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NEWS
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======================
Welcome to Freeciv x.x
======================
The most important changes between major releases are shown below.
Not all changes are shown here. Those who are interested in seeing
the detailed changes should check the ChangeLog file.
MAJOR CHANGES FROM 3.0.x to 3.1.0
---------------------------------
[TODO]
MAJOR CHANGES FROM 2.6.x to 3.0.0
---------------------------------
[TODO]
MAJOR CHANGES FROM 2.5.x to 2.6.0
---------------------------------
(from <http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/NEWS-2.6.0>, 2018-07-22)
The major changes in Freeciv 2.6 are a redesigned Qt client, an updated
civ2civ3 ruleset, and a whole lot of extra flexibility to create custom
rulesets.
As is usual for major releases, 2.6 clients cannot interoperate with
pre-2.6 servers, and vice versa. Most pre-2.6 savegames can however be
loaded into 2.6, and in most cases, the supplied rulesets have not
changed so much as to make it difficult to complete a game started with
2.5.x's rules.
Server / General
Changes affecting players (supplied rulesets)
A new ruleset, "sandbox", is included (as of beta2). This is a place
for developers to experiment with and demonstrate new engine features,
without regard to game balance or savefile compatibility; sandbox games
started in this version may not load into future releases (even minor
2.6.x releases). HRM#696004
Miscellaneous rule changes affecting all or most rulesets:
* In most supplied rulesets, non-military units and some air units no
longer impose a zone of control (ZoC). GNAPATCH#4818 GNAPATCH#4935
* classic, multiplayer, experimental: Mines on Desert and Glacier are
now Oil Wells, and can only be built once Construction and Refining
are known respectively. If the underlying terrain changes between
one supporting regular mine and one supporting oil well, the
improvement is lost. (civ2civ3 is different, see below.)
GNAPATCH#4391
* Buoys no longer claim territory, and so can no longer be used to
block travel during peace. GNAPATCH#3878
* The size of barbarian uprisings, and the effect of the 'barbarians'
setting, have changed. (It's not clear what the old code actually
did.) GNAPATCH#5909
* When 'autoattack' is enabled, now the best attacker goes first, not
the worst. (This makes target-specific strength factors work to the
attacker's advantage rather than the defender's, but does make it
easier to lure out strong attacking units.) GNAPATCH#7942
* (as of RC2) Bribe cost for damaged units has increased. Previously
(due to a bug) it was halved if the unit had lost any hitpoints at
all. Now it depends on how damaged they are (up to at most a
discount of half, as before). HRM#763896
* "Industrial Accident" disaster, where a Mfg. Plant can cause
population loss and pollution. GNAPATCH#5014
* When a Spy sabotages another diplomatic unit, there is no longer a
diplomatic battle (which could lead to the elimination of the
victim, rather than just a reduction in hit points). GNAPATCH#6103
* "SDI Defense" now works against allies' nukes. GNAPATCH#6693
* In rulesets where the Great Library grants techs known by other
civilizations, it now grants a random tech of the eligible ones,
rather than a predictable one. GNAPATCH#5104
* Ruins are removed whenever the underlying terrain is changed.
GNA#20898
Rule changes to specific rulesets:
* civ2civ3 has had many changes.
+ Units and combat
o 'Tired attack' is enabled: units that attack with less
than one movement point have reduced attack strength.
GNAPATCH#7160
o Units which cost population (Settlers, Migrants, and
Fanatics) no longer pay shield or gold upkeep. Instead,
they count towards the per-city food upkeep limit.
(Changed because the AI no longer mishandles this
combination.) HRM#681977
o Naval units are now generally cheaper, to make the ratio
of strength to cost more similar to land units.
GNAPATCH#8124
o Airplanes (fighters and bombers) can spend an extra turn
in the air, allowing more air-to-air battles. They lose
10% of hitpoints every turn when in the air, like
Helicopters. GNAPATCH#4812
o Cruise Missiles have increased range, and can target
aircraft.
o All aircraft can use Airports to travel between cities.
o Carriers can now transport Land units (non-wheeled, and
non-merchant). (Because Carriers could already transport
Helicopters which can transport Land units. However, not
all land units can freely enter or leave Helicopters
while on board a Carrier.) HRM#681866
o Only "Big Land" class units (tanks, artillery etc) kill
citizens when attacking a city; "Land" class units
(infantry etc) no longer do. GNAPATCH#7078 GNA#24616
o Triremes are subject to ZoC when traveling on rivers, and
can no longer move diagonally between river tiles.
o Explorers can establish embassies and investigate cities,
like Diplomats. They are slightly more expensive, but do
not become obsolete.
o The actions Establish Embassy and Investigate City can be
done directly from a boat.
o Diplomat and Spy can fortify (this provides no defensive
bonus, but means they don't wake up as they would when
sentried). GNA#25151
o Reworked merchant units (Caravan and Freight) and trade.
GNAPATCH#7137
# No longer require river or roads to move.
# Subject to ZoC.
# Cannot establish trade routes or help build wonders
without movement points.
# No one-time trade bonuses when they enter a city.
# When war is declared between two players, existing
trade routes are canceled, and new ones can't be
established while a state of war exists.
# Can help building allies' or team-mates' wonders.
o The default start units include a Worker instead of
Migrants. GNAPATCH#6368
+ Terrain and terrain alterations
o Changes to defensive bases:
# New 'Fort' and 'Airstrip' bases, which must be built
before 'Fortress' and 'Airbase' respectively. They
provide some defense; airstrips provide a refuel
point.
# Fortresses and Airbases no longer prevent a whole
unit stack from being lost when one defender dies
GNAPATCH#5998; but they now provide some defense
bonus against all kinds of attacking unit.
# Airbases provide extra vision, like Fortresses after
Astronomy; and provide more hitpoint regeneration
(equivalent to a city without an Airport).
o City centers once again always get automatic roads, even
on rivers without knowledge of Bridge Building.
HRM#676162
o City center tiles are no longer guaranteed a minimum of 1
food. The only effect is that city center desert tiles no
longer give any food if a mine is built on them.
HRM#681856
o Mountains now get an extra production point from mining
(changed from +1 to +2).
o Desert and Glacier tiles can now have an oil well built
on top of a mine once Refining is known, for an extra
production point. The mines available from the start of
the game are drawn with the same sprites as on other
terrains. GNAPATCH#5915
o In order to get a bonus with Offshore Platform, deep
ocean tiles now require the new extra Oil Platform,
rather than Buoy. Offshore Platforms now give a bonus
from lake tiles too.
o Added Maglevs (with Superconductors), which supplement
Railroads and give infinite movement to certain units.
o Forest, Jungle, and Swamp tiles now give the advertised
defense bonus of 25% (in 2.5 it was rounded down to 20%).
o Forest and Jungle tiles can now suffer pollution and
fallout, like most other tiles. HRM#681860
o Adjusted terrain transformations (that can be done once
Fusion Power is known). Designed so that all useful
alterations can be finished in 1 or 2 steps, and all
global warming effects can be reversed with Transform.
GNAPATCH#5596
o Adjusted effects of climate change. Ocean can no longer
become Deep Ocean. GNAPATCH#5475
+ Buildings and wonders
o Great Wonders are now only obsoleted when the owner
learns a certain technology, not when any player does.
GNAPATCH#5542
o A new building, the Ecclesiastical Palace (available with
Theology), acts as a second center of government.
GNAPATCH#7159
o Spaceship part cost approximately doubled. GNAPATCH#5996
o It's no longer possible to build a Harbor next to a lake
(since it gives no benefit to lake tiles). GNA#25070
o Conversely, Lighthouse and Magellan's Expedition can be
built next to deep ocean. GNAPATCH#7742
o The suppression of Super Highways trade benefits by a
farmland bonus no longer applies to city center tiles.
HRM#695978
+ Technology
o 'Holes' in the tech tree (knowing a tech without knowing
its prerequisites) are no longer allowed (previously they
could arise through tech trading, tech loss, and so on).
GNAPATCH#4967
o Construction now requires Iron Working, rather than
Currency (so that Iron Working is a prerequisite for
Frigates and Ironclads). GNAPATCH#5999
o Population pollution can now occur even without knowledge
of Industrialization. (This was a corner case that would
likely never have been encountered.) GNAPATCH#5015
+ Government
o The Tribal government gives one content citizen per city
instead of martial law.
o Tribal governments get an extra unhappy citizen at a
slightly smaller empire size, and Monarchies at a
slightly larger.
o Each city in a Federation gets 2 extra luxury points.
o The 50% science loss from Fundamentalism is now additive
with other science bonuses, rather than multiplicative.
(It's equivalent to losing a building such as a Library.)
o Similarly, the luxury loss from Anarchy is now additive
rather than multiplicative.
+ Other
o Certain buildings (and all wonders) generate culture
points every turn, which accumulate in a city (and change
hands with it); each nation can also get one-time culture
boosts from achievements such as mapping the entire world
or launching a spaceship. Culture affects score, and city
culture drives migration, if enabled. A cultural victory
is also possible (but not enabled by default, as these
effects have not yet been tested and balanced); a player
must have culture above a certain threshold, and a
convincing lead over other players, to win. GNAPATCH#5997
o The outer ring of tiles worked by a city can be stolen by
an enemy border source. (The inner ring is permanently
owned by the city owner.) GNAPATCH#7096 HRM#651450
o Adjustments to AI bonuses: HRM#681976 GNAPATCH#6006
# Hard AIs are no longer favored by other AI players,
but Cheating AIs are favored more.
# Cheating AIs no longer get any bonus to defense
(they used to get one against land attacks); but
their units do now cost more to bribe, they don't
pay unit food upkeep, they get a bonus to population
pollution, and their existing bonuses to veteran
chance and city incite cost are increased.
o Tweaked the startup defaults. (These are almost all
server settings that can be customized to taste.)
HRM#650801
# Grant a diplomat start unit ('startunits').
# 6 players by default, not 12 (and a smaller map).
# Tweaked map generation: smaller poles, less shallow
ocean.
# Revolutions tend to become quicker the more times
any player has used the target government type
('revolentype').
# Halved the chance of building destruction when a
city is conquered ('razechance').
* multiplayer ruleset:
+ 'Tired attack' is enabled: units that attack with less than
one movement point have reduced attack strength. GNA#22395
+ Darwin's Voyage now only gives one free tech, not two.
HRM#692110
+ Buoys have been restored, now that they no longer claim
territory. GNAPATCH#3874
+ Borders are now enabled by default; the 'foggedborders' option
has been set so that you can't deduce enemy movements through
their border changes; you can always see your own territory.
GNA#17304
* experimental ruleset:
+ One player policy, 'Personal Freedom', which allows trading
off science against military unhappiness.
+ Culture sources (fewer than civ2civ3: Palace, Colosseum,
Library, University). Cultural victory is enabled by default.
+ Explorers can establish embassies once Writing is known.
GNAPATCH#5132
+ Spies can bribe and sabotage units which are not alone on
their tiles. GNAPATCH#5295
+ Caravans and Freight can opt to not to establish (or displace)
a trade route when arriving at a destination city, instead
receiving just the one-time bonus ("Sell Goods").
+ Workers and Engineers can fortify.
+ Various achievements. They are only available to the first
player to reach them, and have no gameplay effect.
+ AI traits are somewhat randomized. GNAPATCH#5226
+ The fourth city radius on square topologies is slightly
larger. GNAPATCH#5983
* civ1 and civ2 rulesets (to improve their fidelity):
+ A tile with both a river and a fortress now has a higher
defensive bonus, as the bonuses are now multiplied rather than
added (restoring the 2.4 behavior). GNA#23143
+ In the civ2 ruleset, Diplomats and Spies can now perform their
actions directly from a ship on the ocean. GNA#23604
+ Player colors are by default tied to specific nations.
GNAPATCH#3927
+ The civ1 ruleset no longer has Farmland (previously it existed
despite being impossible to build, due to engine limitations).
GNAPATCH#4342
New/changed game settings:
* A new option 'revolentype' controls how the period of anarchy
during a revolution is determined. New options include a random
period with a maximum other than 5 turns, and a period that
decreases the more times anyone has switched to the target
government. GNAPATCH#4700 GNAPATCH#5338
* The 'diplcost' setting has been split into 'diplbulbcost' and
'diplgoldcost'. GNAPATCH#5386
* The 'huts' setting is now relative to map size (it was a count).
Old scenarios will retain their behavior, but old server scripts
will not. GNAPATCH#6669
* The 'happyborders' setting has a new value which allows your units
to be inside allies' borders without causing unhappiness.
GNAPATCH#5001
* The 'spacerace' and 'alliedvictory' options have been replaced by a
new bitwise option 'victories'. A third flag has been added to this
option to enable 'cultural victory' in rulesets which support it
(currently 'civ2civ3' and 'experimental'). GNAPATCH#4017
GNAPATCH#4018
* 'citymindist' now goes up to 11. GNAPATCH#5572
* The settings 'sciencebox' and 'killstack' can now be changed in the
pregame of scenarios which have players defined (such as Europe
1901).
* 'startunits' can now include a ferryboat unit ('f'). GNAPATCH#4861
Also, this setting can now be empty if 'startcity' is set.
GNAPATCH#5887
* Map generation:
+ The previous hard-coded behavior that non-wrapping maps had
only a single pole has been replaced by a new setting
'singlepole' which controls this behavior. GNA#23261
+ The previously hardcoded suppression of relief at the poles is
now controlled by a new setting 'flatpoles'. GNAPATCH#6919
+ Narrower borders around edged maps (restoring 2.2.x behavior).
GNAPATCH#6917
+ Map generation now tries a bit harder before giving up.
GNAPATCH#4900
Game limits:
* The maximum number of regular players has increased from 126 to 150
(160 including barbarians). GNAPATCH#4254
* The maximum number of cities and units in a game (added together)
has increased from 65535 to 250000. GNA#21950
Supplied scenarios:
* A new scenario, "Europe 1900 WWI", is included. This is a Europe
map with the cities and units of the Great Powers prior to the
outbreak of the First World War. (A previous version was available
for 2.5 via the modpack installer, as "Europe 1901".) GNAPATCH#6434
* The large Earth scenario now has 52 more start positions (for a
total of 91), and players start with their first city built. Thanks
to Rhue. HRM#688280 HRM#702265
Changes affecting other rulesets / modders
We've tried to make it a bit easier for people not experienced with
modding to add new nations to their local installation, with the
'override' directory. How to use this is documented in
doc/README.nations. GNAPATCH#3926
Both client and server have a new command-line option --warnings,
designed for modders, which warns about deprecated modpack constructs
that may disappear in future releases. If you port a modpack to 2.6,
it's a good idea to run with this option to check for old constructs.
Ruleset authors can control much more of the game behavior. Comments in
supplied ruleset files give some documentation and usage examples of
new features; you can also browse the forum thread where most features
were announced as they were added.
<http://forum.freeciv.org/f/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=122>
Existing rulesets need changes to work with 2.6; see
<http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/How_to_update_a_ruleset_from_2.5_to_2.6>
for a minimal recipe (not all required changes are listed below). Once
you've updated to 2.6 format, the next major version after that is
planned to contain a tool to upgrade rulesets automatically.
* Extras
+ Most additions to base terrain -- roads, bases, and specials
-- are now unified as "extras"; only resources remain
separate. The properties and graphic representations of extras
are now somewhat less tied to their category, although roads
and bases continue to exist as subclasses with unique
properties.
+ The previously hardcoded set of terrain specials -- mine,
irrigation, farmland, pollution, fallout, hut -- is now fully
under ruleset control.
+ Production bonuses and penalties formerly caused by terrain
specials are now governed by new effects (Irrigation_Pct,
Mining_Pct, Output_Tile_Punish_Pct), so can depend on more and
different requirements. GNAPATCH#3965 GNAPATCH#3967
GNAPATCH#3974
+ The set of events that can cause extras to appear and
disappear (for instance user actions like "mine", "irrigate",
and "clean fallout") is still fixed, although their mapping to
extras is not. If the ruleset allows the same cause to create
or remove multiple extras, the player can choose.
+ Any kind of extra (including roads and bases) can fall into
any of the new extra categories (Infra, Natural, Bonus, or
Nuisance). (This mainly affects how they are presented in the
help and user interface.) For instance, it would be possible
to have a base generated at game start like a hut (Bonus
category).
+ The total limit on extras of any kind is now 64 (previously
there were limits of 32 base types and 8 road types).
+ New features:
o Bases on a tile in unclaimed territory can now have an
owner distinct from the border owner of the tile they are
on. This only has an effect for bases providing vision.
For example, this allows buoys to provide vision to a
player without also providing territory (and blocking
peaceful units). Unlike territory-providing bases, such
bases do not change hands, unless another base is built
on the same tile. GNAPATCH#3630
o Extra removal (cleaning and pillaging) can now have
additional requirements (rmreqs).
o The time taken to remove an extra can be extra-specific
(removal_time) or terrain-specific (via existing
clean_fallout/pollution_time or new pillage_time).
o Extra build/removal time can now also depend on both
extra and terrain to some extent (build_time_factor,
removal_time_factor).
o Extras can optionally disappear when the underlying
terrain changes even if they would be valid on the new
terrain -- 'TerrChangeRemoves' extra flag. GNA#20898
o Optional defense layers -- 'Natural' and 'Fortification'
-- with multiplicative defense bonuses. Allows rulesets
to fix a regression in 2.5 when rivers were turned into
road types. GNA#23143
o The move_mode of roads can now affect whether a move is
legal, not just its cost. For instance, a river-native
unit can be prevented from moving between two rivers on
diagonally adjacent tiles. GNA#16383
o Integrating roads, allowing move bonus / legality between
two tiles with different types of roads. Graphics are
drawn appropriately. GNAPATCH#3829
o Roads can have additional requirements on where they are
started (building road on a tile where no adjacent tiles
have the same or an integrating road) -- 'first_reqs'.
GNAPATCH#4688
o Extras can now be native to units without also being
refuel points for them ('Refuel' extra flag).
GNAPATCH#4106
o The names of menu options for building the two categories
of base with their own keystrokes are now under ruleset
control, rather than being fixed as "Type A / B base".
GNAPATCH#2721
o The extras used for pollution, fallout, and huts can be
terrain-dependent and/or chosen randomly from a set.
* Actions
+ Some actions performed by units -- in 2.6, just the special
diplomat/spy/caravan actions -- can now be configured by the
ruleset. The consequences of actions are still largely
hardcoded, but the circumstances in which units can perform
these actions are now specified with the requirements system
using 'action enablers'. Many previously hard-coded rules are
now under ruleset control. See doc/README.actions.
Some examples of newly possible things (this is not an
exhaustive list):
o Helping to build a wonder in a foreign city.
o Sabotaging a unit with 1 hitpoint can kill it.
o Poisoning a size 1 city can destroy it.
o Acting against units not alone on a tile (the player is
prompted to choose a target unit).
o Acting against units inside cities (but you must be able
to see inside the city, implying at least Alliance).
o Hostile actions against players you're not at war with,
or yourself.
o Establishing embassies with No_Diplomacy nations.
o Units don't have to have a Diplomat/Spy flag to perform
what have traditionally been diplomatic actions.
(However, these flags do still control the ability to
survive actions, defense against such actions, and city
resistance to tech stealing.)
+ One new spy-type action, "Steal Gold", which steals a random
amount from the target player's treasury. New effects control
the maximum amount stolen ("Max_Stolen_Gold_Pm") and how much
is lost to both players ("Thiefs_Share_Pm"). GNAPATCH#5274
+ "Enter Marketplace" (one-time revenue from caravans, now
called "Sell Goods" in most rulesets) can now be an
independent action from "Establish Trade Route", with its own
rules.
+ It's now possible to allow only targeted sabotage and tech
stealing, without offering the option of a randomly chosen
target.
+ Many new requirements have been added to express conditions
that were previously hard-coded in these actions. See
"requirements" below.
+ A Lua signal 'action_started_*' is emitted when an action is
about to take place, allowing additional behavior to be added.
+ Since it's now possible to construct a ruleset where an action
is illegal due to some restriction that is unknown to the
player, a new effect "Illegal_Action_Move_Cost" allows
movement points to be deducted if such an action is attempted.
This is intended to avoid the information leak from such
attempts being entirely without penalty (which would reward
tedious action scrubbing by players).
* Culture
+ New feature: the ruleset can award culture points points that
accumulate over time ("history") or points that only last as
long as a condition holds ("performance"); each can be accrued
on a per-city or per-nation basis.
o Rulesets control the numeric criteria for cultural
victory (which is optionally enabled with the 'victories'
setting).
o Requirements can test the total culture of cities or
players.
o Lua scripts can test or modify culture.
+ City culture can boost migration.
+ See the civ2civ3 description above for an example of what can
be achieved.
* Achievements
+ The game can track track whether players meet certain
conditions (see doc/README.achievements), and award
'achievements' either to the first or to each player that
meets the requirements. Achievements can simply be trophies
with no further effect, or can affect gameplay by granting
culture points, through the effects system, or through Lua
scripting.
* Policies
+ Rulesets can define a set of 'policies', sliders which the
player can adjust once per turn and which affect the game via
'multipliers' in the effects system. These can be used to
implement custom trade-offs similar to the built-in tax rates.
* Disasters
+ A new disaster effect "ReducePopDestroy"; this is like
"ReducePopulation" except that it can destroy a city of size
1.
+ A new Lua signal 'disaster_occurred' (replacing 'disaster')
tells a script whether the disaster had some effect inside the
game engine. The default script does not implement any
additional effects, so prints a message if there was no net
effect from a disaster. GNA#22082
* Terrain
+ Terrain defense bonuses that aren't a multiple of 10% now work
as expected (previously they were rounded down to the nearest
10%). GNA#25432
+ Map generation:
o A new 'Frozen' terrain flag, which can apply to land and
water. Frozen terrain is generated near the poles;
terrain changes will try to preserve frozenness; and
rulesets can specify that freezing/thawing terrain
transformations require a certain threshold of
surrounding frozenness. These changes are intended to
allow rulesets to define 'sea ice' terrains.
o Better support for multiple lake terrains: each lake
picks a consistent terrain type (rather than a
patchwork), and the NotGenerated flag is now honored for
lake terrains. GNAPATCH#6918
* Units and movement
+ There have been a lot of engine changes, particularly in
path-finding and AI, to support units with complex or unusual
movement restrictions. If you tried to create an unusual type
of unit or terrain restriction in a previous version and it
didn't work very well, it's worth trying again. There are too
many changes to list individually, but here are some of the
more notable ones:
o The 'shore bombardment' combat rule, where both attacker
and defender firepower are reduced to 1, now applies to
any situation where each unit couldn't move to the
other's tile. GNAPATCH#3830
o Path-finding through unknown terrain makes different
decisions. GNAPATCH#3903
o Auto-explore works better with units other than pure
land/sea units. GNAPATCH#4853
o Unreachable target units are handled better by
path-finding. GNAPATCH#4985
o As part of this, the old 'move_type' ruleset parameter
has been completely retired; the engine infers what it
needs from other unit properties. GNAPATCH#4865
+ Units no longer have to impose zones of control (ZoC); this
can be disabled with the 'HasNoZoc' unit type flag. GNA#21507
+ The hardcoded rule that units may only impose a zone of
control (ZoC) on land has been replaced by the 'NoZoc' terrain
flag. GNAPATCH#4597
+ Ability to airlift a unit is now controlled by a unit class
flag 'Airliftable', rather than being hardcoded to units the
game thought were land units. GNAPATCH#3871
+ The hardcoded rule that units may fortify on land but not
water has been replaced by the 'NoFortify' terrain flag.
GNAPATCH#5075
+ A unit type may now both fortify (F) and build fortress-type
bases (Shift+F). The new unit type flag 'Cant_Fortify'
replaces the previous hardcoded rule that 'Settlers' type
units could not fortify. GNAPATCH#5072
+ A new ruleset option 'pythagorean_diagonal' allows diagonal
moves in square topologies to cost more than orthogonal moves.
GNAPATCH#4819
+ The maximum paradrop range has been increased from 255 to
effectively unlimited. GNA#24349
+ Rulesets now have better control over which unit types can be
granted via 'startunits', with the '*StartUnit' role flags.
GNAPATCH#4625
+ The maximum number of ruleset-defined unit type flags has
increased from 16 to 32. GNAPATCH#4904
* Cities
+ Rulesets can now control how many of the tiles initially
claimed by a city are immune from later border stealing, via
'radius_sq_city_permanent'. GNAPATCH#6036
+ A new tech flag 'Claim_Ocean_Limited' which allows cities and
bases to claim water tiles only if they themselves are in
water (unlike 'Claim_Ocean', which also allowed land cities to
extend claims over water). GNAPATCH#4629
+ The effect where city disorder spills over into national
revolution now works at city resolution, as does the number of
turns of sustained disorder required, which is now under
ruleset control (new 'Revolution_Unhappiness' effect replacing
'Revolution_When_Unhappy'). GNAPATCH#4021
+ Building obsolescence is now defined with a list of any
requirements (rather than restricting buildings to being made
obsolete by tech and replaced by other buildings), with any
fulfilled requirement making the building obsolete.
GNAPATCH#3941 GNAPATCH#1341
+ The "Visible_Walls" effect is no longer boolean; with the
cooperation of the tileset, it allows up to 7 different wall
graphics to be selected (which don't actually have to be
wall-related). GNAPATCH#4393
* Trade
+ Trade route legality / bonus can now differ depending on
whether foreign trade routes are with an enemy, ally, or team
member. GNAPATCH#4499
+ Whether trade routes give a one-time bonus to gold and/or
science is now configurable. GNAPATCH#5248
+ The new 'Traderoute_Pct' effect allows ongoing trade route
revenue to be adjusted. GNAPATCH#3249
* Technology
+ Rulesets can control whether 'holes' in the tech tree (techs
without their prerequisites) can ever appear due to various
causes (tech trading, tech loss, etc). GNAPATCH#4415
GNAPATCH#4789
+ The "Tech_Parasite" effect (traditionally used for the Great
Library) now grants a random tech from those eligible, rather
than the one defined first in the ruleset. GNAPATCH#5104
* Nation styles
+ The 'city styles' that players selected when picking a nation
have been replaced with 'nation styles'.
+ The graphics used for cities can still depend on these (via
the new "Style" requirement), but don't have to; the sprite
used for the city can depend on other properties of the city.
(For instance, this can be used for ocean cities, so
oceanic_graphic definitions have been removed.)
+ Music styles (see "Sound" later) can also be influenced by
nation styles.
* Barbarians
+ A new barbarian type, "Animal", is available for use by
rulesets.
o One Animal Kingdom AI "barbarian" player is created at
game start to manage the animals.
o Each terrain type has just one characteristic animal (or
none); so for any given terrain there's one kind of
animal that'll spawn there, but a given animal can call
multiple terrains home (so if both Hills and Mountains
have animal="Mountain Lion", then wild lions will roam
inside any contiguous region of uplands, but will never
step/attack outside). Animals cannot conquer cities.
o Animals' movement restriction to terrain is a property of
the owner, not the unit; so if an animal-type unit can be
captured it can then be moved anywhere, subject to the
usual rules.
o The map is randomly populated with animal units according
to map size and terrain availability at game start
(controlled by the new 'animals' setting).
o Animals do not respawn, and once they're all gone,
they're gone (as is the animal player).
+ The behavior of barbarian units -- when they 'retire'
(disappear) -- is now more under ruleset control. A new
effect, 'Retire_Pct', influences this.
+ The 'barbarians' setting is automatically adjusted and locked
if the ruleset does not define any barbarian nations.
GNAPATCH#7192
* Effects and requirements
+ New requirements:
o Requirements that depend on properties of a specific
unit, not just the unit type and location. These were
introduced mainly for use in action enablers, but can be
used in other situations (e.g. 'Veteran_Combat' effect).
# Whether a unit is currently being transported
(UnitState = Transported) or can exist independently
at its current location (OnLivableTile).
GNAPATCH#4983, GNAPATCH#4894
# The unit's veteran level (MinVeteran). GNAPATCH#4902
# The unit's remaining movement points (MinMoveFrags).
GNAPATCH#5033
# The unit's remaining hit points (MinHitPoints).
GNAPATCH#5135
o 'DiplRel' requirement, allowing testing relationships
between the two players in some effects. Includes regular
diplomatic states (war, peace, alliance, team etc) as
well as shared vision, embassies, casus belli (reason to
cancel treaty), and whether they are in fact different
players. GNAPATCH#4051
o The 'MaxUnitsOnTile' requirement allows testing the total
number of units currently on the tile. GNAPATCH#4224
o New requirement 'Age' allows testing how many turns a
unit, city, or player has existed. GNAPATCH#5305
GNAPATCH#5380
o 'NationGroup' allows testing whether a player is one of a
particular subset of nations. Rulesets can define nation
groups which don't appear in the nation selection UI, for
use with this requirement. The supplied rulesets define a
'Barbarian' nation group for this purpose. GNAPATCH#5383
o 'Topology' tests properties of the game's map topology
('WrapX', 'WrapY', 'Iso', or 'Hex'). GNAPATCH#6193
o A new value 'Claimed' for the 'CityTile' requirement
allows testing whether a tile is inside any player's
borders. GNAPATCH#5929
o 'BaseFlag', 'RoadFlag', and 'ExtraFlag', allowing testing
whether extra has certain properties rather than just its
type. GNAPATCH#3832 GNA#24445
o The new requirement 'Extra' replaces 'Special', 'Base',
and 'Road'.
+ New requirement ranges:
o 'Alliance' and 'Team' allow testing whether any player in
these sets has a particular property. GNAPATCH#4231
GNAPATCH#4388
o 'Traderoute' allows testing whether any city with which
this one has a trade route has a particular property.
GNAPATCH#4459
+ The maximum number of requirements has increased from 10 to 20
(to allow room for nreqs to be converted to present="FALSE"
reqs; nreqs are now deprecated).
+ Effect changes not listed elsewhere:
o The new 'Victory' effect allows the ruleset to add any
win conditions that can be expressed with the
requirements system. GNAPATCH#4151
o 'Unit_Bribe_Cost_Pct' allows bribe cost to be adjusted.
Bribe cost reduction for settler-like units is now under
ruleset control. GNAPATCH#3412 GNAPATCH#4121
o The 'Nuke_Proof' effect can now depend on diplomatic
relationship. GNAPATCH#6693
o 'Pollu_Pop_Pct_2' replaces the tech flag
'Population_Pollution_Inc' for adjusting the pollution
caused by city population, so that population pollution
can be entirely independent of technology. GNAPATCH#5015
* Calendar
+ Rulesets can now define sub-year divisions in their calendar.
The new 'Turn_Fragment' effect controls how many fragments
pass each turn. GNAPATCH#5249
* Documentation
+ A long description file can be included in a ruleset, and is
displayed in the client help.
+ Ruleset authors now have more control over when autogenerated
help is displayed, via the 'quiet' attribute on requirements,
actions, and combat bonuses. This allows suppression of
autogenerated help text where it's inaccurate or misleading or
the author would prefer handwritten text. GNAPATCH#4723
GNAPATCH#7046
+ Unit classes can have custom help text. GNAPATCH#5834
+ Rulesets can contain a version number field, which is reported
in help, on the metaserver, saved in savegames, etc.
GNAPATCH#4734 GNAPATCH#4761
* Lua scripting
While old scripts should mostly continue to work, see
<http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/How_to_update_a_lua_script_from_2.5_to_2.6>
to avoid deprecated constructs. See the Events Reference Manual
<http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/Events_Reference_Manual> for full
documentation.
Below are additions which are not covered in other sections:
+ Updated scripting engine from Lua 5.2 to 5.3.
+ Lua access to AI trait values. GNAPATCH#6557
+ (Terrain):class_name() ("Land" or "Oceanic") GNAPATCH#4746
+ (Direction):next_cw(), next_ccw(), opposite() GNAPATCH#5415
+ (Unit):kill()
+ give_tech(), giving control of penalty and notification; old
give_technology() is deprecated.
+ New "pulse" signal, which is called every so often during a
game. GNAPATCH#6286
+ Utilities for team pooled research: notify.research() /
notify.research_embassies(), for notifications involving every
one of a group of players that share research (possibly a
team) GNAPATCH#6545 GNA#24056; and
(Player):research_name_translation()/research_rule_name(), to
name that group GNAPATCH#6603.
+ New 'city_transferred' signal, which is triggered whenever a
city changes hands for any reason. 'city_lost' is deprecated
in favor of this one. GNAPATCH#6673
+ New 'city_size_change' signal, superseding 'city_growth' and
allowing script reaction to famine, etc. GNA#24115
+ Methods to test some city properties: (City):is_happy(),
is_celebrating(), is_unhappy(), is_gov_center(), and
is_capital(). GNAPATCH#6804
+ Methods to navigate unit transport stacks:
(Unit):transporter(), (Unit):cargo_iterate(). GNAPATCH#6845
+ (as of RC2) find.role_unit_type() can now find a unit with a
given flag, as well as a given role. HRM#700906
Sound has had some major changes.
* Musicsets are now separate from soundsets, which now just cover
sound effects. Clients can select and disable the two
independently.
* Musicsets can specify soundtracks for pregame, victory, defeat, and
in-game according to 'music styles' defined by the ruleset. In-game
music is further divided by mood (currently 'peaceful' or
'combat'). Ruleset Lua scripts can also cause specific music to be
played. Supplied rulesets define music styles corresponding roughly
to city styles ('Babylonian', 'Renaissance', 'Industrial', etc).
Tileset authors have a few new facilities. Existing tilesets need
changes to work with 2.6 at all; see
<http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/How_to_update_a_tileset_from_2.5_to_2.6>
for a minimal recipe.
* As noted in the ruleset section, with the ruleset's cooperation, a
tileset can have different graphics for different cities in a
nation, and several different kinds of city-wall-like variants.
* Can have different mine/irrigate activity icons for transforming
terrain (unit.plant, unit.irrigate) and building extras
(conventionally unit.mine, unit.irrigation). GNA#24329
* Activity icons for removal of pollution/fallout type extras can be
specific to the extra type. GNAPATCH#4235
* Can specify an alternative layout for unit upkeep sprites
('unit_upkeep_small_offset_y'), for better display in the SDL
clients. GNAPATCH#6564
* Various elements now have configurable offsets, allowing more
condensed graphics files.
* Can specify seperate pixel_border_x/y. GNAPATCH#5786
* Tilesets can have a summary and description, which are displayed in
the client in "About Current Tileset". GNAPATCH#6350
Scenario creators also have a few new features available. (Scenarios
created with previous versions should continue to work in 2.6.)
* Scenario property "Prevent New Cities"; players cannot build cities
in such scenarios. Ruleset authors can give certain units a flag
'NewCityGamesOnly', which prevents those units from being built in
such scenarios, if that wouldn't make sense. (However, none of the
supplied rulesets set this flag; in principle Settlers can be used
for other things, although they cannot build cities in these
scenarios.) GNAPATCH#5678 GNAPATCH#6424
* Saltwater ocean flooding freshwater lakes can be disabled for
specific scenarios. GNAPATCH#6994
* There's an optional 'authors' property. GNAPATCH#6450
* Scenarios can be marked as 'handmade', causing a warning about data
loss when modifying them in the built-in editor. GNAPATCH#5608
* It's now possible to set a player's government type in the editor.
GNAPATCH#3300
* Scenarios saved from the editor tended to be saved with fixed
game/map random seeds which affected play. This no longer happens.
GNA#24319
* Scenarios are now saved with the version number of Freeciv that
created them. When several scenario files with the same name are on
the path, the client shows only the newest one that is still
compatible with the client version.
* A new server command '/scensave' is included as standard, to create
a savegame suitable for use as a scenario. Previously this was only
included in debug builds; it does the same as "Save Scenario" in
the editor GUI. GNAPATCH#5755
Changes affecting server operators
* It's now possible to /create an AI player with specified AI type
but random name/nation. GNAPATCH#5259
* New/changed server settings:
+ 'persistentready' allows control of whether a new player
joining in pregame resets everyone else's "Ready" status
(previously it always did). With the new setting 'connected',
a player's "Ready" status will persist as long as they remain
connected to the server. GNAPATCH#5978
+ The 'autosaves' option now has a value 'TIMER', allowing a
periodic backup even if the turn has not changed. Frequency is
controlled by a new setting 'savefrequency'. GNAPATCH#4379
+ 'scoreloglevel' controls whether AI players are included in
the scorelog. GNAPATCH#5727
* The server now tracks whether a setting has been explicitly set
(even if to the same value as the default). This status can be
reset with the new '/default' command. Its main effect is that
savegames do not include default settings, allowing changes in
engine defaults to affect existing games.
General
* The implementation of research has been substantially reworked.
This should have little visible effect, but may have fixed bugs,
particularly with team pooled research.
* There have been a lot of changes to path-finding to support more
complex unit movement rules. There are quite likely to be behavior
changes but, again, hopefully these only make things better.
* Improvements to persistence across network disconnection and
save/load cycles:
+ Open treaties still under discussion are now saved in
savegames. GNA#22712
+ Demographic/score information from the start of a turn is now
saved, so that it does not change after a save/load cycle
mid-turn. GNA#22710
+ The history report is now saved, and sent to players who join
mid-turn. GNAPATCH#6195
+ Whether a player has ended their turn is saved; this can avoid
an extra turn delay when 'turnblock' is disabled, players
disconnect between turns, and the game is reloaded.
GNAPATCH#6192
* Various dotfiles that lived directly under the user's home
directory now live under the ~/.freeciv/ directory -- notably
client settings (.freeciv-client-rc-*) GNAPATCH#4387 and server
command-line history (.freeciv-server_history) GNAPATCH#5413.
* The FREECIV_PATH environment variable is now deprecated; it will
stop working entirely in the next major version. Use more specific
variables like FREECIV_DATA_PATH instead. GNAPATCH#6279
* Loading saved games from Freeciv before 2.0.x is no longer
supported. GNAPATCH#3858
AI
There is a new AI level, 'Handicapped'; this has the same inherent
behavior as 'Novice', but is intended to suffer from additional
ruleset-defined penalties. In most of the supplied rulesets it suffers
penalties to science, defense, unit and city bribe cost, migration, and
trade routes (but in civ2civ3 it instead only suffers trade and shield
penalties). GNAPATCH#4599 GNAPATCH#4605
Known issue: unfortunately, the current AI doesn't handle Fighter-type
units (non-missile units with a single turn of fuel) at all well, so in
this version it has been inhibited from ever building them. (Note
however that civ2civ3 Fighters no longer fall in this category.)
GNAPATCH#4927 HRM#658896
As part of the path-finding rework, the AI is generally less restricted
to use units with certain movement types for certain roles.
There have been many other improvements to the standard AI's behavior:
* Defense
+ The AI is now more likely to build defender units for
undefended cities. GNAPATCH#6534
+ The AI was not building defender units when it wanted a
defense building but was frustrated. GNAPATCH#5471
+ The AI was overoptimistic about defense strength when choosing
what defender to build. GNAPATCH#5470
+ The AI has a more nuanced understanding of which buildings
defend against particular unit types. GNAPATCH#4797
+ The AI no longer considers harmless units (such as civilians
and those that can't attack) a danger. GNAPATCH#4821
+ If an AI diplomatic unit can't bribe a nearby unit in
self-defense, it will consider sabotaging it instead.
GNAPATCH#4153
* Attack
+ The AI is more willing to build attacker units. GNAPATCH#6307
+ The AI now prioritizes particular cities for conquering.
GNAPATCH#6430
+ If the AI has some bonus causing it to build veteran units,
and the units thereby get a movement bonus, the AI is more
likely to take this into account in its planning.
GNAPATCH#4971
* Economy
+ Autosettlers (for both AI and human players) now evaluate
improvements on unworked tiles differently from tiles already
being worked by cities. This fixes a pathology where
autosettlers would prefer improving hills without coal to
those with, and generally makes them less obsessed with
mining. GNA#21437
+ If a city's food store is full and it is blocked from growing,
the AI will prioritize production rather than food.
GNAPATCH#3697
+ The AI will now build military units purely for their martial
law effects. GNAPATCH#3989
+ The AI likes to build great (unique) wonders more than it used
to. HRM#661176 Once it's started, it's less likely to stop.
HRM#662556
+ The AI is willing to build workers and city founders in its
designated 'wonder city', easing a pathology when that is the
only city capable of building such units. HRM#660089
+ The AI tended not to switch from building units to buildings,
even though it suffers no penalty for doing so. GNAPATCH#7312
+ General improvements in AI's evaluation of building
usefulness. GNAPATCH#4885
+ AI players will now consider establishing trade routes with
peaceful nations, not just allies (although allies are still
preferred). GNAPATCH#6418
+ AI cities will not build endless caravans if already built
ones are piling up. GNAPATCH#7570
+ The AI's selection of ferries for settler units is improved.
GNAPATCH#4862
* Research
+ The AI considers researching technologies for effects that
they grant directly. GNAPATCH#4944
* Government
+ AI now evaluates governments' effects directly, relying less
on ruleset hints to choose a government. GNAPATCH#5331
* Misc
+ Hard and Cheating AI players no longer automatically offer
cease-fire at first contact (although they may well offer one
shortly afterwards, or accept one, this is not automatic).
GNAPATCH#6203
There has been some work on the 'threaded' AI variant. One change is
that cities only request tasks that current units can do. This improves
performance, but no longer drives acquisition of new kinds of units.
GNAPATCH#5496
The stub AI can now be linked in statically. This makes it easier to
set up a game where effective AI players are prohibited. GNAPATCH#7388
AI behavior is also now somewhat more configurable by rulesets:
* AI traits can now be specified as ranges; a value for each trait
will be picked randomly at game start, if enabled by the new