Is there a changelog for Test builds?

[maxand]

I've just upgraded to the latest Test version (for Windows) and have searched unsuccessfully for information on how this latest Test version differs from the preceding Test version. Where would I find it? (Forum search did not help me here)

Thanks.

[MatGB]

I have
http://sourceforge.net/p/freeorion/code/HEAD/log/

bookmarked, that's enough for me (and it's what you go through to write a changelog anyway). We have considered keeping a changelog as we go for transition between release versions, but there's no way we'd do one per test build as they're weekly and sometimes revert or tweak things in a minor way. Simply looking at all the commits between version numbers is enough for me (and I need to update the Changelog I started working on a few weeks back for the more recent stuff).

For example of why it'd be difficult, last weeks test build introduced a completely new combat resolution mechanic. That replaced the previous combat resolution mechanic which had been introduced, um, the previous week. Before that combat resolution had barely been touched for ages, both Mitten.O's patches were good, the more recent one is far better and improves the game substantially despite a few bugs we're still hunting.

But yeah, it is useful to know what you're testing with each release, but writing a log for each week would be a big PITA (another reason, this weeks build includes a patch of mine rebalancing ship hulls and parts for cost/effectiveness, that's patch #3 of an ongoing project, I have at least two more in mind for the same project, the final release changelog will combine all of them into "production costs and stats for all ship hulls and many ship parts have been tweaked to increase game balance and improve variety of viable designs" or similar, even though it's multiple patches over several months)

[maxand]

Thanks MatGB. I also forgot to ask, are there any or many forks (for the same OS platform) between the various Test releases, or is only one branch chosen for the next test version? I've just had a look at the Code Log and any potential fork issues seem to have been resolved, more or less.

[MatGB]

I'm not aware of any forks extant, not had one in my time contributing anyway—I've been tempted a few times to put up some radically different ideas for a few bits of content, but it never seems worth it.

[Geoff the Medio]

...are there any or many forks (for the same OS platform) between the various Test releases, or is only one branch chosen for the next test version?

There are no branches maintained in SVN. Occasionally one will be created for a major feature implementation, but present there are none.

[maxand]

Thanks guys.