FableForge 0.18.1-rc.1

Prerelease for installing Aeon Edition 5.03 and Controller Support version 1 through Forge.

Downloads

FableForge-0.18.1-rc.1-win64.zip: extract it and run FableForge.exe. Open AEON_CONTROLLER.html beside the executable.
FableForge-Aeon-Controller-Guide.zip: the illustrated guide alone, for sharing separately.

Download Aeon Edition, Controller Support and EgoCore from their authors. No third-party mod data or game files are bundled.

Changes

Add the complete extracted Aeon Edition folder (or its Data folder), ControllerSupport.fmp, and the original folder containing FableControllerSupport.dll, in that order. Forge installs the overhaul and controller game data, then stages only the controller runtime DLL. Keep the source folders outside the game installation.
Recognize a complete Data installation and preserve its compiled definitions and asset files. Repack packed level changes into FinalAlbion.wad when required. Refuse incomplete or unsupported bank and FMP changes before deployment.
Update the illustrated walkthrough with actual Windows picker screenshots for each source and screenshots from the validated three-source GUI workflow. It distinguishes selecting the game folder from selecting each mod source.
Refuse unreadable same-size source assets during file comparison instead of treating them as unchanged.

Validation and limits

The Windows GUI workflow passed Add, Check, Deploy, Check while deployed, redeploy and Undeploy on a scratch game copy using the original three mod sources. The deployed compiled banks, WAD, runtime DLL and Mods.ini matched an independent CLI build, and the original bank/WAD hashes returned after Undeploy. The compact GUI check, deploy and restore path also passed. All 38 core tests and the focused complete-Data, bank and FMP checks passed. The extracted candidate passed all 46 package workflows with zero skips, including the original Aeon and Controller Support corpus. The seven illustrated guide images were added after that package run and checked separately for archive integrity and linked paths.

Live gameplay on Windows and Retroid Pocket 5 is untested. EgoCore remains the runtime DLL loader. A direct forge-tools mods merge with a late source-read failure can leave prepared files in its requested output; managed GUI Deploy prepares in scratch first. This is a prerelease, not the latest stable release.

Visual steps

Choose the game folder containing Fable.exe in Setup. In Mods, use Browse and Add to the order for each source below. The P:, Q: and R: paths in these screenshots are short aliases on the test PC; use your own extracted locations.