NCMM

NCMM (Neversalimus Code Mod Manager) is a native code-mod/runtime platform for Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. It is deliberately maintained as a standalone project rather than a CDDA fork: NCMM keeps its own bootstrap, certified Host, stable module API, source contracts, diagnostics, CI and optional native modules.

Licensing and attribution

NCMM is an unofficial, independently administered project and is not endorsed by the Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead maintainers. Certified NCMM Host executables are modified CDDA builds. They retain the CDDA license obligations (CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported and any applicable third-party terms). Each newly packaged certified Host includes the original LICENSE.txt from its exact CDDA source revision, renamed CDDA_LICENSE.txt, and NCMM attribution notices.

Read THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt for attribution, links and distribution boundaries. The notices do not place every independently written NCMM module under a blanket CC BY-SA license. Separate NCMM-authored material has no project-wide license grant unless one is explicitly provided. License compliance for historical releases and binary dependency inventories is discussed in the licensing audit.

Supported CDDA baseline

As of 2026-10-10, cdda-experimental-2026-09-23-0546 is retired at the owner's request. The pinned source/install/PR qualification baseline is cdda-experimental-2026-10-01-1040 (3f7fb352bf492ba521bd9408a0c9f6ce239e8d83). Newer experimentals still require their own exact-identity certified Host; retirement does not relax SHA, source-contract, rollback or save-safety checks. The old PR187/0546-only preview installer is removed. Historical reports and already published releases are retained; no existing saves or backups are deleted.

Current stack

Component	Version
NCMM Infrastructure	0.8.3.1
NCMM Runtime / Host	0.8.2
Loader ABI	1
Legacy semantic Host API	1.9
Queried Host API	2.0 Core
Survivor Progression	0.15.0
Advanced World Settings	0.6.4
Ballistic Hit Chance	0.1.0
Equipment Body Map	0.1.0
Item Glyphs	0.1.0

Survivor Progression keeps state schema 8. The current source contains 378 perk nodes and conditionally exposes mod-specific progression for supported active world mods.

Verified release and current certification

Certified CDDA builds change independently of the Runtime version. Consult the current exact-SHA Host feed and the Full release. Historical archive hashes in a static README should not be used to validate current assets: release assets can be republished after qualification.

As of 2026-10-08, setup hardening PR #172 passed Runtime #1398, Source/Package Audit #711, Real Installation Matrix #126, and Runtime publication #1399. Refer to Actions for newer results.

Install

For players, use the Full release package.

1. Download NCMM_Full_v0.8.2.zip from the ncmm-runtime-v0.8.2 release.
2. Extract it anywhere outside the CDDA game directory.
3. Run NCMM_Setup.exe.
4. Select the CDDA installation and the optional modules you want.
5. Choose Install / Repair selected.
6. Launch CDDA normally from CatLauncher, Catapult or your usual shortcut.

For an existing NCMM installation, use the latest Full package and run Install / Repair selected again; a separate uninstall is not required, and Survivor's persistent state remains on schema 8 with migration support for older supported schemas.

No compiler, Git, CMake or MSYS2 is required on the player's PC. If no exact certified Host exists for the installed CDDA executable, NCMM fails closed and launches vanilla CDDA.

The repository checkout also contains NCMM.cmd, the maintainer/development entry point for install, verify, update, diagnostics, adapter and self-test workflows. Its build cache is intentionally reusable.

Player-facing features

• NCMM Mod Configuration is integrated into CDDA's settings menu. The current manager uses a two-pane layout: modules on the left, version/status/description/hotkey/settings on the right.
• Survivor Progression 0.15.0 opens with F1 by default and remains remappable through CDDA. It keeps state schema 8, includes Host-managed live XP/stat-perk controls, Magiclysm Mana Hand III/IV integrations, and the level-35 five-rank Dimensional Pouch (5/10/20/50/120 L; 120/120/150/150/200 cm) implemented as a normal integrated CDDA pocket.
• Advanced World Settings 0.6.4 exposes NCMM-owned world-generation controls through CDDA's world-options UI. NEW_MAP / NEW_WORLD settings are available during world creation; LIVE / RELOAD settings stay in the NCMM manager.
• Ballistic Hit Chance 0.1.0 adds live ballistic hit probabilities to firearm targeting: current-shot probability, per-aim-mode probability, and compact burst prediction using the active fire mode and recoil growth.
• Equipment Body Map 0.1.0 adds a live body map to the normal inventory, reflecting worn-item coverage and highlighting the selected item's coverage.
• Item Glyphs 0.1.0 adds semantic item glyphs to Inventory, Pickup, Trade and Advanced Inventory; unknown items retain their normal symbol and the feature can be disabled.
• Current main-source UI polish uses CDDA's native menu_move sound for NCMM perk navigation and displays a compact NCMM 0.8.2 label in the main menu.
• Module failures are isolated where possible and reported through machine-readable runtime/module state instead of silently loading incompatible code.

Automated installation lifecycle

Every Runtime build now runs the production SetupCore against isolated CDDA-shaped installations before packages are published. The installation matrix currently covers clean installs with no modules / Survivor / AWS / both, module removal and re-enable, idempotent reinstall, previous-runtime update, corrupted DLL repair, corrupt-manifest fail-closed behavior, invalid payload/selection, rollback at multiple install phases, and recovery after a hard interrupted process.

Bootstrap has a separate lifecycle harness covering certified-host selection, incompatible bindings, first and second healthy launches, host crash/auto-disable, reset recovery and fail-closed marker failures. A failed matrix blocks the Runtime release. A separate nightly/manual Real Installation Matrix downloads an official Windows CDDA release and runs the same production SetupCore plus Survivor/AWS selection changes against the real extracted game tree before restoring the original vanilla executable. Module QA is semantic rather than load-only: AWS validates all 48 typed geography settings/bindings, min/max boundaries and deterministic randomized cases; Survivor validates all 378 perks, modifier consumers, cleanup/respec behavior, conditional integrations, full-catalog max-rank aggregation and deterministic perk combinations. The real gameplay smoke also creates, saves and reloads a randomized AWS world, generates an overmap, and applies Survivor effects to a real CDDA avatar before checking cleanup.

Compatibility model

NCMM does not trust a folder name or launcher version. Runtime validates the vanilla executable SHA-256, CDDA source commit, Loader API, NCMM version and Host patch revision against the certified feed. A Host is published only after source-contract preflight and Windows/MSVC certification for the exact upstream CDDA release.

The bootstrap preserves the original executable as cataclysm-tiles.vanilla.exe. Invalid, missing or uncertified Host state falls back to vanilla execution. Runtime state is written to ncmm/runtime.state.json; Host/module state is written to ncmm/modules.state.json.

Repository map

• runtime/ — bootstrap and graphical setup application.
• host_patch/ — source integration layer used to build a certified Host.
• sdk/ — stable public module API.
• mods/ — bundled native modules.
• compat/ — source contracts, compatibility metadata and package integrity.
• components/ — installable component catalog.
• ci/ and .github/workflows/ — build, certification, feed and regression pipelines.
• adapters/ — exact/inherited CDDA build adapters.
• checkpoints/ — intentionally historical package snapshots retained for reproducibility.

For the current trust boundaries and API layout, see ARCHITECTURE.md. Russian documentation is in README_RU.md.

Project status

Neversalimus/NCMM is the only canonical NCMM repository. The earlier Neversalimus/Cataclysm tree is historical and is not used by the current source, package, feed or release pipeline.

The project intentionally keeps release history and machine-audit artifacts separate from the user documentation. Root audit/changelog files that are still present are package provenance or regression evidence, not additional setup guides.

Reproducible checks and performance

• Survivor catalog: the runtime semantic smoke validates all 378 perks, prerequisite DAG acyclicity, seven integration Prime choices, refunds for inactive integration mods, and a full-catalog effect-recalculation budget (64 passes within 5,000 ms on CI). This is not a gameplay TPS guarantee.
• Canonical payload maintenance: after editing runtime/NCMMBootstrap.cs, runtime/NCMMSetupCore.cs or tests/smoke_host.cpp, run ci/Sync-CanonicalPayload.ps1 and then ci/Regenerate-PackageIntegrity.ps1. CI runs the canonical sync in read-only -Check mode to prevent snapshot drift.
• Player experience: for meaningful real-world performance comparisons, use the same save, CDDA commit, world mods and hardware; measure movement, inventory, ranged combat, crafting and map generation against vanilla. See docs/PERFORMANCE_RUNBOOK.md.