This is both the forum and game FAQ.
Here are some answers to some common questions floating around the forum...

Forum FAQ:
- Q: How can I change my forum avatar?

A:Avatars in this forum are linked to a global site called gravatar.
By creating an account on Gravatar (making sure that you use the same email address as that you use on the forums), and uploading your custom avatar to their site, it should automatically synchronise the two accounts within a few seconds.

- Q: How does the text formatting work here?

A: The basic formatting information is displayed to the right of the text box you use to create a post, but here are the tags again:
Create a link: <a href="">Create a link</a>
Write some code: enclose your code within ` (commonly used for quoting other users also)
<strong>Write in bold</strong>: <strong>Write in bold</strong>
<em>Write in italics</em>: <em>Write in italics</em>
And lastly:<blockquote>Write inside a blockquote</blockquote> (this entire paragraph is in a blockquote)

- Q: My threads are being closed/posts being deleted - why?

A: Likelihood is you are breaking the forum guidelines.
These are the guidelines that both users and administrators should follow. At the end of the day, it is the admin team's discretion on whether a thread/post stays or goes (based on the guidelines).
Excessive arguing about the discretion in thread will likely provoke an admin to punish, so all complaints about such matters need to be presented and dealt with in an official manner through posting an aptly named thread in the Support forum.

- Q: How can I be a good user on the forum?

A: In one sentence: follow the forum guidelines.
In more than one sentence: keep thinking whether what you say is related to the topic and is not some junk and/or designed to provoke anyone. Keep threads as 'clean' as possible and make sure than any links to external websites are not advertising products or hacks of any kind.

- Q: How can I edit the title of my own thread?

A: Click on the 'edit' button by the original/first post you made, and change the title from there.

Game FAQ:
- Q: How can I change my ingame name?

A: Your ingame name is defined in the 'config.ini' file in your Ace of Spades installation folder.
So to change it, simply go to your Ace of Spades folder (often 'C:\Program Files\Ace of Spades'), then open the file 'config.ini'.
Inside there is the line 'name Deuce' - simply change 'Deuce' to the name that you want (remembering to keep a space between 'name' and the name you choose).

If you get permission errors, then you shall need to: copy all the contents out of 'config.ini', paste it into notepad, delete the original 'config.ini', now change your name in notepad as described above, save it onto the desktop as config.ini (remembering to make sure it's saved using 'All Files' option rather than '.txt' if using notepad), then copy/paste that desktop 'config.ini' back into your Ace of Spades folder.
Step-by-step video of this process can be found here (Thanks to Andrea for the video).

- Q: What is the purpose/goal of this game?

A: Ace of Spades is an FPS (First Person Shooter) with sandbox terrain. The goal is to capture, and return to your Command Post (marked as a team-coloured '+' on the map), the enemy Intel (marked as a square in the opposition colour).
By capturing, you increase your team's score and you receive the ability, for one minute, to see all enemy movements (as red circles on the map). You have limited ammunition on your player, but you can restock your supplies at your own Command Post.
You have two digging tools, a rifle and some grenades. The pick-axe is used to gather blocks, destroying one block at a time; the spade is used to destroy three blocks at a time (destroys the block you point at, plus the blocks immediately above and below it - useful for making tunnels).

- Q: How can I play the game on linux?

A: using WINE. Details on how to do this can be found on the Wiki.

- Q: How can I play the game on mac?

A: Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?8zhioibefcxb0ak
Unzip then right-click on the app and select "view contents" to access the config.ini file.
(Thanks goes to knottycorpse for creating the original app, and Pwaa for highlighting and updating it)

- Q: How can I remove the fog?

A: You can't, and it is considered a hack if you do so..

- Q: How can I change my controls?

A: Unforunately control-changing functionality has not been programmed into the game, however Ben Aksoy (the developer) has said that custom key bindings are on the agenda for future updates.

- Q: I cannot load client.exe, what is wrong?

A: Ace of Spades works by webpage sending information to 'client.exe' to load it automatically with the correct settings. This means that you can't just load 'client.exe', you must choose a server from the play page and let it load itself.
Currently there is no GUI (Graphical User Interface), however some members of the community have created their own alternative server browsers with nifty extra features, more notable ones being listed here.

I have powerful linux machines and they are not running a ace of spades server because there is no linux binaries! Please recompile the server files into linux.

I have made a Linux client in python.
Technically it isn't a client, but it makes it MUCH easier.

I made this because I(and others) have to manually type in the ip that we get from the website.

REQUIREMENTS:
1. Have AoS installed using wine.
2. Have python 2.7(not higher, not lower)

WHAT IT DOES:
1. It lists all the servers with: Players, Ping and name
2. It takes input for which server(the number)
3. It runs the terminal command to join that server.

HOW TO SET IT UP:
1. Download it(end of post)
2. Place it in your AoS folder.
3. Either double click it and say: Run in terminal or cd to your AoS directory and type ./client (it will take a few seconds to retrieve the servers)
4. Find the server you want to join.
5. Type in the number next to it(first number on the line)
6. Press Enter and wait for wine to start it!

EXAMPLE
This is an example to show what to do:
1. 2/8 45 Random
2. 5/25 200 Qwerty
Server: 1

It lists the servers(random and qwerty). Then I type in 1 the server number for Random and press enter.

BUGS:
It is still in beta 0.1 and sometime will glitch when getting the servers, this normally occurs when there is a fake server or server is set up weirdly.

If you find any others please post them here!

HELP:
If you would like to help develop this program please post!

Download: http://minus.com/mVHKcr4mO

This is a great game when you're running windows but on Linux specifically Ubuntu the performance seems to degrade with each update, the game would run better natively on Linux that it does through Wine and increase the player base to both Linux users and other Unix OS's such as Mac OS x.
This may issue may have been raised before although nothing has been done about it, and I am aware that this brilliant game is only developed by the one guy but many people are missing out on the game.
so yeah, please consider porting to Linux and other Unix Os's

- killerhoboXx

Hello, forgive me if i break any rules for this forum by posting this here. I have got a working application made for mac os x 10.5 and 10.6 intel computers, i am posting here to see how many people are interested in me posting my ace of spades for mac game to mediafire or something of the like. i know people have said use crossover but crossover isn't very easy to use and personally i don't like to use it very often and so i have made an easy program that you launch, install ace of spades and then double click on it and it runs ace of spades perfectly! this is all done by wine for mac os x for those who are interested and i deserve no credit as the credit goes to those who have made wine and wineskin possible as well the team who are working away on ace of spades and are making an awesome fun and unique game. please let me know of what you think, questions, tutorials, etc.
PS. this method should(might not) work for linux and ubuntu as well.

Okay, so there are some people that prefer using UNIX (That's Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, the BSDs, etc) to Microsoft Windows. In that case, you need to use a program called Wine to play. If you like using the command line interface, like I do, here's a guide to getting Ace of Spades to work, and play well:
(In these instructions, I am using ## in place of the version number. Remember to change this. Tab completes in most shells, but make sure you're in the same working directory of the installer if you don't want to type the full path out.)

chmod 755 aos*install.msi && wine start aos##install.msi
This makes the installer executable, and starts it.

nano ~/.wine/drive_c/Ace\ of\ Spades/config.ini
This is for changing your name. Nano is recommended for beginners, but any plaintext editor works.

echo "wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Ace\ of\ Spades/client.exe -$1" > aos && chmod 755 aos
This makes a small script you can use to start playing from the command line.

echo "wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Ace\ of\ Spades/server.exe" > aoserv && chmod 755 aoserv
...Alternatively, you can also have one that starts a server. I'd use this in GNU Screen.

sudo cp aos /usr/games
Now let's add this to our path. If this folder isn't in your path, see what is by typing "echo $PATH". You'll probably need privileges to copy the script there.

aos aos://16777343
When you want to play, just type aos and paste the server URL. This example would connect you to a server on your rig (localhost).

I hope this helps! Feel free to copy, modify, or distribute; it's public domain.

"Bob''

Hello, I have a dual booted computer and AOS works perfectly on windows, but it isn't working on Linux Mint, I have followed tutorials but it doesn't work.

Thanks!

Hello everyone!

My problem concerns running AoS on Linux. The game installs fine on Wine, but when I try to join a server, i get the error message, "Firefox doesn't know how to open this address, because the protocol (aos) isn't associated with any program."

Any idea on how to circumvent this problem?

Thanks!

Similar tutorial for setting up a server for Ace Of Spades as this one http://ace-spades.com/forums/topic.php?id=115 but using CentOS instead of Debian.

This tutorial will help you set up your own server using linux, and also help out the community by increasing the amount of servers that ACTUALLY work!

Step 1: Create a new user (working in root is scary for n00blings)

syntax: adduser AceOfSpades

Step 2: Download Ace Of Spades on to your computer.

Step 3: Transfer those files on to your Linux server. I use a program called WinSCP which allows you to easily copy & paste files between your computer and your server.

Step 4: At this point you will need to install a windows emulator on your machine as Linux cannot execute binary files natively. I use an add-on called Wine to do so.

In order to install Wine on CentOS, you will need to first install an add-on called RPMForge. Head over to this link: http://24x7servermanagement.com/blog/?p=524
and follow those simple steps to get Wine up and running on your machine.

Great! Now you have a windows emulator within CentOS and are ready to launch your Ace of Spades server.

Step 5: A useful program to have to do be able to have a sturdy server is an add-on called "screen".

syntax: yum install screen

Step 6: Now it's time to launch your server! Hoorah!

syntax:

screen
wine server.exe

(Type in number of players)
(Type in server name)

now if you want to get away from the server but still have it running, just hit Crtl + A + D. To return to the server window just type "screen -r" (without the quotes).

Step 7: ?????

Step 8: PROFIT!!!!!!

Other: Check out ComradeFlapjack's tutorial on how to ban hackers from your server http://ace-spades.com/forums/topic.php?id=92

If you need any help, or have any improvements for this topic, just reply to this thread.