Free Mars 0.8.6.0 (September 28, 2014)

[arikande]

Free Mars 0.8.6.0 (September 28, 2014)

• "Hover-car parts" resource removed.
• "Gauss rifle" resource added.
• "Rifle workshop" colony improvement added.
• "Militia" unit type added. Related images added.
• Militia help page added.
• "Infantry" unit type added to the Expeditionary force. Related images added.
• Population cost added to some unit types.
• Resource cost added to some unit types.
  -- Colonizers require steel.
  -- Militia & mech require gauss rifles.
  -- Spaceships require spaceship parts.
• Population and resource cost info is added to colony production queue management panel.
• Expeditionary force will land in 3 separate waves instead of 1.
• Expeditionary force Earth to Mars preparation & arrival time is increased to 12 from 8.
• Current expeditionary force information dialog size updated.
• Expeditionary force landed dialog image updated.
• Expeditionary force landed dialog size updated.
• Warning messages will be displayed if a colony has enough production points but not enough population or resource quantity for its current production.
• Auto save turns bug fixed in Preferences dialog.
• Unit attack dialog width increased.
• Duration is set to "N/A" for collect debris mission.
• Bug #222 : "Remove player bug" is fixed.
• Mech build cost set to 12.000 production points.
• Earth prices in Earth dialog are updated after buying or selling.
• Unit upkeep costs are reduced and fixed to 1% of production price.
• 1000 food is automatically added to new colonies.
• When first colony is built on a tile containing a collectable, the collectable is automatically delivered to that colony.
• Mars and Earth icons are added to display orbit and Earth buttons in the main game frame.
• Play sound bug fixed.
• Updates made in XML serialization of units.
• Logging added.

[arikande]

Expeditionary force does not use its infantry yet. I'll add it in the next version.

[Tejay]

An amazing update mate, well done!

[arikande]

Thanks :)

...and additional thanks for all those bugs and feature requests ;)

[Billy Venus]

New version.. new features...

FreeMars is no longer a mute game: it uttered its first sound! The sounds are still unobtrusive and not much diversified, but this feature must be noticed. Now, we will have to search for more sounds in the open source databases, won't we?
I already suggest you to slow down the Shuttle lift-off sound... it seems it's fireworks little rocket. Make it more majestuous (check for a real Space Shuttle or an Apollo lift-off, you'll undestand).
I noticed the cargo transfer sound is played... even when the transfered quantity is equal to 0.

Am I getting too aged for this kind of game? I felt the Map-Edge-Scrolling is much more sensitive than on earlier versions... Or maybe I forgot I was used to play without this feature... Oh, my! I memory is betraying me. I'll have to discuss this with my doctor... How is his name yet? Dr. Al-Zaimer? Dr. Haselmeyer? ;)

News from the Blank Data Window bug:
It's still there, occuring from times to times. But now, I can no longer get over it by toggling screen modes (full screen - windowed). And I can't save the game once it occured (neither Autosave, neither Quicksave, neither just Save). The dialogue window is displayed, I give the file a name, the window is closed, but no file is generated. I can only load the last Autosave file (about 4 turns old).