Graphics for Freeciv 2.0 and beyond...

[CapTVK]

Originally posted by typhoon





I apologise for the misunderstanding caused by using the wrong smiley.

Apologies accepted, no hard feelings

Typical how a single typo can turn the entire meaning of a sentence upside down.

[CapTVK]

Based on one of Nemo's truck. I've made my first dinky toy!

Not entirely happy with the design and the letters but it's a start.



What was that truck line in the " if you' re addicted to civ..." -thread again?

[CapTVK]

Tanks for the memories

I think I've found my choice for a generic tank : the JS-2 It's big, it's a got big gun and looks the part in every aspect that makes a tank...Well, a TANK!

[Harry Tuttle]

Cap, this is a general question. I tried taking a look at Freeciv and the files, but as I understand it, I need a compiler to make things work.

Am I seeing things wrong? As a non-programmer, but a pretty good logic thinker, is there a better way to see the files? Can Freeciv be modded like we do here with Civ2? Editing text files, graphics and the like, without a compiler?

[CapTVK]

Harry,

Don't worry you don't need to compile the source yourself. I usually go for the precompiled binaries. There are a number of precompiled binaries available at the Freeciv site. Check downloads for a list of the binaries (http://www.freeciv.org/index.php/Download)

There are two versions for windows. A native one in Win32 and one done with the GTK toolset. Basically they function in the same way. The interface is just a little different.

It's worth checking the source out though. You can also view the source online too. It's quite readable for noncoders because every function has been commented.



As for editing graphics and rules. That can be done easily. It works in the same way as Civ2 rules.txt. After the game is installed or unzipped all the settings for rules, graphics and units are held in special directory (usually called /data or /share).

Note: Freeciv doesn't have the equivalent of a scenario file but it does have some ways to make extensive modpacks. You can assign unique techs to specific civilizations and give them their own tech tree for example.

Extensive modding as we know it from the Civ2 ingame editor is only possible with CivWorld. But that's not available for windows (yet). You can unzip a Freeciv a savegame however and tweak it with a good editor. Basically Civworld is a savegame editor.

[Vasc]

CapTVK already explained most things quite nicely, but I would like to refine some points:

Data files in Freeciv are either text files in a Windows .ini like format or media files (PNG images, WAV or OGG sound files, etc). Saved games are in this .ini format, as well as ruleset files.

You can configure a lot of things and even edit saved games using a plain text editor.

Regarding mod capability, Freeciv is more flexible than Civilization II in some ways (e.g. you can have more units, improvements or techs - up to 200 each - you can tweak units abilities more easily, you can also tweak improvement effects using the rulesets). In one way Freeciv is worse (basically it doesn't have the scenario scripting Civilization II supports).

Here are some Windows binaries for the latest betas:
ftp://ftp.freeciv.org/pub/freeciv/be...eta4-win32.zip

http://deepblue.sk/~r0b0/freeciv/freeciv2.0.0beta4.zip

The first link is for a client using the native Windows controls. So it should look more like a Windows program.
The second link is basically our main Linux client ported to Windows. This should be more feature complete, but slower and doesn't like running in Windows 95/98/ME.

Just uncompress it someplace and run the client by double-clicking 'civ.bat'.

PS: The second package comes courtesy of our player r0b0.

[Vasc]

I just remembered it would be nice to give you a small walkthrough of the ruleset files. I'll assume you got r0b0's build.

The rulesets and tilesets are in the data directory 'share\freeciv'. Let us say you want to mod the graphics (i.e. tilesets). The default tileset is called 'isotrident'. The relevant files for it are:

isotrident.tilespec
isotrident\*.*

The 'spec' files are .ini text files with descriptions of the graphics layout, etc. The 'png' files got the graphics.

If you want to change the rules, the relevant .ini text files for the 'default' rules are:

default\*.ruleset

For example, here is the Temple building description in 'default\buildings.ruleset':

[building_temple]
name		= _("Temple")
tech_req	= "Ceremonial Burial"
bldg_req	= "None"
...
obsolete_by	= "None"
is_wonder	= 0
build_cost	= 30
upkeep		= 1
sabotage	= 100
effect		=
    { "name", "value", "req_type", "req"
      "Make_Content", 1
      "Make_Content", 1, "Tech", "Mysticism"
    }
...

I stripped out the uninteresting bits. As you can see the format is quite readable.

[CapTVK]

Don't hold back Vasc, we're getting to the good bits now.

Could you explain how effects function and what are possible to tweak?

[Harry Tuttle]

Ah, I see now... I can see how IsoTrident Terrain1 works.

[Harry Tuttle]

...and the ruleset can be modified in wordpad. Hmm ok, I can work with this.

Ok, I see that FreeCiv has these improvements over Civ2:

1) Up to 30 players instead of Civ2's 7.

2) Greater color depth than Civ2's pallette.

3) A visible Fog of War.

4) It's free to all those who already own Civ2.

5) Able to be played on a myriad of platforms.

Now for the big questions:

1) What's the unit max on the board at one time?

2) The website says in the about section that there are 47 units and 61 nations. Is this less than Civ2, which has 62 playable units?

3) How many buildings (city improvements) can you build?

4) Of the buildings, how much can you edit them? Can a building in the Cathedral slot be changed so that it will increase shield output instead of happiness?

5) Can there be more kinds of terrain added other than the usual 10 with their bonuses?

6) What's the deal with unit sounds? Are the sounds tagged to a certain unit in a certain slot like in Civ2 or is it fully customizable like in Civ2: Tot?

7) How many city designs can be used?

8) Can events be added?

9) How many tiles can the maps have?

10) What has FreeCiv improved upon in comparison to Civ2 other than what was asked in the aforementioned questions?

I'd like to work with this program so give me some info so that I may expand my brain.

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
4) It's free to all those who already own Civ2.

[CapTVK]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
...and the ruleset can be modified in wordpad. Hmm ok, I can work with this.

Ok, I see that FreeCiv has these improvements over Civ2:

1) Up to 30 players instead of Civ2's 7.

2) Greater color depth than Civ2's pallette.

3) A visible Fog of War.

4) It's free to all those who already own Civ2.

5) Able to be played on a myriad of platforms.

Very keen observations. You missed multiple veteran levels and shared teamplay though.


Now for the big questions:

1) What's the unit max on the board at one time?

Not sure if there's some sort of max like you had in Civ2, but it is a LOT. Vasc,Per or Jason are the guys who can answer this question.

2) The website says in the about section that there are 47 units and 61 nations. Is this less than Civ2, which has 62 playable units?

The standard Freeciv has about the same number of units (settlers, phalanx, tireme, tanks etc..) as Civ2. It's a matter of creating a tileset with so many units. In practice there can be a max of 200 different units in the game but there's no tileset at the moment which has that many.

When you refer to nations. Do you mean in the sense of no. of civilizations?

3) How many buildings (city improvements) can you build?

The same amount as Civ2 has. You can add more and they are very customizable. (From the betanews release)

Modpack options vastly improved: You can customize buildings, add buildings as requirements to units, restrict technologies to certain nations, have split technology trees, gold upkeep for units, new units and terrain flags and lots of other options.

4) Of the buildings, how much can you edit them? Can a building in the Cathedral slot be changed so that it will increase shield output instead of happiness?

See 3

5) Can there be more kinds of terrain added other than the usual 10 with their bonuses?

Never tried this myself. But a look at the terrain.spec shows that you make the tileset bigger and add more tiles to it. Apart from that there are also a number of "dangerous terrain" abilities which include:

NO_POLLUTION
Pollution cannot be generated on this terrain
TER_NO_CITIES
You cannot build cities on this terrain
TER_UNSAFE_COAST
The coastline of this terrain is unsafe (ships could sink on this square)
TER_UNSAFE
This terrain is unsafe for units to travel on (unit could die on this square)



6) What's the deal with unit sounds? Are the sounds tagged to a certain unit in a certain slot like in Civ2 or is it fully customizable like in Civ2: Tot?

Probably like ToT. There's a sound.spec that is fully customizable like the others.

7) How many city designs can be used?

I believe you can assign different city styles to different nations. But Vasc is probably the guy to answer this.

8) Can events be added?

No. That feature is on my personal wishlist as well

9) How many tiles can the maps have?
255x255 for some topologies. The CVS version supports up to about 32000 tiles. Bigger maps could be implemented but for now the developers see no reason for bigger maps.

10) What has FreeCiv improved upon in comparison to Civ2 other than what was asked in the aforementioned questions?

In one word: multiplay. Where Civ2 in essence is a singleplayer game Freeciv has focussed on making MP as easy as possible and relieve micromanagement (multiple way points for units, patrol orders, order settlers to build roads between cities etc...) and city management agents.

I'd like to work with this program so give me some info so that I may expand my brain.

Hope this helps, Vasc, Jason or Per are probably the guys who can provide more brainfood.

[Harry Tuttle]

The tech options look promising (taken from default tech file)

name = name as seen by user

req1, req2 = advances required before researching this one

root_req = advance required before acquiring this one, inherited by all techs that require this tech in turn unless "None" is given explicitly

flags = special flag strings

graphic = icon for technology

graphic_alt = alternate icon

helptext = optional help text string (set units ruleset for examples)

bonus_message = text seen when a player is the first to discover an bonus tech.

cost = if tech_cost_style is set to 3, this field is read for information on how much a tech costs

Special values for req1 and req2 are "None" (first section below)and "Never" (never available). If only one tech is required, it should be listed as req1.


Following flag strings are possible

"Bonus_Tech" = player gets extra tech if rearched first

"Boat_Fast" = all sea units get one extra move point

"Bridge" = "Settler" unit types can build bridges over rivers

"Railroad" = "Settler" unit types can build rail roads

"Farmland" = "Settler" unit types can build farmland

"Fortress" = "Settler" unit types can build fortress

"Watchtower" = Units get enhanced visionrange in a fortress

"Population_Pollution_Inc" = Increase the pollution factor created by popultaion by one

"Trade_Revenue_Reduce" = When known by the player establishing a trade route reduces the initial revenue by cumulative factors of 2/3

"Airbase" = "Airbase" unit types can build Airbases
"Build_Airborne" = from now on can build air units (for use by AI)

Note that after year 0, the cost for techs double. This behaviour is hard-coded and cannot yet be changed in rulesets.

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by CapTVK
Hope this helps, Vasc, Jason or Per are probably the guys who can provide more brainfood.

It does help. Thank you

[Harry Tuttle]

I noticed that the techs, buildings, and other various rule files designate a tag that points to a specific x and y area. This area composes a block of pixels and each block thereafter the top left corner of the graphics file counts as either being in another row and/or another column.

So basically, what it seems like, is that you can have a tech point to a specific group of pixels in a specific graphics file and have that block of pixels show up in game as the graphic for the tech.

Now, my question is, can I change a tag/tags from "b.aqueduct" to "b.0001", making the tag non-building specific? Then could I choose to make "b.0001" point to an aforementioned "block" in a graphic file of my choosing?

As this line mentions in the default buildings text file: "The actual tag used (the * in [building_*]) does not matter, except it must be unique within this file, and it may be used in debug output when reading this file."

Or are the tag names and graphics names hard coded?

Also, could I just cut and paste into the building rules text file additional building "scripts" and have those point to more tags, which would point to additional graphic files?