AOSPatches 1.1.0

The game patches are unchanged; this release makes installing simpler.

Distribution

• New one-click installer: AOSPatches-Installer.cmd. Download it, double-click
  it, press Enter. It fetches install.ps1 from the latest release over HTTPS,
  runs it with Windows PowerShell and keeps the window open with a clear
  SUCCESS, Cancelled or FAILED message. Folders with spaces or non-English
  letters work. Stable link:
  https://github.com/KikoTs/AOSPatches/releases/latest/download/AOSPatches-Installer.cmd.
• install.ps1 installs AOSPatches only. The option to install the full AoS
  Revival client is gone; that client is deprecated.
• Fewer questions: the game folder is found automatically and the installer asks
  once before changing anything. It waits for a running game to close without
  asking, and no longer asks about Steam.
• Running the installer on a patched game offers update, uninstall or quit.
• The game folder can also come from the AOSPATCHES_GAMEDIR environment
  variable. Exit codes: 0 done, 1 failed, 2 cancelled.
• -Product is no longer needed; -Product Fixes is still accepted.

Install

Easiest: download AOSPatches-Installer.cmd and double-click it. If Windows warns about a downloaded file, choose More info > Run anyway.

Or, in PowerShell:

irm https://github.com/KikoTs/AOSPatches/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 | iex

Or extract AOSPatches.zip beside aos.exe (Steam > Manage > Browse local files). Check downloads against SHA256SUMS.

AOSPatches 1.0.0

First tagged release. It packages the retail patches that were first published as
committed files in the repository (commit e3f0ef6), and adds an automated installer.

Works with the original Steam Ace of Spades (app 224540) on Windows, retail
aos.pkg SHA-256 c0d0cdc6f61f4b58172f74faf036c6f323b1cdbe59193f595fcce7d2a524e52c.
Any other aos.pkg (for example after installing another mod) leaves the
Python patches switched off and the game unchanged.

Mouse and input

• Raw mouse input (WM_INPUT): relative device counts go straight to the game,
  so aiming no longer follows Windows pointer acceleration. Based on AoS Revival's
  raw-input design. Menus keep normal cursor input.
• Works with the window the game has already created, including late window
  creation and window recreation; checks raw-input ownership and never takes over
  another program's registration.
• Absolute-position devices (tablets, some remote-desktop mice) are handled.
• Recovers after focus loss, minimize and restore: capture is dropped and
  reacquired cleanly, with a short grace period after the window comes back.
• If raw packets stop arriving, the game falls back to stock input and switches
  back to raw input as soon as real motion returns. The first returning packet
  is discarded so the camera never moves twice. Button-only packets cannot
  trigger the switch. Fixes the jitter and sensitivity changes reported after
  repeated minimizing.
• Three consecutive read errors switch to stock input permanently for that
  session, so control is never lost.
• Disable with the Steam launch option +legacymouse or an empty
  aos_mousefix.disabled file.

Movement

• Fixes the jump "launch reset": on every server, the local player's jump now
  keeps its real post-physics position and velocity instead of being snapped back
  to a stale network position on the launch frame (a source of jump
  rubber-banding).
• Only that one exact statement is suppressed. Walking, collision, input timing,
  movement history, teleports and ordinary server corrections stay native.
• Checks the loaded aoslib.character and aoslib.world binaries against the
  known retail SHA-256 values and skips itself if either is different or already
  patched. All changes are in memory; no EXE, PKG or PYD file is rewritten.
• Disable with +legacymovement or aos_movementfix.disabled.

Equipment

• The equipment menu offers the DLC weapons and tools bundled with the game.
• The Specialist and Medic characters can be selected.
• Server class and tool restrictions still apply; Steam ownership, item data and
  networking are untouched. No assets are supplied.
• Disable with +legacyequipment or aos_equipmentfix.disabled.

UI

• Smooth (fractional) mouse-wheel scrolling: high-resolution wheels and touchpads
  now scroll lists instead of being ignored or jumping. Non-finite deltas are
  rejected; direction changes reset the remainder.
• Scrolling also works in the match-settings panel when the pointer is over it.
• Menu timer cleanup: leaving a squads/server menu cancels its pending refresh
  timers, and a refresh that closes the menu stops immediately instead of
  touching a closed menu.
• Disable with +legacyui or aos_uifix.disabled.

Network and relay browser

• Optional: player-hosted BattleSpades servers advertised over Steam appear in
  the existing Internet/User server browser with a [Steam] prefix, searched
  worldwide. Ping shows the Steam route estimate (-1 until available).
• Favourites and History also keep relay entries (stored by Steam host and
  virtual port in %LOCALAPPDATA%\AoSRetailFixes).
• Joining cancels any earlier join; leaving the browser or loading screen drops
  late results. If the helper fails during a match, the player returns to the
  main menu instead of a broken session.
• The game's own ENet connection is used unchanged; it only receives a temporary
  loopback endpoint after the host's greeting has been verified.
• No port forwarding needed. Requires 64-bit Windows and Steam signed in to an
  account that owns the game.
• Experimental: local forwarding and Steam initialization are tested; two-account
  Internet play through Steam Datagram Relay still needs live validation.
• Disable with +legacynetwork or aos_networkfix.disabled.

Steam bridge (relay helper)

• New native x64 helper, relay/aos-retail-relay.exe, with its own copy of
  Valve's steam_api64.dll, so the game's original Steam DLL is never replaced.
• Game datagrams travel between local UDP sockets and Steam networking entirely
  in native code; Python only controls discovery and joining.
• The control channel binds to loopback only and requires a fresh 256-bit token;
  commands and responses are size-bounded, text is hex-encoded UTF-8.
• Each remote player gets its own UDP source port, and the authenticated Steam
  identity is pinned to its game connection (used for bans, vote-kicks and
  password lockouts on the server).
• Advertisements never contain passwords or secrets.
• Hosting is part of the separate BattleSpades server
  (--steam-p2p --steam-p2p-bridge <path to aos-retail-relay.exe>).

Runtime and loader

• winmm.dll proxy loader for the 32-bit game: forwards every WinMM call to the
  Windows system DLL and runs the embedded bootstrap on the game's Python main
  thread. No code injection into other processes, no executable byte patches, no
  background threads.
• Every patch can be switched off on its own; a missing or failing patch never
  stops the game from starting. Errors go to aos_mousefix_loader.log.
• Patch coordinator installs each fix when its game module loads and replaces
  methods atomically, rolling back if any part fails.
• Unknown aos.pkg versions skip all Python patches.
• Replaces the earlier AGEX-derived mouse and equipment files; no AGEX code is
  included.

Distribution

• New install.ps1: finds the Steam game folder, downloads the latest release,
  verifies its SHA-256, backs up every file it replaces, and installs. Can also
  install the full AoS Revival client instead. -Uninstall restores the backup.
• Releases are built from source by GitHub Actions and published with
  AOSPatches-<version>.zip, a version-less AOSPatches.zip, install.ps1
  and SHA256SUMS.
• Build output (dist/, AOSPatches.zip) is no longer committed to the
  repository. Builds are deterministic (/Brepro, fixed ZIP order and timestamps).

Install

Close the game, open PowerShell and run:

irm https://github.com/KikoTs/AOSPatches/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 | iex

Or extract AOSPatches.zip beside aos.exe (Steam > Manage > Browse local files). Check downloads against SHA256SUMS.