After many years of development and a multitude of beta builds, the latest open source colonization "FreeCol" 1.0 is now available for download. Based on Sid Meier's Colonization (Microprose) in which the player manages the cross-Atlantic expansion of an established nation in the service of the Crown, this is an open source version which is also very similar to Civilization. Starting off with just a few colonists and looking for new lands, will you succeed for a new nation or be wiped out by the natives.
Here is what the website says about this brand new release : "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!". In light of this news we have all the changes and bug fixes listed below, which makes this the best release of FreeCol so far.
Graphics- New nation specific colony graphics.
- New forest graphics
- New graphics for deserts.
- New transitions between the base tiles.
- Minor changes to other graphics.
- Major changes to the tile goods production so that the actual values matches the original game.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
I am very curious especially about the AI improvement
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