team and doing nothing on purpose to take a spot so you lose. I've personally had many instances where the group knows which player I am by playing style and will group join my team and now I have 3 out of 12 players doing nothing, kicking eachother in spawn for the whole map. The server does little to combat this for unknown reasons. Good solutions for this server would be to force players to auto-join, limit team switching per map amongst other things. If you play this server I would suggest to use a new alias every time you join. I've personally also had instances where in good faith I reported real player issues to the admins at this servers forums only to have my posts deleted by a head Admin because the player exposed was an long time friend. Sad to say but this server seems somewhat corrupt. They try to maintain appearances but from my personal experience it has some dishonest moderators and admins. That being said it's some of the best play around when a fair game can be had. On top of these issues at somewhere near half the maps you still start off with a major team imbalance because the server configuration allows specs and winjoiners to run rampant so half the maps you will
lose a cap immediately to teams being 8v12 etc... The server also plays many novelty maps not many players like in the rotation every time. Urban Terror was made with a full set of weapons. Not many people truly like to play Barn with only knives. The admins here seem to pride themselves on always putting in maps like Barn and RFA Knife that nobody likes. You can tell this when half the server clears out when these maps are played. Its sad such a popular server is in a state like this. I imagine its why you see other servers like the new Ao. W server getting many players while being so new. This server also restricts players using VPNs. If you like having your personal IP address in the hands of people you don't know then be comfortable with it. I've had aliases at this server get banned for nothing more than playing very well, fairness and transparency are sadly lacking at the RFA server. I have also had the feeling that this server allows "blessed" players to use things like unlimited stamina which can really throw off a CTF game as well. When you see a player power-sliding 100 yards you tend to say how? Well there's a CVAR for that one!


Monkey's Playground TDM
Well administered server run by a long time UrT player. Its not always full but when there are numbers you will find good players, small amounts of trolling and that kind of thing. Overall performance is good here as well and the B3 admin setup and web based help for server problems are nicely done. I wish this was a more popular server.

Ao. W Public CTF Server
This is a newer entry in the CTF server list with good performance and hits from my recent experience. I expect to see more servers like this pop up as we see the old-school servers like Sexys and RFA falling behind in keeping trolls and their own mods honest. I have had experiences here like almost any human modded server where you will see a mod on the winning team every round, switching pro players to their team as soon as they join. Team fixing is a real problem across the board in terms of server admins at the moment. I will be back to this server anyhow.

Nexunity Bomb Server
Probably the best administered server in UrT. They do such a good job at keeping cheaters, trolls and hackers out that they aren't always full. Their B3 and other UrT tooling on the server are beyond any other server I've seen with great teambleeding features to prevent tk trolls etc... They are very available if you have server problems and are generally above-the-board folks to deal with. I wish more servers were like this. Check out their public ban list, you will likely see many players you have played with at other servers, already banned there for cheating. I made a list of players banned here for cheating that play on FA/RFA/Sexys regularly and its long. Just the reality of the
game in 2022 unfortunately.


Beyond these servers there aren't really any more that you can just jump into at any time and expect enough players to make a real game.


Tips for new players:

- Start practicing aim with maps like skeet-shoot and jumping using the classic jump maps. Movement is half of the ball game in UrT. Learn how to jump well and get precise with your "feel" of the game. UrT has the best physics feel of any fast paced shooter by far. Lets hope 5 keeps that up. Practicing yourself is the fastest way to improve skill, focused practice.
- Play under alias all the time. Make a new name every day/connect. Its sad but true there are a lot of weak pricipled trolling people who just love to disrupt people especially if they are skilled. Dont make yourself a target of these types they will always exist. Let them live in their petty world and troll others.
- Use an optimized build client. The default UrT client works just fine but you will notice a difference in smoothness which translates to good hits with Solitary's client or any of the others that are cleared by the Urban Zone league for competition play.
- Find honest, skilled players and try to look at their configs and ask for help. The UrT community does have problems with troll and the like but it also has some of the most unique, smart and skilled people I've ever met. Find the good ones and make friends. Go 1v1 with them and learn.


Tips for server moderators/FS:
- Make more pieces automated. We can't trust politicians in the same way as we cant trust any administrators they are human. If admins can automate and put moderation and admin actions to code the human corruption element will be removed. Like replacing congress or parliament with servers that take the popular vote. Open-ness prevents corruption. This game has always been plagued by trolls and cheaters just like government. Open your administration in code and see people enjoy.
- Ask Nexunity what they use and learn from their examples (no im not affliiated in any way)
- Open Source Urban Terror 4 - This one is huge. If FS chose to open source UrT4 right now they would drive in contributions and fixes/improvements to the game they can pick and choose to accept and at the same time drive buzz towards UrT to get more people back in the picture before UrT 5 is out. Expanding the audience for the new release.
- FS encouraging popular server administrators with updated tooling for UrT4. If FS isn't going to touch 4 any more why not let the community volunteer support for things like anti-cheat and other server tooling?

This post has been edited by Playingsince2k: 10 February 2022 - 01:55 AM

Nice topic!
You took your time, and congratulations for that.
Mostly things in URT changed on better I think players are now little more mature since most or us are now older a bit. Lot less trolling from what I see, and lot less cheats also.

I used to play in BOOBS servers, MTC, and TNG since start, later I played in SR8 and Skeetshots and Drunken Noobs.
MTC and TNG are not that much active as such anymore, BOOBS is still here, but not sure in which version is their map that was constantly full, while SR8 and Skeetshot's are not that popular or hosted anymore. Sadly. In Drunken Noobs I was banned since ages, not even worth to talk about that. I was not perfect but their moderation is "one of a kind", same as trolling of staff members which made me banned.

Nexunity is one of the servers where I remember my story also started. I still remember those lvl 5 hard bots where you needed to beat 18 of them to win (if not more). Sometimes was real challenge. They have now more servers and they are focused on different things, but also cool people.

Now, I am in 4.02.023 in Old Men with Guns, and in latest version in Monkey's. I adore those 2 servers, great moderation great crew! If you think if is worth to install 4.02.023 for few servers, well it is. Those guys are legends.
Fun never stops there, and competition is great.

This post has been edited by Luckycro: 13 February 2022 - 07:57 PM

Thanks very much for your nice comments It's very much appreciated.
(although I prefer the term 'banter' to 'trolling' lol)

About you: None knows you. You make claims to look more credible and with an authority
in order to push your agenda and deceive naive folk exploiting their naiveness for
your own benefit. Pretty much another case where three sieves of Socrates
(you can gooogle the sotry if not familiar wit h it) musr be applied.

''So far, so good...so what?''

Even if it is true. Who cares?
There were always players even god ones that claim stupid things or asked for things being
added to UrT based just on personal prefrences providing no good reason(if at all) of why
shall be added besides personal biases.

As far as I am concern you are just a milenial ho found a game that is free and small
thinking with little reasearch and throwing an easily learnt fact or two it is easy to trick devs with some social pressure to do your bidding.
A stupid village trick at best, Iv'e seen better attempts an not only talking about me.

I've been playing video games since 92/93 starting on NES.
How could you know it is true?
Why don't just believe me?
It is not like everyboy asking you to believe in them is lying to you,or is it?

How relevant it is that experience to playing FPS games?
Not at all, but that's the point(if it is even true).
People that don't use their head to think believe.
Inevitably they got scammed.

None else to blame, but themselves.
How awful! To be responsible for your own downfalls?
Just let other do stuff for you, that is easy. And as a good consumer,that you are,
you know that it is good.
It requires no efforts and therefore and how possibly can it be bad?

It is so pathetic when someone who on't have the ability of a proper basic reasoning skills
to try persuading others. In a sense it is also funny. A very smal increment of funny though.
So small that it is much more boring rather than funny.
Even mentioning competitions. Let me tell you child shortly something about UrT competitions that you cannot
read yet it is a public secret. They are fake and means nothing. Proper pub servrs in the right
time back in the day were a lot of times better in terms as competivity, not only but also as
team coordination even without any sort of chat communication.
Things get so absurd as having knife only competition.

It is pointless to give someone advice to someone about servers as it is like a test1.
Let them experience good and bad servers by their own. But wait, it is for gaining trust
points. So that is the point, I almost forgot. Naturally I didn't read too much server tips bit as I
find it irrelevant as irrelevant are 4.2 and 4.3.and cannot comment about this section.
As if needed. As except one thing which I will mention later as get to the goal of the of
why of that convincing...

Tips for new players are basically stereotypes that are found easily.
Again for points as anything else in that post.
Skeetshooting in UrT is good for making you good at skeetshooting. It is not like skeetshooting
where you go to shoot and have actual gun in your hands where you can really practise.
It is not as meaningless as in some games pressing a button and your cheracter pumping muscles.
Which is a very poor devs decision and quiet pointless making players lose their time
doing nothing meaningful aka one of theways devs cheaat in games.
Skeetshooting in UrT is not so meaningless and is not found in any other game, but to expect
to train skill with it is unreasonable. The better advice is play jump mode, but not by much.
I know lots of people who dedicated to jumping a lot of time and are easy to frag.
Not to mention that doing ovr and over again 1 and the same jump don't make you better aat jumping
,but rather learning that specific jump. Also, jumping in UrT 4 will have differences with HD.
For instance, collision in idtech3 is bad, for jumping not so but still. And there are things that
may be considered bugs like not having to press jump button in some alljumps
as you can simply use body rotation against the wall

Playing 1vs1 is good way to fall asleep. You need more than 1 good player. It is preferable
if they are better than you. It won't make you better rather than push you to do better which
want help that much.

What really help for your better playing in UrT is playing Quake. That is the best thing
that could be said. Very ''surprisingly'' not mentioned, wondering why?
Now uner the mask of other advices we can see the real purpose of this post of that
''oldschooler'' born yesterday:

''Cui bono?''

Covering your IP address? Use special clients others don't have access/information to?
Using special configs?
A hints for a ''fairplay''. In other words skill is not important. When a supposedly good
and oldschool player(that is how the story began, wasn't it?) need to hide his actual IP?!
Why if he is legit?
How about another advice?
Change your nickname on daily basis. Why?

So much hints for a foulplay and questionable behaviour. Let's get to the goal:

Tip for FS: ''Make UrT open source so I can cheat freely.''
There is eaxctly one reason to want open soucing urt-> cheating.
One can easily spot striking similarities with the rhetorics of binarythief...

I found really funny how he mentions that urt got the most clever people he met and then
there is so much stupid argumentation. Like comparing devs to politicians. Like politicians
can do computer games or anything meaningful of that matter. It is literally their job to be
corrupt and do nothing all day everyday. The more stupid you are the more qualified you are
to be politician.

As what someone else asked why there are no low cheating levels. Community is not exactly active right now that's why. No reason to let down your guard.

On second thought:

You are an olddschooler, so what is making a video game, but an easy task to you?
It is no problem to you to do an Urban Terror clone from scratch which also will be
open source. you will have huge dev crew which will be pretty much everyone who wishes to dev it.If nothing else it could be used for prove of concept.

And you don't have to use even idtech3, BUT you are an oldschooler, aren't you?
So of course you will use itech3.

Apart from a few gun-game matches in 4.3 I haven't played online shooting in this game since Wildcats had 24/7 servers about a decade or so ago.

Nice post anyway, pretty well written and reviewed. Server owners rarely like to hear criticism. Clans stacking and forcing certain maps/modes is common in every game especially ones with very low player count where people have little choice where to play - we suffer the same shit still in Enemy Territory land, despite having quite a lot more people playing still.

From reading your review I'd say any of those servers would be good enough to play on.

I also have been on UrT since the beginning. What you say about the servers is 100% accurate. This is a great post.

Trolls don't like getting called out. Ignore the trolls. Real people appreciate you and your work.

Agree with Connor here very good writeup of the sad state this game is in. Here are a handful of comments about the game and how soaked in cheaters it is. So beyond all the issues mentioned with the last few places to play UrT CTF the bigger issue for me is hacks.

It's very common these days to play a map for 20 minutes and people start off not cheating and trying to play fair. Once a team starts to lose usually around the 10 minute mark at least you can feel things heat up and you can tell many people "turned the hax on." It's not hard to see. Every single day I come back and play this game again I leave, annoyed by all the BS. It's a downer.


From: https://www.reddit.c...eople_cheat_in/

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From: https://gaming.stack...ent124465_90304

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From: https://www.reddit.c...9cbz/?context=3

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From: this Steam discussion about cheaters.

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From: this Ubuntu forums post

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Yes, the game is over-run with cheaters/hacks/trolls and corrupt administrators. Especially if you playing the popular pub servers listed there are admins that allow their friends to cheat and kick others who just make a comment about it, very common. Lots of pirates out here. Like others have said I played since the very beginning like Connor and I can't stand to deal with pubs these days. Dishonest admins, moderators and friends-of-the establishment cheat and do what they want, and then gang-troll others with impunity. All of this is rampant in the game in the modern day. Hell most of the comments from other people above were from years ago this game has been plagued with cheating for a long, long time. I hope that changes.

This post has been edited by Deathrite: 15 May 2022 - 08:17 PM

Found some more:

From: https://www.reddit.c...ilable_for_mac/

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From: https://www.reddit.c...petitive_games/

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From: https://www.reddit.c...petitive_games/

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