Starting the Game

Depending on how you installed Freeciv21 will determine how you start it. If you installed with one of the precompiled binary packages, then you should find Freeciv21 in your OS’s launcher, Start Menu, etc. If you compiled the code yourself, then you will go to the location you asked --target install to place the files. Double-clicking freeciv21-client should start it up.

Freeciv21 start screen

Fig. 19 Start Screen with NightStalker Theme

Note

You may have noticed that the version string is a bit different than other games or software. The version number for Freeciv21 is broken into a few parts: [major version].[minor version].[hash version].[version string level]-[version string]. In Fig. 19 the major version is 3, minor version is 0, hash version is 699369, version string level is 7 and the version string is beta. The easiest way to “speak” the version in this example is version 3.0-beta.7. The hash version is an integer derived from the hexadecimal git hash and is generally ignored when discussing the version.

The following buttons are available on the Start Screen:

  • Tutorial – Quickly start the game Tutorial. This is a great place to start for new players.

  • Start New Game – Start a new single player game. See Start New Game below.

  • Connect to Network Game – Connect to a Longturn multiplayer game or one you host yourself. See Connect to Network Game below.

  • Load Saved Game – Load a previously saved single player game. See Load Saved Game below.

  • Start Scenario Game – Start a single player scenario game. See Start Scenario Game below.

  • Options – Set client options. See Options below.

  • Mods – Launch the modpack installer. See Using the Modpack Installer Utility.

  • Quit – Quit Freeciv21

Note

Notice that there is not a Help button available. This is by design. The in-game help is compiled at run-time based on the ruleset you select and other server settings you may set.

Tutorial

After clicking Tutorial on the start screen, a pregame menu will show similar to Fig. 20, below. All the settings are preconfigured. Simply click Start to begin the game tutorial.

Start New Game

Clicking Start New Game is used to start a new single player game. When clicked the following dialog will appear.

Freeciv21 Start New Game dialog

Fig. 20 Start New Game Dialog

From upper left to lower right, the following user interface elements are available:

  • Players List Table

  • Nation

  • Rules

  • Number of Players

  • AI Skill Level

  • More Game Options

  • Interface Options

  • Server Output Window

  • Server Chat/Command Line

  • Disconnect

  • Observe

  • Start

Players List Table

The Players List Table shows information about the configured players in the game. The information shown in Fig. 20 is what a single player game looks like. A Longturn multiplayer game will look very similar, except that all the player’s aliases will be shown as set up by the game administrator. You can right-click on a player’s row to configure details about the specific player:

  • Observe – Allows you to connect to a running game and observe that player. This is useful during Longturn multiplayer games when you want to connect and see what a player is doing, but you cannot make any actual moves for the player. This works for LAN games as well. You can also use the server chat line and issue this command: /observe <player>.

  • Remove Player – Removes the player from the list.

  • Take This Player – Allows you to claim this player as your own and then when you click Start you will join the game as that player. This is a required step for Longturn multiplayer games at the start of a new game. Subsequent logins to a game when you Connect to Network Game will not require another take action. You can also use the server chat line and issue this command: /take <player>

  • Pick Nation – Allows you to choose the Nation of the player. See Nation below.

  • Set Difficulty – Set the difficulty of the AI.

  • Put on Team – Combine players into teams.

  • AI Toggle Player – Toggle if the player is an AI or a human. This is needed before you can use the take option above as players when added are AI by default.

Nation

Clicking on the button that says Random as shown in Fig. 20 above, Freeciv21 will bring up a dialog box allowing you to pick the nation you want to play as shown in Fig. 21 below. Freeciv21 comes with hundreds of available nations to pick from. Each nation has a city graphics style that is automatically selected, but you can also change it. You can pick from European, Classical, Tropical, Asian, Babylonian, and Celtic. You can also change the gender of your empire’s leader between male and female. Lastly you can use the built-in leader names or enter one of your choosing.

Freeciv21 Select Nation dialog

Fig. 21 Select Nation Dialog

Rules

Freeciv21 comes with a collection of rulesets that define the game parameters. Rulesets control all the aspects of playing a game. For more information on rulesets, you can refer to Ruleset Modding.

Freeciv21 comes with the following rulesets:

  • Civ1

  • Civ2

  • Civ2Civ3 (Default)

  • Classic

  • Experimental

  • Multiplayer

  • Royale

Number of Players

The spinner can be changed up or down to customize the number of players. The ruleset can also set the number of players, so be sure to pick the ruleset before you pick the number of players.

AI Skill Level

This box will do a mass-change for all the AIs to be the same level. If you want to customize this, then use the Players list table right-click menu.

More Game Options

Clicking on this button will bring up the Game Options dialog box as shown in Fig. 22 below. From here you can customize other settings for the game before you start it. The ruleset defines many of these options, so be sure to select the ruleset you want to play before attempting to set other settings. You can hover the mouse over the entries to get an explanation of what the setting does. If you a curious person and like details, you can also read about all of them in Server Options.

Freeciv21 Game Options dialog

Fig. 22 Game Options dialog

Interface Options

Refer to the section on Options below.

Server Output Window

When you pick a ruleset, you will often see a bunch of output inside of this window. Also, if you make changes to the game in More Game Options, you will see output from those settings in this window as well. This is actually a good way to learn what the varying game options are that can be issued via the Server chat/command line. This window is read-only, however you can select text from it and copy it to paste in a text file if needed.

Server Chat/Command Line

The Server Chat/Command Line is a text box below the server output window. From here you can manually enter /set commands to the server directly if you know what you want to set.

Disconnect

Clicking this button takes you back to the Start Screen as shown in Fig. 19. The local freeciv21-server instance will terminate at this time. A subsequent click of Start New Game will spawn a new instance of the server, however any changes made previously will be lost and you will have to start over.

Observe

This button allows you to do a global observe of all players. This is a special server setting and is not enabled by default, however it is available in single player games. If you are globally observing a game, you can right-click on the Nations and Diplomacy View button in the Top Function Bar, and select a particular nation to observe.

Start

When you are finished with all the settings, clicking Start will cause the game to start!

Connect to Network Game

When you click on the Connect to Network Game button, a dialog box will appear as in Fig. 23 below.

Freeciv21 Server Connect dialog

Fig. 23 Server Connect Dialog

There are three ways to connect to a server:

  1. A Local Server: If you are hosting a local server on the same IP subnet as the client, then it will show in the Local Server box at the top.

  2. An Internet Server: If the Longturn community lists running games on its internet metaserver, games will show here and can be connected to via the Internet Servers box in the middle.

  3. Manually: If you simply need to connect to a remote server and you know the the Servername and Port, then this is your option.

For the first two options you will select the server in the table and ensure that your Username is correct and then click Connect to connect to the server. The Password box will activate when you have connected to the server. Type in your password and then click Connect a second time and you will join the server.

For the last option, enter in the server name or IP address into the Connect text box and the server port in the corresponding Port text box. Ensure your username is correct and then click Connect to connect to the server. The Password box will activate when you have connected to the server. Type in your password and then click Connect a second time and you will join the server. Pretty much all Longturn online multiplayer games are connected this way.

Note

If you are hosting your own server with authentication enabled and a player has never connected before they may be prompted to confirm the password a second time in the Confirm Password box before being allowed to connect.

Load Saved Game

When you click on the Load Saved Game button, a dialog box will appear as in Fig. 24 below. Find the saved game you want to load and click (select) it in the table.

Freeciv21 Load Saved Game dialog

Fig. 24 Load Saved Game Dialog

Freeciv21 will show you a sample of the game map and some information about the game. If this is not what you were looking for, select another save from the table. When you have found the save you want to load, click on the Load button and you will be placed in the game at the save point.

Alternately, you can click on the Browse button to browse your local filesystem to pick a saved game that is not in your user profile.

Start Scenario Game

When you click on the Start Scenario Game button, a dialog box will appear as in Fig. 25 below. You can click on a scenario to select it and see information about the selected scenario on the panel to the right side. When you have found the scenario you want to run, click on the Load Scenario button. This will bring up the new game dialog as shown in Fig. 20 above. When ready, click Start to begin the scenario game.

Freeciv21 scenarios dialog

Fig. 25 Scenarios Dialog

Tip

If you are new to Freeciv21, the Tutorial scenario will walk you through about 100 turns of tips on how to get started playing a single player game.

Clicking on the Browse button will bring a filesystem browser that you can use to pick a scenario file in an alternate location. Clicking on Cancel will bring you back to the Starting the Game start screen.

Options

From the Start Screen, as shown in Fig. 19, when you click on the Options button, a dialog box will appear as in Fig. 26 below. This dialog allows you to set a myriad of options that affect the look and feel of the user interface when you are playing a game.

The interface options dialog box can also be opened while in a game via the Game ‣ Interface Options menu as well as from the Start New Game dialog by clicking on the Interface Options button.

Freeciv21 interface options dialog

Fig. 26 Interface Options dialog

The Interface Options dialog is broken down into the following tabs:

  • Network: On this tab you can save your preferred username, server and port information to be used during Connect to Network Game.

  • Sound: On this tab you can set everything related to in game sound and music.

  • Interface: On this tab you can set anything related to how you interact with the interface of the client while playing a game.

  • Graphics: On this tab you can change the look and feel with a different theme. NightStalker is the default theme out of the box. You can also set the default tileset to use under different map styles as well as various things you may or may not want the client to paint (draw) on the screen.

  • Overview: On this tab turn various features of the minimap on and off.

  • Map Image: Freeciv21 can save summary images of the map every turn. This tab allows you to configure how you want to do that. Refer to Game Menu for more information.

  • Font: There is a collection of font styles used by the client. This tab allows you to tailor them to your own favorites. We ship with the Libertinus font set and it is the default.

The buttons along the bottom of the dialog box are:

  • Reset: Clicking this button will reset all the options to the out of box defaults.

  • Cancel: Clicking this button will either return you to the Starting the Game start screen or close the dialog and drop you back to the Map View if requested from the Game menu.

  • Refresh: If you used the modpack installer to add a new tileset, soundset, or musicset with the local options dialog open, you can use the Refresh button to reload the available choices for some of the drop down selection boxes. For more information on the modpack installer, refer to Using the Modpack Installer Utility.

  • Apply: Apply the settings as set to the client for immediate effect. This button will not do much if local options was called from the Start New Game dialog box.

  • Save: Save the current settings.

  • OK: Apply the settings and close the dialog box. This button does not do a save operation by default.