01-12-2004 09:54									#1
	Freeciv and the average Civ2 Scenario designer... Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Well, as some of you may have noticed, I've taken an interest in Freeciv, namely Freeciv 2.0, which, by the way, is easily downloadable and playable, even on my old Win98. Get it here:

ftp://ftp.freeciv.org/pub/freeciv/b...beta4-win32.zip

I decided to put together a nice little list of things I have found out about the game.


Freeciv 2.0 for Windows

New Features in regards to Civ2 besides being near identical in commands, structure, and gameplay:


The Big Ones:

1) You can create unit files, improvement files, terrain files, and tech tree files that allow about 3 times more types of units, improvements, terrains, and techs than Civ2.

2) Graphic resolution and color depth is higher than Civ2: ToT and is on par with Civ3.

3) Sound formats are of higher quality and can be individual to each unit.

4) Up to 30 players.

5) Unit, Improvement, and Terrain size can be increased exponentially. Remember how Civ2: ToT units could be taller than Civ2: MGE units? With Freeciv the units can be obscenely large.

6) An immense opportunity for modification using the logically designed game file structure.


Gameplay:

1) "Worklists" (queues) for city production.

2) Multiple "Tilesets" (World Views) that can be toggled from Civ2 style to Civ1 style to Hex style while playing.

3) City production can be viewed in World View outside of the city.

4) National borders.

5) 72 different message options that can be displayed alerting the player of happenings in his empire.

6) Game Log display at the bottom of the game window that details every change in the game. Also, there can be exporting of the game log into a text file.

7) Pollution and Nuclear Fallout are completely separate types of "pollution".

8) The ability to set units on Auto Attack, Patrol, GoTo/Airlift to City, GoTo nearest city, Diplomat/Spy, and Explode Nuclear (detonate a nuclear bomb without attacking a unit or city).

9) Multiple choices of viewing layers on the game map.

10) Very detailed city resource manipulation by the player.

11) The option to set the units in your city to auto-attack any land units and/or sea units and/or air units and/or helicopter units that come nearby.

12) A Fog of War.

13) The terrain building and pollution options are more varied.


Drawbacks:

1) There is currently no support for an event engine. I have written a very in depth breakdown of the Civ2 event commands and structure on the Freeciv.org forums which has received a good response. Hopefully the designers will come up with something.

If I missed something or got something wrong, tell me.

My opinion? Download it! Play it!

	01-12-2004 10:15									#2
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Oh, for the first timers, hitting F3 will allow for diplomacy... Just discovered that. Also, the diplomacy menu is located in "Reports"...

Last edited by Harry Tuttle on 01-12-2004 at 10:45

	01-12-2004 11:59									#3
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That's a very good summary of Freeciv Harry there isn't much I can add to that.


Minor additions:


The Big ones:

5)
Freeciv also supports animated units (not used right now)

On the size of tilesets I can quote one of the developers. "There is no theoretical maximum"*.


*The practical dimensions now are probably something like 128x96. Civ3 tiles are 128x64, and unit graphics reach "upward" 50% from that. Larger tiles are possible but probably require higher-resolution displays to look any good.


Gameplay

8) You can select multiple waypoints in your goto command. you can also order settlers to build roads/irrigation to a certain point.

	01-12-2004 15:35									#4
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Methinks I will be trying this one out...

Don't you need some kind of programmer's suite to run it though?

Any chance of an install tutorial, CapTVK?

	01-12-2004 16:27									#5
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If it get the look of regular civ2 (and the feeling) I would definatly play it.

	01-12-2004 18:17									#6
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Sounds like a modder's dream boat, sure enough.

I will be testing it to see...

PS
What is the game structure?
Are there any 'rules.txt' and unit static art files, etc?

How easy is it to upgrade the vanilla version?

Last edited by curtsibling on 01-12-2004 at 18:22

	01-12-2004 18:42									#7
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quote: Originally posted by curtsibling Methinks I will be trying this one out... Don't you need some kind of programmer's suite to run it though? Any chance of an install tutorial, CapTVK?

Nope, no programmers suite. Just download the files from the link, unzip to your desktop (it automatically creates a folder), click on civclient and play.

quote: Are there any 'rules.txt' and unit static art files, etc? How easy is it to upgrade the vanilla version?

Yes, look in the data folder. The unit files are in .png format, the same that Fairline was experimenting with a few weeks ago. They are viewable with a good paint program. There are also Civ2 style rules included and some comparable unit graphics.

Be warned, and this is one of the reasons why I think the Scenario League would fit well with the game, is that the graphics are all based on those created many years ago by an Amiga user. They are very rudimentary by say, Fairline's Red Front ToT standards.

	01-12-2004 18:51									#8
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Full colour PNG graphics, you say?

If the system is as easy to manipulate as you state, harry -
I think I may spend some time this weekend getting into Freeciv!

Have you been doing some upgrading yourself?
If so, how are you finding it?

	01-12-2004 19:20									#9
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quote: Originally posted by curtsibling Full colour PNG graphics, you say? If the system is as easy to manipulate as you state, harry - I think I may spend some time this weekend getting into Freeciv! Have you been doing some upgrading yourself? If so, how are you finding it?

Well I've been perusing the files. As the designers stated in CapTVK's thread all the .spec (rules) files can be read and editied using Wordpad or another text editor, just like we do in Civ2.

Also, I've been doing some digging on the Freeciv forums for tips, modpacks, and clues so I can formulate everything into "Civ2 scenario designer language". http://forum.freeciv.org/

The flow of information from one file to another is really logical.

Also, the cool thing, you can point to bricks of pixels in a graphics file and make those bricks your unit pic by just editing the unit.spec file under a tile format folder (the Isotrident folder in the Data folder in the main directory).

Fool around with it. I think it shows a lot of promise.

	01-12-2004 19:24									#10
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...and as I mentioned I think I might try to make a mod pack called "Zero" that will create the maximum empty slots for the units and such so modding will be easier to do.

	01-12-2004 19:46									#11
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Excellent. Downloading as I post ... and: harry!

	01-12-2004 22:11									#12
	Got spare money?

This sounds wonderful if they implement events coding.

	01-12-2004 22:56									#13
	Got spare money?

Sounds intriguing!

*downloading*

But what is Freeciv, actually? Is it a mod of sid meiers civilization or is it a completely new game?

	01-12-2004 23:02									#14
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quote: Originally posted by Kobra Sounds intriguing! *downloading* But what is Freeciv, actually? Is it a mod of sid meiers civilization or is it a completely new game?

It is an independently developed game that mimcs Civ2. They have tried their best to remain in the GPL license and not infringe on copyright. It was originally written for Linux a long time ago and have evolved over time with Civ2, SMAC, Civ3, etc...

	01-12-2004 23:22									#15
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

I'm playing right now, and I spesifically like that you can play up to 30 civs at once!

But can one play or make scenarios with this thing?

	01-12-2004 23:36									#16
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quote: Originally posted by Kobra I'm playing right now, and I spesifically like that you can play up to 30 civs at once! But can one play or make scenarios with this thing?

Right now the concept of a scenario is similiar to Civ2 scenarios.

As many of you may know, a scenario doesn't necessarily have to have new units, sounds, and all that good stuff. Basically, it's one step up from a saved game.

A Modpack on the other hand doesn't necessarily have to have a playable game save included with the new units, sounds, etc...

What Freeciv has is the ability to load a Modpack, with a map that can be created using CivWorld (does not support Freeciv 2.0 beta yet). As for placing cities, units, etc... Well... I haven't gotten to the point where I can answer that.

	01-12-2004 23:42									#17
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For those of you with WinXP please download the vastly superior GTK2 client: better gfx and user interface. It's also updated more regularly than the Win32 binary.

http://deepblue.sk/~r0b0/freeciv/

Grab the latest Freeciv2 Beta there.

Enjoy,

Sith

	02-12-2004 00:37									#18
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

I've never tried Civworld myself but from what I've seen and read it does at least offer the same sort of things as the Civ2 editor does.

Attachment: civworld.png
This has been downloaded 140 time(s).

	02-12-2004 01:36									#19
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From what I saw here (fifth down on the left)...

http://old.freeciv.org/screenshots/1.12.1/

...with an older version of CivWorld it looks like you can place cities and units.

So when does the new version come out?

	02-12-2004 01:45									#20
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I ripped this from the CivWorld map editor (for 2.0) readme:

*** 3.1 Editing a map ***

Start the editor as "./map" in the source directory.
You may use different tilesets using the "-t tiles" command line option. You
can then either:
o Load a map from a savegame (in the game menu) or "-f file" from the command line
o Start editing

For manipulating the map you use the toolbar.
o draw one tile
o draw onto all tiles in a rectangle
o select a city or unit
o place a city
o place a unit
o delete a city or unit
o copy from the map
o paste onto the map from the clip board (you must have copied something first)
o flip or rotate the tiles on the clip board
o undo last action
o place a starting position (if you place one, you've got to use it)

You may add, edit or delete a player from the Editor/Manage Nations dialog.
The Manage Nations dialog is powerful: For example, to edit a player's tech,
click where it says "Technology". To edit a nationality, click in the "Name"
or "Nation" column. To change which player is active, click in the "Active"
column left of the desired player's number.

You may view a player's private map using the View/Private Map toggle. To
edit the private map, that player must be active.

Other features in the Editor menu can:
o manipulate start positions
o set initial server settings
- save & load scripts of server settings
o set the defaults for new units/cities/players
o set a more complete list of units/cities/players

The Map menu has functions to:
o operate on terrain or specials en masse
o generate random maps




I don't know if this is supported by anything other than the GTK client.

Sith, can you add anything about Freeciv 2.0 beta compatibility?

	02-12-2004 01:56									#21
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quote: Originally posted by Harry Tuttle From what I saw here (fifth down on the left)... http://old.freeciv.org/screenshots/1.12.1/ ...with an older version of CivWorld it looks like you can place cities and units. So when does the new version come out?

That's a $64.000 question Harry!

I've never seen a proper FC scenario. Modpacks? Yes Scenarios or special savegames? Not to my knowledge.

Civworld always been seen as a sort of special development tool you use for bugtesting. The developers use it to tweak saves are set up special situations. You had to compile it yourself to make it work and most FC players are interested far more in MP then SP. So it becomes a self reinforcing cycle.

A windows version of Civworld 2.0 should be one of the first priorities after 2.0 is released.

The positive thing to all this is that FC can start from a clean slate when it comes to scenario design/making. The foundations are solid. It's a totally clean slate.

	02-12-2004 01:59									#22
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Civworld patch:
ftp://ftp.freeciv.org/pub/freeciv/c...utils/civworld/

From the readme:
This was updated on 20 Nov 2004 for Freeciv CVS

This has only been tested on linux. You must be willing to compile the GTK 2.0 client to make this work. Since GTK 2.0 can work on Win32, civworld ought to work there too. Email me if you can do it.

So, gtk2 only and no precompiled version available at the moment I'm afraid.

	02-12-2004 02:03									#23
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Ok, so we'll just have to wait. Thanks for the heads up guys.

	02-12-2004 02:08									#24
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Well, here's a quick&dirty way to edit maps at least.

In \share\freeciv\ you'll also see a scenario directory with save files named British isles, World 80x50 etc.... These are simple save files that only have some starter settings and a map in them. They can be opened in a text editor.

	02-12-2004 03:11									#25
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Oh good lord, that's both scary and awesome at the same time.

	02-12-2004 05:05									#26
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OT: Say, what the heck is Civworld? Never heard of that ...

	02-12-2004 05:15									#27
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quote: Originally posted by jim panse OT: Say, what the heck is Civworld? Never heard of that ...

It is an all around map maker, scenario editor, for Freeciv.

	02-12-2004 07:08									#28
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If any of you puts up a graphics modpack to replace the deafult ones, please do tell.

	04-12-2004 01:41									#29
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There is a preliminary version of Civworld for 2.0.0 from Mike, but it still needs a lot of work.

Last edited by Vasc on 04-12-2004 at 01:47

	04-12-2004 05:12									#30
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Ok, anyways, to further illustrate the neat things you can do with Freeciv I'm going to post a sample from a tileset I'm thinking of continuing. I've included 4 different size terrain tiles and 3 different size units.

Please note that the more pixels you want, the bigger the tile, making it somewhat harder to see the board, but then again I've asked for a Zoom In/Out feature in the Freeciv wishlist so maybe someone will look into that.

Attachment: terrainbase.gif
This has been downloaded 68 time(s).