Roadmap

Thursday, 2024-07-04 FreeCol Team
Please keep in mind that the roadmap below is tentative. Development and other creative efforts are done based on what our voluteers think is fun right now. The only way to ensure that a certain feature is added swiftly is actually contributing by working on the project. Everyone can help, for example by retesting functionality that has recently been modified. People that regularly contribute are listened to, even for work that's definitely not fun, if they want some specific functionality or graphics.
Q. When is the next release coming out?

A. New official releases are made approximately twice a year. You can try our development builds if you want more frequent updates. The development builds tend be better than the release builds, but you might get stuck and need to report a bug in order to continue your game.

FreeCol 1.3.0

Release planned Q4 2024

This is the next planned release of FreeCol. Please refer to the Changelog for a list of features that have already been implemented.

Features we have started working on

  • Drag-and-drop to scroll the map (instead of just scrolling like it is now).
  • Major improvements to the AI colony planning and organization.
  • Improvements to the "Hitpoints and Combat"-mod (for example collateral damage for ranged attacks and unit rebalancing).
  • Activate new military AI code for the REF.

Next on the TODO-list

  • Fixing bugs and make minor improvements.
  • Any changes needed to allow new graphics, music or sfx to be added/used/improved.
  • Campaign and scenario mode with a tutorial being the first campaign.
  • Make all dialogs render in the main frame when running fullscreen (fixes existing display bugs and increases rendering performance).
  • Extensive testing and rebalancing the colonial AI (possibly nerfing it in the endgame).
  • Improve the game option dialog and allow both options and the list of rule-changing-mods to be saved and loaded.

Changes we have analyzed and know how to implement

  • Have high resolution graphics as a separate download (at least graphics intended for 8K screens).
  • Fix the diplomatic dialog.
  • Implement 2D and hex world map and rendering.
  • A mod with pixelated graphics (including tile transitions etc).
  • A World War 2 mod with modularized unit designs (select chassis like wheeled/tracked/half-track, weapon like turret/AA-gun/MG, engine and armour).
  • Allow battles to be preplanned and performed in its own stage.
  • New improved colonization ruleset. Most of the changes would be minor, but should improve balancing and game pacing (for example, scale training cost in Europe based on elapsed turns and/or number of units ... like what's currently done when recruiting units, increase food cost for making a new colonist to 500).
  • Merge all reports into one tabbed and navigatable display.

Changes that's unlikely to be prioritized soon

  • Make a signed Mac download package.
  • Add cool animated graphs and other visualizations to the reports.
  • Separate rendering pipeline for really low performance computers.
  • (Optional) 3D rendering.