[Nehemiah]

I'm looking through my file directories, and I am having trouble determining the difference between actual mods of the game versus simple additional game campaigns.  Can someone explain the difference?

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Campaigns consist of missions only. Mods have added ships, weapons and/or other stuff.

[Nehemiah]

So Warzone would be a mod, but Blue Planet would be a campaign pack?

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Dunno about Warzone, but Blue Planet is definitely a mod. It has new ships, weapons, music...

[Nehemiah]

Oh...so if new campaigns come in a folder with other stuff, they're probably mods?

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Well, to see the difference, you'd have to look inside the VPs. Just "campaigns" are rarely released these days, most are mods.

[Pred the Penguin]

lol... "you"

So you can't really tell from just looking inside the folder?

[FreeSpaceFreak]

No, you can only tell from looking inside the VPs in the folder.

[Vrets]

I'm not sure if I understand the basic idea behind this thread. Mods, campaigns, mod packs...whatever.

It is all a matter of semantics, at this point. Even the more "pure" campaigns (missions only, or maybe even some nameplates and voice files, etc) typically have their own folders that run mediavps/fsport/etc as a secondary mod if only for the sake of superior organization and ease of installation.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

The basic premise is that mods mainly use non-canon ships included in the VP files that come with it and campaigns mainly make use of canon ships in the original FS2 VP files, or otherwise use ships from other VP files that do not come with it.

Examples of mods are Blue Planet, Inferno, and the FreeSpace Port, as most of the ships used in their centrepiece campaign do not come from any of the original FS2 VPs or rely on VP files from another mod or campaign.

Examples of campaigns are Warzone, Derelict and Destiny of Peace. The former two use ships from the FS2 VP files, while the latter uses ships from the FreeSpace Port.

[Mongoose]

When you get down to the nitty-gritty, even Warzone and Derelict could be considered "mods" from the standpoint of the game engine, since they both contain custom tables and thus require using separate mod folders in order to keep FS2_Open properly.  From that standpoint, a plain "campaign" would be anything that you could throw in your main data/missions folder without fouling anything else up, something that consists of nothing more than mission and campaign files.  That distinction doesn't do much from a discussion standpoint, though.

[Titan]

campaigns and mods seem to be synonomous for FS

[Pred the Penguin]

As long as you can tell the difference between a normal campaign/mod from a full conversion, it doesn't really matter.

[Titan]

exactly. I always just manage to piss people off when I try and get them to play FS, and then they ask if there are mods for it.

Also, everyone seems to want it either free roaming or arcade style. And also, they get pissed off when I say they don't get a special uber ship.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Well, they could use ~ + I and ~ + W on an Erinyes equipped with Kaysers...