Tribes 2 // Mod Development Handbook GitHub

44 · Meltdown 2

The heaviest Classic derivative in this handbook — a mech-combat total conversion, primarily made and maintained by Keen, built directly on top of Classic 1.1’s own defaultGame.cs.

   
Maintainer Keen, with contributions credited on the Radiant Age forums [community]
Lineage Classic 1.1 — defaultGame.cs is byte-identical; server.cs differs by 3 lines
Distribution Many archives spanning 2008–2011 (build 128 through 2.7.7.2435-021711); one release, meltdown 2 FINAL V, extracted here
Character Mech armour classes, energy weapons, six damage types, its own client patch

Confirmed: built directly on Classic 1.1, not merely inspired by it

This is the most exact lineage match in this handbook outside the Classic family itself. defaultGame.cs is byte-for-byte identical to Classic 1.1’s. server.cs differs by exactly three lines, and the sole functional addition is one exec() call [mod-script]:

exec("scripts/MDInit.cs");

CTFGame.cs differs by 36 lines from Classic 1.1’s, one of which is a direct attribution [mod-script]:

// Package Mod: Keen 12-05-2009

Vanilla base’s CTFGame.cs lacks the whole MPB-teleporter/sentry/tesla scoring block Classic added (section 43 traces the same block into Revmod2); Meltdown 2 has it, inherited from Classic rather than reconstructed. Against Classic 1.5.2, there are no exact matches at all — Meltdown 2 forked specifically from 1.1, not the later baseline most other Classic derivatives in this handbook target.

player.cs is the one file that breaks from Classic entirely — over 3500 lines different from both Classic and base, which is where the mech/armour-module system actually lives.

What it adds

The bundled manual.txt — a wiki export rather than a traditional readme — documents a genuine total-conversion combat system layered on that thin Classic core [community]:

  • Weapon firing-mode switching
  • Deployable build and unpack timers
  • A parallel HP/GeV stat pair alongside the stock damage model
  • Six damage types: Energy, Explosive, Kinetic, Plasma, Mitzi, Poison, plus Neutral
  • Status effects: EMP Shock, Burning, Poisoning
  • An F2 “Mod Hud” with Vehicle Configuration and “Mech Lab” tabs
  • Player, admin, and clan chat command sets

A companion meltdown2clientreadme.txt describes an optional v2.7.0 client patch adding a vehicle HP/shield graph, a mech heat graph, and bandwidth/lag optimisations — evidence of continued client-side investment well past the point most mods in this handbook stopped shipping updates.

The outer archive holds a decade of releases (M-D T-W v1.0 build 128 in the earliest naming scheme, through Meltdown2-2.7.7.2435-021711), of which the FINAL V snapshot examined here represents one late point in a long, continuously maintained line.

  • 38 · Classic 1.1 — the exact version this mod’s defaultGame.cs is identical to
  • 43 · Revmod2 — the same Classic MPB/Tesla scoring block, inherited independently
  • 27 · Deathmatch — TacoServer’s own much later, independent extension of a stock gametype, for contrast in scale