[Spirrwell]

Hi! One of my favorite mods to play is moving to the Source 2013 engine in October with some other major updates, and it will mean that it will be able to use the custom folder with VPKs for custom content.

However, an unfortunate thing is that it will not be integrated with the Steam Workshop in any way as far as I know. So I thought maybe this could be done server-side. First I was wondering if such a plugin exists yet, because I haven't found one.

Secondly if it doesn't, what might be the best way to go about it? I've thought about the sm_url command that integrates with the MOTD and that would be nice. I could create a simple website with a free host and it wouldn't be that big of a deal. BUT, I don't believe that one can download stuff like this, can they? Would there need to be some sort of special protocol invoked on the website or something?

I wanted to go the sm_url type route, because it would mean I could have preview images and I think possibly videos, so that people could see what they're downloading. I would love to simply use the SourceMod menus, but it's all text, and while I could probably get some sort of preview by using a sprite on the screen or something, it would be difficult to get everything to line up because there's no real "scrolling" through menus, if that makes sense.

I think that this could all be done and dealt with, but the last issue is just how would one deal with conflicting mods? And would it be possible to allow them to "uninstall" a mod from inside the server. It seems like quite a heap to deal with without a native Steam Workshop support for it.

Any help or information is GREATLY appreciated.

[Jammy]

Your post has many words, and still managed to be vague. What game are you referring to? I highly doubt something like this could practically be implemented without recreating the wheel so to speak. Expect to shell out lodsemone if you want someone to write it for you here. The age of freely written plugins is long gone for most.

[Spirrwell]

I don't quite understand how it would be vague, and no, I don't plan on paying for a plugin, I'll write it myself. I'm simply looking for how to make it work, and\or plugins that offer similar functionality. By functionality I mean say a plugin that downloads something from the server, a plugin that has some kind of a more advanced interface than simple menus, and so on. Even if none of these things are connected themselves, it gives me code to work from, ideas, and so on.

The game\mod I'm referring to is a free one called Pirates, Vikings, and Knights II. The reason I didn't mention its name is because I sincerely doubt most people are familiar with it, and I think it's irrelevant to what I'm trying to do.

I'm not looking to reinvent, I'm looking to get something that works in place of something that doesn't exist in the game. You've got something like the saysounds plugin, it has its own way of handling MP3 files, it's not really reinventing, it's something that the Source Engine doesn't handle well on its own.

Back to my initial questions, the command sm_url that I believe comes from one of the advanced\fun admin commands plugins or something, could be a way to accomplish my goal. I'd simply use its source to figure out how it does what it does and implement it myself so that it can be triggered with a chat command like !customstuff. That would bring the person to the URL I have set for custom content. This integrates with the MOTD or "message of the day" or "!motd" or for a more visual representation as to what the MOTD is:

Spoiler

And here is the sm_url command in action with it:

Spoiler

Now I could create a simple website that uses a free host. That's no big deal. The only problem is, how would I allow the person to click on a download link?

This is what happens when somebody tries to click on a download link from inside:

Spoiler

It looks like it tries to read the file as plain text, and it lags you out horribly. My question is if there is a way to create a download link that would work using some kind of a different protocol like steam:// or whatever. I know a lot of plugins communicate with MySQL servers for stats and such, so is there some way to use this as a way to download?

If that's unfeasible, the second thought would be to use menus. Menus here shouldn't be any surprise to anybody:

Spoiler

Simple, however these menus are very limited. I looked up on the SourceMod wiki and found that there are two menu styles, a radio style, and classic style. However it seemed like it was overall the same in functionality. I could kind of hackishly put something together by putting sprites on the screen that are images of what you're looking to download, so you can actually see for yourself. By doing it this way I don't have to worry about a website or download URLs, but it would certainly be a tedious process as the menu system doesn't seem very flexible. I'm looking for a more graphical interface.

And so I hope that everything I have said makes things as clear as possible for you or anybody trying to understand exactly what it is I am trying to do, and the ideas I already have. I apologize for the wall of text, but if I was being vague before, I'm trying to be as articulate as possible now.

Any information on plugins that offer some kind of functionality that I'm looking for or some information on what I would need would be hugely helpful. If I am still being vague, please explain to me what I'm missing to make it more understandable as to what I'm trying to accomplish.

Thank you in advance!