SideHustle changelog

All notable changes to Side Hustle are documented here. This project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

[2.4.0] - 2026-08-08

Added

Your mods can wait for a lobby instead of loading at startup, so joining somebody’s session stops meaning quit first. Switch it on with DeferModsUntilLobby.
- AlwaysLoadMods names what has to be there before a lobby exists: a bridge, an overlay, a profiler.
Joining a synced lobby skips the restart. The host’s mods load out of the package cache while you stay on the screen you were on.
- A mod already running at a different version than the session wants still costs one. The log names the mod and both versions.
The gamemode list shows installed gamemodes that have not loaded yet, with the name, version and author their own file declares. One click loads and starts it.

Changed

The Lobby app’s icon on your phone is white instead of teal.

[2.3.1] - 2026-08-08

Added

The Lobby app offers “Publish again” when your mod list is not on the lobby. Nobody can join until it is.

Fixed

Other players can join your session again. A large synced mod list left no room on the lobby for the checksum joiners check it against, so every sync failed.
The mod requirement switches back on after you switch it off. It re-publishes the list instead of refusing with “nothing to check”.
Holding the seats stepper stops lagging. The number moves at once and Steam hears about it once, 0.4s after your last click.
A rename Steam refuses keeps what you typed and says so. The field used to come back empty.
The Publish row says your session is already listed instead of offering a button that answers “could not”.

[2.3.0] - 2026-08-08

Added

The main menu shows a column on the right: sessions listed, how many take players, the mod profile you booted into, and whether anyone messaged you. Switch it off with MenuStatePanel.
A Lobby app on your phone changes what used to need a new session: name, join password, public or friends only, seats, mod requirement, publishing. Host only, and it applies to the next person who joins.
Lobby cards get a Chat button next to Join, and the join screens carry that conversation down the right, so a mod you cannot download becomes a question instead of a dead end.
- It only shows for hosts who take messages. Switch yours off with AcceptStrangerMessages, mute one person from the app, or hide the column with JoinChatPanel.
Lobby cards say which branch the host plays on, IL2CPP in green or Mono in red. The two cannot play together, and nothing on the card used to tell you before you tried.
The Rejoining screen gets a Cancel button after eight seconds. It leaves the host’s lobby so you stop holding a seat, and your synced mods stay set up.

Fixed

Joining a lobby published from the pause menu works. It was never marked ready for players, so you installed the host’s mods, restarted, and landed on your own main menu.
A join that cannot work stops early: lobbies taking no players are marked in the browser, and a join that never starts gives up after 15 seconds with the reason on screen.
The manual install list says in one short line why a mod cannot be downloaded. A mod the host built themselves looked exactly like one still on its way.
Backing out of a lobby you were checking leaves it behind. Its mod list kept loading and threw that lobby’s sync screen over whatever you picked next, seconds later.
The Publish button stays out of gamemode rounds. Pressing it while hosting one rewrote the round’s own lobby details, and unpublishing then made the lobby impossible to join.

[2.2.9] - 2026-08-07

Fixed

The log stays readable. Opening the gamemode list wrote the same “hid 10 save-slot controls” line thirty times in a third of a second, and the lobby poll repeated “advertised lobbies: 0 found” every few seconds. Both now write one line when something actually changes.

[2.2.8] - 2026-08-07

Fixed

Removing a mod from a profile now takes its libraries with it. Taking Hash out removed Sideload too, correctly, and then put Sideload’s Jint, AngleSharp and Esprima back from your global UserLibs folder - the mod was gone and its libraries stayed. A library follows the package that brought it, and anything that came from outside a package is still left alone.

[2.2.7] - 2026-08-07

Fixed

Joining after the mod-sync restart works even when your MelonPreferences.cfg has a broken line in it. One bad line anywhere in that file, from any mod, made the game forget which lobby it was going back to - so it restarted and left you in the menu. The lobby is now remembered next to the profile instead, and the log says when your config could not be read.

[2.2.6] - 2026-08-06

Changed

The preset picker in a host form says where its values come from. On your saved settings it reads “your last settings are loaded”, on a named preset “fills in every setting below”. It used to ask “new host? pick one, then Start”, which explained neither the arrows next to it nor that moving off a preset rewrites every row underneath.

Fixed

A setting whose description runs past two lines shows its name again. In PropHunt’s host form the play-area radius, the auto-start toggle and the sewer goblin toggle appeared as a description with no title, because the row was pinned to one height and the wrapped text pushed the name out of it.

[2.2.5] - 2026-08-06

Added

The wait while mods download now shows what it is doing: every mod the host runs is listed, and the bar moves one step per mod that finished and passed its hash check.
A notice tells you the game is about to restart, on both routes - joining a gamemode you do not own, and matching a host’s mods. The finished mod list stays readable behind it.
After the restart the screen says it is rejoining and shows how long it has been looking for the lobby, instead of an idle main menu while nothing appears to happen.
A mod that could not be fetched is named on screen with the reason, so you can tell whether to try again or install it by hand.

Fixed

The bar no longer sits at zero when every mod is already in the cache, and the game no longer closes itself with nothing on screen.
Matching a host’s mods restarted with no message at all. Only the gamemode route ever showed one, which is why the notice looked like it appeared at random.

[2.2.4] - 2026-08-06

Added

Joining a session checks your mods against the host’s first. If the sets differ you get the list and the choice: match the host and restart, or join as you are. Before, you joined with everything you had loaded, and a mod the host never allowed could break the round for everybody.

Changed

Public lobbies keep working on the Schedule I 0.4.6f12 beta. That update moves the “must be friends with the host” rule into the connection handshake, so the old bypass no longer reaches it; Side Hustle now asks the game for the open mode it already has instead. Nothing changes on 0.4.6f11.

Fixed

A session that ends badly tells you why at the main menu instead of dropping you there in silence. The message survives the restart that some of those failures need.
Being sent back to the menu also leaves the lobby. You could end up in the menu while Steam still had you seated in a session you were no longer in.
The Export and Import buttons are gone from the gamemode and session lists. They belong to the game’s save slots, which those lists are built from.
Hosting a gamemode that needs a restart says so on screen while it happens, instead of the game appearing to close itself.
The lobby browser stops showing games nobody can join. A lobby published with the in-game Publish button stayed on the website for as long as the game was open, frozen at one player, because leaving to the menu never withdrew it.
Quitting the game takes your lobby off the site right away instead of leaving it there for another minute and a half.
A lobby that vanished from the site while you were still hosting it comes back on its own. Restarting the backend used to drop every listing, and only re-hosting put yours back.

[2.2.3] - 2026-08-03

Fixed

Lobbies with more than five players work. The extra seats were always there to take, but the fifth client and everyone after them just never arrived, stuck on “Loading world…” with nothing happening.
A join that fails now drops you back at the main menu. Previously the loading screen stayed up with no way out and you had to kill the game.
The lobby seat comes free again when a join is abandoned, instead of staying blocked by someone who never got in.
Slower machines get the time they need. The cut-off used to be a flat 95 seconds, which killed loads that were healthy and merely slow - the reason weaker PCs hit this so much more often.

[2.2.2] - 2026-08-01

Fixed

Clicking a save in the main menu loads it again. Since Schedule I 0.4.6f11 it did nothing at all: no load, no prompt, no error. The “Host this save publicly?” prompt had cancelled the load and was then drawn behind the menu, so there was nothing left to click.
If that prompt ever fails to appear again, the save just loads. It no longer leaves you on a menu that ignores you.

[2.2.1] - 2026-08-01

Fixed

The log no longer fills with “Steamworks is not initialized” while you sit in the menu without Steam. The browser checks first and says once that it stays empty until Steam is up. 0.4.6f11 made playing without Steam a normal state, and the browser was still asking it for lobbies every 15 seconds.

[2.2.0] - 2026-08-01

Fixed

Side Hustle works on Schedule I 0.4.6f11. That update renamed the main menu screen and replaced the game’s Steam lobby layer, so 2.1.3 has no menu entry there and no working multiplayer.
Your hosted lobby shows up in the server browser again, with the mod list joiners check theirs against. The lobby’s Steam id moved in 0.4.6; the old spot still exists and always answers zero, and the browser entry, the website listing and the mod sync all key off that id.
Players who are not on your Steam friends list can join your public lobby again. Vanilla drops them with “Not friends with host” a few seconds after they connect; Side Hustle switches that off while it hosts, and the switch moved in 0.4.6.
A new lobby opens with every seat a cap mod gives it, FullHouse or BiggerLobbies, instead of the vanilla four.
The invite button is back for everyone in the lobby, not the host alone, and the display name you set for a session reaches the other players again.

Changed

Side Hustle needs S1API 3.1.1. 3.0.5 predates the game update; a mod manager pulls the new one in for you.

[2.1.3] - 2026-07-28

Fixed

Joining a lobby whose mod list was too big for Steam said “Sync unavailable” and could never do anything else. A host in that position clears the chunk count so joiners fall back to the backend copy - but it also cleared the hash, and the hash is the only thing a joiner can verify that copy against, so the copy was refused. The fallback was dead in exactly the case it exists for. The hash is sixteen characters and fits when the manifest does not, so it is published either way now. Hosts need this version; joiners see the difference as soon as the host has it.
Mod names written in CamelCase are split before searching Nexus. “BigPimpin” found nothing there while “Big Pimpin” finds the mod, and a spaced query already matches a run-together title, so this only ever helps. Acronyms stay whole: “SIAKImperium” becomes “SIAK Imperium”. The website’s lobby pages do the same.

[2.1.2] - 2026-07-28

Changed

The Thunderstore build now downloads nothing at all. 2.1.1 stopped it fetching from GitHub and was rejected again, so this build also stops it downloading packages from Thunderstore itself. What that costs on Thunderstore, and only there: mod sync never installs anything on its own, every mod lands on the checklist with a direct link, and the “Add from Thunderstore” browser is gone from Mod Profiles - a browser that lists the whole community index and then cannot install is worse than no button, so the profile screen says to use a mod manager instead. Profiles built from mods you already have work unchanged.
The package index and mod icons are still fetched. They are a JSON catalogue and PNGs, not executable code.
The builds on GitHub and Nexus are unaffected and keep every download.

[2.1.1] - 2026-07-27

Changed

The Thunderstore build no longer downloads mods from GitHub releases. Thunderstore does not allow a package to fetch executable code from outside Thunderstore, which is a fair rule and one this mod’s sync was breaking, so the build published there is compiled without that fetch: no endpoint, no release reader, no archive scanner in the DLL at all. Mods hosted on GitHub take the same route Nexus mods already take - a checklist with a direct link, you download it, Side Hustle picks it up from your Downloads folder and verifies the hash. Thunderstore’s own packages still download automatically.
Nothing changes for the builds on GitHub and Nexus; those keep the automatic GitHub download.

[2.1.0] - 2026-07-27

Changed

The messenger left home. Side Hustle carried its own phone app for lobby chat; that app is now WhatsDab - a mod of its own, and a requirement of this one, so a mod manager installs it for you and nothing about the feature disappears. It got better on the way out: both phone orientations, a typing indicator, right-click to step back the way the vanilla apps do, and an interface written as three web files instead of 780 lines of panel code. Side Hustle is a gamemode hub again, and the chat is maintained where it belongs.

Removed

1270 lines of chat code (transport, store, contacts, two screens and a notifier) and the embedded app icon. Nothing else in Side Hustle used them.

[2.0.1] - 2026-07-26

Fixed

Downloads that land in their own folder are picked up now. If your browser saves a mod to Downloads\SomeMod\SomeMod.dll, the checklist finds it there too, not just directly in Downloads.
A mod that could not be downloaded now says why. A checklist row that appears after the consent screen promised an automatic install tells you what happened: Thunderstore refused the file, or the host runs a different build than the one on Thunderstore (same version number, different file - ask them for theirs).
A hiccup on Thunderstore’s side no longer sends a mod to the checklist. A 5xx answer is retried once before giving up, which is what a “502” during a join used to cost you.

[2.0.0] - 2026-07-26

Play modded multiplayer with anyone - mods sync themselves, join a gamemode you don’t even have installed, and chat in-game.

Added

Join a gamemode you don’t have installed. A public gamemode lobby now advertises the exact mod files a joiner needs (the gamemode’s own mod, whatever its policy requires, with version and hash). In the Side Hustle menu such a lobby is no longer a dead “not installed” entry: pick “Join (installs the mods)”, confirm, and Side Hustle fetches them from Thunderstore - anything it can’t fetch gets the same checklist with a direct Nexus link - installs them into a session profile, restarts and drops you into that lobby. Your own mods stay exactly where they are.
Mod Profiles - an in-game mod manager. A new “Mod Profiles” entry on the main menu lets you keep separate, isolated sets of mods and switch between them (the game restarts into the one you pick). Build a profile from your installed mods, or browse and install straight from Thunderstore - dependencies included. Your real Mods folder is never touched, so external managers like r2modman keep working exactly as before. Side Hustle picks which profile to load at startup (a short prompt you can skip); pick “Full mod set” any time to go back to everything.
Vanilla Co-op with mod sync. Host your own normal savegame as a public lobby (from the menu, or when you click Continue), and anyone can find it and join. When they do, Side Hustle compares their mods to yours and, if they differ, offers to set up a matching profile automatically - download from Thunderstore, restart, and drop straight back into your game. Mods that can’t be fetched automatically get a simple checklist with a download link and an “open folder” button. You choose per-session whether to require synced mods.
Sync your mod settings too (optional). As a host you can pick which mods’ settings to apply to everyone who joins - it only affects the session, never their real settings, and anything that looks like a secret is left off by default.
Side Hustle Messenger. A new phone app for chatting with the other players in your lobby - a shared lobby chat and private one-to-one conversations, with unread badges and native message notifications.
GitHub mods download themselves too. Mods whose download link points at a GitHub repository are fetched automatically from the repo’s releases (hash-verified against the host’s exact file), so fewer mods end up on the manual checklist.
Hands-free manual installs. For mods that still need a browser download (e.g. Nexus), the checklist now watches your Downloads folder (and Vortex’s download folder, if you use Vortex): click the link, download the file, done - Side Hustle spots it, verifies it and installs it on its own. An “Open next link” button walks you through the list, each mod ticks off live with a toast, and if you grab the wrong version the row tells you exactly which one the host runs. Files with the right content are also reused across rejoins.
See what’s being played right now. The Side Hustle menu now also lists gamemodes you do NOT have installed that have live public lobbies, so you can discover new things to play. Opening one shows a “Download Mod” button (Host and Join stay greyed out until you install the mod). You can turn this off under “Show gamemodes you don’t have” in the settings.
For gamemode authors: a gamemode can declare a DownloadUrl (shown as the “Download Mod” link, opened in the Steam overlay) and set Advertise = false to keep its public lobbies out of that discovery list - e.g. while a mode is still in development. Advertising is on by default and only ever lists public lobbies.

Changed

Manual downloads land on the mod’s own Nexus page. For a mod the host could not give a download link for, Side Hustle now looks the name up on Nexus: when it identifies exactly one published Schedule I mod, the checklist button opens that mod’s page directly (“Open Nexus”) instead of a search results list. Ambiguous names (“Mod Manager”) and mods that aren’t on Nexus still open the search, exactly as before. The same lookup gives a gamemode you don’t have installed a working “Find it on Nexus” button when its host advertised no link.

Fixed

Gamemode sessions show up on the public lobby list. A hosted gamemode lobby now also lists itself on the Side Hustle website (public lobbies only - a friends-only session stays off it), with its gamemode, player count and what mods a joiner would need. Only vanilla co-op lobbies did that before.
Your lobby name survives the “Required mods only” restart. Hosting a gamemode that curates its mod set restarts the game first, and the name (and the chosen preset label) you typed on the host form was dropped in the process - the lobby then showed up as just your player name, in the browser and on the website.
Synced mods no longer arrive without their shared libraries. A mod whose Thunderstore package ships (or depends on) a shared library - PropHunt needs SteamNetworkLib, for example - was installed as a lone DLL, so the joiner ended up with a mod that could not load and an error every frame. The sync now fetches those library packages too and puts them into the session profile’s own Plugins/UserLibs, seeded from your global ones, so your real install is still never written to.

Notes

Side Hustle now ships a small startup helper (SideHustle.Boot) that it installs into your Plugins folder on first run. To fully remove Side Hustle, delete that file and the SideHustle_Profiles folder alongside the game.
Downloads only ever come from Thunderstore’s official CDN or a mod’s own GitHub releases, and every downloaded file is verified against the host’s manifest hash before it is used. Mods are never sent between players directly.
Side Hustle only ever reads your Downloads and Vortex folders - nothing there is moved or deleted.

[1.7.0] - 2026-07-10

Set a custom display name for multiplayer sessions.

Added

Custom display name (privacy). Each gamemode has its own “Your name” field on its Host / Join screen. Fill it in before opening or joining a lobby and other players see that name - the in-game nametag over your character, scoreboards, and the server browser - instead of your Steam name. Leave it empty to use your Steam name. Per gamemode, per session, and never saved.

[1.6.0] - 2026-07-09

Native bigger lobbies - Side Hustle now raises the co-op player cap on its own.

Added

Bigger co-op lobbies, built in. Side Hustle now seats far more than the vanilla 4 players by itself (default up to 32), and the host player-count slider opens up to match. No separate lobby mod required.

Changed

Larger lobbies no longer rely on the external BiggerLobbies mod. If you still run BiggerLobbies, the two cooperate and the higher cap wins.

[1.5.3] - 2026-07-08

A multiplayer-focused update - public lobbies work with anyone, plus host controls, friend invites and smoother mod-set switching.

Added

Play with anyone, not just friends. Schedule I normally kicks a joining player who isn’t on the host’s Steam friends list a few seconds after they connect - so public sessions were effectively friends-only. While you host a Side Hustle gamemode that kick is lifted, so friends and non-friends alike can join your public (or password-protected) lobbies. Normal co-op outside Side Hustle is unaffected.
Kick players. The host can remove a player from the session from the gamemode’s UI (a reusable framework control, so any gamemode can offer it).
Clients can invite friends too. The Steam friend-invite (+) button in the pause-menu lobby panel now shows for everyone in the lobby, not just the host, and works past four seats (with BiggerLobbies).
A heads-up before a “Required mods only” host restarts the game. Instead of restarting instantly, a short countdown appears (Restart now / Cancel) and restarts on its own when the timer runs out - so the restart is never a surprise.
Gamemodes can default to “Required mods only”. A gamemode can ask the Host form to pre-select the isolated “required mods only” set (the host can still switch it), so a mode that wants everyone on an identical set gets it by default.

Fixed

“Required mods only” re-hosting is now solid. Hosting a gamemode with only its required mods, returning to the menu, then hosting again now works reliably: each launch builds a fresh isolated profile (a locked leftover can never block it), the gamemode list comes back on its own, and a quick re-host no longer times out.

Changed

Better connection routing for public lobbies. Public P2P connections now allow all connection routes and warm up Steam’s relay, so a join picks the best available path instead of falling back to relay-only.

[1.5.0] - 2026-07-03

Added

Gamemode presets. Gamemodes can now ship named presets (like “Classic Hunt”) that show up as a picker at the top of the host setup form. Pick one and it fills in all the settings for you - you can still tweak anything afterwards. The form auto-selects whichever preset best fits your lobby size, a preset can suggest a player count, and one whose headline mechanic isn’t finished yet is flagged EXPERIMENTAL so you know what you’re getting.
Name your lobby. The host form has a lobby name field now, and that name (plus the mode you picked) shows on the server-browser cards, so joiners can tell sessions apart at a glance.
Session-hygiene flags for gamemode authors. A gamemode can opt into a handful of world-cleanup switches instead of reinventing them: skip the new-game intro and character creator, stop vanilla quests from auto-starting (with an allow-list for your own guide quest), block saving for the session so a throwaway world never overwrites a real save, keep NPCs from reacting to gunfire, and turn off vanilla player death when the gamemode runs its own elimination. All opt-in, all off by default.
A heads-up when versions don’t match. When you join a session, Side Hustle compares your build of the gamemode against the host’s and warns you - in the log and right on the browser card - if they differ. It’s the classic “we’re all on different versions” bug, now easy to spot. It only warns; it never stops you joining.

Changed

Host form polish. Settings can be grouped under section headers, there’s a new compact dropdown for one-of-many choices, and the settings list scrolls with a smooth mouse-wheel glide.

[1.4.0] - 2026-06-26

Added

Host configuration screen. Hosting a multiplayer gamemode now opens a native-style setup form: pick the exact player count (up to the lobby cap), a public or private (friends-only) lobby with an optional password, and any settings the gamemode itself exposes - sliders, toggles, choices and text fields - all handed to the gamemode at launch.
Restyled server browser. The Join screen lists open lobbies as cards (host, player count, gamemode, and a lock for password-protected lobbies); a locked lobby asks for the password before joining.

Changed

The mod policy is now a per-session choice on the host form. When you host a gamemode that declares which other mods it works with, the setup form offers “Current installed mods” (the default - keep your full set) or “Required mods only” (run just the gamemode’s mods in an isolated profile, after a confirmation listing the changes). Nothing in your real Mods folder is ever renamed, moved or deleted (junctions/hardlinks, no admin needed), so your mod manager stays in sync. Joining a session never changes your mods - that is the host’s choice.

[1.3.0] - 2026-06-26

Changed

Conflict-free mod sets are now fully non-destructive. When a gamemode declares which other mods it works with, Side Hustle launches it in a temporary, isolated profile that loads only those mods - your installed mods are never disabled, renamed, moved or deleted, so your mod manager stays in sync and a normal launch always loads everything. Leaving the gamemode restarts back to your full set. The confirmation still lists exactly what changes before anything happens, and a “Restore my mods” entry returns you to your full set at any time.

[1.2.0] - 2026-06-25

Added

Conflict-free mod sets. A gamemode can declare which other mods it works with (a mod policy). When you launch it, Side Hustle shows exactly which mods it will pause and enable, then - on your confirmation - launches the gamemode in its own mod set. When you leave the gamemode your normal mods are restored. A “Restore my mods” entry is there if you ever need to put everything back yourself.

[1.1.0] - 2026-06-25

Added

Multiplayer launch. Multiplayer and hybrid gamemodes now show a Singleplayer / Host / Join choice in the menu. Hosting opens a public lobby (with a player-count picker); bigger lobbies are supported with BiggerLobbies.
Public server browser. Browse and join open sessions for a gamemode, filtered so each gamemode only lists its own lobbies.
World gamemodes. Gamemodes that need the actual game world get a throwaway session booted for them, outside your five save slots - your real saves are never created or touched.
Richer launch context. Gamemodes receive the host/client role, lobby id, player count, host name and the host’s settings when they launch.
Play-mode badge (Singleplayer / Multiplayer / SP + MP) on each gamemode in the list, optional per-gamemode icons, and a recently-played ordering so your last gamemodes appear first.

[1.0.1] - 2026-06-24

Fixed

The “Side Hustle” menu entry could be added more than once (showing duplicate entries) when the main menu re-initialised during loading. Injection is now idempotent, so exactly one entry appears.

[1.0.0] - 2026-06-24

Initial release.

Added

A “Side Hustle” entry on the main menu that lists every installed gamemode mod (name, description, author) and launches the selected one without loading a savegame.
Public, load-order-independent registration API (SideHustle.API.Register with GamemodeDescriptor / LaunchContext) for mods to appear as gamemodes.
Singleplayer launch flow with a clean return to the menu (LaunchContext.ReturnToHub).
Multiplayer host/join and a server browser are shown but disabled, ready for a later update.
Enabled setting (MelonPreferences) to hide the menu entry without uninstalling.