Freeciv Event Examples

[Boco]

Henrik's post doesn't argue against the ICS, but it does accuse FreeCiv of not rewarding any other strategy with satisfactory game play.

One of the gems of Civ2 is the large number of differing strategies that can be used to win from ICS to OCC. Can FreeCiv be won using a low-city-count perfectionist approach?

The AI you describe, Harry, has the potential to be a much improved adversary in scenarios. That and the improved language are very attractive. How many people have played it? Is there a core of regulars?

[Harry Tuttle]

Well Freeciv can be won without taking over the world and using a strategy of conquering your neighbor. It all comes down to diplomacy and satiating any aggresive opponents. I for one think this borders on a boring game, but everyone has their unique style of play. The AI isn't simple minded and will "hunker down" when it encounters enough adversaries to make expansion less desirable than diplomacy or a military buildup. A low city count can be used effectively.

Though, even if you find that your unique strategy doesn't work or that it's too tough to win or the game just doesn't support a certain style of play, well, you can always change the rules.


Freeciv, in all it's various forms, has been around for a few years now. There is a steady core of regulars who play the game and it has achieved wide spread popularity, expecially in the Linux world, garnering the title of best game for a few years. Also, Freeciv has a niche with multiplaying, and has a very in-tune engine to support multiple human players. It's got a fan base hooked on the default game, but there have been only a few who have tried to really get into the nitty gritty of modding the game.

[Per]

From what I hear from experienced multiplayers, the low-city-count strategy ("largepox") is now the best one. I think it is because the science buildings are now so good that they are worth giving priority, even at the cost of expansion.

[Harry Tuttle]

I'm playing on the included Britain map right now. Playing as the Irish I have kept to my island and have only built maybe 10 cities. I'm ahead in the tech race, have a more than ample economy, and can pump out high cost units in about 3 turns in any city. AI competition is set on "Hard".

The whole game I have improved my terrain, allowing my cities to balloon in population. I guess largepox does work, as well as small pox.

Anyways, I think my next step will be to:

1. Stop playing the damn game.
2. Start some testing on a small scale for eventual modding.

[CapTVK]

Exactly, there´s still a whole world to conquer.

Next up would be in my mind:
1)A small field test of the
Freeciv events language
2)Improved events to get it above and beyond the Civ2 system
3)A (windows) editor for maps, units and city placement and scripting.
4)More graphics and SFX

[Harry Tuttle]

Well color me pink.

I just edited a save file in Wordpad and created a completely new map (all grassland).

I then played one turn as the Romans and founded a city. Went exploring a little. I then saved the game.

I then edited the save file and changed some of the terrain. I recompressed it, started up Freeciv, and kept playing, with the new terrain. All is well.

I also edited the graphics and such, dropping some item here and there. All is well.

This is easy.

[Harry Tuttle]

Hey Cap, is there a file that tells me what all the descriptions mean in a save file? Like how the terrain abbreviation "g" stands for grassland? Also, the starting root command, like "t000" or "n000"?

[Boco]

I can't remember from my sporadic reading of FreeCiv posts, can the rules be adjusted to create bombardments by artillery or ships?

[CapTVK]

Harry,

Unfortunately, in my own travails with FC savegame editing I´ve never come across proper documentation. (the sourcecode does provide some clues on how it works) Although the logic behind it isn´t that hard editing text by hand is still tricky.

[Per]

We have started the work of producing a documentation of the savegame format in the wiki. It is nowhere finished yet, though... See http://www.freeciv.org/index.php/Map_format

Feel free to add to it.

There is support in the code for bombardment, but the AI does not understand how to use it. Hence it is not used in the default rules.

[Boco]

Originally posted by Per
There is support in the code for bombardment, but the AI does not understand how to use it.

Where could I read about this in some detail? Even as human-only, this could be very useful in scenarios.

[Edit]
Is ammunition always in abundance, or can there be a limit?
[/Edit]

[Harry Tuttle]

Originally posted by CapTVK
Harry,

Unfortunately, in my own travails with FC savegame editing I´ve never come across proper documentation. (the sourcecode does provide some clues on how it works) Although the logic behind it isn´t that hard editing text by hand is still tricky.

We have started the work of producing a documentation of the savegame format in the wiki. It is nowhere finished yet, though... See http://www.freeciv.org/index.php/Map_format

Feel free to add to it.

Awesome, I have already started work on mapping out the various properties providing detailed descriptions for their use. I'll add to the wiki when I get a good bulk done.

[Harry Tuttle]

This is what I have done so far. The save I used was made with the default game options for a new game. Most of the [game] info was taken from the "help" comments that anyone can access in the game options menu when starting a new game. [Map] info was gained through the wiki and personal observance.

The blue highlighted cells in column B signify verified information, while the unhighlighted are unverified information.

[Harry Tuttle]

Hmmmm, don't quote me on the terrain coordinates for the [map]. I think Freeciv might have the first and last row of the text map represent the non-movement northern and southern limits of the map. So really anything that is on the "y=7" plain might actually be "y=6".

EDIT: Scratch that, on an isometric map the starting coordinate x=7 will actually be the one non-movement black tile down to the target tile, which is 7. Only 6 tiles are able to be moved on. With the t000 coordinates it seems that they go by adjacent tiles, so the target 7 tile will actually be 10 on the t000 coordinates.

[Per]

Boco: There is information about how to enable bombardment in the units.ruleset file. See for example http://svn.gna.org/viewcvs/freeciv/t...1769&view=auto

Search for the "bombard" flag. It will make the unit cause "bombard_rate" field number of firepower damage to an attacked unit instead of a normal attack.

Harry Tuttle: I can't download your excel sheet for some reason.