========================
Welcome to Freeciv 2.6.0
========================

The changes in the 2.6.x series are summarised below.
For changes prior to 2.6, see NEWS. For more detailed changes,
see the ChangeLog file.


CHANGES FROM 2.6.0-RC2 to 2.6.0
-------------------------------

   For those who've been trying the betas, these are the changes since the
   last release candidate, 2.6.0-RC2:
     * The server could crash after loading a savegame where any player
       was using worker tasks. HRM#764223
     * With recent versions of Qt, the Cancel button wouldn't appear on
       the popup to choose a city's production. HRM#765387
     * The Qt client's unit help tooltip could show extra garbage.
       HRM#765390
     * The Amplio2/Cimpletoon tilesets have a more visible Pollution
       sprite. HRM#765046
     * Updated translations: French (complete), Finnish (98.4% core, 91%
       nations), Spanish (93% core, 97.4% nations), Japanese (89% core,
       95.8% nations).


CHANGES FROM 2.6.0-RC1 to 2.6.0-RC2
-----------------------------------

   (from <http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/NEWS-2.6.0-RC2>)

   RC2 is mainly a bugfix release.

Server / General

Changes affecting players (supplied rulesets)

     * 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
     * Huts were never yielding settler-type units. HRM#700906
     * Global warming and nuclear winter had a small chance of occurring
       even when the client displayed the chance as 0%. HRM#763882
     * A few resources could be added to the map even when none were
       requested. HRM#763879
     * Historians were never reporting on the "LARGEST Civilizations"
       (with the most citizens), by mistake. HRM#763883

Changes affecting other rulesets / modders

     * Fix longstanding bug in rulesets with 129 or more unit types; if
       any of the later units was an upgrade or conversion target, the
       client would not allow the action. HRM#763984
     * The Lua function find.role_unit_type() can now find a unit with a
       given flag, as well as a given role. (This compensates for the
       property "Cities" having changed from a role to a flag in 2.6.)
       HRM#700906

Clients

     * The number of turns for a path displayed in Goto mode was one too
       few. HRM#763943
     * (Gtk2, Qt) Borders are now displayed correctly when zoomed in.
       HRM#756115
     * Various fixes and improvements to the Qt client:
          + Fix a client crash in goto mode. HRM#761748
          + Fix a client crash when observing a player with diplomacy
            dialogs open. HRM#764026
          + Opening the Policies dialog caused a client crash on some
            systems. HRM#759242
          + Fix non-working terrain and government links in help.
            HRM#763708
          + The Shift-E keyboard shortcut was used for both Airbase-type
            orders and for the Patrol order. Patrol is now Q, as in the
            Gtk clients. HRM#764407
          + The unit display now shows the extra turns left for fuel
            units. HRM#764524
          + The city dialog now shows help tooltips for buildings and
            units that are in the build queue, and buildings that are
            already built. HRM#735308
          + The battle log can now be resized. HRM#764025
          + The help dialog position and size are now remembered.
            HRM#764218
          + Change scaling of sidebar. HRM#760162
          + Other cosmetic issues and optimizations. HRM#735301 HRM#759976
            HRM#764525

Tilesets / Art

     * Amplio2, Cimpletoon, Isotrident, and Isophex tilesets now have
       icons for showing units' activity building specific extras.
       HRM#762838 HRM#762839

Help / Documentation

     * Invisible change to assist localization. HRM#763068

Translations

     * Updated (complete) translations: Catalan, Russian, Polish.

Known issues

     * Turn change in AI games has got slower; we suspect this is a result
       of action generalization.
     * There's some evidence that autosettlers have got less effective.
     * There are still problems in the new way tilesets are selected.
       HRM#685235
     * The Gtk3 clients currently don't have animation for moving the map
       view. HRM#735217


CHANGES FROM 2.6.0-beta3 to 2.6.0-RC1
-------------------------------------

   (from <http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/NEWS-2.6.0-RC1>)

   RC1 is mainly a bugfix release.

Server / General

Changes affecting players (supplied rulesets)

     * Reverted the change in beta3 which prevented units from building
       small wonders, because it broke the multiplayer ruleset. This
       change will be made more selectively in the next major version of
       Freeciv. HRM#745360
     * Partisans are supposed to only be granted when a city is conquered,
       but could be granted whenever a city changed hands for any reason
       (including by treaty. Surprise!) HRM#759770
     * When a unit such as a Leader was cargo on a transport that was lost
       with its home city, it could be 'saved' by teleporting to the site
       of that city. This could leave non-allied units on the same tile
       (Leader and city's conqueror), and prevent the Leader teleporting
       to a more distant, safe city. HRM#761808
     * The end-game score for an arrived spaceship included population in
       habitation modules that weren't actually attached to the spaceship
       at launch. HRM#757442
     * When gaining free Future Techs (for instance from Darwin's Voyage),
       some messages showed the wrong Future Tech number. HRM#761977
     * Setting a high "techlevel" setting could give the first player
       hundreds of spurious messages about newly available governments.
       HRM#759020

Changes affecting other rulesets / modders

     * Fixed errors in some supplied tilesets that could cause failure to
       load with errors about missing extrastyles when used with
       non-default rulesets (such as the Alien World modpack). HRM#758964
     * Font sizes specified in tilesets (city_names_font_size and
       city_productions_font_size) are now ignored in clients which have
       their own font configuration. HRM#760420

Changes affecting server operators

     * The '/list scenarios' command was also listing normal savegames.
       HRM#731199

General

     * Fix a rare compression failure which could stop commnication
       between client and server. HRM#746878 HRM#747319
     * Some improvements to unit debugging (/debug unit). HRM#760368
       HRM#760370
     * Tweak format of comments in various output files. HRM#761206
     * Various internal changes which should only affect developers.
       HRM#746481 HRM#748740 HRM#750470 HRM#753754 HRM#752336 HRM#756106
       HRM#756330 HRM#756589 HRM#756596 HRM#756731 HRM#756736 HRM#756880
       HRM#756893 HRM#756188 HRM#757062 HRM#758949 HRM#758950 HRM#758952
       HRM#758434 HRM#758725 HRM#750895

Clients

     * In clients which support setting worker tasks from the city map
       (Gtk3/Qt), you can now request cleaning pollution/fallout.
       HRM#760367
     * Improve the display of negative science output, and forecasting of
       the time to loss of a tech. HRM#756203
     * Most clients could give trouble such as assertion failures when
       attempting a new unit action after another action turned out to be
       illegal. HRM#747465
     * The pillage select target dialog did not give the option to
       continue pillaging, and did not pop up at all for a unit that was
       already pillaging one of two possible targets. HRM#756325
     * (Gtk) Fix longstanding inability to permanently change the city
       name font size on the map view. This used to get overridden by the
       tileset; now the font specified in the options is always used.
       HRM#760420
     * (Gtk3) The pillage select target dialog has been reworked; it now
       shows the owner of the pillage target, if applicable, and an icon.
       HRM#753268 HRM#753305
     * (Gtk3) The button order in the dialog used for transport selection
       is more intuitive. HRM#756225 Also fix possible trouble with the
       radio buttons in this dialog. HRM#754966
     * (Gtk3) The right-click map selection rectangle in the supplied
       Windows Gtk3 package is back to looking as intended. HRM#736230
     * (Gtk2, Qt) The icon indicating a unit's activity could be drawn in
       the wrong place when zoomed. HRM#731629
     * (Qt) Fix assertion failure in science report when no research, or
       future tech, was selected. HRM#732483
     * (Qt) Fix a few cosmetic issues, particularly with zoom. HRM#738922
       HRM#756105 HRM#738921

Tilesets / Art

     * In the Amplio2/Cimpletoon/Hexemplio/Toonhex tilesets, large
       unwalled 'industrial' style cities used the wrong graphics.
       HRM#761751

Help / Documentation

     * The civ2civ3/sandbox rulesets' government help now contains less
       duplication and is more accurate. HRM#657407
     * The online help now describes the effects of root requirements in
       the tech tree, in rulesets which have them (such as the
       experimental ruleset). HRM#758591
     * Miscellaneous improvements to in-game text and user documentation.
       HRM#744655 HRM#744672 HRM#747005 HRM#727051 HRM#760366 HRM#760497
       HRM#689474 HRM#761776
     * Miscellaneous changes to developer/ruleset docs. HRM#744666
       HRM#733917 HRM#758948 HRM#761202

Translations

     * Updated translations:
          + Complete translations: Catalan, Polish, French.
          + Incomplete translations: British English (95.3% core, 100%
            nations, 100% ruledit).

Build/portability

     * The Windows .cmd scripts gave a syntax error when started without a
       parameter. HRM#700914

Known issues in 2.6

     * Turn change in AI games has got slower; we suspect this is a result
       of action generalization.
     * There's some evidence that autosettlers have got less effective.
     * There are still problems in the new way tilesets are selected.
       HRM#685235
     * The Gtk3 clients currently don't have animation for moving the map
       view. HRM#735217


CHANGES FROM 2.6.0-beta2 to 2.6.0-beta3
---------------------------------------

   (from <http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/NEWS-2.6.0-beta3>)

   Beta3 is mainly a bugfix release. Notably, it should fix crashes in the
   Windows Gtk clients when moving or resizing dialogs, and the default
   Gtk3 client now draws animations in a new way which is less laggy.

Server / General

Changes affecting players (supplied rulesets)

     * Units were prevented from moving between transports on different
       tiles in some circumstances. HRM#693380
     * In the Gtk3.x and Qt clients, it's now possible to move a unit
       between transports on the same tile. HRM#732489
     * Stealing a future technology was accidentally yielding two of them.
       HRM#736836
     * Units can no longer help to build small wonders such as the Palace.
       (However, this is likely to be reverted before 2.6.0; see known
       issues.) HRM#705580
     * Fix a cause of error messages like "Team 0 had invalid technology
       goal" when loading savegames with AI players. HRM#695971
     * Put a message about nuclear attack in a more appropriate category.
       HRM#735934
     * The tutorial scenario was not displaying messages about technology
       if you acquired them by means other than research (for instance,
       from a hut). HRM#657359
     * Changes to the civ1 ruleset to improve its fidelity:
          + It's no longer possible to know a tech without its
            prerequisites. HRM#729171
          + Adjusted the progress of years to be more like the original.
            HRM#731631

Changes affecting other rulesets / modders

     * More checking (and documentation) of the relationship between extra
       and base/road sections in the ruleset. HRM#736838 HRM#736837
     * Fix a crash with a malformed tileset. HRM#729532
     * Remove any special handling of terrain name "unused" (which hasn't
       done anything useful for some time). HRM#707585
     * The new help system for extras works best if their main effect
       clause is simplified and any special cases moved to subsidiary
       clauses; this particularly affects the standard pattern of
       irrigation and farmland effects. 2.6 ruleset authors may wish to
       compare their effects.ruleset to the changes in supplied rulesets;
       without these changes, the terrain help may not show the bonuses of
       your extras.
     * The onus is now on rulesets to describe the effects of irrigation,
       mining, and pollution if relevant. 2.6 ruleset authors may wish to
       change their help in line with the changes to supplied rulesets.

General

     * Fix an erroneous diagnostic for a malformed savegame. HRM#729275
     * Fix a minor server memory leak. HRM#735637
     * Various internal changes which should only affect developers.
       HRM#715161 HRM#730564 HRM#696674 HRM#729900 HRM#733792 HRM#735850
       HRM#735940 HRM#740444

Clients

     * The Windows builds of the Gtk clients tended to crash when certain
       dialogs were moved or resized. This was a regression since beta1.
       (This fix unfortunately leads to the rubber-band selection
       rectangle in the Windows Gtk3 client becoming uglier.) HRM#735238
     * Less laggy animations in the Gtk3 client (these were already in
       Gtk3.22). However, map scrolling animation is still absent.
       HRM#726552
     * In the city dialog, clicking on the middle tile to rearrange
       workers could fail to update the city dialog map display.
       HRM#736822
     * Music system: in-game music could be played even after leaving a
       game. HRM#730597
     * Give error messages when the tileset specified with the --tiles
       command-line option, or suggested by the ruleset, can't be loaded.
       HRM#730777 HRM#657414
     * Gtk3.22: when a unit died while the client was still showing its
       earlier movement (for instance when attacking), the animation of
       its movement was not shown fully. HRM#737277
     * Gtk3.22: remove some spurious underscores from UI element names.
       HRM#719507
     * SDL2: fix "Unable to create Sprite" errors on console when city
       dialog is opened. HRM#684183

Tools

     * The ruleset editor statistics now include the number of
       multipliers. HRM#735246

Tilesets / Art

     * Updates for the Hexemplio/Toonhex tilesets: hex-shaped
       forts/fortresses and city walls, less obtrusive ruins, and improved
       water. HRM#729151 HRM#729137 HRM#731454
     * Less obtrusive ruins in Amplio2. HRM#697692
     * Other very minor tileset tweaks. HRM#692596 HRM#729141

Help / Documentation

     * The built-in help now fully covers the updated 2.6 terrain
       improvement and conversion system and corresponding ruleset
       features. Some errors in the already existing help were also fixed.
       HRM#732512 HRM#733895 HRM#733989 HRM#657410 HRM#732507 HRM#733863
       HRM#733865 HRM#733902 HRM#736795 HRM#736830 HRM#736833
     * The help for the 'sandbox' ruleset now notes that savegames may not
       be portable even between minor releases. HRM#732480
     * Miscellaneous improvements to in-game text and user documentation.
       HRM#699164 HRM#696673 HRM#691877 HRM#660409 HRM#733864 HRM#733913
       HRM#733929 HRM#730586
     * Miscellaneous changes to developer/ruleset docs. HRM#732479
       HRM#699149 HRM#736837 HRM#738322 HRM#738321 HRM#738908 HRM#740593

Translations

     * Updated translations:
          + Complete translations: Russian.
          + Incomplete translations: Catalan (100% core, 100% nations,
            98.2% ruledit), Polish (99.6% core, 100% nations, 98.2%
            ruledit), Finnish (98.5% core, 91% nations, 98.2% ruledit),
            British English (95.1% core, 100% nations, 100% ruledit).

Build/portability

     * Fix a possible failure to build the Qt client (undefined reference
       to SDL_main), observed on Mac OS X Sierra. HRM#734798
     * We now recommend that packagers favor the Gtk3.22 client over the
       Gtk3 one. HRM#726799
     * The supplied appdata .xml files have been updated to a more modern
       format. HRM#690231
     * The appdata .xml file for the Gtk3.22 client referred to the wrong
       .desktop file. HRM#738290
     * Fix some compiler warnings with Clang 6.0 HRM#733013 and GCC 8
       HRM#731162.

Known issues

     * The rule change which disallows caravans/freight from helping build
       small wonders breaks the multiplayer ruleset, where most wonders
       are small wonders. We may revert it from 2.6 and postpone to 3.0.
       HRM#745360
     * The Gtk3 clients currently don't have animation for moving the map
       view. HRM#735217
     * The right-click map selection rectangle in the supplied Windows
       Gtk3 package is ugly and leaves trails behind on the map view.
       HRM#736230


CHANGES FROM 2.6.0-beta1 to 2.6.0-beta2
---------------------------------------

   (from <http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/NEWS-2.6.0-beta2>)

   As well as bugfixes, beta2 brings a substantial revision of the Europe
   WWI scenario, the "sandbox" ruleset showing off new engine features,
   and a number of UI improvements in the Qt client.

Server / General

Changes affecting players (supplied rulesets)

     * Savegames created from scenarios could fail to save map resources.
       HRM#697666
     * Client/server communication could fail when the client discovered a
       tile with a text label that was too long. (This could be
       locale-dependent; it showed up in the Russian localization.)
       HRM#720199
     * Fixed server crashes caused by AI ferry passengers dying.
       HRM#721949 HRM#714453
     * The cost to buy "small wonders" (such as the Palace) was
       unintentionally twice what was intended. (This was a longstanding
       issue.) HRM#706727
     * Capturing a unit did not count for cancelling the capturer's
       fortified status, nor for unitwaittime. HRM#692282
     * The 'sandbox' ruleset from Git is now included. 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
     * The "Europe 1901" scenario has been replaced with a newer version
       (and is now called "Europe 1900 WWI"). The changes are described on
       the forum. HRM#697660 HRM#696031 HRM#724926
     * Some updates to the "large Earth" scenario. Notably, players now
       start with their first city built. HRM#702265
     * The tutorial scenario's message about city growth to size 13
       referenced a nonexistent event type. Possibly this was causing "lua
       error" messages. HRM#723052
     * When loading a savegame from 2.5 or before, the set of victory
       conditions was not preserved. HRM#698566
     * Fix an assertion failure when auto-arranging city workers in tricky
       situations (while trying to invoke last-ditch measures). HRM#695022
     * Minor nation tweaks. HRM#697681 HRM#697682 HRM#706252 HRM#707576
       HRM#707595

Changes affecting other rulesets / modders

     * The city_size_change Lua signal is now emitted after the size
       change in all cases, is no longer emitted when city growth turned
       out to be prevented, and can cope with the signal handler
       destroying the city. HRM#690756 HRM#700910 HRM#701045
     * The values of Lua variables could fail to be loaded from savegames,
       if some of the saved variables referenced game objects (units,
       cities, etc). In some cases this was locale-dependent. HRM#722287
       HRM#722288

General

     * Sped up shared vision transfers; this helps particularly when
       loading savegames. HRM#723442
     * Various internal changes which should only affect developers.
       HRM#699017 HRM#695946 HRM#705553 HRM#701840 HRM#700909 HRM#702406
       HRM#702806 HRM#705391 HRM#705525 HRM#705468 HRM#718497

AI

     * The AI now values science more than gold. HRM#662670
     * The AI is now more motivated to try for a space race victory.
       HRM#660489
     * The threaded AI's worker units could build fruitless roads.
       HRM#706211
     * Fix autosettler bugs:
          + Autosettlers were not acting on their desire to build road
            networks and prevent climate change. HRM#719516
          + Autosettlers didn't get around to doing activities of marginal
            benefit, even if they had nothing better to do. HRM#719512
          + Autosettlers were overvaluing roads on hex maps, and built
            them in odd patterns for no good reason. HRM#695738

Clients

     * The "Turn Done" button is now disabled in fixed-length gameplay,
       since it serves no purpose. HRM#700675
     * Messages from the server operator (/wall) now default to causing a
       pop-up dialog, for new client installations. (Such messages can be
       used for instance to warn of server shutdown; without this setting,
       it was not possible to see the message after the server
       disconnected.) HRM#690212
     * Trying to load a savegame from a ruleset with a preferred_tileset
       (such as the 'civ2civ3_earth' modpack) using the -f command-line
       option caused error messages and a quit HRM#706353; in the Qt
       client, the same would happen with the savegame dialog. HRM#706356
       HRM#709134
     * Bugfixes to the Gtk3.x clients:
          + The Windows build crashed when browsing for savegames.
            HRM#701751 HRM#701889
          + When zoomed out, unused parts of the map view could fail to
            have a black background. HRM#638737
          + The minimap didn't update often enough. HRM#697658
          + Trouble and console warnings with middle-click popups,
            tooltips, etc. HRM#699488 HRM#703869
          + Less laggy animations in the Gtk3.22 client. We hope to bring
            this to the Gtk3 client too. HRM#696457 HRM#700642 HRM#704182
            HRM#706322 HRM#707623 HRM#700641
     * Bugfixes and other changes to the Qt client:
          + It was not possible to select spaceship parts to build in
            cities. HRM#709338
          + The client could segfault after displaying an early error
            message (such as a tileset loading error). HRM#704711
          + Changing research unintentionally closed the research dialog.
            HRM#708554
          + Keyboard shortcuts for the city dialog: left/right will change
            cities, up/down will change production of the current city.
            HRM#709335
          + Diplomatic treaties can be accepted or rejected with the
            keyboard. HRM#709337
          + Double-clicking on a server name will now connect to it.
            HRM#704602
          + The city worklist tooltip now shows more information.
            HRM#704607
          + Themes can now affect dialogs' title bars. HRM#710896
          + Other cosmetic tweaks. HRM#704608 HRM#704929 HRM#708258

Tilesets / Art

     * Tweak the position of the patrol icon in the Hexemplio/Toonhex
       tilesets. HRM#686635

Help / Documentation

     * Miscellaneous improvements to in-game text and user documentation.
       HRM#697680 HRM#698845 HRM#700291 HRM#699161
     * Miscellaneous changes to developer/ruleset docs. HRM#700290
       HRM#705526
     * Invisible changes to assist localization. HRM#657416 HRM#698844

Translations

     * Updated translations:
          + Complete translations: French.
          + Incomplete translations: Finnish (100% core, 91% nations, 100%
            ruledit), Polish (>99.9% core, 100% nations, 100% ruledit),
            Catalan (>99.9% core, 99.9% nations, 100% ruledit), Russian
            (99.9% core, 99.9% nations, 100% ruledit), British English
            (95% core, 100% nations, 100% ruledit), Spanish (84% core,
            97.4% nations, 18% ruledit).

Build/portability

     * Do not insist on a 'tolua' command; it is not needed when building
       from a tarball. HRM#675964
