# FreeCiv



## camouflage (Jun 17, 2012)

That ten year Civ2 game furore last week led to my discovery of FreeCiv.

Anyone else played this? Very much like Civ2 but far more complex and you can play over 50 opponents.







Surprisingly I'm really enjoying the retro charm.

http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page


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## Citizen66 (Jun 17, 2012)

Just reading that link now. Sounds really interesting. Cheers for the heads up.


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## camouflage (Jun 17, 2012)

There's an Android version so you can play it on your phone. That's ten-year-gamable right there.


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## YouSir (Jun 18, 2012)

Downloaded a couple of days ago - bloody hard, or maybe I'm just forgetting the months of practice I put in with Civ2. Also a slightly shitty interface with all the tabs but still, as foundations for a game go they're working with the best and that's enough to keep me going. No mods though, apparently, or maybe the site is just down for now.


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## YouSir (Jun 18, 2012)

Also, apparently multi-player geared, going by the setup, so any Urbanites fancy some warfare?


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## camouflage (Jun 18, 2012)

I'm only in it for the single-player experience m'self, but may eventually try a multiplayer game, although I'm really not sure how it'll work play-time wise. I imagine multiplayer would be a lot of fun.

You're right about the interface as well, it's horrendous... for an open source project I'm surprised it's not been addressed yet... or maybe it has but I'm still playing the vanilla un-modded version. Took me ages just to figure out how to configure the game to a playable state, with pop-ups to tell you what's going on or when something important has occurred and combat-animation speeds were you could actually notice a fight transpiring. Scary messages pop-up whenever I load a save-game to, which turn out to be a clickfest of false-alarms.

Strangely I find my interest persists, must be the whole "Civ2 but over 50 opponents if you want even though turns take seconds to complete" thing.


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## YouSir (Jun 18, 2012)

To save me the tedious task of figuring it out myself - where are all the settings for pop-ups and combat animations and the rest? Really massive oversight not to have them on by default, keep missing research advances and battles and treaty expirations.

Also, is there any order to the treaty system? Loads of countries is good but every game I start seems to end up in all out war because I keep forgetting to renew cease-fires and no one upgrades to peace. Had also forgotten about the intricacies of Civ combat, one warrior wiping out three legions in the blink of an eye, gah.

But yeah, for all the faults it's a bugger to put down isn't it? And it runs perfectly on a netbook, proper gaming crack.


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## camouflage (Jun 18, 2012)

YouSir said:


> To save me the tedious task of figuring it out myself - where are all the settings for pop-ups and combat animations and the rest? Really massive oversight not to have them on by default, keep missing research advances and battles and treaty expirations.
> 
> Also, is there any order to the treaty system? Loads of countries is good but every game I start seems to end up in all out war because I keep forgetting to renew cease-fires and no one upgrades to peace. Had also forgotten about the intricacies of Civ combat, one warrior wiping out three legions in the blink of an eye, gah.
> 
> But yeah, for all the faults it's a bugger to put down isn't it? And it runs perfectly on a netbook, proper gaming crack.


 
Please excuse large images I've not bothered to trim down to sensible sizes... but most of the settings involved are found as portrayed below;
















So far my understanding of the treaty system is that you default to war if you've not signed a peace-treaty with the other nation as opposed to just the initial cease-fire. This can get a little tedious if you're playing a lot of nations (as can the initial "AI so-and-so was removed from the game" messages when you load a save game. You can just close those by the way.). I'm at war with loads of the buggers currently, but happily for most I have 'No contact' on the diplo-screen so it's fine.

Yesterday I had fun ambushing large stacks sent by the hated Cambodian scum to the north, then had to suck limes when they did the same to my own carefully built up formation sent to end the war later on. Now I'm building up Legions as the backbone of a new army, archers and cavalry and any unit without adequate defense power will just get stack-fucked in the wrong direction should they lose a single confrontation. This seems to be the way of things in FreeCiv.

It's a finicky and uncomfortable game this, and does seem about as fun as I imagine smoking a crack-pipe in a Kings Cross allyway circa 1995 to be. Really you only see the attraction if you're hooked.


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## camouflage (Jun 18, 2012)

I've checked and checked again, there's not even a zoom-option ffs, it's like being in an abusive relationship in a way, withholding zoom like that.

ah well, world domination will have to struggle on regardless.


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## YouSir (Jun 18, 2012)

camouflage said:


> I've checked and checked again, there's not even a zoom-option ffs, it's like being in an abusive relationship in a way, withholding zoom like that.
> 
> ah well, world domination will have to struggle on regardless.


 
Pop ups always cover combat and can't be moved 

This is a cruel, cold, uncaring, unrewarding game. But still I'm playing.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jun 19, 2012)

Very cool.


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## camouflage (Jun 19, 2012)

Yes, it is. 

I really like that it's open source. Old Skool, and Open Source. Odd combination that.


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## YouSir (Jun 26, 2012)

One thing this is sorely lacking is mods, if only because their site seems to be dead. Also scenarios would be good.

Still playing it though. Sigh.


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## camouflage (Jul 2, 2012)

Wow :- o

Details! Pics! The story so far... how many civs, what size map, where you up to now?


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## camouflage (Jul 6, 2012)

I'd wandered-off this game recently and re-visited Civ 3 and Civ 4 (didn't bother with a return to Civ 5, Gods & Kings sounds interesting but... meh) but have now returned to it again, put's it in a new perspective what's different between this old-skool thing and later developments. Playing Civ 3 onwards is like a cooling salve after vanilla FreeCiv in terms of usability but FreeCiv definitely has a distinct charm all its own. I guess you do get used to the way it's barbs dig into your sides after awhile and start to actually enjoy it.


Still in the ancient era on a game I started a couple of weeks ago (I got distracted), and I am concerned of my inability to take a single enemy city or make peace with an enemy, but have managed to contain the number of wars to two (one far away and one neighbour I allied with Benin against who is now all but crushed.... by Benin). This game has the most interesting future I have to say, which AI states of the 48 (two got RIPed) will rise to be this games Sovjet Union or United States... it's a pleasant pass time finding out, but in a way distinctly more involving than other games. As said before, probably down to the sheer number of nations you can have really.


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## YouSir (Jul 8, 2012)

Had a couple of games reach the modern era now, but not the end (5000 turns default). I like the scale with a couple of dozen countries involved but given the rather shitty diplomacy management system the games I've stuck with have been small and intimate ones. Like Scotland on the British Isles map, allied early on with the Cornish and entered into a 500 year war against the Welsh and English with sporadic periods of peace. I ended up as the super power thanks to having space to the north but the borders were a constant warzone for the most part, cities disappearing and changing hands. Plus Irish raiders constantly grabbing for land. Also had a good game with the Welsh on a generated map, one city game where I took a tech advantage and balkanised all my biggest rivals, sold their cities to lesser powers and then repeated the process on whoever got too big. Kongolese were my biggest enemy at the start but thanks to my generous trading terms the Han and Vandals ended up controlling most of their island idyll. Han got too big in the end and I ended up nuking everyone in the disputed territory (the Kongolese homeland). Massive navies on all sides in that one as everyone had an interest in the island, only time I've seen the AI paying proper attention to the seas. Ended up with my carriers dominating the seas despite Han battleships. They had an airforce by the time I gave up on that game but nothing to compete with mine, they sorely lacked stealth planes and AWACs.

/rambling


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## camouflage (Jan 28, 2014)

This week, I has been mostly eatin... Freeciv. again.

Biorhythms gentleman, it's all about biorythms... and also probably because I discovered the Android version and have been having a great time playing a large map with 50 AI players on the commute to and from work and feeling like it's the high point of 1997ish again (iirc, the year my mate Dan introduced me to Civ 2). Except less Drum&Base and proper strong skunk enjoyed over endless jars of beer at Cosies in the delightful free-city of Brizzle.

Anyhoo, anyone else still into this game? It's really good stuff, free, open-source versions on every platform thus far conceived by human-kind. If only I had the time, besides work/life and Freeciv-play I'd do a write-up of my current game. I like write-ups.


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## Crispy (Jan 28, 2014)

I've played a little freeciv, but got put off by the interface.
Since, I've played dwarf fortress, so maybe I'm made of sterner stuff these days 

Also  to Cosies. Top place


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## camouflage (Jan 28, 2014)

By the way... It's a new version since last time whn I started this thread as it all seems a lot less painful both on phone and laptop. You can even zoom on the Android version.


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## camouflage (Jan 28, 2014)

Crispy said:


> I've played a little freeciv, but got put off by the interface.
> Since, I've played dwarf fortress, so maybe I'm made of sterner stuff these days
> 
> Also  to Cosies. Top place



Had a look at Dwarf Fortress after seeing your thread. All seemed very interesting but a bit too er.... box of matches spills on floor: "93!" 

Yes... Cosies is a fine place indeed. Im up for a revisit now I think about it, probably changed beyond all recognition though.


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## Crispy (Jan 28, 2014)

I haven't been in well over a decade. I can't imagine it's anything like it was, given the pace of change around there.


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