BUGLE: Butt-Ugly Game Launcher for Exiles
BUGLE is an unofficial, third-party game launcher for Funcom’s videogame Conan Exiles. It aims to bring certain QOL features to players, at the expense of good looks and smooth user interface. It’s ugly as sin, it’s poorly tested, and it’s my hobby project that I came up with for fun and relaxation, so don’t expect miracles from it.
ALPHA VERSION WARNING: This is the 1.0.0-alpha version of BUGLE. What that means is that this is the first time anyone apart from me will try running this thing on their computer. While I’m reasonably sure that it won’t make your computer catch fire or delete any of your files, expect it to not actually do its job properly. It might crash, or it might mess up your modlist or your game settings. It shouldn’t, but it might.
For a list of known issues, scroll to the last section of this document. If you run into an issue that isn’t there, feel free to open a GitHub issue about it, or post about it here.
Installation
Go to the v1.0.0-alpha release on GitHub and download the bugle-1.0.0-alpha.zip file. Unpack it into a directory where you’re allowed to write files. It’s a good idea to put it in its own directory, because it will write a couple of files there (bugle.ini and bugle.log).
There’s no installer, you just run bugle.exe.
Source Code
If you know about programming and want to check for shenanigans before running some random stranger’s executable, or if you’re curious about what makes BUGLE tick, you can go to the GitHub repository and look at the source code. If you do decide to look at the source, bear in mind that this is the most relaxed kind of a hobby project, so don’t expect stuff that I would normally do at work (e.g. well-commented code, automated tests, etc.)
In fact, you can build BUGLE on your computer, if you have Rust installed. If you do, I recommend building it with the fltk-bundled feature. Otherwise, you’ll have to install some prerequisites that FLTK needs, and I’m not gonna go into that in this forum post.
Features
In no particular order, the following are the features BUGLE brings to players who decide to try it:
- Efficiency. It’s quicker to start and takes up less memory than Funcom launcher.
- Server browser. Instead of starting the game, selecting online play, waiting for the server list to load up, and selecting the server you want to play, you can do it straight from the launcher itself.
- Persistent server filter. You don’t have to reconfigure the filter every time you open the server browser. If you filtered the server list to look at only PVE-C server in Oceania region, the next time you open BUGLE, the filter will be in effect. The only filters BUGLE does not persist are server name and map name.
- Ping an individual server. If your ping seems to be too high or you want to see whether the number of connected players changed, you can ping the selected server again and get updated results, without having to restart the whole server browser.
- Single-player game list. For each map you have installed, you can see when was the last time you played it in single-player, the name of your character and clan, and what level your character is.
- Back up and restore single-player games. You can create backups for your single-player games, and restore them whenever you want.
- Mod list management. You can not only activate and deactivate mods, and change their order, but you can also save a mod list and open it again later. This should make it easier to switch between the mods you use in your single-player game and those on your favorite server; or you can use this to switch easily between mod lists for different servers.
- Single-player mod mismatch detection. The launcher will do its best to detect whether there are any mods missing in your list when you decide to continue your single-player game. It cannot detect if mods are in the correct order, but at least it can warn you about missing mods. It also warns you when you have mods in your list that you haven’t previously used with your single-player game.
- Flexible BattlEye usage. Just like with Funcom launcher, you can configure BUGLE to enable or disable BattlEye. However, you can also tell BUGLE to use it “only when required”. In this mode, BattlEye will be enabled only if you join a server that requires it. NOTE: For the moment, BUGLE does not do this properly when you click on the “Continue” button on the main launcher page, and will launch with BattlEye disabled.
Roadmap
There’s a lot more that can be added to BUGLE, and some if it is already in my plans. Bear in mind, though, that this is my hobby, so don’t expect me to add stuff quickly and tirelessly.
Here are some things that I’m planning to (try to) add to BUGLE:
- Co-op. Right now, the co-op button in the launcher informs you that this feature is “not yet implemented”. The truth is that I’ve never even played Conan Exiles in co-op mode, ever, and I don’t really have anyone to try it with. I intend to implement this, but first I’ll need some help from a volunteer.
- Waiting for the game splash screen. Right now, when BUGLE launches the game, it considers its work done and disappears from your screen. If your computer is slow enough, this will make you think that something went wrong and BUGLE didn’t do its job. One of my items on my to-do list is figuring out how Funcom launcher knows when the game has deigned to let you know it’s starting up. As a bonus feature, BUGLE would also let you change your mind while you’re waiting. For example, if you launch the game and then, a couple of seconds later, you suddenly remember you wanted to try a new mod, you wouldn’t have to wait for the game to start, the intro to finish, and the press exit. Instead, you would be able to cancel the launch and let BUGLE take the Conan Exiles process behind the shed.
- Server list prefetching. Right now, BUGLE only fetches the server list when you open its server browser. I can make it fetch the server list as soon as you open it, so the delay between opening the server browser and seeing your favorite servers would be shorter. Not only that, but it would also allow BUGLE to detect whether it should enable BattlEye when you click on “Continue” if you’re using BattlEye “only when required”.
- Support for other platforms. Right now, I’m building BUGLE only for Windows, and it works only with Steam. Ideally, I would like it to support Conan Exiles when installed from a different game store, and I would also like to offer support for Linux. However, I’ll need help from volunteers to make that happen.
- Online mod mismatch detection. I would love to make BUGLE detect whether your mod list matches the server you’re trying to join. Unfortunately, the information about a server’s mod list is part of the protocol the game uses to let you play. There is no information on this protocol. Unlike the one used by the server browser, this one will be a much tougher nut to crack, and I’m honestly not sure whether I’ll have the time, patience, or skill to do it.
Known Issues
- Does not check if you’re logged into Steam. BUGLE will happily run if you haven’t started Steam or logged into it. In fact, it will happily launch Conan Exiles and let you discover the hard way that Steam isn’t running. I’ll fix that eventually.
- BattlEye usage on “Continue”. If you’ve configured BUGLE to enable BattlEye “only when required” and you press the “Continue” button on the main launcher screen, it will launch the game with BattlEye disabled, even if you’re connecting to a server that requires BattlEye. See the roadmap above to find out what I intend to do about this.
- Doesn’t wait for splash screen. As soon as BUGLE launches Conan Exiles, it goes away and lets you stare at the screen, waiting for the game to start. If your computer is slow, that wait might be long, and you might think BUGLE malfunctioned. See the roadmap above to find out what I intend to do about this.