Freeciv and the average Civ2 Scenario designer...

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by Kobra
I'm playing right now, and I spesifically like that you can play up to 30 civs at once!

But can one play or make scenarios with this thing?

Right now the concept of a scenario is similiar to Civ2 scenarios.

As many of you may know, a scenario doesn't necessarily have to have new units, sounds, and all that good stuff. Basically, it's one step up from a saved game.

A Modpack on the other hand doesn't necessarily have to have a playable game save included with the new units, sounds, etc...

What Freeciv has is the ability to load a Modpack, with a map that can be created using CivWorld (does not support Freeciv 2.0 beta yet). As for placing cities, units, etc... Well... I haven't gotten to the point where I can answer that.

[SithUK]

For those of you with WinXP please download the vastly superior GTK2 client: better gfx and user interface. It's also updated more regularly than the Win32 binary.

http://deepblue.sk/~r0b0/freeciv/

Grab the latest Freeciv2 Beta there.

Enjoy,

Sith

[CapTVK]

I've never tried Civworld myself but from what I've seen and read it does at least offer the same sort of things as the Civ2 editor does.

[Harry Tuttle]

From what I saw here (fifth down on the left)...

http://old.freeciv.org/screenshots/1.12.1/

...with an older version of CivWorld it looks like you can place cities and units.

So when does the new version come out?

[Harry Tuttle]

I ripped this from the CivWorld map editor (for 2.0) readme:

*** 3.1 Editing a map ***

Start the editor as "./map" in the source directory.
You may use different tilesets using the "-t tiles" command line option. You
can then either:
o Load a map from a savegame (in the game menu) or "-f file" from the command line
o Start editing

For manipulating the map you use the toolbar.
o draw one tile
o draw onto all tiles in a rectangle
o select a city or unit
o place a city
o place a unit
o delete a city or unit
o copy from the map
o paste onto the map from the clip board (you must have copied something first)
o flip or rotate the tiles on the clip board
o undo last action
o place a starting position (if you place one, you've got to use it)

You may add, edit or delete a player from the Editor/Manage Nations dialog.
The Manage Nations dialog is powerful: For example, to edit a player's tech,
click where it says "Technology". To edit a nationality, click in the "Name"
or "Nation" column. To change which player is active, click in the "Active"
column left of the desired player's number.

You may view a player's private map using the View/Private Map toggle. To
edit the private map, that player must be active.

Other features in the Editor menu can:
o manipulate start positions
o set initial server settings
- save & load scripts of server settings
o set the defaults for new units/cities/players
o set a more complete list of units/cities/players

The Map menu has functions to:
o operate on terrain or specials en masse
o generate random maps




I don't know if this is supported by anything other than the GTK client.

Sith, can you add anything about Freeciv 2.0 beta compatibility?

[CapTVK]

Originally posted by Harry Tuttle
From what I saw here (fifth down on the left)...

http://old.freeciv.org/screenshots/1.12.1/

...with an older version of CivWorld it looks like you can place cities and units.

So when does the new version come out?

That's a $64.000 question Harry!

I've never seen a proper FC scenario. Modpacks? Yes Scenarios or special savegames? Not to my knowledge.

Civworld always been seen as a sort of special development tool you use for bugtesting. The developers use it to tweak saves are set up special situations. You had to compile it yourself to make it work and most FC players are interested far more in MP then SP. So it becomes a self reinforcing cycle.

A windows version of Civworld 2.0 should be one of the first priorities after 2.0 is released.

The positive thing to all this is that FC can start from a clean slate when it comes to scenario design/making. The foundations are solid. It's a totally clean slate.

[Yog-Sothoth]

Civworld patch:
ftp://ftp.freeciv.org/pub/freeciv/co...tils/civworld/

From the readme:
This was updated on 20 Nov 2004 for Freeciv CVS

This has only been tested on linux. You must be willing to compile the GTK 2.0 client to make this work. Since GTK 2.0 can work on Win32, civworld ought to work there too. Email me if you can do it.

So, gtk2 only and no precompiled version available at the moment I'm afraid.

[Harry Tuttle]

Ok, so we'll just have to wait. Thanks for the heads up guys.

[CapTVK]

Well, here's a quick&dirty way to edit maps at least.

In \share\freeciv\ you'll also see a scenario directory with save files named British isles, World 80x50 etc.... These are simple save files that only have some starter settings and a map in them. They can be opened in a text editor.

[Harry Tuttle]

Oh good lord, that's both scary and awesome at the same time.

[jim panse]

OT: Say, what the heck is Civworld? Never heard of that ...

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by jim panse
OT: Say, what the heck is Civworld? Never heard of that ...

It is an all around map maker, scenario editor, for Freeciv.

[N35t0r]

If any of you puts up a graphics modpack to replace the deafult ones, please do tell.

[Vasc]

There is a preliminary version of Civworld for 2.0.0 from Mike, but it still needs a lot of work.

[Harry Tuttle]

Ok, anyways, to further illustrate the neat things you can do with Freeciv I'm going to post a sample from a tileset I'm thinking of continuing. I've included 4 different size terrain tiles and 3 different size units.

Please note that the more pixels you want, the bigger the tile, making it somewhat harder to see the board, but then again I've asked for a Zoom In/Out feature in the Freeciv wishlist so maybe someone will look into that.