Yes.

Yes.

No.

No.

I don't know exactly what comes in the Steam Q3 package, but I'd wager it's the same as a CD install. If not, you can still run a dedi server with the ioquake3 or Quake3e executables, just by copying the game data over into their base folders.

Thanks very much for the answers :-)

- You don't need Steam for running a dedicated server, the server doesn't need a CD key. You can run it as long as you have the files legally, you just add a +set dedicated 2 to the command line (it's better to just download the latest point release executable, so it won't "hold" a steam account while running).

- Yes

- Nobody will join your server, there are no vanilla Q3TA players, and afaik there are no master server anymore either.

- Quakelive is superior in every way, and you can set up a server with settings very close to the original Team Arena too (some features, like clans, and voice commands,etc are missing tho)

edit: these are the files you get with the steam version: http://imgur.com/hSWr3cl

Oh weird... My Q4 server in the basement uses a CD-Key with the dedicated server, and I can't connect if my client is using the same one. I bought Q4 for my client computer through steam, and I run the dedicated server with my original Q4 Disks which I actually burned to ISOs...

If nobody plays Q3, what are all these servers for: ?? http://www.gametracker.com/search/q3/

That is 24 PAGES of servers. With 15 servers/page...
That is 360 Quake III Servers that are currently Online.
They can't ALL be bots lol....

I was running Q3 servers for more than a decade (including Team arena ones) and I said: "there are no vanilla Quake 3 Team Arena players".

I don't know what you have in the basement, but you don't need a CDKEY for running a Quake 3 (team arena or not) server.

Q4 is in the basement....

Ya, I would just automatically assume that anybody playing or serving Quake wouldn't be using Vanilla ANYTHING... Modding and customization is like 90% of the fun....

Team Arena only had one modification afaik, called superta and I wonder how many does still have the files besides me (and I also wonder if I could still find the tape I backed up those files to).

Again, you could have put your cdkey to the server folder, and you were still able to connect to said server (or any other) with the same cdkey, period.

This is a pretty hilarious TA mod that I just stumbled across lol...
You should watch the video... Very funny :) Now THOSE are bots!! lol http://www.moddb.com/mods/tier666

Nice, didn't know about that one, thanks for the heads-up.

afaik there are no master server anymore either

There's a plenty of master servers http://www.quakeservers.net/quake3/master_servers

Thanks. I ofc,knew about the alternate masters, but I wasn't sure if the main one at id is still running or not, since that's the one which the client downloaded from steam will query by default or not?

Dunno, I don't have q3 on steam but master3.idsoftware.com:27950 should work.

Playing the cpma bots at level 100 was awe inspiring... I'd have to go to the ultimate choke point to be able to get a frag after a min or two. Sitting at RL on ztn waiting to here a sound so I could possibly hit a rocket etc on the incoming monster when it came for shards :p