What's new in FreeCol 0.11.6
Dec 27, 2016
- New features:
- The autosave directory now follows the save directory if it changes.
- New warning that distinguishes approaching colony food exhaustion from actual ongoing starvation.
- Lots of tweaks to the compact colony report.
- Better tool tips on the trade report.
- Added a link to the FreeCol manual on the About panel.
- All cargo (more than 100 units) can be dragged with the control key, contributed by Fenyo.
- Native settlements have roads as in Col1 (confirmation from Fenyo).
- Number of goods on a carrier is shown in InfoPanel at lower right, full stacks have bigger icons instead IR#157, PF#44.
- Active unit cargo should be selected by default when entering a colony IR#22.
- Terrain bonus does not apply to settlement defence PF#73.
- Coronado only reveals minimal colonies in classic mode PF#83.
- Bugs fixed:
- Sentries now obey the client option and do not cause doubled moves BR#2882
- TilePopup is now correctly shown near the tile when using keyboard or menu.
- Use of country name rather than an adjectival form in several places BR#2888.
- Abandoning a colony when units have it as a destination no longer hangs the game BR#2889.
- The window frame now correctly appears on second monitor in correct size when starting the game in windowed mode, see BR#2803.
- FreeColDialogs are correctly positioned now, also avoiding them being wrongly shown on primary monitor when the main window frame is on secondary monitor, see BR#2803.
- The classic colony report works again BR#2898.
- Cities of gold are named properly BR#2903.
- Colonies can be founded on native land BR#2906.
- FreeColDialog instances do not contain redundant shifted backgrounds anymore, contributed by Bernat, see BR#2911.
- Fixed TileInfoPanel to show information about the terrain cursor being on unexplored tiles.
- Fixed map display to consistently draw everything on partial updates, see BR#2580.
- --server option now only controls starting a stand alone server, --server-port controls the port independently.
- Other improvements:
- When characters are not supported by the "ShadowedBlack" font we provide (mostly used for panel headers) the game automatically falls back to using the normal game font, to prevent rectangle glyphs from being shown for non-latin characters.
- Map display is improved; the optional region borders and black map-grid are consistently shown everywhere now.
- Developer issues:
- Java 8 is now required to build FreeCol.
- Developer documentation is now compiled and added as a pdf to the distributions.
- Integer, Select and Range options now validate their input. Watch out for logged warnings of bad input.
- splash.jpg moved into ./build, and is built into FreeCol.jar, added --no-splash option.
- The game now tolerates modding in higher resolution tile images, see git.a85590de for more detailed explanation.
New in FreeCol 0.11.3 (Mar 10, 2015)
- COMMON PROBLEMS:
- There is a nasty game corrupting bug on the loose BR#2796. We need a reproducible test case to make definitive progress on it. However 0.11.3 contains a fix for our current best guess at a possible cause, and a further fix that makes the corruption recoverable by saving and reloading the game. Another theory alas is that it is caused by certain versions of Java, which is not something we can fix.
- The installer for 0.11.2 on Windows had problems BR#2790, which should be much improved in 0.11.3, however there is still concern for systems where the installed Java uses a different word size (32/64 bits) than the underlying operating system.
- Bugs
- Since 0.11.2-release, fifteen bugs have been fixed, there was one duplicate and three invalid reports. One bug report has been reassigned as an improvement request. Progress on five reports is blocked needing further information. Five new bugs remain open, consisting of the corruption bug mentioned above, four UI issues.
- USER-VISIBLE CHANGES:
- Windows installer fixes BR#2790
- Blocked settlements no longer shown as destinations, BR#2791
- Plural rules were not loading correctly in automatic language mode
- Colony tiles can be reclaimed by neighbours when the colony is captured
- Native settlement alarm indicators are always shown after contact BR#2798
- Multiplayer mode works again BR#2811
- Trade routes are suspended if a stop is lost BR#2797
- Lost city rumour messages are displayed more reliably BR#2802
- Added better image for meeting the Inca BR#2804
- Prevent duplication in the Military report BR#2807
- Fixed disagreement between recruit turns and Religious Advisor BR#2808
- Fix trade logging amounts BR#2814
- Reduced chance of game window being too large and partially hidden behind the task bar
- Improved AboutDialog, from Calebrw
- DEVELOPER ISSUES:
- COMMS logging format changed, hopefully giving better coverage
- Several general logging reductions
- ServerModelObjects are now ignored on read, but still written to avoid a save format change
New in FreeCol 0.11.2 (Jan 6, 2015)
- Common problems:
- On Windows in full screen mode multiple users have reported that the main window flashes or minimizes when a dialog pops up. This is BR#2729 and is discussed here. Thus far it appears to be a peculiarity of Windows Java. Some mitigation has been added in this release, but the easiest work around is to use windowed mode which is now the default.
- We now require at least Java 7 to build FreeCol. However it appears that the legacy Java 6 package needs to be installed to run FreeCol on MacOS. We would welcome further clarification of this situation.
- Bugs
- Since the 0.11.1 release, 45 new bugs have been reported. 4 are open, 8 are open but need more information, 24 were fixed, 7 were invalid, 1 has been reclassified as a Pending Feature, and 1 was out of date when reported. Four older bugs have also been resolved. There are 51 open bugs in FreeCol, with UI issues being the main source of problems.
- User-visible changes since 0.11.1-release:
- Windowed mode is now the default
- The default window size in windowed mode now tries harder to avoid operating system menu bars and decoration
- In FreeCol rules, Pocahontas now overrides the mission-ban
- Buying land from the natives now actually requires funds again, BR#2748
- Build queue dialog correctly updates the current buildable progress display
- Custom difficulty setting and loading should work again (several bugs)
- Adjacent settlement restrictions loosened
- Add "stock accounts for production" client option
- Include equipment in all unit labels where it can vary in quantity, BR#2749
- It is no longer possible to give foreign units a goto order, BR#2759
- Minerals production fixes, BR#2762
- Autosave directory is now always a subdirectory of the save directory
- Several improvements to menu sizing, BR#2763
- Exploring regions works with goto commands, BR#2761
- Mod preferences should work again
- Improvements to map font scaling
- Mission establishment should work immediately, BR#2775
- Added --full-screen command line option
- Europe panel resizing, BR#2320
- Allow first contact by sea with amphibious moves enabled, BR#2780
- Goto paths are cleared on completion, BR#2785
- Developer issues:
- All the trade route logic is now in the client, the server only provides persistance
- All user commands now return success/fail, except those that do not return
- Resource and window initialization disentangled, contributed by wintertime
- Reworking of localization routines is underway
New in FreeCol 0.11.1 (Dec 30, 2014)
- A bug fix release to clean up some annoying problems in version 0.11.0. All 0.10.x and 0.11.0 games should continue to work with 0.11.1.
New in FreeCol 0.11.0 (Oct 22, 2014)
- This release is mainly an opportunity for the developers to fix some difficult structural problems that were blocking progress. That said, there are many useful new user visible features, listed in the release notes. And lots of bugs were fixed.
- In particular, we had an intractable cluster of bugs that could not be fixed without making an incompatible change to the saved game format and dropping the 0.9.x compatibility code. Therefore, this is 0.11.0, not 0.10.8, and 0.9.x games will no longer load correctly. The hope is that this is the last save-format break before 1.0.
- Given the large changes and long gap since the last release, the next release is likely to be a maintenance/bugfix release to tidy up problems that were missed in testing. More people testing the git/trunk would be most welcome.
New in FreeCol 0.10.6 (Dec 21, 2012)
- >80 bugs fixed.
- colony names (freecol ruleset): The colony names have been revised for accuracy and chronological order, contributed by izzieliu.
- disasters: Colonies are subject to natural disasters.
- editor: The map editor should be working again.
- European trade: Trading of goods with other European nations should be working again.
- intervention force: A foreign power may intervene and aid you against the REF.
- map reveal: The map is fully revealed on independence, as in Col1.
- native anger: Native settlements now have a `most hated nation', visible in the various popups, reports and the `!' chip by the settlement name.
- native trade: An option has been added to allow trading with empty carrier units.
- options panel: New tree-view of the options.
- path finding: The path finding code has been reworked, and should now find the fastest path in more cases.
- peace: The monarch now sometimes declares peace.
- ship names: Ships now have names by default. Historic ship name list contributed by izzieliu.
- AI:
- Following the path finding rewrite, most AI actions have been reworked and are now more robust and efficient, fixing many long standing bugs. This was a lot of work and the main reason for the long release cycle. Much of this is not really obvious to a casual player, the AI just fails less often.
- European AI nations now send missionaries to nearby native settlements.
- European AI player cheating has been reduced, some explicit cheats are now controllable in the game options.
- Native AI gift and tribute demand probabilities are now game options.
New in FreeCol 0.10.5 (Feb 28, 2012)
- This is mainly a bug-fix release to fix serious game corrupting bugs in 0.10.4.
- A few other bugs have been fixed, and the amount of lumber delivered when a forest tile is cleared is now more Col1 compatible.
New in FreeCol 0.10.3 (Sep 27, 2011)
- This is a bug-fix release which does not add any new features.
New in FreeCol 0.10.2 (Sep 5, 2011)
- It is a stable release that fixes many of the bugs reported after the second release of the 0.10. series.
New in FreeCol 0.10.1 (Jul 25, 2011)
- It is a stable release that fixes many of the bugs reported after the first release of the 0.10. series. Furthermore, the layout of some reports has been improved, and an alternative Colony Report has been added.
New in FreeCol 0.10.0 Alpha 2 (Apr 10, 2011)
- It corrects many problems reported with the first pre-release, but is still not stable.
New in FreeCol 0.9.5 (Dec 27, 2010)
- This is a maintenance release with no notable new features. More memory leaks that caused the game to slow down have been found and fixed, as have a number of annoying bugs.
New in FreeCol 0.9.4 (Aug 10, 2010)
- Several serious bugs, including a memory or reference leak that caused 0.9.3 to slow to a crawl, have been fixed.
- A graphical modification (mod) by misiulo adds new graphics for goods and resources.
- Translations for several languages have been considerably improved.
New in FreeCol 0.9.3 (Jun 21, 2010)
- This release fixes several bugs, including a combat bug that made it possible to capture colonies that still had armed defenders. The handling of keyboard accelerators was
- improved in several ways. Keyboard accelerators are now available for virtually all mapboard actions, including movement, a feature that was requested by several users who use keyboards without a key pad. And keyboard accelerators are now (optionally) localized.
- FreeCol has had the ability to include graphical "mods" (bundles of images that replace standard images) for some time now. But FreeCol 0.9.3 is the first release that actually includes such a mod, a bundle of images for goods, ships and native settlements by "hutzli". Please note that you will have to restart FreeCol after selecting a mod
- before the setting becomes active.
New in FreeCol 0.9.1 (Mar 2, 2010)
- This is purely a bug-fixing release that does not add any new features. The most notable bug squashed is one that prevented the REF from landing in the New World after you declare independence.
New in FreeCol 0.9.0 Alpha 2 (Nov 30, 2009)
- Several features were improved, but no new features were added for this release.
New in FreeCol 0.9.0 Alpha (Oct 8, 2009)
- Graphics:
- building graphics (thanks to NewCol and the defunct SweCol project)
- prettier panels and dialogs due to the use of MigLayout
- more useful for small displays (1024x600)
- pretty borders
- some more anti-aliasing
- AI:
- AI breeds horses more effectively
- AI uses pioneers more effectively
- AI distributes workers more effectively
- AI creates and assigns soldiers more effectively
- AI builds constructs more advanced buildings
- Rules:
- stockades no longer prevent abandoning a colony
- together with a custom house, de Witt circumvents boycotts
- the Treaty of Utrecht
New in FreeCol 0.8.3 (May 11, 2009)
- This release fixes some problems with translation keys being displayed instead of the actual text.
New in FreeCol 0.8.2 (May 4, 2009)
- New and updated translations for 36 languages.
- Bug fixes.
New in FreeCol 0.8.0 (Jan 15, 2009)
- Allow the game to be customized using XML-files.
- Units now slide between tiles while moving.
- New terrain graphics.
- Menu music added.
- Sound effects for dragoons, artillery capturing a colony, building complete, church and blacksmith.
- New sound effects for artillery and buying/selling goods.
- Short music clips for Aztecs and fountain of Youth.
- Named regions and nicer placement of native settlements.
- New nations added: Portuguese, Swedish, Danish and Russian
- Games with up to eight European players are now supported.
New in FreeCol 0.8.0 Alpha 2 (Sep 13, 2008)
- This version fixes several bugs present in our previous alpha release.