Beta 108

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Features

• Alts can now view and edit each others’ player notes. (suggested by Ren)
• Posing and chatting with an alt from the web portal now updates that alt’s last online time. Note that other web actions like forum posts don’t, but this should broaden activity tracking enough so that alts don’t slip into the idle tracker. (suggested by Clockwork)

Fixes

• Idle queue actions were giving an error. (reported by Clockwork and others)
• Character icon gallery styling was off. (reported by ZombieGenesis)
• Learning a new ability from an alt with XP wasn’t working. (reported by Ren)
• Certbot install script was missing a dependency. (reported by ZombieGenesis)

Beta 107

Upgrade Notes -- PLEASE READ

This upgrade requires some special steps due to a new version of node package manager (NPM).

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. Start the game as usual by running

cd ~/aresmush
bin/startares

Features

• You can now spend FS3 XP from your alts. (suggested by Ren)

Fixes

• Config editor is working again. (reported by ZombieGenesis)
• NPM upgrade issues have been resolved by reverting to the prior version of Node. We'll try the upgrade again at some point after some external-to-Ares package conflicts have been resolved. (reported by several folks; thanks to Clockwork and ZombieGenesis for helping me troubleshoot on their systems).

Beta 106

Upgrade Notes -- PLEASE READ

This upgrade requires some special steps due to a new version of node package manager (NPM).

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. Start the game as usual by running

cd ~/aresmush
bin/startares

Features

• You can now pose into scenes on web with alts even if you're not logged in with them. (suggested by Tat)
• Events on the web portal are now more alt-friendly. You can specify a storyteller when creating an event, and manage signups for all your alts. (suggested by L. B. Heuschkel and Tat)
• The unified play screen now is shared across all alts within a single game, so changing it for one alt changes it for the others. This avoids some weird notification conditions if you had it turned on for some alts and not others.
• Web portal scenes now have an icon to show if pose order is normal or 3-per. (suggested by BearNecessities)

Fixes

• Chat was defaulting to the wrong character. (reported by Jinshei and Blu)
• Updating roster status via the web portal wasn't performing all the idle cleanup, like clearing pages/mail/etc. (reported by ZombieGenesis)
• Starting a new PM conversation displayed alts with the wrong names/icons. (reported by Clockwork)
• Editing a forum post no longer shows a new reply in recent changes. (reported by KarmaBum)
• Editing an image was showing up as file moved in recent changes. (reported by Clockwork)
• The "add new key" button on the config file editor works again. (reported by Raeras)

AresCentral Updates

• Linked characters are now displayed cleaner.
• The ability to create a link is now at the top of the linked character page instead of the bottom, so you don't have to scroll. (suggested by Blu)
• Closed games now show up on the Archive page, with more information.
• Added a wiki archive link for Grey Harbor. (submitted by Ren)

(Remember, if your game ever closes you're welcome to put the wiki archive up in a fileshare somewhere and I'll link to it.)

Ares-Discord Updates

The ares-discord utility is updated independently of the main game. See update instructions

• Bugfix: Attachments were sometimes double-posting the prior message. (reported by Ren)
• Bugfix: The app was accumulating more log files than it should have.

Little Things

• Idle sweep on the web portal now orders chars by approved/unapproved.
• CSS file editor now disables the browser's built-in spellcheck to avoid lag. (reported by Ren)
• Scene tags now show up in the MU client view of a scene's details. (reported by KarmaBum)
• The rooms in "no area" on the web portal are displayed better.
• Improved vista help file and added some error checking on vista names. (reported by Myrynvalona)
• Census table now has its own CSS class. (suggested by Clockwork)

Beta 105

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Features

• Overhaul of the siteban interface. You can now add notes about each banned site and interact with the ban list through commands (help ban) and the web portal (Admin -> Manage -> Banned Sites).
• Improved wiki file management. You can now mass move files from a folder and add a note (like attribution info) to a file. Notes will show up in a mouseover caption when you use the built-in wiki [[image]] helper, and in the files page and character gallery. (It does not show up on icons.)
• Wiki source/history sections are now collapsible. (suggested by Ren)
• Play screen now has a pose recall to redo your last pose, and is more robust against network glitches to avoid losing poses.

Fixes

• Unified play screen was not on by default for new players. As a result, it has been re-enabled for everyone. If you had it off on purpose, you’ll need to go into your account settings and turn it off again (sorry). (Reported by Clockwork and Blu)
• You would still see the “Start Combat” option in the play screen if someone else had started a combat for that scene. Now it will prompt you to refresh the page. (reported by Blu)
• Combatant names weren’t visible in the table on dark themes. Changed the way table text colors were set in the base CSS, which may affect games with custom table CSS. (reported by sisterkettle)
• Play screen didn’t respond properly to small displays. (reported by Ren)
• Unified play screen wouldn’t save properly when trying to turn it off. (reported by Ren)
• The list_arg parser would include empty entries if you had spaces between your commas. (reported by Tat) (Note: This particular fix needs a game restart but there's no urgency.)

Community Plugin Updates

Remember, community plugins are updated independently of the main game. See updating plugins

• RP Preferences: Changed the way the component was loaded to enable easier customization, and show the preferences edit box properly.
• Community plugins can now specify a version number, which will show up in the plugins list and server info page. See Plugin Versioning.

Beta 104

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade Restart Required

Features

• Better implementation of ‘quickref’ (qr) help command so it finds more topics and differentiates (mostly) between admin and player commands.
• Client sheet command now shows numbers instead of dots if screenreader mode is enabled. (suggested by celtichawk)

Fixes

• Better notifications of losing your connection to the game.
• Character gallery styling was off. (reported by Ren)
• Plot scene list was giving an error. (reported by Clockwork)
• Login link was missing on iPad screen widths. (reported by Altair)
• The upload button on the file uploader was mostly invisible.
• Skill scan was still counting skills (if not people) for unapproved chars. (reported by Ren)
• Age was still not always following after birthdate in the demographics list. (reported by Ren)

Beta 103

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

There was an install glitch on some games that set the website_code_path config option in website.yml incorrectly. Unless you have a weird custom install, it should be /home/ares/ares-webportal. Check your setting to make sure it's correct.

Features

• People with the 'manage scenes' permission can now stop public scenes or edit them. Only scene participants can edit private scenes.

Fixes

• Collapsible boxes were intermittently not working. (reported by Blu and Clockwork)
• Editing date on an event caused an error. (reported by Clockwork)
• AresCentral password reset emails weren't going through. (reported by Mr.Johnson)
• Hide "Manage" menu in live scenes if you can't manage anything.
• Character gallery images weren't in a row. (reported by Clockwork)
• Plot Scene List wiki extension was including incomplete scenes. (reported by Ren)
• Table text wasn't showing up properly in dark themes. (reported by Astra)
• The forum "Delete Reply" confirmation box didn't go away when you acknowledged it. (reported by Clockwork)
• Emoji reference page formatting was messed up. (reported by Ren)
• Wiki template wasn't auto-selected properly from the "Create Wiki Page" button widget. (reported by Clockwork)
• Headings were being treated as hashtags in forum posts. (reported by Blu)
• Wiki archive would give an error on a scene whose IC Date used slashes instead of dashes. (reported by Raeras)
• Skill Scan web page was counting dead/gone characters. (reported by Clockwork)

Little Things

• Column formatting on character card was a little off. (reported by Blu)
• There were a few lingering instances of the 'text-right' CSS style, which is no longer supported by Bootstrap 5. (reported by Ren)
• Guest client options (screen reader, color) now reset back to defaults when the guest logs out.
• There was an unnecessary extra border around the markdown editor box on the web portal. (reported by celtichawk)
• Added a few new CSS classes for scene participants and who list. (suggested by Ren)

Community Plugin Updates

Remember, community plugins are updated independently of the main game. See updating plugins.

• (Fate Plugin) Rolling just a number wasn't working. (reported by celtichawk)
• (ESH Traits Plugin) Updated for Bootstrap 5. See post for details. (contrib by Clockwork)

Beta 102

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Features

• Add FS3 skills to scene character card. (suggested by Blu)
• Skill/scan is now available on web. Route is fs3skills-scan if you want to add it to your menu. (suggested by Roadspike)
• Improved the beginner help and the help landing page.
• The prompt above the app notes box is configurable. (suggested by Roadspike)
• Unshared scene now shows scenes from all your alts if you have unified play enabled. (suggested by Tat)
• Finished plots now show up on a separate page. (suggested by Clockwork)
• Restarted scenes will reappear in play list automatically.

Fixes

• Plotscenelist wasn’t reading scenes correctly. (reported by Ren)
• Put back the job filter buttons for non admins. (reported by Ren)
• Fixed some inconsistencies with the bootstrap libs so it’s using bootstrap 5 fully now. I didn’t encounter any noteworthy CSS impacts beyond the migration notes in the previous release.
• Fixed styling on navbar login button.

Little Things

• File upload allows JPEG extensions. You’ll need to manually update your website.yml if you want to include this. (suggested by Blu)
• Event calendar starts on Sunday not Monday. (suggested by Tat)
• Scene menus now consistently drop up instead of going up or down depending on menu height.
• CSS tweaks for medium width displays, profile page image, census table, combat HUD, plots table, scene participants, and achievements list. (requested by and some CSS contributed by Ren)

Beta 101

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (restart required)

Update Community Plugins

If you have any of the following plugins installed, they will need to be updated:

• RPG
• Fate
• Cookies
• Dice

Major Bootstrap Upgrade

Bootstrap, the framework that drives the style on the web portal, has been upgraded from v3 to v5. This was necessary due to Ember dropping support for v3 in the near future.

Unfortunately, v5 is not backwards-compatible. That means there are a number of things that had to change in the web portal code. If you're just using the core code, you don't have to do anything. Just let me know if something looks out of whack.

If you have custom web portal code and/or significant custom styling, you probably want to hold off on upgrading until you have had a chance to shake out any style issues on your test server. See this migration guide for tips.

Features

• You can now select the format for the profile title bar. See profile title format. (suggested by Ren)
• You can now paste in a hex code in the color editor.

Fixes

Items marked HOTFIX were already released in a hotfix patch, so depending on when you updated last you may already have them.

• (HOTFIX) FS3: Error when rolling for NPCs from web portal. (reported by Ren)
• (HOTFIX) Error in wiki export.
• (HOTFIX) Cmd-enter wasn’t sending poses. (reported by Blu)
• The character selector in mail/forum replies was showing the same character icon. (reported by Clockwork)
• Made a tweak that may fix no character selected by default in play screen. If the problem continues, please get me as much info as you can about your device, browser, which characters were in the scene/chat, etc. (reported by Blu)
• Various issues with the new tag system, including them not showing up on events and scene lists, and not getting deleted properly. (reported by Clockwork)

Little Things

• Age now follows birthdate in the demographics list. (suggested by Ren)
• The menu options now say “Report Chat” and “Report Scene” . (suggested by Tat)
• Mail header fields can now be more easily formatted with CSS. (suggested by Ren)
• Wiki export pages have a css class so you can adjust your CSS for them. (suggested by Grimdarque)
• The default “no profile picture set” icon is now properly transparent. This only affects new games, so if you want it on yours you’ll need to upload the default one (found in game.distr) to your theme_images folder.

Beta 100

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Features

• Improved the way that a player’s name/title appears above the demographics when not using ranks. Also made it a central method so you could customize it more easily, and added a CSS class for it so you could turn it off easily.
• “All Pages” wiki page now shows page categories.
• Wiki export now includes locations. (suggested by Clockwork)

Fixes

• You couldn’t edit your alts’ poses on the play screen without reloading the page. (reported by a couple folks on discord)
• Creating a new scene didn’t add it to your play screen. (reported by Tat)
• Wiki export was failing if you had a page with no content. (reported by Tat)
• Players still showed on web who list even after being banned. They couldn't actually do anything, but their window didn't disconnect them until they refreshed the page. Now it does so immediately. (reported by celtichawk)
• Play screen chat window height was abnormally tiny on big screens. (reported by phalkyn, fix contributed by Ren)

Little Things

• Added new CSS classes for the play screen title, recent changes, mail list, notifications tabs. (suggested by Ren)
• Improved the error message if your default combatant type is invalid. (reported by Lotherio)
• Quickref command now finds things regardless of whether you use the plural or singular command. (reported by Roadspike)
• Tag page was listing links with IDs not names. (reported by Roadspike)

Dev Notes

Many web portal routes and templates were updated to fix deprecation warnings in advance of Ember 4.0. Be prepared for some merge conflicts if you have changes to core portal code.

Beta 99

Upgrade Notes

How to Upgrade (no restart required)

Features

• You can now download PM/chat logs from the portal. (suggested by Tat)
• (Prefs Plugin*) Overhauled the RP preferences plugin. It now uses a freeform text field and integrates with the portal. If you had the old version installed and prefer the old categories, just don't plugin/install the new version. (inspired by Tat's system from Spirit Lake)
• (Dice Plugin*) The former scene dice roller snippet is now a Dice Plugin.
• (Weather Plugin*) Weather is no longer incorporated in the base ares install, and is now a separate plugin. If you are still using it, you can just reinstall the new weather plugin. Your config won't be affected.

(*) - Community plugins are not updated automatically. As long as you haven't done any custom code changes, you can just run plugin/install again to update them. Your config will not be affected.

Fixes

• (Hotfixed right after 0.98) New page threads weren't adding to the play screen correctly. (reported by Raeras)
• Wiki export was throwing an error. (reported by Tat)
• Pages from alts were showing up in the wrong alt's MU client. (reported by Tat)
• Pages for alts weren't being properly marked as read. (reported by several folks)
• The 'view' button on achievement notifications wasn't working. (reported by Altair)
• You couldn't edit or delete poses from alts on the unified play screen. (reported by Blu)
• Pagelist wiki extension wasn't listing pages. (reported by L.B. Heuschkel)
• Active scenes list was being sorted inconsistently. (reported by Ren)
• FS3 was warning you about setting starting skills to 0 even if you allowed incapable skills. (reported Roadspike)

Little Things

• None