Release v1.4.0 (beta 3)

Download: XCOM2_AlternativeModLauncher_1.4.0-beta3.zip

Preface

This is a pre-release version! - Consider waiting for the final release for a more polished and less buggy experience.

Please read the v1.4.0 release notes for a complete overview of changes since v1.3.2.

This release comes with some additional bug fixes and is probably the last beta before the final release.

One particularly noteworthy (hopefully working) fix is, that the problem with the settings.json sometimes getting corrupted should be resolved. In case that this is not working as expected, AML will now create a backup file settings.json.bak after each save. This can be used to restore the last working state, by replacing the invalid settings.json, should AML complain that the settings file can not be loaded.

Fixes

• Potential fix for the issue where the settings.json gets corrupted, preventing AML from starting until it is deleted manually. #206.
• Fixed crash when closing AML while mod update process is still running. #191.
• Fixed rare crash when AML was checking for updates. #202.
• Fixed crash when ini file from config tab drop-down was not accessible. #205.
• Fixed crash when processing XComMod file with invalid key-value pair formatting. #210.
• Improve Logging. #203. #204.

Release v1.4.0 (beta 2)

Download: XCOM2_AlternativeModLauncher_1.4.0-beta2.zip

Preface

Please read the v1.4.0 release notes for a complete overview. This is a hot-fix release that resolves some urgent issues from the first beta.

As this is a BETA release, expect some bugs -> view reported issues
Consider waiting for the final release to get a more polished experience.

Note: If you already used 1.4.0-beta and still have issues after the update, you may have to delete %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\XCOM2 War of the Chosen\XComGame\Config\XComEngine.ini. This is related to the fix/issue #194.

Fixes

• Fixed issues with respect to different mod folders and mods not being loaded properly. #194.
• Fixed crash when not subscribed to any mod. #190.
• Fixed "Use workshop tags" not working for mods from custom mod folders. #168.

Release v1.4.0 (beta)

Download: XCOM2_AlternativeModLauncher_1.4.0-beta.zip

Preface

Release v1.4.0 introduces support for XCOM Chimera Squad (see Getting started) and includes new features, many usability improvements and also lots of bug fixes. See the changelog for details.

As this is a BETA release, expect some bugs -> view related issues
Consider waiting for the final release to get a more polished experience.

Refer to the installation instructions about how to install AML.

• Check out the Wiki for some useful tips. It is a work in progress, so consider checking for content updates from time to time.
• For questions or suggestions you are welcome to join our Discord channel.
• Infos on how to report bug here.

Changelog

• Main features

  • Added support for XCOM Chimera Squad.
  • New Mod Dependencies overview panel that shows dependent and required mods for the current selection. #56.
  • Mod state filtering allows you to easily filter mods by current state (duplicate, new, conflict etc.).
  • Duplicate mod ID handling allows you to have multiple mods with the same mod identifier installed at the same time. #101.

• Usability

  • New mod list column "Source" (not visible by default). See Working with the mod list. #182.
  • Added options to "Enable" and "Disable" selected mods using the right click context menu.
  • Available quick toggle arguments drop-down menu can now be configured from settings dialog.
  • After refreshing the mod list, the last mod selection is now restored.
  • Remember last selection for "Enable grouping".
  • Remember last selection for "Show state filters".
  • Option to choose between using a translucent (better visibility of colored rows) or an opaque selection color for mod list items.
  • Improved visibility of the "splitter" between mod-list and mod-details that allows to resize the panel.
  • Preserve mod list category grouping and selection after opening/closing the category manager.
  • Fixed AML not properly saving the expanded/collapsed state for categories.
  • Display message when mod list is empty, suggesting to check the mod folder configuration.
  • Changed some default mod list column settings (size and visibility).

• Misc improvements

  • Mod conflicts detection - Fixed some false positives. One common example is the X2Action_MoveClimbWall override. #102. (credits to @robojumper)
  • Mod conflicts detection - Fixed some false negatives. #148. (credits to @robojumper)
  • Improved Steam Workshop default mod folder detection. #39.
  • Improved mod update processing to be more reliable and faster.
  • Improved very slow processing when (un-)checking many mods at once.
  • Moving a mod to a collapsed category will no longer expand all categories. #176.
  • After a mod download is completed, only refresh the respective mod instead of the whole mod list.

• Fixes and technical changes

  • Fixed "About" menu spawning on the wrong screen. #164.
  • When deleting multiple selected mods, the mod info panel wasn't cleared properly afterwards. #180.
  • Fixed category sort order inconsistencies. #177.
  • Fixed potential crash when launching the game while mod updates are still running. #159.
  • File->Search for new mods did not work properly. #172.
  • The Use workshop tags option was displayed when a workshop id was available, but did nothing when a mod was located in a custom mod folder. #168.
  • Implemented semantic versioning. #145.
  • Updated Steamworks.NET.dll from v12.0 to v13.0. Updated steam_api64.dll from v4.28.51.7 to v5.25.65.21.
  • Fixed DirectoryNotFoundException when importing mods. #185.
  • Fixed issue detecting path to game directory when longer than 100 chars. #186.
  • Fixed possible ArgumentException when selecting mod while change-log tab is visible. #187.

Release 1.3.2

Preface

With this release, we finally leave the preceding beta-phase. All of you who have used v1.2.4 so far, will receive the first update notification with this version.

It is worth mentioning that - starting with v1.3.0 - you can choose to be notified about pre-releases by enabling the respective option from the settings dialog.

Some other noteworthy things:

• You can find some advice about how to install or update AML on the wiki.

• AML now supports anonymous error reporting, which has really helped us to identify many issues during the beta. Please consider enabling that feature, when you are presented with the option to enable/disable it.

• If you have any questions or suggestions regarding AML, you are welcome to join our Discord channel on the "XCOM 2 Modding" server.

• If you encounter a bug/issue, please consider reporting it. You may want to include the AML.log and/or settings.json files in the issue report. Those files are located in the AML folder.

Thanks to @Xymanek, for helping out with pull request reviews.

Changelog

As this is another supplementary release, it includes mainly fixes and some minor improvements. Please take a look at the change-logs from v1.3.0 beta and v1.3.1 beta for a comprehensive overview about all changes since v1.2.4.

• Fixes / technical
  • Improved XComMod file parsing.
  • Handle file access issues while detecting mod directories. Resolves #155.
  • Report any errors when deleting a mod folder to the user and prevent crash. Resolves #154.
  • Prevent unhandled exception when closing SettingsDialog with invalid base path. Resolves #149.
  • Fixed unhandled exception when XComEngine.ini does not contain any mod directories. Resolves #143.
  • Always return default settings if loading global settings from file fails. Resolves #158.
  • Inform user if saving/applying changes fails. Resolves #156.

Release 1.3.1 (beta)

Preface

This is a supplementary release, which includes mainly fixes and some minor improvements. Please take a look at the change-log from the v1.3 beta for a comprehensive overview about all changes.

The (optional) anonymous error reporting, that was introduced with v1.3, has really helped us to identify many issues that were never reported by users (including lots of issues that were already present in many older versions) . So please consider enabling that feature if you haven't already.

Changelog

• Improvements

  • Replaced the simple crash report MessageBox with a dedicated dialog, which provides some useful links and an option to copy the error details to clipboard. #130
  • Added missing titles etc. for all MessageBox usages.
  • It is now indicated, that AML should be re-started, when there were changes made to the game or the mod folders.
  • Mod info panel will now be cleared when no mod is selected.

• Fixes / technical

  • Fixed wrong anchoring for beta version label in UpdateAvailableDialog.
  • Settings: Changes to game path and mod folders where not discarded when the user closed the dialog with "Cancel".
  • Improved logging (integrated log4net with Sentry).
  • Some settings were not preserved when moving AML to another folder. #128
  • Additional logging to narrow down some potential issues when parsing XComMod file. #127 #118
  • Potential crash when trying to run the game. #124
  • Potential crash when opening URLs. #125
  • Potential crash when clicking Save/Undo mod description. #123
  • Potential crash when selecting mods from modlist, where the description contains a specific URL format. #116
  • Potential crash when cleaning mods. #138
  • Potential crash when detecting mod directories on startup. #126
  • Potential crash when evaluating mod conflicts. #122
  • Potential crash when sorting modlist. #121
  • Potential crash when saving an ini file from the mod info panel (when locked by other process or otherwise write protected). #120

Release 1.3 (beta)

Preface

This release includes some new features, many usability improvements and also lots of bug fixes.

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding AML, you are welcome to join our Discord channel on the "XCOM 2 Modding" server.

If you encounter a bug/issue, please consider reporting it. You may want to include the AML.log and/or settings.json files in the issue report. Those files are located in the AML folder.

Special thanks to @Xymanek, for helping out with tons of pull request reviews!
Thanks to Puma_The_Great for creating the AML logo!
Thanks to everyone else who contributed in any other way!

Changelog

• Menu
  • Added option to manually search for updates (Menu→About->Check for Updates).
  • New option for category management (Menu→Settings→Categories).
  • Added links to AML GitHub project page, Wiki and discord server (Menu->About).
  • Revised designations and added tooltips.
• Settings-Dialog
  • Moved category management to a separate dialog.
  • Added OK/Cancel buttons, to be able to dismiss changes instead of being forced to save.
  • Revised layout and tooltips.
• Modlist
  • Added “Author” column, showing the mod author name. (by @bountygiver)
  • Show filter indicator, if filtering is currently active for that column. #100
  • Grouping can now be disabled/enabled manually.
  • Tags now use white text on dark colors for better contrast. (by @bountygiver)
  • Improved Mod-Info “Inspect” tab view. Added categorization and improved handling. (by @bountygiver)
  • Mod-Info description box now supports rich text formatting. (by @bountygiver)
  • Option to manually “Save” changes to the description (by @bountygiver) and to “Undo” changes instead of always saving.
  • Context menu: Added option to download tags from Steam. (by @bountygiver)
  • Context menu: Hide "Rename" on mod context menu when multiple mods are selected.
  • Context menu: Re-ordered menu items to have related entries listed below each other.
• Misc
  • Added functionality to be informed about Pre-Release versions (optional). #80
  • Prevent running multiple instances of AML simultaneously (optional). #88
  • Quick launch arguments: Replaced check-boxes with drop-down-list to prevent cluttered GUI and added additional arguments.
  • If some changes to the settings require the application to be restarted, this is now indicated by showing a message in the status bar.
  • Integrated Sentry error reporting (optional). #90
  • Confirmation dialog to prevent overriding categories and tags accidentally, when importing a profile. (by @bountygiver)
• Fixes / technical:
  • Implemented logging (AML.log in AML folder). #113
  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.2 (4.6 before) is now required.
    (Supported by Win10, 8.1 and 7 but only pre-installed on Win 10 with Update 10.4.2018 or later.
  • Updated Steamworks.NET from v8.0.0 to v12.0.0.
  • Improve handling for local mods that have a workshop id. #107
  • Category name changing to "" when renamed dialog is canceled. #70
  • Exception/crash when trying to remove the default category "Unsorted". #71
  • Exception when trying to remove a Tag from all mods. #79
  • Column "Hidden" visibility wasn't updated properly. #74
  • Fixed tags with white spaces causing empty strings as tags. (by @bountygiver)
  • When deleting a mod folder with locked files, an IO exception occurred. #6
  • Mods were updated with uninitialized/invalid data if the Workshop request failed. #9.
  • Improved mod path processing. #55
  • Mod ID comparison is now case insensitive. #94
  • Fixed issue where "Toggle groups" wouldn't collapse if there was only one single group.

Lots of other small fixes and improvements made it into this version. If you are interested in the details, check the commit logs.

Release 1.2.4

• Launch time reduced significantly
• Mods are now tracked properly when their IDs change
• Cleaning source files will no longer break highlander mods
• Importing a mod profile no longer adds an empty tag (credit to @RevZero)
• Renaming a mod from the context menu now works (credit to @RevZero)
• Added quick argument toggles (disabled by default, credit to @Xymanek)
• Fixed the sorting order for the Last Update, Date Added, and Date Created columns
• Challenge Mode button behaves better (e.g. hides when WotC is not installed)

Release 1.2.3

• Differentiates between vanilla mods and WotC mods
• Gives a warning when launching vanilla XCOM 2 with WotC mods
• More information is detected for non-workshop mods
• Information can be updated manually for individual mods
• Missing mods are detected more consistently
• Fixed redundant class override warnings for mods with duplicate IDs

(credit to @bountygiver for all of the above)

• Added Challenge Mode button to launch WotC with no mods or console
• Using the Challenge Mode button does not impact settings for launching WotC normally
• Fixed changelogs not loading

Release 1.2.2

• Mod entries can now be assigned tags (credit to @Xebeth)
• WotC button is hidden if WotC isn't installed
• Fixed mod directories duplicating upon launch (credit to @RealityMachina)
• Fixed crash when .NET 4.5.2 is installed and updated the .NET download link to 4.7.1

Release 1.2.1

• Custom mod directories are now properly recognized
• Fixed mods not loading from some directories