Consider moving files and settings with sources

[jrinker03]

There are a few interesting scenarios enabled by moving MA folders and settings under the sources for the plugin (and presumably then source controlled, as appropriate).

• MA has a version number that is separate from the ones that exist in source. Moving MA to use a common one would allow for eventual a single version string used for build through publish.
• Groups of modders working as a team and sharing source would have a common version of all appropriate artifacts in source control.
• A msbuild publish task could be created that MA could simply invoke to generate the latest upload zip. This is a good way to ensure the latest Release build makes it into the package without human intervention.

[CubeSuite]

For point 3, latest push added a 'Refresh Files' step to the release process. This step automates a release build and copies the result to Mod Files. Not sure on what you mean for the other two points

[jrinker03]

Here's some more context on the first two:

Version number The idea here is that there is a single place where all things that are involved in making the mod package would use for versioning. From this, the build would generate all things that have a version. From MAs perspective, it would move to reading and writing this single source for versioning. If the dev updates the version in MA, then it would update that source. If the source is updated outside of MA, then MA would detect that and update the version in the UX. MA would not need to update the version number in the manifest as that would be delegated to the build. MA would not store a version number separate from this. In the event this source did not exist, MA could create it.

Collaboration on a mod As of the current version, MA stores project information in a local store with no great way to share a project's information except by manually passing files between different developers. If a project's information was instead stored with the source and controlled in the same way as source, a developer would also get any MA project updates with code updates. Once a project is ready for publishing, the project files can be checked in and any person on the team can generate the package. Even in the case of a single person having publishing rights, this aids with the scenario where the publisher is not in a good place to produce the final package. Anyone else on the team could generate it and the team knows it will be consistent with what is checked in.