why are there so many freeciv-like projects

[TCO]

And why do they never go anywhere? None has produced a game of civ2 quality. I would much rather spend a few bucks and get quality.

[MC Escher]

I think because with a completely new project you can go further then Civ2, make your own rules, more units, more diplomacy features etc...

[tonic]

I would have thought Freeciv is one example of a successful *opensource* effort with an active development team compared to other smaller and less coordinated and often abortive efforts.

[telex4]

You could always throw that money at a Freeciv developer and request a specific feature for it

Honestly though, with AI diplomacy coming along, and the very nice new GTK2 and SDL clients in progress, Freeciv is looking very professional now

[dade]

I agree with telex...freeciv is getting there. Once ai diplomacy is fully implemented I will have no complaints with it, and I think it would be a commercially viable game also...if they were into that sort of things and the lawyers didn't rip it to shreds.

Freeciv has advanced in leaps and bounds since I last checked in on it. (Close to a year ago, maybe).

[TCO]

Well why do so many other projects like this die?
I've been watching these things since 1997 or so.

[geeslaka]

Like tonic said, because of lack of active development and coordination. Freeciv has had both throughout its existence.

[Per]

Freeciv has been around since 1995. What a lot of people who plan on making games like this forget, is how massive an amount of work it takes.

It is so easy to draw up a first design. It is a piece of cake to produce a program with units that move around on a map, with intro screens and a few dialogs. But that's just the first 1% of the total work. Then you have to do all the behind-the-scenes stuff that nobody really notice, so people who watch the project think nothing is happening and go elsewhere, and the people who develop it lose interest.

Of course, most of these projects never get off the design stage, even ;-)

[cverlo]

So, you say that you'd do something specific if we throw money, eh?

How 'bout $25 for getting 'across the board' libpng out in a 1.14.* release, rather then in 1.15...


As for freeciv not dying out... I was suprised to see it is included on the installer discs for SuSE 8.1... way to go!

[p_c_w]

freeciv seems like the best for internet play. sure it doesn't have good ai, but I would rather play against people anyway. i used to play civ 2 back in '96 when it first came out, and from my experience freeciv is way better.

i have a question. In Civ 3 multiplayer are the moves simultaneous?

[WhiteBandit]

Originally posted by p_c_w
freeciv seems like the best for internet play. sure it doesn't have good ai, but I would rather play against people anyway. i used to play civ 2 back in '96 when it first came out, and from my experience freeciv is way better.

i have a question. In Civ 3 multiplayer are the moves simultaneous?

In Civ3 single player, no. But in multiplayer you can select from a few different modes: Simultaneous, Turnless or Turn based

[Ecliptik]

i think that with most of these projects people after a while cant be bothered anymore and if these people stop working on it be4 it gets off the ground and people start playing it then there'll be noone to pick it up and work on it after the original authors have stopped

[TCO]

please comment on the collapse of candle bre.

[CapTVK]

Ashamedly I hadn't even noticed...fantasy RPG isn't my thing. Cold hard truth is that projects are more easily started then they are completed.

I hope some of their efforts may live on in other projects...

[TCO]

doubtful. there will be more wasted efforts to come.