Sticky How to Properly Obtain Proof Against Rule Breakers

There are two ways to get proof, one is so god awful easy and the other isn't awfully hard either.

Easy Way: Screenshots! Yes, SCREENSHOTS!
Contrary to popular belief, screenshots are not hard at all to take, and to take at the right time either. Steam makes it really simple.

The default key to take screenshots via Steam is "F12", if it's different, you probably changed it. To find it, go to Settings, In-Game, and look at the "Screenshot shortcut keys" field. That's your screenshot key.

Once you take a screenshot, in the Steam overlay you see a simple "View Screenshots" button, click it and it'll open a window with your screenshots, you can then choose to upload them and get their links to use in the thread.

Closed the game? No worries, open up Steam, click the "View" menu, and click "Screenshots". Select your session, upload them, and provide links in your abuse report thread.

Scenarios for screenshots:
Anything that's relatively linear to understand, like if someone is abusing commands (where it shows in the chat), using them to harass and/or ruin gameplay.

You also use screenshots to gather damage logs and status proof, or someone harassing you - just a couple examples.

What are damage logs?
The TTT gamemode has a built in console command, "ttt_print_damagelog". At the end of a round you may type this(or press an associated bind) and it'll print a log of the damage done that round, this can be useful if you're accused of RDM. Take a screenshot of this.

What's the console?
Oh dear God! You've just begun to learn! The console is a built in menu directed toward developers in the Source engine, but alot of powerusers use it, and you may find yourself slowly moving up to "power user" status. To gain access to the console, press that weird squiggly line at the top left of your keyboard above "Tab". The proper name for this key is "tilde" but I don't think you care, it looks like this: ~.

If pressing this doesn't work, don't fret! Click "Options", and then click "Advanced" near the bottom left of the menu, check the box that says "Enable Developer Console". You should now be able to press the proper button to access console.

You mentioned binding, what's this?
This my friend, is a wonderful command to allow us to put all of our unused keys to use! Let's start simple, let's bind your "\" key to print the damage logs, just type this in console:

Code:

bind \ ttt_print_damagelog

That simple! Now when you press that key it'll print out a damage log, if it's at the end of the round for normal users. There's another thing you should know, if your command has a space, you need to use quotes! For example, let's add the "status" command to your damagelog printing key. The status command prints out everyone on the server's username, SteamID, and other information.

Code:

bind \ "status; ttt_print_damagelog"

See how we used the semicolon to use multiple commands? It's nifty to know!

Screenshots aren't enough! Try DEMOS, A.K.A. VIDEOS!
Another thing we can thank valve for is blessing us with "demos", they're files you can make using the console(which you just learned how to use!) that is essentially a video, the thing is it's ultra small and causes next to no lag at all!

Sounds cool, where do I start?
If you notice someone abusing, say they're teleporting everything, spectate them and then open the console. Type this into console:

Code:

record anythinghere

Now it'll begin recording what you see, but be sure to make the filename(in this case "anythinghere") something useful.

Cool story bro, but how do I stop recording?
Simple, you just type stop into console, and then it stops and saves the demo.

Now it's gone!? WHAT DO I DO!
Don't panic! It's not gone, it's in your main garrysmod direction, but we'll get to that in a bit. If you want to review the demo, put this into console:

Code:

playdemo anythinghere

Assuming "anythinghere" is the name you chose earlier, you can use this to play the demo and then record it with fraps later on and upload it to youtube.

But I don't want to upload it to youtube!
No worries! You don't have to! Your demo file is in the main garrysmod directory named "anythinghere.dem", with the name being whatever you chose - of course. Just upload this, either as an attachment, to dropbox, or to another source and our experienced staff will review it in your abuse report.

Main garrysmod directory!? WHAT
That's fine! We all have got to learn eventually. I can spell out directions for Windows 7, which I'll do in a second, but it's pretty simple, you just go to your Steam folder(found in program files), then you go to the "SteamApps" folder - you'll then find a folder with your username(how uncanny!) go into that folder, you'll see "garrysmod" and then another "garrysmod".

Windows 7 directions to get to the garrysmod dir:

• Press Start
• Double-click "Computer"
• Double-click your main system drive(default is "C:")
• Double-click "Program Files (x86)", if you don't have this folder just double click "Program Files"
• Find and then double-click the "Steam" folder
• Double-click the "SteamApps" folder
• Double-click the folder with your username(the one you made when you signed up for a Steam account)
• Double-click the "garrysmod" folder
• ANOTHER GARRYSMOD FOLDER! Magic! Double-click that.

You are now at your main garrysmod folder! Find you anythinghere.dem file and paste it on the desktop, upload it via your preferred method and add it to your report.

That's all for now!
I hope you enjoyed this trip down the rabbit hole - er, I mean learning adventure. If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to reply.

~Created by @Zikeji