Introduction
The Longturn community maintains and plays three specialized rulesets: Longturn Traditional (LTT), Longturn Experimental (LTX), and Royale. The LTT and LTX rulesets are loosely based on the Civ2Civ3 ruleset as it existed “way back” in legacy Freeciv v2.0 days. Royale is new as of 2023.
Here are some generalized notes related to the three rulesets:
LTT: There are actually two versions: LTT and LTT2. LTT is the original standard ruleset played across many games, including The League. In 2024, we created an updated LTT2 based on input from the community as well as the game admin’s experience. LTT2 should be considered a logical evolution of LTT.
LTX: This is our experimental ruleset. LTX is based on LTT, so many of the play style elements in LTT are similar in LTX. We use LTX as a test bed for new ideas. Ideas that gain traction and are well received by our player community can be merged into LTT2.
Royale: This is a newer ruleset that takes many thoughts from LTT and tries to create a simpler set of rules for brand new Longturn players. The general idea is to create a set of rules that can be played by experienced and new players, with enough slack that new players will not get overwhelmed if they make game-play mistakes.
Other External Tutorials
Here are links to some other tutorials. Your mileage may vary with some of them.
Game Manual on Freeciv Fandom. Overall game mechanics for the Classic ruleset. LTT/LTX rulesets are similar and are derived from the Civ2Civ3 ruleset. Topics include: Terrain, Cities, Economy, Units, Combat, Diplomacy, Government, Technology, Wonders, and Buildings. Gives a good overview of how the varying elements of a game work if you are new to Freeciv or Freeciv21.
Freeciv for Absolute Beginners (short version) on Longturn Blog.
Connecting to Longturn Games
Freeciv21 is a client/server system. The game (client) is where we play and the server runs the rules and controls all aspects of the game engine. If you have only played single-player games, you may not be aware of this separation between components.
Longturn games are hosted on a server with access to the Internet. Players of Longturn games will connect to
the server from the Connect to Network Game start menu option. Players
will use the manual section in the lower left of the dialog box. The host is always longturn.net, the
game page on the Longturn website will tell you the TCP Port number to connect to for the specific game. You
will use the same username and password as you use on the Longturn website when you registered for a game.
A Note About Tilesets
Longturn games will generally use one of two map topologies: squares or hexes. Some players love squares, and hate hexes. Some players are the opposite! Longturn game admins will announce up front what map topology a game will use.
For squares: The shipped Amplio2 tileset is the default. It is in an isometric direction. There are two overhead tilesets available in the modpack installer — RoundSquare and Sextant — that you might prefer.
For hexes: The shipped Hexemplio tileset is the default. It is in an isometric direction. There is an overhead tileset available in the modpack installer — RoundHex — that you might prefer.
To use the alternate tilesets: download via the modpack installer, close the game, reopen and select an alternate tileset from the game menu. You can also make it default in the Game Options menu.