# LOOT

## Contents

1. Introduction
2. Installation & Uninstallation
3. Using LOOT
   1. Sorting Plugins
   2. The Results Report
   3. Customising LOOT's Results
   4. Editing Settings
4. Contributing & Support
5. Credits
6. License
7. Appendices
   1. Introduction To Load Orders
   2. Dirty Edits, Mod Cleaning & CRCs
   3. File Permissions
8. Version History

## Introduction

LOOT is a plugin load order optimiser for TES IV: Oblivion, TES V: Skyrim, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. It is designed to assist mod users in avoiding detrimental conflicts, by automatically calculating a load order that satisfies all plugin dependencies and maximises each plugin's impact on the user's game.

LOOT also provides some load order error checking, including checks for requirements, incompatibilities and cyclic dependencies. In addition, it provides a large number of plugin-specific usage notes, bug warnings and Bash Tag suggestions for Wrye Bash.

While LOOT is able to calculate correct load order positions for the vast majority of plugins using only their content, it cannot do so for all plugins. As such, LOOT provides a mechanism for supplying additional plugin metadata so that it may sort them correctly.

LOOT is intended to make using mods easier, and mod users should still possess a working knowledge of mod load ordering. See Introduction To Load Orders for an overview.

## Installation & Uninstallation

LOOT does not support Windows XP or earlier.

LOOT can be installed either using its automated installer or manually. To install LOOT manually, extract the downloaded archive to a location of your choice.

If LOOT was installed using the installer, then use the uninstaller linked to in the Start Menu to uninstall LOOT. If LOOT was installed manually:

1. Delete the files you extracted from the location you chose.
2. Delete the LOOT folder in your local application data folder, which can be accessed by entering `%LOCALAPPDATA%` into Windows' File Explorer.

## Using LOOT

### Initialisation

When LOOT is run, it will attempt to detect which of the supported games are installed. If a default game has been set, LOOT will run for it, otherwise it will run for the same game as it last ran for. If the relevant game cannot be detected, if there is no record of the last game LOOT ran for, it will run for the first detected game.

LOOT can also be launched with the `LOOT.exe [--game=<game folder name>]` command line parameter to set the game to run for. If the supplied game folder name is valid, the default and last game values are ignored. The default folder names are `Oblivion`, `Skyrim`, `Fallout3` and `FalloutNV`.

If LOOT cannot detect any supported game installs, it will immediately open the Settings dialog. There you can edit LOOT's settings to provide a path to a supported game, after which you can select it from the Game menu.

Once a game has been set, LOOT will scan its plugins and load the game's masterlist, if one is present. The plugins and any metadata they have are then listed in their current load order.

### Plugin Cards

Each plugin is displayed on its own card.

If LOOT suggests any Bash Tags to be added, they will be displayed in green text, while any Bash Tags to be removed will be displayed in red text.

LOOT will also display the plugin's CRC value and extract its version if found in the plugin's description field.

LOOT will display the version numbers of any plugins that provide them in their description fields. If a plugin supplies no version number, it cannot be displayed.

LOOT's plugin messages are a valuable resource, acting as a means of providing users with information that they might otherwise not obtain. It is important for a stable, healthy game that you act on any messages that require action.

If you think a message suggests an unnecessary action, report it to an official LOOT thread. If you encounter a message that is non-conditional, ie. it suggests an action but is still displayed on subsequent runs of LOOT after the action has been carried out, also report it to an official LOOT thread, so that it can be made conditional.

### Menus

#### File Menu

The menu's Redate Plugins option is provided so that Skyrim modders may set the load order for the Creation Kit. It is only enabled for Skyrim, and changes the timestamps of the plugins in its Data folder to match their current load order. A side effect of changing the timestamps is that any Steam Workshop mods installed will be re-downloaded.

#### Game Menu

The Game menu allows you to change which game LOOT is running for. Games that LOOT cannot find are greyed out, and the the one LOOT is running for is marked with a double chevron. To change the active game, simply select another game in the list.

#### Plugin Menus

Each plugin's card has a menu button in its top-right corner. Clicking on it will reveal the plugin's menu.

The Show Only Conflicts option filters the plugin cards displayed so that only plugins which conflict with the menu plugin will be visible. If the selected plugin loads a BSA, other plugins that load BSAs which may contain conflicting resources are also displayed. While the filter is active, the plugin for which conflicts are displayed is highlighted, and enabling the filter for another plugin will deactivate the current filter before applying it again for the new plugin.

The Edit Metadata option flips the plugin card over to reveal its metadata editor, where you can make changes to the metadata that LOOT uses to sort the plugin, and display its messages and Bash Tags.

The Copy Metadata As Text option copies the plugin's metadata to the clipboard. This makes it easier to share your metadata changes with the LOOT team, as they can then paste this text directly into the masterlist, and also avoids any typos being introduced. If posting the text in an online forum that supports BBCode (as most forums do), be sure to wrap it in `[code]` tags, eg. `[code]copied text[/code]`, so that the spaces are not removed by the forum software.

### Masterlist Update

LOOT's masterlists are metadata databases that LOOT uses to provide messages and help sort plugins. By default, LOOT uses a separate masterlist for each game, with each masterlist being hosted online and maintained by the LOOT team.

Clicking the Update Masterlist button updates LOOT's masterlist for the current game to the latest available revision. If the latest revision cannot be parsed (eg. due to typos), then LOOT will roll back until it finds a revision that works.

### Sorting Plugins

Clicking the Sort button will begin the sorting process. By default, sorting first updates the masterlist. LOOT then sorts your plugins according to a combination of data from the plugins themselves, and any metadata they may have. If a cyclic interaction is detected (eg. A depends on B depends on A), then sorting will fail.

Once sorting has calculated a new load order, the plugin cards are sorted into that order, and the Update Masterlist and Sort buttons are replaced with Apply and Cancel buttons.

If the Apply button is clicked, LOOT applies the load order. If the Cancel button is clicked, then the load order and any edits made are discarded.

LOOT is able to sort plugins ghosted by Wrye Bash, and can extract Bash Tags and version numbers from plugin descriptions. Provided that they have the `Filter` Bash Tag present in their description, LOOT can recognise filter patches and so avoid displaying unnecessary error messages for any of their masters that may be missing.

### Filters

Clicking the Filters button at the bottom of the sidebar will replace the sidebar's plugin list with a list of filters that can be applied to hide various combinations of plugins and metadata. Click the button again to hide the filter list and show the plugin list again. The available filters are:

- Hide Version Numbers: Hides the version numbers printed in blue next to those plugins that provide them.
- Hide CRCs: Hides the CRCs printed in orange next to those plugins that provide them.
- Hide Bash Tags: Hides all Bash Tag suggestions.
- Hide notes: Hides all plugin messages that have the Note: prefix.
- Hide 'Do Not Clean' Messages: Hides any messages that contain the string Do not clean..
- Hide Inactive Plugin Messages: Hides all messages attached to plugins that are inactive.
- Hide All Plugin Messages: Hides all plugin messages.
- Hide Messageless Plugins: Hides any plugins that have no visible messages.

There is also a conflict filter that can be accessed through each plugin's menu.

### Editing Plugin Metadata

A metadata editor panel.

LOOT uses metadata to supply plugins with messages and Bash Tag suggestions, and to help it sort plugins that it otherwise can't sort correctly. Users can add to their plugins' metadata through each plugin's metadata editor panel, and plugins with user metadata are labelled with a icon.

A plugin's editor panel is accessed by clicking the Edit Metadata item in the plugin's menu. Multiple plugins can have their editor panels open at once, but everything in LOOT's menu bar is disabled while there is at least one panel open.

Table rows that are for masterlist metadata cannot be edited or deleted. User metadata rows can be deleted by clicking their icon.

Rows can be added to the Requirements, Incompatibilities and Load After tables by dragging and dropping plugins from the sidebar into the table area.

The Apply button will save any changes made, then exit the editor panel. The Cancel button will exit the editor panel without saving any changes.

Control | Description
--- | ---
Enable User Changes | If this is checked, LOOT will use the metadata you supplied. Otherwise, your metadata will be ignored.
Priority | Modifies plugin position relative to others. Plugins with higher priority values load after plugins with lower priority values. Plugins have a default priority of 0. Plugin priorities are only compared if: The two plugins conflict with each other. One or both of the plugins is a "dummy" plugin, containing only a header record. One or both of the plugins has a global priority.
Requirements | This is a list of files that are required by the current plugin for it to function correctly. The current plugin will be loaded after any plugins listed. LOOT will also display an error message if any of the listed files are missing. Any file, not just plugins, can be listed here, and each entry has three fields: The filename is the path, relative to the game's Data folder, of the file to be checked for. This field is required. The display name is optional, and if specified will be used instead of the filename in any error messages that are displayed if a problem is encountered relating to the file. The condition is the optional condition string that is used to determine if the file should be checked for. If left blank, the file will always be checked for. Condition strings are a relatively advanced part of LOOT's functionality, and their syntax is covered in the Metadata Syntax documentation. Note that listing a plugin's masters as requirements is unnecessary, as LOOT already checks them.
Incompatibilities | This is a list of files that are incompatible with the plugin. LOOT will display an error message if any of the listed files are found. Any file, not just plugins, can be listed here, and each entry has the same three fields as for the requirements table.
Load After | This is a list of plugins which, if present, the current plugin must load after, but which are not required. This metadata can be used for resolving specific compatibility issues. Each entry has the same three fields as for the requirements table.
Messages | A list of messages that are to be displayed for the plugin in LOOT's report. These have no bearing on a plugin's position in the load order. Each message has four fields: The type is fairly self-explanatory, and is used to provide messages of varying severity with appropriate emphasis in LOOT's report. The content is the actual message text. The condition is, like for the corresponding file field, used to determine if the message should be displayed. If left blank, the message is displayed. The language is the language LOOT runs in that the message will be displayed for. This field has no effect for user-added messages, as they cannot contain multiple localisations, and LOOT will always display messages that have only one localisation, even if it doesn't match the current language. If a message's condition determines that it should not be displayed, then it will not be displayed, no matter the language. However, if a message's condition determines that it should be displayed, but the language is specified and doesn't match the language LOOT is running in, the message will not be displayed.
Bash Tags | A list of Bash Tags. These are used by Wrye Bash when generating a Bashed Patch. LOOT's metadata includes Bash Tag addition and removal suggestions, and any Bash Tags that came with the plugin are also displayed. As LOOT can suggest Bash Tags be added or removed, it is possible for the same Tag to appear twice, being suggested for addition and removal. In such cases, removal overrides addition. Each Bash Tag has three sub-fields: The state determines whether the Tag is to be suggested for addition or removal. The name is the actual Bash Tag name. The condition decides if the Tag is to be suggested or not. It functions as for files and messages. If a plugin's masters are missing, an error message will be displayed for it. Filter patches are special mods designed for use with a Bashed Patch that do not require all their masters to be present, and so any plugin with the `Filter` tag applied and missing masters will not cause any errors to be displayed.

### Editing Settings

LOOT's settings dialog.

LOOT's settings may be accessed by clicking Settings button in LOOT's menu bar. The settings are detailed in the table below.

Setting | Description
--- | ---
Default Game | If set to something other than Autodetect, this overrides game autodetection. If the game specified is not detected, LOOT falls back to autodetection.
Language | Controls the language LOOT uses in its interfaces. Debug messages are always displayed in English, and any plugin messages that do not have translations in the selected language will be displayed in English instead.
Debug Verbosity | Controls the verbosity of the debug output, which is written to `%LOCALAPPDATA%\LOOT\LOOTDebugLog.txt`.
Update masterlist before sorting | If checked, LOOT will update its masterlist, should an update be available, before sorting plugins.

LOOT's game-specific settings can be customised in the games table. Settings can also be added for additional game instances, making it easy to use LOOT across multiple copies of a game, including total conversion mods. LOOT ships with settings for the Nehrim - At Fate's Edge total conversion mod as an example.

The games instances defined in this table are displayed in LOOT's Game menu, and can be selected there if detected. Game instance settings may be deleted by clicking the icon at the end of the game's row. The current game cannot have its settings deleted. If you delete the settings for one of LOOT's core four supported games (Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas), they will be recreated when LOOT is next run.

The game settings are explained in the table below.

Game Setting | Description
--- | ---
Name | The name of the game, or another identifying string, that is displayed in menus and the LOOT's title bar.
Base Game Type | Every game LOOT runs for must use the plugin file format and load order system of one of the following games: TES IV: Oblivion TES V: Skyrim Fallout 3 Fallout: New Vegas
LOOT Folder Name | The sub-folder which LOOT uses to store the game's files in. Each game must be given a unique sub-folder.
Master File | The game's main master file. This is specified as it must load before all other plugins. Note that Skyrim-based games will always load Skyrim.esm first, so this column must always be set to Skyrim.esm for such games.
Masterlist Repository URL | The URL of the repository that LOOT uses to update its local copy of the masterlist. If set to an empty string, masterlist updating will be skipped. Masterlist repositories are Git repositories that are configured to allow unauthenticated read access and contain a masterlist file named `masterlist.yaml` in their root directory. The LOOT team maintains a set of official repositories for the games that LOOT supports by default.
Masterlist Repository Branch | The branch of the masterlist repository that LOOT should get masterlist updates from.
Install Path | The path to the game's folder, in which the Data folder lies. Either this or a registry key must be supplied.
Install Path Registry Key | The registry key, in `HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE`, that contains the install path of the game. This is used to obtain the install path if LOOT has no previous record of the game's install path, or LOOT's stored install path is invalid. Either this or an install path must be supplied.

## Contributing & Support

LOOT is very much a community project, and contributions from its users are vital to its upkeep, whether they be metadata, translations, code or anything else. The best way to contribute is to make changes yourself at GitHub! It's the fastest way to get changes you want applied, and you'll get your name automatically immortalised in our credits.

If you encounter an issue with LOOT, check the Frequently Asked Questions wiki page in case a solution is available there.

Otherwise, general discussion and support takes place in LOOT's official forum threads. These are linked to at the bottom of LOOT's homepage.

If you want to submit metadata, the easiest way to do so is to add the metadata to your own LOOT install, then use the Copy Metadata As Text feature to easily get it in a form that you can then edit into a masterlist on GitHub or post in the official forum threads.

Information on dirty plugins is very welcome, but for such information to be useful we require at least the filename and the CRC of the dirty plugin. The CRC may be calculated using Wrye Bash or 7-Zip, with other sources being unverified as correct. In the case of 7-Zip, the CRC checksum for data is the one required. In addition to the CRC, the number of records removed (the ITM count) and/or undeleted (the UDR count) are also welcome.

## Credits

LOOT is developed by a team on GitHub, with contributions from users. A full list of GitHub contributors may be found here. An up-to-date list of team members may be viewed on the project wiki. Unless otherwise noted, team members can be contacted on the Bethesda Softworks Forums or on The Nexus Forums via the private messaging system.

LOOT's masterlists were largely converted from BOSS's masterlists, and so credit is due to the very large number of sources and people who have contributed to them.

In addition, the following are credited with application-related support:

- Icon: jonwd7
- Translations:
  1. Brazilian Portuguese: Kassane
  2. Chinese: bluesky404
  3. Finnish: 3ventic
  4. French: Kaos
  5. German: lpradel
  6. Polish: Łukasz Niemczyk
  7. Russian: Tokc.D.K.
  8. Spanish: Sharlikran
- Beta testing: Too many to list, thank you all!

LOOT is written in C++, HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript, and uses the Alphanum, Boost, Marked, libespm, libgit2, libloadorder, RequireJS and yaml-cpp libraries, the Chromium Embedded Framework, and the FontAwesome icon font. Copyright license information for all these may be found here.

## License

LOOT is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0, aside from the documentation, which is distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3. The full texts of the licenses are included with LOOT in the accompanying GNU GPL v3.txt and GNU FDL v1.3.txt files.

While the GPL license allows anyone to make derivative works of LOOT, the LOOT Team encourages those thinking of doing so to first discuss their reasoning for such an endeavour with the Team. It may be that what the derivative work would do differently is already planned for a future version of LOOT or would be happily integrated into LOOT, thus avoiding any extra effort by others.

LOOT has been specifically designed to prevent it being locked into the LOOT Team's official masterlist repositories. Nevertheless, the LOOT Team appeals to the community to avoid the distribution of unofficial masterlists, as this would only hamper the effort to create one set of stores for load order information. Any issues with a masterlist are best brought to the attention of the LOOT Team so that they may be remedied.

GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.3 Notice:

> Copyright (C) 2012—2014 WrinklyNinja
> Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
> A copy of the license is included in the file named "GNU FDL v1.3.txt".

## Appendices

### Introduction To Load Orders

This appendix provides a general overview of load ordering in the games LOOT supports for those who are unfamiliar with the concept. For simplicity, the game will be used when the text refers to any of the games that LOOT supports.

Mod plugins for the game are files that end in `.esp` or `.esm`. These files are created by the game's official editing tools, or by third-party modders' tools. They contain various data records, which cover almost all aspects of what is in the game – NPCs, items, races, interiors, worlds, quests, etc. – and can either be new or changes to the records added by another plugin.

When the game is run, it loads each installed plugin one by one in a certain load order. The load order is important for two reasons:

- If one plugin changes a record added by another plugin, the former must load after the latter. If it doesn't, the game will crash on launch.
- The game can only apply one version of a record, so if multiple plugins contain the same record, the last-loaded plugin's version overrides all others. This is known as the rule of one, and it holds true for almost all record types. Some overrides can cause problems in-game, and a good load order is one that arranges plugins to avoid such problems.

There are a few hardcoded rules related to load order:

- Master plugins always load before non-master plugins. The difference between the two plugin types isn't really relevant, except that a plugin's type is decided by a setting inside it, and not by its file extension (even though `.esm` stands for Elder Scrolls Master).
- There is a limit of 255 active plugins that can be loaded by the game. This isn't strictly a load order thing, but is worth mentioning.
- In Skyrim, `Skyrim.esm` always loads before all other plugins.
- In Skyrim, if `Update.esm` is present, it is always loaded. It loads after all other master plugins, unless it has another position explicitly set.

A plugin's position in the load order is often displayed by mod managers as a hexadecimal number, from 00 to FE (0 to 255 in decimal). The plugin with position 00 loads first, and the plugin with position FE is loaded last. Hexadecimal numbers are used to display the load order positions of plugins because these numbers form the first two digits of the code that the game uses to reference the records that the plugin adds, so knowing the numbers allows modders and mod users to determine from which plugin a record is from.

In Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, load order is determined by plugin timestamps, and the plugins you have accessed are listed in `%LOCALAPPDATA%\<game>\plugins.txt`. As such, it's best to use a mod manager to create a backup of your load order. In Skyrim, the load order of active plugins is stored in `%LOCALAPPDATA%\<game>\plugins.txt`, and modding utilities generally use `%LOCALAPPDATA%\<game>\loadorder.txt` to store the load order of all plugins. This makes backing up your load order as easy as making copies of those two files.

### Dirty Edits, Mod Cleaning & CRCs

Dirty edits are often a side-effect of mod creation, and are often due to bugs in the utilities Bethesda has provided to create mods, rather than bad practice by mod authors. Dirty edits can cause a wide range of issues, including incorrect game settings, missing content, broken quests and crashing to desktop. The more dirty edits there are in a mod, and the more mods with dirty edits you use, the more likely you are to experience issues.

Thankfully there is a way to remove dirty edits from mods relatively easily, a process known as mod cleaning, using TES4Edit, FO3Edit, FNVEdit or TES5Edit (for Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Skyrim respectively). Detailed instructions and information on mod cleaning are available for Oblivion and Skyrim, with the process being largely the same for the others.

The problem of dirty edits is largely a problem of ignorance on the part of mod authors and users alike of the problems dirty mods can cause. As such, there are community efforts to raise awareness of dirty edits and cleaning. LOOT plays a key role in these efforts, as it holds the complete list of all known dirty mods (as does BOSS), and it uses this information to provide notification messages to users for any dirty mods they have installed.

LOOT identifies and describes unclean plugins using four key pieces of information. They are:

- CRC value: CRC values are a highly accurate way of identifying files based on their contents, as if the contents change, so does the CRC value. LOOT identifies an unclean plugin by comparing the installed plugin's CRC value against the CRC values for known unclean versions of that plugin. This identification method has the limitation that it can't detect unclean plugins that aren't already known as such, and won't detect unclean but edited plugins, but it's a lot faster than actually checking for dirty edits in the plugin.
- ITM Count: ITM records are a type of dirty edit where a mod has overwritten something in the game without actually changing anything. If another mod higher up in the load order makes an intentional change to that thing, it will have its effect cancelled out by the ITM record, which can cause problems. The ITM count is the number of ITM records found and corrected in the mod plugin.
- UDR Count: Deleting records is a significant cause of crashes and game bugs. UDRs are records that the mod deleted from the game or from another mod that have been corrected safely by undeleting them and disabling them instead, which has the same intended effect without causing issues. The UDR count is the number of deleted reference records found and corrected in the mod plugin.
- Deleted Navmesh Count: Like deleting records, deleting navmeshes can cause crashes. However, these cannot be automatically corrected, and require manual cleaning. Navmeshes don't exist in Oblivion, so this information doesn't apply.

In addition to the above, there is another type of dirty edit known as a wild edit. These are any edit that is unrelated to the purpose of the mod, and so provide unnecessary opportunity for conflicts with other mods that do need to change the same thing. It can be difficult to tell if an edit is a wild edit, and so they cannot be automatically cleaned. LOOT can still notify users of wild edits and link to information on fixing them if the CRCs of plugins with wild edits are reported, along with details on what needs cleaning.

LOOT and the modding communities rely on user contribution of this information to progress. For information on how to contribute, see Contributing To LOOT. If you find that a mod contains dirty edits, you should also report this to the mod's author so that they can fix it.

Note: TES4Edit et al. will include a variety of junk records in the ITM count for a plugin, such as new empty cells that are automatically generated and are almost impossible to remove. These junk records are non-harmful, and LOOT may inform users when a mod contains these and no true ITMs to avoid confusion.

### File Permissions

If you are running Windows Vista or a later version of Windows, LOOT (and other modding programs) may be prevented from working correctly by the UAC security feature. There are four common workarounds to this problem:

1. Install the game outside the Program Files (or Program Files (x86) if on 64-bit Windows). UAC prevents unauthorised edits to these folders, so by installing the game outside of them, you remove it from UAC's reach, allowing you to use mods more easily.
2. Deactivate UAC. This can be done from the Control Panel, and will turn UAC off across the whole of your computer. It is up to you whether you feel that you have adequate security measures in place to do this without risk.
3. Give yourself Full Control permissions over your game install folder. This will allow you to make any edits you desire while keeping UAC active and on guard for any edits made by programs you do not run, and also means that you do not need to reinstall your game to a new location.
4. Run LOOT as an Administrator. Right-click the LOOT executable, or the shortcut if launching from a shortcut, and select Run as administrator.

For those that wish to take the third option and give themselves Full Control permissions, here is a guide:

1. Right-click the folder you wish to change the permissions for, and select Properties.
2. In Properties, select the Security tab, and click the Edit... button. A UAC prompt may appear, simply allow yourself to continue.
3. In the Group or user names box, select the Users option.
4. In the lower box, check the box opposite Full Control in the Allow column. Press OK to exit. If a UAC prompt appears, allow the change.
5. In the Properties window, select OK to exit. You should now have Full Control permissions over your chosen folder.

## Version History

Only program history is recorded here. The masterlists are updated far too frequently for their changes to be concisely recorded here, but a full history of changes to them may be viewed by browsing the GitHub repositories.

### 0.7.0 - X Y 2014

#### Fixes

- Default registry key for Nehrim was wrong.
- Messages were displayed in the wrong language.
- Cyclic interaction errors listed plugins not involved in the cycle.
- Bash Tags suggestions were not displayed correctly.
- API crashed when writing a minimal list to a location that doesn't exist.
- Inactive incompatibilities no longer cause error messages. Instead, they are displayed as warnings.
- Masterlist update failed when a fast-forward merge was not possible (eg. when remote has been rebased, or a different repository is used). Such cases are now handled by deleting the local repository and re-cloning the remote.
- The `settings.yaml` included with the installer was very old.
- LOOT forgot plugin CRCs and active status if the settings dialog was opened and exited using the OK button, leading to conditional messages being wrongly displayed or hidden.

#### Additions

- German translation.
- Support for the full range of GitHub Flavored Markdown in masterlist messages.
- If LOOT can't detect any installed games, it now launches to the settings dialog, where the game settings can be edited to allow a game to be detected.
- Copy Content As Text menu item to copy the plugin list and all information it contains to the clipboard as YAML-formatted text.
- LOOT now re-scans plugin headers and updates the plugin list when its window regains focus.
- LOOT is now built as with the Large Address Aware flag.
- Masterlist update can now be performed without then sorting.

#### Changes

- New single-window HTML5-based user interface, replacing wxWidgets with the Chromium Embedded Framework.
  - LOOT now opens into a combination of the old main and report windows. The masterlist and plugin headers are parsed on startup, and the resulting content displayed with the plugins in their current load order.
  - A sidebar containing a list of plugin sections, the filters and a search box has been added.
  - Icons have been added to show if plugins are active, contain no records, load BSAs and/or have user metadata. The latter three are displayed on each plugin's card and in the sidebar, while the first is only displayed on each plugin's card.
  - A menu has been added to the top-right of each plugin's card, through which plugin-specific functionality can be accessed.
  - Metadata editing controls are now accessed through each plugin's menu. Each plugin now has its own editor, displayed on the reverse of its card. Multiple editors can be opened at once. Any operations performed through the menu bar (eg. sorting, game changing) are disabled while there is an editor open.
  - Plugin priorities can be viewed by hovering over their names in the sidebar while an editor is open.
  - Drag 'n' drop of plugins from the sidebar into metadata editor tables no longer requires the conflicts filter to be enabled.
  - CRCs are calculated and records are counted during conflict filtering or sorting, so CRCs and dummy plugin icons are not displayed until either process has been performed.
  - The Remove All User-Added Metadata menu item has been renamed to Clear All User Metadata and moved into the File menu.
  - The Remove Plugin User-Added Metadata menu item has been renamed to Clear User Metadata and moved into the plugin menu.
  - The Show only conflicting plugins filter has been renamed to Show Only Conflicts and moved into the plugin menu.
- The View Debug Log menu item has been replaced with a Open Debug Log Location menu item to make it easier to upload the file itself.
- Changes to game settings now take immediate effect.
- Masterlist updating now exits earlier if the masterlist is already up-to-date.
- Masterlist revisions are now displayed using the shortest unique substring that is at least 7 characters long.
- Making edits to plugin metadata before applying a calculated load order no longer causes LOOT to recalculate the load order. Instead, the displayed load order is applied, and the metadata edits will be applied the next time sorting is performed.

#### Removals

- Messages with multiple language strings can no longer be created through the user interface. User-added multiple-language messages will be converted to single-language strings if their plugin's editor is opened then closed using the OK button.
- The Copy Name menu item has been removed, as plugin names can now be selected and copied using `Ctrl-C`.
- As LOOT no longer generates reports, it doesn't save them either.

### 0.6.0 - 05 July 2014

#### Fixes

- The uninstaller not removing the Git repositories used to update the masterlists.
- Miscellaneous crashes due to uncaught exceptions.
- Plugin priorities are now temporarily "inherited" during sorting so that a plugin with a low priority that is made via metadata to load after a plugin with a high priority doesn't cause other plugins with lower priorities to be positioned incorrectly.
- The default language is now correctly set to English.
- Defaults for the online masterlist repository used for Nehrim.
- Endless sorting loop that occurred if some user metadata was disabled.

#### Additions

- Display of masterlist revision date in reports.
- Report filter for inactive plugin messages.
- The number of dirty plugins, active plugins and plugins in total to the report summary.
- A find dialog to the report viewer, initiated using the `Ctrl-F` keyboard shortcut.
- LOOT's windows now remember their last position and size.
- Command line parameter for selecting the game LOOT should run for.
- Finnish translation.

#### Removals

- Support for Windows XP.
- Support for loading BOSS masterlists using the API. This was a leftover from when LOOT was BOSSv3 and backwards compatibility was an issue.
- The ability to open reports in an external browser. This was necessitated by the changes to report generation.
- The MSVC 2013 redistributable requirement.
- The "None Specified" language option is no longer available: English is the new default.

#### Changes

- Unified and improved the metadata editors launched during and outside of sorting.
  - The metadata editor now resizes more appropriately.
  - The mid-sorting instance hides the requirement, incompatibility, Bash Tags, dirty info and message lists.
  - Both instances now have a conflict filter, priority display in their plugin list and drag 'n' drop from the plugin list into whatever metadata lists are visible.
  - The mid-sorting instance also hides the load after entry edit button, and the button to add new entries (so drag 'n' drop is the only available method of adding entries).
  - The metadata editor now displays plugins with user edits using a tick beside their name, rather than bolding their name text.
  - Plugins that have been edited in the current instance have their list entry text bolded.
  - Checkboxes have been added to set whether or not a priority value is "global". The UI also now displays the priority value used in comparisons (ie. with the millions and higher digits omitted).
  - A right-click menu command for clearing all user-added metadata for all plugins has been added to the metadata editor.
- Missing master/requirement and incompatibility errors are downgraded to warnings if the plugin in question is inactive.
- Masterlist update errors have been made more user-friendly.
- If an error is encountered during masterlist update, LOOT will now silently delete the repository folder and attempt the update again. If it fails again, it will then report an error.
- Masterlist update now handles repository interaction a lot more like Git itself does, so should be less error-prone.
- Cyclic dependency error messages now detail the full cycle.
- LOOT's report now uses a static HTML file and generates a javascript file that is dynamically loaded to contain the report data. This removes the PugiXML build dependency.
- Debug log message priorities adjusted so that medium verbosity includes more useful data.
- Updated dependencies: libgit2 (v0.21.0), wxWidgets (v3.0.1), libloadorder (latest), libespm (latest).

### 0.5.0 - 31 March 2014

- Initial release.