Muff Mode Rulesets

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Rulesets change the feel of the same map. They tune starting loadouts, weapon behavior, armor, health, ammo, powerups, and a few match-flow details. Use this page when a server vote asks for q2re, mm, q3a, q2reb, q, or qc.

Quick Picker

If you want...	Pick	Why
The closest Quake II Rerelease baseline	q2re	Stock rerelease weapon feel and item rules.
Muff Mode's house balance	mm	Keeps Quake II identity, but trims problem weapons and improves powerup flow.
A Quake III Arena shaped match	q3a	Q3-style weapons, armor, pickups, splash, and knockback using existing Muff Mode assets.
A conservative competitive rebalance	q2reb	Vanilla-friendly changes without turning the game into another arena shooter.
A classic Quake-inspired arsenal	q	Shotgun/Axe starts, Quake-like rockets, and remapped weapon slots.
A modern arena-inspired loadout	qc	Random starting weapon, tighter caps, and modernized weapon tuning.

Values

Value	Short name	Name
1	q2re	Quake II Rerelease
2	mm	Muff Mode
3	q3a	Quake III Arena Style
4	q2reb	Q2RE Balanced
5	q	Quake Style
6	qc	Quake Champions Style

Players can vote with callvote ruleset <shortname> when the server allows ruleset voting. Hosts can set g_ruleset <value> or use ruleset <shortname>.

Reading Notes

• Arena gametypes such as Clan Arena and Red Rover can replace the normal spawn loadout. The active ruleset still affects weapon damage, fire timing, knockback, armor behavior, and ammo rules.
• In non-arena deathmatch warmup, most rulesets can grant visible map weapons for practice. qc is the exception: it keeps its random-start economy even in warmup.
• "Haste" refers to the rerelease DualFire/Haste behavior. q2re and q2reb keep it fire-rate only; mm, q3a, q, and qc also let it boost movement.
• Protection blocks splash damage while active. q2re keeps the faithful full direct-damage protection; the other rulesets halve remaining direct damage after armor instead.
• Q3A deliberately keeps Muff Mode's double-jump behavior. Q3-style knockback is used, but not the Q3 knockback movement lockout that would sever double jumps.
• Q3A does not add custom assets or entities. It remaps Q3 weapon and ammo names onto existing Quake II/Muff Mode items.
• Rulesets and factories own different things. A ruleset owns the numbers: weapon damage, spread, pellet counts, fire timing, knockback, armor behavior and ammo rules. A factory owns loadout composition, mutators and match limits, and may select a ruleset by name but can never override its numbers. Arena rooms own their own per-room loadout on top of both.

Quake II Rerelease (q2re)

Choose this when you want the rerelease baseline.

Area	Player-facing behavior
Starts	Standard Quake II deathmatch start.
Weapons	Baseline rerelease weapon damage, projectile speed, spread, ammo use, and recoil behavior.
Armor and health	Standard armor tiers, normal health rules, no Muff Mode/Q3 cap layer.
Powerups	Haste/DualFire changes fire rate only. Protection fully absorbs remaining direct damage and blocks splash while active. Protection and Invisibility use the faithful long respawn behavior. Activating major powerups plays the stock local use sound.
Pickups	Standard item economy, including Q2-style weapon and ammo relationships.

Good for: stock-feeling servers, compatibility testing, and players who want the least surprise.

Muff Mode (mm)

Muff Mode is the house ruleset: still Quake II, but less spiky.

Area	Player-facing behavior
Starts	Standard Muff Mode deathmatch start. In warmup, visible map weapons can be pre-granted so players can practice with the map's arsenal.
Rockets	100 direct damage, 100 splash damage, 120 splash radius, 650 speed, with lighter 50 direct-hit kick.
Plasma Beam	10 deathmatch damage, 15 co-op damage, 768 unit range.
Ion Ripper	20 deathmatch damage and 800 projectile speed.
Railgun	Normal damage profile, but stronger Muff Mode rail knockback.
Ammo	Slugs are tighter than the rerelease baseline: the normal slug box is 5 in this ruleset.
Power armor	Uses the CTF-style 1 damage per cell behavior in deathmatch.
Protection	Blocks splash and halves remaining direct damage after armor instead of acting as full q2re invulnerability.
Powerups	Haste boosts both weapon rate and movement. Major powerups use the Muff Mode deathmatch flow: delayed initial spawn, 120 second default respawn, global spawn/pickup sounds, and clearer announcements.
Utility items	Adrenaline grants +5 max health in deathmatch. Rebreather lasts 45 seconds. Auto Doc regeneration is slower and alternates between health and armor instead of feeding both at once.

Good for: the default Muff Mode experience, public servers that want Quake II with a cleaner balance curve, and competitive play that still wants Q2 movement and item identity.

Quake III Arena Style (q3a)

Q3A reshapes Muff Mode toward Quake III Arena while staying inside Muff Mode's no-custom-assets restriction. It uses existing map layouts and existing Quake II/Muff Mode assets.

Q3A Weapon Translations

Q3 role	Muff Mode item used	Player-facing behavior
Gauntlet	Chainfist	50 damage, Q3-like short trace, no Quake II melee kick.
Shotgun	Shotgun	Regular Quake II shotgun asset with Q3 specs: 10 damage, 11 pellets, 700 spread. Super Shotgun is removed from Q3A.
Machinegun	Machinegun	7 damage, or 5 in TDM, 200 circular spread.
Chaingun	Chaingun	Team Arena style role: 7 damage, 600 circular spread, fast one-bullet ticks.
Grenade Launcher	Grenade Launcher	100 damage, 150 radius, 700 speed, Q3-like upward bias.
Rocket Launcher	Rocket Launcher	100 direct, 100 splash, 120 radius, 900 speed.
Lightning Gun	Plasma Beam	8 damage ticks, 768 range, 1 cell per tick.
Plasma Gun	HyperBlaster	20 direct damage, 2000 speed, 15 splash damage, 20 splash radius.
Railgun	Railgun	100 damage.
BFG	BFG	100 direct/splash, 120 radius, 2000 speed. It is a Q3-style projectile blast without the Q2 BFG laser/zap sweep. Because cells are shared across weapons, each BFG shot costs 10 cells.
Nailgun	Ion Ripper	15 nails, 20 damage each, 500 spread, randomized Q3-style nail speed, no bouncing.

Q3A Items And Movement Feel

Area	Player-facing behavior
Starts	Spawn with Chainfist and Machinegun. Starting bullets are 100, or 50 in TDM. Non-arena spawns get a +25 health bonus.
Ammo caps	Standard and mapped ammo caps are broadly raised to 200.
Ammo pickups	Q3-style amounts are preserved where they can be mapped cleanly: cells 30, slugs 10, lightning ammo as 60 cells, BFG ammo as 15 cells, nails as 20 cells, and chaingun belt as 100 bullets.
Weapon pickups	Q3-style weapon pickup amounts are used: Shotgun 10, Machinegun 40, Chaingun 80, Grenade/Rocket/Rail/Nailgun 10, Lightning Gun 100, Plasma Gun 50, BFG 20. Normal pickups top you up to that amount, then give +1 when you already have at least that much. Dropped and TDM-style pickups give the full amount.
Firing projection	Projectiles and hitscan shots use a snapped Q3-style muzzle point from eye height plus 14 units forward, without Q2 side offsets or weapon recoil.
Armor	Armor acts as one pool. Shards give 5; armor protects for roughly 66%; armor can climb to double max health and then decays back down.
Health	Small/medium/large health are 5/25/50. Mega-style overheal can reach double max health, then decays toward max health. Mega Health respawns after 60 seconds.
Splash and knockback	Uses Q3-style splash falloff and Q3-style knockback scaling. Self-damage is halved after knockback is calculated, preserving rocket-jump force.
Falling damage	Q3-like thresholds with fixed 5 or 10 damage bands.
Powerups	Haste boosts movement and weapon rate. Major powerups use a delayed initial spawn, 120 second default respawn, global sounds, and announcements.
Death drops	Starting Machinegun is not dropped on death. Super Shotgun is not spawnable or switchable in Q3A.

Good for: players who want Quake III Arena rhythm on Quake II maps, while keeping Muff Mode's double jumps and existing asset rules.

Q2RE Balanced (q2reb)

Q2RE Balanced is the conservative competitive option. It keeps the Quake II Rerelease shape but softens a few edges.

Area	Player-facing behavior
Starts	Standard Quake II-style start. In warmup, visible map weapons can be pre-granted for practice.
Health and armor caps	Persistent max health is capped at 200; armor is capped at 150.
Rockets	100 direct damage, 100 splash damage, 120 radius. Rocket speed is 750 in deathmatch and 650 outside deathmatch. Self rocket-jump knockback stays close to q2re height even though self/enemy damage is lower.
Blaster	Faster projectile speed: 1700 in deathmatch and 1500 outside deathmatch.
Machinegun	7 deathmatch damage.
Chaingun	Alternates between 4 and 5 damage in deathmatch.
HyperBlaster	HyperBlaster speed is 1100 in deathmatch and 1000 outside deathmatch.
Plasma Beam	10 deathmatch damage, 15 co-op damage, 768 range.
Railgun	90 damage.
Powerups	Haste/DualFire is fire-rate only, like q2re. Major powerup pickup and use sounds are broadcast so fights around them are easier to read.

Good for: competitive Quake II servers that want a lighter touch than Muff Mode or Q3A.

Quake Style (q)

Quake Style pushes the arsenal and pickups toward classic Quake.

Area	Player-facing behavior
Starts	Spawn with Chainfist as the Axe stand-in, Shotgun, and 10 shells.
Arena loadouts	Arena modes skip Machinegun, Chaingun, and Railgun in the full loadout.
Shotguns	Shotgun uses Q1-style specs: 4 damage, 6 pellets, and tighter classic spread. Super Shotgun uses 14 pellets at 4 damage each; if you are already holding it with one shell left, it falls back to the regular shotgun shot.
Rockets	Randomized 100-120 direct damage, 120 splash damage, 160 radius, 1000 speed, and a centered Q1-style launch point.
Grenades and rockets	Grenade Launcher and Rocket Launcher share the rocket pool in Quake Style. Grenade ammo pickups become small rocket pickups.
Plasma Beam	Acts as the Thunderbolt stand-in: 30 damage ticks, 600 range, and 1 cell per tick. Firing while waist-deep or deeper in water discharges all cells into a radial blast worth 35 damage per cell before splash falloff.
Ammo caps	Shells, rockets, grenades, and cells cap at 100; flechettes, used as nails, cap at 200.
Armor	Jacket/Combat/Body armor stand in for Q1 green/yellow/red armor: 100 at 30%, 150 at 60%, and 200 at 80%. Pickups replace your current armor only when the new armor value is stronger.
Map item remaps	Some Quake II slots are repurposed to stay closer to the Quake-shaped arsenal: Machinegun to ETF Rifle, Chaingun to Plasma Beam, Railgun to HyperBlaster, slugs to cells, bullets to flechettes, and grenades to small rockets.
Movement sound	Landing footstep sounds are disabled.
Death drops	Starting Shotgun is not dropped on death.
Powerups	Haste boosts movement and weapon rate.

Good for: classic-leaning community nights and maps where rocket/shotgun control should dominate.

Quake Champions Style (qc)

Quake Champions Style is the modern-arena flavored ruleset. It is more loadout-driven and less map-weapon-grant driven.

Area	Player-facing behavior
Starts	Spawn with one random weapon: Shotgun with 50 shells, Machinegun with 200 bullets, or HyperBlaster with 200 cells.
Warmup economy	Unlike most other non-arena rulesets, QC does not pre-grant every visible map weapon during pre-match warmup.
Health and armor caps	Persistent max health is capped at 200; armor is capped at 150.
Ammo caps	Bullets, cells, and flechettes cap at 200; shells cap at 100; most other normal ammo starts from a tighter 50 cap, with a few special ammo caps lower.
Rockets	100 direct damage, 100 splash damage, 120 radius, 750 speed.
Machinegun	6 damage.
Chaingun	Alternates between 4 and 5 damage in deathmatch; 6 outside deathmatch.
HyperBlaster	12 damage with the default 1000 projectile speed.
Plasma Beam	10 deathmatch damage, 15 co-op damage, 768 range.
Railgun	90 damage.
Haste	Boosts both movement and weapon rate.

Good for: faster, more modern arena nights where the opening weapon roll changes the early fight.

Related Docs

• Gameplay Reference for gametypes, maps, and game modifications.
• Player Guide for voting and everyday commands.
• Server Host Guide for g_ruleset, g_votable_rulesets, and factories.
• Configuration Reference for command and cvar lookup.