THE ISSUE:
Game launcher has stopped working; it was working just prior to launching it once with the new update (1.0.5).
When I launch the game through steam, the launcher icon appears briefly in the start bar, then disappears.
Launching it through the file in the installation folder yields the same result.
Launching the file through any of the executables in that same folder will successfully launch the game itself; it is just the launcher that would not launch.
Windows Event Viewer prints following messages upon launcher failing (XML format):
And another one for .NET Framework (possible cause?)
THE SOLUTION:
Verified file integrity through steam--new files were acquired initially, but the launcher still does not work. Repeating integrity only confirms that all files are in good order.
Re-installing itself did not do anything as well.
I've tracked the issue to Documents/Mount and Blade II Bannerlord/Configs/LauncherData.xml. Apparently re-installing the game does not clean out the contents in there.
Removed the file entirely and the launcher now launches correctly. I suspect that removing the mod contents of the Modules folder in the installation directory may be the cause of this exception that was causing my launcher to not launch correctly, as an item that was ticked in the launcher was removed(?). Only a conjecture at this point. At any rate, I can finally ride through Calradia once again!
If a staff could mark this post as SOLVED, that would be great.
This appears to be a problem others are experiencing on this forum as well, but I could not find a definite solution here at this time.
I've had the same issue with Warband, where the launcher would fail to launch properly (same symptoms, launcher icon appears but disappears without the screen coming up), so this is quite a bit frustrating...