Wesnoth 1.5.3 is out!
This is another 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 1.5.3.
So what is new in this release? No, there are no nude elves in it and the bowman was not changed to 8-4. Most work that was done by our Summer of Code students should be included in this release. That is formula AI should already be a good foundation for a strong future AI. Ilor managed to rewrite the editor and the new code is now included directly in the game. This will allow us some nice features in the future. It is not final, but basic work is done and it should be completely functional. More about the new editor below. Beside this several graphics were updated as well as many translations.
Some other important things to mention:
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Terrain graphic rules for user-made add-ons are now loaded before the core ones, making custom tiles look the same in-game as they did in the editor in the previous release (1.5.2).
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Editor2 is the new map editor developed by Ilor as the GSoC project. Editor2 is a replacement of wesnoth_editor, the old_editor. Unlike the old editor, editor2 is compiled in the game executable. The old editor remains in its own executable, both can safely coexist.
To build the game with the new editor, use scons with editor2=yes or an equivalent option in the other build systems (--with-editor2). This option is enab;ed by default. Remember that you need to build the game, not the editor target -- wesnoth_editor is the largely unmodified old editor. If building manually, you must define the USE_EDITOR symbol and add the editor2 sources to the build. The USE_EDITOR2 symbol does not affect building of the old editor.
To start the new editor, launch wesnoth.exe and choose "Editor" in the title menu, or use the -e or --editor command line option, i.e. "wesnoth -e". If this fails and there is no "Editor" button, it means the game was compiled without editor2 support.
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We found a memory leak in the new widget code and the leak seems to be in a library. We're looking into it. This leak causes Wesnoth to use quite some memory after opening a few new dialogs. New dialogs are enabled with the --new-widgets start switch, but are also used in the new editor (even without the --new-widgets) switch. The only solution at the moment is to restart Wesnoth.
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Son of the Black-Eye has received a lot of bug-fixes, map changes and general polish. As a result of the bigger changes the balance is probably a bit off: later scenarios are likely to be easier than before. Playtesting and rebalancing suggestions would be very welcome (the campaign is intended to remain a challenging one).
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Of course there is also the full changelog listing (almost) all the changes since 1.5.2. 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-1.5.3.tar.bz2?download (149.6 MB) md5sum
Here is the xDelta for the sources:
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/wesnoth/wesnoth-1.5.2.tar-wesnoth-1.5.3.tar.xdelta?download (1.5.2 to 1.5.3, 5.4 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 not available yet. Once it is, 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. Please get the files from sourceforge.net if possible.
The multiplayer server for 1.5.3 is already up and running. This server can only be used to play with 1.5.3. If you do encounter problems, please report them.
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.
