The launcher keeps itself current
Open the launcher, press Play. Updates to the launcher and to the DriftwoodXI addons now arrive on their own — the only thing ever asked of you is a restart.
Private servers have a reputation for homework. Download this, unzip it there, copy that folder into this other folder, re-download it when the server changes, and hope you got the right version. We are not doing that.
From this build, the launcher looks after itself and after the nine DriftwoodXI addons, and it does it quietly.
The launcher. It checks for a newer version when it starts and every few hours after that. If one exists it downloads in the background while you carry on. When it is ready the title bar offers Restart to update — that is the whole of your involvement, and if you ignore it, the update installs the next time you close the launcher normally. Nothing is installed behind your back while you are using it.
The addons. dwbags, dwsquad, dwgambits, dwjobs, dwmerc, dwparse, dwtracker, dwreport and dwmacro are not ordinary Ashita addons — they talk to this server directly, which means they have to match it. The launcher now keeps them matched. It checks what we have published, compares it against what is in your Ashita folder, and downloads only the ones that actually differ: when it starts, every few hours, and once more right before it launches your game. The whole set is under a third of a megabyte, so it is quick.
If you have never installed them, you do not have to — press Play and they will be there. If one gets damaged or half-deleted, the next check notices and puts it back.
If you edited an addon yourself, the launcher leaves it alone. It only ever maintains folders it installed itself; anything you put there by hand shows up as an update offer with a button, and it stays exactly as you left it until you press that button.
If something is wrong, you will hear about it, and only then. An update that fails leaves the version you already had working — the new files are checked against a published fingerprint and unpacked to one side before anything of yours is touched, so a bad download cannot leave you with a broken addon. And if our update server is having a bad day, that is our problem, not yours: the game still launches.
Settings → DriftwoodXI addons shows what version you are on and has a switch if you would rather do this by hand.