Finally we decided to release Build14 in next time.

Here are some citations that show in which direction the release plan and release date are going - but well just that, no 100% assured release date yet :

Dwarik:

the svn contains many new features, including ggz support. I think it might be a good idea to release a build14 so ggz can be released to all our users and distributions that support widelands.

In short, i would suggest a feature freeze Saturday June 20th with a first RC on the 4th of july. That should leave everyone who is still working on something with the opportunity to get their features in for the next release. If all goes well we would have a build 14 release before the end of july.

SirVer:

The time plan Victor proposes sounds reasonable to me; I would suggest
making a tournament with the RC: every participant must use RC14 and
play; all bugs must be reported. We will get valuable beta testing
this way. We'd also had a stronger community binding.

So far...

Time for some PR work..

Sourceforge.net is running a Community Choice again this year. This time, we want to participate. So please head over to the site and nominate widelands for "Best Project for Gamers". If we are under the top ten nominated, we'll be finalists and maybe take the cup!

The nomination period only runs for 4 more days; then you are needed again to vote for Widelands in the finals!

Gogo, nominate!

Click here to go to the nomination page!

Time for an update!

Since last time I wrote, a lot of things changed in widelands source code or where added to it.

First of all a point that might be uninteresting for most players, but might be very interesting for all that would like to help out in Widelands' development:

The Widelands source code was completely reordered (moved into fitting subdirectories, files were renamed to more fitting names and some classes and structs were outsourced to new files.), thousands of style fixes were done and some new stylechecker tools added. All these changes followed the goal of a more readable source code with more visible connections between the different files and libraries.

I am quite sure, that this step will ease the work of many coders (current and future)!

Now something more interesting for the ones that just want to play:

A new developer joined us: dunkelbrauer is currently working on an "autogeneration of maps" feature that allows the players to generate completely new maps with just some clicks. The feature is not yet complete, but it already reached an very impressive status: At the moment you can already select the world type, the height and width of the map, the percent of water, normal land, mountains and wasteland that should the map have and whether the map should be in island or normal mode.

Features that are still missing are resource, bob, animal and player startposition placements, so at the moment those parts need to be manually added.

Another new feature currently under development is the new message system. At the moment the players already get a message, when a new warehouse was created and when the geologist finds a resource. The long term goal for this feature is, to support the player with all important informations like "you are under attack", "Player2 was defeated" or "a new ship was build".

The computer player got many improvements as well. The players are now able to select the type of computer player to play against (Aggressive (default), Normal, Defensive or None). Latter will just do nothing, while the others are now able to build up a basic infrastructure, to expand their borders, to hire new soldiers and workers, to train their soldiers qualities and to attack and even to defeat other players. The strength of such attacks depend on the type of the computer player - The aggressive one is the hardest attacker, the normal one the medium attacker and the defensive one does not attack at all.

And... not to forget all the bugfixes

That's it for now.

A last sentence: Testing current SVNBuilds is definitely worth the work to compile yourself!

We have a new eldest of graphics...

Or sorta kind of. Alexia Death (death) took over the job again. She was busy for a while (and always is!), but her dedication for widelands never completely disappeared. Since she was doing most of the job of an eldest anyway, she was willing to take over the rest of the responsibilities again.

If you want to work on graphics, she is the one to talk to. She knows what needs work and how this work should be done. The best way to reach her is either through our Chat or through a Private Message. You can also post in the Graphics development forum.

Welcome back, Alexia!

Again some news from development:

This time I can not write from very big new features in Widelands - I am sorry but noone worked on one... - but yet the changes are more than worse to be written down:

And agains some more functionalities were implemented:

• An editor tool to set a new origin in the map. This tool will make it possible to get an island properly centered, instead of divided in 4 corners when a minimap is generated with an external tool, such as the one used in the map download section.
• An advanced options menu holding some options for advanced users.
• Some new arguments you can give Widelands at start up that allow the configuration of the information that is shown about a building if hitting "c" and "s".

And some more changes - artwork changes:

• A new ingame song was added and it seems as if more music will follow in near future.
• A new campaign map was added (third barbarian campaign) and the existing campaigns were improved.
• Some new loading screens were added (winterland and barbarian campaign)

Some of these new features and artwork additions can be seen in our screenshot section.

And yes that is the point where I want to point to the new features and additions that were added to our homepage in last time but haven't been announced yet:

• We again have a screenshot section.
• The page now supports smilies in forums and even in our news
• The FAQ was restored, improved and added to the menu
• A searchbox was added so everyone can easier find the information (s)he is searching for

And of course I should not forget the biggest work that was done in Widelands and also on it's homepage: Bug fixes, bug fixes and even more bug fixes .

But even this long text is not holding all changes, so if you are interested in more information, you should take a look at the ChangeLog

Maps uploading done and going ...

With the first version of maps uploading deployed on the site, other topics get the interest they deserve. While I was working on the maps application, Soeb tuned the online help application as many will have noticed. This application will now gain even more focus as we join forces to push it further.

One of the things we want to have included are graphs of economic relationships. A sneaky peek of what you can expect in the future can be found here (click here for complete PDF:

Update: Check some of the stuff out by clicking the building names in the help. For example here

Widelands map database online...

For the first time ever, we have a sophisticated maps exchange platform available four our dearest community. This was a much requested feature for the page. Now you can upload and share your self made maps or comment on maps made by others. And most important: you can download any map in the database for your endless playing pleasure.

You can find the map database here or by going through Download menu.

New elder of sound & music

The long vacant position of elder of sound & music finally has a new owner. Introducing: Solatis. He is a very gifted composer with a technical background which just makes him the perfect match for the job.

Let's leave the introduction to Solatis himself:

Hello,

I'm Jan Bruns (alias Solatis) and I just got the position of your new elder of sound and music.

I was making music on my own for about 10 years. Mostly just for fun and just for myself. Since I've got better by-and-by, I've started to look for some place or some project on the web which I could compose music for. So, even though I have not played widelands itself very often, I've known widelands for some time, because I'm a great fan of settlers. I've played the old settlers 1 very often.

To cut a long story short, I've composed some piece of music for widelands and posted it here in the Sound & Music-Dev forum. So SirVer asked if I will be up for the currently vacant job of an elder of sound & music. After some clarification emails what this exactly means, I've just accepted. Hopefully it will work out well.

I also have some development experience and already had a first look at the sources - especially the code for sound and music.

Feel free to pm me for any questions or proposals.

Bye, Jan

So Solatis job includes - but is not limited to - listening to music, talking to sound & music artist, moderating the Sound & Music forum and finally deciding what will be included in further releases of widelands. If you feel like making a sound effect for widelands and do not know which one or if you like to write a tune but have no clue where more music would fit the best, contact him.

Work continues

We are still very hard at work on the homepage. Today I re-implemented a voting system like we had on the last page. And this also gives us the opportunity to ask you, our honored community for your even more honored opinion. What do you think about our new homepage? Please vote (on the right site) and also leave a comment: If we do not know what you are missing or dislike, we can do nothing to get it on the site or fixed.

A small personal side note: For the first time ever, I am really satisfied with the way the site develops. We may not (yet?!) have all the features we had before, but for the first time ever, we have full control and understanding over the engine the site drives on and this gives us tremendous possibilities to suite the site to our needs. A custom online help and a map uploading area are in planning.. let's see what else we can come up with.

Here comes another update on current development state: Since my last post in December a lot of visible changes have found their way to our subversion repository.

First of all Erik further improved the code for the html-documentation. If you search for a manual for one of the tribes, this feature will definitely give you what you want.

Another new feature Erik implemented is a full tree cycle.

Well what does that actually mean - tree cycle?

In the current development version, the trees are growing by themselves, spreading their seeds, conquering new land and are eventually dying. Also, the life cycle of the tree is affected by the terrain he is growing on. So for example a spruce might grow better on mountain meadows than an oak or an aspen, while larches can thrive better on steppe terrain than other trees... So to conclude: When a tree dies actually depends on its capability to grow and life on the ground it stands on. The death might be in an very early state of the tree's upgrowth or might only come because the lumberjack finally uses his axe.

Perhaps this might sound strange while reading, but I am quite sure you will understand how it works as soon as you are playing with this great new feature.

Further some wonderful new artwork has also found its way to our repository. Ilguido painted us some great new portraits for both campaigns. Link to one example

Another new feature Erik implemented is the possibility to start up with different initializations. That means there doesn't need to be a headquarters at the start of the game, but just some other buildings. At the moment there are two possible initializations for all three tribes: either the old style headquarters (which of course will stay the default) or the castle village (or citadel village at barbarians) which includes a castle full of soldiers, a warehouse and a little infrastructure of bigger buildings like a sawmill and a smith. This feature enables us to not just improve normal games, but also improve campaign maps.

Did you already use the automatic flag setting in a road build (holding down CTRL while ending a road with a flag)? And did you like it? If yes you will surely be happy to hear that Erik implemented a feature that rips of all flags that get a dead end if holding down CTRL while ripping out one flag.

Another question: Did you ever wonder why the lumberjack is running around like an idiot to finally cut the tree furthest away from his house? Well if you really did, you will be happy that you won't ask this question again ...

Okay so what did I do?

Did you ever want to start a game on a different position than the first one? Actually I did and so I implemented a "switch position" system allowing the player to choose a starting position. But that's not all. In multiplayer games you can now even choose to not participate as player, but to follow the game as spectator. And to complete the multiplayer feeling, you finally can use your local characters (like ÄäÖöÜüß in German) in the ingame chat.

Well, what more? Ah... I nearly forgot it, but yes: Bugfixes, bugfixes, bugfixes, bugfixes ...

But well even this long text is not holding all changes, so if you are interested in more information, you should take a look at the ChangeLog