FreeOrion v0.4.9 released

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Vezzra
Release Manager, Design
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Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2011 12:56 pm
Location: Sol III

FreeOrion v0.4.9 released

#1 Post by Vezzra »

FreeOrion v0.4.9 has been released.

This is the version of FreeOrion recommended for those who just want to play and enjoy the game. So unless you want to participate in game development or play the latest development version with all the new features (but potentially more bugs), this stable release is for you.

Yes, it has been a year and a half since our last release, but we're still going and finally got a new release out. The main focus of this release has been more multiplayer enhancements, a complete revision of how combat targeting works, and the fuel mechanics have been reworked into a fuel efficiency mechanic. Aside from that, a lot of smaller changes, additions, tweaks and of course the usual bugfixing has happened.

Once again getting out the release turned out to be a far bigger challenge than expected (even more so than the last release), so special thanks are more than due to the team and all involved contributors for seeing this through, and putting in all the effort needed to get 0.4.9 out. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for sticking it out!

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Download:

Get FreeOrion here, for OSX and Windows.

Linux users can either get the snap package we provide on snapcraft.io, or try to get the new release from the respective package repositories of their distributions (if your distro maintains FreeOrion packages). However, the latter might not be possible, as FreeOrion unfortunately still depends on Python2, and many distros are dropping or have already dropped Python2 support. If you can't use our snap package, and your distro does not maintain FreeOrion packages, Linux users need to build FreeOrion with cmake/make per the instructions here and here.


Key Changes:
(since v0.4.8 August 2018)
  • Multiplayer enhancements
    • Hostless servers can be started without connected players and left running for players to join to play their turns asynchronously
    • Empires in a game can be restricted to certain players based on username-password authentication
    • Known / previously joined servers are saved and appear in the servers list of the connection window
    • Chat is shared between the lobby and in-game
    • Chat history persists and is sent to players that connect to a server
    • The chat / message window flashes when a message is received
    • The lobby shows galaxy setup data for a loaded save or the game being played on the server
    • The lobby shows empires without assigned players as separate rows when loading a save or for the game being played on the server
    • Servers can have fixed game rule settings
    • Added an optional server turn timer
  • Combat targeting
    • Flak targets only fighters
    • Interceptors preferentially target bombers, then any fighters, then ships
    • Bombers preferentially target ships, then fighters
    • Species can also affect targeting
  • Ship hulls have fuel efficiency, which scales the additional fuel from fuel parts and other fuel-adding content

Detailed Change Log

Graphics / Interface
  • Chat box text commands:
    • /pm to send a private message to another player. Private messages from other players are flagged with (Whispers)
    • /help to give a list of commands
  • Multiplayer
    • Lobby automatically adds AIs and assigns them to AI empires when loading a game
    • Eliminated empires can't have players assigned in lobby
    • Added player left game and player entered chat notifications
    • Observers and moderators are informed when joining about empires' readiness
    • Added icon to empires list to indicate an incoming diplomatic message
    • New icons for empire diplomatic status (War, Peace, Alliance)
    • Prevented selection of eliminated empires in lobby
    • Lobby galaxy setup settings use common client defaults (shared with single player)
  • Galaxy Map
    • Added option to scale size of background starfield stars
    • New graphics for ion storm, star forming nebulae, accretion disk, and molecular cloud
    • Added tooltips to the turn button to explain turn processing event order
  • Fleets
    • Disabled issuing fleet move orders after orders have been sent to the server in multiplayer games (unless orders are revised)
    • Made fleets of damaged ships split from an existing fleet have the same aggression as the existing fleet instead of always being passive
    • Added right-click popup menus for Fleets window meter icons
    • Fleets window or sidepanel move to the render order top when a fleet or system is shown, even if the shown fleet or system didn't change
  • Pedia
    • Underlined modified rules for the current game on the the pedia page listing game rules
    • Reorganized contents of species pedia pages
    • Hull descriptions list the tags applied to a hull
  • Objects List
    • Added columns for environment rating for species on planets
    • Added total weapon damage column
  • Galaxy setup
    • Made pressing enter not act as clicking OK in Galaxy Setup to avoid conflict with Alt-Enter to switch to/from fullscreen
    • Split multiplayer-related game rules into a separate tab
  • Misc
    • Added popup commands to add ships or buildings to the top of the production queue
    • Enabled more flexible renaming of designs in Design window
    • Added new art for many species
    • Reduced minimum FPS limit to 0.1 when the game window is unfocused
    • Added a confirmation popup to close the program when OS window is closed, including indication if multiplayer game orders haven't been sent
    • Indicated species with which a planet would be colonized and for which habitability and population info in being displayed on sidepanel
    • Rearranged the display order of sitreps
    • Added gaseous metabolism to the census window
    • Various GUI layout tweaks
    • Added warning when stockpile contributions would put the stockpile above ten turns of maximum-rate extraction
Content / Gameplay
  • Translation updates: French, German, Russian
  • Various pedia article additions, updates, and corrections
  • Added sitreps for weapon upgrades and detection upgrades
  • Display "Unknown Design" rather than an error when lookup up an unknown design
  • Players are informed of diplomatic status changes between empires
  • Added a server option to enable/disable informing players about empire statistics
  • Advanced shipyards can be enqueued if their prerequisites are enqueued, even if the prerequisites aren't yet produced
  • Added the Fulver species
  • Added game rules:
    • Allow or restrict diplomacy between players
    • Aggressive fleets are always visible at the start of combat
    • Enable a part-based upkeep calculation rather than ship-based
    • Empires are only told that another empire has researched a tech when both empires have researched it - currently may break client-side meter estimate calculations
    • Allow Drydocks building and Fleet Field Repair tech to repair ships of allied empires
Balance
  • Increased colony base hull cost and added internal slots to mitigate "comsat" defense strategies
  • Made colony base hull cost scale like other hulls with fleet upkeep and ship hull cost multiplier rule
  • Adjusted hull fuel levels and numbers of slots for various hulls after adding hull fuel efficiency
  • Increased spacing between systems and starlanes generated by the Starlane Nexus
  • Conceding from a game destroys all an empire's buildings
  • Made Scylior BAD_SUPPLY and BAD_FUEL
  • Made Chato bad pilots (BAD_WEAPONS)
  • Planets with dying population no longer have their production and research zeroed, avoiding an issue where temporary disconnection from a growth special would cause sudden loss of resource output
  • Added some additional tie-breaking checks when deciding what empire can supply in a system
  • Stockpile focus is allowed on all colonies, but growth focus gives no stockpiling bonus
  • Stockpile focus on a homeworld gives an extra bonus
  • Combat
    • Launching fighters uncloaks ships
    • Firing weapons uncloaks ships to all empires in combat, not just the owner of the target being fired upon
    • Planets have an effective minimum infrastructure of 1 to trigger combat each turn to ensure there are no turns when invading isn't allowed due to cycling of meter growth and combat occurring
    • Interceptors launch at double the rate of other fighters
AI
  • Improved AI judgement about fleet strengths and ship capacities with fighters
  • Improved AI estimation of a standard enemy if no intel is available
  • Improved AI assessment of enemy planet threat with respect to shield regeneration
  • Made AI aware of fuel tech effects on fuel parts
  • Raised AI minimum fuel requirements for warship designs to 2
  • Fixed issues with AI merging and splitting fleets
  • Added a fleet mission to protect a region
  • Fixes issues with ships and fleets that are idle or after finishing missions
  • Fixed AI divide by zero error when there was enemy supply in a system where the AI has a planet
  • Fixed AI getting confused about whether a produced enqueue order was successful
  • Made AI aware of stealth effects of Spatial Flux Bubble Hull
  • Made AI more aggressive and less inclined to used doomstacks that it never moves
  • Fixed AI picking ships that didn't have enough fuel to do a mission
  • Reduced AI invasion overkill / waste
  • Made AI consider lost fleets when determining unknown threats
  • Made AI scrap Gateway to the Void building on planets it captures, if the planet has one. The AI can't handle that building and it's presence severely disrupted the AI in such cases.
Bugs
  • Fixed potential crash in password entry box
  • Fixed log level filters briefly not applying while being set
  • Fixed laggy UI updates when resizing the sitreps window
  • Fixed potential crash when setting fleet routes
  • Fixed issue where generated filename timestamps could include invalid filename characters on systems with some languages
  • Fixed issue where being in an alliance wasn't considered as being at peace for some conditions where it should
  • Fixed issues with gifting objects between empires, particularly when allied
  • Reordered timing of newly researched tech effects being active so that sitreps about tech research are shown on the same turn that techs take effect
  • Fixed minor rendering quirks
  • Fixed issue where fleets moving through a system but getting blockaded would lose track of their desired exit starlane
  • Fixed text autocomplete in chat by pressing (default) TAB key
  • Fixed issue where attempting to drag a window causing resizing instead
  • Fixed crash when closing the application window while in a game with the Fleets window open
  • Fixed issue where revising orders on a multiplayer server would result in previously-issued orders being lost
  • Fixed issue where arriving enemy fleet sitreps were inconsistent if an effect modified the fleet's destination on the same turn as it was expected to arrive
  • Fixed issue where arriving enemy fleet sitreps weren't being shown due to limits on how far the fleet could be from the system
  • Fixed Interspecies Academy modifying current instead of target research meter
  • Fixed some potential internal crashes
  • Fixed issue where paired/active meters were reset to the value of the corresponding target/max meter
  • Fixed issue where empire colours in a saved game could conflict with player colours in the multiplayer lobby
  • Fixed server crash when receiving turn orders from incompatible client
  • Fixed issue where shield regeneration could apply twice
  • Fixed issue where monster shields wouldn't regenerate
  • Fixed crash when editing long strings in a narrow window
  • Fixed issue where certain ship part meter effects could not work
  • Fixed issue where scrap orders couldn't be issued
  • Made unowned fleets move before empire fleets, which avoids some issues with blockades
  • Fixed issue with blockade determination so that blockaded planets are still connected to themselves
  • Fixed issue with fleets that had never moved being unable to enforce blockades
  • Fixed issue where loaded games weren't setting the server rules to those in the save
  • Resolved some issues with premade ship designs being added (or not added) at start of game
  • Fixed potential issues with invalid UTF8 strings when doing multi-line text layout
  • Fixed issue with incorrect refueling calculations when determining move paths for fleets
  • Fixed issue with combat log scrollbars
  • Fixed error when observer or moderator clients joined a test server
  • Fixed undefined behaviour when reporting a FramebufferFailedException when initializing OpenGL
  • Fixed issue where, when gifting a planet, the recipient empire did not get production items that are currently produced at that planet transferred to its production queue
  • Fixed issue where, after playing a game with modified rules, the default setting for a new game and the rule values in the intro screen pedia would be those of the previously-played game, rather than the defined rule default values
  • Fixed issue where, when a certain system (system 0) was destroyed (e.g. by a Black Hole Collapser), an empire aware of this destruction would forget all starlane connections and loose all supply propagation between it's systems
Technical / Internal
  • Added basic support for a UDP message interface to query the server containing simple FOCS expressions
  • Improved compatibility with various Boost library versions
  • Use asynchronous messaging for all communication between client and server processes, not just from clients to server
  • Added safeguards on incoming message size before allocating memory to store it, to prevent denial of service attacks
  • Various extensions / additions to the Python APIs
  • Adjusted what ships are considered armed: direct weapons with > 0 damage, or fighters present that can be launched and that have > 0 damage, and not directly dependent on the ship design, which doesn't account for some weapon-modifying effects
  • Ship designs must have fighter bays and hangars to be considered as having fighters, rather than needing just one of those part types
  • Capped the per-message number of combat log entries sent to clients to avoid sending an overly large single message
  • Reordered some save game data to avoid breaking a save file (as much) if the UI data is corrupted
  • Fixed issue where obsolete ship designs were being stored and serialized in C++11 containers that weren't handled correctly by the serialization library
  • Added an option to set a game unique ID number, which is useful for multiplayer servers
  • Python errors are output to logging instead of stderr
  • Hostless servers autosave when shutting down
  • Added an OrderedAlternativesOf condition that will use the first condition in its list of subconditions that matches something
  • Added SVG rendering in pedia, and allowed SVG images to be included in articles
  • Reworked timing of clients sending save state info to avoid potential save corruption
  • A warning popup should be shown if the client's OpenGL version is < 2.0
  • Added mechanism for chat messages to have automatic string formatting and stringtable substitutions when displayed
  • Added an option to enable/disable network binary serialization
  • Screensaver is no longer enabled/disabled in response to window minimize, maximize, or restore events
  • Prevent AIs from replaying turns after loading a game, unless specified in configuration

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