Content size

[Fultz]

It's because V5P requires CSS, HL2 EP1 and HL2 EP2. There's nothing missing from content on our end, it's just content from those games. While quite a few people own CSS, not many have the HL2 Episodes (they are free till HL Alex comes out, so you can install them for the next few months!)

The point being that it is still a problem that needs to be addressed.

We can't do much about game content as it gets taken down from the workshop. People need to either buy the games or download the content for them from elsewhere themselves.

Indeed, but that aspect must be acknowledged to prevent it becoming a problem in the first place, for example the mining rocks are from CS:S, that means everyone that has not installed CSS sees errors. That is a huge percentage of people and the models should be replaced.

For a long while, having CS:S & Episodic content has sort of been an unofficial requirement for players. If a new player purchases Gmod, then sooner or later they will run into maps and servers that require the CS:S/Episodic content, and there isn't much that can be done about it. CS:S/Episodic content has become necessary for most things in the game, and they are especially necessary in the City RP gamemodes. 

Disabling/replacing the content would be quite impossible, as they play a huge role as either map models or spawnable props. I can't really blame the mappers for it, as the base HL2 textures and models are simply horrendous looking and most of the time they won't fit at all in a modern city setting. Disabling CS:S props would put a massive limit on what you can and cannot build in the game, and finding a good city map that doesn't use that content is quite hard as well.

Why is it not possible to at least provide a source to the content whenever players join the server similar to how new players get a hello/help message when they join? So it provides a link to obtain the content so they don't just leave?