Changelog for ME3Tweaks Mod Manager 6.1.5 Build 113

[Mgamerz]

This changelog is in progress. There are several significant changes for mod developers in this update.

This update improves compatibility with changes to the game made by ALOT Installer V4, adds more restrictions on mod deployments to help ensure mods that developers make are more consistent and of higher quality, as well as improving
localizations in various areas of the application.

New features

• Support for changes made to the game by ALOT Installer V4 for Mass Effect have been implemented, as it makes additional changes to the game beyond what V3 did
• Mod Manager now 'scopes' moddesc.ini task headers to only allow installation to specific locations as permitted by each header.

This should not affect any existing mods, because as far as I am aware all mods are installing files to the correct places. These new safeguards will prevent developers from being able to use a task, such as RETALIATION header, and using it to modify a different DLC. Task headers are now 'scoped' into 'silos' of allowed or disallowed write locations, relative to the game root.

Some notable restrictions:

• BASEGAME can write to Binaries (but not Binaries\Win32), BIOGame (but not BIOGame\DLC, or DLC for ME1), and Engine
• Official DLC tasks can write to their respective DLC folders only (this includes TESTPATCH)
• CUSTOMDLC can only write to folders listed in it's destdirs and ADD_CUSTOM_DLC altdlc DestinationDLC item
• The LOCALIZATION, BALANCE_CHANGES, ME1_CONFIG, and ME2_RCW were already scoped because they did not have any destination directories that could be configured

Any attempts to target files outside of their scope (or in a specifically disallowed scope for things like BASEGAME, which covers the whole game) will result in the mod not loading in M3. These safeguards are being introduced due to me finding a few developers trying to target out-of-scope to try and work around the restrictions I've placed on Mod Manager to keep them from modifying other mods in place. Mod Manager's existing security features defeated these attempts, but mostly by accident, and these new safeguards will ensure developers do not work around these rules.

Changed features

• There are additional checks now during mod deployments to address some issues that have come up with some mods being developed.
  • All DLC mods must now have a TLK file, with the listed mount TLK string contained with in it. Mods that do not adhere to this will be blocked from deployment
  • Empty package files will now block deployment
  • A game backup is now required to deploy a mod. This was listed as required in the backup nag screen but it is now enforced, because a backup is used in the checks to better simulate an end user's environment.
  • A game target for the specified game must be present to deploy a mod. Nearly all developers already do this but this is required now because the prechecks look for game data that works in the local game but may not work on end user systems, such as audio that's still in an AFC locally but not within the mod.
• Mod archives that contain a moddesc.ini file that target moddesc 6.0 or higher will now throw a warning message when the archive is opened by a user, when the mod is not deployed by ME3Tweaks Mod Manager. M3 packages mods in a specific way to improve the user experience, as well as force developers to go through a series of sanity checks to ensure consistency with mods in the scene. This will initially be in audit mode only, so I can collect data on offending mods. Once I turn on the feature on ME3Tweaks server, this will be enforced and users will begin to be notified the mod was improperly built for distribution. If you do not want to deal with this issue, you need to deploy mods through M3, as the intended purpose is to get developers to distribute proper archive files.
• References to 'ALOT is installed' are now changed to 'texture mod is installed', as some users only install MEUITM or not-ALOT mods. The badge in Installation Information however, remains unchanged for now
• ME1 deployments should now be faster due to caching the list of files in the game when doing texture checks
• Additional strings that a user may see are now localized

Bugfixes

• Updates to mods using the ME3Tweaks Updater Service that were imported as compressed should now more properly detect updates. This is a complicated process so it's not 100% accurate at determining what needs updated due to ME3Explorer not following the Unreal Engine 3 file format when saving files
• Fix ME1 lods not applying if the bioengine file was read only
• Fixed ASI Manager not showing the background color of installed ASI mods
• Some areas of the application would log an error when it was expected behavior, such as loading a blank mod. Normally this would be an error but there are legitimate uses of this in some areas, such as the ModMaker Compiler. Some of these error messages will no longer print as they are misleading