Just in case anyone else ever has this problem, I got around this by adding the following to my client cfg:

set mapcon0 "rcon map pro-q3dm6; set mapper vstr mapcon1"
set mapcon1 "rcon map cpm2; set mapper vstr mapcon2"
set mapcon2 "rcon map q3dm17; set mapper vstr mapcon3"
set mapcon3 "rcon map cpm17; set mapper vstr mapcon4"
set mapcon4 "rcon map gen-q2dm1; set mapper vstr mapcon0"
vstr mapcon0
set mapper vstr mapcon0
bind uparrow "vstr mapper"

Basically it works like old-fashioned vQ3 server map rotations, except it simulates the admin manually sending a command to the server to change maps. The only drawback is you have to hit a button (i.e. up arrow) at the end of every match to make it work (this has the advantage that you can replay a map as many times as you like before moving on). Also, it may reset the map cycle if you exit the server and come back.

I think tro11 also had this problem, I'm surprised he hasn't posted here.

that's a feature!

try having map_rotation being set to one through your bat file or shortcut

stick to dedicated server, listen servers are quite bad mkay

rush, I actually tried setting map rotation to 1 in the shortcut, server cfg, AND manually setting it on connect. None of them worked. I also suspected the map_restrict setting, but whether it was set to 0 or 1 didn't make a difference.

For anyone else who runs into the problems and wants to use the workaround I mentioned in comment #1, it works better if you put it in the server cfg instead of the client cfg by taking out all the rcons. i.e.:

set mapcon0 "map pro-q3dm6; set mapper vstr mapcon1"
set mapcon1 "map cpm2; set mapper vstr mapcon2"
set mapcon2 "map q3dm17; set mapper vstr mapcon3"
set mapcon3 "map cpm17; set mapper vstr mapcon4"
set mapcon4 "map gen-q2dm1; set mapper vstr mapcon0"
vstr mapcon0
set mapper vstr mapcon0

Then on your client cfg you just put in:

bind uparrow "rcon vstr mapper"

This way the map rotation doesn't reset every time the admin client exits the server, and you can have multiple admins sending the command to advance the same root server-side map rotation.