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March 1, 2000 -- Freeciv: a Free Civilization for Unix
Slavery to a free Civilization
Unless you've been a hermit for the last 5 years, you know that the current fad in computer gaming is real-time strategy. Ever since Warcraft and Command and Conquer, it seems that every game company has been rushing to cash in on the RTS craze.
That's great, if RTS is your thing. I've played a few RTS games, starting with the original SimCity and Populous and Harpoon, and later Warcraft and Age of Empires II, and I can't say that the genre appeals to me. If I'm going to play a strategy game, I'd like time to develop strategy. The current crop of RTS games seems to involve much more blind reaction (at worst) and tactics (at best) than actual strategy.
To me, "strategy" means a turn-based game like Empire or Civilization. I plunked down my cash when Microprose's Civilization hit the shelves, and I shelled out again when Civilization II came out. Now that I'm a Unix user, I can have all the fun of the Civilization games again, and without paying a cent, all thanks to a game called Freeciv.
If you've never played Civilization before. . .
. . . you've missed out on one of the best gaming experiences of the 1990s! Many consider Civilization to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, strategy game ever. Civilization places you in control of a civilization on a randomly generated world. You can also play on a pregenerated map, most notably a map of earth. You start with one unit, a settler, and build a city. In that first city you build more settlers to explore and build more cities, military units to defend yourself, and improvements to enhance your city. During the course of the game you research new technologies and bring your civilization into the space age. Your goal is either to fill your world and conquer all your opponents, or to be the first to send a starship to Alpha Centauri.
But you're not alone in the world. You play against other civilizations (run by AIs) with the same goals. Multiplayer Civilization gives you the opportunity to play against your friends. Running your civilization becomes a balance of exploration, technology development, defending yourself and putting your opponents out of business. Playing Civilization subjects you to the "one more turn" phenomenon, in which your desire to play "just one more turn" keeps you up all night playing the game. Civilization can be an incredibly addictive and fun game.
The Civilization franchise has become more diverse over the last few years. Civilization II has been released in a multiplayer version, and has been re-released in a gold version with its expansion sets. In the past year Civilization's latest iteration, Civilization: Call to Power, has been released by Activision with a Linux port by Loki. The Windows version of Civ:CTP received somewhat unfavorable reviews due to gameplay, but the Linux version received mostly favorable reviews, probably due to a lack of commercial games for Linux. It's worth noting that Civ:CTP was developed without Sid Meier, the creator of Civ and CivII. Sid spent his time developing Alpha Centauri, which is probably the true successor of the Civilization games and continues the Civilization story with the arrival of the first starship at Alpha C.
So where does Freeciv fit in?
Freeciv is an attempt to develop a free version of Civilization II which (in the Unix tradition) will run on numerous computing platforms. You can think of Freeciv as a combination of CivII and multiplayer CivII, with a few enhancements of its own. The Freeciv website describes the game in this way:
Freeciv is a free turn-based multiplayer strategy game, in which each player becomes leader of a civilization, fighting to obtain the ultimate goal: To become the greatest civilization. Players of Civilization II by Microprose should feel at home, since one aim of Freeciv is to have compatible rules. Freeciv is maintained by an international team of coders and enthusiasts, and is easily one of the most fun and addictive network games out there!
What are the requirements?
Freeciv is being developed in the Unix world, which means that you can run it on most any Unix platform. It is available in precompiled form for several different platforms and operating systems, including most versions of Unix and most distributions of Linux. A native Amiga client is even available. If you have a good C compiler and X, you can build Freeciv for your platform--that's one of the benefits of open source! Freeciv doesn't have steep CPU or graphics requirements. You simply need a supported platform and an X-Window system and you're ready to go.
If you're not using a form of Unix, running Freeciv won't be quite as easy. Windows support is somewhat problematic: right now you need to be running a decent X server to get the game running, and most decent X servers for Windows are commercial products (read: they cost money). Still, it's worth a look. A Windows client which doesn't require X is in the works, and reportedly is coming along nicely. You can find some helpful tips on Freeciv and Windows at Freeciv.org)
What do you get? (Game features)
Freeciv gives you most of CivII's features, and gives you its own enhancements too. Freeciv supports up to 14 players over internet or LAN. The game supports prebuilt maps and scenarios as CivII does. You can play as any one of 44 different nations. Freeciv gives you 47 different units to control in your rise to world domination. All your favorites are here, from settlers and warriors to diplomats, caravans, stealth bombers, battleships and nukes. You can build Wonders of the World for special advantages (my favorite is Leonardo's Workshop, which continually upgrades obsolete units for you). And the Freeciv AIs will really give you a fight, even on the easy setting.
Another appealing feature of Freeciv is its configurability. You can configure just about any aspect of the game, from the server operation to the graphics to the rules of the game itself. And yes, you can configure the difficulty level of the AIs. Unfortunately, you can't do that with your human opponents. Sure, CivII gives you some configuration options, but nowhere near what you have in Freeciv. And if you absolutely don't like some aspect of the game, you can always work on the source code yourself. . .
What's different?
Freeciv is open source and doesn't have an established company with piles of cash to back up its development. This shows in some areas. Missing is the introductory sequence CivII displays when creating the map (if you've never played CivII on a machine slower than 100 MHz, you've probably never seen the opening sequence). The animated advisors and heralds of CivII are also gone, along with the throne room improvements. I've never heard any sound effects. The client program's graphics simply aren't as polished as CivII's. Freeciv returns to the flat 2D perspective of original Civilization rather than CivII's isometric view. Freeciv also has a few gameplay differences. When I first sat down to write this review I was under the impression that the space race was missing from the game, but the online help at Freeciv.org tells me that my impression was wrong. I'll have to try the Alpha Centauri run in my next game.
Yet none of these differences is game-destroying. In fact, even though the game may not appear as flashy and polished as CivII, you won't care. You won't be addicted to the eye candy. You'll be addicted to the game itself.
What is Freeciv like?
Although Freeciv may not be as polished as CivII, what Freeciv has far outweighs what it lacks, and it has what matters most: great gameplay. Freeciv's gameplay is very similar to CivII's. It can be described in one word: engrossing. Play 10 turns and you can't wait to see what's going to happen next. Play 20 turns and you're hooked.
In many ways, Freeciv is like CivII, but it has a few differences. Some of those differences are apparent right from the start of the game. Freeciv is a client/server game, which means that the game itself runs in two parts. This may seem awkward at first, but there's a good reason for it: only one server needs to be running per game. If you wish to play in a multiplayer game, you don't necessarily need to run the server, but only the Freeciv client. The server actually hosts the game and runs the AIs, if you have any. The client can run on any machine with a connection to the server. Hosting a multiplayer game is simple: start the server (named civserver), wait for players to connect, connect your own client (called civclient), and then start the game. Alternatively, you can simply start the Freeciv client on your own machine, connect to Freeciv.org's metaserver, and find a game to join or start your own multiplayer game.
Beginning a single player game is only slightly more complicated. You start the server, then create the AIs (you either can type create {name} for each AI, giving it a distinct name, or you can type set aifill and the number of AIs you wish to create, and the server will do the rest), connect your client to the server and then start the game. Nothing too difficult.
As a Freeciv player, you begin by choosing which civilization you wish to play. You have far more choices than in CivII (44 in the current version). Once you make your choice, you can start playing. Freeciv starts you out as CivII should: with two settlers and an explorer. You build a city with one settler, start improvements with the other and send the explorer out exploring your new land. From there you explore and expand, developing new technology, improving your cities and building new units to defend yourself, attack your enemies and expand your empire further still. How you do all this is a matter of individual style and strategy. You may develop into a military power right away, you may push for the technology to build a starship, or you may decide to take your time and build up your civilization more slowly and deliberately.
I don't recommend the slow road. Remember that other civilizations are developing out there too, somewhere in the darkness. Sooner or later you'll meet them. In Freeciv, you don't have states of peace or war with other civilizations. "Peace" simply means that another civilization isn't attacking you at a particular time. "War" is always your relationship with AI players. Combat seems very balanced. I don't get the feeling that the AIs are cheating. Well, sometimes I do, but that's usually when I've made a stupid mistake or three.
Freeciv's gameplay can fool you. Not much seems to happen at the start. You're usually not driven to react to immediate threats. You might take your time and build up slowly--and then your enemy attacks your catapults and chariots with his own cannons and Alpine troops. You can't play Freeciv with a slow and lazy style--not if you expect to survive for long. You can't have a lackadaisical attitude toward technological development. You have to plan ahead and push for better weapons and defenses, because your opponents will be doing the same. Whether you win or lose is ultimately up to you and your own strategy.
How does Freeciv measure up?
Two words: quite well. Freeciv takes the best qualities of the Civilization line, enhances them and then gives you a deep game which you won't master easily. It has the perfect blend of exploration, civilization building and war. Before I tried Freeciv, I hadn't played CivII for 2-3 years. The client/server model and different interface took a little adjustment, but only very little. If you like turn-based strategy, you'll be hooked within 10 turns. Go get Freeciv and play it. You'll love it.
If you're not sure whether or not you'll like a turn-based strategy game like Freeciv, give it a try anyway. The "Free" in Freeciv means that you have nothing to lose. You're not taking the gamble of spending money on a game which you may or may not like. If you don't like it, delete it. But you may find yourself enjoying the game and discovering the "just one more turn" phenomenon which has robbed countless gamers of countless hours of sleep.
Where can I get Freeciv?
I already have Freeciv. I have a game running right now.
Where can you get Freeciv?
Just go to the source. Open up a browser and go to the Freeciv site. Everything you need is there. Wander the site, learn more about the game and see some screenshots. Read the docs and find out what makes Freeciv so great. If (I mean, when) you're convinced that you want to give it a try, you can download binaries or source code, troubleshoot your installation or gameplay problems, and even learn how to contribute to future versions of Freeciv. Get Freeciv. Have fun with it. Time is all you have to lose (and you will lose a lot of it).
In short, Freeciv is great stuff, a triumph of open source development. Try it. You'll like it. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go steal Gunpowder from the Greeks to keep up in the arms race. . .
