Freeciv - 2.1.6

At the freeciv homepage there's a link to an SDL-based version which doesn't need X11. It works pretty well for me, too.

I play against AIs mostly in 10 to 20K tile sets Several times the game just exits no warning and no notice. The program just closes, Puff gone. X11 stays running.

Another complaint why does it need X11 on the UNix Mac instead of a native port like for winders?

This game actually plays surprisingly well. However, there are a number of negative points:

1. The UI is X11. Icky. Tolerable, but icky.

2. The graphics are pretty cheesy. Better than they used to be ages ago, but still cheesy.

3. The AIs are distinctly harder than the "real" Civ AIs. Even on the easiest setting, I get overwhelmed pretty fast. Admittedly, I have a very "slow and steady wins the race" playing style, but it worked well for me in Civ II and III. By the time I finish building cities across my first continent, the entire rest of the world is already occupied. That's nuts.

On the plus side, though, FreeCiv's rule set has kept all the best things from each generation of Civ and thrown out the annoying stuff. The wonders seem to be well balanced, the unit selection is good, and the technology tree is great. It also has a more powerful negotiation system than I've seen in real Civ games, although the interface for it is questionable.

I could live with the clunky UI and the cheesy graphics if the AIs weren't so obnoxious. I played the game ferociously for a few weeks before realizing that I couldn't adjust my play style to let me come even close to being competetive with the AI, so I've given up.

I love this game. I think its great that someone has taken the time to get current source ported for OS X. Fink lags way behind on the project and I don't think Darwin Ports even has it. All you people who complain about open source should rethink their comments. Without open source you would not have OS X. You would not have a whole area of the sw industry at your fingertips. If you want a polished commercial game then go buy one. Freeciv is a free open source, continuously evolving project. A lot of hard work goes into providing you a free, highly complex, cross-platform, piece of software so you can complain about it.

Addictive like the original. If you try it, probably you'll play it for not less than two hours. I hope some artist will draw artwork for all "Wonders of the world".

The X11 implementation is not less user friendly than the (poor) native Civilization 3.

Thank you.