Installing addons

Half-Life has an array of addons that you can install on your server. Some are fun, some add functionality and many just make administration less painful.

Note: "Mod" in this context refers to server-side plugins, not Counter-Strike.

Metamod

Your first call for installing addons is Metamod. This innovative mod acts as your mod manager, allowing you to easily configure which mods you want to run on your server.

How to install Metamod

You can either get Metamod as a standalone file from the official website, or you can obtain it as part of another mod, such as Admin Mod or AMX Mod X, which are much easier to install. We recommend that the majority of users simply use the AMX Mod X or Admin Mod installers.

If you want to install Metamod manually from the official site, go to the folder your server is installed to, for example, "C:\HLDS2\", and then enter the folder of the game that you want to install Metamod for. For example, if I wanted to install it for my Counter-Strike server, I would go to the cstrike folder. Now create a new folder inside cstrike called "addons". Inside this folder, create another folder called "Metamod". Inside this folder, create yet another folder called "dlls". Copy the metamod.dll (or metamod.so for Linux) file you downloaded into the dlls folder. Then create a new text document inside your Metamod folder called "plugins.ini". Make sure it is not called plugins.ini.txt.

Now to enable Metamod. Go back to the cstrike folder and open liblist.gam in your favourite plain text editor. On Windows, change the line that begins "gamedll" to gamedll "addons\Metamod\dlls\metamod.dll". On Linux, change the line that begins "gamedll_linux" to gamedll_linux "addons\Metamod\dlls\metamod.so" Now check that it has loaded properly by starting your CS server and typing "meta list" into the console. If the installation was successful, Metamod will tell you that no plugins are installed. This is normal.

Installing new plugins

The general rule with installing new plugins is that if it does not come in an installer form, to put the plugin into the addons folder, and then add its entry into the Metamod plugins.ini file. Open up the plugins.ini file and use this syntax (without the square brackets):

[win32/linux (depending on whether you run Windows or Linux)] [path to plugin dll file, use a backslash for Windows and forward slash for Linux]

For example: win32 addons\amxmodx\dlls\amxmodx_mm.dll

Administration mods

These mods are designed to make server administration much easier, and in some cases, automated.

Admin Mod

One of the first mods designed to allow for much easier server administration, this mod adds vote functionality for many popular and previously admin-only commands, such as what the next map should be, or whether a player should be kicked from the server. It includes its own basic kick, ban, slap and slay commands, and much more. It also has commands that can be used for "fun" purposes, such as the ability to glow a certain colour. It has a plugin architecture of its own, allowing you to add your own customisations. It can be downloaded from the official website.

AMX Mod X

This mod is rather popular for many reasons, the main one being that, similar to Admin Mod, it has a plugin architecture of its own. It is used mostly to administrate servers through either the built-in admin commands, or through the use of plugins. It arguably has a better plugin architecture than Admin Mod which is evident from its large plugin database. You can download it from the official website.

Fun mods

These mods are designed to add new features to a game, which can either change it radically or allow new methods of playing the game, or simply add a distraction.

AdminOP

Only available for TFC, this mod changes the game completely into something that resembles Minecraft or Garry's Mod. Admins can gain access to a variety of features, most notably the "entmover", which allows the user to grab entities and move them around. The user can thus build things such as houses and villages on specially created maps, then save their creations to load again at a later time. A credit system is introduced where the player can buy special items to increase their speed, durability, or to purchase weapons. Players can also access radios, which play music that is automatically downloaded when the player connects to the server. It allows players to change their model into a custom model. Be warned however, installing this mod destroys any chances of having a serious game of TFC, as the mod simply changes too many concepts and introduces too many distractions. You can download the latest version from a forum post on the official website.

Ent Mod

As described in the AdminOP section, Ent Mod allows you to move, rotate and apply attributes to entities, including func_walls. This allows you to build things in a similar fashion to Garry's Mod, such as houses and villages, among other things. You can download it from the official website.

Hook Mod

This mod is fairly popular among some mods, specifically TFC and Sven Co-op. It allows the user to shoot a grappling hook onto a wall in order to make navigation and enemy evasion easier. Occasionally, it is used to cheat past certain obstacles. This hook functionality is already present in AdminOP, so if your server already runs that, you do not need Hook Mod. You can download it from the official site.

NeoTF

Also only for TFC, this mod adds many new features that "make a strong team stronger and a weak team weaker". For instance, it adds the "multigun", similar to the sentry gun already present in TFC, but upgradable with class-specific upgrades. Each class (with the exception of the civilian) gets their own new abilities that are exposed in a menu. While it does not change the game hugely, it does make enough of an impact to make NeoTF distinctive from vanilla TFC. A Windows download is available here and a Linux download is available here.