Server Options

Server Options are a collection of flags that can be set from the server command-line. The Game Manual refers to a menu setting called Game Options. In reality, the dialog box allows a user to use a graphical interface to set specific gameplay options. This page provides a detailed description of all of the options that a game admin can set from the server command line.

Refer to Server Settings File for information on how to place all the options in a settings file to call from the Server Command Line Options.

To place a setting value on any of these settings use the /set <option-name> <value> server command.

Note

The default value in the “Value (min, max)” section below is based on the Classic ruleset. The default value is often set by the ruleset, but can be overridden before the game starts.

aifill

Default Value (Min, Max): 5 (0, 500)

Description: If set to a positive value, then AI players will be automatically created or removed to keep the total number of players at this amount. As more players join, these AI players will be replaced. When set to zero, all AI players will be removed.

airliftingstyle

Default Value: empty value / not set

Description: This setting affects airlifting units between cities. It can be a set of the following values:

  • FROM_ALLIES: Allows units to be airlifted from allied cities.

  • TO_ALLIES: Allows units to be airlifted to allied cities.

  • SRC_UNLIMITED: Unlimited units from source city. Note that airlifting from a city does not reduce the airlifted counter, but still needs airlift capacity of at least 1.

  • DEST_UNLIMITED: Unlimited units to destination city. Note that airlifting to a city does not reduce the airlifted counter, and does not need any airlift capacity.

allowtake

Default Value: “HAhadOo”

Description: This should be a string of characters, each of which specifies a type or status of a civilization (player). Clients will only be permitted to take or observe those players which match one of the specified letters. This only affects future uses of the /take or /observe commands. It is not retroactive. The characters and their meanings are:

  • o,O = Global observer

  • b = Barbarian players

  • d = Dead players

  • a,A = AI players

  • h,H = Human players

The first description on this list which matches a player is the one which applies. Thus d does not include dead barbarians, a does not include dead AI players, and so on. Upper case letters apply before the game has started, lower case letters afterwards.

Each character above may be followed by one of the following numbers to allow or restrict the manner of connection:

  • (none) = Controller allowed, observers allowed, can displace connections. (Displacing a connection means that you may take over a player, even when another user already controls that player.)

  • 1 = Controller allowed, observers allowed, cannot displace connections.

  • 2 = Controller allowed, no observers allowed, can displace connections.

  • 3 = Controller allowed, no observers allowed, cannot displace connections.

  • 4 = No controller allowed, observers allowed.

The limits do not affect clients with HACK access level.

alltemperate

Default Value: disabled

Description: If this setting is enabled, the temperature will be equivalent everywhere on the map. As a result, the poles will not be generated.

animals

Default Value (Min, Max): 20 (0, 500)

Description: Number of animals initially created on terrains defined for them in the ruleset (if the ruleset supports it). The server variable’s scale is animals per thousand tiles.

aqueductloss

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 100)

Description: If a city would expand, but it cannot because it lacks some prerequisite (traditionally an Aqueduct or Sewer System), this is the base percentage of its foodbox that is lost each turn. The penalty may be reduced by buildings or other circumstances, depending on the ruleset.

autoattack

Default Value: disabled

Description: If set to on, units with moves left will automatically consider attacking enemy units that move adjacent to them.

autosaves

Default Value: TURN|GAMEOVER|QUITIDLE|INTERRUPT

Description: This setting controls which autosave types get generated:

  • TURN: Save when turn begins, once every saveturns turns.

  • GAMEOVER: Final save when game ends.

  • QUITIDLE: Save before server restarts due to lack of players.

  • INTERRUPT: Save when server quits due to interrupt.

  • TIMER: Save every savefrequency minutes.

autotoggle

Default Value: disabled

Description: If enabled, AI status is turned off when a player connects, and on when a player disconnects.

barbarians

Default Value: NORMAL

Description: This setting controls how frequently the Barbarians appear in the game. See also the onsetbarbs setting. Possible values:

  • DISABLED: No barbarians.

  • HUTS_ONLY: Only in huts.

  • NORMAL: Normal rate of appearance.

  • FREQUENT: Frequent barbarian uprising.

  • HORDES: Raging hordes.

borders

Default Value: ENABLED

Description: If this is not disabled, then any land tiles around a city or border-claiming extra (like the classic ruleset’s Fortress base) will be owned by that nation. Possible values:

  • SEE_INSIDE: See everything inside borders.

  • EXPAND: Borders expand to unknown, revealing tiles.

  • ENABLED: Will, in some rulesets, grant the same visibility if certain conditions are met.

  • DISABLED: Disabled

  • ENABLED: Enabled

caravan_bonus_style

Default Value: CLASSIC

Description: The formula for the bonus when a Caravan enters a city. Possible values:

  • CLASSIC: Bonuses are proportional to distance and trade of source and destination with multipliers for overseas and international destinations.

  • LOGARITHMIC: Bonuses are proportional to \(log^2(distance + trade)\).

  • LINEAR: Bonuses are similar to CLASSIC, but (like LOGARITHMIC) use the max trade of the city rather than current.

  • DISTANCE: Bonuses are proportional only to distance.

citymindist

Default Value (Min, Max): 2 (1, 11)

Description: Minimum distance between cities. When a player attempts to found a new city, it is prevented if the distance from any existing city is less than this setting. For example, when this setting is 3, there must be at least two clear tiles in any direction between all existing cities and the new city site. A value of 1 removes any such restriction on city placement.

citynames

Default Value: PLAYER_UNIQUE

Description: Allowed city names. Possible values:

  • NO_RESTRICTIONS: No restrictions. Players can have multiple cities with the same names.

  • PLAYER_UNIQUE: Unique to a player. One player cannot have multiple cities with the same name.

  • GLOBAL_UNIQUE: Globally unique. All cities in a game have to have different names.

  • NO_STEALING: No city name stealing. Like “Globally unique”, but a player is not allowed to use a default city name of another nation unless it is a default for their nation also.

civilwarsize

Default Value (Min, Max): 10 (2, 1000)

Description: Minimum number of cities for civil war. A civil war is triggered when a player has at least this many cities and the player’s capital is captured. If this option is set to the maximum value, civil wars are turned off altogether.

compresstype

Default Value: XZ

Description: Compression library to use for savegames. Possible values:

  • PLAIN: No compression.

  • LIBZ: Using zlib (gzip format).

  • BZIP2: Using bzip2 (deprecated).

  • XZ: Using xz.

conquercost

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 100)

Description: Penalty when getting tech from conquering. For each technology you gain by conquering an enemy city, you lose research points equal to this percentage of the cost to research a new technology. If this is non-zero, you can end up with negative research points.

contactturns

Default Value (Min, Max): 20 (0, 100)

Description: Turns until player contact is lost. Players may meet for diplomacy this number of turns after their units have last met, even when they do not have an embassy. If set to zero, then players cannot meet unless they have an embassy.

demography

Default Value: “NASRLPEMOCqrb”

Description: What is shown in the Demographics report. This should be a string of characters, each of which specifies the inclusion of a line of information in the Demographics report. The characters and their meanings are:

  • s = include Score

  • z = include League Score

  • N = include Population

  • n = include Population in Citizen Units

  • c = include Cities

  • i = include Improvements

  • w = include Wonders

  • A = include Land Area

  • S = include Settled Area

  • L = include Literacy

  • a = include Agriculture

  • P = include Production

  • E = include Economics

  • g = include Gold Income

  • R = include Research Speed

  • M = include Military Service

  • m = include Military Units

  • u = include Built Units

  • k = include Killed Units

  • l = include Lost Units

  • O = include Pollution

  • C = include Culture

Additionally, the following characters control whether or not certain columns are displayed in the report:

  • q = display “quantity” column

  • r = display “rank” column

  • b = display “best nation” column

The order of characters is not significant, but their capitalization is.

diplbulbcost

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 100)

Description: Penalty when getting tech from treaty. For each technology you gain from a diplomatic treaty, you lose research points equal to this percentage of the cost to research a new technology. If this is non-zero, you can end up with negative research points.

diplchance

Default Value (Min, Max): 80 (40, 100)

Description: Base chance for diplomats and spies to succeed. The base chance of a Spy returning from a successful mission and the base chance of success for Diplomat and Spy units.

diplgoldcost

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 100)

Description: Penalty when getting gold from treaty. When transferring gold in diplomatic treaties, this percentage of the agreed sum is lost to both parties. It is deducted from the donor, but not received by the recipient.

diplomacy

Default Value: ALL

Description: Ability to do diplomacy with other players. This setting controls the ability to do diplomacy with other players. Possible values:

  • ALL: Enabled for everyone.

  • HUMAN: Only allowed between human players.

  • AI: Only allowed between AI players.

  • NOAI: Only allowed when human involved.

  • NOMIXED: Only allowed between two humans, or two AI players.

  • TEAM: Restricted to teams.

  • DISABLED: Disabled for everyone.

disasters

Default Value (Min, Max): 10 (0, 1000)

Description: Frequency of disasters. Affects how often random disasters happen to cities, if any are defined by the ruleset. The relative frequency of disaster types is set by the ruleset. Zero prevents any random disasters from occurring and higher values create more opportunities for disasters to occur.

dispersion

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 10)

Description: Area where initial units are located. This is the radius within which the initial units are dispersed at game start.

ec_chat

Default Value: enabled

Description: Save chat messages in the event cache. If turned on, chat messages will be saved in the event cache.

ec_info

Default Value: disabled

Description: Print turn and time for each cached event. If turned on, all cached events will be marked by the turn and time of the event like (T2 - 15:29:52).

ec_max_size

Default Value (Min, Max): 256 (10, 20000)

Description: Size of the event cache. This defines the maximal number of events in the event cache.

ec_turns

Default Value (Min, Max): 1 (0, 32768)

Description: Event cache for this number of turns. Event messages are saved for this number of turns. A value of 0 deactivates the event cache.

endspaceship

Default Value: enabled

Description: Should the game end if the spaceship arrives? If this option is turned on, the game will end with the arrival of a spaceship at Alpha Centauri.

endturn

Default Value (Min, Max): 5000 (1, 32767)

Description: Turn the game ends. The game will end at the end of the given turn.

first_timeout

Default Value (Min, Max): -1 (-1, 8639999)

Description: First turn timeout. If greater than 0, T1 will last for first_timeout seconds. If set to 0, T1 will not have a timeout. If set to -1, the special treatment of T1 will be disabled. See also timeout.

fixedlength

Default Value: disabled

Description: Fixed-length turns play mode. If this is turned on the game turn will not advance until the timeout has expired, even after all players have clicked on Turn Done.

flatpoles

Default Value (Min, Max): 100 (0, 100)

Description: How much the land at the poles is flattened. Controls how much the height of the poles is flattened during map generation, preventing a diversity of land terrain there. 0 is no flattening, 100 is maximum flattening. Only affects the RANDOM and FRACTAL map generators.

foggedborders

Default Value: disabled

Description: Whether fog of war applies to border changes. If this setting is enabled, players will not be able to see changes in tile ownership if they do not have direct sight of the affected tiles. Otherwise, players can see any or all changes to borders as long as they have previously seen the tiles.

fogofwar

Default Value: enabled

Description: Whether to enable fog of war. If this is enabled, only those units and cities within the vision range of your own units and cities will be revealed to you. You will not see new cities or terrain changes in tiles not observed.

foodbox

Default Value (Min, Max): 100 (1, 10000)

Description: Food required for a city to grow. This is the base amount of food required to grow a city. This value is multiplied by another factor that comes from the ruleset and is dependent on the size of the city.

freecost

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 100)

Description: Penalty when getting a free tech. For each technology you gain “for free” (other than covered by diplcost or conquercost: for instance, from huts or from Great Library effects), you lose research points equal to this percentage of the cost to research a new technology. If this is non-zero, you can end up with negative research points.

fulltradesize

Default Value (Min, Max): 1 (1, 50)

Description: Minimum city size to get full trade. There is a trade penalty in all cities smaller than this value. The penalty is 100% (no trade at all) for sizes up to notradesize, and decreases gradually to 0% (no penalty except the normal corruption) for size = fulltradesize. See also notradesize.

gameseed

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 2147483647)

Description: Game random seed. For zero (the default) a seed will be chosen based on the current time.

generator

Default Value: RANDOM

Description: Method used to generate map. Specifies the algorithm used to generate the map. If the default value of the startpos option is used, then the chosen generator chooses an appropriate startpos setting. Otherwise, the generated map tries to accommodate the chosen startpos setting.

  • SCENARIO: Scenario map. Indicates a pre-generated map. By default, if the scenario does not specify start positions, they will be allocated depending on the size of continents.

  • RANDOM: Fully random height. Generates maps with a number of equally spaced, relatively small islands. By default, start positions are allocated depending on continent size.

  • FRACTAL: Pseudo-fractal height. Generates Earthlike worlds with one or more large continents and a scattering of smaller islands. By default, players are all placed on a single continent.

  • ISLAND: Island-based. Generates fair maps with a number of similarly-sized and -shaped islands, each with approximately the same ratios of terrain types. By default, each player gets their own island.

  • FAIR: Fair islands. Generates the exact copy of the same island for every player or every team.

  • FRACTURE: Fracture map. Generates maps from a fracture pattern. Tends to place hills and mountains along the edges of the continents. If the requested generator is incompatible with other server settings, the server may fall back to another generator.

globalwarming

Default Value: enabled

Description: Global warming. If turned off, global warming will not occur as a result of pollution. This setting does not affect pollution.

globalwarming_percent

Default Value (Min, Max): 100 (1, 10000)

Description: Global warming percent. This is a multiplier for the rate of accumulation of global warming.

gold

Default Value (Min, Max): 50 (0, 50000)

Description: Starting gold per player. At the beginning of the game, each player is given this much gold.

happyborders

Default Value: NATIONAL

Description: Units inside borders cause no unhappiness. If this is set, units will not cause unhappiness when inside your borders, or even allies borders, depending on value. Possible values:

  • DISABLED: Borders are not helping.

  • NATIONAL: Happy within own borders.

  • ALLIED: Happy within allied borders.

homecaughtunits

Default Value: enabled

Description: Give caught units a homecity. If unset, caught units will have no homecity and will be subject to the killunhomed option.

huts

Default Value (Min, Max): 15 (0, 500)

Description: Amount of huts (bonus extras). Huts are tile extras that usually may be investigated by units. The server variable’s scale is huts per thousand tiles.

incite_gold_capt_chance

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 100)

Description: Probability of gold capture during inciting revolt. When the unit trying to incite a revolt is eliminated and loses its gold, there is chance that this gold would be captured by city defender. Ruleset defined transfer tax would be applied, though. This setting is irrelevant, if incite_gold_loss_chance is zero.

incite_gold_loss_chance

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 100)

Description: Probability of gold loss during inciting revolt. When the unit trying to incite a revolt is eliminated, half of the gold (or quarter, if unit was caught), prepared to bribe citizens, can be lost or captured by enemy.

kicktime

Default Value (Min, Max): 1800 (0, 86400)

Description: Time before a kicked user can reconnect. Gives the time in seconds before a user kicked using the /kick server command may reconnect. Changing this setting will affect users kicked in the past.

killcitizen

Default Value: enabled

Description: Reduce city population after attack. This flag indicates whether a city’s population is reduced after a successful attack by an enemy unit. If this is disabled, population is never reduced. Even when this is enabled, only some units may kill citizens.

killstack

Default Value: enabled

Description: Do all units in tile die with defender? If this is enabled, each time a defender unit loses in combat, and is not inside a city or suitable base, all units on the same tile are destroyed along with the defender. If this is disabled, only the defender unit is destroyed.

killunhomed

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 100)

Description: Slowly kill units without home cities (e.g., starting units). If greater than 0, then every unit without a homecity will lose HP each turn. The number of hitpoints lost is given by killunhomed percent of the HP of the unit type. At least one HP is lost every turn until the death of the unit.

landmass

Default Value (Min, Max): 30 (15, 100)

Description: Percentage of the map that is land. This setting gives the approximate percentage of the map that will be made into land.

mapseed

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 2147483647)

Description: Map generation random seed. The same seed will always produce the same map. For zero (the default) a seed will be chosen based on the time to give a random map.

mapsize

Default Value: FULLSIZE

Description: Map size definition. Chooses the method used to define the map size. Other options specify the parameters for each method.

  • FULLSIZE: Number of tiles. Map area (option size).

  • PLAYER: Tiles per player. Number of (land) tiles per player (option tilesperplayer).

  • XYSIZE: Width and height. Map width and height in tiles (options xsize and ysize).

maxconnectionsperhost

Default Value (Min, Max): 4 (0, 1024)

Description: Maximum number of connections to the server per host. New connections from a given host will be rejected if the total number of connections from the very same host equals or exceeds this value. A value of 0 means that there is no limit, at least up to the maximum number of connections supported by the server.

maxplayers

Default Value (Min, Max): 500 (1, 500)

Description: Maximum number of players. The maximal number of human and AI players who can be in the game. When this number of players are connected in the pregame state, any new players who try to connect will be rejected. When playing a scenario which defines player start positions, this setting cannot be set to greater than the number of defined start positions.

metamessage

Default Value: “”

Description: Set user defined metaserver info line. If parameter is omitted, previously set metamessage will be removed. For most of the time user defined metamessage will be used instead of automatically generated messages, if it is available.

mgr_distance

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (-5, 6)

Description: Maximum distance citizens may migrate. This setting controls how far citizens may look for a suitable migration destination when deciding which city to migrate to. The value is added to the candidate target city’s radius and compared to the distance between the two cities. If the distance is lower or equal, migration is possible. So with a setting of 0, citizens will only consider migrating if their city’s center is within the destination city’s working radius. This setting has no effect unless migration is enabled by the migration setting.

mgr_foodneeded

Default Value: enabled

Description: Whether migration is limited by food. If this setting is enabled, citizens will not migrate to cities which would not have enough food to support them. This setting has no effect unless migration is enabled by the migration setting.

mgr_nationchance

Default Value (Min, Max): 50 (0, 100)

Description: Percent probability for migration within the same nation. This setting controls how likely it is for citizens to migrate between cities owned by the same player. Zero indicates migration will never occur, 100 means that migration will always occur if the citizens find a suitable destination. This setting has no effect unless migration is activated by the migration setting.

mgr_turninterval

Default Value (Min, Max): 5 (1, 100)

Description: Number of turns between migrations from a city. This setting controls the number of turns between migration checks for a given city. The interval is calculated from the founding turn of the city. So for example if this setting is 5, citizens will look for a suitable migration destination every five turns from the founding of their current city. Migration will never occur the same turn that a city is built. This setting has no effect unless migration is enabled by the migration setting.

mgr_worldchance

Default Value (Min, Max): 10 (0, 100)

Description: Percent probability for migration between foreign cities. This setting controls how likely it is for migration to occur between cities owned by different players. Zero indicates migration will never occur, 100 means that citizens will always migrate if they find a suitable destination. This setting has no effect if migration is not enabled by the migration setting.

migration

Default Value: disabled

Description: Whether to enable citizen migration. This is the master setting that controls whether citizen migration is active in the game. If enabled, citizens may automatically move from less desirable cities to more desirable ones. The desirability of a given city is calculated from a number of factors. In general larger cities with more income and improvements will be preferred. Citizens will never migrate out of the capital, or cause a wonder to be lost by disbanding a city.

minplayers

Default Value (Min, Max): 1 (0, 500)

Description: Minimum number of players. There must be at least this many players (connected human players) before the game can start.

multiresearch

Default Value: disabled

Description: Allow researching multiple technologies. Allows switching to any technology without wasting old research. Bulbs are never transfered to new technology. Techpenalty options are inefective after enabling that option.

nationset

Default Value: “”

Description: Set of nations to choose from. Controls the set of nations allowed in the game. The choices are defined by the ruleset. Only nations in the set selected here will be allowed in any circumstances, including new players and civil war. Small sets may thus limit the number of players in a game. If this is left blank, the ruleset’s default nation set is used. See /list nationsets for possible choices for the currently loaded ruleset.

naturalcitynames

Default Value: enabled

Description: Whether to use natural city names. If enabled, the default city names will be determined based on the surrounding terrain. See Nation Sets and Flags.

netwait

Default Value (Min, Max): 4 (0, 20)

Description: Max seconds for network buffers to drain. The server will wait for up to the value of this parameter in seconds, for all client connection network buffers to unblock. Zero means the server will not wait at all.

notradesize

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 49)

Description: Maximum size of a city without trade. Cities do not produce any trade at all unless their size is larger than this amount. The produced trade increases gradually for cities larger than notradesize and smaller than fulltradesize. See also fulltradesize.

nuclearwinter

Default Value: enabled

Description: Nuclear winter. If turned off, nuclear winter will not occur as a result of nuclear fallout.

nuclearwinter_percent

Default Value (Min, Max): 100 (1, 10000)

Description: Nuclear winter percent. This is a multiplier for the rate of accumulation of nuclear winter.

occupychance

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 100)

Description: Chance of moving into tile after attack. If set to 0, combat is Civ1/2-style (when you attack, you remain in place). If set to 100, attacking units will always move into the tile they attacked when they win the combat (and no enemy units remain in the tile). If set to a value between 0 and 100, this will be used as the percent chance of “occupying” territory.

onsetbarbs

Default Value (Min, Max): 60 (1, 32767)

Description: Barbarian onset turn. Barbarians will not appear before this turn.

persistentready

Default Value: DISABLED

Description: When the Readiness of a player gets autotoggled off. In pre-game, usually when new players join or old ones leave, those who have already accepted game to start by toggling “Ready” get that autotoggled off in the changed situation. This setting can be used to make readiness more persistent. Possible values:

  • DISABLED: Disabled.

  • CONNECTED: As long as connected.

phasemode

Default Value: ALL

Description: Control of simultaneous player/team phases. This setting controls whether players may make moves at the same time during a turn. Change in setting takes effect next turn. Currently, at least to the end of this turn, mode is “All players move concurrently”. Possible values:

  • ALL: All players move concurrently.

  • PLAYER: All players alternate movement.

  • TEAM: Team alternate movement.

pingtime

Default Value (Min, Max): 20 (1, 1800)

Description: Seconds between PINGs. The server will poll the clients with a PING request each time this period elapses.

pingtimeout

Default Value: 60 (60, 1800)

Description: Time to cut a client. If a client does not reply to a PING in this time the client is disconnected.

plrcolormode

Default Value: PLR_ORDER

Description: How to pick player colors. This setting determines how player colors are chosen. Player colors are used in the Nations View, for national borders on the map, and so on.

  • PLR_ORDER: Per-player, in order. Colors are assigned to individual players in order from a list defined by the ruleset.

  • PLR_RANDOM: Per-player, random. Colors are assigned to individual players randomly from the set defined by the ruleset.

  • PLR_SET: Set manually. Colors can be set with the /playercolor command before the game starts. These are not restricted to the ruleset colors. Any players for which no color is set when the game starts get a random color from the ruleset.

  • TEAM_ORDER: Per-team, in order. Colors are assigned to teams from the list in the ruleset. Every player on the same team gets the same color.

  • NATION_ORDER: Per-nation, in order. If the ruleset defines a color for a player’s nation, the player takes that color. Any players whose nations don’t have associated colors get a random color from the list in the ruleset.

Regardless of this setting, individual player colors can be changed after the game starts with the /playercolor command.

rapturedelay

Default Value (Min, Max): 1 (1, 99)

Description: Number of turns between rapture effect. Sets the number of turns between rapture growth of a city. If set to \(n\) a city will grow after celebrating for \(n+1\) turns. See also the Rapture_Grow effect <effect-rapture-grow>.

razechance

Default Value (Min, Max): 20 (0, 100)

Description: Chance for conquered building destruction. When a player conquers a city, each city improvement has this percentage chance to be destroyed.

restrictinfra

Default Value: disabled

Description: Restrict the use of the infrastructure for enemy units. If this option is enabled, the use of roads and rails will be restricted for enemy units.

revealmap

Default Value: empty value / not set

Description: Reveal the map. Possible values:

  • START: Reveal map at game start. The initial state of the entire map will be known to all players from the start of the game, although it may still be fogged (depending on the fogofwar setting).

  • DEAD: Unfog map for dead players. Dead players can see the entire map, if they are alone in their team.

revolen

Default Value (Min, Max): 5 (1, 20)

Description: Length of revolution. When changing governments, a period of anarchy will occur. Value of this setting, used the way revolentype setting dictates, defines the length of the anarchy.

revolentype

Default Value: RANDOM

Description: Way to determine revolution length. Which method is used in determining how long period of anarchy lasts when changing government. The actual value is set with revolen setting. The quickening methods depend on how many times any player has changed to this type of government before, so it becomes easier to establish a new system of government if it has been done before. Possible values:

  • FIXED: Fixed to revolen turns.

  • RANDOM: Randomly 1-‘revolen’ turns.

  • QUICKENING: First time ‘revolen’, then always quicker.

  • RANDQUICK: Random, max always quicker.

savefrequency

Default Value (Min, Max): 15 (2, 1440)

Description: Minutes per auto-save. How many minutes elapse between automatic game saves. Unlike other save types, this save is only meant as backup for computer memory, and it always uses the same name, older saves are not kept. This setting only has an effect when the autosaves setting includes TIMER.

savename

Default Value: “freeciv”

Description: Definition of the save file name. Within the string the following custom formats are allowed:

  • %R = <reason>

  • %S = <suffix>

  • %T = <turn-number>

  • %Y = <game-year>

Example: freeciv-T%04T-Y%+05Y-%R returns freeciv-T0100-Y00001-manual

Be careful to use at least one of %T and %Y, else newer savegames will overwrite old ones. If none of the formats is used -T%04T-Y%05Y-%R is appended to the value of savename setting.

savepalace

Default Value: enabled

Description: Rebuild palace whenever capital is conquered. If this is turned on, when the capital is conquered the palace is automatically rebuilt for free in another randomly chosen city. This is significant because the technology requirement for building a palace will be ignored. In some rulesets, buildings other than the palace are affected by this setting.

saveturns

Default Value (Min, Max): 1 (1, 200)

Description: Turns per auto-save. How many turns elapse between automatic game saves. This setting only has an effect when the autosaves setting includes NEW TURN.

sciencebox

Default Value (Min, Max): 100 (1, 10000)

Description: Technology cost multiplier percentage. This affects how quickly players can research new technology. All tech costs are multiplied by this amount (as a percentage). The base tech costs are determined by the ruleset or other game settings.

scorefile

Default Value: “freeciv-score.log”

Description: Name for the score log file. The default name for the score log file is freeciv-score.log.

scorelog

Default Value: disabled

Description: Whether to log player statistics. If this is turned on, player statistics are appended to the file defined by the option scorefile every turn. These statistics can be used to create power graphs after the game.

scoreloglevel

Default Value: ALL

Description: Scorelog level. Whether scores are logged for all players including AI’s, or only for human players. Possible values:

  • ALL: All players.

  • HUMANS: Human players only.

separatepoles

Default Value: enabled

Description: Whether the poles are separate continents. If this setting is disabled, the continents may attach to poles.

shieldbox

Default Value (Min, Max): 100 (1, 10000)

Description: Multiplier percentage for production costs. This affects how quickly units and buildings can be produced. The base costs are multiplied by this value (as a percentage).

singlepole

Default Value: disabled

Description: Whether there is just one pole generated. If this setting is enabled, only one side of the map will have a pole. This setting has no effect if the map wraps both directions.

size

Default Value (Min, Max): 4 (0, 2048)

Description: Map area (in thousands of tiles). This value is used to determine the map area. Size = 4 is a normal map of 4,000 tiles (default). Size = 20 is a huge map of 20,000 tiles. For this option to take effect, the “Map size definition” option (mapsize) must be set to “Number of tiles” (FULLSIZE).

spaceship_travel_time

Default Value (Min, Max): 100 (50, 1000)

Description: Percentage to multiply spaceship travel time by. This percentage is multiplied onto the time it will take for a spaceship to arrive at Alpha Centauri.

specials

Default Value (Min, Max): 250 (0, 1000)

Description: Amount of “special” resource tiles for the game. Special resources improve the basic terrain type they are on. The server variable’s scale is parts per thousand.

startcity

Default Value: disabled

Description: Whether player starts with a city. If this is set, the game will start with player’s first city already founded to starting location.

startpos

Default Value: DEFAULT

Description: The method used to choose where each player’s initial units start on the map. For scenarios which include pre-set start positions, this setting is ignored. Possible values:

  • DEFAULT: Generator’s choice. The start position placement will depend on the map generator chosen. See the generator setting above.

  • SINGLE: One player per continent. One player is placed on each of a set of continents of approximately equivalent value (if possible).

  • 2or3: Two or three players per continent. Similar to SINGLE except that two players will be placed on each continent, with three on the best continent if there is an odd number of players.

  • ALL: All players on a single continent. All players will start on the best available continent.

  • VARIABLE: Depending on size of continents. Players will be placed on the best available continents such that, as far as possible, the number of players on each continent is proportional to its value. If the server cannot satisfy the requested setting due to there being too many players for continents, it may fall back to one of the others. However, map generators try to create the right number of continents for the choice of this startpos setting and the number of players, so this is unlikely to occur.

startunits

Default Value: “ccwwx”

Description: List of players’ initial units. This should be a string of characters, each of which specifies a unit role. The first character must be native to at least one “Starter” terrain. The case-sensitive characters and their meanings are:

  • c = City founder (eg., Settlers)

  • w = Terrain worker (eg., Engineers)

  • x = Explorer (eg., Explorer)

  • k = Gameloss (eg., Leader)

  • s = Diplomat (eg., Diplomat)

  • f = Ferryboat (eg., Trireme)

  • d = Ok defense unit (eg., Warriors)

  • D = Good defense unit (eg., Phalanx)

  • a = Fast attack unit (eg., Horsemen)

  • A = Strong attack unit (eg., Catapult)

steepness

Default Value (Min, Max): 30 (0, 100)

Description: Amount of hills or mountains on the map. Small values give flat maps, while higher values give a steeper map with more hills and mountains.

team_pooled_research

Default Value: enabled

Description: If this setting is turned on, then the team mates will share the science research. Else, every player of the team will have to make its own.

teamplacement

Default Value: CLOSEST

Description: Method used for placement of team mates. After start positions have been generated thanks to the startpos setting, this setting controls how the start positions will be assigned to the different players of the same team. Possible Values:

  • DISABLED: The start positions will be randomly assigned to players, regardless of teams.

  • CLOSEST: As close as possible. Players will be placed as close as possible, regardless of continents.

  • CONTINENT: On the same continent. If possible, place all players of the same team onto the same island/continent.

  • HORIZONTAL: Horizontal placement. Players of the same team will be placed horizontally.

  • VERTICAL: Vertical placement. Players of the same team will be placed vertically.

techleak

Default Value (Min, Max): 100 (0, 300)

Description: The rate of the tech leakage. As other nations learn new technologies, other players that have not learned the same technology advance will have the number of bulbs reduced.

techlevel

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 100)

Description: Number of initial techs per player. At the beginning of the game, each player is given this many technologies. The technologies chosen are random for each player. Depending on the value of tech_cost_style in the ruleset, a big value for techlevel can make the next techs really expensive.

techlossforgiveness

Default Value (Min, Max): -1 (-1, 200)

Description: Research point (bulbs) debt threshold for losing a tech. When you have negative research points, and your shortfall is greater than this percentage of the cost of your current research, you forget a technology you already knew. The special value -1 prevents loss of technology regardless of research points.

techlossrestore

Default Value (Min, Max): 50 (-1, 100)

Description: Research points (bulbs) restored after losing a tech. When you lose a technology due to a negative research balance (see techlossforgiveness), this percentage of its research cost is credited to your research balance (this may not be sufficient to make it positive). The special value -1 means that your research balance is always restored to zero, regardless of your previous shortfall.

techlost_donor

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 100)

Description: Chance to lose a technology while giving it to another player. The chance that your civilization will lose a technology if you teach it to someone else by treaty, or if it is stolen from you.

techlost_recv

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 100)

Description: Chance to lose a technology while receiving it from another player. The chance that learning a technology by treaty or theft will fail.

techpenalty

Default Value (Min, Max): 100 (0, 100)

Description: Percentage penalty when changing technology research. If you change your current research technology, and you have positive research points (bulbs), you lose this percentage of those research points. This does not apply when you have just gained a technology this turn.

temperature

Default Value (Min, Max): 50 (0, 100)

Description: Average temperature of the planet. Small values will give a cold map, while larger values will give a warmer map.

  • 100 means a very dry and hot planet with no polar arctic zones, only tropical and dry zones.

  • 70 means a hot planet with little polar ice.

  • 50 means a temperate planet with normal polar, cold, temperate, and tropical zones; a desert zone overlaps tropical and temperate zones.

  • 30 means a cold planet with small tropical zones.

  • 0 means a very cold planet with large polar zones and no tropics.

threaded_save

Default Value: disabled

Description: Whether to do saving in separate thread. If this is turned on, compressing and saving the actual file containing the game situation takes place in the background while game otherwise continues. This way users are not required to wait for the save to finish.

tilesperplayer

Default Value (Min, Max): 100 (1, 1000)

Description: Number of (land) tiles per player. This value is used to determine the map dimensions. It calculates the map size at game start based on the number of players and the value of the setting landmass. For this option to take effect, the “Map size definition” option (mapsize) must be set to “Tiles per player” (PLAYER).

timeaddenemymove

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 8639999)

Description: Timeout at least \(n\) seconds when enemy moved. Any time a unit moves while in sight of an enemy player, the remaining timeout is increased to this value. This setting helps with RTS.

timeout

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (-1, 8639999)

Description: Maximum seconds per turn. If all players have not hit Turn Done before this time is up, then the turn ends automatically. Zero means there is no timeout. In servers compiled with debugging, a timeout of -1 sets the autogame test mode. Only connections with hack level access may set the timeout to fewer than 30 seconds. Use this with the command timeoutincrease to have a dynamic timer. The first turn is treated as a special case and is controlled by the first_timeout setting.

tinyisles

Default Value: disabled

Description: Presence of 1x1 islands. This setting controls whether the map generator is allowed to make islands of one only tile size.

topology

Default Value: Wrap East-West and Isometric (WRAPX|ISO)

Description: Freeciv21 maps are always two-dimensional. They may wrap at the north-south and east-west directions to form a flat map, a cylinder, or a torus (donut). Individual tiles may be rectangular or hexagonal, with either an overhead (“classic”) or isometric alignment. To play with a particular topology, clients will need a matching tileset.

Possible values (option can take any number of these):

  • WRAPX: Wrap East-West

  • WRAPY: Wrap North-South

  • ISO: Isometric

  • HEX: Hexagonal

trade_revenue_style

Default Value: CLASSIC

Description: The formula for the trade a city receives from a trade route. Possible values:

  • CLASSIC: Revenues depend on distance and trade with multipliers for overseas and international routes.

  • SIMPLE: Revenues are proportional to the average trade of the two cities.

trademindist

Default Value (Min, Max): 9 (1, 999)

Description: Minimum distance (tiles) for trade routes. In order for two cities in the same civilization to establish a trade route, they must be at least this far apart on the map. For square grids, the distance is calculated as Manhattan distance, that is, the sum of the displacements along the \(x\) and \(y\) directions. For hexagonal tiles, the distance is calculated as Absolute distance, that is, the sum of the absolute value between the \(x\) and \(y\) directions.

tradeworldrelpct

Default Value (Min, Max): 50 (0, 100)

Description: How largely trade distance is relative to world size. When determining trade between cities, the distance factor can be partly or fully relative to world size. This setting determines how big percentage of the bonus calculation is relative to world size, and how much only absolute distance matters.

trading_city

Default Value: enabled

Description: City trading via treaty. If turned off, trading cities in the diplomacy dialog is not allowed.

trading_gold

Default Value: enabled

Description: Gold trading via treaty. If turned off, trading gold in the diplomacy dialog is not allowed.

trading_tech

Default Value: enabled

Description: Technology trading via treaty. If turned off, trading technologies in the diplomacy dialog is not allowed.

traitdistribution

Default Value: FIXED

Description: AI trait distribution method. Possible values:

  • FIXED: Fixed

  • EVEN: Even

turnblock

Default Value: enabled

Description: Turn-blocking game play mode. If this is turned on, the game turn is not advanced until all players have finished their turn, including disconnected players.

unitwaittime

Default Value (Min, Max): 0 (0, 8639999)

Description: Minimum time between unit actions over turn change. This setting gives the minimum amount of time in seconds between unit moves and other significant actions (such as building cities) after a turn change occurs. For example, if this setting is set to 20 and a unit moves 5 seconds before the turn change, it will not be able to move or act in the next turn for at least 15 seconds. This value is limited to a maximum value of two-thirds of timeout. unitwaittime (UWT) is a tool to help reduce RTS around TC in Longturn games.

unitwaittime_extended

Default Value: disabled

Description: unitwaittime also applies to newly-built and captured/bribed units. If set, newly-built units are subject to unitwaittime so that the moment the city production was last touched counts as their last action. Also, getting captured/bribed counts as action for the victim.

unitwaittime_style

Default Value: empty value/not set

Description: This setting affects unitwaittime and effectively unused as it only has one option to set:

  • ACTIVITIES: Units moved less than unitwaittime seconds from turn change will not complete activities such as pillaging and building roads during turn change, but during the next turn when their wait expires.

unreachableprotects

Default Value: enabled

Description: Does unreachable unit protect reachable ones. This option controls whether tiles with both unreachable and reachable units can be attacked. If disabled, any tile with reachable units can be attacked. If enabled, tiles with an unreachable unit in them cannot be attacked. Some units in some rulesets may override this, never protecting reachable units on their tile.

victories

Default Value: SPACERACE|ALLIED

Description: What kinds of victories are possible for the game. This setting controls how a game can be won. One can always win by conquering the entire planet, but other victory conditions can be enabled or disabled:

  • SPACERACE: Spaceship is built and travels to Alpha Centauri.

  • ALLIED: After defeating enemies, all remaining players are allied.

  • CULTURE: Player meets ruleset defined cultural domination criteria.

wetness

Default Value (Min, Max): 50 (0, 100)

Description: Amount of water on the landmasses. Small values mean lots of dry, desert-like land. Higher values give a wetter map with more swamps, jungles, and rivers.

xsize

Default Value (Min, Max): 64 (16, 128000)

Description: Map width in tiles. Defines the map width. For this option to take effect, the “Map size definition” option (mapsize) must be set to “Width and height” (XYSIZE).

ysize

Default Value (Min, Max): 64 (16, 128000)

Description: Map height in tiles. Defines the map height. For this option to take effect, the “Map size definition” option (mapsize) must be set to “Width and height” (XYSIZE).