Wesnoth 1.5.0 is out!
This is the first release of the 1.5.x development branch. That means it may include a bigger amount of bugs than the 1.4.x branch and each version is not compatible with another one from the 1.4.x and 1.5.x branch since we do change quite a lot between the releases. Keep in mind, it might be a lot more buggy than the 1.4.x branch so don't be disappointed if you get a crash every now and then. "Normal" players should not use this release, you should stay with the stable branch. But if you want to test the future of Wesnoth, you are free to check 1.5.0.
The release includes many engine changes like the basics of formula AI which will eventually give content creators simple access even to advanced AI parameters. Beside that there were quite many other changes, too. The savegames from the 1.4.x line will probably not be compatible with 1.5.0 and usermade content from 1.4.x is likely to cause problems, too. Please uninstall your old version of Wesnoth and remove your userdata before installing the 1.5.0 release.
Some more important things to mention:
New (heavy) map-screenshot: The new map-screenshot feature (Hotkey : "Map Screenshot") may create heavy BMP image for big maps, so if you have limited diskspace, it's better to dezoom before using it.
Smarter pathfinding: Pathfinding now tries to avoid terrains with bad defense or to be blocked by friends (this help multi-turns moves).
Notes for packagers and those who build themselves:
* We now depend on boost_regex >= 1.33.0
* We now depend on libsdl-ttf >= 2.0.8
* We now depend on zlib >= 1.0 (with development files)
A first prototype implementation of the possible new buildsystem we might be using (scons) is done, too. Please test if it does work for your system as expected. Have a look at the INSTALL file or ask either esr or loonycyborg in IRC for more information about it. The old way building (configure && make && make install) should still work, but any upcoming bugs in it are likely not to be fixed.
Beside that there were many changes "under the hood" which you will probably not notice (at least when everything works as expected). Of course there is also the full changelog listing (almost) all the changes since 1.4. A changelog with changes that might be visible to most users (and only includes these) is the players changelog.
Downloads
Sources:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/wesnoth/wesnoth-1.5.0a.tar.bz2?download (143.1 MB) md5sum
Here is the xDelta for the sources:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/wesnoth/wesnoth-1.4.1.tar-wesnoth-1.5.0a.tar.xdelta?download (1.4.1 to 1.5.0, 9.4 MB)
Check http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7034 for info on using xdelta.
The Windows binary is not available yet. Once it is, you can find it on the download page.
The MacOSX binary is not available yet. Once it is, you can find it on the download page.
The OpenSolaris binary is already available. You can find it on the download page.
All known packagers have been contacted. Information about where to get the respective binaries or how to get them work you get on the Linux binaries site for the Linux binaries. Download links for the other supported systems will be listed at the downloads page once the binaries are available.
As a fallback you can also get the sources from http://files.wesnoth.org/ - you should first try to get files through SourceForge to help us save bandwidth.
The multiplayer server for 1.5.0 is already up and running. This server can only be used to play with 1.5.0. If you do encounter problems, please report them.
A new add-on server for the new development branch was started, too. If you encounter any problems with content from the add-on server not working as expected, please notify the content's author, most of them should be here in the forums.
If you find any bugs don't hesitate to report them, but please read the instructions on how to post bugs first. Instructions for bug reporting can be found at http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/ReportingBugs.
Enjoy!
PS: Within the next seven days anyone asking when the binary for xyz will be ready will be banned and the post will be deleted. Such questions just distract the developers and packagers and don't do any good, so better not ask them...
Bugreports in the forums tend to get forgotten. You will get better results by following the guidelines and report them in the bugtracker.
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