Releasing Mods
Soul_Rider
Mod Bean Join Date: 2004-06-19 Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
Mod Bean Join Date: 2004-06-19 Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
As we have been working with the engine and releasing mods for a long-time, to people experienced in the Beta, some of the modders have got a little loose in their releases :P
A common problem being that new users don't understand that mods need to be in the same file structure as the ns2 directory. To counter this I suggest that all modders, when releasing a mod, release using a standard format.
For example when I release Proving Grounds or GorgeCraft you get a rar file named after the mod and version number - pgv171.rar, or gcv151.rar for example.
To create this I just zip the relevant mod file from the Natural Selection 2 directory, let's take pg as the example. I zip up the folder called pg. This is now pg.rar, and I rename this to the version number, pgv151.rar for example. Now when users extract this file to the ..../steam/steamapps/common/natural selection 2/ folder they just need to follow the wiki instructions on adding a mod, and it works.
For reference here are the wiki instructions. Maybe customising these and adding them to your download, as well as making sure the directory structure is correct, will help new users get on with using the mods.
<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->Launching your mod
This instruction will walk you through launching a mod. For the purpose of this demonstration, we will use an imaginary mod called "tsa".
Move the Mod folder tsa into your "....\steam\steamapps\common\natural selection 2\" folder.
Right click on ns2.exe and click on send to desktop (create shortcut).
Right click the shortcut and select properties.
Find the line called target and after the "....\Steam\steamapps\common\natural selection 2\NS2.exe" add: -game tsa.
On my computer the target line reads - "F:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\natural selection 2\NS2.exe" -game tsa
Click the general tab of the properties window.
Change the name from "shortcut to ns2" to "tsa".
Click OK.
Double Click the tsa desktop icon to launch the mod.
The -game commandline argument causes the game engine to search for game files at the address provided. Using -game tsa, would cause the engine to search for the mod folder in the NSROOT folder. You can also specify a full path if you have decided to put your mod files in a different folder i.e. -game "c:\mystuff\tsa". When ever you see MODDIR on this page it means the directory set by the -game commandline.<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->
A common problem being that new users don't understand that mods need to be in the same file structure as the ns2 directory. To counter this I suggest that all modders, when releasing a mod, release using a standard format.
For example when I release Proving Grounds or GorgeCraft you get a rar file named after the mod and version number - pgv171.rar, or gcv151.rar for example.
To create this I just zip the relevant mod file from the Natural Selection 2 directory, let's take pg as the example. I zip up the folder called pg. This is now pg.rar, and I rename this to the version number, pgv151.rar for example. Now when users extract this file to the ..../steam/steamapps/common/natural selection 2/ folder they just need to follow the wiki instructions on adding a mod, and it works.
For reference here are the wiki instructions. Maybe customising these and adding them to your download, as well as making sure the directory structure is correct, will help new users get on with using the mods.
<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->Launching your mod
This instruction will walk you through launching a mod. For the purpose of this demonstration, we will use an imaginary mod called "tsa".
Move the Mod folder tsa into your "....\steam\steamapps\common\natural selection 2\" folder.
Right click on ns2.exe and click on send to desktop (create shortcut).
Right click the shortcut and select properties.
Find the line called target and after the "....\Steam\steamapps\common\natural selection 2\NS2.exe" add: -game tsa.
On my computer the target line reads - "F:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\natural selection 2\NS2.exe" -game tsa
Click the general tab of the properties window.
Change the name from "shortcut to ns2" to "tsa".
Click OK.
Double Click the tsa desktop icon to launch the mod.
The -game commandline argument causes the game engine to search for game files at the address provided. Using -game tsa, would cause the engine to search for the mod folder in the NSROOT folder. You can also specify a full path if you have decided to put your mod files in a different folder i.e. -game "c:\mystuff\tsa". When ever you see MODDIR on this page it means the directory set by the -game commandline.<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->
Comments
It used to look in the registry, find the NS2 folder for you and just install it (and give you shortcuts in the start menu etc.). I'll dig it out and include it in Combat again and then others can use it if they want...