Release Notes and History.txt Process

Release Notes and History.txt Process

New Workflow for PRs and Release Documentation

We've implemented a new approach for managing our release documentation. Contributors no longer need to create separate history entries. Instead:

1. Push approved Pull Requests directly to the repository
2. When creating a new release (e.g., v50.06), use the "Generate release notes" button in the GitHub releases interface
3. The release engineer will copy these automatically generated release notes into the history.txt file along with release version and date/time

Comparison: Old vs New Method

Old Method:

0.50.06
+ PR #6933: 0.50.06 Deprecation Removal and Clean up. 
+ PR #6901: move sprite, spriteHandler, overlay, toolTip, phaseDisplay and phaseDiplay.dialogs classes into packages
+ PR #6864: Added Heroic and Legendary Skill Levels
+ Fix #6915: Fixed Status of Uncrewed Vehicles
+ Fix: #6931: Fixes duplicated score key for score logging on basic path ranker

New Method (from GitHub's "Generate release notes"):

## What's Changed
* Fix: NPE when loading ASF with engine damage from MUL @contributor1 (#7001)
* PR: Properly calculate armor crit slot count for superheavy meks @contributor2 (#7002)
* Fix: Incorrect weapon mounting locations in ground unit validation @contributor3 (#7003)

## New Contributors
* @newContributor made their first contribution in #7002

**Full Changelog**: https://github.com/MegaMek/megamek/compare/v0.50.05...v0.50.06

Benefits

This approach:

• Streamlines the release process with minimal additional work
• Standardizes the format of our release documentation
• Automatically tracks PR contributors and maintainers
• Identifies new contributors for each release version
• Provides direct links to full changelogs comparing versions
• Assists with addressing pending issues and tracking changes

Required Commit Message (The PR Title) Formatting

To make this process work effectively, all commit messages must use specific formatting: As an example:

For bug fixes:

Start with the word "Fix" followed by a clear description

Example:

Fix: NPE when loading ASF with engine damage from MUL

For feature additions or improvements:

Start with "PR" followed by a clear description

Example:

PR: Properly calculate armor crit slot count for superheavy meks

Please ensure all Pull Request titles and commit messages follow this format to maintain consistency in our automatically generated release notes.