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Games Entertainment

FreeCiv 1.12.0 Released 214

wmulvihillDxR writes "For you Civilization addicts, check out FreeCiv. They have just released version 1.12! Highlights of changes include the isometric view we all know and love. You can download here(gz) or here(bz2). This project is a great example of the things open source can accomplish."
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FreeCiv 1.12.0 Released

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  • Slashdotted site (Score:2, Informative)

    by isorox ( 205688 )
    So go grab the tarball directly!
    ftp://ftp.freeciv.org/freeciv/stable/freeciv-1.12. 0.tar.bz2 [freeciv.org]

    Or a UK mirror on a big uni pipe:

    http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/ug/cs00/pjw/freeciv-1.12.0 .tar.bz2 [ex.ac.uk]
  • Free XCOM? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jdavidb ( 449077 )

    When I bought RedHat 7.1 a couple of months ago, I was entranced by FreeCiv 1.11.4. This really turned my thinking around on open-source/free software games. Previously, I had thought games were a good place to make an exception to the free software philosophy, but FreeCiv changed my mind.

    I think the community should try to win over proprietary software lovers by cloning games right and left. Yes, this means imitation instead of innovation for awhile. Guess what? Richard Stallman did the same thing when he decided to copy UNIX for GNU. Eventually, the free software/open source community will reach a critical mass and innovation will begin to outpace the imitation.

    So, speaking of imitation, what are the odds I might see an open source game like XCOM some time soon? I also understand Linus Torvalds really loved Prince of Persia. Either of these would be great to clone.

    • Actually tehre is some project called UFO2000,\ (or XCOM2000) which is a free XCOM. But i cannot remember the homepage and it was very very far from finished.

      There is also LinCity which is a simcity clone, FreeCraft which is a warcraft clone, and NiL which is a liero clone.

      (Not to mention GnoMines...)

      • I saw something that might have been UFO2000, but it looked like it still depended on parts of XCOM. But, we can always hope.

        LinCity is pretty neat. It includes a lot more than the original SimCity. That kind of bothered me at first, but actually it just shows you that free software can do more than imitate. :)

        I haven't tried FreeCraft, yet, but as it is one of the most popular Sourceforge downloads, I suspect it must be very good. I'll get there, some day.

        For proof that free software is coming up with some real innovations in the area of games, check out Worldforge [worldforge.org]. Among other things, they are solving the long standing problem of NPCs that don't interact well with the player. The things Worldforge has planned go far beyond what most game companies have thought of. They are also very inclusive of artistic and musical talent, and the other non-computer-specific skills needed to make a successful game.

  • This project is a great example of the things open source can accomplish.

    Fatal error: out of dynamic memory in yy_create_buffer() in Unknown on line 0

    [Moderator, if you miss the humour, you are obviously not smart enough to read /.]
    • Okay, so I'm a moderator today, but I'm obviously giving up my ability to moderate in this article by posting.

      I've been working with tech for longer than I'd expect the average /. reader to have been. I'm a smart guy. I can program decently in many real (i.e. not created by Microsoft) languages and I can administrate the hardware and software on several UNIX variant systems. But I'm obviously not smart enough to read /. because I just don't get the humor in wiZd0m's "witticism".

      Would someone be so kind as to explain to me why this was funny? If, like me, you don't get the humor, you have moderator status for the day, and you just find this insulting, please do me the favor of modding this idiot down; at least we've given him a chance. If it is funny, maybe now would be a good time to educate me. Thanks!

      ::Colz Grigor

      --

  • I have recently played Civilization: Call to Power 2, and I must say that FreeCiv is better. CtP's AI is unbelievably stupid. All you need to conquer the world is a bunch of artillery (even catapult will do). You can just walk from one enemy city to another, bomb it, and take it. And that ruined the play.

    All in all, FreeCiv is currently the best Civ clone in existance, at least until Civilization III is out.

    • Call to power isn't one of Sid Meier's civilizations. (Neither is the second one). Thats why both civ 1 and 2 have the titles Sid Meiers' Civilization. They kept the basic idea though, although Sid Meier appears to be doing a much better job with his series.
  • Nooo!!! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dexx ( 34621 ) on Friday August 10, 2001 @07:25PM (#2118064) Homepage
    And I'd finally broken my addiction...

    Well, there go my plans for the weekend.
  • Since the main page of the english site is broken, visit the Italian site to get the name of the pages:
    http://www.freeciv.it/

    For example, the quick start guide there is:
    http://www.freeciv.it/startguide.html
    Use:
    http://www.freeciv.org/startguide.html
    For the English version.
  • Looking at the newest screenshots [freeciv.org], there's one [freeciv.org] that shows lots of popups, and one of those popups is for selecting citizen types. The types allowed are:
    • Elvises
    • Scientists
    • Taxmen
    Elvises?! This game has gotten... a little silly it seems ;-)
    • Obviously, you have never played Civilization. The "Elvises" are citizens that are taken from production duties to Entertainment: they create "happiness". The taxmen collect more taxes thus increasing the amount of "gold" produced by the city, while the scientists increase the research output of said city.

  • ..blows. Seriously, what's this maddness of isometric view? Does it really make nicer to play? Not for me, it's just more fuzzy.
    I'd love to have the option to chose between normal "top" view, and Isometric.

  • Open Source (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gorf ( 182301 ) on Friday August 10, 2001 @08:37PM (#2128250)

    This project is a great example of the things open source can accomplish.

    This is fine for games like freeciv [freeciv.org], where the game is mainly gameplay and not fancy graphics; the goalpost isn't being moved.

    But what about things like first-person shooters? These games are always pushing the boundaries of hardware, and so it needs a lot of time and effort just to keep up. Can open source keep up with this?

    Another issue is with map design; in a game like Half-Life (for example), a huge amount of effort has to go into designing the story, and you can only play it once, unlike freeciv. This means that there would be have to be a single point where the game would be considered complete and released; otherwise both the designers and the gameplayers would lose interest.

    So games like freeciv are fine, but what about the rest of the computer game market? Is it practical for open source development to continue? Or are companies like Loki [lokigames.com] going to be producing most of our decent games?

    • Open source works fine for the scaffolding that holds games up. Things like SDL, OpenGL, various other APIs, rendering and logic engines are all things that open source can work very well for. The maps on the other hand are pretty much going to have to be developed by paid artists and it will require profit to pay them. For instance, there are all sorts of nifty projects that have been made out of the Doom and Quake source but the maps are not free. You will have to find an old copy of Quake to obtain them legally.

      And yes, some fairly innovative things are being done with this old source. prboom.sourceforge.net seems to have merged many of the independent improvments to Doom into one place:

      Game engine

      * Player bobbing improved, optional (BOOM, MBF)
      * Friction effects (BOOM), affecting players and monsters (MBF)
      * Wind, current, conveyor effects (BOOM)
      * Far more flexible scrolling wall/floor types (BOOM)
      * Always run (BOOM)
      * Weapon change logic overhauled and improved (BOOM)
      * Support for friendly monsters, helper dogs (MBF)
      * Monster target finding code improved (MBF)
      * AI improvements (MBF)
      * Bouncy and touchy things (MBF)
      * New code pointers (MBF)
      * Per-level and animated skies (MBF)
      * Generalised line types system gives complete flexibility (BOOM)
      * Elevators (BOOM)
      * Translucent sprites, walls (BOOM)
      * Independent floor and ceiling lighting (BOOM)
      * Silent teleports (BOOM)
      * Deep water, true underwater areas (BOOM)
      * Icon of Sin telefragging made more consistent (MBF)
      * Fix large numbers of game bugs (BOOM, MBF, LxDoom)
      * Support arbitrary texture heights (BOOM)

      Screen

      * High resolution support (PrBoom)
      * Optional message console, multiple message lines (BOOM)
      * Status bar shows health/armour/ammo in colours (BOOM)
      * Heads up display, showing ammo, health, keys overlayed on view (BOOM)
      * OpenGL renderer which renders as original to software Doom as possible while greatly
      improving the visual quality (PrBoom)

      To be sure, most `big' games for Linux will come from porting houses like Loki but Loki has to use most of the same tools everybody else does. Healthy contribution to those `scaffolding' API will make it easier and quicker for those porting houses to get the game to us.

      • You most certainly do NOT need to pay people to make good maps! When team Fortress was initially released it didn't come with ANY maps. Someone made 2fort4, shared it, and made history. The best part of TF was trying out new maps!

        Making a single player campaign, on the other hand, is much harder, but who wants to buy a game that they can only play through once?

        Travis
  • I've mirrored the latest release to:

    http://planetmirror.com/pub/freeciv/stable/
    ftp://planetmirror.com/pub/freeciv/stable/

    this mirror is located in australia and is provided by http://planetmirror.com

    cheers,

    -jason
  • by goodmanj ( 234846 ) on Friday August 10, 2001 @07:29PM (#2129444)
    I love freeciv, but I'm disappointed with the isometric view. The graphics are muddy and indistinct compared with the old Trident tileset. All the land types look the same, and the units blend in with their backgrounds.

    I recommend people try starting the client with --tiles=trident, to get the old view. It would be nice someone should draw some new, improved isometric graphics.

  • I liked freeciv... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Sj0 ( 472011 )
    I liked freeciv, but I liked the civ 1 interface a lot. The amount of info they were able to cram into a few oversized pixels was cool.
    Freecraft is my fave GPL'd game though. Even if the graphics aren't the best, it runs well under BEos! :)
  • Hope that they don't close the source like TuxRacer :)
  • Release Notes (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This is release 1.12.0.

    Thanks again to all our developers, who continue to work so hard.

    This release includes lots of changes, outlined below. Those who
    are interested in seeing the detailed changes should check the
    ChangeLog file.

    WHAT'S CHANGED SINCE 1.11.4

    - Internationalization extended. Still needs improvement.
    Current localizations: de en_GB es fr hu it ja nl no pl pt pt_BR
    ro ru sv.
    - Isometric view in gtk and amiga clients using the mostly civ2-
    compatible HiRes tileset. This is on by default, but the old non-
    isometric tiles are still available by giving a --tiles argument to
    the client, fx "civclient --tiles trident".
    - While planning a goto (after hitting "g") a line will be displayed
    showing the route from the selected unit to the mouse pointer.
    Hitting "g" will insert a waypoint at the mouse pointer.
    - The server now has readline completion. This works at all levels,
    fx "cu" completes to "cut", and if there exist a player named
    "paulz" "cut pau" will complete to "cut paulz".
    - Players can agree to give shared vision, which means that you
    automatically see everything the other player sees.
    - Layer view menu items allow you to only display some map info on the
    main map. Fx you can choose to not show roads.
    - The server will ping all connected clients and cut off those too slow
    to respond.
    - Smarter placing of partisans.
    - The server no longer automatically starts when the maximum number of
    players have been reached.
    - If commandlevels are used and the controlling player disconnects a
    connected player can assume the "first" level with the "/firstlevel"
    command.
    - "Restrictions and Limitations" section added to the README.ruleset
    - Caravans, diplomats and spies can move into allied cities.
    - Elephants, Crusaders and Fanatics activated in civ 2 ruleset.
    - The size of the city foodbox is now controlled by the ruleset
    variables "granary_food_ini" and "granary_food_inc".
    - Limit on number of improvement types in rulesets removed.
    - Capitalization is available from the start of the game in the default
    ruleset. (renamed coinage)
    - Cities can have 0 trade. (used to be at least 1)
    - Settlers can only be added to cities less than size 8, as in civ 2.
    - If you paradrop a unit into unknown terrain and the terrain contains
    an enemy unit the paradropping unit is lost. If you drop into terrain
    you thought was land, but which has changed to water, the unit is
    also lost.
    - diplomats/spies can't take action from a ship.
    - Refueling air units at turn update will refuel units with only 1 fuel
    first. Secundary criteria is unit cost.
    - Trireme loss percentage depends upon known technologies.
    - Leonardo's workshop will upgrade a random unit each turn, and not
    just the next one.
    - Allied cities count as friendly when determining whether a unit is
    being agressive. (gives unhappyness under some govs.)
    - Deserts are created primarily 15 to 35 degrees off the equator.
    - Only arctic tiles generated at poles.
    - The server will report when a new government becomes available.
    - Changed wording of message "famine feared" to "famine occured". New
    "famine feared" message just before food runs out.
    - "wonder soon build" message when another player is about to complete
    a wonder.
    - Players are notified when one of their wonders has become obsolete.
    - In the players dialog it is now reported which nations have an
    embassy with you. Your embassies are also listed.
    - Wonders being built are listed in the "wonders of the world" popup.
    - Server "save" command saves to m.sav[.gz]
    if it is not given any arguments.
    - "quitidle" server commandline option makes server quit if there has
    been no connected players for the specified amount of time.
    - When turning on the autotoggle option existing human nations without
    a connected player will be put on AI.
    - Server doesn't block as long when writing to a slow host, controlled
    by variables "tcptimeout" and "netwait".
    - "savename" server variable controls the prefix of autosaves.
    - "allowconnect" server variable lets you control which types of
    players (new players; human players; AI players; dead players;
    barbarian players) can connect.
    - More nations added.
    - New maps in data/scenario: british-isles-80x76-v2.51.sav,
    iberian-peninsula-136x100-v0.9.sav,
    hagworld-120x60-v1.2.sav (earth map).
    - Amiga internationalization/localization.
    - Amiga client: history added to chatline.
    - Lots of bug fixes and code cleanups.

  • Serious question (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jchristopher ( 198929 ) on Friday August 10, 2001 @09:22PM (#2133574)
    Having never played the original "Civilization", I just downloaded the pre-compiled Windows version to try on the machine I'm on. Unfortunately, I've found that "FreeCiv" suffers from a common problem in open source software - crummy interface.

    This seems to be a recurring trend in open source software - it's very stable, low/no cost - all ideal qualities! Except the interface blows.

    Something tells me that in the original "Civilization", the end user would not have to use a command line to configure and play the game. Why couldn't they "clone" the setup process?

    Why does all open source software tend to have bad user interface?

    • Re:Serious answer (Score:3, Insightful)

      by m4xwell ( 30060 )
      What is it about the interface that bothers you? I'm sure the people that write the game would love your constructive feedback.

      You can reach them at freeciv-dev at freeciv dot org, or check out their website at http://www.freeciv.org [freeciv.org]
      for archives.

      This "common open source software problem" is more likely that there's not enough feedback regarding what would improve the UI, and/or not enough people or time to do it. It's really difficult for most people to provide a nice UI to software they spend a lot of time working on. FreeCiv has 4 clients in the code base now, and different people work on different parts. There are several nice pending patches that we'll probably see in later days as the source base was being stabilized for the 1.12.0 release. FreeCiv dev people are constantly trying to improve the user's experience, just look at the changelog, almost everything there is for usability or a gameplay enhancement. Many users also contribute new parts for the GUI when they have an approach they like better, like the new city dialog patch for the gtk client(don't know what the current status is, but it doesn't look like it got in 1.12.0). The feelings you have shared would be the most productive if you used them to motivate yourself to do something similar.

      Users are the most important part of usability and when you don't know what they want or how they think it should work then it's pretty difficult to give them what they want.

      The command line interface on the server makes perfect sense. Are you always going to be wanting to run the server on a machine you have a GUI on? I sure don't. It's better than requiring a GUI to run the server... I'd rather there was more focus on improving the clients than the server UI, but perhaps you could write a little shell script or some server gui add-on that would simplify or render transparent setting up the game environment for single and possibly multiplayer games. That would likely be quite well received.

      You can complain, you can contribute. You can even complain while you contribute, but contribution is the only way to get it done the way you want it to be done.

      • I'd say it doesn't make much sense to have the server run on a machine that doesn't also run the client. Now if this was some huge cpu intensive server, things would be different.

        Just to try it out, I've run the FreeCiv server on my headless Pentium, and it worked fine. But then X, GTK+ and the client all require so much power that if you need (well, not need, but want) a P2 to run the client, running the server on the same machine doesn't slow it down noticeably.

      • I think part of the problem is not so much UI design (although that is a big issue), but a lack of graphic artist in these open source projects.

        Open Source just doesn't seem to attract the kind of artistic talent needed for help with interface asthetics, and game graphics.
      • perhaps you could write a little shell script or some server gui add-on that would simplify or render transparent setting up the game environment for single and possibly multiplayer games. That would likely be quite well received.

        I could, if I were a programmer, I suppose. However, like 99% of software users, I am not. I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to start the game with one executable, and setup the game and start if from there.

        I could describe the changes I perceive to be necessary to someone in ten minutes - but maybe it's difficult to implement? Seems like if it was easy, someone would have done it already.

    • Why does all open source software tend to have bad user interface?

      Two reasons: First, because most folks *capable* of _creating_ a decent GUI are by definition competent enough to use the command line interface. Second, because people who are *that* dependant on the _graphical_ interface are too damn freaked by the commandline nature of compilers that they don't do anything about it.

      Short answer: Either get used to the commandline or be friggin' brave enough to make the GUI better.

      And for GOD sakes, some of the BEST software has ONLY a commandline interface, so NEVER equate commandline interfaces with commandline interfaces. Hmph!!!!!

      • Second, because people who are *that* dependant on the _graphical_ interface are too damn freaked by the commandline nature of compilers that they don't do anything about it.

        Hmm... I'm not scared of the command line. I know exactly what it does and how to use it.

        My point, however, is that I (and many others) are much more efficient working in a proper GUI. That's all.

        It seems that in much open source software, the programmers do the bare minimum in order to get the program to work, then stop.

    • I've always preferred Freeciv's interface to Civ II's. What's wrong with it?
    • Why does all open source software tend to have bad user interface?

      Cause you haven't gotten down off your high horse and written a better interface for them?

      • Cause you haven't gotten down off your high horse and written a better interface for them?

        That's exactly the attitude which causes most open source applications to have a very poor user interface. In the open source world your opinion and ideas are important only if you can implement them yourself. It's no wonder that open source projects lack UI designers and graphics artists.

    • I'm guessing that Open Source project are only populated by programmers, and don't have either UI designers or graphic atrists on board. For a good game you need all three skills well prepresented.

      It doesn't help that while all UI designers and graphic artists know that they shouldn't be writing code, many programmers don't have any such insight about their limitations.

      Just as an anecdote I talked to someone at a major game company last week, and they have less than 10 programmers out of over 50 people working on building their current next big game.
      • I'm guessing that Open Source project are only populated by programmers, and don't have either UI designers or graphic atrists on board. For a good game you need all three skills well prepresented.

        It doesn't help that while all UI designers and graphic artists know that they shouldn't be writing code, many programmers don't have any such insight about their limitations.

        In a previous thread, I asked that Bero guy from Redhat about this, basically "Does Redhat have a staff of user experience people?". I don't remember getting an answer, although he did write a nice reply to another post of mine.

        I suspect the answer is no, because to my knowledge, there are few, if any, user interface people working on open source stuff. They are, however, desperately needed, and RedHat should be able to hire 2 or 3 to supervise the installer, contribute to Gnome, etc...

  • by pezpunk ( 205653 ) on Friday August 10, 2001 @07:33PM (#2135034) Homepage
    http://www.civ3.com [civ3.com]

    this game looks incredible! god i can't wait
    • Still no linux version on the cards though :( At least, officially.
      • There is some hope (Score:3, Informative)

        by ucblockhead ( 63650 )
        There is some hope. The Sid Meier's game "Alpha Centauri" is available for Linux, though it did take Loki forever to get it out.
        • I bought AC at linux expo London, Wasnt too impressed with the lack of nice box && manual though. It is better then nothing, but no where near as good as the SidCiv, or even CTP1 (out of print for lnux now as far as I can tell)
          • I agree about the lack of manual...that really sucks (though I'd already bought the Windows version, so I had it.) But I'm surprised...I found Alpha Centauri to be much better than Civ:CTP.
  • by mkozlows ( 21830 ) <mlk@klio.org> on Friday August 10, 2001 @07:30PM (#2139949) Homepage
    This is a great example of what open source can accomplish? A (not-quite-primetime) clone of a decades-old game that's already been re-implemented several times commercially with better graphics and gameplay?

    No, I don't think so. This may be nice to have around in the game-poor Linux world, but it's not an example of what open source can do. For that you'll want to look to Apache, to Postgres, to BIND, and to any of the other programs that do what they do _better_ than the comparable commercial alternatives.
    • by D_Gr8_BoB ( 136268 ) on Friday August 10, 2001 @09:23PM (#2132774)
      Actually, FreeCiv is a great example of what open source can accomplish. Sure, Civilization is a few years old, but its follow-ups in the same style (Colonization, Civ II and Alpha Centauri) were all very good and sold well. That Civilization is a classic and among the best computer games ever made is a fact nearly undisputed among experienced gamers. In any case, your point is moot because, for example, nobody complains about the GNU Chess people wasting their time on a centuries-old game rather than writing exciting 3d engines.

      Besides, it's not so much just the fact that you can play Civilization for free that makes FreeCiv a triumph of the open source community. What really makes it great is that people who wouldn't normally have access to game source code can see inside the guts of the game, learn how it works, and make changes. The alterations could be as sweeping as an entire new ruleset which could be distributed over the net or as simple as altering a few #DEFINEs just to see what happens, but in any case, the ability to work with the source of a project like this is invaluable.

      Hacking this sort of project is a big part of what the open source movement is all about: having a good time, growing intellectually, and inviting others to do the same.

      • You don't even need to change souce code in Freeciv to do mods. All the rulesets are in plain text.

        Although, it would be great to get in there and change the source as well, I would like to see support for different topologies and seperate tech trees. But then I am just selfish and want to get my Middle Earth Modpack done.
    • Yeah, gotta hate those commercial apps, like Red Hat Linux and Zope...

      I believe the word you're loooking for is closed source, proprietary or non-free. Many Open Source projects are commercial in nature and both the FSF and OSI and any dictionary (combined with some logic) will tell you that whether soemthing is commercial or not has no bearing on whether it is Open Source or Free Software.

    • Why is this 'flamebait'? I think he's raising a valid point. Civilisation has been cloned to death commercially, and now - years after it was considered cutting edge - it's cloned as an open source effort. I love Civilisation, and I've played FreeCiv and liked it, but this isn't an earth-shattering breakthrough for free software, nor is it a prestige project.

      On the open source gaming front, I'd say CrystalSpace is more glamorous, and it'd be a great example of what free software can achieve assuming somebody got around to building a game with it...and of other free software projects, I'd agree that things like Apache or bind are more significant.

      If the parent post to this is really considered flamebait by most of the Slashdot readership for raising a valid point, then this is becoming the wrong place to look for serious discussion.
    • Ya... I'm sorely disappointed with the number of original open-source games. Of course, cutting edge games are hard to make part-time. Most people (such as myself) working on games need/want to do it all day long to get anything done. It's important to eat too. :-) So, we end up making cool, but closed-source, games.

      It's also hard to keep focused. I started to write lots of (eventually aborted) shareware games years ago. That experience got me my current job, but it's too easy to get bored with your own game and keep changing it forever, never getting to a finished state. Cloning an existing game at least has a definite target. Open source might get around that problem though if people can pick up when you get bored. Still, the problem is in the definite target, and design by open-source comittee would fall somewhere between painful and disasterous.
  • by Scudsucker ( 17617 ) on Friday August 10, 2001 @07:37PM (#2145681) Homepage Journal
    In Civilization II, the only pollution that has any effect on the world is that generated by the player....the AI doesn't make any. In FreeCiv, the rate of pollution seems to be about the same....but now its counted for each player, human and AI! So if you're playing with 5 AI's, you have 5 times as much pollution, so you tend to get massive global warming by the 1950's.
    • AI players still pollute, but at least they try to clean it up now.
    • In Civilization II, the only pollution that has any effect on the world is that generated by the player....the AI doesn't make any. In FreeCiv, the rate of pollution seems to be about the same....but now its counted for each player, human and AI! So if you're playing with 5 AI's, you have 5 times as much pollution, so you tend to get massive global warming by the 1950's.

      First off, I've only had a global warming problem once, in many games, several of which progressed past the 50's.

      But in any case, why is this a "problem"? It's a "problem" that a game acts more realistically? If you think global warming is going to be a problem, then you should hurry up and conquer your enemies, right? (hmmm....)

      • But in any case, why is this a "problem"? It's a "problem" that a game acts more realistically?

        By "massive", I mean 90% of the earth's surface is either swamp or desert. Not only is it not realistic, its a PITA cause you have to convert all your terrain to hills if you want to save your citys' population.

        If you think global warming is going to be a problem, then you should hurry up and conquer your enemies, right? (hmmm....)

        That gets pretty hard to do when land is turning to swamp, destroying roads.

        Wonder why this hasn't happened to you....different version maybe? I did try and find out where to change the setting, as this is open source and all, but I didn't have any luck.
        • By "massive", I mean 90% of the earth's surface is either swamp or desert... Wonder why this hasn't happened to you....different version maybe?

          Yeah, I could see where that's a problem... the version I was playing was 1.11.4, which was the most recent version for the past year or so. Are you playing with the default settings? I generally play with the defaults, or with slightly higher landmass and rivers settings.

          Also, I would imagine that playing against more AIs would make this less of an issue. I generally play against 6 AIs, and on a standard-size map, this causes a lot of early fighting that stunts growth (yours and theirs). If you're playing on a large map with few AIs, I can see where pollution and global warming would be a problem...

  • ~grarr~ (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by isorox ( 205688 )
    Error 666: Slashdoted

  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10, 2001 @07:18PM (#2151572)
    I never understood why Civ didn't use hexagonal plots of land. All distances would be nicely evened out...
    • Infact it does use hexagonal plots of land, it just doesn't look like it :)

      You can press 7, 9, 1 or 3 and your unit will make a hexagonal move at the price of one movement.

      • Infact it does use hexagonal plots of land, it just doesn't look like it :)

        You can press 7, 9, 1 or 3 and your unit will make a hexagonal move at the price of one movement.


        Doesn't that make it octagonal (8 possible directions)? Hexagonal would be more in accordance with many of the more 'serious' board-based wargames...
  • bahaha (Score:2, Funny)

    by VAXGeek ( 3443 )
    Let's see, Civilization (Sid Meyers) release date: 1991

    Open Source version: 2001

    So, I should see an Open Source clone of Black & White by around 2034.
    • Look: Civilization is considered 15 most influential games [gamespot.com] says GameSpot [gamespot.com]. So, whether it's ported 2100 or 2500, it is still a precious timeless treasure for all of us gamers.

    • Ah, good ol' irony.

      Like anyone would prefer B&W over Civilization (no matter whether in 2001 or 2034)
      • Like anyone would prefer B&W over Civilization (no matter whether in 2001 or 2034)

        I would. I'm still miffed that I'm forced to buy a new Win box just because I can't run Black and White under WINE.

    • Re:bahaha (Score:5, Insightful)

      by evilquaker ( 35963 ) on Friday August 10, 2001 @07:47PM (#2123059)
      Let's see, Civilization (Sid Meyers) release date: 1991
      Open Source version: 2001

      I know it's a troll, but I'll bite:

      Civilization II Gold (first multiplayer version): 1999
      Freeciv multiplayer: 1998

      • Re:bahaha (Score:3, Informative)

        by ucblockhead ( 63650 )
        CivNet [mobygames.com] was released in 1995. That was the first multiplayer Civilization.

        In other news, Civilization 3 [civ3.com] is due October 17.

        It is true that FreeCiv is more a clone of Civilization II than Civilization I these days, but it still hasn't really hit that mark yet. Certainly not in the AI.

        • Not sure what you mean by "hasn't hit that mark yet".

          Freeciv's AI players are much smarter than Civ II's. But diplomacy with AI players isn't implemented yet.

          • Unfortunately, lacking diplomacy makes it mostly worthless as a single player game.


            That, and some other things, is what I mean by "hasn't hit that mark". It is all well and good to say that your AI is better, but if you haven't got around to implementing everything, it is only better in theory, not in practice. That seems to be where open source projects often break down. They are often perpetually not quite done. (Don't flame: I know damn well that many projects are done.) Freeciv suffers from that. I've played it, and enjoyed it, but there is still work to be done before it is a real game.

            • Well to be fair, diplomacy isn't done, and AI is a fairly low priority, because the developers and users of the game have never made it a high priority. It's rarely run as a single player game - the focus of the project is and has always been multiplayer network games. And at that it excells.

      • by Anonymous Coward
        It was released in 1995. And yes, it is multiplayer.
    • by apsmith ( 17989 )
      Freeciv seems to have a lot of the look-and-feel of xconq (with lots more detailed city development and unit types) - and that was available at least back in 1988 when I recall wasting hours on it - actually the first version came out even before X was synonymous with X version 11 (we ran version 10 for a while...).

      So, I think the OSS version actually came first...
    • Re:bahaha (Score:3, Insightful)

      by reverius ( 471142 )
      What does it matter if the game is old?

      That doesn't affect the gameplay at all, and that's what matters in a game. Although the graphics and sound are certainly subpar by todays standards, many of the games that come out these days are crap if you actually look at the gameplay factor. Civilization was a great game, and it deserves to have a clone, no matter what time it's in. It's still fun.
      • What does it matter if the game is old?

        As a game? Nothing.

        This project is a great example of the things open source can accomplish."

        As an example of open source, a clone of a game that's quite old may be seen as not a great example.

      • xconq features a hexagonal grid and a Civ-like mode. I have never played it, though.
      • What does it matter if the game is old?

        I'll have to agree here. Age hardly matters with classic vintage games, they're still very fun. It's just that the graphical technology for older games are quite dated and make the games feel old. There's nothing better than seeing a new face on such games.

        One of my favorite games is StarFlight, made back around 1986. The universe was quite expansive, and you could literally spend months just exploring it and figuring out how to interact with all the races. For a very long time, I've been wishing that someone would make a new StarFlight, with modern graphical interfaces, sound, and all the other good multimedia stuff we've come to enjoy in current games (and for heavens sake, fix that horrible save game system!). It seems that my prayers are partially being answered:

        www.starflight3.com [starflight3.com]

      • The 2 civ games were the best in he world. I ave a laptop here devoted to them, quite literally (I dont have dos/windows on my desktop or main laptop).

        I dont care if the souce is open, unless Sid himself works on the games they still lack the magic of the originals. I fear civ 3 will (well, I wont know as it wont work on my debian box :growel:)
  • Slashdotted already.. Fatal error: out of dynamic memory in yy_create_buffer() in Unknown on line 0
  • For a very promising (if unfinished) public domain alternative, try Civ Evolution [c-evo.org]. It's gradually evolving away from its Civ II inspiration, to focus more on the strategy and AI aspects of the game. It also looks very pretty, if somewhat Civ II-like: shot1 [c-evo.org], shot2 [c-evo.org], shot3 [c-evo.org]. At the moment it's Windows only, but the source is out there...
  • ...I'm playing Alien Crossfire right now ;)

    Jaysyn
  • Civilization III (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Earthling ( 146872 )
    Speaking of which, be sure to check out the new Civilization III site that opened two days ago! It is being developed by Sid Meier (but no Brian Reynolds this time around) and his team at Firaxis.

    www.civ3.com [civ3.com]

    Freeciv is great, don't get me wrong (it's much better than CivII IMHO), but I'm drooling just by thinking of a new version of the classic we all know and love.

If all else fails, lower your standards.

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