What Exactly Does "Mod" Mean?

DY357LXDY357LX Playing since day 1. Still can't Comm.England Join Date: 2002-10-27 Member: 1651Members, Constellation
in Modding
<div class="IPBDescription">In the NS2 (UW) use of the word.</div>When I hear the word "Mod" I tend to think of 3 things:

1: A moderator, be it a forum, irc channel etc. (Not relevant here.)
2: A modification to a game engine. (NS was a mod for Half-Life 1 etc. Sometimes called a Total Conversion.)
3: The types of Mod that World of Warcraft + Gmod use (sometimes called AddOns) that aren't a total conversion, it simply uses the engines API to it's own ends.

So when I think about NS2s future and possible mods.. I get a bit confused in terms of what's achievable.

Are future NS2 mods going to be revamped Armoury displays (WoW AddOn) style or new game-modes like Melon Racing +Wario Ware in Gmod?
(Or both?)


It's early days yet but does anyone have any idea what kind of mods are possible, (limitations etc) and can clear things up?
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Comments

  • roCosroCos Join Date: 2009-06-04 Member: 67685Members
    edited August 2010
    <!--quoteo(post=1790405:date=Aug 1 2010, 09:19 PM:name=The_Necroscope)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The_Necroscope @ Aug 1 2010, 09:19 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1790405"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->2: A modification to a game engine. (NS was a mod for Half-Life 1 etc. Sometimes called a Total Conversion.)
    3: The types of Mod that World of Warcraft + Gmod use (sometimes called AddOns) that aren't a total conversion, it simply uses the engines API to it's own ends.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I think both is possible.
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  • DixieWolfDixieWolf Join Date: 2010-02-10 Member: 70508Members
    either. you can load custom textures, models, maps into NS2. You can also modify existing weapons, entities, and game logic, or flat out create your own from scratch. NS2 (even in the alpha) could definitely be used for total conversion mods. NS2 does not, however, support forum moderators. Unless someone mods it to ... :D
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  • DY357LXDY357LX Playing since day 1. Still can&#39;t Comm. England Join Date: 2002-10-27 Member: 1651Members, Constellation
    Hmm interesting replies.

    Hopefully there's some safeguards in place to stop people altering max rifle clip values to 999, reload speeds to 0.0001 seconds and so on.
    (I'm sure Flayra, Max + co are more than aware of then and have ways to prevent.)

    I look forward to see what the modding community produces!
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  • FehaFeha Join Date: 2006-11-16 Member: 58633Members
    edited August 2010
    I certainly hope such safeguards are not made, and I suspect it wont.
    However, clients that mod it like that wont get unlimited ammo unless they play a single player game, because the guns are serverside.
    But if a server would use an inf ammo mod (which they obviously do for a reason and not cheat, and if they make it admin only for cheating, people will leave when an admin is on), the guns will be inf ammo.


    Such a mod as unlimited ammo could be usefull for anything from a hold the ground mod (marines spawn once and try to survive with only 1 rifle but has unlimited ammo), to a weld gun mod (if they want it to be like in ns1) and even more.
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  • DY357LXDY357LX Playing since day 1. Still can&#39;t Comm. England Join Date: 2002-10-27 Member: 1651Members, Constellation
    <!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I certainly hope such safeguards are not made, and I suspect it wont.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I meant I hope they're protected for standard (pure) NS2 play. Not a modded version or whatever. :)

    But like you said, certain values will be server-side and un-editable.
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  • shad3rshad3r Join Date: 2010-07-28 Member: 73273Members
    They've already gone over this. The server browser will distinguish between pure ns2 mode, with a consistency check for the standard game files, and everything else, where people can alter one thing or everything.
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  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    edited August 2010
    Natural Selection 2 is also nothing more then a mod running on Spark (a very VERY big mod at that <img src="http://members.home.nl/m.borgman/ns-forum/smileys/tongue.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />), but they do have access to the engine itself to add stuff they want in their game. What they use and are able to is basically the same we can use to create a mod or even a full game like NS2, Lua scripting within Spark's feature set... If they are going to licence Spark, which I bet they are going to do, you will be able to add stuff which can't be scripted...

    Ye olde mods have been possible on game engines that did not even think of giving you 10% of the options available in Spark. So imagine what can be done with this one...

    They said it from day one of the Spark reveal, they want this engine to be very mod-able so you can create your own games on it and even called NS2 a mod on Spark. Loads of possibilities!
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  • IeptBarakatIeptBarakat The most difficult name to speak ingame. Join Date: 2009-07-10 Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
    Back in high school everyone thought mods were another term for hax. Naturally because of my area being such a high concentration of console players.
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  • DelphicDelphic Join Date: 2006-11-02 Member: 58262Members
    @Kouji_San My only concern is that because NS2 is itself a mod it might rather hard to make mods that are in fact extensions of NS2 (e.g. the inevitable seige and classic mods). Whilst being relevantly easy to make total conversation mods.

    I mean I don't want to have to copy across the new NS2 lua every time NS2 gets updated and check my extension-of-NS2-mod still works or see if I have to re-write it.
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  • FehaFeha Join Date: 2006-11-16 Member: 58633Members
    Could be solved if it just like gmod could let you derive gamemodes, like "modded gamemode derived from gamemode 'sandbox'" or whatever it is it says in console.
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  • Kouji_SanKouji_San Sr. Hινε Uρкεερεг - EUPT Deputy The Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    <!--quoteo(post=1793900:date=Aug 13 2010, 02:52 PM:name=Delphic)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Delphic @ Aug 13 2010, 02:52 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1793900"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->@Kouji_San My only concern is that because NS2 is itself a mod it might rather hard to make mods that are in fact extensions of NS2 (e.g. the inevitable seige and classic mods). Whilst being relevantly easy to make total conversation mods.

    I mean I don't want to have to copy across the new NS2 lua every time NS2 gets updated and check my extension-of-NS2-mod still works or see if I have to re-write it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    The devs also are thinking about that one, keeping updates from killing off mods... Leave it up to Max to do some magic in that department (even when they were still brainstorming on this issue <img src="http://members.home.nl/m.borgman/ns-forum/smileys/tongue.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />)
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