Freeciv-2.0.0 Stable Released 557
Settler writes "Freeciv 2.0.0 has been released upon the world! A big thanks goes to the people who made it all come true. Remember to read about the exciting news and hurry up and get it here.
To see what this game looks like, check out screenshots here and here. This goes to show what a great game an open source project can create."
what a great game an opensource project can create (Score:4, Insightful)
Not that I'm not on the edge of my seat for FreeOrion, though.
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:5, Insightful)
Whats the difference between .. (Score:2, Insightful)
Clearly, you are clueless. The engine has nothing to do with the graphics.
Re:Free software (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Free software (Score:4, Insightful)
Care to provide an example? Care to point the last truly _original_ game (that does not suck)? And last but not least - are you sure that an original game will be more fun than not-so-original but more polished?
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally, I believe [slashdot.org] Civ graphics should deliberately be as simple as possible.
The graphics in a game like this are just as important as the graphics in a FPS. It is important that they are simple.
Re:what a great game an opensource project can cre (Score:5, Insightful)
What all modern open source games lack though is decent content and polish. There have been some great classical text games (e.g. rogue, mud, nethack etc.) but this hasn't translated well to the new world of graphics and 3D.
Surely there must be designers and artists willing to produce content to go with a game engine?
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:5, Insightful)
oh, for the love of god, stfu (Score:4, Insightful)
I tell you, my hat's off to those programmers who keep going in the midst of what all-too-often seems like a huge population of spoiled brats.
More and more developers go under, and it gets harder and harder for programmers to get a job doing anything creative, because these idiots are copying other peoples' ideas and giving it away.
And I'll tell you, one of the reasons why you don't see more innovation in the free software world is because of idiots like yourself who would rather bitch about what is out there that they don't like, rather than put a little effort into finding a game they might like and helping them out, even if it's only testing builds. Want original games? Here's a starter's list: Wesnoth, Worldforge, XConq, Holotz's Castle, Glest, S.C.O.U.R.G.E., Cube, Gate 88, Globulation, Adonthell... oh, who am I kidding? If you weren't willing to look before, you're probably not going to now. That's not even including the really neat ones that are in development right now.
By the way, the preceding rant is no indication of my feelings towards simonc4, pronobozo, or lordsatan. Three great guys. Too bad those three great guys who helped out with the project were outnumbered by whiners with complaints or useless suggestions.
Originality (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is the lack of artists and animators. Copy the unit-pics from the original and you will quickly get a cease and desist letter.
Also good free sound-files are hard to find.
If YOU have free above mentioned content, pls publish it under a free license!
Re:Great! (Score:4, Insightful)
We ?!?
YOU haven't done anything !
Re:what a great game an opensource project can cre (Score:2, Insightful)
Err which commercial Civ game has 30 player online multiplayer? Or provides a choice of rectangular, isometric or hex tiles?
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think code is the problem, programmers might be willing to work for free but professional artists expect to get paid.
In terms of the game engine there is very little difference between Civ 1 and Civ 3, its just that the latter has much prettir graphics.
Re:oh, for the love of god, stfu (Score:1, Insightful)
Are you using some kind of Chewbacca defense?? The above doesn't make sense. The fact that some "idiots" complain about the quality of free software doesn't prevent in any way for other developers to produce good creative stuff. If free software depends on "idiots" then it's doomed to fail against traditional software that advances despite the users' activities. In reality, you're the only one who's an idiot, and the mods who marked you as insightful.
Re:Changelog text (since it seems to be slashdotte (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Classic games. (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, it is a new back end for some existing graphics and sounds.
You could replace all the graphics if you liked, but nobody has bothered yet.
You can get the complete source from the project's svn repository [openttd.org].
You might be confusing OpenTTD with TTDPatch, an inferior game that will be forever dependant on the original game and graphics.
Re:what a great game an opensource project can cre (Score:5, Insightful)
A few years later, an AI was made for freeciv, and that AI kicked my butt without cheating! It was far, far better than the AIs of Civ I/II (and even Civ III, I think!), although it didn't handle all aspects of the game at the time. That AI tought me how to play the game!
So while the game design was not new, there were many small things that made freeciv a better game than the originals.
Atgeirr
Re:Free software (Score:2, Insightful)
So what? They're doing it for their own fun, not yours. Why should you judge them by market standards which are inapplicable: Its free. Therefore, it doesn't have to push the event horizon in order to lure suckers...
Honestly. What is with you "oh, this is passé" dilettantes? Must everything be fresh and new? That route leads to fascism, you know...
Re:oh, for the love of god, stfu (Score:3, Insightful)
Sorry, but if your hobby can't survive the least criticism, maybe you do seriously need to reevaluate it.
I tell you, my hat's off to those programmers who keep going in the midst of what all-too-often seems like a huge population of spoiled brats.
Oh, purlease. This is like me, a writer, saying "I tell you, my hat is off to those writers who keep going with their attempts to rewrite Moby Dick in l33t-speak." If you think what you are doing is great, at least have the courage of your convictions.
And I'll tell you, one of the reasons why you don't see more innovation in the free software world is because of idiots like yourself who would rather bitch about what is out there that they don't like, rather than put a little effort into finding a game they might like and helping them out, even if it's only testing builds.
Someone has already what-the-fucked this sentence, but I'll reiterate. What does criticising a clone of a 13-year old game have to do with stifling creativity? In my mind, it's the exact opposite. What next - should we start praising a Linux version of "Horace Goes Skiing" [80snostalgia.com] for the sake of it?
Want original games? Here's a starter's list: Wesnoth, Worldforge, XConq, Holotz's Castle, Glest, S.C.O.U.R.G.E., Cube, Gate 88, Globulation, Adonthell... oh, who am I kidding? If you weren't willing to look before, you're probably not going to now. That's not even including the really neat ones that are in development right now.
I'm sure there are neat open-source games out there. But we're talking about Freeciv here I thought.
P.
Re:Oh dear. (Score:4, Insightful)
That is so very true, but its only news to the crowd that started gaming when it became "cool". Cool demands cool graphics, cool explosions and a quick turnaround - you want the next new thing because its cool and you don't wanna be left behind.
Having said that, i believe the true gold, la creme de la creme in gaming occurs when a game comes out, its patched to stability, and then a brilliant mod comes out. Mods to stable, 1 or 2 year old games are in my opinion the best thing to play. Mods is also where i believe the open-source community should work on gaming, at least for now. Just get the engine at the game store instead of licensing it at the original software house. Many mods are much much better than the original game, often addressing its shortcomings that become obvious some time after launch. Of course, mods require another installation and looking it up in the first place, so once again there are some technical barriers to what are IMO the best gaming experiences. Desert Combat is an amazing game/mod and on a totally different style there are great mods to the totally scriptable Warcraft 3.
Right now buying a game at a store without having tried a "trial" version off edonkey is like gambling with really bad odds.
Re:what a great game an opensource project can cre (Score:3, Insightful)
I still prefer the Simtex originals though. Even with their SVGA graphics.
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:5, Insightful)
Rotating a flat map would look odd. Adding elevation makes it very hard to add units, cities, terrain improvement and so on. Not to mention that doing the elevation in any sane way is difficult, as well, since you are pretty restricted as to how you can do it (if you use only existing freeciv maps). A lot of other games (SimCity eg) of elevation by sacrificing some tiles to slopes. We cannot do that. SMAC has smooth slopes but no mountains. We can't do that. One person tried to make a mapview that had rugged mountains that had sharp mountaintops. We can't do that - we might have to draw cities, mines, and so on on it. Some games solve this by having mountains (and rivers) as items between tiles. We can't do that. So if you manage to jump through all those difficulties, can you make it look good?
That remains to be proven. If you have ideas, try making a map demo first to test them out and show us.
See http://www.freeciv.org/index.php/OpenGL in the Freeciv wiki once our web site is un-slashdotted to learn more about this, and add your thoughts.
- Per
(freeciv dev)
Re:Artist availability (Score:3, Insightful)
Obviously beggars can't be choosers, however you seem to be suggesting a randomn hodge podge of art, games these days require an coherent artistic vision. Art is a very important part of game design, artists are often involved long before a code monkey sits down and starts tapping keys.
Create (Score:4, Insightful)
This goes to show what a great game an open source project can create.
More like, this goes to show that an open source project can clone a great game. Isn't FreeCiv just a free remake of a game created by non-free developers?
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:2, Insightful)
Your point is both stupid and null anyway because they weren't arguing about functionality at all. Your parent wasn't saying anything that would make the game have a steeper learning curve, or change gameplay whatsoever, and his parent was only wanting prettier pictures of exactly the same symbolic representation.
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I don't get it .. (Score:1, Insightful)