A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.28-preview

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.28-preview Beta

This is a beta refresh of the .NET/WPF migration of the original BattleTech
Character Creator. It is ready for broader manual testing and feedback, but it
is not the final stable release.

Download

Attach these files from artifacts\release\0.1.28-preview:

• atow-character-creator-0.1.28-preview-<commit>-setup.exe
• atow-character-creator-0.1.28-preview-<commit>-setup.exe.sha256
• PREVIEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
• release-manifest.txt

Requirements

• Windows
• .NET 10 Desktop Runtime

Install Location

This beta installs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\A Time of War Character Creator Beta
and registers a separate beta uninstaller.

Verification

See release-manifest.txt for the exact packaged commit.

SHA-256:

7E9C7C0F46DD214C8B719362EEFAA8C07B77B78C05E31880DB218BA46F761747

Before packaging, the automated release checks passed:

• Migration tests
• Start window smoke
• Wizard smoke
• Stage preview smoke
• Clan round-trip smoke
• Representative life-path smoke
• Editor allocation smoke
• Inventory smoke
• Character-sheet export smoke
• Error report smokes
• Solution build
• Folder publish
• NSIS installer build
• Installer dry-run

The full installer install, launch-smoke, and uninstall test passed on
July 7, 2026.

Manual installed-app testing should follow docs/MANUAL_TEST_PLAN.md.

Highlights

• Free XP spending now uses one unified target dropdown for Attributes, Traits, and Skills
• The Free XP allocation list now shows the target type alongside each spend
• Free XP allocation rows can now be removed individually without resetting all Free XP spending
• Free XP target choices now hide targets already assigned on the Free XP step and restore them after removal
• Free XP target choices now include current character Traits and Skills even
  when they come from generated, imported, or life-module-specific names
• Free XP rule-check fixes now navigate back to the relevant wizard stage for
  non-XP prerequisites, including Education issues returning to Stage 3
• Module flexible XP must now be fully assigned before advancing to the next Life Module, matching the page 61 spending rule
• Stage 2 running Free XP now visibly subtracts the selected late-childhood module cost
• Wizard age calculation now starts from age 16 after late childhood and adds only selected Stage 3 education time and Stage 4 career time
• Stage 3 now supports repeated education selections, including second and
  third education entries for paths such as University plus Officer Candidate
  School
• Education prerequisite checks now account for all selected education fields
• Equipment and weapon catalogs now include category filters in addition to
  text search
• Life Module character wizard from basic information through Stage 4
• First-launch choice window for opening the Character Wizard or Character Editor
• Basic information uses campaign year, with age calculated from life-path choices
• Campaign year infers the matching era from the imported Eras.xlsx chronology
• Era-aware affiliation availability filters with visible source notes
• Era-aware Rasalhague sub-affiliation filters with visible source notes
• Pre-invasion eras after the Golden Century show both Invading Clan and
  Homeworld Clan origins for Clan characters
• Era quick-start templates for common campaign starts in the editor
• All corrected-printing affiliations and 68 sub-affiliations
• All 24 corrected-printing Stage 4 base modules, including variants
• Two ordered Stage 4 careers with repeat and prerequisite handling
• Stage 4 career dropdowns show candidate careers while prerequisite gaps are summarized on the Stage 4 screen
• Stage 4 now shows a compact visible list of unmet career prerequisite details once a career slot is enabled
• Stage 4 career field-skill dropdowns now fall back to the allowed field-skill pool instead of appearing blank when the character qualifies through an alternate prerequisite route
• Stage 4 character totals no longer reuse the previous career totals during career-switch refreshes
• Stage 4 character totals stay visible for the newly selected career while that career's flexible XP is still being assigned
• Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4 flexible XP pools preserve user allocations
  while navigating between wizard pages
• Flexible XP target dropdowns group Attributes first, then Traits, then Skills
• Stage 1 flexible XP target lists include cataloged Compulsion traits
• Wizard character totals remain visible while flexible XP pools still have
  unallocated or overallocated XP
• Review Character keeps the last valid totals during temporary wizard refreshes
• Review Character can spend remaining Free XP to fix Attribute, Trait, and Skill prerequisite gaps
• Wizard now has a dedicated Free XP step before final Review, with rule-check fixes moved there
• Free XP step can manually spend remaining XP on selected Attributes, Traits, and Skills
• Character editor with XP controls for attributes, skills, and traits, including
  5 XP and 10 XP adjustment buttons
• Character editor Rule Check now shows each prerequisite's missing XP gap
  alongside required and current XP
• Legacy .btcc save/load compatibility
• Searchable equipment and weapon catalogs with C-Bill and mass summaries
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters for faster inventory selection
• Equipment and weapon catalog dropdowns group results by category for easier scanning
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters show visible result counts while browsing
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels for source and rules context
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels show campaign-year era warnings
• Inventory status warnings for over-budget, overloaded, manually priced wildcard items,
  armor patches that need patch pricing, ammo purchases that need ammo cost or
  mass details, and prosthetic enhancements that need a prosthetic or implant host
• Inventory status warnings for ammo purchases that need reload or power-pack review
• Core-rulebook Power Packs and Rechargers are now imported into the equipment
  catalog, including standard, Clan, high-capacity, quick-charge, and support
  PPC power packs
• Simple power-pack weapon rows now clear the reload/power-pack warning once
  the character owns a power pack, satchel battery, or portable power unit
• Inventory status warnings for vehicle purchases that need Vehicle or Custom Vehicle
  trait support
• Inventory status warnings now name the inventory rows that need pricing, ammo,
  reload, prosthetic host, or vehicle trait attention
• Weapon inventory rows now support purchased ammo modifier names plus per-pack
  modifier cost and mass adjustments
• Specialty ammunition modifiers from the core rulebook can now be selected
  and applied to weapon inventory rows
• Specialty ammunition choices now filter by the selected weapon row category
  and weapon category survives save/load
• Specialty ammunition filtering now honors rifle-only, shotgun-only,
  and support-Gauss restrictions from the modifier table
• Specialty ammunition now tracks support gear requirements for Air-Burst,
  Guided Gyrojet, and Radioactive Tracker ammunition
• Inventory status warns when specialty ammunition purchases are missing
  required support gear and clears once the matching support item is present
• Guided Rifle Modules and Radioactive Tracker Scanner are now imported as core
  equipment catalog entries so specialty ammo support warnings can be resolved
  through normal inventory purchases
• Applied specialty ammunition now stores AP/BD and range effects directly on
  weapon inventory rows
• Character-sheet export includes applied specialty ammunition AP/BD and range
  effect notes in weapon inventory details
• Applied specialty ammunition now calculates effective AP/BD for simple numeric
  modifiers and effective range for half-range ammunition
• Weapon inventory rows now preserve calculated specialty ammunition effective
  damage and range through save/load
• Headless inventory smoke checks catalog and inventory-rule behavior without
  constructing the editor window
• Headless character-sheet export smoke checks PDF output without constructing
  wizard/editor windows
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion equipment and weapon catalog content
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion expanded trait reference entries
• Skill and Trait editor reference panels with source labels and rule notes
• MW3-to-AToW conversion skill targets from the Companion conversion table
• Local Era Digest and Era Report source audit for era-aware behavior
• Official character-sheet PDF preview and export
• Release checks verify that character-sheet export produces a nonempty PDF
• Error report generation for unexpected and recoverable app failures
• Error reports include app version, runtime, process, and launch diagnostics
• Wizard smoke failures now write an error report and exit cleanly
• Release checks validate diagnostic report versions against the requested version
• Release checks verify the app project version matches the requested version
• Release checks verify Windows assembly/file versions match the release version
• Release checks verify the installer dry-run still covers installed start,
  diagnostic, sheet export, and uninstall checks
• Release checks close repo-launched app instances around app smoke, build, and
  publish steps to prevent stale file locks
• Release checks build once before app smoke steps and avoid rebuilding between
  smoke launches
• Wizard smoke headlessly validates era-aware wizard behavior and a representative
  character path without the slower exhaustive UI selection sweep
• Start-window smoke runs headlessly before WPF startup so release automation
  validates launch choices without hanging on window construction
• Start-window smoke validates compiled WPF start-screen resources in installed
  builds
• Installer smoke validates the installed start-window choices and...

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.23-preview

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.23-preview Beta

This is a beta refresh of the .NET/WPF migration of the original BattleTech
Character Creator. It is ready for broader manual testing and feedback, but it
is not the final stable release.

Download

Attach these files from artifacts\release\0.1.23-preview:

• atow-character-creator-0.1.23-preview-<commit>-setup.exe
• atow-character-creator-0.1.23-preview-<commit>-setup.exe.sha256
• PREVIEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
• release-manifest.txt

Requirements

• Windows
• .NET 10 Desktop Runtime

Install Location

This beta installs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\A Time of War Character Creator Beta
and registers a separate beta uninstaller.

Verification

See release-manifest.txt for the exact packaged commit.

SHA-256:

A8067746134743A8D82B690B6427865E59FCF7CEA4FD4C7BDE4A55EAC1DBA320

Before packaging, the automated release checks passed:

• Migration tests
• Start window smoke
• Wizard smoke
• Clan round-trip smoke
• Representative life-path smoke
• Editor allocation smoke
• Inventory smoke
• Character-sheet export smoke
• Error report smokes
• Solution build
• Folder publish
• NSIS installer build
• Installer dry-run

The full installer install, launch-smoke, and uninstall test passed on
July 7, 2026.

Manual installed-app testing should follow docs/MANUAL_TEST_PLAN.md.

Highlights

• Free XP spending now uses one unified target dropdown for Attributes, Traits, and Skills
• The Free XP allocation list now shows the target type alongside each spend
• Module flexible XP must now be fully assigned before advancing to the next Life Module, matching the page 61 spending rule
• Stage 2 running Free XP now visibly subtracts the selected late-childhood module cost
• Wizard age calculation now starts from age 16 after late childhood and adds only selected Stage 3 education time and Stage 4 career time
• Stage 3 now supports repeated education selections, including second and
  third education entries for paths such as University plus Officer Candidate
  School
• Education prerequisite checks now account for all selected education fields
• Equipment and weapon catalogs now include category filters in addition to
  text search
• Life Module character wizard from basic information through Stage 4
• First-launch choice window for opening the Character Wizard or Character Editor
• Basic information uses campaign year, with age calculated from life-path choices
• Campaign year infers the matching era from the imported Eras.xlsx chronology
• Era-aware affiliation availability filters with visible source notes
• Era-aware Rasalhague sub-affiliation filters with visible source notes
• Pre-invasion eras after the Golden Century show both Invading Clan and
  Homeworld Clan origins for Clan characters
• Era quick-start templates for common campaign starts in the editor
• All corrected-printing affiliations and 68 sub-affiliations
• All 24 corrected-printing Stage 4 base modules, including variants
• Two ordered Stage 4 careers with repeat and prerequisite handling
• Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4 flexible XP pools preserve user allocations
  while navigating between wizard pages
• Flexible XP target dropdowns group Attributes first, then Traits, then Skills
• Stage 1 flexible XP target lists include cataloged Compulsion traits
• Wizard character totals remain visible while flexible XP pools still have
  unallocated or overallocated XP
• Review Character keeps the last valid totals during temporary wizard refreshes
• Review Character can spend remaining Free XP to fix Attribute, Trait, and Skill prerequisite gaps
• Wizard now has a dedicated Free XP step before final Review, with rule-check fixes moved there
• Free XP step can manually spend remaining XP on selected Traits and Skills
• Character editor with XP controls for attributes, skills, and traits, including
  5 XP and 10 XP adjustment buttons
• Legacy .btcc save/load compatibility
• Searchable equipment and weapon catalogs with C-Bill and mass summaries
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters for faster inventory selection
• Equipment and weapon catalog dropdowns group results by category for easier scanning
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters show visible result counts while browsing
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels for source and rules context
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels show campaign-year era warnings
• Inventory status warnings for over-budget, overloaded, manually priced wildcard items,
  armor patches that need patch pricing, ammo purchases that need ammo cost or
  mass details, and prosthetic enhancements that need a prosthetic or implant host
• Inventory status warnings for ammo purchases that need reload or power-pack review
• Inventory status warnings for vehicle purchases that need Vehicle or Custom Vehicle
  trait support
• Inventory status warnings now name the inventory rows that need pricing, ammo,
  reload, prosthetic host, or vehicle trait attention
• Weapon inventory rows now support purchased ammo modifier names plus per-pack
  modifier cost and mass adjustments
• Specialty ammunition modifiers from the core rulebook can now be selected
  and applied to weapon inventory rows
• Specialty ammunition choices now filter by the selected weapon row category
  and weapon category survives save/load
• Specialty ammunition filtering now honors rifle-only, shotgun-only,
  and support-Gauss restrictions from the modifier table
• Specialty ammunition now tracks support gear requirements for Air-Burst,
  Guided Gyrojet, and Radioactive Tracker ammunition
• Inventory status warns when specialty ammunition purchases are missing
  required support gear and clears once the matching support item is present
• Guided Rifle Modules and Radioactive Tracker Scanner are now imported as core
  equipment catalog entries so specialty ammo support warnings can be resolved
  through normal inventory purchases
• Applied specialty ammunition now stores AP/BD and range effects directly on
  weapon inventory rows
• Character-sheet export includes applied specialty ammunition AP/BD and range
  effect notes in weapon inventory details
• Applied specialty ammunition now calculates effective AP/BD for simple numeric
  modifiers and effective range for half-range ammunition
• Weapon inventory rows now preserve calculated specialty ammunition effective
  damage and range through save/load
• Headless inventory smoke checks catalog and inventory-rule behavior without
  constructing the editor window
• Headless character-sheet export smoke checks PDF output without constructing
  wizard/editor windows
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion equipment and weapon catalog content
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion expanded trait reference entries
• Skill and Trait editor reference panels with source labels and rule notes
• MW3-to-AToW conversion skill targets from the Companion conversion table
• Local Era Digest and Era Report source audit for era-aware behavior
• Official character-sheet PDF preview and export
• Release checks verify that character-sheet export produces a nonempty PDF
• Error report generation for unexpected and recoverable app failures
• Error reports include app version, runtime, process, and launch diagnostics
• Wizard smoke failures now write an error report and exit cleanly
• Release checks validate diagnostic report versions against the requested version
• Release checks verify the app project version matches the requested version
• Release checks verify Windows assembly/file versions match the release version
• Release checks verify the installer dry-run still covers installed start,
  diagnostic, sheet export, and uninstall checks
• Release checks close repo-launched app instances around app smoke, build, and
  publish steps to prevent stale file locks
• Release checks build once before app smoke steps and avoid rebuilding between
  smoke launches
• Wizard smoke headlessly validates era-aware wizard behavior and a representative
  character path without the slower exhaustive UI selection sweep
• Start-window smoke runs headlessly before WPF startup so release automation
  validates launch choices without hanging on window construction
• Start-window smoke validates compiled WPF start-screen resources in installed
  builds
• Installer smoke validates the installed start-window choices and required
  launch-screen assets
• Installer smoke validates diagnostic metadata from the installed app
• Installer smoke validates character-sheet PDF export from the installed app
• Per-user Windows installer
• Release packaging guard against stale installers when release checks are skipped
• Release package filenames include the packaged build commit
• GitHub release validation cross-checks manifest installer metadata
• GitHub release validation cross-checks the packaged release version
• GitHub release validation checks the draft notes match the requested version
• GitHub release validation checks preview notes match the requested version
• Manual preview test plan and generated run logs for installed-app testing

Known Gaps

• Remaining optional A Time of War Companion content is still being modeled
• Deeper reload behavior, deeper patch repair, ammunition modifier rules, and
  deeper vehicle purchasing rules need richer first-class support
• Interface polish and usability testing are still ongoing
• The final rulebook audit is not complete

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.20-preview

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.20-preview Beta

This is a beta refresh of the .NET/WPF migration of the original BattleTech
Character Creator. It is ready for broader manual testing and feedback, but it
is not the final stable release.

Download

Attach these files from artifacts\release\0.1.20-preview:

• atow-character-creator-0.1.20-preview-<commit>-setup.exe
• atow-character-creator-0.1.20-preview-<commit>-setup.exe.sha256
• PREVIEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
• release-manifest.txt

Requirements

• Windows
• .NET 10 Desktop Runtime

Install Location

This beta installs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\A Time of War Character Creator Beta
and registers a separate beta uninstaller.

Verification

See release-manifest.txt for the exact packaged commit.

SHA-256:

B1E21852979F53CAEA976DD9CC6B6D310A07553542F4C9511DA09ED7AFF82FAB

Before packaging, the automated release checks passed:

• Migration tests
• Start window smoke
• Wizard smoke
• Clan round-trip smoke
• Representative life-path smoke
• Editor allocation smoke
• Inventory smoke
• Character-sheet export smoke
• Error report smokes
• Solution build
• Folder publish
• NSIS installer build
• Installer dry-run

The full installer install, launch-smoke, and uninstall test passed on
July 7, 2026.

Manual installed-app testing should follow docs/MANUAL_TEST_PLAN.md.

Highlights

• Free XP spending now uses one unified target dropdown for Attributes, Traits, and Skills
• The Free XP allocation list now shows the target type alongside each spend
• Module flexible XP must now be fully assigned before advancing to the next Life Module, matching the page 61 spending rule
• Stage 2 running Free XP now visibly subtracts the selected late-childhood module cost
• Wizard age calculation now starts from age 16 after late childhood and adds only selected Stage 3 education time and Stage 4 career time
• Stage 3 now supports repeated education selections, including second and
  third education entries for paths such as University plus Officer Candidate
  School
• Education prerequisite checks now account for all selected education fields
• Equipment and weapon catalogs now include category filters in addition to
  text search
• Life Module character wizard from basic information through Stage 4
• First-launch choice window for opening the Character Wizard or Character Editor
• Basic information uses campaign year, with age calculated from life-path choices
• Campaign year infers the matching era from the imported Eras.xlsx chronology
• Era-aware affiliation availability filters with visible source notes
• Era-aware Rasalhague sub-affiliation filters with visible source notes
• Pre-invasion eras after the Golden Century show both Invading Clan and
  Homeworld Clan origins for Clan characters
• Era quick-start templates for common campaign starts in the editor
• All corrected-printing affiliations and 68 sub-affiliations
• All 24 corrected-printing Stage 4 base modules, including variants
• Two ordered Stage 4 careers with repeat and prerequisite handling
• Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4 flexible XP pools preserve user allocations
  while navigating between wizard pages
• Flexible XP target dropdowns group Attributes first, then Traits, then Skills
• Stage 1 flexible XP target lists include cataloged Compulsion traits
• Wizard character totals remain visible while flexible XP pools still have
  unallocated or overallocated XP
• Review Character keeps the last valid totals during temporary wizard refreshes
• Review Character can spend remaining Free XP to fix Attribute, Trait, and Skill prerequisite gaps
• Wizard now has a dedicated Free XP step before final Review, with rule-check fixes moved there
• Free XP step can manually spend remaining XP on selected Traits and Skills
• Character editor with XP controls for attributes, skills, and traits, including
  5 XP and 10 XP adjustment buttons
• Legacy .btcc save/load compatibility
• Searchable equipment and weapon catalogs with C-Bill and mass summaries
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters for faster inventory selection
• Equipment and weapon catalog dropdowns group results by category for easier scanning
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters show visible result counts while browsing
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels for source and rules context
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels show campaign-year era warnings
• Inventory status warnings for over-budget, overloaded, manually priced wildcard items,
  armor patches that need patch pricing, ammo purchases that need ammo cost or
  mass details, and prosthetic enhancements that need a prosthetic or implant host
• Inventory status warnings for ammo purchases that need reload or power-pack review
• Inventory status warnings for vehicle purchases that need Vehicle or Custom Vehicle
  trait support
• Inventory status warnings now name the inventory rows that need pricing, ammo,
  reload, prosthetic host, or vehicle trait attention
• Weapon inventory rows now support purchased ammo modifier names plus per-pack
  modifier cost and mass adjustments
• Specialty ammunition modifiers from the core rulebook can now be selected
  and applied to weapon inventory rows
• Specialty ammunition choices now filter by the selected weapon row category
  and weapon category survives save/load
• Specialty ammunition filtering now honors rifle-only, shotgun-only,
  and support-Gauss restrictions from the modifier table
• Specialty ammunition now tracks support gear requirements for Air-Burst,
  Guided Gyrojet, and Radioactive Tracker ammunition
• Inventory status warns when specialty ammunition purchases are missing
  required support gear and clears once the matching support item is present
• Headless inventory smoke checks catalog and inventory-rule behavior without
  constructing the editor window
• Headless character-sheet export smoke checks PDF output without constructing
  wizard/editor windows
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion equipment and weapon catalog content
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion expanded trait reference entries
• Skill and Trait editor reference panels with source labels and rule notes
• MW3-to-AToW conversion skill targets from the Companion conversion table
• Local Era Digest and Era Report source audit for era-aware behavior
• Official character-sheet PDF preview and export
• Release checks verify that character-sheet export produces a nonempty PDF
• Error report generation for unexpected and recoverable app failures
• Error reports include app version, runtime, process, and launch diagnostics
• Wizard smoke failures now write an error report and exit cleanly
• Release checks validate diagnostic report versions against the requested version
• Release checks verify the app project version matches the requested version
• Release checks verify Windows assembly/file versions match the release version
• Release checks verify the installer dry-run still covers installed start,
  diagnostic, sheet export, and uninstall checks
• Release checks close repo-launched app instances around app smoke, build, and
  publish steps to prevent stale file locks
• Release checks build once before app smoke steps and avoid rebuilding between
  smoke launches
• Wizard smoke headlessly validates era-aware wizard behavior and a representative
  character path without the slower exhaustive UI selection sweep
• Start-window smoke runs headlessly before WPF startup so release automation
  validates launch choices without hanging on window construction
• Start-window smoke validates compiled WPF start-screen resources in installed
  builds
• Installer smoke validates the installed start-window choices and required
  launch-screen assets
• Installer smoke validates diagnostic metadata from the installed app
• Installer smoke validates character-sheet PDF export from the installed app
• Per-user Windows installer
• Release packaging guard against stale installers when release checks are skipped
• Release package filenames include the packaged build commit
• GitHub release validation cross-checks manifest installer metadata
• GitHub release validation cross-checks the packaged release version
• GitHub release validation checks the draft notes match the requested version
• GitHub release validation checks preview notes match the requested version
• Manual preview test plan and generated run logs for installed-app testing

Known Gaps

• Remaining optional A Time of War Companion content is still being modeled
• Deeper reload behavior, deeper patch repair, ammunition modifier rules, and
  deeper vehicle purchasing rules need richer first-class support
• Interface polish and usability testing are still ongoing
• The final rulebook audit is not complete

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.19-preview

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.19-preview Beta

This is a beta refresh of the .NET/WPF migration of the original BattleTech
Character Creator. It is ready for broader manual testing and feedback, but it
is not the final stable release.

Download

Attach these files from artifacts\release\0.1.19-preview:

• atow-character-creator-0.1.19-preview-<commit>-setup.exe
• atow-character-creator-0.1.19-preview-<commit>-setup.exe.sha256
• PREVIEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
• release-manifest.txt

Requirements

• Windows
• .NET 10 Desktop Runtime

Install Location

This beta installs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\A Time of War Character Creator Beta
and registers a separate beta uninstaller.

Verification

See release-manifest.txt for the exact packaged commit.

SHA-256:

8FA47F06126BFC13126361E8225AA6D505B1759359465F8DBFAE363239F4D8AD

Before packaging, the automated release checks passed:

• Migration tests
• Start window smoke
• Wizard smoke
• Clan round-trip smoke
• Representative life-path smoke
• Editor allocation smoke
• Inventory smoke
• Character-sheet export smoke
• Error report smokes
• Solution build
• Folder publish
• NSIS installer build
• Installer dry-run

The full installer install, launch-smoke, and uninstall test passed on
July 7, 2026.

Manual installed-app testing should follow docs/MANUAL_TEST_PLAN.md.

Highlights

• Free XP spending now uses one unified target dropdown for Attributes, Traits, and Skills
• The Free XP allocation list now shows the target type alongside each spend
• Module flexible XP must now be fully assigned before advancing to the next Life Module, matching the page 61 spending rule
• Stage 2 running Free XP now visibly subtracts the selected late-childhood module cost
• Wizard age calculation now starts from age 16 after late childhood and adds only selected Stage 3 education time and Stage 4 career time
• Stage 3 now supports repeated education selections, including second and
  third education entries for paths such as University plus Officer Candidate
  School
• Education prerequisite checks now account for all selected education fields
• Equipment and weapon catalogs now include category filters in addition to
  text search
• Life Module character wizard from basic information through Stage 4
• First-launch choice window for opening the Character Wizard or Character Editor
• Basic information uses campaign year, with age calculated from life-path choices
• Campaign year infers the matching era from the imported Eras.xlsx chronology
• Era-aware affiliation availability filters with visible source notes
• Era-aware Rasalhague sub-affiliation filters with visible source notes
• Pre-invasion eras after the Golden Century show both Invading Clan and
  Homeworld Clan origins for Clan characters
• Era quick-start templates for common campaign starts in the editor
• All corrected-printing affiliations and 68 sub-affiliations
• All 24 corrected-printing Stage 4 base modules, including variants
• Two ordered Stage 4 careers with repeat and prerequisite handling
• Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4 flexible XP pools preserve user allocations
  while navigating between wizard pages
• Flexible XP target dropdowns group Attributes first, then Traits, then Skills
• Stage 1 flexible XP target lists include cataloged Compulsion traits
• Wizard character totals remain visible while flexible XP pools still have
  unallocated or overallocated XP
• Review Character keeps the last valid totals during temporary wizard refreshes
• Review Character can spend remaining Free XP to fix Attribute, Trait, and Skill prerequisite gaps
• Wizard now has a dedicated Free XP step before final Review, with rule-check fixes moved there
• Free XP step can manually spend remaining XP on selected Traits and Skills
• Character editor with XP controls for attributes, skills, and traits, including
  5 XP and 10 XP adjustment buttons
• Legacy .btcc save/load compatibility
• Searchable equipment and weapon catalogs with C-Bill and mass summaries
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters for faster inventory selection
• Equipment and weapon catalog dropdowns group results by category for easier scanning
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters show visible result counts while browsing
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels for source and rules context
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels show campaign-year era warnings
• Inventory status warnings for over-budget, overloaded, manually priced wildcard items,
  armor patches that need patch pricing, ammo purchases that need ammo cost or
  mass details, and prosthetic enhancements that need a prosthetic or implant host
• Inventory status warnings for ammo purchases that need reload or power-pack review
• Inventory status warnings for vehicle purchases that need Vehicle or Custom Vehicle
  trait support
• Inventory status warnings now name the inventory rows that need pricing, ammo,
  reload, prosthetic host, or vehicle trait attention
• Weapon inventory rows now support purchased ammo modifier names plus per-pack
  modifier cost and mass adjustments
• Specialty ammunition modifiers from the core rulebook can now be selected
  and applied to weapon inventory rows
• Specialty ammunition choices now filter by the selected weapon row category
  and weapon category survives save/load
• Specialty ammunition filtering now honors rifle-only, shotgun-only,
  and support-Gauss restrictions from the modifier table
• Headless inventory smoke checks catalog and inventory-rule behavior without
  constructing the editor window
• Headless character-sheet export smoke checks PDF output without constructing
  wizard/editor windows
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion equipment and weapon catalog content
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion expanded trait reference entries
• Skill and Trait editor reference panels with source labels and rule notes
• MW3-to-AToW conversion skill targets from the Companion conversion table
• Local Era Digest and Era Report source audit for era-aware behavior
• Official character-sheet PDF preview and export
• Release checks verify that character-sheet export produces a nonempty PDF
• Error report generation for unexpected and recoverable app failures
• Error reports include app version, runtime, process, and launch diagnostics
• Wizard smoke failures now write an error report and exit cleanly
• Release checks validate diagnostic report versions against the requested version
• Release checks verify the app project version matches the requested version
• Release checks verify Windows assembly/file versions match the release version
• Release checks verify the installer dry-run still covers installed start,
  diagnostic, sheet export, and uninstall checks
• Release checks close repo-launched app instances around app smoke, build, and
  publish steps to prevent stale file locks
• Release checks build once before app smoke steps and avoid rebuilding between
  smoke launches
• Wizard smoke headlessly validates era-aware wizard behavior and a representative
  character path without the slower exhaustive UI selection sweep
• Start-window smoke runs headlessly before WPF startup so release automation
  validates launch choices without hanging on window construction
• Start-window smoke validates compiled WPF start-screen resources in installed
  builds
• Installer smoke validates the installed start-window choices and required
  launch-screen assets
• Installer smoke validates diagnostic metadata from the installed app
• Installer smoke validates character-sheet PDF export from the installed app
• Per-user Windows installer
• Release packaging guard against stale installers when release checks are skipped
• Release package filenames include the packaged build commit
• GitHub release validation cross-checks manifest installer metadata
• GitHub release validation cross-checks the packaged release version
• GitHub release validation checks the draft notes match the requested version
• GitHub release validation checks preview notes match the requested version
• Manual preview test plan and generated run logs for installed-app testing

Known Gaps

• Remaining optional A Time of War Companion content is still being modeled
• Deeper reload behavior, deeper patch repair, ammunition modifier rules, and
  deeper vehicle purchasing rules need richer first-class support
• Interface polish and usability testing are still ongoing
• The final rulebook audit is not complete

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.18-preview

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.18-preview Beta

This is a beta refresh of the .NET/WPF migration of the original BattleTech
Character Creator. It is ready for broader manual testing and feedback, but it
is not the final stable release.

Download

Attach these files from artifacts\release\0.1.18-preview:

• atow-character-creator-0.1.18-preview-<commit>-setup.exe
• atow-character-creator-0.1.18-preview-<commit>-setup.exe.sha256
• PREVIEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
• release-manifest.txt

Requirements

• Windows
• .NET 10 Desktop Runtime

Install Location

This beta installs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\A Time of War Character Creator Beta
and registers a separate beta uninstaller.

Verification

See release-manifest.txt for the exact packaged commit.

SHA-256:

F692B642C273BC38FFA9939E728C1098EE4112426BB5265AC217F3B0CAF01DEC

Before packaging, the automated release checks passed:

• Migration tests
• Start window smoke
• Wizard smoke
• Clan round-trip smoke
• Representative life-path smoke
• Editor allocation smoke
• Inventory smoke
• Character-sheet export smoke
• Error report smokes
• Solution build
• Folder publish
• NSIS installer build
• Installer dry-run

The full installer install, launch-smoke, and uninstall test passed on
July 7, 2026.

Manual installed-app testing should follow docs/MANUAL_TEST_PLAN.md.

Highlights

• Free XP spending now uses one unified target dropdown for Attributes, Traits, and Skills
• The Free XP allocation list now shows the target type alongside each spend
• Module flexible XP must now be fully assigned before advancing to the next Life Module, matching the page 61 spending rule
• Stage 2 running Free XP now visibly subtracts the selected late-childhood module cost
• Wizard age calculation now starts from age 16 after late childhood and adds only selected Stage 3 education time and Stage 4 career time
• Stage 3 now supports repeated education selections, including second and
  third education entries for paths such as University plus Officer Candidate
  School
• Education prerequisite checks now account for all selected education fields
• Equipment and weapon catalogs now include category filters in addition to
  text search
• Life Module character wizard from basic information through Stage 4
• First-launch choice window for opening the Character Wizard or Character Editor
• Basic information uses campaign year, with age calculated from life-path choices
• Campaign year infers the matching era from the imported Eras.xlsx chronology
• Era-aware affiliation availability filters with visible source notes
• Era-aware Rasalhague sub-affiliation filters with visible source notes
• Pre-invasion eras after the Golden Century show both Invading Clan and
  Homeworld Clan origins for Clan characters
• Era quick-start templates for common campaign starts in the editor
• All corrected-printing affiliations and 68 sub-affiliations
• All 24 corrected-printing Stage 4 base modules, including variants
• Two ordered Stage 4 careers with repeat and prerequisite handling
• Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4 flexible XP pools preserve user allocations
  while navigating between wizard pages
• Flexible XP target dropdowns group Attributes first, then Traits, then Skills
• Stage 1 flexible XP target lists include cataloged Compulsion traits
• Wizard character totals remain visible while flexible XP pools still have
  unallocated or overallocated XP
• Review Character keeps the last valid totals during temporary wizard refreshes
• Review Character can spend remaining Free XP to fix Attribute, Trait, and Skill prerequisite gaps
• Wizard now has a dedicated Free XP step before final Review, with rule-check fixes moved there
• Free XP step can manually spend remaining XP on selected Traits and Skills
• Character editor with XP controls for attributes, skills, and traits, including
  5 XP and 10 XP adjustment buttons
• Legacy .btcc save/load compatibility
• Searchable equipment and weapon catalogs with C-Bill and mass summaries
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters for faster inventory selection
• Equipment and weapon catalog dropdowns group results by category for easier scanning
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters show visible result counts while browsing
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels for source and rules context
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels show campaign-year era warnings
• Inventory status warnings for over-budget, overloaded, manually priced wildcard items,
  armor patches that need patch pricing, ammo purchases that need ammo cost or
  mass details, and prosthetic enhancements that need a prosthetic or implant host
• Inventory status warnings for ammo purchases that need reload or power-pack review
• Inventory status warnings for vehicle purchases that need Vehicle or Custom Vehicle
  trait support
• Inventory status warnings now name the inventory rows that need pricing, ammo,
  reload, prosthetic host, or vehicle trait attention
• Weapon inventory rows now support purchased ammo modifier names plus per-pack
  modifier cost and mass adjustments
• Specialty ammunition modifiers from the core rulebook can now be selected
  and applied to weapon inventory rows
• Specialty ammunition choices now filter by the selected weapon row category
  and weapon category survives save/load
• Headless inventory smoke checks catalog and inventory-rule behavior without
  constructing the editor window
• Headless character-sheet export smoke checks PDF output without constructing
  wizard/editor windows
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion equipment and weapon catalog content
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion expanded trait reference entries
• Skill and Trait editor reference panels with source labels and rule notes
• MW3-to-AToW conversion skill targets from the Companion conversion table
• Local Era Digest and Era Report source audit for era-aware behavior
• Official character-sheet PDF preview and export
• Release checks verify that character-sheet export produces a nonempty PDF
• Error report generation for unexpected and recoverable app failures
• Error reports include app version, runtime, process, and launch diagnostics
• Wizard smoke failures now write an error report and exit cleanly
• Release checks validate diagnostic report versions against the requested version
• Release checks verify the app project version matches the requested version
• Release checks verify Windows assembly/file versions match the release version
• Release checks verify the installer dry-run still covers installed start,
  diagnostic, sheet export, and uninstall checks
• Release checks close repo-launched app instances around app smoke, build, and
  publish steps to prevent stale file locks
• Release checks build once before app smoke steps and avoid rebuilding between
  smoke launches
• Wizard smoke headlessly validates era-aware wizard behavior and a representative
  character path without the slower exhaustive UI selection sweep
• Start-window smoke runs headlessly before WPF startup so release automation
  validates launch choices without hanging on window construction
• Start-window smoke validates compiled WPF start-screen resources in installed
  builds
• Installer smoke validates the installed start-window choices and required
  launch-screen assets
• Installer smoke validates diagnostic metadata from the installed app
• Installer smoke validates character-sheet PDF export from the installed app
• Per-user Windows installer
• Release packaging guard against stale installers when release checks are skipped
• Release package filenames include the packaged build commit
• GitHub release validation cross-checks manifest installer metadata
• GitHub release validation cross-checks the packaged release version
• GitHub release validation checks the draft notes match the requested version
• GitHub release validation checks preview notes match the requested version
• Manual preview test plan and generated run logs for installed-app testing

Known Gaps

• Remaining optional A Time of War Companion content is still being modeled
• Deeper reload behavior, deeper patch repair, ammunition modifier rules, and
  deeper vehicle purchasing rules need richer first-class support
• Interface polish and usability testing are still ongoing
• The final rulebook audit is not complete

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.14-preview

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.14-preview Beta

This is a beta refresh of the .NET/WPF migration of the original BattleTech
Character Creator. It is ready for broader manual testing and feedback, but it
is not the final stable release.

Download

Attach these files from artifacts\release\0.1.14-preview:

• atow-character-creator-0.1.14-preview-<commit>-setup.exe
• atow-character-creator-0.1.14-preview-<commit>-setup.exe.sha256
• PREVIEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
• release-manifest.txt

Requirements

• Windows
• .NET 10 Desktop Runtime

Install Location

This beta installs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\A Time of War Character Creator Beta
and registers a separate beta uninstaller.

Verification

See release-manifest.txt for the exact packaged commit.

SHA-256:

53C881C86906F13D93BF63B35D4178532C08F204AE32F3CF8B00C6EC6EB50E12

Before packaging, the automated release checks passed:

• Migration tests
• Start window smoke
• Wizard smoke
• Clan round-trip smoke
• Representative life-path smoke
• Editor allocation smoke
• Inventory smoke
• Character-sheet export smoke
• Error report smokes
• Solution build
• Folder publish
• NSIS installer build
• Installer dry-run

The full installer install, launch-smoke, and uninstall test passed on
July 7, 2026.

Manual installed-app testing should follow docs/MANUAL_TEST_PLAN.md.

Highlights

• Free XP spending now uses one unified target dropdown for Attributes, Traits, and Skills
• The Free XP allocation list now shows the target type alongside each spend
• Module flexible XP must now be fully assigned before advancing to the next Life Module, matching the page 61 spending rule
• Stage 2 running Free XP now visibly subtracts the selected late-childhood module cost
• Wizard age calculation now starts from age 16 after late childhood and adds only selected Stage 3 education time and Stage 4 career time
• Stage 3 now supports repeated education selections, including second and
  third education entries for paths such as University plus Officer Candidate
  School
• Education prerequisite checks now account for all selected education fields
• Equipment and weapon catalogs now include category filters in addition to
  text search
• Life Module character wizard from basic information through Stage 4
• First-launch choice window for opening the Character Wizard or Character Editor
• Basic information uses campaign year, with age calculated from life-path choices
• Campaign year infers the matching era from the imported Eras.xlsx chronology
• Era-aware affiliation availability filters with visible source notes
• Era-aware Rasalhague sub-affiliation filters with visible source notes
• Pre-invasion eras after the Golden Century show both Invading Clan and
  Homeworld Clan origins for Clan characters
• Era quick-start templates for common campaign starts in the editor
• All corrected-printing affiliations and 68 sub-affiliations
• All 24 corrected-printing Stage 4 base modules, including variants
• Two ordered Stage 4 careers with repeat and prerequisite handling
• Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4 flexible XP pools preserve user allocations
  while navigating between wizard pages
• Flexible XP target dropdowns group Attributes first, then Traits, then Skills
• Stage 1 flexible XP target lists include cataloged Compulsion traits
• Wizard character totals remain visible while flexible XP pools still have
  unallocated or overallocated XP
• Review Character keeps the last valid totals during temporary wizard refreshes
• Review Character can spend remaining Free XP to fix Attribute, Trait, and Skill prerequisite gaps
• Wizard now has a dedicated Free XP step before final Review, with rule-check fixes moved there
• Free XP step can manually spend remaining XP on selected Traits and Skills
• Character editor with XP controls for attributes, skills, and traits, including
  5 XP and 10 XP adjustment buttons
• Legacy .btcc save/load compatibility
• Searchable equipment and weapon catalogs with C-Bill and mass summaries
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters for faster inventory selection
• Equipment and weapon catalog dropdowns group results by category for easier scanning
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters show visible result counts while browsing
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels for source and rules context
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels show campaign-year era warnings
• Inventory status warnings for over-budget, overloaded, manually priced wildcard items,
  armor patches that need patch pricing, ammo purchases that need ammo cost or
  mass details, and prosthetic enhancements that need a prosthetic or implant host
• Inventory status warnings for ammo purchases that need reload or power-pack review
• Inventory status warnings for vehicle purchases that need Vehicle or Custom Vehicle
  trait support
• Headless inventory smoke checks catalog and inventory-rule behavior without
  constructing the editor window
• Headless character-sheet export smoke checks PDF output without constructing
  wizard/editor windows
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion equipment and weapon catalog content
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion expanded trait reference entries
• Skill and Trait editor reference panels with source labels and rule notes
• MW3-to-AToW conversion skill targets from the Companion conversion table
• Local Era Digest and Era Report source audit for era-aware behavior
• Official character-sheet PDF preview and export
• Release checks verify that character-sheet export produces a nonempty PDF
• Error report generation for unexpected and recoverable app failures
• Error reports include app version, runtime, process, and launch diagnostics
• Wizard smoke failures now write an error report and exit cleanly
• Release checks validate diagnostic report versions against the requested version
• Release checks verify the app project version matches the requested version
• Release checks verify Windows assembly/file versions match the release version
• Release checks verify the installer dry-run still covers installed start,
  diagnostic, sheet export, and uninstall checks
• Release checks close repo-launched app instances around app smoke, build, and
  publish steps to prevent stale file locks
• Release checks build once before app smoke steps and avoid rebuilding between
  smoke launches
• Wizard smoke headlessly validates era-aware wizard behavior and a representative
  character path without the slower exhaustive UI selection sweep
• Start-window smoke runs headlessly before WPF startup so release automation
  validates launch choices without hanging on window construction
• Start-window smoke validates compiled WPF start-screen resources in installed
  builds
• Installer smoke validates the installed start-window choices and required
  launch-screen assets
• Installer smoke validates diagnostic metadata from the installed app
• Installer smoke validates character-sheet PDF export from the installed app
• Per-user Windows installer
• Release packaging guard against stale installers when release checks are skipped
• Release package filenames include the packaged build commit
• GitHub release validation cross-checks manifest installer metadata
• GitHub release validation cross-checks the packaged release version
• GitHub release validation checks the draft notes match the requested version
• GitHub release validation checks preview notes match the requested version
• Manual preview test plan and generated run logs for installed-app testing

Known Gaps

• Remaining optional A Time of War Companion content is still being modeled
• Deeper reload behavior, deeper patch repair, ammunition modifier rules, and
  deeper vehicle purchasing rules need richer first-class support
• Interface polish and usability testing are still ongoing
• The final rulebook audit is not complete

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.13-preview

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.13-preview Beta

This is a beta refresh of the .NET/WPF migration of the original BattleTech
Character Creator. It is ready for broader manual testing and feedback, but it
is not the final stable release.

Download

Attach these files from artifacts\release\0.1.13-preview:

• atow-character-creator-0.1.13-preview-<commit>-setup.exe
• atow-character-creator-0.1.13-preview-<commit>-setup.exe.sha256
• PREVIEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
• release-manifest.txt

Requirements

• Windows
• .NET 10 Desktop Runtime

Install Location

This beta installs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\A Time of War Character Creator Beta
and registers a separate beta uninstaller.

Verification

See release-manifest.txt for the exact packaged commit.

SHA-256:

88575A35586724378BE2D233DBF1DAEF6892A55C7074A2EBC515475059632B17

Before packaging, the automated release checks passed:

• Migration tests
• Start window smoke
• Wizard smoke
• Clan round-trip smoke
• Representative life-path smoke
• Editor allocation smoke
• Inventory smoke
• Character-sheet export smoke
• Error report smokes
• Solution build
• Folder publish
• NSIS installer build
• Installer dry-run

The full installer install, launch-smoke, and uninstall test passed on
July 7, 2026.

Manual installed-app testing should follow docs/MANUAL_TEST_PLAN.md.

Highlights

• Module flexible XP must now be fully assigned before advancing to the next Life Module, matching the page 61 spending rule
• Stage 2 running Free XP now visibly subtracts the selected late-childhood module cost
• Wizard age calculation now starts from age 16 after late childhood and adds only selected Stage 3 education time and Stage 4 career time
• Stage 3 now supports repeated education selections, including second and
  third education entries for paths such as University plus Officer Candidate
  School
• Education prerequisite checks now account for all selected education fields
• Equipment and weapon catalogs now include category filters in addition to
  text search
• Life Module character wizard from basic information through Stage 4
• First-launch choice window for opening the Character Wizard or Character Editor
• Basic information uses campaign year, with age calculated from life-path choices
• Campaign year infers the matching era from the imported Eras.xlsx chronology
• Era-aware affiliation availability filters with visible source notes
• Era-aware Rasalhague sub-affiliation filters with visible source notes
• Pre-invasion eras after the Golden Century show both Invading Clan and
  Homeworld Clan origins for Clan characters
• Era quick-start templates for common campaign starts in the editor
• All corrected-printing affiliations and 68 sub-affiliations
• All 24 corrected-printing Stage 4 base modules, including variants
• Two ordered Stage 4 careers with repeat and prerequisite handling
• Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4 flexible XP pools preserve user allocations
  while navigating between wizard pages
• Flexible XP target dropdowns group Attributes first, then Traits, then Skills
• Stage 1 flexible XP target lists include cataloged Compulsion traits
• Wizard character totals remain visible while flexible XP pools still have
  unallocated or overallocated XP
• Review Character keeps the last valid totals during temporary wizard refreshes
• Review Character can spend remaining Free XP to fix Attribute, Trait, and Skill prerequisite gaps
• Wizard now has a dedicated Free XP step before final Review, with rule-check fixes moved there
• Free XP step can manually spend remaining XP on selected Traits and Skills
• Character editor with XP controls for attributes, skills, and traits, including
  5 XP and 10 XP adjustment buttons
• Legacy .btcc save/load compatibility
• Searchable equipment and weapon catalogs with C-Bill and mass summaries
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters for faster inventory selection
• Equipment and weapon catalog dropdowns group results by category for easier scanning
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters show visible result counts while browsing
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels for source and rules context
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels show campaign-year era warnings
• Inventory status warnings for over-budget, overloaded, manually priced wildcard items,
  armor patches that need patch pricing, ammo purchases that need ammo cost or
  mass details, and prosthetic enhancements that need a prosthetic or implant host
• Inventory status warnings for ammo purchases that need reload or power-pack review
• Inventory status warnings for vehicle purchases that need Vehicle or Custom Vehicle
  trait support
• Headless inventory smoke checks catalog and inventory-rule behavior without
  constructing the editor window
• Headless character-sheet export smoke checks PDF output without constructing
  wizard/editor windows
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion equipment and weapon catalog content
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion expanded trait reference entries
• Skill and Trait editor reference panels with source labels and rule notes
• MW3-to-AToW conversion skill targets from the Companion conversion table
• Local Era Digest and Era Report source audit for era-aware behavior
• Official character-sheet PDF preview and export
• Release checks verify that character-sheet export produces a nonempty PDF
• Error report generation for unexpected and recoverable app failures
• Error reports include app version, runtime, process, and launch diagnostics
• Wizard smoke failures now write an error report and exit cleanly
• Release checks validate diagnostic report versions against the requested version
• Release checks verify the app project version matches the requested version
• Release checks verify Windows assembly/file versions match the release version
• Release checks verify the installer dry-run still covers installed start,
  diagnostic, sheet export, and uninstall checks
• Release checks close repo-launched app instances around app smoke, build, and
  publish steps to prevent stale file locks
• Release checks build once before app smoke steps and avoid rebuilding between
  smoke launches
• Wizard smoke headlessly validates era-aware wizard behavior and a representative
  character path without the slower exhaustive UI selection sweep
• Start-window smoke runs headlessly before WPF startup so release automation
  validates launch choices without hanging on window construction
• Start-window smoke validates compiled WPF start-screen resources in installed
  builds
• Installer smoke validates the installed start-window choices and required
  launch-screen assets
• Installer smoke validates diagnostic metadata from the installed app
• Installer smoke validates character-sheet PDF export from the installed app
• Per-user Windows installer
• Release packaging guard against stale installers when release checks are skipped
• Release package filenames include the packaged build commit
• GitHub release validation cross-checks manifest installer metadata
• GitHub release validation cross-checks the packaged release version
• GitHub release validation checks the draft notes match the requested version
• GitHub release validation checks preview notes match the requested version
• Manual preview test plan and generated run logs for installed-app testing

Known Gaps

• Remaining optional A Time of War Companion content is still being modeled
• Deeper reload behavior, deeper patch repair, ammunition modifier rules, and
  deeper vehicle purchasing rules need richer first-class support
• Interface polish and usability testing are still ongoing
• The final rulebook audit is not complete

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.11-preview

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.11-preview Beta

This is a beta refresh of the .NET/WPF migration of the original BattleTech
Character Creator. It is ready for broader manual testing and feedback, but it
is not the final stable release.

Download

Attach these files from artifacts\release\0.1.11-preview:

• atow-character-creator-0.1.11-preview-<commit>-setup.exe
• atow-character-creator-0.1.11-preview-<commit>-setup.exe.sha256
• PREVIEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
• release-manifest.txt

Requirements

• Windows
• .NET 10 Desktop Runtime

Install Location

This beta installs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\A Time of War Character Creator Beta
and registers a separate beta uninstaller.

Verification

See release-manifest.txt for the exact packaged commit.

SHA-256:

EA5EB3E0CFDD19A07EF8FDD00C3636174D54EDFA875A82F9EA8E00F0314A1FD9

Before packaging, the automated release checks passed:

• Migration tests
• Start window smoke
• Wizard smoke
• Clan round-trip smoke
• Representative life-path smoke
• Editor allocation smoke
• Inventory smoke
• Character-sheet export smoke
• Error report smokes
• Solution build
• Folder publish
• NSIS installer build
• Installer dry-run

The full installer install, launch-smoke, and uninstall test passed on
July 7, 2026.

Manual installed-app testing should follow docs/MANUAL_TEST_PLAN.md.

Highlights

• Stage 3 now supports repeated education selections, including second and
  third education entries for paths such as University plus Officer Candidate
  School
• Education prerequisite checks now account for all selected education fields
• Equipment and weapon catalogs now include category filters in addition to
  text search
• Life Module character wizard from basic information through Stage 4
• First-launch choice window for opening the Character Wizard or Character Editor
• Basic information uses campaign year, with age calculated from life-path choices
• Campaign year infers the matching era from the imported Eras.xlsx chronology
• Era-aware affiliation availability filters with visible source notes
• Era-aware Rasalhague sub-affiliation filters with visible source notes
• Pre-invasion eras after the Golden Century show both Invading Clan and
  Homeworld Clan origins for Clan characters
• Era quick-start templates for common campaign starts in the editor
• All corrected-printing affiliations and 68 sub-affiliations
• All 24 corrected-printing Stage 4 base modules, including variants
• Two ordered Stage 4 careers with repeat and prerequisite handling
• Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4 flexible XP pools preserve user allocations
  while navigating between wizard pages
• Flexible XP target dropdowns group Attributes first, then Traits, then Skills
• Stage 1 flexible XP target lists include cataloged Compulsion traits
• Wizard character totals remain visible while flexible XP pools still have
  unallocated or overallocated XP
• Review Character keeps the last valid totals during temporary wizard refreshes
• Review Character can spend remaining Free XP to fix Attribute, Trait, and Skill prerequisite gaps
• Wizard now has a dedicated Free XP step before final Review, with rule-check fixes moved there
• Character editor with XP controls for attributes, skills, and traits, including
  5 XP and 10 XP adjustment buttons
• Legacy .btcc save/load compatibility
• Searchable equipment and weapon catalogs with C-Bill and mass summaries
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters for faster inventory selection
• Equipment and weapon catalog dropdowns group results by category for easier scanning
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters show visible result counts while browsing
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels for source and rules context
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels show campaign-year era warnings
• Inventory status warnings for over-budget, overloaded, manually priced wildcard items,
  armor patches that need patch pricing, ammo purchases that need ammo cost or
  mass details, and prosthetic enhancements that need a prosthetic or implant host
• Inventory status warnings for ammo purchases that need reload or power-pack review
• Inventory status warnings for vehicle purchases that need Vehicle or Custom Vehicle
  trait support
• Headless inventory smoke checks catalog and inventory-rule behavior without
  constructing the editor window
• Headless character-sheet export smoke checks PDF output without constructing
  wizard/editor windows
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion equipment and weapon catalog content
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion expanded trait reference entries
• Skill and Trait editor reference panels with source labels and rule notes
• MW3-to-AToW conversion skill targets from the Companion conversion table
• Local Era Digest and Era Report source audit for era-aware behavior
• Official character-sheet PDF preview and export
• Release checks verify that character-sheet export produces a nonempty PDF
• Error report generation for unexpected and recoverable app failures
• Error reports include app version, runtime, process, and launch diagnostics
• Wizard smoke failures now write an error report and exit cleanly
• Release checks validate diagnostic report versions against the requested version
• Release checks verify the app project version matches the requested version
• Release checks verify Windows assembly/file versions match the release version
• Release checks verify the installer dry-run still covers installed start,
  diagnostic, sheet export, and uninstall checks
• Release checks close repo-launched app instances around app smoke, build, and
  publish steps to prevent stale file locks
• Release checks build once before app smoke steps and avoid rebuilding between
  smoke launches
• Wizard smoke headlessly validates era-aware wizard behavior and a representative
  character path without the slower exhaustive UI selection sweep
• Start-window smoke runs headlessly before WPF startup so release automation
  validates launch choices without hanging on window construction
• Start-window smoke validates compiled WPF start-screen resources in installed
  builds
• Installer smoke validates the installed start-window choices and required
  launch-screen assets
• Installer smoke validates diagnostic metadata from the installed app
• Installer smoke validates character-sheet PDF export from the installed app
• Per-user Windows installer
• Release packaging guard against stale installers when release checks are skipped
• Release package filenames include the packaged build commit
• GitHub release validation cross-checks manifest installer metadata
• GitHub release validation cross-checks the packaged release version
• GitHub release validation checks the draft notes match the requested version
• GitHub release validation checks preview notes match the requested version
• Manual preview test plan and generated run logs for installed-app testing

Known Gaps

• Remaining optional A Time of War Companion content is still being modeled
• Deeper reload behavior, deeper patch repair, ammunition modifier rules, and
  deeper vehicle purchasing rules need richer first-class support
• Interface polish and usability testing are still ongoing
• The final rulebook audit is not complete

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.10-preview

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.10-preview Beta

This is a beta refresh of the .NET/WPF migration of the original BattleTech
Character Creator. It is ready for broader manual testing and feedback, but it
is not the final stable release.

Download

Attach these files from artifacts\release\0.1.10-preview:

• atow-character-creator-0.1.10-preview-<commit>-setup.exe
• atow-character-creator-0.1.10-preview-<commit>-setup.exe.sha256
• PREVIEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
• release-manifest.txt

Requirements

• Windows
• .NET 10 Desktop Runtime

Install Location

This beta installs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\A Time of War Character Creator Beta
and registers a separate beta uninstaller.

Verification

See release-manifest.txt for the exact packaged commit.

SHA-256:

82662221C1C7DE43A74C79F696B313D8B9801594CD1ACD398EA112DB360ED631

Before packaging, the automated release checks passed:

• Migration tests
• Start window smoke
• Wizard smoke
• Clan round-trip smoke
• Representative life-path smoke
• Editor allocation smoke
• Inventory smoke
• Character-sheet export smoke
• Error report smokes
• Solution build
• Folder publish
• NSIS installer build
• Installer dry-run

The full installer install, launch-smoke, and uninstall test passed on
July 7, 2026.

Manual installed-app testing should follow docs/MANUAL_TEST_PLAN.md.

Highlights

• Stage 3 now supports repeated education selections, including second and
  third education entries for paths such as University plus Officer Candidate
  School
• Education prerequisite checks now account for all selected education fields
• Equipment and weapon catalogs now include category filters in addition to
  text search
• Life Module character wizard from basic information through Stage 4
• First-launch choice window for opening the Character Wizard or Character Editor
• Basic information uses campaign year, with age calculated from life-path choices
• Campaign year infers the matching era from the imported Eras.xlsx chronology
• Era-aware affiliation availability filters with visible source notes
• Era-aware Rasalhague sub-affiliation filters with visible source notes
• Pre-invasion eras after the Golden Century show both Invading Clan and
  Homeworld Clan origins for Clan characters
• Era quick-start templates for common campaign starts in the editor
• All corrected-printing affiliations and 68 sub-affiliations
• All 24 corrected-printing Stage 4 base modules, including variants
• Two ordered Stage 4 careers with repeat and prerequisite handling
• Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4 flexible XP pools preserve user allocations
  while navigating between wizard pages
• Flexible XP target dropdowns group Attributes first, then Traits, then Skills
• Stage 1 flexible XP target lists include cataloged Compulsion traits
• Wizard character totals remain visible while flexible XP pools still have
  unallocated or overallocated XP
• Review Character keeps the last valid totals during temporary wizard refreshes
• Review Character can spend remaining Free XP to fix Attribute, Trait, and Skill prerequisite gaps
• Character editor with XP controls for attributes, skills, and traits, including
  5 XP and 10 XP adjustment buttons
• Legacy .btcc save/load compatibility
• Searchable equipment and weapon catalogs with C-Bill and mass summaries
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters for faster inventory selection
• Equipment and weapon catalog dropdowns group results by category for easier scanning
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters show visible result counts while browsing
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels for source and rules context
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels show campaign-year era warnings
• Inventory status warnings for over-budget, overloaded, manually priced wildcard items,
  armor patches that need patch pricing, ammo purchases that need ammo cost or
  mass details, and prosthetic enhancements that need a prosthetic or implant host
• Inventory status warnings for ammo purchases that need reload or power-pack review
• Inventory status warnings for vehicle purchases that need Vehicle or Custom Vehicle
  trait support
• Headless inventory smoke checks catalog and inventory-rule behavior without
  constructing the editor window
• Headless character-sheet export smoke checks PDF output without constructing
  wizard/editor windows
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion equipment and weapon catalog content
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion expanded trait reference entries
• Skill and Trait editor reference panels with source labels and rule notes
• MW3-to-AToW conversion skill targets from the Companion conversion table
• Local Era Digest and Era Report source audit for era-aware behavior
• Official character-sheet PDF preview and export
• Release checks verify that character-sheet export produces a nonempty PDF
• Error report generation for unexpected and recoverable app failures
• Error reports include app version, runtime, process, and launch diagnostics
• Wizard smoke failures now write an error report and exit cleanly
• Release checks validate diagnostic report versions against the requested version
• Release checks verify the app project version matches the requested version
• Release checks verify Windows assembly/file versions match the release version
• Release checks verify the installer dry-run still covers installed start,
  diagnostic, sheet export, and uninstall checks
• Release checks close repo-launched app instances around app smoke, build, and
  publish steps to prevent stale file locks
• Release checks build once before app smoke steps and avoid rebuilding between
  smoke launches
• Wizard smoke headlessly validates era-aware wizard behavior and a representative
  character path without the slower exhaustive UI selection sweep
• Start-window smoke runs headlessly before WPF startup so release automation
  validates launch choices without hanging on window construction
• Start-window smoke validates compiled WPF start-screen resources in installed
  builds
• Installer smoke validates the installed start-window choices and required
  launch-screen assets
• Installer smoke validates diagnostic metadata from the installed app
• Installer smoke validates character-sheet PDF export from the installed app
• Per-user Windows installer
• Release packaging guard against stale installers when release checks are skipped
• Release package filenames include the packaged build commit
• GitHub release validation cross-checks manifest installer metadata
• GitHub release validation cross-checks the packaged release version
• GitHub release validation checks the draft notes match the requested version
• GitHub release validation checks preview notes match the requested version
• Manual preview test plan and generated run logs for installed-app testing

Known Gaps

• Remaining optional A Time of War Companion content is still being modeled
• Deeper reload behavior, deeper patch repair, ammunition modifier rules, and
  deeper vehicle purchasing rules need richer first-class support
• Interface polish and usability testing are still ongoing
• The final rulebook audit is not complete

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.8-preview

A Time of War Character Creator 0.1.8-preview Beta

This is a beta refresh of the .NET/WPF migration of the original BattleTech
Character Creator. It is ready for broader manual testing and feedback, but it
is not the final stable release.

Download

Attach these files from artifacts\release\0.1.8-preview:

• atow-character-creator-0.1.8-preview-<commit>-setup.exe
• atow-character-creator-0.1.8-preview-<commit>-setup.exe.sha256
• PREVIEW_RELEASE_NOTES.md
• release-manifest.txt

Requirements

• Windows
• .NET 10 Desktop Runtime

Install Location

This beta installs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\A Time of War Character Creator Beta
and registers a separate beta uninstaller.

Verification

See release-manifest.txt for the exact packaged commit.

SHA-256:

EF75356ECF14131487EF4967F566545065CB23C644C45B491A5D06F62A0DF63D

Before packaging, the automated release checks passed:

• Migration tests
• Start window smoke
• Wizard smoke
• Clan round-trip smoke
• Representative life-path smoke
• Editor allocation smoke
• Inventory smoke
• Character-sheet export smoke
• Error report smokes
• Solution build
• Folder publish
• NSIS installer build
• Installer dry-run

The full installer install, launch-smoke, and uninstall test passed on
July 7, 2026.

Manual installed-app testing should follow docs/MANUAL_TEST_PLAN.md.

Highlights

• Stage 3 now supports repeated education selections, including second and
  third education entries for paths such as University plus Officer Candidate
  School
• Education prerequisite checks now account for all selected education fields
• Equipment and weapon catalogs now include category filters in addition to
  text search
• Life Module character wizard from basic information through Stage 4
• First-launch choice window for opening the Character Wizard or Character Editor
• Basic information uses campaign year, with age calculated from life-path choices
• Campaign year infers the matching era from the imported Eras.xlsx chronology
• Era-aware affiliation availability filters with visible source notes
• Era-aware Rasalhague sub-affiliation filters with visible source notes
• Pre-invasion eras after the Golden Century show both Invading Clan and
  Homeworld Clan origins for Clan characters
• Era quick-start templates for common campaign starts in the editor
• All corrected-printing affiliations and 68 sub-affiliations
• All 24 corrected-printing Stage 4 base modules, including variants
• Two ordered Stage 4 careers with repeat and prerequisite handling
• Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4 flexible XP pools preserve user allocations
  while navigating between wizard pages
• Flexible XP target dropdowns group Attributes first, then Traits, then Skills
• Stage 1 flexible XP target lists include cataloged Compulsion traits
• Wizard character totals remain visible while flexible XP pools still have
  unallocated or overallocated XP
• Review Character keeps the last valid totals during temporary wizard refreshes
• Character editor with XP controls for attributes, skills, and traits, including
  5 XP and 10 XP adjustment buttons
• Legacy .btcc save/load compatibility
• Searchable equipment and weapon catalogs with C-Bill and mass summaries
• Equipment and weapon catalog filters for faster inventory selection
• Equipment and weapon catalog dropdowns group results by category for easier scanning
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels for source and rules context
• Selected equipment and weapon detail panels show campaign-year era warnings
• Inventory status warnings for over-budget, overloaded, manually priced wildcard items,
  armor patches that need patch pricing, ammo purchases that need ammo cost or
  mass details, and prosthetic enhancements that need a prosthetic or implant host
• Inventory status warnings for ammo purchases that need reload or power-pack review
• Inventory status warnings for vehicle purchases that need Vehicle or Custom Vehicle
  trait support
• Headless inventory smoke checks catalog and inventory-rule behavior without
  constructing the editor window
• Headless character-sheet export smoke checks PDF output without constructing
  wizard/editor windows
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion equipment and weapon catalog content
• Opt-in A Time of War Companion expanded trait reference entries
• Skill and Trait editor reference panels with source labels and rule notes
• MW3-to-AToW conversion skill targets from the Companion conversion table
• Local Era Digest and Era Report source audit for era-aware behavior
• Official character-sheet PDF preview and export
• Release checks verify that character-sheet export produces a nonempty PDF
• Error report generation for unexpected and recoverable app failures
• Error reports include app version, runtime, process, and launch diagnostics
• Wizard smoke failures now write an error report and exit cleanly
• Release checks validate diagnostic report versions against the requested version
• Release checks verify the app project version matches the requested version
• Release checks verify Windows assembly/file versions match the release version
• Release checks verify the installer dry-run still covers installed start,
  diagnostic, sheet export, and uninstall checks
• Release checks close repo-launched app instances around app smoke, build, and
  publish steps to prevent stale file locks
• Release checks build once before app smoke steps and avoid rebuilding between
  smoke launches
• Wizard smoke headlessly validates era-aware wizard behavior and a representative
  character path without the slower exhaustive UI selection sweep
• Start-window smoke runs headlessly before WPF startup so release automation
  validates launch choices without hanging on window construction
• Start-window smoke validates compiled WPF start-screen resources in installed
  builds
• Installer smoke validates the installed start-window choices and required
  launch-screen assets
• Installer smoke validates diagnostic metadata from the installed app
• Installer smoke validates character-sheet PDF export from the installed app
• Per-user Windows installer
• Release packaging guard against stale installers when release checks are skipped
• Release package filenames include the packaged build commit
• GitHub release validation cross-checks manifest installer metadata
• GitHub release validation cross-checks the packaged release version
• GitHub release validation checks the draft notes match the requested version
• GitHub release validation checks preview notes match the requested version
• Manual preview test plan and generated run logs for installed-app testing

Known Gaps

• Remaining optional A Time of War Companion content is still being modeled
• Deeper reload behavior, deeper patch repair, ammunition modifier rules, and
  deeper vehicle purchasing rules need richer first-class support
• Interface polish and usability testing are still ongoing
• The final rulebook audit is not complete