Originally posted by Leviathis
Hey everyone, im relatively new here and i had a question. Im new to the whole modding thing and how do run them. Hell I thought FS2 was dead before i found this place (im frigin THRILLED that it is still thriving).
All the new people seem to go through this phase
Especially upon viewing the Source Code Project's work.
Can't say I really blame any of them
Originally posted by Leviathis
Anyway, is there a difference between the campaigns (like Desperation, Homesick, Derelict...etc) and the mods (like Babalon Project, Ferrium..etc)? I noticed for The Babalon Project you have to uninstall FS2 to install it, getting rid of any other mods. Do you have to do this for campaigns?
What is the difference between the user made campaigns and the mod projects?
Your problem is caused by the fact that the term mod (short for modification) and the term campaign are both used to mean two somewhat different things.
A campaign is the name for a series of missions which must be flown in order. As opposed to stand alone missions which can be flown from the tech room. TBP has campaigns as do several of the other "mods"
A mod is a single new ship, weapon or effect. In fact almost any addition to the game apart from a mission can be refered to as a mod. If you look in the modding forum this is the meaning that is implied by the word.
The basic difference between the second usage of the terms mod and campaign is rather minimal. In general a series of missions including new ships etc which is set in the freespace universe is refered to as a campaign as it is a set of missions continuing the freespace story. If it is set in a different universe (like the B5 or robotech mods) the term mod is used because the whole of FS2 is being modified to play a completely different story.
In real terms there is actually very little difference between the two apart from that. For instance the Inferno campaign and the B5 mod have both changed almost all of the original files. Even though it is called a campaign Inferno could almost be refered to as a total conversion. In terms of how the game itself works there is no difference at all between the two.
As for getting rid of all mods before installing a mod like TBP. Well I'm not going to say they're wrong but I've got 10 campaigns installed on my computer alongside TBP and I've never had any problems with any of them.
The TBP team have suggested that you uninstall everything because many people like yourself who are new to the community get into trouble installing mods and campaigns and it's far too much trouble to support their problems. If you've previously installed mods and then try to install TBP you can get crashes and weird behaviour caused by the previously installed mods interfering.
FS2 Open has made things much easier to deal with but even with retail you could install multiple mods with no problems if you knew what you were doing.
MY FAQ's directory structure page contains a whole load of information on how to install multiple mods on FS2 retail. The rules for FS2 Open are even easier.
If you want to try it just post and I'll write up an explaination. It's about time I updated the guide on how to do it anyway
