dodbits

Ok, we have got past all the easy stuff. The server mods are where a lot of people loose it completely. The documentation of it is never easy, the files you need often come from different groups and their assembly is more akin to a conductor of an orchestra, good musicians to work with but he or she can totally stuff it up.

How about some basics first, a roadmap of where to go next? Click on the image to rezise.

 
Confusing isn't it. I am sorry but no matter how you look at it, how high your IQ is... you are going to struggle with at least a little bit of this.
We will grab the Mods basic set, and then add some Plug-ins, and then assemble them on our local PC, ready to upload. It’s better to do it this way, if you need to change something it does not end up in a big mess and you can put instruction for yourself in the folders… you can’t do that on the game server. Plus you have a back-up!

MetaMod: Source…Go here.
For dods you will need the one for the Orange box engine. Pick your OS Win or Linux.

SourceMod… Go here.
For dods you will need the latest full package. Pick your OS Win or Linux.

These are the raw files from MetaMod: Source and SourceMod. They are the building blocks for the Mods.You just download them and extract to a folder, (preferably a “dod” folder inside one called “My Server files” or something like it) then move to the next step.

There is more to know about the main mod files!

Stable verses Unstable… is it for you?

You can use different versions of SourceMod (nightly builds), but use the correct version of MetaMod. SourceMod is a bit different… and it can be rewarding. See here for the "Snapshots" of SourceMod.

Warning. Using the latest version does fix problems. It also destroys some plugins.
These are not "stable" but sometimes they are a better option.

The trick is to get the plug-ins you want and see what they need to run them.

1. Does the plug-in only work for Windows… or Linux…or both?

2. Does it need a certain version of the main mod to work?

3. Does it conflict with another plug-in?

4. Is it an older plug-in that is now redundant because the main mod now has its functions included?

These are the questions you need to ask as you build a set of server mods... its complex and require a heap of testing. For SourceMod to keep up you have to do a lot of reading, some you will not understand, some you will…

The set I have assembled is just this, some of the plug-ins are older and work well, the main SourceMod version is not the latest stable release but one of the many snapshots SourceMod_v_2339.

At the time of writing, the versions that are past this one have problems for some of the plug-ins I like. So... the latest is not the greatest. The most up to date version can destroy some old plug-ins... it's enough to drive you to drink. It just requires a good set that work well and you just have to learn by trying them... one by one.

It depends what you are doing and what your game server needs.

For dods the old set of Mani, Eventscripts and ESTools is now not a good option.

The last update to dods broke a lot of stuff. The engine dods runs on now  is more closer to TF2 than Counter-Strike Source.
The people who maintain Mani and ESTools don't seem too interested in supporting the Orangebox engine. For Counterstrike Source... it is fine, not good for dods anymore... Prove me wrong and I will adjust this article.

If CSS goes to the new engine... it may get messy. CSS also runs on the MetaMod/SourceMod set but the older mod set of Eventscripts and ESTools has many more options that still work well.

But I am a dods player... I care not about them, lets continue

MetaMod...

dod\addons\metamod.vdf File opens with NotePad.

You need to make sure the metamod.vdf is correct for your mod... and that it is in the correct place. It has 2 jobs. Inform the server of the mod type and the location of a Windows or Linux file.

Here is what is in it...

"Plugin"
{
    "file"    "..\dod\addons\metamod\bin\server.dll"
}

...as you can see all it does is direct to the server.dll file on a dod server.


Don't get this wrong. The above is for a day of defeat source windows server. Two things here, is your server Windows or Linux? Is it dod or counterstrike?

Here is one for a Counter-Strike server ... running on Linux...

"Plugin"

{
   
          "file"  "../cstrike/addons/metamod/bin/server_i486.so"

}


You see the first part of the address changed... middle is the same and the file is not a windows .dll... it is a Linux .so. Still confused? Go here and make one.


dod\addons\metamod.ini File opens with NotePad.

This is a file you may have to visit latter. MetaMod uses this file to load plug-ins. SourceMod is one of those plug-ins that run under MetaMod but does not need to be entered. Why? Because SourceMod have a default .VDF file that does the same thing.

However, if you read the instructions in some MetaMod plug-ins readme's the address of the .dll or .so. If that is the case we will be visiting this file latter, Its like the Cafeblock plug-in , it needs this to work...

addons\cafeblock\bin\cb_mm

But that’s latter on as we add some plug-ins from MetaMod and SourceMod. The set we have assembled so far can now be uploaded to the server. You should stop the server to do this.