NEWS-2.0.0-beta4

===Fourth "beta" release of Freeciv 2.0.0===
:19 Nov 2004
:The fourth "beta" for Freeciv 2.0.0 has been released. You can download it from either of:
:*
:*
:A Windows binary is available at:
:*
:Note that this is still not the final 2.0.0 release. We've fixed a huge number of bugs even since the third beta, but many still remain. Please send bug reports to bugs@freeciv.org, with as much descriptive information as possible. Send a savegame if possible (especially if it will help to reproduce the problem) No bug is too small! If you find a crash in the Windows binary include the civserver.RPT or civclient.RPT in your report.
:For a tentative feature list in Freeciv 2.0, please see the NEWS-beta page. For a list of changes since beta3, see NEWS-beta4.
The Freeciv Maintainers
===This is an extensive list of the changes since the 2.0.0-beta3:===
* Improvements to INSTALL instructions.
* Iconv (character conversion library) is made mandatory.
* Fix bug where AI wouldn't give shared vision to teammates.
* Fix some bugs where the AI would try to load units into transporters that couldn't hold them.
* Fix a bug where an AI player might consider itself dangerous. Its units would freeze trying to hunt themselves and its cities would build defensive units to try to defend against the players' own units.
* Fix all known bugs with input and output of non-ascii characters on the server terminal.
* Fix a bug where the client could be stuck in goto mode after the game ends.
* Give the player some feedback if the server disconnects unexpectedly.
* Fix a security bug with hack-access verification.
* Update the unit info panel if a unit's veteran status changes.
* Fix a bug where the unload-all menu command would not properly activate the transported units.
* Disable some parts of the interface when the player is observing.
* Fix bugs where translated names of items were, unknown to translators, limited to a maximum length.
* Avoid a potential problem when an "unreal" tile is selected from the overview.
* Fix a bug where Uranus-style maps would have a map overview that was way too big.
* Update the units dialog when a unit is destroyed.
* Update menus when we receive a new tech (some new items might be available now).
* Improve the messages when a revolution ends.
* Display diplomatic state for units on the mapview popup (middle-click).
* Avoid a potential infinite loop in the nation selection dialog when no nation in the selected class is available.
* Provide a confirmation dialog before having a targeted revolution.
* Fix some bugs where popup dialogs in the gtk2 client might appear underneath other dialogs.
* Change the interface of the CMA tab in the gtk2 client's city dialog.
* Fix a potential crash in the gtk2 client's browse file dialog.
* Fix a bug with activate-all in the gtk2 client's unit tile popup.
* Fix a bug where diplomacy when you had no gold would cause a GTK warning.
* Enable fullscreen mode in the gtk2 client by default (this will have no effect for users of previous betas).
* Fix a bug where keyboard input could stop working in the gtk2 client.
* Add a tooltip to the gtk2 client's tab-close buttons, and allow scrolling of tabs.
* Make the quit confirmation dialog show up under all close events.
* Fix a crash in the gtk2 client when leaving a game.
* hide the input cursor in the gtk2 client's help dialog.
* Change the text style for some miscellaneous text in the gtk2 client.
* Change the keyboard shortcuts for load and unload commands.
* Fix a bug where the gtk2 client's LAN connection page would not respect the user's selection.
* Fix a bug where the gtk2 client's connection dialog wouldn't change the number of AI players after the user tried to change the value.
* Add to the gtk2 client's players dialog a method to toggle and control AI players.
* Fix a bug where 'find nearest' in the gkt2 client's units dialog would just skip fortified units.
* Add scrollbars to the gtk2 client's science dialog tech list.
* Fix some bugs in the win32 client with loading and saving of games.
* Fix a bug in the win32 client where an input dialog wouldn't get the focus.
* Fix a bug in the win32 client where "none" research wasn't shown correctly.
* Fix a bug in the xaw client with drawing sprites with no mask.
* Avoid crashing if a connection is closed twice.
* Rewrite the citizen management algorithm. The new experimental algorithm should be less buggy.
* Make units in cities more expensive to bribe.
* Allow players to start on forests, hills, or tundra. This fixes at least partially a problem where there might be not enough starting positions.
* Fix a bug where Isaac Newton's College only affected the city it was in.
* Add some leaders and cities to the Silesian nation.
* Update README.rulesets.
* Fix a possible crash in server-side autoattack (for defenders in cities).
* Fix a bug in calculation of diplomat sabotage success probability.
* Fix a bug where sabotaging an unspecified building could cause a crash.
* Fix a bug where the server would fail if there were more than 300 continents (the new limit is 600).
* Fix a bug where the server's connection to the metaserver was never closed.
* Fix a buglet where some fields weren't saved in the savegame, causing an obscure error message "unexpected exit from tabular".
* Fix a potential crash when the AI settler code only found one tile to work.
* Fix a bug where the server wouldn't check players' nation selection choices.
* Fix a bug where a vote would fail if 1/3 players voted 'no'.
* Fix a buggy message "No such vote (10), last is 11."
* Fix a bug when the server was sending information about players to the client after loading a game, and there were barbarians in the game.
* Fix a bug where a player could send an ai-controlled unit on goto, resulting in a crash when the goto ended and the AI tried to resume its action.
* Decrease the likelihood of forest, swamp, and desert (making plains and grassland more likely).
* Some tweaks to the starting position placement algorithm.
* Fix a bug in password checking in the authentication database code.
* Fix a bug where non-ascii strings could cause a crash on the Windows platform.
Category:NEWS