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Show HN: Freeciv-Web

144 points by roschdal 6y ago

frompdx 6y ago
I love the play by email concept.
- bebna 6y ago
  Std feature for civ games. Other older games had it too. Works well with round based games, especially chess.
  - alexpotato 6y ago
    People used to play chess via snail mail. I think of this every time someone mentions "man, the lag here is terrible"
- alexpotato 6y ago
  My cousin and I were both Civ fanatics in our younger days. We started playing a game via email and it's been fantastic. It hits all of the sweet spots: - Playing a favorite game - Playing with a relative/friend who also loves the game - The async nature of email means we can play when we have time since we both have jobs and families - The slow playing forces you to really stop and think about each turn Highly recommend it.
  - blacktriangle 6y ago
    Play by email is also great for enjoying games with people who suffer from serious analysis paralysis. These people are unbearable to game with at the tabletop but really take advantage of the extra time afforded by async gaming to make for some deep games. It seems like some games (Diplomacy in particular) should almost explicitly encourage the medium of mail rather than table top play.
29athrowaway 6y ago
It would be great if you could spectate games.
tom_mellior 6y ago
Nice. I used to sink many hours into FreeCiv. More recently, whenever I tried it, the AI was much too bloodthirsty, with no way I found to tone it down. Basically I'd like to do some nice casual civilization building, but whenever I made contact with others, they would immediately become hostile and steamroll me. Maybe it's time to check this out again.
- edoceo 6y ago
  Sounds like Starcraft. Damn those Zerg.
- peteretep 6y ago
  Stop expanding so rapidly at first
- BeetleB 6y ago
  For me, this was the case even about years ago. Somehow I could never enjoy FreeCiv like I did Civilization. At the time, the only realistic way to win FreeCiv was to follow a very narrow strategy.
- hutzlibu 6y ago
  Just set the KI-Level to easy? I played on easy for some rounds - and no KI was hostile to me. Until some freaking neutral swiss diplomat initiated a unrest in one of my cities and basically stole the city from me.
numlock86 6y ago
Awesome. While I really enjoy FreeCiv, my first thought was if this has been done with OpenTTD already, too. Apparently not.
ephaeton 6y ago
glorious <3 Must .. resist .. temptation .. uughgggh...
ovi256 6y ago
If you feel like playing a Civ-like in space, you can't do better than FreeOrion (https://freeorion.org/ https://freeorion.org/), another open source game.
- simonebrunozzi 6y ago
  It's a good project, but years ago when I tried it out it didn't seem to be a match with the original MoO2.
octygen 6y ago
Hoping this does wonders for the FreeCiv feature release cycle and engage frondend devs obsessed with good UI/UX. Will support for sure. I fantasize about one very big civ game that lasts forever a la EVE Online.
MaxBarraclough 6y ago
The FreeCiv project itself deserves a shoutout here. [0] Roughly a year ago I tried out the various FreeCiv desktop clients for Windows. I found the Qt one to be easily the best of them, although it was by no means well polished. Could be that the web client is the best choice. [0] http://www.freeciv.org/ http://www.freeciv.org/
- GordonS 6y ago
  Another one deserving of a shoutout is FreeCol[0], which is based on Colonization, rather than Civilization. Colonization is one of my favourite games of all time, and I still play it on occasion even after all these years! [0] http://www.freecol.org http://www.freecol.org
hutzlibu 6y ago
Is there a way to manually save and load specific save games in the web version? If not, was this a gamedesign choice, or a technical one? Because in the standalone desktop one, it works and I want that. edit: ok, never mind. I can load specific games at start. But just save once per turn. So that would work, if it would load properly.
BiteCode_dev 6y ago
I wish for something like that for HoMM 3. Async web play with little bro would be awesome.
breck 6y ago
I just want to say I love all the games mentioned in this thread. So many of the games I loved as a kid are no longer accessible but freeciv and the like are fun to play and are an exciting sign of more open games to come.
roschdal 6y ago
Freeciv-web can be played here: https://www.freecivweb.org/ https://www.freecivweb.org/

144 points by roschdal 6y ago

frompdx 6y ago

I love the play by email concept.

bebna 6y ago
Std feature for civ games. Other older games had it too. Works well with round based games, especially chess.
- alexpotato 6y ago
  People used to play chess via snail mail. I think of this every time someone mentions "man, the lag here is terrible"
alexpotato 6y ago
My cousin and I were both Civ fanatics in our younger days. We started playing a game via email and it's been fantastic. It hits all of the sweet spots: - Playing a favorite game - Playing with a relative/friend who also loves the game - The async nature of email means we can play when we have time since we both have jobs and families - The slow playing forces you to really stop and think about each turn Highly recommend it.
- blacktriangle 6y ago
  Play by email is also great for enjoying games with people who suffer from serious analysis paralysis. These people are unbearable to game with at the tabletop but really take advantage of the extra time afforded by async gaming to make for some deep games. It seems like some games (Diplomacy in particular) should almost explicitly encourage the medium of mail rather than table top play.

29athrowaway 6y ago

It would be great if you could spectate games.

tom_mellior 6y ago

Nice. I used to sink many hours into FreeCiv. More recently, whenever I tried it, the AI was much too bloodthirsty, with no way I found to tone it down. Basically I'd like to do some nice casual civilization building, but whenever I made contact with others, they would immediately become hostile and steamroll me. Maybe it's time to check this out again.

edoceo 6y ago
Sounds like Starcraft. Damn those Zerg.
peteretep 6y ago
Stop expanding so rapidly at first
BeetleB 6y ago
For me, this was the case even about years ago. Somehow I could never enjoy FreeCiv like I did Civilization. At the time, the only realistic way to win FreeCiv was to follow a very narrow strategy.
hutzlibu 6y ago
Just set the KI-Level to easy? I played on easy for some rounds - and no KI was hostile to me. Until some freaking neutral swiss diplomat initiated a unrest in one of my cities and basically stole the city from me.

numlock86 6y ago

Awesome. While I really enjoy FreeCiv, my first thought was if this has been done with OpenTTD already, too. Apparently not.

ephaeton 6y ago

glorious <3 Must .. resist .. temptation .. uughgggh...

ovi256 6y ago

If you feel like playing a Civ-like in space, you can't do better than FreeOrion (https://freeorion.org/ https://freeorion.org/), another open source game.

simonebrunozzi 6y ago
It's a good project, but years ago when I tried it out it didn't seem to be a match with the original MoO2.

octygen 6y ago

Hoping this does wonders for the FreeCiv feature release cycle and engage frondend devs obsessed with good UI/UX. Will support for sure. I fantasize about one very big civ game that lasts forever a la EVE Online.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago

The FreeCiv project itself deserves a shoutout here. [0] Roughly a year ago I tried out the various FreeCiv desktop clients for Windows. I found the Qt one to be easily the best of them, although it was by no means well polished. Could be that the web client is the best choice. [0] http://www.freeciv.org/ http://www.freeciv.org/

GordonS 6y ago
Another one deserving of a shoutout is FreeCol[0], which is based on Colonization, rather than Civilization. Colonization is one of my favourite games of all time, and I still play it on occasion even after all these years! [0] http://www.freecol.org http://www.freecol.org

hutzlibu 6y ago

Is there a way to manually save and load specific save games in the web version? If not, was this a gamedesign choice, or a technical one? Because in the standalone desktop one, it works and I want that. edit: ok, never mind. I can load specific games at start. But just save once per turn. So that would work, if it would load properly.

BiteCode_dev 6y ago

I wish for something like that for HoMM 3. Async web play with little bro would be awesome.

breck 6y ago

I just want to say I love all the games mentioned in this thread. So many of the games I loved as a kid are no longer accessible but freeciv and the like are fun to play and are an exciting sign of more open games to come.

roschdal 6y ago

Freeciv-web can be played here: https://www.freecivweb.org/ https://www.freecivweb.org/