The Proving Ground is now on the Workshop, with its own page, previews and a one-click install. This update also adds NPC bots that fight, hold points and carry the flag, ride in your vehicles' seats, and fill out empty servers. Here's everything since the last update.<figure class="content-image-figure image-size-full image-align-center" data-size="full" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792727814507.webp" alt="bots_bus" class="content-image" data-caption="Your friends on a bus."><figcaption class="content-image-caption">Your friends on a bus.</figcaption></figure><h2>NPC bots (partial support)</h2>Bots are still a work in progress, but they can already play a proper round:<figure class="content-image-figure image-size-full image-align-center" data-size="full" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792727867410.gif" alt="bots_capture" class="content-image"></figure><ul><li>Smarter positioning. After a capture, part of the team holds the point from cover around it and the rest pushes on, instead of everyone crowding onto the point.</li><li>Capture the Flag. Bots pick up the enemy flag and run it home. With Combat AI installed, they shoot on the way instead of stopping to fight.</li><li>Riding in your vehicles. Vehicle owners can mark seats for bots through the E2/Starfall functions. Bots prefer the most heavily armored vehicle and board through the exit point you set, so even seats buried deep inside a hull work. They get out at the same point when they arrive, the round ends, or the seat is unmarked. A player can take a bot's seat after a short grace period (<code>tpg_bots_seat_grace</code>). A seated bot shows as a seated model and takes damage when the seat is hit, just like a player.</li></ul><figure class="content-image-figure image-size-large image-align-center" data-size="large" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792727911363.gif" alt="bots_boarding" class="content-image"></figure><ul><li>ACE-aware. Bots run from live ACE grenades and only throw ACE grenades, not HL2 frags. ACE shots and explosions now trigger Combat AI's suppression and hearing, and ACE weapons use their own NPC firing ranges.</li><li>Target choice. Bots pick sensible anti-tank targets, and friendly bots show on your HUD.</li><li>Fair play. Bots no longer shoot at players inside their own safezone, where they can't hurt them anyway. Bot flag carriers now show their names in the CTF HUD.</li><li>Admin control. New settings let admins tune bots, including <code>tpg_bots_friendly_fire</code> to let players hurt teammate bots. Bots never hurt their own team.</li><li>Cleanup. Corpses fade after 5 seconds, both server- and client-side, so long rounds don't fill up with ragdolls.</li></ul><h2>Admin tools</h2><ul><li>Admin settings in the Q menu. No more digging through console commands.</li><li>In-game map editor. Place spawns and control points from inside the game with the point tool, then fine-tune them in the editor. It warns you about layout problems, like a hill floating in the air, and lets you preview every game mode before you export.</li><li>Official map collection. If the server has too few supported maps installed, the console points you to the TPG map collection on the Workshop.</li><li><figure class="content-image-figure image-size-medium image-align-center" data-size="medium" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792728678371.png" alt="console_collection" class="content-image" data-caption="start up console"><figcaption class="content-image-caption">start up console</figcaption></figure></li></ul><figure class="content-image-figure image-size-large image-align-center" data-size="large" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792727986487.webp" alt="point_tool" class="content-image"></figure><figure class="content-image-figure image-size-large image-align-center" data-size="large" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792728007380.png" alt="Map editor" class="content-image" data-caption="Map editor"><figcaption class="content-image-caption">Map editor</figcaption></figure><h2>Fixes from a clean-server playthrough</h2>We ran TPG on a fresh server, the way a new subscriber would, and fixed what broke:<ul><li>The map vote only offers maps the server actually has installed. Before, a missing map could leave the server with no round running. If no other maps are available, the server stays on the current map and starts the next round. Map votes also no longer stack.</li><li>The per-map wins-before-vote setting works now. It was documented but ignored.</li><li>No more medals for a category nobody scored in, like "Most Kills (0)".</li><li>On gm_flatgrass, spawns and control points now sit on the ground. Before, they were floating 12,000 units up.</li><li>No more "team already in use by another addon" warning on every boot.</li><li>Players without TF2 now see a proper control point disc instead of a big ERROR model.</li></ul><h2>On the Workshop</h2><figure class="content-image-figure image-size-large image-align-center" data-size="large" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792728034847.gif" alt="modes" class="content-image"></figure><ul><li>Workshop pages with animated game mode and loadout previews, captioned gallery stills and full descriptions.</li><li>Nadmod Prop Protection is now listed as a requirement.</li><li>E2/Starfall support lives in its own add-on, tpg_e2sf, which includes the bot seat functions above.</li></ul><h2>Behind the scenes</h2><ul><li>Tests and glualint run automatically on every change.</li><li>New contributor docs (CONTRIBUTING and AGENTS) for anyone who wants to help.</li><li>The README has an animated header and a gameplay slideshow.</li></ul><h2>What's next</h2>Bots are still partial. Expect more work on how they drive and fight from vehicles, plus fixes from your reports. Found a bug or have an idea? Let us know on GitHub or Discord.

The Proving Ground: Bots Join the Fight, Now on the Workshop

Blog Post

Hello everyone, hope you're doing well. So as you may know I used to host TPG events on AWM server, but due to some complications with real life stuff as well as community problems I decided that it'd be best if TPG was more standalone and less of a "proprietary product". Playing TPG with friends is now more than easier, download it on workshop, install the E2/SF expansion (more on it below) and there you are with your friends, having YOUR event with YOUR rules. Although this hasn't been announced here on the website, but there was also previously rebranding done to make it more visually appealing to new players, keeping the same fun colors while staying rational to its core functionality: red/green bars, tank etc. So it has been long time coming since I started a rewrite of TPG some time ago where from more of a "starter pack" project it became much more modular, way way cleaner, documented and overall maintained. Given a good basis, I didn't touch the balancing part of TPG as it is the MOST complex part of it and one day I may improve it with a better competitive system, but for now, as one wise man said — it is what it is. So since the practical rewrite of TPG I felt like the obvious path of any addon is supposed to be a publication on workshop as its ideal place. While not exactly covering the needs of whole gmod community, it certainly does cover needs of competitive ACE people and we're all excited to see your builds going forward! So since it is now on workshop it means that there is nothing stopping you from hosting the event yourself with your own set of rules, set of friends and so on. Which means that there will be no centralized effort (unless some servers decide to host one) going forward and we'll be actively urging people who may host such activity to host your favorite TPG. We're all extremely busy nowadays irl, so I did spend a lot of time working on this documentation that you can check out here: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-accent hover:underline cursor-pointer" href="https://acegmod.com/docs/projects/tpg">click. </a>Which means that you can now easily contribute to TPG. Be aware that accepting balancing PRs is the most complex thing to ever exists, so any backing up with data, proofs etc. would be appreciated. Code wise TPG base is mostly done, you can easily follow the code through. Also since this launch you will now see more items on our workshop page of the official shared steam account with FANCY graphics. <hr><h2>E2/SF Extension for TPG</h2>What is it: a module for TPG to imitate a "SCRL" like system to have the smart huds to display your teammates positions, their class and so on.<figure class="content-image-figure image-size-full image-align-center" data-size="full" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792129197715.gif" alt="e2sf" class="content-image"></figure><figure class="content-image-figure image-size-large image-align-center" data-size="large" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792129470521.png" alt="image" class="content-image" data-caption="Current list of commands on 16 October 2026"><figcaption class="content-image-caption">Current list of commands on 16 October 2026</figcaption></figure><h2>New branding:</h2><div data-images="[{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792129149078.gif&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;tpg_thumb&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;},{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792129150917.gif&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;tpg_e2sf_thumb&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;}]" data-gallery-id="gallery-1792129150438" data-type="gallery"></div> New description for TPG:<div data-images="[{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792129233910.gif&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;loadout&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;},{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792129241989.gif&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;modes&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;}]" data-gallery-id="gallery-1792129241520" data-type="gallery"></div><figure class="content-image-figure image-size-full image-align-center" data-size="full" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1792129296023.png" alt="image" class="content-image" data-caption="Example"><figcaption class="content-image-caption">Example</figcaption></figure><hr><h2>DOWNLOAD HERE: </h2><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-accent hover:underline cursor-pointer" href="https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3820591474&amp;requirelogin=true">TPG</a><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-accent hover:underline cursor-pointer" href="https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3820591473&amp;requirelogin=true">E2/SF EXTENSION FOR TPG</a> And if you're a server owner and having issues installing it — please contact me, I will do my best assisting you.

The Proving Ground is now on WORKSHOP 

August 2026 Update — Points, new models, balancing changes & fixes

Greetings engineers, tank builders and other parts of our community. Get ready to get a feel of the new update that will include many qualitative changes to your gameplay: better missile gameplay, more realistic approach to your crew members &amp; more. <div data-youtube-video=""><iframe class="rounded-lg my-4 mx-auto" width="640" height="360" allowfullscreen="true" autoplay="false" disablekbcontrols="false" enableiframeapi="false" endtime="0" ivloadpolicy="0" loop="false" modestbranding="false" origin="" playlist="" rel="1" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/imNZNbdAvNY?rel=1" start="0"></iframe></div><h2> Missile update</h2><ul><li>Improved the logic of missiles increasing their lethality. Due to this, along with the missile update itself, the warheads of all Surface To Air and Air To Air missiles can now be reduced so they don't double as dual purpose anti tank artillery missiles.</li><li>Added an input to launchers to detonate any currently launched missiles</li><li>Added an output to launchers to display the position of the last fired missile. This is meant to help make creating custom guidance more accessible.</li><li>Added reduction ECCM for missiles. Once a missile has acquired a target it will reduce the size of the area it seeks making the missile less prone to being flared.</li><li>Added SEAM(Seeker Expanded Acquisition Mode) to missiles. Missiles will expand their seek radius to 3x of the base seek cone when they don't have a target. This is to emulate using the gimbal to search for a target expanding the search area. Technically this search area would only be 2x without any gaps in coverage (double the radius of the seek angle) but this area could be larger if one tolerates gaps.</li><li>Overshoot guidance will now detonate after arming if it loses sight of the target. This should allow command guide missiles to detonate on passing an aimpoint or help missiles without memory detonate after overshooting a target.</li><li>Anti missile guidance now filters out your own missiles</li><li>Added basic logic to allow anti missile guidance to spread out its targeting and target missiles not engaged by other missiles.</li><li>Made it so the minimum distance requirement for seekers is disabled after 0.5 seconds of launch. This should allow missiles to continue to seek even when close to the target.</li><li>Removed the caliber requirement from missile tubes. It just needlessly complicated adding missiles to a rack since you already have to specify allowed racks</li><li>ALL CALIBERS NOW MATCH ITS REAL LIFE VALUE. Which may impact some of your existing dupes.</li></ul><h3>Missile Stat Changelog:</h3>Surface To Air missiles and Air To Air missiles were given their realistic warhead sizes This will hopefully reduce their usage as dual purpose anti-tank artillery missilesIR Sams were also given additional sensitivity to better help with engaging helicopters increasing the effective range of their seekersHighlights:<ul><li>FIM-92 Stinger — Reworked with IRCCM, datalink, booster, and reduced drag for better close-range reliability</li><li>Mistral — Longer burn time for engaging distant targets</li><li>9M311 Tunguska — Significantly faster, reducing travel time to helicopters at the cost of total maneuverability</li><li>AIM-120 / AIM-54 / Meteor / MICA — Added advanced reduction seeker ECCM</li><li>R-73 / Strela — Added reduction seeker IRCCM</li><li>A long standing issue with missile caliber has been addressed - it is now possible to make missile explosive match its real life stats. It is now less "patch-work on a vibe", more welcoming for a better balance to come.</li></ul>Full missile stat changes available in the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-accent hover:underline cursor-pointer" href="https://github.com/ACE-Project-Team/ArmoredCombatExtended/pull/207">pull request</a>. <h2> Improved Explosions</h2><ul><li>Reworked explosion visuals and scaling for more punchy but less abusive blasts</li><li>Extended cookoffs are now way more common, and more rounds are shot out of your crates when they're going up</li><li>This means most explosions will straight up gut your tank! No more finnicky ammo wet racks, or inconsistent death mechanics. Protect your outside not your inside!</li><li>Overpressure now only kills crew (more realistic)</li><li>Ammo cookoff logic reworked — triggers when a single hit exceeds 3% of crate HP up to a certain amount</li><li>Decreasing HP now reduces ammo count proportionally</li><li>Smoke and machinegun cookoffs no longer explode</li><li>Refills vanish cleanly without triggering blasts</li><li>prop2mesh entities are now ignored by all traces in ACF</li></ul><h2>Refactored Point System</h2>The old point system has been completely rewritten into a hybrid fighting power + cost model.Which means that we have now more metrics for competitive people to look at or for a better gamemode handling of balance.<ul><li>ACE Points and Money are now separate concepts</li><li>ACE Points represent a combination of the expected combat power of a vehicle (through the effective armor and expected penetration output), while still leaving some room for players to build smart. Engines, for example, have a flat cost based on performance and as your mass is no longer a factor that is represented by points, your hp/ton is entirely up to you!</li><li>Money is a slight rework of the legacy points system. Everything has a flat cost in mm based on the following protection formula that the effective armor system uses as well: (KE*0.8 + CHEM*0.2). You then get a cost reduction of up to 80% down at 3HP, or up to a 20% cost increase up there at 75HP (numbers subject to change).</li><li>However, money has no effect on legality at this time. That's right, build as terribly as you'd like! All that matters is your performance!</li><li>Same 10k points limit as before, which gets re-calculated if you change things on your vehicle and respawn. if you double click r on your vehicle you can see preview values though (with a cooldown for lag reasons.) Since it only redoes the full calculation on a respawn, if you mess with your vehicle a message will be sent in chat and you will be marked whenever anyone checks your vehicle's armor out.</li><li>The idea is that things around the same points have similar combat ability, where as things around the same cost have similar levels of building prowess, or might just be really really squishy!</li><li>This may be turned into a full ACE BR system in the future! Stay tuned.</li></ul>THE GOAL OF THIS SYSTEM IS TO HELP BALANCE CUSTOM TANKS. Realistic late 20th century tanks should never have to worry about the system, and in a vast majority of situations realistic tanks are well under the point limit by default. Vehicles with big weak-spots like the CATTB (which is a very modern tank) are still legal as well because despite the 1000mm turret, the hull is large and has considerably less armor, evening it out! If your replica tank is illegal with the scan confirming it's realistic stats, please submit a report! Remember: everything your realistic tank can do, a custom could do as well.<h2>Crewseat Rework</h2>The rework brings us closer to a more realistic approach, gforce, sitting position, tilt - all of these variables now impact your gameplay. Another important part of this update is that crewseats were finally moved to its own menu, which makes it more organized compared to before.<h3>Pose System</h3>Crewseats now support multiple pose models:<ul><li>Sitting, Sitting Alt, Standing, Jeep, Airboat</li><li>Pose selection available in the ACE menu with preview</li><li>Poses save and restore on duplication</li></ul><h3>Pose Effects</h3><table style="min-width: 75px;"><colgroup><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"><col style="min-width: 25px;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><th class="border border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 bg-gray-100 dark:bg-gray-800 p-2 font-bold" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Role</th><th class="border border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 bg-gray-100 dark:bg-gray-800 p-2 font-bold" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Sitting</th><th class="border border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 bg-gray-100 dark:bg-gray-800 p-2 font-bold" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Standing</th></tr><tr><td class="border border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 p-2" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Driver</td><td class="border border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 p-2" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Standard stability</td><td class="border border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 p-2" colspan="1" rowspan="1">+50% G-force/tilt penalties</td></tr><tr><td class="border border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 p-2" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Gunner</td><td class="border border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 p-2" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Standard accuracy</td><td class="border border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 p-2" colspan="1" rowspan="1">+20% base accuracy penalty, +50% G-force effects</td></tr><tr><td class="border border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 p-2" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Loader</td><td class="border border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 p-2" colspan="1" rowspan="1">-20% penalties, +10% slower loading</td><td class="border border-gray-300 dark:border-gray-600 p-2" colspan="1" rowspan="1">Standard penalties, +15% faster loading</td></tr></tbody></table><h3>G-Force System</h3>While we couldn't bring in autoloaders to balance this issue out and propose another way of making your vehicle more suited for high g-force environment. This change makes it more closer to real life, we don't think any of the games (like war thunder) has implemented such thing, so expect autoloader entity to appear one day. Now its better to stay and shoot.<ul><li>Loader: High G-force reduces stamina regen</li><li>Gunner: High G-force reduces accuracy</li></ul><h2>Canary version of ACE &amp; New ACE Team steam account</h2>We have finally made it that you can try out dev version way easier, so we get more feedback coming from regular community that doesn't want to mess with github or other software to keep dev version up-to-date.Keep in mind that it still requires a little of manual actions due to account limitations (we need steam guard for the website, but for auto updates it requires to not have steam guard on the account, so it conflicts within itself). A unified steam account lets us be the proof of quality, if we get to publish more systems / tools, it will be under our name.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-accent hover:underline cursor-pointer" href="https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3670751046&amp;searchtext=ace+canary">Feel the power here</a><figure class="content-image-figure image-size-medium image-align-center" data-size="medium" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1773771398918.png" alt="Canary" class="content-image"></figure><h2>SWEP Rework</h2><ul><li>Added viewpunch with accurate crosshair to all weapons (more dynamic camera behavior and a better shooting experience; previously, there was no viewpunch or accurate crosshair)</li><li>Changed the crosshair size to a more reasonable size</li><li>Reworked the recoil of all SWEPs</li><li>Bringing bullet velocity to real values ​​(for almost all weapons, the velocity was set based on the caliber, without taking into account the barrel length and other factors affecting the final bullet velocity)</li><li>Decreased penetration and increased damage by +-1.5 (for all except Sniper rifles and special) (the reduction in penetration is justified by the standard bulletproof protection of 6-8mm steel, therefore, regular firearms should not penetrate such armor)</li><li>Changed the caliber of shotguns from 12.7 to 7.25 mm (each pellet was 12 mm, now 7.25, which is the average buckshot size)</li><li>Fixed AT4 exploding inside the player.</li><li>Fixed the AT4 trail to a more accurate one - before the smoke trail was coming off the side of the missile, now it comes from the correct place.</li><li>Added spread on the move for the Anti-Material Rifle (there was no spread while moving, which could negatively impact the gameplay experience) </li></ul><h3>Added Mine Sweeper</h3>You are now presented with a small game that you need to win, otherwise there's a chance that the mine will fight back and explode. Different mines have different difficulties. There's also a bonus level that is quite rare, making it really hard to win the game.<div data-images="[{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1771773831219.png&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;ACE mine sweeper gameplay&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;ACE mine sweeper gameplay&quot;},{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1771773828609.png&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;ACE mine sweeper gameplay&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;ACE mine sweeper gameplay&quot;}]" data-gallery-id="gallery-1771773846988" data-type="gallery"></div><h2>New Entities</h2>Added to the new Entities category in the ACE menu:<figure class="content-image-figure image-size-medium image-align-center" data-size="medium" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1771774238291.png" alt="image" class="content-image"></figure><h3>Wind Sensor (<code>ace_wind_sensor</code>) — Detects wind direction/speed.</h3>While it is hardly usable at this point of time (the only thing affected by wind is smoke), expect to see more changes in regards to round ballistics, that will impact long range artillery and spread.<figure class="content-image-figure image-size-medium image-align-center" data-size="medium" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1771774431970.png" alt="image" class="content-image" data-caption="ACE Wind Sensor"><figcaption class="content-image-caption">ACE Wind Sensor</figcaption></figure><h3>G-Force Meter (<code>ace_gforce_meter</code>) — Measures G-force.</h3>While g force doesn't impact players, it impacts crew. Potentially might be useful for plane builders. We're exploring more ideas and ways to balance future plane gameplay out. This entity along with wind sensor, sets up a foundation.<figure class="content-image-figure image-size-medium image-align-center" data-size="medium" data-align="center"><img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1771774499304.png" alt="image" class="content-image"></figure><h2>Other Changes</h2><ul><li>Bigger ammo sizes — Fixed ammo sizing to fit all calibers</li><li>ACE logo prop — Added as a spawnable model for map makers, builders.</li><li>Short cannon weight fix — Short cannons now increase in weight appropriately</li><li>GLATGM fix — Now fires from the gun barrel properly instead of from the side</li><li>LOSAT fix — Now has actual penetration!</li><li>Radio fuze fix — Radio fuze works again! Yay!</li><li>Crew seat swap fix — Fixed driver replacement reactivating the engine</li><li>Global chat fix — Fixed messages not showing in some MP/SP scenarios</li><li>Linter fixes — Moved to GLuaLint official reusable workflow</li><li>Miscellaneous back-end fixes — A few things very few people will ever have to worry about are fixed as well, such as archived ACF convars being applied on startup, safezone filename sanitization, etc.</li></ul>

March 2026 Update — Missile, Crew, Explosions, and Points

<h2>Help Us Keep ACE Alive</h2>Hey everyone. This one's personal.ACE has been around since 2018. Eight years of late nights, debugging sessions, and balance arguments - all built by people who genuinely love this community. Let's be clear:&nbsp;this was never about money.&nbsp;It was always about the community - watching your builds, reading your feedback, seeing servers full of people enjoying something we all made. That's what kept us going.But here's the truth: we're not the same people who started this. We grew up. Some of us have families now. Jobs that drain 50 hours a week. University deadlines. The time we used to pour into ACE now competes with real life. And some of us are paying out of pocket just to keep things running. RDC spends around $500 a year - his own money - on servers and infrastructure for this community. Not because anyone asked. Just because he cares.You've probably noticed - updates slowed down these past 6 months. That's not because we stopped caring. It's because we're stretched thin.We ran a survey recently.&nbsp;Many of you said you'd support us if you knew how. That's on us - the donation option was always buried, practically hidden. Most people had no idea it even existed.So we built this website. No more hiding it.So we're asking now.Donations won't make anyone rich. But they'll help us justify spending a weekend on ACE instead of picking up extra work. They'll help us show the people in our lives that this thing we do actually matters to someone.Where does the money go?<ul><li>Directly to contributors / developers who ship updates</li><li>Server costs (so RDC isn't footing the bill alone) </li><li>Funding specific features</li></ul><ul><li>Potentially hiring full time developers (if you guys are generous enough)</li></ul>Every donation is tracked. Want proof yours went where it should? Ask us. We'll show you.For our CIS community&nbsp;- we heard you. Boosty is now available.ACE stays open source. Always.<h3>If this addon has given you good times, maybe that's worth a coffee.</h3><h3>— KemGus &amp; The ACE Team</h3>

Help us fund our expenses

<h1>The Proving Ground is Back! </h1>Hello and welcome people of ACE! I've been working hard, delivering some of the updates that you will see soon. A part of testing for an existing developer version will be on the event on AWM today (13.01.2026). I'm excited to announce that TPG is back and will be worked upon. I will try to get it to a stable and self-sustaining space. This gamemode will help us (developers) understand how the current balancing meta works, because it will be forcing people to come up with new ideas to reduce weight, prop count and ACE points (let's call it money). <h2>How Does The Gamemode Work?</h2> There will be two teams, they're usually fighting for control points scattered around the map. Each team starts with a ticket count, and holding more points than the enemy will drain their tickets. First team to hit zero loses. The twist? You're limited. Every map has: - Weight cap - total tonnage your team can field - Prop cap - maximum props for building - Money cap - ACE points budget shared across the team Want to bring a 60 ton beast? That's gonna cost you around 9000 money. Maybe your teammate brings a light tank instead, or maybe you both go infantry with AT weapons. The point is - you gotta think. <h2>Loadout System</h2>Every player picks their infantry gear before spawning: - Primary - Rifles, SMGs, shotguns, snipers, LMG - Secondary - Pistols and grenades - Special - Anti-tank weapons, mines, mortar, AMR Want to go anti-tank? Grab a Javelin but you'll move slower. Want speed? Drop the heavy weapons and flank. Mines are an option too, and everyone gets a minedetector to counter them. <h2>Game Modes</h2> TPG supports multiple game types: - Control Point (CP) - Capture and hold multiple points - King of the Hill (KOTH) - Fight over a single point - Deathmatch (DM) - Pure combat, no objectives <hr><h2>What's Next? </h2>We'll be hosting test sessions and gathering feedback. Got ideas? Found a bug? Let us know <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-accent hover:underline cursor-pointer" href="https://acegmod.com/forum/the-proving-ground-tpg-">here</a> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-accent hover:underline cursor-pointer" href="https://github.com/ACE-Project-Team/theprovingground">Repository </a>(no need to download it to play with it) <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-accent hover:underline cursor-pointer" href="https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3645840394">Collection of maps for TPG</a><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-accent hover:underline cursor-pointer" href="https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3282568819">Collection of ACE stuff (tools, ACE itself, textures and everything you mostly need)</a> JOIN HERE: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="text-accent hover:underline cursor-pointer" href="https://acegmod.com/servers/8df99cc5-52d0-438e-87bf-0a942b253eaa">SERVER LINK</a> Meanwhile, here is some old video collection you could take a look at: <div data-youtube-video=""><iframe class="rounded-lg my-4 mx-auto" width="640" height="360" allowfullscreen="true" autoplay="false" disablekbcontrols="false" enableiframeapi="false" endtime="0" ivloadpolicy="0" loop="false" modestbranding="false" origin="" playlist="" rel="1" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W53FE-RgBOM?rel=1" start="0"></iframe></div>

TPG Gamemode is back!

<h1>Welcome to the ACE Website!</h1>After a month of intensive development, we're excited to announce that the official ACE (Armored Combat Extended) website is now in open beta! This article explains why we built this platform and what you can expect from it.<h2>Why a Website?</h2>You might be wondering: "Why does a Garry's Mod addon need its own website when Discord, GitHub, and Steam Workshop already exist?"It's a fair question, and here's our answer: each platform does what it's best at.<ul><li>Discord excels at real-time chat and community interaction</li><li>GitHub handles code collaboration and version control</li><li>Steam Workshop distributes the addon itself</li><li>The Website fills the gaps that none of these platforms can address </li></ul><h3>So what exactly are we doing?</h3>1. Proper Dev Blogs &amp; UpdatesDiscord messages get buried. Steam Workshop descriptions are limited. A dedicated website gives us space for detailed development blogs, patch notes, and announcements that remain accessible and searchable. And obviously more features2. Community FundingSupporting open-source addon development is nearly impossible through Discord alone. This website provides a proper home for our funding initiatives, complete with transparency about where contributions go (will come soon).3. Server &amp; Creator VisibilityACE server owners and content creators deserve their own space. Here, they can create descriptions, showcase their work, connect with players, and benefit from SEO coverage that Discord simply cannot provide. Plus different tasty developer tools, such as similar to trello board and more (discord sync in to come). I've always had this vision of uniting the server owners, community contributors in discord, but there were many limitations. Here, it is possible for our contributors to actually put work and hear the feedback from community and get the coverage that they truly deserve.4. A Proper WikiLet's be honest—our documentation needed a better home and obviously an up-to-date information. I solved it by making wiki look like wiki, not some random github file and what's most important - you can actually paste github code and make sure that the code section that you provided is never old. If the code was drastically changing, or it simply is gone, it will warn people who use wiki about this potential issues. We have limited resources and such tools will free a lot of time and motivation.5. Community GrowthACE has been in development for over 6 years. While the addon's quality has grown tremendously, community size has remained relatively stable. I believe ACE deserves a bigger spot on the addon shelf, and a professional web presence is part of making that happen. SEO coverage, proper dev blogs, proper communication between community and developers - this is what I see the website like. An important part of the survey that we conducted recently was funding and donations. After 6 years of working on ACE I realized that developers are also human (lol yes), and they can have real life problems and issues. By asking developers, contributors and you through the survey, we knew, that something has to be done with ACE, with its activity and potential popularity that it deserves. There is a trusting community, that is willing to stay with ACE no matter it takes and I, after some absence, thought that it would be unfair to betray the community, that we all grew up with, that was patiently waiting for new updates, for new events and ofcourse sneak peaks. Donation will open us a way to pay developers or literally hire them, so they can dedicate their time on the addon that they truly love to work on. And my personal duty, as I feel it, is to make that happen and I hope that you will help ACE in its new beginnings. <hr><h2>Now let's talk about fun stuff - Website Features</h2><h3>Here's what you'll find on the ACE website:</h3><h3>📰 Blog &amp; News</h3>Stay updated with development progress, major updates, and community announcements. No more scrolling through months of Discord history! <h3>📚 Wiki</h3>Comprehensive documentation for ACE, from beginner guides to advanced technical references. Searchable, organized, and always accessible. Feel free to contribute too!<img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1767220306288.png" alt="Снимок экрана 2026-01-01 013117.png" data-size="large" data-align="center"><h3>🎮 Servers</h3>Discover ACE servers, see live player counts, and find communities from any country to join. Server owners can claim and customize their listings.<img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1767220371401.png" alt="Снимок экрана 2026-01-01 013240.png" data-size="large" data-align="center"><h3>📁 Stuff Street</h3>Share and download ACE creations—dupes, chips, and more. Rate builds, leave feedback, and discover what the community has built. More organization, easier discoverability.<img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1767220406374.png" alt="Снимок экрана 2026-01-01 013315.png" data-size="large" data-align="center"><h3>🎬 Videos</h3>Community video hub featuring tutorials, showcases, and epic moments. We'll handle the search engine optimization that the videos get pulled properly on the web when searching, while providing users latest and greatest tutorials by internal score system. Now we build our own identity, if we like what we have, then we must be proud of it and share it with others. Submit your own content and get featured!<img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1767220509435.png" alt="Снимок экрана 2026-01-01 013459.png" data-size="large" data-align="center"><h3>💬 Forum</h3>Discuss ACE topics, ask questions, report bugs, and share ideas. A dedicated space for longer-form discussions that don't fit Discord's chat format. While we had something similar in discord, they always become lost, users / developers forget to mark many issues as solved or not solved, which creates a large mess. We'll handle it by automation and better sorting.<img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1767220566913.png" alt="Снимок экрана 2026-01-01 013554.png" data-size="large" data-align="center" data-caption="Current community forum"><h3>🛠️ Development Board</h3>A secret (to a normal user) page. Trello like organizer with github sync in, proper tracking and sync with forum issues or even contributors pages. Use your contributor pages as your personal website!<img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1767220610955.png" alt="Снимок экрана 2026-01-01 013637.png" data-size="large" data-align="center" data-caption="Current dev board"><h3>👤 User Profiles</h3>Your identity. Track your contributions and achievements, showcase your builds, and connect with other community members.<img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1767220643428.png" alt="Снимок экрана 2026-01-01 013711.png" data-size="medium" data-align="center" data-caption="Current user profile"><h3>🔧 ACE Projects</h3>Addons to ACE. Perfect place and time to contribute to ACE - custom gun packs, custom engines and more.<img src="/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1767220673435.png" alt="Снимок экрана 2026-01-01 013741.png" data-size="large" data-align="center" data-caption="Current ACE Projects"><h3>Other features:</h3>Articles page Useful articles, recommendations, community stories, tell about your accomplishments, engineering challenges and so on. This will allow us to bring more attention to the website by having more useful information which will bring more attention to our websiteFunding (support) pageOne of the most important pieces for sustainable future. It consists of regular donations and funding. Main difference is funding is guaranteed to go to the budget of a model, hosting or whatever it is up on the funding. You get to decide what you want to see more and we'll bring in licensed high quality assets to our game. We can also finally boost the motivation of developers, contributors and so on, potentially hiring some of the developers or contributors or finding someone on outsorce and sponsoring events and so on. The transparency is the next step, it's still WIP, no decision has been made about proper way of making it, but it will be there. And yes, I made sure to automate the donation process, we recommend KoFi for seamless donations and proper sync in with website (we update the information ,grant the role), but we also made sure that a major part of our community (which is CIS), can also apprecaite the work that we're putting in, that's why I added boosty platform!MessagesDevelopers can finally dedicate their personal discord (if they want) to their personal affairs instead of just constant spam of "fix this and that". Now it's done on the website. While we cannot compete with social media (and we do not intent to), basic functionality is important to get done, more customizability and notifcations settings will come in future.Security reports You can now report safety issues through the form that developers will be notified about, you will have your own chat. Please use it when necessary, do not use it for regular bug reports.Github / Discord sync-in We can solve the problem of multi platform usage by using proper syncing. Issues / suggestions will exist in the same space and user may use whatever they want to, if they want to use github they use github, if they want to use website or discord we let them use whatever is the most convinient for them to use. We value feedback, not the platform that you use. Currently sync works with github only, discord is coming soon! And more... Anything that could be improved will be improved, we're not limited by platform anymore, expect more features, UI and UX improvements to come along the way!<div data-images="[{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1767302337768.png&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;ACE Article page current functionality&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;ACE Article page current functionality&quot;},{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1767302338117.png&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Current funding methods on ACE website&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Current funding methods on ACE website&quot;},{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1767302338444.png&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Current messaging on ACE website&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Current messaging on ACE website&quot;},{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;/uploads/images/81cfd753-feca-4fed-a421-c60db1814050-1767302338785.png&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;Current dev card on the dev board on ACE website&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Current dev card on the dev board on ACE website&quot;}]" data-gallery-id="gallery-1767302432432" data-type="gallery"></div> The VisionFor many players, ACE isn't just an addon—it's&nbsp;the&nbsp;addon they play Garry's Mod with. For others, it's a community where they literally grew up, made friends, and created lasting memories across servers like AWM and countless others. This website is about continuing that legacy. It's about not giving up on ACE and working to build something that matches the potential this addon has always had. Better and faster. I truly believe that:<blockquote>There is no other addon with this vision and potential that ACE has</blockquote><hr><h2>Open Beta The website is currently in&nbsp;open beta, which means:</h2><ul><li>✅ Core features are functional</li><li>✅ You can create an account and explore</li><li>⚠️ Some bugs may exist—please report them!</li><li>🚧 New features are being added regularly</li></ul>We're actively looking for feedback. Found a bug? Have a suggestion? Let us know through the forum under website issues category or Discord. What's Next?This is just the beginning. We have plans for:<ul><li>Website filling with existing content</li><li>Discord bot functionality</li><li>Stability</li><li>Security overview (important to get it done, because website was generated with AI technologies :D, please wait for more news about it )</li><li>And much more...</li></ul><h2>Join Us</h2>Whether you've been part of the ACE community for years or you're just discovering it, welcome home. Create an account, explore the features, and help us build something great together.The future of ACE starts here. Build with us, Build Beyond Limits<hr>— KemGus &amp; The ACE Team

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