Chummer5a – Build 226

Build 226 centres on stability (fewer crashes, clearer errors for custom data and improvements), performance (a major refactor of the async system - see below), saves and autosave (new compression modes, uncompressed autosaves, timeouts), and character creation (contacts, nuyen carryover, validation for unused points, initiation/submersion grades, martial arts and technique limits). Magic and adepts see mentor spirit and Aspected Magician behaviour fixes, Barehanded Adept drain, Adept Way discounts, Qi foci, and new improvement types for spirits and sprites. Gear, weapons, and cyberware get broad fixes (ammo vs weapon rating, mounts and mods, capacity, availability, custom armour) plus new improvement types for weapon categories and cyberlimbs; vehicles and drones get armour mod, stolen-vehicle, and Drone Arm/DogBrain fixes. Lifestyles (cities/districts, qualities, cost order) and UI/tools (Report a Bug, Data Exporter, XML Amendment Editor, cost/essence filters) are expanded. A large data and errata pass updates Krime weapons, traditions, infected powers, Missions/No Future content, German and Shadows in Focus material, and many individual items; life modules and SINs use the new qualitylevel improvement to support providing the 'best' version of SIN for the character.

Note: Custom PACKS Kits must be placed in the "packs" directory (not "data") to load.

Performance: Async system refactor

A large amount of work in this build went into fixing and completing the async system originally implemented by delnar_ersike. The async refactor enables the application to handle long-running operations (loading characters, recalculating improvements, I/O) without freezing the UI, and underpins the performance improvements you’ll see across the build. Implementing it properly meant tracking down and fixing a lot of follow-on issues - the kind of whack-a-mole that can burn anyone out. We’re grateful for the vision and the foundational work; this build wouldn’t have the responsiveness it does without it.

Application Stability & Error Handling

• The program no longer crashes when attempting to open characters from outside the program (e.g. double-clicking a Chummer save file).
• Chummer no longer occasionally crashes when restarting the program through the updater.
• Attempting to add an incorrectly formatted image to a character no longer causes a crash.
• If an issue is encountered while accessing the watch folder when loading the character roster, Chummer now aborts the process cleanly and marks the watch folder with the error instead of crashing.
• If Chummer encounters an error while loading a custom data file, it now shows the exception instead of silently swallowing it.
• If Chummer encounters errors while loading improvements, it attempts to locate the source(s) of those improvements and display them in the prompt asking about re-applying improvements.
• Fixed crashes caused by customdata amendments to priority tables that left a metatype with no valid Talent choice.
• Fixed a crash caused by creating a vehicle with a built-in cyberware subsystem attached to a vehicle mod that adds a weapon.

File Handling, Saves & Autosave

• Custom PACKS Kits must be placed in the "packs" directory (not "data") to load correctly.
• The program now prompts to save or discard global settings when only the default character sheet and/or sheet language were changed.
• Added new compression modes for saved characters:
  • Fastest – minimal compression with negligible memory usage.
  • Ultra – near-maximum compression with slower speeds and ~1 GB memory footprint.
• Autosaves are now stored uncompressed for faster operation.
• Autosaves now automatically time out after one minute.
• After three autosave timeouts, Chummer stops attempting autosaves.
• Autosaves now trigger for character changes that do not update the UI (for example editing cosmetic descriptions).
• Characters that require automatic corrections when loading are now immediately autosaved after loading.
• Improved duplicate file detection when loading characters.

Character Creation & Validation

• Characters can now have contacts with connection + loyalty greater than 7 during character creation if modifiers reduce their karma cost to 7 or less.
• Added a character setting to configure maximum nuyen carryover from Create mode to Career mode.
• Character validator now warns about unused:
  • contact points
  • spell points
  • complex form points
• Fixed karma discount for increasing the lowest skill in a skill group applying multiple times during character creation.
• Fixed behaviour when changing character creation priorities without a metavariant selected.
• Changing Talent priority without altering Special priority now properly updates granted bonuses.
• Added house rule settings to configure maximum martial arts and techniques allowed during character creation.
• The character option to apply wound modifiers from encumbrance now appears correctly in character settings.
• Fixed and clarified the display of spell points used for mastery qualities at character creation.
• Initiation and submersion grades now increase correctly after the first grade.

Skills & Improvements

• Multiple conditional bonuses to the same skill now apply only the highest bonus to the modified rating.
• Skill groups now appear immediately when their associated skills unlock.
• Exotic skills can now be selected for activesofts, hardwires, and other skill-granting items even if the character has not learned them.
• Deletable Exotic skills can now be properly deleted.

Improvement System

• Implemented skillenablemovement improvement to enable skills gated by movement types.
• Added improvement types to remove defaulting penalties:
  • removeskillcategorydefaultpenalty
  • removeskillgroupdefaultpenalty
  • removeskilldefaultpenalty
• Skill, knowledge skill, and skill group improvement types now support selectskill.
• When selecting cyberware or bioware forced to a specific grade, availability and cost no longer use the previously selected grade.
• Swim speed calculation now uses cyberlimb attributes where appropriate.
• Fixed custom category spells not appearing as tree nodes.
• Various inconsistencies with custom labels for item ratings have been fixed.
• Refactored selectquality and addqualities improvements; selectquality now supports Rating (#5030).
• The skillgroupdisablechoice bonus node now allows selecting any of the character's skill groups when empty.
• Implemented qualitylevel improvement for Life Modules and "highest level of SIN" behaviour; characters with life-module SINs may need to re-apply improvements.
• Fixed MysAdeptAllowPpCareer, MysAdeptSecondMAGAttribute, and PrioritySpellsAsAdeptPowers not saving correctly when disabled.
• XPath mode for advanced quality filtering with precanned queries (Add Quality Bonus, Karma Range, Run Faster source, Spell Points, Metagenic Only, Positive/Negative).

Magic, Adepts & Technomancers

• Fixed Metamagics/Echos not correctly displaying why they cannot be taken.
• Fixed source entries for Metamagics/Echos not appearing in the Initiation/Submersion window.
• Adept mentor spirits that grant selectable powers now correctly allow increasing the rating of already-known powers.
• Adept Way discounts now correctly consider only Magic rating (not Power Point metamagics).
• Barehanded Adept now correctly doubles all spell drain instead of only the constant component.
• Added a house rule allowing Barehanded Adepts to acquire Limited spells through a fetish.
• Qi foci and other selectable adept power sources no longer automatically grant an extra rating.
• Complex Forms can now override their default skill using the useskill node.
• Implemented improvements for adding spirits and sprites via the custom improvement system.
• Aspected Magician: the program now automatically connects the free skill group to the quality when a talent priority grants both, instead of prompting twice (#5027).
• The selection system (required/forbidden) can now check adept power ratings (e.g. two levels of Keratin Control) via rating, minrating, or maxrating.

Gear, Weapons & Equipment

General

• Weight formatting no longer incorrectly uses Essence formatting.

• Requirement/forbidden checks for special attributes now correctly handle characters who have burned an attribute to 0 but not fully burned out.

• Gear whose device rating depends on rating now displays correctly in the purchase screen.

• Gear plugins and ammunition-based bonuses now correctly apply modifications to weapons.

• Ammunition rating is now correctly used when modifying weapon stats rather than the weapon’s rating.

• Ammunition can modify weapon dice by smartlink state via the smartlinkpool node.

• Selling gear expense entries now show the correct gear type (not always "cyberware").

• After selecting an extended Detection spell, the program no longer incorrectly marks all other spells as extended (#5126).

• The addware bonus node now supports essence holes and anti-holes.

• Gear markups now apply when adding gear as plugins to cyberware, vehicles, and items in vehicles.

• Fixed weaponcategorydv bonus node to use weapon categories (e.g. Unarmed) instead of skill names.

• Weapon and weapon accessory reach and concealability can now use character attributes and/or ratings.

• Mods can be added or removed from weapon mounts after character creation.

• Weight of equipped items (rating/quantity dependent) now updates when rating or quantity changes.

• Custom armor that scales off attributes or rating-dependent values now works correctly.

• Items with ratings added as a child of another object now set their rating correctly (#5054).

• Weapons and ammo that cause fire damage (e.g. Flame Bracers) now process other damage and damage-type modifiers correctly.

• Inconsistencies with Rigger 5.0 drone armor mods and their effects on other stats have been fixed.

• Removed Capacity check for weapon accessories that allow child gear (e.g. Weapon Commlink can take Commlink accessories).

Weapons

• Weapons affected by ammunition that changes range now display the ammunition name in the range listing.
• Weapon accessories can dynamically modify parent weapon accuracy similar to AP modifiers.
• Weapon accessories can now:
  • add additional mounting slots using addmount
  • replace a weapon’s range category using replacerange
• Wireless weapon bonuses can now modify weapon stats using the wirelessweaponbonus node.
• Weapons now export remaining accessory mounts as:
  • availablemounts
  • availablemounts_english

New Weapon Improvement Types

• WeaponCategoryDice
• WeaponCategoryAP
• WeaponCategoryAccuracy
• WeaponCategoryReach
• WeaponSpecificDice
• WeaponSpecificDV
• WeaponSpecificAP
• WeaponSpecificAccuracy
• WeaponSpecificRange

Weapon damage and AP calculations were refactored to use consolidated improvement logic.

Cyberware, Bioware & Augmentations

• Cyberlimb minimum STR and AGI values can now be configured using:
  • <minstrength>
  • <minagility>
• Cyberware consuming and granting capacity now properly allows child capacity usage.
• Cyberware grades with forcegrade can no longer be incorrectly overridden by parent grade changes.
• Essence cost modifiers for Geneware now correctly update dependent calculations.

New Improvement Type: cyberlimbattributebonus

This bonus type is used to add STR or AGI to cyberlimbs. Note that this applies to all cyberlimbs that a character has equipped.

Example:

<cyberlimbattributebonus>
  <name>STR</name>
  <val>2</val>
</cyberlimbattributebonus>

<cyberlimbattributebonus>
  <name>AGI</name>
  <val>{Rating}</val>
</cyberlimbattributebonus>

<cyberlimbattributebonus>
  <name>STR</name>
  <val>({Rating} * 2) + 1</val>
</cyberlimbattributebonus>

• Added support for cyberware inheriting availability from child gear items using the “or Gear” suffix.

Vehicles & Drones

• Fixed Armor (Drone) mod not overriding drone armor correctly.
• Vehicle mods are no longer incorrectly filtered by weapon mod capacity in Career mode.
• Stolen vehicles now remain marked as stolen after saving and reloading.
• Vehicle mods can now validate requirements against character properties.
• Vehicle mods, weapon mounts, and mount options now support expanded attribute referencing.
• The Drone Arm from Rigger 5 can now use its own Agility when performing weapon tests in DogBrain mode.
• Drone Attribute mods no longer cause excessive slot discounts.
• Reflex Recorder and Reflex Recorder Optimization interaction fixed when the Reflex Recorder is a subsystem.
• Weapon mounts can use the weaponfilter XPath property to refine available weapons (e.g. Mini mount: melee with reach 0 only).
• Markup for weapon mounts and vehicle mods is now applied once at purchase (consistent with other items).

Lifestyles

• Lifestyles with cities, districts, and/or boroughs no longer have those fields cleared when the lifestyle is edited.
• Lifestyle qualities whose minimum is not reached by the attached lifestyle now correctly contribute to that lifestyle's lifestyle points.
• Deleting an advanced lifestyle's quality no longer incorrectly prompts to delete a complex form.
• Lifestyle qualities restricted to a specific base lifestyle type now work correctly.
• Costs for shared advanced lifestyles and lifestyles in general now follow the order of operations in HT pp. 139–140.

Other Fixes & Behaviour

• AIs can now buy programs in career mode (#5146).
• Dealer Connection now works for characters saved in a non-English language.
• Vehicles can be renamed in Career mode again.
• Custom data sourcebooks can be associated with PDFs and opened to a specific page when a source entry is clicked.
• The in-game calendar now follows ISO 8601 (weeks of year; months no longer exported).
• Improvements can now adjust the availability of all items or specific items.
• The armor encumbrance setting for armor mods now works correctly; the setting for armors also works when the character has no regular armor equipped.
• Custom books are now exposed in the UI for PDF parameters (requires mapping to a CharacterSettings file).
• Cyrillic text now works correctly when searching (case conversion fixed).

XML & Data Engine Improvements

• XPath 1.0 functions such as ceiling() and floor() are now supported.
• XML node selection logic now checks both uppercase and lowercase GUID formats.
• Attribute expressions now use standardized curly-bracket syntax:
  • {STR}
  • {STRMaximum}
  • {STRMinimum}
• Added <gameplayoption> requirement support.
• Added support for sameparent attribute in requirement and forbidden nodes.
• Removed Math.Max from gear capacity calculations to allow negative rating modifiers.
• Added support for the hide element in skills.xml amendments.

UI / UX Improvements

• Prompts for traditions, actions, and disabled skill groups no longer autofill with random strings.
• Advanced lifestyle editing now updates cost labels correctly when changing base lifestyle.
• Mentor spirit/paragon choices are now consistently displayed beneath description boxes.
• Weapon rating fields in Create mode now use a dial control for easier adjustment.
• Weapon accessory search now indicates incompatible accessories.
• Added a prominent Report a Bug menu item linking directly to GitHub issue creation.

Tools & Advanced Features

Data Exporter

Added a tool that exports all internal program data and enabled custom datasets into a ZIP file.

XML Amendment Editor

Added a tool allowing users to edit and preview XML amendment files directly within the program.

PDF Sourcebook Scanner

• Supports multiple languages
• Prioritizes the UI language
• Supports recursive folder scanning

Settings & Configuration

• Added global option to automatically insert scraped PDF text as notes when adding items.
• Added configurable color for items that contain notes.
• Added filters for equipment selection based on:
  • Maximum nuyen cost
  • Maximum essence cost
• Added an Essence filter to the Select Cyberware form.

Data Changes & Errata

• Krime weapons (AKM-SU97, Ditch, Stopper-II, Soldier, Ripper): corrected categories, mounts, concealability, and ranges per forum errata.
• Vocal Expansion bioware: only at Betaware/Deltaware/Gammaware; adds conditional limit modifiers. Re-apply improvements on existing characters.
• Internal Synthlink: now doubles the cost of the instrument (per core rulebook) instead of adding double the cost.
• Unrestricted Kill Code Qualities customdata: non-technomancers can take the qualities correctly.
• Corps Cadavre: added missing entries (#4975).
• Chaos mentor spirit (German dataset): now correctly prompts for Improved Potential twice (#4977).
• Surprise improvement type added to improvements.xml for custom Improvements (#4962).
• Martial arts: added missing entries from Datapuls SOTA 2080 (#4986).
• Exotic Ranged Weapon: added spidersilk spec (#5000).
• Streetline Special: added Semi-Automatics spec.
• Infected Advanced Powers (Dark Terrors): added Immunity (Cold), Mimicry, Pounce, Psychokinesis, Secretion/Substance Extrusion (Anti-Coagulant), Silence, Tunneling Claws.
• Shadowrun Missions: built-in settings now enable No Future and Krime Katalog per FAQ 1.4.
• Dark Terrors stealth errata for Run Faster infected powers: custom dataset added.
• No Future stealth errata (Cybereyes, Cyberears, Vision/Audio Enhancement): moved to dedicated custom dataset.
• Seeker Shafts (Hard Targets): now plugins for arrows; affect smartgun/smartlink bow dice when parent arrow is "loaded".
• Universal Data Cord, Folding Ladder, Solar Panel, Detonating Cord, Safety Fuse: can be bought with specific dimensions as well as quantities.
• Pet Food: 1 kg now correctly weighs 1 kg.
• Sympathetic Linking metamagic: removed Psychometry requirement.
• Shifter errata: custom dataset added.
• Evo Proletarian: now correctly gets Rigger Interface mod.
• Spirit Hunter rank 2/3: now correctly requires Astral Combat 6/8 for Adepts (#5093).
• Wildcard Chimera, It Works If You Work It, Metaviral Attunement: now correctly require Infected qualities (#5104).
• Spell category: "unknown" changed to "other" on sheets (#5096).
• Psychometry art: removed power/quality requirements; any awakened with the Art (or optional rule) can access it.
• Underbarrel grenade launcher: now correctly restricted to rifle-sized weapons.
• Changeling qualities: marked as not doubling cost in career mode (#5118).
• City Slicker: now gives +1 dice for Survival (Urban) instead of -2.
• Strike the Darkness: can be learned with Alpine Wrestling, German Jujitsu, Esdo, Urban Brawl Parkour, Sternschutz Tactical (#5140).
• Fancy Blocks, Text-Only, Formatted Text-Only sheets: no longer show priority entries for Point Buy or Life Modules characters.
• Incompetent: now sets all skills in the chosen group to Unaware (cannot be learned until bought off). Re-apply improvements on existing characters (#5111).
• W Zone and Bad Neighborhood lifestyle qualities: now correctly modify Area value.
• Parashield Dart Rifle: added missing Imaging Scope.
• Dedicated Spellslinger: removed Aware from discount; added Adept to discount.
• Actioneer Business Clothes: integrated holster now correctly a concealable holster.
• PI-Tac Programs: can be filtered when buying new gear.
• Shadows in Focus: Butte: added Dug a Hole version.
• Delnar Skills Remake (Lite) custom dataset removed (cannot be implemented in Chummer at this time).
• Morgan Cutlass: page reference corrected to p. 464.
• Transys Graygul cyberdeck: added (stats/cost/availability from NPC statblock).
• Critical Strike power: now correctly provides bonus for Unarmed Combat (#5180).
• Capsule Ammo: corrected range.
• Three-Dimensional Memory: now discounted by Artist's Way.
• Attune Animal spell: now uses Animal Handling instead of Ritual Spellcasting.
• Armory asset (advanced lifestyles): now correctly costs 1000 (#5193).
• Monofilament Whips: +2 Accuracy when wirelessly enabled.
• Registered sprite limits: now equal to Charisma in English pre-made settings (fifth printing CRB); German unchanged (Logic-based).
• German books: fixed faulty text matches that could prevent detection.
• State of the Art ADL: corrected weapons, vehicles, Svetoid tradition, Squirrel mentor, commlinks, armors. Remove and re-add affected items on existing characters.
• Datapuls Hamburg, SOTA 2080, Schattenhandbuch 1–3: corrected mistranslations, bad weapon/vehicle entries, missing content. Remove and re-add affected items.
• Datapuls SOX, Der Almanach, German Parabotany/Parageology/Parazoology: added missing content.
• Shadows in Focus: Morocco, Casablanca-Rabat; Schattenload 2, 3, 7: added missing content.
• Datapuls SOX/Österreich: sourcing corrected from Schattenhandbuch 3 to specific books.
• Walther P99: sourcing corrected to Schattenhandbuch 4 (exclusive to collection).
• Armor mods (custom liners): categories renamed to be more generic.
• Foci, formulae, magical supplies/compounds: use "Force" instead of "Rating" where appropriate.
• Guard, Hammer, Lockdown, Mugger, Shell, Sneak, Stealth, Track, Wrapper programs: fixed page reference in gear.xml.
• Spellcasting foci: no longer stack with individualised spellcasting foci of the same type (does not affect existing characters).
• Critter Prices customdata added (u/RunnerPakhet; Chummer implementation by Mesothelioma).
• Traditionalist and Ancestor Shamans (Forbidden Arcana): added basic traditions.
• Krime Stopper II: customdata entry to use Shotguns category instead of Heavy Pistols.
• Cannon Shot gun: fixed incorrect underbarrel (#5212).
• The Complete Trog qualities (Community Connection, Nasty Trog, Trog Artisan, Trog Historian, Trog Leader, Trog Networker, Bad Credit): corrected/added effects. Re-apply improvements on existing characters.
• Micro weapon mount: xpath filter (weaponfilter) for Melee weapons with Reach 0.
• Life modules that grant SINs: refactored to qualitylevel improvement. Re-apply improvements or remove/re-add modules on existing characters.
• Dark Terrors infected: fixed filters for additional optional powers.
• Critical Strike: refactored structure (no impact on existing characters).
• Aztechnology Cuanmiztli A: corrected cyberware names.
• SelectCyberware: grades update correctly when switching between ForceGrade and non-ForceGrade items; safety check when all grades unavailable.

Data Fixes (BM123499)

Numerous XML and data consistency fixes across armor (e.g. Parachute, Pantheon Quick-Charge Battery Pack), critter powers (hyphenation, automotive powers, Fold Perception, Agonizing Pain), critters (Ozian Baboon, Wyrd Mantis removed, initiative/magic/resonance/depth, power/quality name corrections, reclassification), cyberware (capacity/cost, duplicate tags), gears (SR5 avail, Proteus Krake), life modules (college/technical school → quality), mentors (empty choice), metatypes (karma/mag cleanup), powers (Enthralling Performance), priorities (Goblin metavariant removed), skills (whitespace), traditions (minus signs, bon→bod), vehicles (Rigger Adaptation→Rigger Interface, Flash-Pak, Amenities), and weapons (underbarrel mounts, Trigger Removal, Ontario Arms Sling-Shot, Krime Explosive Securing Tripod).

Acknowledgements

Art. To celebrate the new milestone, we commissioned a piece from Risz Perdhana.

Community. Thank you to everyone who helps make Chummer better: reporting bugs, testing builds, writing and sharing custom data, answering questions on the Discord and forums, and contributing fixes and ideas. This build is stronger because of you.