

Freeciv 2.4.0 released - roschdal
http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/NEWS-2.4.0

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roschdal
HTML5 version available on [http://play.freeciv.org](http://play.freeciv.org)

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takeoutweight
C-evo is another open source Civilization clone which I very much enjoy, due
to the emphasis on strong AI and completely deterministic combat. This year
has brought a a new release after a 5 year hiatus:
[http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/C-evo](http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/C-evo)

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axus
Nice, I didn't know a new version had come out. This game was written in
Delphi, and open sourced a few years back. It has an API for writing computer
controlled players, and a tournament mode for seeing which one comes out on
top. That was where I learned function pointers, good times!

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oelmekki
Glad to see new release of this incredible game. Freeciv is to me the perfect
example of how a great game can continue to get always better when develpment
never stops.

It's too bad to think of what could have become games like syndicate or
starcraft if they were not developed on a "release and forget" scheme (even
with a few extensions).

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ZirconCode
I remember playing a version of something similar to this (-jar) at school
(restricted access).

I'm glad the community is thriving, games like Nethack and Dwarf Fortress will
be the new board games of our generation, I imagine.

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ramchip
Aren't they single-player niche games? How can you compare that to boardgames?

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hobs
DF does have a weird hack for multiple people sharing the same game. (your
point still stands)

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VLM
Two issues with the whole discussion:

1) There exist quite a few single player cardboard board games so assuming
they're inherently multiplayer doesn't work. Mostly wargamer sims. I have a
copy of Steel Wolves and some of the Field Commander series. Also the * Leader
series where * is Phantom, Hornet, Apache, probably others. There are some
card game "sims" that play pretty well as one person, the new pathfinder card
game comes to mind. Pretty much any "multiplayer" game which depends on
cooperation works pretty well solitaire. On the other hand, something like
Federation and Empire is going to be difficult to "pretend" you don't know the
opposition's secret plans.

2) There's two ways to share DF that I know of, one is the PBEM style where a
group gets together, and each guy plays one game year and then does a
(usually) entertaining and hilarious creative writing history of his year,
repeat until final meltdown. Boatmurdered is probably the oldest, genre
defining story. The other way is pretty much VNC/screencasting style play
where many people fight over control of a mouse and yell at each other on
video conferencing hardware. There are pretty good screencasts like the
Vanguard of Valor series, his casts are a bit beneath my current level... my
current level achieved (in part) from watching his casts, so a
master/apprentice interactive screen sharing would probably be very fruitful
(watch as I build a well without flooding anything or drowning anyone, now
you've watched so you make one the same way, repeated for a zillion other
tasks...)

I don't see any inherent contradiction in the game play or UI with having
multiple UI windows open on a single DF game; it wouldn't destroy any game
play mechanics to have ten guys on ten screens each running one level of the
fortress, or having one guy dedicated to each DF-ish task, like one guy doing
nothing but .mil, another doing nothing but construction, another one (or
several players) doing nothing but workshop babysitting, perhaps another doing
nothing but food gathering. I don't know of any technology to implement this,
is there some patch you can download or some set of forums I'm not reading? I
have just enough DF experience to be dangerous; not an expert or noob.

A fairly obvious startup idea would be some "dual controls" software library
that could be applied to most any game for tutoring purposes. Not just DF but
any game written to use the library. The social models would be interesting;
compete to see who's the "best" instructor and "best" apprentice? How to
handle what is griefing vs lack of skill?

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sdfjkl
I wonder if the UI issues on Windows were fixed. I played this a few months
ago and it was pretty awkward, with the message dialogue stealing focus and
multiple issues in fullscreen/maximized mode.

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Danieru
Did you file a bug report?

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sdfjkl
Of course not. I wanted to play a game, not file a bug report. If there was a
dead simple way to do so, perhaps I would have. However, the way this usually
works, is this:

\- Google "freeciv bug report" \- Find a wiki page with a link telling you
where the bug report tool is. \- Go there and create an account or at least
fork over your email address. \- Fill out a bug report, asking you several
questions for which you do not immediately know the answer, such as the build
number of the software in question and your exact model of graphics card. \-
Take screenshots (which on Windows is still a pain in the ass for some
inexplicable reason). \- Fill out a CAPTCHA, several times. \- A few weeks
later, find that your bug has been closed because you didn't use the latest
nightly build or some other minor detail. \- A few months later, receive spam
on the one-time email address you've entered just this once. \- A few years
later, try the game again only to find the bug is still around.

Okay, that's the worst case scenario and Freeciv isn't even guilty of all of
the above, but in my experience it is also a very common one. Which is why I
did not report this bug.

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bjourne
I used to play lots of multiplayer freeciv about eight years ago ad was pretty
good at it. I think I even broke top 10 on their player ladder a few times.
ELO ratings is a great way to keep players honest btw. When people have
something to lose they wont just disconnect in the middle of a game but make a
sincere effort to complete it. Shame it's so hard to find players these days.
Most of the time the freeciv metaserver is almost empty.

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qwerta
I am playing with an idea to rewrite Alpha Centaury.

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qu4z-2
That game was amazing. If you decide to, please post it on HN once you've made
some progress.

