Freeciv 2.4.0 released | Hacker News Reader

Freeciv 2.4.0 released

freeciv.wikia.com

104 pointsroschdal17 comments

HTML5 version available on http://play.freeciv.org

C-evo is another open source Civilization clone which I very much enjoy, due to the emphasis on strong AI and completely deterministic combat. This year has brought a a new release after a 5 year hiatus: http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/C-evo

Interesting! Thanks for posting. I didn't even know this game existed.

Seems like a better game than Free Civ.

Nice, I didn't know a new version had come out. This game was written in Delphi, and open sourced a few years back. It has an API for writing computer controlled players, and a tournament mode for seeing which one comes out on top. That was where I learned function pointers, good times!

Glad to see new release of this incredible game. Freeciv is to me the perfect example of how a great game can continue to get always better when develpment never stops.

It's too bad to think of what could have become games like syndicate or starcraft if they were not developed on a "release and forget" scheme (even with a few extensions).

I remember playing a version of something similar to this (-jar) at school (restricted access).

I'm glad the community is thriving, games like Nethack and Dwarf Fortress will be the new board games of our generation, I imagine.

Aren't they single-player niche games? How can you compare that to boardgames?

DF does have a weird hack for multiple people sharing the same game. (your point still stands)

Two issues with the whole discussion:

1) There exist quite a few single player cardboard board games so assuming they're inherently multiplayer doesn't work. Mostly wargamer sims. I have a copy of Steel Wolves and some of the Field Commander series. Also the * Leader series where * is Phantom, Hornet, Apache, probably others. There are some card game "sims" that play pretty well as one person, the new pathfinder card game comes to mind. Pretty much any "multiplayer" game which depends on cooperation works pretty well solitaire. On the other hand, something like Federation and Empire is going to be difficult to "pretend" you don't know the opposition's secret plans.

2) There's two ways to share DF that I know of, one is the PBEM style where a group gets together, and each guy plays one game year and then does a (usually) entertaining and hilarious creative writing history of his year, repeat until final meltdown. Boatmurdered is probably the oldest, genre defining story. The other way is pretty much VNC/screencasting style play where many people fight over control of a mouse and yell at each other on video conferencing hardware. There are pretty good screencasts like the Vanguard of Valor series, his casts are a bit beneath my current level... my current level achieved (in part) from watching his casts, so a master/apprentice interactive screen sharing would probably be very fruitful (watch as I build a well without flooding anything or drowning anyone, now you've watched so you make one the same way, repeated for a zillion other tasks...)

I don't see any inherent contradiction in the game play or UI with having multiple UI windows open on a single DF game; it wouldn't destroy any game play mechanics to have ten guys on ten screens each running one level of the fortress, or having one guy dedicated to each DF-ish task, like one guy doing nothing but .mil, another doing nothing but construction, another one (or several players) doing nothing but workshop babysitting, perhaps another doing nothing but food gathering. I don't know of any technology to implement this, is there some patch you can download or some set of forums I'm not reading? I have just enough DF experience to be dangerous; not an expert or noob.

A fairly obvious startup idea would be some "dual controls" software library that could be applied to most any game for tutoring purposes. Not just DF but any game written to use the library. The social models would be interesting; compete to see who's the "best" instructor and "best" apprentice? How to handle what is griefing vs lack of skill?

Physical board games are alive and kicking. In fact, they are doing better than ever.

I wonder if the UI issues on Windows were fixed. I played this a few months ago and it was pretty awkward, with the message dialogue stealing focus and multiple issues in fullscreen/maximized mode.

Did you file a bug report?

Of course not. I wanted to play a game, not file a bug report. If there was a dead simple way to do so, perhaps I would have. However, the way this usually works, is this:

- Google "freeciv bug report" - Find a wiki page with a link telling you where the bug report tool is. - Go there and create an account or at least fork over your email address. - Fill out a bug report, asking you several questions for which you do not immediately know the answer, such as the build number of the software in question and your exact model of graphics card. - Take screenshots (which on Windows is still a pain in the ass for some inexplicable reason). - Fill out a CAPTCHA, several times. - A few weeks later, find that your bug has been closed because you didn't use the latest nightly build or some other minor detail. - A few months later, receive spam on the one-time email address you've entered just this once. - A few years later, try the game again only to find the bug is still around.

Okay, that's the worst case scenario and Freeciv isn't even guilty of all of the above, but in my experience it is also a very common one. Which is why I did not report this bug.

I used to play lots of multiplayer freeciv about eight years ago ad was pretty good at it. I think I even broke top 10 on their player ladder a few times. ELO ratings is a great way to keep players honest btw. When people have something to lose they wont just disconnect in the middle of a game but make a sincere effort to complete it. Shame it's so hard to find players these days. Most of the time the freeciv metaserver is almost empty.

I am playing with an idea to rewrite Alpha Centaury.

That game was amazing. If you decide to, please post it on HN once you've made some progress.

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