FreeCol 0.12.0

The FreeCol team are pleased to announce the release of FreeCol 0.12.0. The intent with this release was to be to make progress on missing Col1 features, but then a serious game wrecking corruption bug surfaced, requiring some major underlying changes. Software development is like that.

This then is another bug fix and incremental improvement release. All 0.11.x (x != 4) games should continue to work with 0.12.0.

We hope you enjoy FreeCol 0.12.0. Onward to 1.0.

The FreeCol Team

Common problems

Java 7 is no longer receiving active support, therefore previous versions of FreeCol switched to using Java 8. If FreeCol fails to run, check first if your installed Java libraries are at least Java 8.

Java 9 has now been released, and FreeCol should work with it, although testing is limited. Java 8 will cease to be supported in late 2018. Expect FreeCol releases after that point to require Java 9.

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

A number of higher resolution images for units, goods and more have been added to the game.

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.

New large Caribbean map contributed by piotrus.

New South America map contributed by Euzimar.

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).

Bugs fixed

Fixed scout with goto-orders looping at lost city rumours, and broken messages following exploration of "strange mounds", BR#2932

"slowed by" message no longer reveals enemy privateer nation, BR#2933

The most recently arrived carrier is selected by default when the Europe panel is displayed, BR#2941

Various path finding fixes with middle-click gotos, BR#2943, BR#2944, BR#2980.

Abandoning an improvement no longer corrupts the work of other pioneers also working on the same improvement, BR#2946.

Trying to overfill a unit with goods in Europe now just does nothing (like other such cases) and does not provoke the "server can not do that" message IR#214 but really a bug

Custom options were broken, again, BR#2948.

Fixed bad "trade refused" message, BR#2950.

deSoto and scouts could desynchronize the map, BR#2953.

Bad turn number when sailing from Europe, BR#2955.

Suppress bogus payment listing when dumping in Europe, BR#2956.

Suppress bogus colony abandonment warning when spying, BR#2957.

Drop carried goods when a brave is captured, BR#2958.

Fix colony tile ownership inconsistency, BR#2963.

Clickable link problems, BR#2965.

Correctly update after feature change (such as goods party), BR#2966.

Problems using units that have exhausted their moves, BR#2968.

Slight clarification of unattended production modifiers, BR#2973.

Stop accumulating colonies in classic colony report, BR#2974.

Many Col1-compatibility checks and bugfixes with tile and building production with help from Lone_Wolf, BR#2978, BR#2979, BR#2981.

New versions of the national anthems and addition of the missing ones, from CalebRW.

Problems with selecting from multiple wagons in the build queue BR#2014, fixed by Lars Willemsens.

Problems with auto-save cleanup BR#1307, fixed by Lars Willemsens.

Various fixes to the map editor including smaller dialog for changing river styles BR#2926.

Layout of Warehouse Panel got improved to better fit inside the minimum supported resolution BR#3033, contributed by Jonas Stevnsvig.

Images of native converts who become dragoons or scouts retain ethnicity, BR#3086.

Seasoned Scouts no longer disappear at LSR's according to Col1 and no longer increase negative results. BR#3093

Delivering gifts to Natives has a stronger effect on reducing native alarm. BR#3092

The Map Editor now loads/saves from a distinct map directory (by default) BR#3106

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

Lots of new maps!

Developer issues