Paragon Chat 1.0
Issue 1: Commencement
It's been a long time coming, but Paragon Chat has left beta and reached 1.0. Does that mean it's done? Far from it, we're just getting started!
First and foremost, a big thank you and round of applause for everyone who volunteered to help test the development series leading up to 1.0. Because of their efforts, many of the possible issues with upgrading from 0.99 have already been found and fixed.
So what's new in this version? There are two answers. One is not very much -- featurewise, there is about as much difference between 0.99 and 1.0 as you might expect from the version numbers. The other answer is that a tremendous number of things have changed behind the scenes in the inner workings of Paragon Chat. Things which will make development of new features easier and faster!
Mostly, 1.0 is all about polish and user experience. It's designed to be easier to install, easier to use, faster to load, and generally just work better overall.
UpgradingSeveral important things have changed. The first time you run Paragon Chat a quick wizard helps you set it up, and if necessary upgrade from older versions. Thanks to feedback from testers this should be quick and painless, but if you do encounter issues, let us know and someone will try to help. There are two key things to keep in mind.
- Paragon Chat lives in your user profile. This won't mean much to non-technical users, but the takeaway is that Paragon Chat installs to your user account, not the computer. That means it never needs to be run as an administrator and avoids User Account Control headaches on Windows Vista/7/8/10.
The main window has a button to take you to the Paragon Chat data folder. If you ever need to access its files for whatever reason, that button will take you to the right place.
- Paragon Chat needs Issue 24 installed, but treats it as read-only and never modifies it in any way. I24 doesn't even really need to be "installed", Paragon Chat just needs to be able to read the files from it, so a simple copy of the folder will do. Anything you create while using Paragon Chat goes into the data directory mentioned in #1. Screenshots, costumes, chatlogs, all of it.
That also means that starting with 1.0, any client mods you want to use need to be installed specifically for Paragon Chat rather than in the I24 folder.
InstallingIf you already have an older version of Paragon Chat, simply run it and let the auto-updater do its thing. You just need to have the update setting on anything other than "Never check".
If you're starting fresh or for some reason the auto-update isn't working, download the installer here:
DownloadUnlike previous versions, you don't need to save this file anywhere special. Just run it and it will download and install the latest version of Paragon Chat (no more ending up with old obsolete versions). You can delete the bootstrap file when it's done.