ME3Tweaks Mod Manager 9.0 Build 134 changelog

[Mgamerz]

ME3Tweaks Mod Manager 9.0 is a major feature update for Mod Manager, with large parts of the codebase rewritten to support new features. The bottom of this post contains bugfix re-release notes.

Caution

This build contains breaking changes for a few LE1 mods if you don't update and install the updated version.

Mod Manager 9.0 contains breaking changes for LE1 mods that occur when a target merge occurs (after every mod install or batch install). Mods that directly modify vanilla 2DA table exports in the basegame files (Engine, SFXGame, EntryMenu) must be updated to use the .m3da merge format, or their changes will be undone. Additional information is available here along with developer guidance.

You not only must import these updates, you must also INSTALL them, so they add the necessary files to tell Mod Manager how to properly merge their changes. Older versions of the mods will not work.

All mods affected by these changes have been either updated on NexusMods or set to hidden, for ones that were abandoned. If you don't update the mod, and a target merge occurs, parts or all of that mod may stop working, depending on the amounts of changes they made.

New features

moddesc 9.0

Mod Manager 9.0 supports moddesc 9, which comes with new features.

• Feature: AlternateDLC - allow depending on specific options installed from other mods #415
  • Mods that install with Mod Manager 9.0 and above include information that uniquely identifies each install option - the same way Batch Installer tracks your chosen options. With this system, mods targeting cmmver 9.0 can target other installed DLC mods' chosen options. Developers can right click existing mods in the mod library and listed the option keys. Click here to go to the documentation for this feature.
    
• Feature Request: Ability for Mergemods to update entire (non-vanilla) classes #381
  • Mods targetting moddesc 9.0 can now ship a new merge type classupdate which allows you to compile a class in the files that merge mods can target. A restriction on this is that you cannot compile a class with any vanilla class name, only new ones, to prevent compatibility issues with other mods. You can continue to update basegame vanilla classes with the addtoorreplace merge type. See the documentation on how to use this feature.
• Feature Request: GAME1_EMBEDDED_TLK support for compatibility patches #397
  • GAME1_EMBEDDED_TLK now can optionally install TLK data using subfolders and keys that can be enabled via the CUSTOMDLC header. It uses this header to allow usage of the alternate dlc system. See the documentation on how to use this feature.
• ASI mod support in moddesc
  • Mods can now request installation of ASI mods if they require additional support, such as the LE3 Multi TFC ASI. This feature should not be used unless absolutely necessary for a mod, or for personal use. Mods that ship using this feature will be monitored, and mods that do not require them may be blacklisted from import. Click here to go to the documentation for this feature.
• Mods targetting cmmver9 cannot ship multiple copies of the same TFC for game stability reasons. It is too easy to mess up a multi-same TFC deployment.

Other new features

• Feature request: LE1 Bio2DA Merge #373
  • Mods can now ship .m3da files which describe how to merge a 2DA table into the basegame ones typically found in Engine, SFXGame, Entrymenu, etc. Developers should update their mods to use this new feature, as this will reset vanilla tables on every target merge. This feature can be turned off but will break mods, similar to LE1 config merge being turned off will. (Click here to go to the documentation[https://github.com/ME3Tweaks/ME3TweaksModManager/blob/staticfiles/documentation/2damerge.md] on how to use this feature is available (here).
    
• BETA MODE ONLY: Display Install Status of the mod directly at main window inside "Mod Library" #409
  • This feature is only available if you are opted into beta updates in Mod Manager, and is only available for Legendary Edition games. Mod Manager will attempt to detect which mods are installed after library load, and mark them with a green checkmark in the mod library. This detection is not considered reliable and many mods will be missed; texture mods, TLK merges, and others will not be tracked, simply due to the complexity of how mods are installed. This feature significantly impacts mod loading times.
    
• Merge Mod v2 format
  • Mods targetting moddesc 9.0 or higher will now compile mergemods (.m3m files) in a newer file format. This format will reduce memory usage and be smaller on disk. Mods targeting older moddesc will compile to the old format to maintain backwards compatibility with older builds
• Feature Request: Command Line option to compile merge mod #417
  • You can now compile mergemods from the command line with --compilemergemod <json path> --featurelevel <cmmer> if you are building your mods programmatically
• Feature: Blank LE2 squadmate merge assets like LE3 #420
  • Starter kit can now generate a blank, working LE2 Squadmate Asset merge for each squadmate, similar to LE3's starter kit features
    
• Feature request: Starter Kit Adding for LE1 Mod Settings Menu #427
  • Starter kit can now generate a blank, working mod settings menu for LE1 mods, similar to LE3's starter kit features
• The outfit limit for LE2 Squadmate Merge has been raised from 10 to 32

Changed features

ASI Manager

• The list of ASI mods available for install in ASI mod manager will now change depending on if you have developer mode active or not. ASI mods that are tagged in the ASI manifest for development use will not show if Mod Manager is not in developer mode. Too many users were just installing every mod without even bothering to read their description.

Batch Installer

• Improved responsiveness of panel opening by background threading the loading of install groups
• Feature: Batch Installer - Check RequiredDLC before install in list, and in order #429
  • A new 'check for issues' button is now available in Batch Installer. It checks basic dependencies are met for mods that have hard installation requirements. This check is pretty basic but may be expanded upon in the future
    
• Feature: Batch Installer - Restore Backup option #431
  • Install groups can now request a game restore before installation. This makes installation of a batch install group much more consistent across systems and makes reproducing issues much easier
• Feature Request: Batch Mod Installer to add more than one texture mod #400
  • You can now select more than one texture mod at a time when adding files to the list.
• Feature Request: Batch Installer - Sort mods by Mount Priority #399
  • Mods can now optionally list their mount priority in Batch Installer, from lowest to highest. This may be slightly confusing to users, as they cannot change these values; however it helps as typically you will want to install lowest to highest priority since patches will have to mount over lower ones. moddesc 9 contains a flag that allows you to reverse the sort order of your multi-DLC mod if the mod should be installed later
• Creating or renaming a batch install overwrites any other batch with the same name #410
  • Saving an install group with the same name as existing one will now throw a warning if you want to proceed. Additionally, saving a group with a new name will no longer create a duplicate because the old group will be deleted after the file is saved with a new name
• Feature change: Batch Installer should not let system sleep #432
  • During batch installation the system will not go to sleep
• Feature change: Prompt for textures at start of the batch install, not at panel start #433
  • If a batch install group does not have configurable options, or is using saved options, and contains texture mods, the prompt for texture mods is moved to before the first mod installs. This lets you leave the installation unattended instead of having to come back after a while to acknowledge the warning prompt
• Application performance should be improved when importing mods via the 'download' links in an Install Group
• You can now double click items in the left panel to add them to the right panel
• Installer will not ask to save options at the end of a installation that does not have any configurable options

moddesc Editor

• Feature Request: Add remove file from Multilist and remove Multilist in moddesc editor #401
  • Multilists can now be deleted after being added to a moddesc in the editor. They can also have individual files removed, something which you could not do before without manual moddesc editing
    
• The editor will now show a dialog confirming you want to close it when using the 'Close' button. The X button is unaffected by this change
• You can now clone AlternateFile and AlternateDLC options

Starter Kit Content Selector

• You can now add multiple squadmate merge outfit templates to a mod. It won't obliterate existing ones either anymore

Mod Options Panel

• Significant work has been done to make it more obvious to users that you can choose from a dropdown of items in the install options panel
  

Installation Information

• Feature Request: Installation information - DLC mods Enable/Disable All Button #398
  • DLC mods can now be bulk toggled on and off

Deployment Panel

• There is a new informational message about upcoming requirements for TFC names for future versions of moddesc. Mod TFC names should include the DLC folder name
• There is a new informational message when a mod name doesn't match what's found in Third Party Identification Service. This may differ if a developer changed names of the released mod, or it may be due to another developer using the same DLC folder name. Mods must have unique folder names, or they may be blacklisted from import
• LE Only: Texture checks don't check for neverstream anymore as we do not change LODs for those games
• The mod URL will now resolve to the nexusmods' mod page title if possible. This helps you confirm the correct page was selected, assuming the page is public. This means it helps only on updates, typically, but better than nothing
• UI was updated for better contrast

Mod Archive Import

• The feature for copying an ALOT (OT) main file to the ALOT Installer texture library has been removed

Main Window

• Feature Request: Indicate which mods in the list are available for check for update #403
  • When checking for mod updates, mods being checked will be marked with a cloud icon. You can turn on the option in Mod Management to show this icon permanently to help determine which mods can check for updates easier
• Feature: One-time update checks for mods not enrolled in update service #424
  • In the Mod Management menu, you can manually check for updates to all mods that are not opted into the Nexus Updater Service. This check must be done manually because I don't want mods to cause infinite loops due to improperly set up pages. This requires the user be logged into NexusMods in Mod Manager
• Switching between OT and LE requires restart for the mod library to display items #392
  • When enabling a generation that was not enabled when Mod Manager did it's initial library load, upon enabling that generation, the mods for that generation will now load
• Feature change: Settings panel #418
  • The settings menu has been completely replaced with something a bit more readable, and far more easier to maintain. Developers can now change it to 'local' mode, which uses the local mods folder of the executable.
• Bug?: Closing Mod Manager when pending merges should take place leads to inconsistent game state #423 and Bug?: No warnings when closing app during mod install #422
  • When Mod Manager is closed, instances of MassEffectModderNoGui that it spawns (texture installer, diagnostics) will be killed, so they don't continue to run in the background. If there is a task that should not be interrupted, Mod Manager will show a dialog saying it is finishing tasks. After that task completes, it will automatically close
• A menu item has been added to Mod Management for 'Search mod library'. This allows you to filter mods by search. This feature has existed in Mod Manager for several years now but only could be accessed via CTRL + F, which was not documented at all in the tool
• You can now drag/drop .mem files (for LE) and either import them to the texture library (Textures folder in your mod library) or install them directly
• Plot Manager Sync and LE1 Config Merge items under Tools menu have been replaced with 'Run Target Merge' which runs all DLC merges for a target
• Lots of new tooltips were added
• When application closes, all open windows will be asked to close. If they reject closing the app will remain open (e.g. closing main window won't leave moddesc editor open anymore, which would probably error out).
• OT mem files will show a different set of instructions when imported from archive. Unfortunately .mem files cannot have their game determined until files are extracted

Starter Kit Generator

• LE1 now no longer shows the mount flag option. It never did anything, it was only for LE2 and LE3
• Generating an outfit asset for squadmate merge will now attempt to source from the LE2/LE3 patch mods if available. This way you base your work on a more-bug free version of the file

Failed mods panel

• When opening the failed mods panel (panel that can be opened when a mod fails to load in the library), the first mod in the list will be automatically highlighted so information is immediately accessible
• Added 'reload' button to immediately reload the mod in the panel
• Added 'open mod folder' button to open the mod's folder

Save Selector

• Feature Request: debug names for LE1 in save selector dialog #426
  • Saves with debug names from DropTheSquid's Debug Saves mod for LE1 will now show that debug name in save selector, making it easier to identify LE1 saves
    
• Save selector should now have significantly better performance when you have a lot of saves, both in responsiveness and memory usage

Logs and Diagnostics

• Fixed several typos
• Mount conflict detection has been restored. This was part of ALOT Installer v3, but never got ported to ALOT Installer Core v4, which ME3Tweaks Mod Manager borrowed heavily from in initial development
• The current log is selected by default now
• TOC files now only show hash buckets when not-vanilla to reduce clutter
• Logs now only go back at most 7 days (down from 30)

Miscellaneous

• Installation times for merge mods should be significantly improved. Mod that apply multiple m3ms will benefit more, and systems with more than 8GiB of memory free at install time will see a very significant (>50%) improvement in install time (tested with LE1 and all localized startup files)
• Mod Manager will now track the source of a file through a texture installation. If you mod basegame files, then perform a texture install (with Mod Manager - not with MEM standalone), diagnostics and installation information will show the proper source of changes
• You can now enable minidumps in the Launch Options for LE games. Only turn them on if you know how to trace native crashes or someone asked you to; they are not helpful otherwise
• Official DLC Toggler, Conflict Detector now close when you press escape, similar to other panels that don't have input requirements
• Command line now supports --asiversion X to allow requesting a specific ASI version when invoking via command line. This will be used by LEX to ensure the tool requesting it receives the expected version of the ASI
• Mod Manager can now tell when ME2 or LE2 is running, and ME3 or LE3 is running. Before, it only could tell if Game2 or Game3 was running. So now you can mod ME3 while running LE3, for example
• When downloading mods directly from NexusMods, when an error occurs, a more useful error will be shown
• When downloading mods directly from NexusMods, if an error occurs, it will retry the next download link in the available download sources list that Nexus internally provides. This can help with errors like connection reset or timeout
• MergeMods can no longer be compiled from files in subfolders. All assets must exist in the same folder as the .json manifest
• Doing a full game restore for LE games will no longer reset your game settings (e.g. screen resolution)
• Changed references from Origin to EA App
• Application has been updated to use .NET 8
• Lots of text has been updated in the English localization to be a bit more user friendly
• Minimum supported OS is now Windows 10 22H2

Bugfixes

• Bug: Mergemods cannot target specific non-INT localized versions of files #407
• Bug: LE2 new DLC generator generates invalid Plot_Treasure_Treasure_part Bio2DA #408
• Bug: Installation of merge mods will fail if a multiple mods from different games are updated from the mod update panel #414
• Bug: MEM NoGui cannot be used if unable to connect to github even if it exists locally #395
• Bug: Mod Options dialog shows the previous selected items image when choosing an item in an alternate group #348
• Batch Mod Library: Standalone mods are color coded for reconfiguration required / poor contrast in some cases #412
• Slow disks cause issues in Installation Information panel when restoring #411
• Bug: Error during deployment if LE1 mod with GAME1_EMBEDDED_TLK is packaged together with LE2/LE3/Launcher mods #425
• Bug: Batch Installer does not run merges if mod installation is canceled #430
• Bug: ASI Manager Panel is blank, shows no ASIs for game #428
• Application performance should be significantly improved when ME3 or LE3 is selected as the current modding target. A bug made them cache the wrong process running information which made it fire way too often, especially in the menus
• Fix the text in the dialog that says 'mod needs X amount of space to install' from appearing to be backwards (e.g. mod needs 4.8GB of space, C:\ has 5.2GB). This was because the space required and the space used to compare were different; space in the comparison uses a 20% increased size as a buffer
• Add starter kit content to mod should now properly indicate it failed to do so rather than always say it was successful even when there was an error
• Starter Kit window will now use the proper title bar theme color like the rest of the app
• The arrow in expander controls that stretch to fill their width now properly will point up and down rather than right and down
• LE bink bypass has been updated to 2.0.0.12 to fix some LE3 game stutter Fixing some small but irritating problems. LEBinkProxy#1
• Mods will not show 'restore mod from me3tweaks' if they are not linked to the deprecated ME3Tweaks Updater Service. This was a bug that's been around for some time

Miscellaneous

• Many core features of ME3Tweaks Mod Manager were moved out to ME3TweaksCore, a shared library used by various ME3Tweaks programs, such as the Mass Effect Randomizers. This allows them to keep the games in sync with things like 2DA merge, squadmate merge, etc.
• The mod archive importing system was split up from the user interface in preparation for upcoming features that are not ready for release. This should not have any effect on the interface, but there were major changes under the hood.
• Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, French and Spanish localizations are no longer compiled into the build. They have not been updated for many builds and are not useful to users anymore. If you want to bring these up to date, please come to the ME3Tweaks Discord, it would be very much appreciated.
• Future versions of moddesc may restrict TFC names to enforce uniqueness. Your TFC names should always include your DLC's full folder name, such as Textures_DLC_MOD_Yourname or Lighting_DLC_MOD_Yourname.

Bugfix release July 11 2024

• When parsing string structs, only the first = is used for mapping key to values. It used to use the last, so if a value had a = in it, it would break parsing.

Bugfix release July 11 2024 (R2)

• Actually build from correct branch so the previous update's changes were included
• Duplicating alternate options in the editor should now properly duplicate the objects so you can save them