💡 Ideas and improvements

[forkless]

Got an idea for NotAlterra? I want to hear it.

But first, a few things you should know.

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What this is for

• New features you'd find useful
• Changes to existing behaviour (menu, backup logic, inspect output)
• UX tweaks – things that felt awkward or slow

What this is not for

• Bug reports – those go in Issues
• "It doesn't work" without reproduction steps
• Anything that requires network, telemetry, or writing files behind your back (not happening)

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The fine print (read this)

Not every idea makes it into a release.

That is not personal. It never is.

There are constraints: time, complexity, platform limits (Windows/Linux), file system safety, and whether the idea fits the scope of a save manager.

I will read everything. I will reply.
But a reply is not a promise.

Some ideas will sit in this discussion for months. Some will be implemented in days. Some will be politely declined. That is how open source works when a single person maintains the code.

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Legal and privacy

NotAlterra does not collect anything. No telemetry, no analytics, no crash reporting, no “phone home”. It has no network code. It never sends your save files, folder paths, or any other data anywhere.

If you post an idea publicly here on GitHub, it becomes visible to everyone. That is how Discussions work.

• Do not paste save file contents, personal names, or anything you consider private.
• Do not paste full file paths that might reveal your real name or system layout.

If your idea requires showing an example from a save file, either:

• Create a dummy save with fake data, or
• Describe the structure without pasting the actual content.

I will never ask you for your save files or any personal data. If someone does, that is not me.

By posting, you understand that:

• Your idea becomes part of the public record
• I may use it to improve NotAlterra
• No compensation is implied or given (this is open source)

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How to submit

Post your idea as a new discussion. Use this template if it helps:

[SyrianD]

Firstly, thank-you for making this. I was manipulating saves myself, backing them up, "rewinding time" using backups etc...before I found this handy program.
A few thoughts after using this the first time:

1. When opening the "Set save folder"; have it pre-fill the current detected save location. So users don't have to type the full path.
   1a) if possible allow for the input line to detect windows Copy and Paste; so users can just paste in the location of the folder.
2. When inspecting saves, it nice that we can see meta data; but some extra data would be nice on list screen to help users find the save they want to inspect. Personally, I think "Game Type", "GameMode", and "Build" would be ideal.
3. One reason to backup saves is if you want to manipulate those saves without potential loss, another is to protect loosing them incase of corruption or Hard Drive Failure... This is just my opinion, but it would be nice to see a note added to either the ReadMe, A warning when backing up files, or both that this program backs up the files to wherever the .exe was launched from, and that to prevent loss in case of HDD failure, the .exe should be ran from a different drive.
   3a) other options:
   3aa) has persistent warning on main screen if the .exe is running on the same drive as save folder location
   3ab) add a menu option to set the backup location.

...and now that I think of that, I need to move where I launch the .exe from.

[forkless]

First of all thanks so much for putting your trust into my little project. In the end you are running an unsigned binary, so thanks. I hope the transparency and processes in place show users the code is safe. :)

Anyway, from what I gather from you is that my UI design was a bit of a mess. Duly noted! It did some of the things you are asking for already, but they were not very clear. I have done a redesign of the UI and some of the way files are stored this morning, the release is in draft now but I will be pushing the new v0.4.1 into production in an hour or so.

Ps. Are you running the Windows or Linux version of the binary? And how did you find this repo?

[forkless]

I just made the new v0.4.2 version public, there have been quite a few UI changes and improvements with regards to handling backup archives. The app can also be ran arbitrarily from anywhere and will use default OS conventions to store its app settings and backup locations, with options to override it.

Feedback appreciated :)

ps. 3aa is a problem on Windows at the moment because many antivirus suits will block process scanning behavior on unsigned executables (for good cause). Working towards getting certification true SignPath.

[SyrianD]

I just noticed your replies, IDK what the new standard is for fast responses are with AI coding, but it certainly feels fast, and I appreciate you looking at my feedback and responding.
I'll try to make this quick and respond again when I've tried the new version.
Firstly I didn't think you UI was a mess. Maybe too simple for today's average user, but would they even think to look for a tool like this anyways...I'm not sure anymore.
I am also old enough to remember when your UI was advanced.

I am using Windows 10 x64, haven't been brave enough to update to Windows 11, even though I have the bypass hardware requirements crack.
For 3aa) I didn't know that would be a thing, appreciate you looking into it though.
I don't really know anything about programming, just a bit of minimal scripting.

For my own curiosity:
Can you tell me more about this AI Agent your using? Do you have like a referral link or something?

Thank you!

(I'll post again when I've tried 0.4.2)

[forkless]

No worries, the user interface was a hot mess. I have been cleaning it up this morning with the AI agent. You should notice a considerable improvement interacting with the user interface.

Sadly I am in a bit of a catch-22 situation with regards to getting my binary signed. Running unsigned binaries off the Internet is generally not a good idea, but to get certification for a binary you need to have process in place (which I do, the whole place is one slick streamlined CI pipeline now) and you also need community trust by means of the number of people using it, which is tricky when Windows tells you the world might burn down if you an unsigned executable.

Doesn't make making this tool any less fun though :)

I am not a developer myself, although I have worked in the IT industry in various engineering roles in the last three decades. Curious about agentic coding myself I bumped accidentally into a project called CodeWhale on YouTube a couple of weeks ago. CodeWhale is terminal interface for AI agents. It runs on my Linux instance on WSL. It was as "simple" as getting some API tokens for DeepSeek (using the deepseek-v4-flash model, which is perfect for simple projects like this).

You can find more information here: https://codewhale.net/en

ps. If you are curious how fast you can implement changes, check out the CHANGLOG.md at https://github.com/forkless/NotAlterra/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md

v0.4.2 all done in two, three hours. I wasted more time on deploying it properly (user error on my end, not the automated CI pipeline ahaha) than adding and fixing the tool.