Version 1.6.0

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Features

• Notifications that used to show in the bottom right corner now show up as browser notifications. Also some general notification improvements to keeping the bell icon count accurate.
• Added a job filter for "archive". (suggested by Ren)
• Added a create scene button on the events page that will automatically invite anyone who RSVPed to the scene. There's also an event/scene command. Event scenes are automatically public and in a temp room.
• Install scripts are now targeted at Ubuntu 22.04, which is the new default install version for Ares. There's no need to upgrade existing games right now, but be aware that 20.04 will stop getting security updates in mid-2025. Major updates to your droplet OS can cause some issues, described in this guide. It may actually be easier to just create a new droplet and restore from backup.

Fixes

• Fix deleted scene ember error on unshared scenes page. (reported by Ren)

Little Things

• Revamped the way that wiki markdown helpers (like [[include]] or [[pagelist]] are rendered, to improve load speed.
• The config check will no longer warn you about the level 1 advantage cost if advantage XP is disabled. (suggested by Ren)

Version 1.5.0

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade Restart Required

Features

• The profile save custom code hook now accepts an enactor parameter. See developer note below for details.
• There's a new custom code hook for custom sidebar section.
• A new app/override command will submit & approve a character in one swoop, useful for rosters. (suggested by Tat and ExcelsiorAdmin)
• Overhauled the wiki export feature. Added FS3 info (suggested by Blu and Roadspike), achievements, and plots. Revamped how it works under the hood so hopefully it will no longer hog all the resources and potentially crash the game.

Fixes

• Bordered table template wasn't accounting for ansi in its string lengths. (report and fix contributed by Darc)
• Docker image now uses the appropriate NPM version. (reported by Darc and FallenLeavesGoCrunch)
• Fixed the default configuration for the discord_debug option. (reported by Colette)
• Restored the ability numbers to the FS3 sheet in screen reader mode. (reported by Ren)
• Game config will now warn you if your website/host has an inappropriate http prefix. (reported by Colette)

Little Things

• Added an extra warning about reboot times in the "your server wants a reboot" message. This is a feature of the OS, like when your PC says "please wait, installing updates" for ages.
• Fixed the order and display of wiki templates in the create page dropdown.
• Fixed the character icon border in Firefox.
• The game will no longer create a duplicate scene log history entry if you save a scene without actually changing the log.

Developer Notes

The profile save custom code hook now accepts an enactor parameter, so you can handle admin-only fields. By default, the new method save_fields_from_profile_edit2 just calls the old one (.save_fields_from_profile_edit), so existing code will be unaffected. If you want to use the new functionality, you can move your save code to the new method.

Version 1.4.0

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Features

• New commands: scene/addrelated and scene/removerelated. (suggested by Ren)
• Allow name with nickname in roster/chargen welcome messages using %{nick}. (suggested by Shipfish)
• Add idle icon legend to active scenes page. (suggested by Ren)
• Better FS3 sheet display in screen reader mode. (inspired by an article by Andruid from writing-games.com featuring work by Niamh)

Fixes

• Invalid markdown no longer breaks a wiki page. (reported by Devrex)
• Tweak aria tags on scene edit page for screen readers. Please let me know if this is still not enough. (reported by Ren)
• Sever info page on web portal was giving an error. (reported by Verdanthe)

Little Things

• The Ares development blog has been moved back to the main website after living in Wordpress for awhile: https://aresmush.com/blog
• Added a note about stacked shortcuts to help shortcuts. (reported by ZDL)

Version 1.3.2

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Fixes

• Improved the efficiency of the locations page display, which should help with performance on games with lots of locations.
• Tags were not showing up right in in-client event details. (reported by Ren)
• If the channel recall limit was lowered, messages were not being cleaned up properly. (reported by Blu)
• The game will give a more useful error if the configuration file is missing from a failed install.
• The cancel button on location create was a broken link.
• Clarified the necessary permissions in the building help tutorial.

Version 1.3.1

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Features

• You can now configure a max background length. It defaults to unlimited length. (suggested by Blu & Roz)

Fixes

• Parenting an area to itself could crash the game. (reported by Roz & Yam)
• Players no longer see the pre-canned job responses, unless they have a role giving them job access. (reported by Yam)
• Moving a forum topic was causing an error. (reported by Yam)
• You can now use scene/location on a stopped scene. (reported by Roz)
• An end-ansi mark right before a comma would add an extra space on the web portal markdown display. (reported by Yam)

Little Things

• Added an end-ansi mark to com titles in case you forget it. (suggested by Roz)

Version 1.3.0

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Features

• Custom Job Fields let you customize your job data entry. See config help for details.
• Scheduled Jobs let you create reminder jobs on a set schedule. See config help for details.
• You can now disable the post-approval job (by leaving the message blank) and welcome message (by leaving the arrival category blank). (requested by Tez)

Fixes

• Background color wasn't being picked up by bootstrap, which messed up tables and other things. (reported by Blu)
• App notes prompt wasn't parsing markdown. (reported by Roz)
• Web notifications for scene invites weren't working consistently.

Little Things

• Cleaned up styling on the jobs search and job edit screen.

For Coders

• You can now edit the custom routes file from the custom code screen on the web portal.

Version 1.2.0

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Features

• The web portal menu is now completely configurable. Previously there were standard menus for admin/code/theme that you couldn't modify without custom code. You can now use roles to create role-restricted menus. Default menus should have been set up as part of the upgrade migration. See menu config help to customize them.
  • If you don't have dedicated theme managers, you may want to remove the "Theme" menu.
  • If you do, you probably want to customize the role list for whom the "Theme" menu appears. (by default it's full admins only)
  • You may want to combine the code/admin menus back into one menu separated by a - divider: true item to save space.
• You can now have custom hooks for your job menu. See job menu hooks help for details. (suggested by Lyanna and EmblemOfEra)

Fixes

• Fixed an ember error with notes editing. (reported by glitch)

Version 1.1.0

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Though this release bumps the minor version to 1.1, it's not appreciably different from the last one. I just should have bumped the version before now.

Features

• Roster claiming now clears event signups. (suggested by Blu)
• New roles commands role/all and role/info on client to see a list of roles and permissions (suggested by Ren)

Fixes

• Various screens missing Ember4 conversions - roster claim, alt switcher, file edit, combatant edit. (reported by Clockwork, Coin, Blu, Ren, Punchy)
• Jump to end link on wiki pages misaligned. Note: May impact custom CSS for those top links. (reported by Yam)

Version 1.0.10

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Fixes

• Fixed a couple places on the web portal that were missing 'this' property references as part of the Ember4 update, including new character registration and chargen. (reported by Lyanna and Ren)
• Fixed the installer, which hadn't gotten updated with the new NPM version.
• Updated rspec to fix unit tests (only developers might care; doesn't affect normal operation).

Version 1.0.9

Upgrade Notes -- PLEASE READ

This version requires special upgrade steps to update to Ember 4 and Node 18.

IMPORTANT If your game has custom code, make sure you have completed the Ember 4 upgrade preparation described in the previous version release notes before proceeding with the upgrade.

1. Type upgrade/start in-game to begin the upgrade.
2. Use the shutdown command in-game or Admin -> Manage -> Shutdown from the web portal to shut down the game. (See Shutting Down the Game for help.)
3. Log into the server shell and run the following commands:

cd ~/ares-webportal
bin/update_npm

4. Restart the server using:

sudo reboot

It may take several minutes (longer if you had any security updates pending), but then the game should come up with the new version.

Features

• Lyanna has contributed a community plugin for the WEG Open D6 System.

Fixes

• [Priority] The scene edit screen was improperly loading the privacy level for completed scenes. (reported by Yam and Clockwork)
• The profile link in the in-game profile command wasn't using https for the web portal when the game used https. (reported by ZombieGenesis)
• Login notifications (the bell notices) weren't getting cleared when a character idled out and was added to the roster. (reported by Tat)

Housekeeping

• Web portal updated to Ember 4 and Node 18.
• Game engine now uses the latest i18N library, which necessitated a few changes to the locale code. This does not affect your plugin locale files.
• Discord Bot updated to DiscordJS 14 (hopefully providing better stability) Note: This requires a separate manual upgrade. See upgrade instructions for details.
• Privacy on Ares Games article now mentions when data is automatically deleted.