For those that want a different, better Civ3

[redstar1]

Originally posted by CapTVK


The client-server model is fundamental to the design of Freeciv. If they were 'integrated' into one it would be far more difficult to change or improve the code. As for user interface, there are a few interfaces available for the server. But they mostly work under Linux. But I think you want to know about the interface used in the windows version...

I've playtested several versions of Freeciv under Linux (Suse) and windows (X-windows, GTK-version and native version). And I'm happy to say that the native windows will give you the best experience if you're used to windows as it employs the normal windows 'style' menus, checkboxes etc..

I think you missed what i was trying to say....

Of course the client-server model i sfundamental to the design of Freeciv, thats the way Freeciv works. User Interface was perhaps the wrong term to use. The point I'm making is that in order to appeal to a wider community it will likely as not be necessary to integrate the interfaces for both client and server into one interface. So Jonny Public can click 'Start a new game', select the number of civs and away he goes without starting a separate server and client program himself.

In saying, I haven't played Freeciv for a while, on Windows or Linux. I'll maybe see what has changed in the meantime....


Mark:

Once upon a time I emailed (not sure if it was yourself) about helping out with CoC. I wasn't too keen on the Freeciv 'look' at the time. I never received a reply though I'm sure there could be any number of reasons for that. I'll have to check up on how things have been progressing.

Dave

[sophist]

Originally posted by rid102

2) No group of people is going to 100% agree on what should go into the "perfect" civ game, as everyone has their own ideas. E.g. you want Clash to be primarily simulation-oriented and I don't, so I don't want to work on it. (I'm not criticising Clash here, rather it's a case of horses for courses and simulation just doesn't interested me and I wouldn't feel as though I'm giving Clash what it deserves).

Disclaimer: I know nothing about these projects besides what's on the front pages of their websites

Well, if I were in charge of one of these projects and had an ample supply of labor, there would be two things to address this:

1) a clear and well-understood built-in scripting language. Something like Python or Guile that's easily integrated and relatively easy to get into for making small modifications to the ruleset and behavior. Probably Guile because it would make programming the AI easier and more powerful

2) An easy way to integrate different rulesets simultaneously. So when starting a game, there would be an option to choose between civ1 rules, civ2 rules, SMAC rules, and so forth. The hardest part (one of them) would be to code the initial capabilities into the game and then make the AI aware of how to use them. Then all you'd have to do is flip them on and off for the various different game types. And those would just be the standard distribution; presumably then people could work from those and distribute "Civ3 the way it should be!" rules or something like that. Yes, that's a fair amount of work to make the game do what you want, but as an open source project with limited (if any?) funding and manpower, the best they can do is meet people halfway.

[Mark_Everson]

Hi redstar1/Dave:

I pretty much always respond to the Clash email, but obviously sh*t happens... Sorry I missed you previously. Hopefully contact will work better this time!


Hi sophist, I expected fallacious reasoning out of you

(lest people think I'm trying to start a flame war, my comment is Solely based on sophist's nick)

Clash has had a lot of discussion on a scripting language, but it has stopped quite a while ago. It all comes back to resources. If you are not making the progress you'd like in coding the main game engine, there ain't much time left for scripting language stuff. We are committed to doing it eventually because of the Many advantages. But frankly Clash V1.0 will probably be without one.

On varying rulesets pretty much the same resource constraints apply. Rules variations where two types are coded to discern which way a project wants to go will probably remain. But the overhead to make a 'universal' game of the civ genre is too high, at least for Clash since its so different from the rest. As for an engine that could handle all the Civ/SMAC games, that just Might be achievable, but I doubt it'll happen just because of all the extra work needed.

Sorry to be such a downer, but that's just the world as I see it.