After months of waiting, AE is back, and better than ever! Looking through the responses to previous releases, one thing is noticeable: not everybody wants the same thing out of AE. There were numerous comments about people loving one feature, but not wanting a different one. So, this release doesn't add as much new content as other releases added, but it does include a new framework and a great new program: the AE Installer.
With the Installer, you have the choice of which mods you want to use, that change the gameplay, difficulty, or look of the game in a variety of ways. Just select the checkboxes of the mods you want, and hit the Install button. Changing the selection of mods will take no more than two minutes (less than a minute on most computers). The Installer is compatible with Windows 2000 and up and Mac OS X 10.3+ (Intel and PPC)*. As always, you'll need .NET installed if you use Windows, and "mono" installed if you are on a Mac.
The secret to the new modular framework is the "mod package", and anyone who makes mods can distribute their mods in this easy-to-use format, which a player can then download from the Mod Depot and install into Oni with the AE Installer. This will be a much simpler way to enjoy the community's mods going forward. All of the mods in the previous AE releases have been included in the current release, and there are more mods that will be released in the coming weeks that didn't quite make it to today's release date.
Because this is the 1.0 release of the Installer, please don't be surprised if you find a bug or two. We've done the best we can to deliver a bug free release, but there are lots of possible situations that are hard to anticipate. One known bug: Do not install the AE while you are in an Oni directory in Windows Explorer or the Mac Terminal, as it might interfere with file operations.
From now on we will also be including the latest patches for Oni in our AE releases, so that everything comes in one convenient bundle. The general idea from this point on is to release whatever we have on a monthly basis. That way, there won't be long delays between releases in the future and people won't wonder if anything's still happening :-). The central place for information about the Edition will always be the OniGalore wiki -- Wiki.oni2.net. The best place to report bugs and suggestions is right in this thread. The Edition can be found under the "downloads" section on our ModDB Anniversary Edition mod page.
Enjoy,
The AE Team
*Please note, the AE framework is currently not compatible with the demo for either system. However, we will be releasing a tweaked version of the demo, bundled with AE, so you can use AE even if you don't have the retail PC/Mac version of Oni.
