SO good to see an update. As long as it is a rewarding experience, keep at it and know you got fans behind you cheering :)

Been working on the christmas update, and its almost done. I hope I can get a release out tomorrow. I really don't want to be wrong on this ETA, but it seems very likely it will be out.

The update will include an exclusive "mission" which is non-repeatable. Although if you really want to replay it you can just change it in the config.

What will come along, however, is the new framework which the whole mod relies on, and its counterpart .dll file. So be prepared to get your Antivirus to get angry with you once its released! So once that's out, feel free to include whatever you guys want into your own mods.

EDIT: Due to some nasty bugs I'll have to postpone this a day or two.

Oh boy. This is gonna be great.
*anti-virus alert noises*

SW3.Expansion v0.7.0: Christmas Update RELEASED.

Im still not quite satisified with the update, but its atleast something Im able to bring out this year. I really recommend atleast testing this update for stability, because the underlying hacky stuff has proven to me again and again that it just loves memory access violations, so theres that.

This is the first release that requires, and uses a custom dll. What does this mean? It means the game's lua_State pointer now gets hooked by the dll. This is done via injection from a external exe. The DLL gets run on a "Attachment" event and from there, the custom code is run. If you don't trust my released binaries (you shouldn't) you can check the source code yourself in the link in the Technical section. Feel free to modify it to your own needs.

Changelog
- Actual Stuff
- New mission discoverable in Charon

- Framework Stuff
- Almost complete rewrite of the Expansion framework
- Replacement of the ShipDescriptions.xml file with an XDF replacement variant.
- XDF: eXtracted Data File (xml data represented as lua data)
- PilotTeamManager System
- MemoryPatcher utility included with the injected DLL.
- GenFuncs
- TAI
- CapturePoints
- TriggerUtil
- GroupUtil
- GlobalRand
- FuncUtil: Huge Functions Library added specifically for this lua version (4.0) and this game.
- DialogUtil: Small but handy Dialog library.
- TFF: Tiny Followers Framework
- Small utility Sound System (Based on bass.dll) (mostly for internal use with the injected DLL)
- Scripting Engine fixes.

IMPORTANT: This release is a EXPERIMENTAL one. This is the first release that will require xdelta. This means that you CANNOT have any kind of difference in the file-system of your game with the applied updates listed below.

Order matters. [Left: First, Right: Last] *RC18 is not supported, sorry.
Base Game, [FULL] Expansion Mod [0.6.1.9P2RC9], Expansion Mod [0.6.1.9P2]-RC9 to RC17

Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Aa...So9RPfoWhGKlMt


Technical:
DLL + Injector: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1te...rEscDJa5fqkeb_
As to why the update is an installer: I don't usually do them unless they make sense, but in this case: xDelta functionality had to be used in order for the filesize to be acceptable(?) at around 2gb.
The next update will be a zip based one again, promise. But this will also mean that a redownload will be required, so just a heads-up.

Final Note: Of course, this is not all I have yet to show you guys, but this will have to do for the moment. As I said, this was supposed to be a framework update + a small event update. I think this update fits that criteria nicely.

Hello my friend. I am getting the itch but figured I would check in to see how the mod is coming along before I fire it up. Makes sense to test the newest release.

I haven't really been able to work on the mod extensively since a long time tbf, just small edits here and there.

I hope I can get this finished once I get my other projects up and running, currently making an actual entire game via Unity, just to check out the Engine.
I will focus on this mod more once thats finished. My and me team is at it's finishing touches (Bugfixes & QoL improvements)

As for the 0.7.0 version: I don't know why, but the download link seems to be down, I have reuploaded it to mega, here you go: https://mega.nz/file/KoZHGS6b#cwS4hj...-QpynK84lCtBXk

Quite understandable. There are quite a few decent Unity engine games out there, it seems like a solid engine to base on. I look forward to anything you work on, please keep us informed as you get closer to release.

Yeah unity is quite 'ok' in terms of .. well everything.

The only Pro's I can think of right off the head is the fact it runs on Mono/.NET/CLR, meaning its highly multi-platform, and the fact that the build times of C# aren't on an insane level like C++ is.

Its definitely a good Engine for Beginners, but anything really huge and serious, like Star Citizen for example, has no chance on Unity without heavy modification of the engine.

Another thing thats really annoying about the engine is the fact that it really doesn't give much support for loading stuff from your own game files, it wants you to use their asset system really really badly, which kind off kills modding.
With the time we had for the project we only could add 3d model+texture Imports at Runtime.

And thanks for the interest! Im not quite sure if we even will consider Releasing the game on Steam or something, because it was just something we had the chance to do for a school project. Had about 2 months for it.
I'll be sure to drop something off here when its considered "Good & Ready".

I have downloaded the file on mega and see its almost 4 gigs which seems substantial for a patch, looking forward to it. I do have some questions on your install instructions before I test it.

In the December post that links the Google drive version 0.70 you state it is an installer. I have finished downloading the Mega file and see that it is a zip file. The zip is labeled as 0.8.0, not the 0.7.0 version you state in the above post. In that zip there are two new exe files: Nocalora.x32.injector.exe and a new sw3cw.exe which would overwrite the one in the r9 version. Am I supposed to run that injector exe first or does it auto inject when i run the new sw3 exe?

Also a note regarding possible obsolete inclusions:
1) Are the alternate exe files in the initial R9 download no longer supported (the x64 and the x8 versions) since they are not in the 0.8.0 zip?
2) You state "you CANNOT have any kind of difference in the file-system" in the December post and I was wondering if the missile mod that is included in the optional files in the initial r9 download is still compatible since it is not included in the optional folder in the newest 0.8.0 zip.

As always, a fan!

Since the download link somehow got killed off, along with the file off of my GDrive, I also lost the installer, and I don't really want to do another compression session, since xDelta patches take considerable time.

Because of this, I've decided to just post the complete mod at ver 0.8.0 alongside the game
Its basically just 0.7.0 with some minor tweaks.

The new way to start the game is completely via the Injector.exe, you know everything is good when you hear a certain sound in the Main Menu, its almost like a Trainer in that way.
As for the obsolete files:
- x64 is definitely obsolete, since it was only a Large Address Aware fix, its not that much of a loss.
- The x8 speed functionality is now being patched in live during Injection. See (@Nocalora.x32/Config/MemPatcher.xml
)
- Missiles Mod has not been updated to work with this yet sadly. Although its just a matter of comparing the the modules/rockets.xml files of my mod and the missiles mod, I simply did not have the time to do it.