State of the mods

NintendowsNintendows Join Date: 2016-11-07 Member: 223716Members, Squad Five Blue
edited November 2017 in NS2 General Discussion
Considering the difficulty of going through the steam workshop for quality mods, I thought I'd give a general report as to what I see in the NS2 modding scene. This will probably be a bit biased towards my own stuff, so please let me know if I'm forgetting/omitting something.

Arcade servers
The most popular "Arcade" server is Wooza's Playground by a large margin, but they run almost no gameplay changing mods. Most of their mods are performance-related or quality-of-life related, and they pack it in their "Potpourri" collection, the list can be found here: https://github.com/woozasmoddingteam/Wooza-s-Potpourri/tree/master/dependencies . Playground also has a mod selector enabled, so users nominate and vote to switch on GunGame (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=628353907) or Defence Mod (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=629502655) temporarily.

The second most popular arcade server is the "Siege++" server, which runs a large assortment of gameplay-changing mods such as Spider Gorge, Two-Channel Phase-gates, Acid rocket, etc. The list can be found here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1096275480.

The third most played arcade server is the Marine vs Marine server that uses the Rebirth collection of mods (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=846060238) and configures each team to be marine using the OnlyMvM mod (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1010058783).

The Chinese moem.cc server has users on it occasionally, and they play vanilla and all sorts of mods, from siege to MvM to GunGame. I don't really know much more about it.

Infested seems to still be played from time to time, but it seems to work best as a special event kind of thing.

Non-whitelisted "vanilla" servers
The LuckyFkers Enforced server is probably the most heavily modified vanilla-ish server I know of. They use a modified Modular Exos (by @Scatter) to add a flamethrower exo that has a built-in pulse grenade effect. They add in the Flame Sentries mod (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=784131783) and modify a lot of vanilla values in their "Enforced" mod to add auto-welding exos, onocide, and napalm grenades. It's pretty cool, and they have a handy changelog here: https://www.luckyfkers.com/enforced-mod/

Modded white-list servers gameplay-changing mods

The The Thirsty Onos runs Ghouls Balance Mod (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=768899664) which heavily alters gameplay (removes silence, re-balances huge swathes of the tech trees, changes lots of values), adds quality-of-life improvements, and does a good job of informing the user about the changes. The code is MIT licensed and the complete changelog can be found here: https://github.com/GhoulofGSG9/Ghouls-Balance-Mod

The DMD servers run an interesting balance mod called Diamond BadgesV5.0 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=867253498. It changes a lot of default values like hydra cost and damage, flamethrowers, machine guns, welder rates, sentries, macs, and a few other tweaks. I wouldn't recommend running this mod since it forces a donation website to pop up on your screen (even if you have websites disabled in your settings).

Skins and cosmetic mods
By far the most popular cosmetic mods are the "DMD" collection. Every DiamondGamers.net server runs the ~200MB DMD skin package: Server operators are free to also run these mods simply by giving users access to the appropriate shine commands, the same way DMD does when a user buys access to them. Due to the lack of documentation on these mods, some people were questioning the validity of the ownership of these skins. I personally checked with a few of the original skin creators, and they're okay with their skins being re-distributed in these packages.

A popular cosmetic is also the Kouji San's Nostalgia Infestation mod (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=655374175)

Many servers also run a shoulder patches mod (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1193596410). It seems to only get packed into the various administrative mods (wooza's potpourri, 8-bit forever, Diamond BadgesV5.0, etc).

A few servers are running Nebula Skins (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1202272302)

Working custom game modes
A lot of custom game modes are currently broken, but the following I know are relatively bug free and server ops are free to run them:
In-progress custom game modes
Recently created quality mods
A special mention goes out to NS2+ and Shine, which are practically part of the base game now. I haven't seen any dedicated servers running without those mods.
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Comments

  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    That is quite a neat list and interesting to see what's out there, being used! I'm also sad that, Combat, Classic, the Faded, Skulks with Shotguns, Last Stand aren't on the list anymore :disappointed:
    Off Topic Disagree 3Agree 1Awesome
  • NintendowsNintendows Join Date: 2016-11-07 Member: 223716Members, Squad Five Blue
    The Combat mod just went open source (MIT license) so it might be coming back if someone picks up the torch! https://github.com/AlexHayton/NS2Combat/commit/881a73ad8018f191ac7d92e415b361c88ac62501
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  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    I think this impressively shows how active and dedicated this community really is.

    ...

    In completely unrelated news, I'm starting my own balance mod! Check over here, I literally released it 15 minutes ago.
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  • NordicNordic Long term camping in Kodiak Join Date: 2012-05-13 Member: 151995Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited November 2017
    Please format in a more readable way. I recommend BBcode headers and embedded hyperlinks. It is readable, but make it easy for us to see what is in there without reading the whole thing.
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  • AeglosAeglos Join Date: 2010-04-06 Member: 71189Members
    Huh, interesting that Diamond Badges is actually the balance mod. No idea why they load so many that they can't even display the entire list. I don't care enough to search their mod ids anyway.
    Nintendows wrote: »
    A special mention goes out to NS2+ and Shine, which are practically part of the base game now. I haven't seen any dedicated servers running without those mods.

    LuckyFkers didn't use to for quite awhile. And I think there are a couple of pure vanilla servers although they aren't played on much. UWE officials didn't use to. Not sure if the rookie servers are hosted by them and if they are available there. They sure weren't previously, although you wouldn't play on them due to the massive rubberbanding you would get anyway.
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  • VetinariVetinari Join Date: 2013-07-23 Member: 186325Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    I think UWE Official servers haven't been a thing in over two years now.
    Off Topic Disagree 1Agree Awesome
  • AeglosAeglos Join Date: 2010-04-06 Member: 71189Members
    edited November 2017
    Who owns UWE NS2 Rookie then?
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  • NintendowsNintendows Join Date: 2016-11-07 Member: 223716Members, Squad Five Blue
    Aeglos wrote: »
    Who owns UWE NS2 Rookie then?

    I believe UWE owns the rookie server. It's one of the only servers that doesn't run NS2+ or Shine.
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