The most fundamental difference between Civilization II and Freeciv is that Freeciv was designed from the start as a multiplayer, network-based game, which has many implications with regard to the game mechanisms. For instance, while the United Nations Wonder could force AI races to have a certain foreign policy, it could not conceivably constrain real human players, with a result in a reworking of what the United Nations might do.
Thus the United Nations Wonder has an entirely new result, the Marco Polo's Embassy Wonder and Eiffel Tower Wonder are removed. The Great Wall Wonder does not force other nations to offer cease-fire or peace, nor does it aid against Barbarians (which do not exist in Freeciv). There is no concept of peace between nations.
Many other features of Freeciv differ from Civilization II because Freeciv was originally developed to match Civilization, and some Civilization II features are not (yet) implemented.
A terrain square either has, or lacks, the special for that terrain type. Some of the specials were renamed and other adjusted for balance. A fundamental change is that rivers are no longer special features of land squares, but terrain types of their own. Unlike Civilization II, in Freeciv, once a player has seen a terrain square, that nation will always see what is in the square.
The government type Fundamentalism is not implemented, nor are Fanatics. Several balance changes have been made to other government types: A Despotism has no limit on the number of military units per city devoted to martial law, and a Communist government now has modest but invariant corruption.
A different approach to nuclear energy is implemented. Nuclear Plants now have no chance of meltdown from civil unrest, making them effectively as useful as Civilization II's Solar Plant. Thus the Solar Plant is removed, and its enabling advance Environmentalism as well.
After starvation, a Granary will restock itself to half full. A Supermarket in Freeciv increases the food production of all irrigated squares; the Civilization II concept of double-irrigation does not exist. The units Elephants, Crusaders, and Paratroops are not in Freeciv. There are no Barbarians in Freeciv, and Villages will not produce them. Fighters will not defend cities from attacking air units. Units other than Marines may not move directly from sea units into undefended cities.
Airbases no longer exist. The Nuclear unit requires only Rocketry, without Nuclear Fission as well. Partisans are only created for the original owner of a city. The chance of a Trireme being lost at sea is always 50%, not modified by other advances.
Diplomats and Spies do not (yet) get advantages from veteran status.
(Who is keen to pore over those discussions and compare the latest version of the civ2 modpack with the commercial game?)
Freeciv 2.4 and 2.5 can't allow spy actions to be performed by a Diplomat unit or Spy unit that is inside a ship on an ocean tile.
If it can't express the original rule yet (without breaking the game) it should add a ruleset comment describing the original rule.
Was the bonus reduced if you entered the marketplace in stead of establishing a trade route?
Was entering a marketplace (and not establishing a trade route) possible at all? When was it possible?
Was the bribe cost of Settlers 50% of the bribe cost of other units?
Would trying to do an illegal action cost you moves?
Could you poison a city with a population of 1, resulting in its complete destruction?
Context: The action is to plant the nuclear device. The actor is trying to do the action to the target.
Call Freeciv's "Suitcase Nuke" action "Plant Nuclear Device" when talking to the players.
action = "Suitcase Nuke"
actor_reqs =
{ "type", "name", "range"
"UnitFlag", "Spy", "Local"
"Building", "Manhattan Project", "World"
"Tech", "Nuclear Fission", "Player"
"DiplRel", "War", "Local"
"MinMoveFrags", "1", "Local"
}
The "Suitcase Nuke" action (plant nuke) can be done if all of the following conditions are true:
The actor unit is a Spy unit.
Someone, doesn't have to be the actor player, has the "Manhattan Project" wonder. It hasn't been destroyed.
The actor player currently knows the "Nuclear Fission" tech. He hasn't forgotten it.
The actor player is at war against the target player.
The actor unit (the Spy) has a move fragment left.
Not mentioned but still true because Freeciv hard codes it: the actor unit (the Spy) must be on the same tile as the target or on the tile next to it.
That is it. Nothing else permits it. Nothing else forbids it. Consequence: A Spy can plant a nuke while he is inside a transport.
Diplomatic consequences Edit
[effect_incident_plant_nuke_caught]
type = "Casus_Belli_Caught"
value = 1000
reqs =
{ "type", "name", "range", "present"
"Action", "Suitcase Nuke", "Local", TRUE
"Gov", "Fundamentalism", "Player", FALSE
}
Everyone else will be allowed to declare war on a player that is caught if all of the conditions below are true. The Senate won't object. (A value of 1000 or more allows everyone to declare war. A value of 1 or more allows the victim to declare war.)
Conditions:
The player was caught while trying to plant a nuke ("Suitcase Nuke")
The player doesn't run a Fundamentalism government
That is it. It won't matter if the actor player and the target player already are at war with each other. If the Spy unit manages to plant the nuke the actor suffers no diplomatic consequences.
[effect_suitcase_plant_nuke_unlikely]
type = "Action_Odds_Pct"
value = -75
reqs =
{ "type", "name", "range"
"Action", "Suitcase Nuke", "Local"
}
When the actor Spy unit is trying to do the plant nuke ("Suitcase Nuke") action the odds from the diplchance are reduced by 75%. That is it. It doesn't matter if the actor player and the target player already are at war with each other. If the players have set diplchance to 80% the spy will have a (80 + (80 * -75) / 100 = 20) 20% chance of not getting caught before the nuke is planted. A chance of 20% means that, on average, 1 out 5 diplomats will manage to plant a nuke.
Thus the United Nations Wonder has an entirely new result, the Marco Polo's Embassy Wonder and Eiffel Tower Wonder are removed. The Great Wall Wonder does not force other nations to offer cease-fire or peace, nor does it aid against Barbarians (which do not exist in Freeciv). There is no concept of peace between nations.
Many other features of Freeciv differ from Civilization II because Freeciv was originally developed to match Civilization, and some Civilization II features are not (yet) implemented.
How to play FreeCiv open source strategy game.
To simplify implementation, the number of terrain specials was reduced. Where Civilization II has 21 specials possible for 11 terrain types, Freeciv has now 12 terrain types with exactly one special possible for each.A terrain square either has, or lacks, the special for that terrain type. Some of the specials were renamed and other adjusted for balance. A fundamental change is that rivers are no longer special features of land squares, but terrain types of their own. Unlike Civilization II, in Freeciv, once a player has seen a terrain square, that nation will always see what is in the square.
The government type Fundamentalism is not implemented, nor are Fanatics. Several balance changes have been made to other government types: A Despotism has no limit on the number of military units per city devoted to martial law, and a Communist government now has modest but invariant corruption.
Read also: How to play FreeCiv open source strategy game: Overview of the Game.Settlers and Engineers have changes in the support they get from cities. Corruption in Freeciv loses only trade points, but not production points.
A different approach to nuclear energy is implemented. Nuclear Plants now have no chance of meltdown from civil unrest, making them effectively as useful as Civilization II's Solar Plant. Thus the Solar Plant is removed, and its enabling advance Environmentalism as well.
After starvation, a Granary will restock itself to half full. A Supermarket in Freeciv increases the food production of all irrigated squares; the Civilization II concept of double-irrigation does not exist. The units Elephants, Crusaders, and Paratroops are not in Freeciv. There are no Barbarians in Freeciv, and Villages will not produce them. Fighters will not defend cities from attacking air units. Units other than Marines may not move directly from sea units into undefended cities.
Airbases no longer exist. The Nuclear unit requires only Rocketry, without Nuclear Fission as well. Partisans are only created for the original owner of a city. The chance of a Trireme being lost at sea is always 50%, not modified by other advances.
Diplomats and Spies do not (yet) get advantages from veteran status.
Comparison of Freeciv's civ2 modpack and Civilization II.
The Civ2 ruleset tries to be as close to the Civilization II rules as Freeciv permits. Not everything in Freeciv can be modded to become the same as in Civilization II. See the Civ2 page for some background and a link to some old discussions that list some of the then differences.(Who is keen to pore over those discussions and compare the latest version of the civ2 modpack with the commercial game?)
Food caravans.
Civ II allowed using a caravan or freight to transfer food from one city to another.Unsafe terrain.
This could in theory be added via Lua script but it would make the game less user friendly. The path finding would cheerfully have a unit end its turn on unsafe terrain. The AI wouldn't care about unsafe terrain.Ship boarding movement.
Freeciv can't take all movement when a unit boards a ship. (It can take all movement when a unit disembarks) See GNA#23782Version specific limitations.
Freeciv 2.4, 2.5 and 2.6 can't implement nuclear device planting. Freeciv 3.0 has the "Suitcase Nuke" spy action. See GNAPATCH#5536, GNAPATCH#5539 and GNAPATCH#5642.Freeciv 2.4 and 2.5 can't allow spy actions to be performed by a Diplomat unit or Spy unit that is inside a ship on an ocean tile.
Reporting an incorrect rule.
The correct rule is the rule that is closest to Civ 2 unless a Freeciv related problem would make it break the game play. If you discover a rule in the civ2 ruleset that could be more correct please submit a bug report. You can report a bug even if Freeciv is unable to support the original rule. Your feedback could be added in a ruleset comment. If the rule itself, or a better approximation of it, becomes supported the comment may inspire someone to fix it.Fixing it.
Your may attach a patch to your bug report. You don't have to be a programmer to help make the civ2 ruleset more correct. Most of a Freeciv ruleset is a collection of configuration files. If the Freeciv ruleset format can express the correct rule the patch should correct the rule.If it can't express the original rule yet (without breaking the game) it should add a ruleset comment describing the original rule.
How to play FreeCiv open source strategy game: differences and Comparison From Civilization II.Click to Tweet
If you switch to a better approximation of the original rule you should add a ruleset comment describing the original rule and why your approximation of it is the best approximation.Spy actions.
Freeciv 2.6 moved some action related rules to the ruleset. Freeciv 3.0 moved even more. It may be possible to exploit the new ruleset flexibility to make the civ2 ruleset more like the rules of the game it is based on.Uninvestigated.
Caravan action and spy action legality when the actor unit is out of moves.Was the bonus reduced if you entered the marketplace in stead of establishing a trade route?
Was entering a marketplace (and not establishing a trade route) possible at all? When was it possible?
Was the bribe cost of Settlers 50% of the bribe cost of other units?
Would trying to do an illegal action cost you moves?
Could you poison a city with a population of 1, resulting in its complete destruction?
Known bugs.
No currently known diplomat/spy action bugs.Plant Nuclear Device.
The plant nuclear device spy action has been added to Freeciv 3.0's civ2 ruleset. The details of the rules are probably wrong. (One bug has already been fixed) To make it easier to spot errors the rules have been translated to English.Context: The action is to plant the nuclear device. The actor is trying to do the action to the target.
Naming.
ui_name_suitcase_nuke = _("Plant %sNuclear Device%s")Call Freeciv's "Suitcase Nuke" action "Plant Nuclear Device" when talking to the players.
When.
[actionenabler_plant_nuke]action = "Suitcase Nuke"
actor_reqs =
{ "type", "name", "range"
"UnitFlag", "Spy", "Local"
"Building", "Manhattan Project", "World"
"Tech", "Nuclear Fission", "Player"
"DiplRel", "War", "Local"
"MinMoveFrags", "1", "Local"
}
The "Suitcase Nuke" action (plant nuke) can be done if all of the following conditions are true:
The actor unit is a Spy unit.
Someone, doesn't have to be the actor player, has the "Manhattan Project" wonder. It hasn't been destroyed.
The actor player currently knows the "Nuclear Fission" tech. He hasn't forgotten it.
The actor player is at war against the target player.
The actor unit (the Spy) has a move fragment left.
Not mentioned but still true because Freeciv hard codes it: the actor unit (the Spy) must be on the same tile as the target or on the tile next to it.
That is it. Nothing else permits it. Nothing else forbids it. Consequence: A Spy can plant a nuke while he is inside a transport.
Diplomatic consequences Edit
[effect_incident_plant_nuke_caught]
type = "Casus_Belli_Caught"
value = 1000
reqs =
{ "type", "name", "range", "present"
"Action", "Suitcase Nuke", "Local", TRUE
"Gov", "Fundamentalism", "Player", FALSE
}
Everyone else will be allowed to declare war on a player that is caught if all of the conditions below are true. The Senate won't object. (A value of 1000 or more allows everyone to declare war. A value of 1 or more allows the victim to declare war.)
Conditions:
The player was caught while trying to plant a nuke ("Suitcase Nuke")
The player doesn't run a Fundamentalism government
That is it. It won't matter if the actor player and the target player already are at war with each other. If the Spy unit manages to plant the nuke the actor suffers no diplomatic consequences.
Risks.
Before the Spy can plant a nuke any defending Diplomat or Spy units in the target city must be defeated. After this step it still has a last chance of getting caught before the nuke is planted. Normally it would have its odds copied from the diplchance server setting. A final rule modifies the diplchance server setting odds:[effect_suitcase_plant_nuke_unlikely]
type = "Action_Odds_Pct"
value = -75
reqs =
{ "type", "name", "range"
"Action", "Suitcase Nuke", "Local"
}
When the actor Spy unit is trying to do the plant nuke ("Suitcase Nuke") action the odds from the diplchance are reduced by 75%. That is it. It doesn't matter if the actor player and the target player already are at war with each other. If the players have set diplchance to 80% the spy will have a (80 + (80 * -75) / 100 = 20) 20% chance of not getting caught before the nuke is planted. A chance of 20% means that, on average, 1 out 5 diplomats will manage to plant a nuke.
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Freeciv is an excellent game and its comparison with Civilization is inevitable.
ReplyDeleteI agree, thanks for your comment.
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