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!

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Some highlighted changes since version 0.13.0 are:

• New nation specific colony graphics.
• New forest graphics
• Major changes to the tile goods production so that the actual values matches the original game.
• Greatly improved artificial intelligence (AI) for the computer players.
• Much better stability (many bug fixes).

We will continue improving the game through numerous new releases. Stay tuned!

All 0.12.0 and 0.13.0 games should continue to work with 1.0.0.

All user visible changes since 0.13.0

Graphics

• New nation specific colony graphics.
• New forest graphics
• New graphics for deserts.
• New transitions between the base tiles.
• Minor changes to other graphics.

Rule changes

• Major changes to the tile goods production so that the actual values matches the original game.

Mod development

• 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.

AI/computer players

• 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.

Bug fixes

• 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.

Other changes

• 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).