GruntMods.com

It's been a long time since we made any significant software changes to the website, but given how much time has passed, I decided it was time for a major refresh. Here's a quick overview of the changes and new features:

New Modern Menu Design

We’ve introduced a better menu layout with more responsive features, allowing you to navigate the site faster.

[Image: New Site Menu]

Dark Mode

Clicking the sun icon in the top-right corner will switch the site to dark mode, a feature many users prefer on modern websites. It was easy to implement and provides a sleek look.

[Image: Dark Mode Example]

Refreshed Homepage

Sliders have become somewhat dated, especially the way we were using them. Now, the homepage features a well-organized overview of mods and the latest blog posts.

[Image: New Homepage Layout]

No Ads

All ads have been removed from the site. I found they made the site feel too cluttered, and with many users using ad blockers anyway, it made sense to focus on a cleaner look. I'll be relying on donations through the familiar button in the footer and will fund the rest of the site out of pocket.

Cleaner Downloads

A lot of effort went into designing content-specific download styles. Simple web pages now feature streamlined download cards that make it easy to find what you're looking for, while more complex pages have more detailed download cards that stand out.

[Image: Simple Download Card]

For pages with more going on, we use a more defined download card to make options clear.

[Image: Complex Download Card]

Faster Site Speed

Site speed has been improved significantly, especially for mobile users. On the old site, some pages took as long as two seconds to load, but now they should load in under a second on average. In testing, several pages loaded in under half a second.

Wider Pages

The new design isn't constrained by a small viewport, so larger screens are utilized more effectively to display content. Smaller screens still benefit from improved responsiveness across all pages and components.

Enhanced Flexibility and Security

While not directly visible, the site is now easier to maintain and customize with new content and styles. There is also a smaller attack surface, with no web interface for page editing, helping to protect against the growing amount of botnet traffic on the modern internet.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how the new site has turned out, and I hope you are too!

Interested in the Technical Details?

If you'd like to dive deeper into the technical side of this website update, check out the detailed Technical Article to learn more about the development process and underlying technologies.

After years of running on the same platform, it became clear the website needed more than a few tweaks to stay up to date. The old setup was functional but had grown outdated, both visually and technically. Instead of trying to patch things up, I decided it was time for a complete revamp—something fresh, fast, and secure to better meet our current needs.

Why Change from WordPress?

• The current version of our WordPress theme isn’t maintained, and switching to a new one would be a huge chore.
• Many of our plugins are in the same boat. They’re often bloated with features and upsells we don’t need or use.
• The layout of the site has basically been unchanged since 2018.
• WordPress has become increasingly vulnerable to security threats and presents a large attack surface. The old site’s WordPress dashboard was hit with thousands of automated attacks daily. Security plugins would log and ban the attackers' IP addresses, but the sheer volume of bots meant no real impact on the attack frequency.
• WordPress is primarily designed for blogging, and while we do maintain a blog (as you can see since you’re reading this), hosting content pages is our primary focus.
• Although WordPress is simple to use, under the hood it’s very complex. It includes a lot of features that many people don’t need, but they’re still part of the core system, which makes modifying it more difficult.

Even with all of these issues in mind, I wasn’t actively searching for a new platform. I had a good grasp of WordPress, and the site was performing well enough. We had solid hardware that compensated for most of the software-related slowdowns. Then, I stumbled across a YouTube video by Fireship on Astro , and it stuck with me. After months of consideration and research, I finally decided Astro was the right choice for a replacement.

Why Astro?

• Simplified Site Management: While Astro doesn’t have a built-in backend and relies on direct file edits, this is actually a huge benefit. There’s no database or additional routing logic to maintain, and no web-facing interface means fewer security risks. Everything is a file you edit directly, and changes are instantly reflected on the site.
• Static Rendering: Astro is extremely fast. Since content is statically rendered by default, I didn’t have to mess with caching or other tedious performance optimizations. While the WordPress site wasn’t slow (it loaded each page in about 1-1.5 seconds), Astro consistently loads in under a second, often within milliseconds.
• Reduced Server and Client Resources: By default, Astro doesn’t use JavaScript, which means it consumes less CPU and RAM on both the client (you, the visitor) and the server.
• Modular Components: The theme and components are built to be customizable right out of the box. I was able to easily design new parts of the site and tweak existing ones to fit our needs. For example, our custom-built download counter was seamlessly integrated into the existing components while maintaining compatibility. Adjusting things like logo size and placement was straightforward and easy to get right.
• Better SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Thanks to static site rendering and excellent Google Lighthouse scores, search engines like Google favor Astro over slower, more complex sites that are harder to scan.
• Hosting Flexibility: Without a database, backing up the site and moving it to a new host is as simple as copying the files and pointing the DNS to the new location. That’s it.

How We Made the Switch

Now, onto the "how." I started with a JavaScript file that imported the RSS feed from the WordPress site into markdown files that could be used in Astro. This wasn’t the ideal method, and neither was the script I found on the Astro website.

I ended up using the WordPress API in JavaScript instead, which allowed me to import everything in one go—pages, posts, menus, you name it. This was a huge step forward because now I had everything backed up and ready to work with, without worrying about losing information during manual copy-pasting.

Next, I had to decide on the layout. Initially, I set the site up as a close copy of the old one, but elements like the slider felt very dated and out of place on the new site. With Astro, I had full access to the entire page layout, unlike the narrower viewbox constraints of WordPress. I chose to use the existing components bundled with my starter theme to modernize the site’s look and feel. I also redid the logo using vector graphics, ensuring it looks sharp at any resolution, unlike the old logo that often appeared blurry at certain screen sizes.

Then I focused on refining the site even further. I rewrote several components to better fit my needs and built new ones to handle things like simple download cards and notes on various pages.

Lastly, I had to configure redirects on the server. Many of the old site’s pages and download links were generated by WordPress plugins and had odd URLs. I wanted to ensure anyone visiting those old links would be redirected to the correct pages on the new site.

Final Thoughts

All in all, it’s hard not to be thrilled with the changes. The site looks better, performs faster, and gives me full control over updates and upgrades without worrying about compatibility or complexity issues that come with a larger plugin or theme ecosystem. While I’ll miss having a built-in editor, the benefits of this new setup far outweigh the drawbacks. WordPress wasn’t perfect, but after 14 years, it certainly did the job it needed to.

For a deeper dive into the user-facing changes and improvements, check out our detailed article on the latest features and enhancements .

Another day another update. This time the focus was on better compatibility with cutscenes and some small optimizations to the launcher.

The English cutscene installer used to be bundled with the game installer as an option at install, with the other languages available as a download through gruntmods.com. This had a few issues, the biggest one being if someone decided after the fact that they wanted to install them they would need to visit the site and download the installer manually or reinstall the game. The second issue was that many players didn’t even know about the option to install through the web download and there was not a good way to communicate it in the launcher or installer.

An unrelated issue with changes to our hosting environment also caused the download in the previous version of the game to stop working, even though the download links were still valid.

Changes to the installer in this release:

• Cutscenes have been moved from the installer to an option in the Launcher
• The un-install sections have been cleaned up and simplified as few people choose to uninstall individual components of the game
• The calculating file size portion has been moved to the cutscene installer as without them being included in the initial installation the size is always the same
• Several install options and prompts have been cleaned up and reworded for additional clarity

Changes to the launcher in this release:

• A new button has been added that allows you to install any language of cutscenes that you want, or all of them if you so choose.
• The launcher should have focus when opened instead of staying behind other applications
• Resolved issues with the launcher not being sized correctly if the user manually resized it

The download for the full install is already available on the download page, if you have the previous version (1.6.3) installed you will be prompted to install a small update package when launching the game.

Its been a long time since the last update to the installer, and the previous version had 274922 downloads of downloads! Thats a lot for such an old game.

In order to celebrate the installers success, as well as to address the many community updates that have happened to the game, I have decided to create a new version of the installer that improves upon the previous ones in several ways. Changes include:

• Added updated Mission Launcher by Feda, allowing players to easily install mods made by the community and play them without menu changes or overwriting base game data
• Updated the main exe to support changes made by Klofkac that allow a huge amount of new mod features using his latest tool
• Added new tools from Klofkac to the D2K+ install
• Added additional installation logs to show what is happening while the installer is running
• Fixed an issue where the installer would not download the cutscenes
• Fixed incorrect music playing in Rise of the Mercenaries Mission 1 and 2
• Fixed the Mission briefings in the launcher and in game for Rise of the Mercenaries Mission 1 and 2
• Fixed issues with some of the base game missions having leftovers from previous versions of high resolution support, they are now the same as the versions included with the original cd
• Fixed the non functional updater, updates are checked before running the launcher, and a choice is given to run the update or skip it.
• Improved Launcher, it has been completly rewritten from scratch. Launcher changes include:
  -No longer requires administrator access to run the game or the launcher
  -Improved viewing of the updates page
  -Includes support for custom missions via Feda’s Mission Launcher
  -Code is more optimized and less buggy
  
• Improved the installation speed of the game
• Improved Cutscene installation, now happens without additional user interaction
• Improved the size of the installer, it is now 116mb smaller then pervious version
• Removed several files in the install directory that are no longer used You can head over to the download page to download the new version of the installer , in the coming weeks I will be working to try and make it even easier to install community content and expand the game’s potential. If you have any issues with the new version or ideas for how to improve it, please feel free to let me know.

Only 4 years since the last major site update! I guess that says a lot of about the site stability.

We were utlizing a CDN service to serve file downloads as the bandwidth was becoming pretty intensive for our existing file server. We had a minor issue the other month that resulted in the hosted files there becoming unavailable. Rather then risk this happening again, I have taken the liberty of upgrading the server infrastructure.

The site once again has all files on one centralized server, which will allow me to better stay on top of backups and updates. As this would increase the load on the server, I have also taken the chance to upgrade the hardware which should result in significantly improved download speeds and reduced load times.

I had to migrate all the file links manually, so if anything isn’t working please let me know.

Just because I like to show off performance increases, I will continue the tradition of posting a speedtest result after the upgrade.

There was a temporary issue with the file server which prevented files from downloading correctly. This issue has been resolved and downloads should now work as normal. Thanks to everyone who reported the issues.

Recently we completed a move to a dedicated server. Rather than sharing a virtual server (VPS) with other users, this allows us to have consistently fast connections and full access to the CPU and RAM (with copious amounts to spare). d2kplus.com  has also been moved to the dedicated server, however, the downloads are still served from a separate VPS to ensure optimal download performance. If you experience any issues with the site, please let us know.

On February 2nd at 3:13am EST gruntmods.com and its respective file server was the victim of a DDOS attack. Although we have measures in place to prevent automated attacks against our service there is no such thing as a perfect defense and as such the site was taken offline by our hosting provider until the attack subsided.

Several hours after service was restored at 8am, we again saw an increase in traffic matching the profile of the original DDOS attack. We have taken the following measures to ensure the server is as secure and functional as possible:

• Increased Security: We have raised the protection level with our partners at Cloudflare, bots and other automated systems will have a significantly harder time visiting the site and utilizing any services we offer
• New Server Instances: We have deployed additional server instances and reconfigured these with tighter security settings, to cover us against further attacks through other avenues.
• Server Monitoring: We have implemented file level server monitoring to notify us of suspicious activity on the file server. Going forward, additional monitoring will be put into place on both servers to notify us of any issues that occur before they impact performance.
• Server Redundancy: The Web Server is now located in a Toronto data center, and the file server is located in Montreal. This provides additional protection against issues with specific regional data centers. We are also working with our providers to establish load balancing, which will both improve speeds and availability between different regions, even during peak usage or through similar size DDOS attacks.

We are always working at providing the best possible service and apologize for any interruptions. Transparency is the best policy when it comes to these issues and I hope you continue to enjoy what GruntMods has to offer.

The migration is complete, if any issues arise (dead links etc), please let us know as soon as possible so we can resolve them quickly.

As for the upgrade itself, I will let the numbers speak for themselves 🙂

At GruntMods we believe in transparency, which is why I like to actively communicate changes going on with the site and upcoming projects. There wasn’t much going on for awhile so I haven’t made a news post in a while.

First off, the site seems to be picking up a user base, with the amount of visitors steadily increasing. A good chunk of that is due to new traffic to our YGOPro download page, but Dune 2000: GruntMods Edition is as popular as ever. I am very happy that the site has risen in popularity and I remain committed to making sure it and its sister site d2kplus  are running smoothly.

On that note, I’d like to announce that the site will be migrated to a new server to allow the old one to function as a dedicated download server. This will not only increase the amount of resources available to the site but will also allow the download speeds of all the files available to increase substantially. As always, I’d like to thank our donors as they really help make these things possible in ways ad revenue can’t do alone.

Everything seems to be working fine in initial testing so the site will cut over at 11pm EST. If you notice any issues with the site or any downloads, please let us know through the contact form or by commenting here.

If you see this message it means our new server upgrade is complete. I’d like to thank our donors for supporting the site and making the long term hosting plan a viable option for us.
So here’s a shout out to each donor (in no specific order):

• Dale Coakley
• Ty Larsen
• Sebastian Maywald
• Ahmed Suliman
• Thomas Kuchel

And to any other donors who have donated to us in the past.

We also updated the site for D2K+, check it out.

The server went down at approximately 12:00pm EST due to a database corruption. Luckily, we have an comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plan which resulted in minimal downtime for the site and CnCNet. If any issues arise please feel free to let me know so I can correct them.

MVI has announced that due to personal commitments, he will no longer be able to operate D2K+.com. Upon hearing this, I offered to host and maintain the site. If you are reading this, it means we have successfully transitioned to the new server infrastructure. There may be a few hiccups for the first few days, but I plan on updating and modernizing D2K+ to make it better and more accessible than ever before! Keep your eyes peeled for news to come.

I’d like to thank MVI for his contribution and welcome him to return when he finds the time. In the 6 years we have been working together we had a lot of fun, I couldn’t ask for a better partner in running the site.

If you have never visited the site, feel free to check it out now: d2kplus.com

A server issue caused unexpected downtime for the site and CnCNet Tunnel for approximately two hours. The issue has now been resolved. We are sorry for any inconvenience.

The main site has been moved to more powerful server hardware. Later on today, the file server will also be switched over to the new hardware, this change should be seamless. If you encounter any issues with the website, be sure to Contact Us and let us know.

The server will be down for routine maintenance starting at 12:00PM EST Friday September 4th. The server is expected to be down for an hour while we perform a migration to new server hardware. The site and related services, such as the CNCNet tunnel will also be affected and will unavailable during this timeframe.

Upon future investigation, it looks like the last update for the Xbox 360 changed the way external drives work significantly, the files are now stored directly on the USB and can be edited by an editing program without the need for a transfer tool like USB XTAF explorer. As such, there will not be any future updates to USB XTAF Explorer since new systems can no longer use it at all. The download page and server will still be maintained for legacy USB backups that need to be modified.

As the one with who discovered the unique behavior of the Xbox formatted drives and asked Slasherking823 to investigate, as well as the one who has been maintaining the program in his absence, Thanks for choosing USB XTAF Explorer for all these years.  I am very proud of what we accomplished and glad to be a part of such a powerful project.

I have just finished securing the site with SSL encryption. What does this mean for you? Not much, you will notice a lock icon next to the site URL whenever you visit a page. This icon lets you know that you are visiting the actual GruntMods website and not a site impersonating it. It’s becoming increasingly important in this day and age to be vigilant against phishing attempts and malware. Now everyone is another step closer to being secure.

File downloads are also being handled through the SSL connection. If you notice any issues with the site or any of the hosted content downloads, make sure to mention it through our contact page . The Dune 2000 launcher will be updated in the next few days to reflect these changes.

Significant changes have been made to increase overall site performance for users located in Europe and other countries distant from the web server.  Overall, the site should be faster and much more responsive.

I am pleased to announce that our migration to the new server is complete. If you have any issues with the site, please Contact Us  about the issue.

The Dune 2000 CnCNet server will relaunch in a few days.