I still don't know exactly what was causing the issues, but I do know that the workshop was part of the problem. I'm not really sure where to go next in order to figure this out.

I've also got the modID's and what folders they should create, but even after subscribing to them, reloading NS2, and searching my computer for the folders, it comes up with nothing. The options file in the NS2 folder inside the Userdata location of the steam install doesn't show anything under the header either. Steam shows me that it's downloading and updating the game, but nothing ever changes. I've deleted the entire folder in %appdata%, I've uninstalled NS2 from steam, I've even tried uninstalling and deleting any and all files related to steam and starting fresh, and I still can't get any sort of workshop folder to get created for NS2 after subscribing to mods. It never creates a workshop folder, and nothing gets modified in any of the base folders. I've tried all of the things listed out here, the only difference is that even when I subscribe to any particular mods through the steam workshop, nothing gets created in my %appdata% folder. I am also having what appears to be issues with the workshop.

I am having some of thesame issues as the original poster of this thread, which is being unable to connect to a modded server.

Does steam show downloads from workshop