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FreeCol: FreeCol is a turn-based strategy game based on the old game Colonization, and similar to Civilization. The objective of the game is to create an independent nation.

latest

6 days ago

Commits

v1.1.0

1 year ago

All savegames from 0.12.0 and up should continue working with 1.1.0.

Music

  • New track: El Dorado
  • New track: Free Colonist
  • New track: Lost City
  • New track: Rainy Day
  • New track: Royal Troops
  • New track: Wagon Wheels
  • Updated the old tracks with new updated versions.

Graphics

  • New graphics for hills and mountains.
  • The standard panel background image is now both brighter and without obvious tiling artifacts on larger screens.

Rule changes

  • Jesuit Missionary can now recommision itself in colonies without a church.
  • Added the mod "Hitpoints and Combat" that adds hitpoints and ranged combat to the game.

Map Generator

  • Great rivers (ocean like, navigable by ships only) are no longer generated by default, but can still be generated if enabled using the Map Generator Options.
  • The number of rivers generated can now be properly controlled using the "Number of rivers" map generator option even when changing map sizes and/or amount of mountains.
  • Enabled generation of rivers that are only two tiles long (the previous limit was three).

User Interface

  • Units in Europe are no longer included in the list of possible active units.
  • Game options and Map generator options are no longer automatically saved and loaded. The default values are initially displayed for all new games.
  • Panels/dialogs are now automatically resized and relocated when changing the size of the application window (including when switching between full screen and windowed mode).
  • Allows the player to easily view all files while loading savegames/maps.
  • The start game panel can now be resized to smaller than the initial size.
  • The chat panel (start game panel in multiplayer) is now placed directly below the list of players making the dialog work better on small screens.
  • The displayed occupation string on a pioneer now shows "C" for clear forest instead of "P".

AI/computer players

  • Greatly reduces the time needed by the AI (the wait time after ending the turn).
  • The AI now gets less benefits on lower difficulty levels to make everything easier.
  • Escort unit missions are now immediately aborted if the protected unit gets destroyed.
  • More efficient transportation of goods and units (better utilization of the capacity of ships and wagon trains).
  • The AI now produces fewer and better colonies.

Mod development

  • Allow mods to be loaded when making maps in the map editor. This allows maps to be made with new terrain types, and other resources, added by mods.
  • New types of mountains and hills defined by mods are now used when generating maps. The specific type of hill/mountain is determined by the latitude.
  • Partial modifications to the specification is now possible again. This fixes a regression introduced in 0.11.x that prevented the "partial" flag from working.
  • Mods can now define new order buttons (and have them applied without having to restart the game).
  • Bugfix: Mods are no longer loaded twice (thereby causing varius problems in the colony panel and other places when modifications were made).
  • Bugfix: Units that are not available to a player can now be captured if a valid "unit-change" exist.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed a bug that caused the same maps always being generated when starting a new game.
  • Fixes game hangs on end turn in some specific cases.
  • Fixed scaling and placement of goods production icons on colony tiles.
  • A unit in a building is no longer drawn at the top of the building (that is, the area for showing goods production) if the production is zero.
  • Sound effects are now properly played when attacking.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the map shortcut buttons on the Map Generator dialog from working properly. The bug caused the button to have no effect the first time it was clicked after restarting the application.
  • Fixed an issue that sometimes prevented mods from being deactivated in the Preferences.
  • The game now fails gracefully if the server cannot be started. This prevents an application freeze when failing to start a new game or failing to load a savegame.
  • Revenge mode is now working again.
  • Fixes an issue that allowed a malicious client (in a multiplayer game) to attack with a unit that had no moves left.
  • The "Train" panel in Europe now has five columns of unit buttons instead of just three.
  • Fixes a bug that sometimes stopped trade routes / goto orders from working. For example, this happened if there was a lost city rumor in the search area of a wagon train on a trade route.
  • Fixes activation of tile improvement actions (like "Plow") after reconnecting.
  • Allows the founding father selection to be postponed without an error message.
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the map from being redrawn properly after a unit move/attack animation.
  • Highscores can now be stored and displayed again.

Download from SourceForge

v1.0.0

1 year ago

On this very day, 20 years ago, we made the first public release of FreeCol. Our releases have until now been marked as alpha/beta even though the number of downloads for our game has long been counted in the millions.

We are extremely proud to finally announce FreeCol 1.0.0!

Some highlighted changes since version 0.13.0 are:

  • New nation specific colony graphics.
  • New forest graphics
  • Major changes to the tile goods production so that the actual values matches the original game.
  • Greatly improved artificial intelligence (AI) for the computer players.
  • Much better stability (many bug fixes).

We will continue improving the game through numerous new releases. Stay tuned!

All 0.12.0 and 0.13.0 games should continue to work with 1.0.0.

All user visible changes since 0.13.0

Graphics

  • New nation specific colony graphics.
  • New forest graphics
  • New graphics for deserts.
  • New transitions between the base tiles.
  • Minor changes to other graphics.

Rule changes

  • Major changes to the tile goods production so that the actual values matches the original game.

Mod development

  • It's now possible to define nation specific unit types that can be recruited and purchased in Europe.
  • Added tools for easily making new base tiles from a single tiling texture.
  • A bug that prevented certain images from being overridden by mods has been fixed.

AI/computer players

  • The AI now chooses better locations when constructing colonies, and also avoid placing the colonies too close to one another.
  • The AI colony development and expansion have been improved.
  • The AI can now construct docks.
  • More efficient transportation of goods.
  • The AI can now buy units from Europe without cheating.
  • The computer players will now use more advanced tactics when defending and attacking.
  • The AI no longer defends its colonies with scouts.
  • Adding a new escort mission for protecting units. This mission is used for dragoons that are escorting artillery when attacking.
  • National advantages will now change how the AI utilizes its military units. For example, the conquest advantage (spanish) will make the player focus on destroying the natives.
  • The AI will no longer equip specialists (like Elder Statemen) with muskets.
  • AI ships should no longer get stuck outside native settlements.

Bug fixes

  • Several bugs that might cause the game to crash have been fixed (for example when all settlements of a native player was destroyed).
  • Fixed several issues with goto-orders that made the game hang after end of turn.
  • Fixed several issues that forced a server reconnect.
  • Fixed leaking file descriptors that crashed the game on Windows.
  • Reduces the amount of jumping around on the map while animating the moves of enemy units.
  • Accelerator keys can now be changed, saved and loaded in the preferences.
  • It's now possible to add the same goods multiple times to the same stop in the trade route panel.
  • Fixes the scaling of several different panels (preferences).
  • Scrolling on the map should now be smoother.
  • Units should no longer have their graphics clipped on the map.
  • Smoother playback of audio.
  • The colony panel is now properly updated when clearing the speciality of a worker.
  • Recursive autosave directories should no longer be created.
  • Several text template fixes.
  • Lots of other minor bugfixes.

Other changes

  • The escape key can now be used to close most panels.
  • There are now separate volume sliders for music and sound effects.
  • Added a mod where basic buildings (level 1) needs to be constructed (except Town Hall and Carpenter's house).
  • Added a mod for having 19th century nations.
  • Treasure trains are now displayed in the cargo report panel.
  • A malfunctional AI should no longer stop the game.
  • Better handling of severe errors like out-of-memory and stack-overflow.
  • Translation updates (a total of 5191 translation strings updated in 53 different languages).

v0.13.0

1 year ago

The FreeCol team are pleased to announce the release of FreeCol 0.13.0.

All 0.11.x (x != 4) and 0.12.0 games should continue to work with 0.13.0, but not vice versa.

User-visible changes since 0.12.0-release

  • In-game music by Alexander Zhelanov.
  • New skins for the minimap and the unit info panel.
  • New animated rivers.
  • Major river tiles now gets the minor river production bonus twice.
  • The rendering performance has been improved.
  • Rendering quality can now be modified using a new option in the Preferences.
  • More high resolution versions of existing images have been added.
  • Better support for screens with low resolution.
  • Adding two new mods for changing the skins for the minimap and the unit info panel.
  • Multiplayer savegame loading has been fixed.
  • Over 30 bugs fixed.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/FreeCol/freecol/compare/v0.12.0...v0.13.0

v0.12.0

2 years ago

FreeCol 0.12.0

The FreeCol team are pleased to announce the release of FreeCol 0.12.0. Its been a while. All 0.11.x (x != 4) games should continue to work with 0.12.0, but not vice versa.

We hope you enjoy FreeCol 0.12.0. Onward to 1.0.

The FreeCol Team

Java Platform

FreeCol requires Java 11 at minimum. Java 11 is a "Long Term Support" release, but later releases are also known to work.

Mac OS

Running FreeCol in Full-screen mode on OSX is known to be problematic and may not work well. As far we can tell this is due to a problem with the Java there, which we are unable to fix.

Older Mods

Old saved games that use old versions of the mods may lose functionality with the new release. Most of the packaged mods should continue to work (there are known problems with "convertUpgrade"). New games using the updated mods will work.

User-visible changes since 0.11.6-release

New features

  • Major graphics rework
    • New tile and building images from Misiulo
    • Support for high-DPI screens, customizable font size and high resolution versions of existing graphics
    • Support for animations, smooth map scrolling and other improvements to the graphics engine
  • Many new maps, from Euzimar, piotrus, Mazim, organized by Blake
  • A huge expansion of the name lists (regions, ships, colonies) from Marcin
  • A unit may now be ordered to go to an unexplored tile, as long as there is an adjacent explored tile that the unit can reach (without requring transport)
  • Display of European prices in several dialogs IR#43, from Brian Kim, Louise Zhang, Seongmin Park and Michael Jeffers
  • Move all goods with a hot key IR#199 from Brian Kim, Louise Zhang, Seongmin Park and Michael Jeffers
  • Easier river editing in map editor through separate options for adding/removing and changing the river style
  • There are now separate options controlling movement speed of your units, other friendly nation units, and other hostile nation units (formerly just your units and other nation units)
  • Over 150 bugs fixed

Other improvements

  • Added tool tip to explain the last sale price annotation on the native settlement panel
  • Added "About FreeCol" button to the opening menu screen IR#15
  • Added option to disable / enable region naming dialog. IR#222
  • Game options added to adjust trade bonus for native alarm. BR#3092

Developer issues

  • Java 11 is required to build FreeCol.
  • Resource keys for same images in different resolution can now be added to support higher resolution images when zooming or using --gui-scale option.
  • DOM is gone, and there was much rejoicing.

Files

https://sourceforge.net/projects/freecol/files/freecol/freecol-0.12.0/

(Files will be added to the GitHub release at a later date.)

Github-generated list of changes

New Contributors

Full Changelog: https://github.com/FreeCol/freecol/compare/v0.11.6...v0.12.0

nightly-2022-04-20

2 years ago

Release Notes

No MacOS installer included. Mac users will have to compile FreeCol using the source code attached.

  • The look and feel of the game has changes since the last nightly release.
  • Higher resolution graphics for many units and Founding Fathers.
  • A bug with Scouts not having horses in Europe has been fixed. (BR3220)

Known Issues

  • A bug has been reported that not all REF forces do battle with player. (BR3246)
  • A bug with the FreeCol ruleset concerning ships stuck outside of Native settlements has been rereported. (BR3247)

Full Changelog: https://github.com/FreeCol/freecol/compare/nightly-2022-03-15...nightly-2022-04-20

nightly-2022-03-15

2 years ago

MacOS installer not included.

Updates: #98 has been fixed, which was a duplicate of BR3246 which has been closed. #101 has been fixed. Reported by @mjunix. #102 has been fixed. Reported by @mjunix. #103 has been fixed. Reported by @mjunix. #104 has been fixed. Reported by @mfasold BR3237 has been closed. BR3245 has been closed. BR3241 has been closed.

Thanks to those who tested and reported bugs/contributed solutions.

nightly-2022-02-17

2 years ago

Small bug fix nightly release.

Notes

  • BR3228: Some fixes reverted for this bug report due to interference in code causing BR3238.
  • BR3238: Some fixes committed for this bug report. Clearing this bug has allowed for this nightly release.
  • Translation updates via TranslateWiki.

New Bug Reports since last Nightly Release:

  • BR3242: GUI - Menu Duplication and Switched position
  • BR3243: Gameplay bugs
  • BR3244: Damaged maps
  • BR3245: Start game problem of Nightly Release: January 31, 2022

nightly-2022-01-31

2 years ago

Nightly Release: January 31, 2022

MacOS installer not included

Note that this update requires at least Java 9 to install. Java may be downloaded from Oracle at https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/ for Java 17 or https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/#java11 for Java 11. Either should work to compile FreeCol.

What's Changed

(Includes only GitHub controlled changes. Bugs reported and fixed on SourceForge not listed.)

New Contributors

Full Changelog: https://github.com/FreeCol/freecol/compare/v0.11.6...nightly-2022-01-31

nightly-2021-04-04

3 years ago