I've wanted to learn how to make mods for years but I couldn't learn how to program until college. So what should I know and what do I need before starting? I know Python and C# at the moment.
The creation of gameplay-altering mods for servers usually involves the creation of plugins through the SourcePawn language, a modern version of Pawn, for SourceMod to use.
First of all, I recommend you to install a dedicated instance of srcds on your machine for ease of testing. You can use SourceMod on a local server (using the -insecure launch option, allowing SourceMod to load) but I've heard of discrepancies that happen between local and dedicated servers, and it's also more preferable if your plugin(s) can also work right out of the box on a dedicated instance of TF2, which is why I recommend it even if it takes more time to set up. You can read a guide on how to install a TF2 dedicated server here.
Afterwards, you can install SourceMod by going here and following those instructions (it also requires MetaMod: Source which you need to install as well), which are rather simple. After that, you should give yourself full admin privileges by following these instructions. I recommend you to get acquainted with SourceMod first by maybe installing a few plugins and checking out the rest of the information meant for administrators. You don't need to read all of it but it's recommended. A good thing about plugins hosted on AlliedModders is because they also provide the source code for you to check out if you're interested (mostly because it's part of the license as well). You should also join your server, type "/admin" in chat or "sm_admin" on the console and mess around with the stock commands that SourceMod provides by default as well.
After you feel a bit confident with SourceMod, check out SourceMod's Scripting documentation if you wish to create plugins. It has more information that you'll ever wish for, and the first three links in there should get you up to speed. A very cool thing SourceMod has is that its installation includes uncompiled plugins and a few test suits that includes simple commands in their code (usually located in sourcemod\scripting, with the test suites being on the testsuite folder). I think the testsuite plugins are very simple to understand, and since you're interested in TF2, you should open up tf2-test.sp, compile it and load it ingame (on the server console, it would be "sm plugins load tf2-test"), which should help you understand how the test suite works. I personally think that reading from other plugins' source code and understand it is a great learning method, so be sure to check out the source code of simple TF2 plugins.
If you have any questions, AlliedModders has a forum, IRC and Discord. Be sure to ask in the appropriate channels and follow their rules (on the forum) accordingly, and good luck!
I truly appreciate the detailed answer, will get started as soon as I get back home.
hit me up if you need play testers
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