diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index ed0758e1..915ee2b1 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -39,6 +39,11 @@ allprojects {
     def dirtyMarker = grgit.status().clean ? "" : ".dirty"
     def commitHashMarker = details.commitDistance > 0 ? ("." + details.gitHash) : ""
     def preMarker = (details.commitDistance > 0 || !details.isCleanTag) ? ("-beta." + details.commitDistance) : ""
+    if(preMarker.length() > 0) {
+        // bump to next patch release
+        def versionParts = baseVersion.tokenize(".")
+        baseVersion = "${versionParts[0]}.${versionParts[1]}.${versionParts[2].toInteger() + 1}"
+    }
     def versionString = "${baseVersion}${preMarker}+mc${minecraft_version}${commitHashMarker}${dirtyMarker}"
     version = versionString
     archivesBaseName = rootProject.archives_base_name + '-' + project.name
@@ -239,3 +244,5 @@ configure(subprojects.findAll {it.name == "forge" || it.name == "fabric"}) {
         publishToModSites.dependsOn(tasks.curseforge)
     }
 }
+
+println "ModernFix: " + version
diff --git a/scripts/autorelease.sh b/scripts/autorelease.sh
index 508143b5..eb595695 100755
--- a/scripts/autorelease.sh
+++ b/scripts/autorelease.sh
@@ -21,12 +21,19 @@ cd mfix
 # gather version list
 readarray -t all_versions < <(git ls-remote --heads origin | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's:.*/::' | sort -V)
 
+last_released_version=""
 do_release() {
     echo "will now make release for $1"
     git checkout $1 &>/dev/null || git checkout -b $1 &>/dev/null
-    echo "we think the current tag is $(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)"
+    current_tag=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0)
+    echo "we think the current tag is $current_tag"
     echo "the current commit head is $(git rev-parse HEAD)"
-    read -p "new tag name: " tag_name
+    old_version_specifier=$(echo $current_tag | awk -F+ '{print $2}')
+    read -e -p "new tag name (${old_version_specifier}): " -i "${last_released_version}" tag_name
+    if [[ $tag_name != *"+"* ]]; then
+        tag_name=${tag_name}+${old_version_specifier}
+    fi
+    last_released_version=$(echo $tag_name | awk -F+ '{print $1}')
     git tag -a $tag_name -m "$tag_name"
     git push --tags
     gh release create $tag_name --target $1 --title "$tag_name" --notes ""