                  Freeciv Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

                 (from https://www.freeciv.org/wiki/FAQ_3.2)

   Contents

        1 Gameplay
             1.1 What do I need to play, where can I go to play?
             1.2 OK, so I installed Freeciv. How do I play?
             1.3 How do I play multiplayer?
             1.4 Where is the chatline you are talking about, how do I
               chat?
             1.5 Why can't I attack another player's units?
             1.6 How do I declare war on another player?
             1.7 How do I do diplomatic meetings?
             1.8 How do I trade money with other players?
             1.9 How can I change the way a Freeciv game is ended?
             1.10 My irrigated grassland produces only 2 food. Is this a
               bug?
             1.11 How do I play against computer players?
             1.12 Can I build up the palace or throne room as in the
               commercial Civilization games?
             1.13 Can I build land over sea/transform ocean to land?
             1.14 Can I change settings or rules to get different types of
               games?
             1.15 How compatible is Freeciv with the commercial
               Civilization games?
             1.16 My opponents seem to be able to play two moves at once!
             1.17 I am far superior to my opponent but their last city is on
               a 1x1 island so I cannot conquer it, and they won't give up.
               What can I do?
             1.18 Why are the AI players so hard on 'novice' or 'easy'?
             1.19 Why are the AI players so easy on 'hard'?
             1.20 What distinguishes AI players from humans? What do the
               skill levels mean?
             1.21 How do I play on a rectangular grid?
             1.22 How do I create teams of AI or human players?
             1.23 I want more action.
             1.24 I can't see trade routes in the city dialog (GTK)
        2 Community
             2.1 Does Freeciv violate any rights of the makers of
               Civilization I or II?
             2.2 How do I wake up in the morning?
             2.3 Where can I ask questions or send improvements?
        3 Technical Stuff
             3.1 I've found a bug, what should I do?
             3.2 I've started a server but the client cannot find it!
             3.3 I can play on my own server, but the metaserver doesn't
               seem to work.
             3.4 How do I change the metaserver info string?
             3.5 Am I using the latest version? Do I need to upgrade?
             3.6 "cannot open display :0"
             3.7 HOME directory not set?
             3.8 How do I restart a saved game?
             3.9 The server cannot save games!
             3.10 Where are the save games located by default?
             3.11 How do I find out about the available units,
               improvements, terrain types, and technologies?
             3.12 I hate isometric view! How do I play with Civilization I
               style graphics?
             3.13 What other GUI options do I have for the Freeciv client?
             3.14 How do I enable/disable sound support?
             3.15 Where can I find more information on the *.ruleset files?
             3.16 How can I add additional civilizations to be used locally?
             3.17 How can I add additional civilizations in the
               nation/ subdirectory of freeciv installation,
               or add cities to the list for an existing nation?
             3.18 How can I change the language of my client/server?
             3.19 How do I get the latest development code?
             3.20 What are the system requirements?
        4 Windows
             4.1 How do I use Freeciv under MS Windows?
             4.2 OK, I've downloaded and installed it, how do I run it?
             4.3 I've started the Freeciv client, but don't know what to do
               next?
             4.4 How do I use a different tileset?
             4.5 How do I use a different ruleset?
             4.6 I opened a ruleset file in Notepad and it is very hard to
               read
        5 Mac OS X

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1 Gameplay

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1.1 What do I need to play, where can I go to play?

    You will need to download freeciv from
    https://www.freeciv.org/download.html and then install as described
    in INSTALL document.

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1.2 OK, so I installed Freeciv. How do I play?

   Start the client. Depending on your system, you might choose it from a
   menu, double-click on the freeciv-gtk4 executable program, or type
   freeciv-gtk4 in a terminal (to start the default "gtk4" client).

   As your very first game, you may want to try the '''Tutorial''' scenario
   under Start Scenario Game.

   To begin regular single-player game, select Start new game.
   Now edit your game settings (the defaults should be fine for a
   beginner-level single-player game) and press the Start button.

   (Freeciv is a client/server system. But in most cases you don't have to
   worry about this; the client starts a server automatically for you when
   you start a new game.)

   Once the game is started you can find information in its Help menu. If
   you've never played a Civilization-style game before you may want to
   look at the help on Strategy and Tactics.

   You can continue to change the game settings through the Remote Server
   menu item in the Options submenu of the Game menu. Type /help in the
   chatline (or server command line) to get more information about server
   commands.

   Detailed explanations of how to play Freeciv are also in the
   ./doc/README file distributed with the source code, and in the in-game
   help.

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1.3 How do I play multiplayer?

   You can either join a network game run by someone else, host your
   own, or visit a web-server such as http://www.freecivweb.org.

   To join a network game, choose Connect to Network Game and then
   Internet Metaserver. A list of active servers should come up;
   double-click one to join it. (The Freeciv project does not currently
   run any game servers, so any servers you find are likely to be run by
   third parties who have decided to advertise them.)

   You can also choose to directly connect to a specific server (including
   ones not on the metaserver list), provided you know the IP address and
   port of the server you're connecting to. This server will then show up
   under Local Area Network.

   To host your own game, we recommend starting a separate server by hand.
   (As of 2.4.0, it's no longer possible to host a network game from the
   client; in any case, we didn't recommend it, as if the client crashed
   or quit, the server and hence the game would be lost.)

   To start the server, enter freeciv-server in a terminal or by
   double-clicking on the executable. This will start up a text-based
   interface.

   If all players are on the same LAN, they should launch their clients,
   choose Connect to Network Game and then Local Area Network. You should
   see the existing server listed; double-click on it to join.

   To play over the Internet, players will need to enter the hostname and
   port into their clients, so the host will need to tell the other
   players those details. You may also start up the server with the -m
   command-line option to make it report to the Metaserver and allow other
   players to connect to it through the Internet Metaserver tab.

   Note that hosting an Internet server from a home Internet connection is
   often problematic, due to firewalling and NAT that can make the server
   unreachable from the wider Internet. The metaserver does not currently
   check that a server is reachable before publishing it, so unfortunately
   it is entirely possible to publish the existence of a game that no-one
   will be able to connect to. Safely bypassing NAT and firewalls is
   beyond the scope of this FAQ.

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1.4 Where is the chatline you are talking about, how do I chat?

   The chatline is located at the bottom of the window. Sometimes you have
   to activate a Chat tab to see it.

   In the Gtk client, a shortcut to reach the chatline is the apostrophe
   (') key. In the SDL client you have to press Tab to access the
   chatline.

   The chatline can be used for normal chatting, or for issuing server
   commands by typing a forward-slash '/' followed by the server command.

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1.5 Why can't I attack another player's units?

   You have to declare war first. See section for How do I declare war on
   another player below.

   (As a note, you start out at war with all players; at lower skill
   levels, AI players offer you a cease-fire treaty upon first contact,
   which if accepted has to be broken before you can attack the player's
   units or cities.)

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1.6 How do I declare war on another player?

   Go to the Nations report, select the player, then choose Cancel Treaty
   from the bottom-located Diplomacy menu. This drops you from "cease
   fire", "armistice", or "peace" into "war". If you've already signed a
   permanent "alliance" treaty with the player, you will have to cancel
   treaties several times to get to "war".

   See the in-game help on Diplomacy for more detail.

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1.7 How do I do diplomatic meetings?

   Go to the Nations report, select a player, then choose Meet from the
   bottom-located Diplomacy menu. But remember that you have to either
   have contact with the player or an embassy established in one of their
   cities.

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1.8 How do I trade money with other players?

   If you want to make a monetary exchange, first initiate a diplomatic
   meeting as described in the section about How do I do diplomatic
   meetings above. In the diplomacy dialog, enter the amount you wish to
   give in the gold input field on your side or the amount you wish to
   receive in the gold input field on their side. With the focus in either
   input field, press Enter to insert the clause into the treaty.

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1.9 How can I change the way a Freeciv game is ended?

   A standard Freeciv game ends when only allied players/teams are left
   alive, when a player's spaceship arrives at Alpha Centauri, or when you
   reach the ending turn - whichever comes first.

   You can change the default ending turn by changing the endturn setting.
   You can do this through Remote Server (see article on Server options)
   under the Options menu item in the Game menu or by typing into the
   chatline something like:
/set endturn 300

   You can end a running game immediately with:
/endgame

   For more information, try:
/help endgame

   If you want to avoid the game ending by space race, or require a single
   player/team to win, you can change the victories setting - again either
   through the Server Options dialog or through the chatline. For instance
   this changes from the default setting spacerace|allied to disallow
   allied victory and space race:
/set victories ""

   You can instead allow space races without them ending the game by
   instead changing the endspaceship setting.

   A single player who defeats all enemies will always win the game --
   this conquest victory condition cannot be changed.

   In rulesets which support it, a cultural domination victory can be
   enabled, again with the victories setting.

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1.10 My irrigated grassland produces only 2 food. Is this a bug?

   No, it isn't. It's a feature. Your government is probably Despotism
   or Tribal, which have a -1 output whenever a tile produces more
   than 2 units of food/production/trade. You should change your government
   (see Government) or build a relevant Wonder to get rid of this penalty.

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1.11 I'm playing with civ2civ3 ruleset and my Engineers are unable
to do terrain transformations

   Unlike in classic ruleset, in civ2civ3 ruleset Engineers can do most
   terrain transformations only once Fusion Power is known.
   See help for unit Engineers for details.

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1.12 How do I play against computer players?

   See also the How do I create teams of AI or human players? section
   below.

   In most cases when you start a single-player game you can change the
   number of players, and their difficulty, directly through the
   spinbutton. Note the number of players here includes human players (an
   aifill of 5 adds AI players until the total number of players becomes
   5).

   If you are playing on a remote server, you'll have to do this manually.
   Change the aifill server option through the Remote Server options
   dialog, or do it on the chatline with something like:
/set aifill 30

   Difficulty levels are set with the /cheating, /hard, /normal, /easy,
   /novice, and /restricted commands.

   You may also create AI players individually. For instance, to create
   one hard and one easy AI player, enter:
/create ai1
/hard ai1
/create ai2
/easy ai2
/list

   More details are in the ./doc/README file supplied with Freeciv and the
   online manual on this site.

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1.13 Can I build up the palace or throne room as in the commercial Civilization
games?

   No. This feature is not present in Freeciv, and will not be until
   someone draws the graphics for it.

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1.14 Can I build land over sea/transform ocean to land?

   Yes. You can do that by placing engineer units on a transport and going
   to the ocean tile you want to build land on (this must be in a land
   corner). Click the transport to display a list of the transported
   engineers and activate them. Then give them the order of transforming
   this tile to swamp. This will take a very long time though, so you'd
   better try with 6 engineers at a time. There must be 3 adjacent land
   tiles to the ocean tile you are transforming.

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1.15 Can I change settings or rules to get different types of games?

   Of course.

   Before the game is started, you may change settings through the server
   options dialog (available in the pregame screen). You may also change
   these settings or use server commands through the chatline. If you use
   the chatline, use the
/show

   command to display the most commonly-changed settings (see article on
   show), or
/help <setting>

   to get help on a particular setting, or
/set <setting> <value>

   to change a setting to a particular value (see article on server
   options). After the game begins you may still change some settings (but
   not others).

   World maps can be created using the built-in map editor in the GTK
   clients. It is also possible to edit running games: Just enable Editing
   Mode from the Edit menu. (You may also unzip and edit any savegame with
   a text editor, if you're ambitious, although the format is not
   documented and is subject to change.)

   You can create rulesets or "modpacks" - alternative sets of units,
   buildings, and technologies. Several different rulesets come with the
   Freeciv distribution, including a civ1 (Civilization 1 compatibility
   mode), and civ2 (Civilization 2 compatibility mode). Use the rulesetdir
   command (see rulesetdir) to change the ruleset (as in /rulesetdir
   civ2). Note the ruleset mechanism is still being refined from version
   to version. In the GTK client you are able to choose the ruleset from a
   dropdown on the pregame screen.

   Finally, upgrade! Freeciv continues to improve from version to version:
   a rule may change when the mailing list agrees it is 'wrong'. See, for
   instance, the NEWS.

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1.16 How compatible is Freeciv with the commercial Civilization games?

   Freeciv was created as a multiplayer version of Civilization™ with
   players moving simultaneously. Rules and elements of Civilization II,
   and features required for single-player use, such as AI players, were
   added later.

   This is why Freeciv comes with several game configurations (rulesets):
   the civ1 and civ2 rulesets implement game rules, elements and features
   that bring it as close as possible to Civilization I and Civilization
   II respectively, while other rulesets such as the default civ2civ3
   and older classic rulesets try to reflect the most popular settings
   among Freeciv players. Unimplemented Civilization I and II features are
   mainly those that would have little or no benefit in multiplayer mode,
   and nobody is working on closing this gap.

   Little or no work is being done on implementing features from other
   similar games, such as SMAC, CTP or Civilization III.

   So the goal of compatibility is mainly used as a limiting factor in
   development: when a new feature is added to Freeciv that makes gameplay
   different, it is generally implemented in such a way that the
   "traditional" behavior remains available as an option. However, we're
   not aiming for absolute 100% compatibility; in particular, we're not
   aiming for bug-compatibility.

   See also Projects.

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1.17 My opponents seem to be able to play two moves at once!

   Freeciv's multiplayer facilities are asynchronous: during a turn, moves
   from connected clients are processed in the order they are received.
   Server managed movement is executed in between turns. This allows human
   players to surprise their opponents by clever use of goto or quick
   fingers.

   Server settings to mitigate this problem include:
     * phasemode, which has an alternating movement mode, in which only
       one player can move their units at a time.
     * timeaddenemymove (which extends the turn timeout when an enemy's
       unit is seen moving).
     * (since 2.3.x) unitwaittime (which imposes a minimum time between
       moves of a single unit on successive turns).

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1.18 I am far superior to my opponent but their last city is on a 1x1 island so
I cannot conquer it, and they won't give up. What can I do?

   Research 'amphibious warfare', build a marine, and get them.
   Alternatively research 'combined arms' and either move a helicopter or
   airdrop a paratroopers unit there.

   If you can't build marines yet, but you do have engineers, and other
   land is close-by, you can also build a land-bridge to the island (i.e.
   transform the ocean).

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1.19 Why are the AI players so hard on 'novice' or 'easy'?

   You are not expanding fast enough. Read the How to Play article for
   some general tips how to get a head start in the game.

   You can also turn off Fog of War. That way, you will see the attacks of
   the AI. Just type '/set fogofwar disabled' on the chat line before the
   game starts.

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1.20 Why are the AI players so easy on 'hard'?

   Several reasons. For example, the AI is heavily playtested under and
   customized to the default ruleset and server settings. Although there
   are several provisions in the code to adapt to changing rules, playing
   under different conditions is quite a handicap for it. Though mostly
   the AI simply doesn't have a good, all encompassing strategy besides
   "eliminate nation x". For further details, see the article on AI.

   To make the game harder, you could try putting some or all of the AI
   into a team. This will ensure that they will waste no time and
   resources negotiating with each other and spend them trying to
   eliminate you. They will also help each other by trading techs. See the
   question How do I create teams of AI or human players?

   You can also form more than one AI team by using any of the different
   predefined teams, or put some AI players teamed with you.

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1.21 What distinguishes AI players from humans? What do the skill levels mean?

   AI players in Freeciv operate in the server, partly before all clients
   move, partly afterwards. Unlike the clients, they can in principle
   observe the full state of the game, including everything about other
   players, although most levels deliberately restrict what they look at
   to some extent.

   All AI players can change production without penalty. Some levels
   (generally the harder ones) get other exceptions from game rules;
   conversely, easier levels get some penalties, and deliberately play
   less well in some regards.

   For more details about how the skill levels differ from each other, see
   the help for the relevant server command (for instance /help hard).

   Other than as noted here, the AI players are not known to cheat.

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1.22 How do I play on a rectangular grid?

   It is possible to play with rectangular instead of hexagonal tiles. To
   do this you need to set your topology before the game starts; set this
   with Map topology index from the game settings, or in the chatline:
/set topology iso

   This will cause the client to use an isometric rectangular tileset when
   the game starts (go to Game > Options >Local options to choose a
   different one from the drop-down; amplio2, cimpletoon, and isotrident
   are included with the game).

   You may also play with overhead rectangular, in which case you want to
   set the topology setting to "" (empty); the trident tileset is supplied
   for this mode.

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1.23 How do I create teams of AI or human players?

   The GTK and Qt clients have a GUI for setting up teams - just right
   click on any player and assign them to any team.

   You may also use the command-line interface (through the chatline.)

   First of all try the /list command. This will show you all players
   created, including human players and AI players (both created
   automatically by aifill or manually with /create).

   Now, you're ready to assign players to teams. To do this you use the
   team command. For example, if there's one human player and you want two
   more AI players on the same team, to create two AI players and put them
   on the same team you can do
/set aifill 2
/team AI*2 1
/team AI*3 1

   You may also assign teams for human players, of course. If in doubt use
   the /list command again; it will show you the name of the team each
   player is on. Make sure you double-check the teams before starting the
   game; you can't change teams after the game has started.

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1.24 I want more action.

   In Freeciv, expansion is everything, even more so than in the
   single-player commercial Civilization games. Some players find it very
   tedious to build on an empire for hours and hours without even meeting
   an enemy.

   There are various techniques to speed up the game. The best idea is to
   reduce the time and space allowed for expansion as much as possible.
   One idea for multiplayer mode is to add AI players: they reduce the
   space per player further, and you can toy around with them early on
   without other humans being aware of it. This only works after you can
   beat the AI, of course.

   Another idea is to create starting situations in which the players are
   already fully developed. There is no automated support for this yet,
   but you can create populated maps with the built-in editor.

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1.25 I can't see trade routes in the city dialog (GTK)

   In the GTK client, you can see the effect of trade routes by left
   clicking and holding on the trade value in the Info panel of the city
   dialog.

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2 Community

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2.1 Does Freeciv violate any rights of the makers of Civilization I or II?

   There have been debates on this in the past and the honest answer seems
   to be: We don't know.

   Freeciv doesn't contain any actual material from the commercial
   Civilization games. (The Freeciv maintainers have always been very
   strict in ensuring that materials contributed to the Freeciv
   distribution or website do not violate anyone's copyright.) The name of
   Freeciv is probably not a trademark infringement. The user interface is
   similar, but with many (deliberate) differences. The game itself can be
   configured to be practically identical to Civilization I or II, so if
   the rules of a game are patentable, and those of the said games are
   patented, then Freeciv may infringe on that patent, but we don't
   believe this to be the case.

   Incidentally, there are good reasons to assume that Freeciv doesn't
   harm the sales of any of the commercial Civilization games in any way.

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2.2 How do I wake up in the morning?

   We're open to suggestions on this one.

   You can try to give Freeciv to your boss. There is no guarantee, but
   they may wake up later than you. Remind yourself that if you run into
   them at Civilization Anonymous, it's time to change jobs.

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2.3 Where can I ask questions or send improvements?

   Please ask questions about the game, its installation, or the rest of
   this site at the Freeciv Forums.

   Patches and bug reports are best reported to the Freeciv bug tracking
   system at https://redmine.freeciv.org/projects/freeciv.

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3 Technical Stuff

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3.1 I've found a bug, what should I do?

   See the article on Bug Reporting.

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3.2 I've started a server but the client cannot find it!

   By default, your server will be available on host localhost (your own
   machine), port 5556; these are the default values your client uses when
   asking which game you want to connect to.

   So if you don't get a connection with these values, your server isn't
   running, or you used -p to start it on a different port, or your
   system's network configuration is broken.

   To start your local server, run freeciv-server. Then type start at the
   server prompt to begin!
mike@localhost:/usr/local/bin$ ./freeciv-server
This is the server for Freeciv version 3.0.3
You can learn a lot about Freeciv at https://www.freeciv.org/
2: Loading rulesets.
2: AI*1 has been added as Easy level AI-controlled player (classic).
2: AI*2 has been added as Easy level AI-controlled player (classic).
2: AI*3 has been added as Easy level AI-controlled player (classic).
2: AI*4 has been added as Easy level AI-controlled player (classic).
2: AI*5 has been added as Easy level AI-controlled player (classic).
2: Now accepting new client connections on port 5556.

For introductory help, type 'help'.
> start
Starting game.

   If the server is not running, you will NOT be able to connect to your
   local server.

   If you can't connect to any of the other games listed, e.g. those on
   the metaserver, a firewall in your organization/ISP is probably
   blocking the connection.

   If you are running a personal firewall, make sure that you allow
   communication for freeciv-server and the Freeciv client to the trusted
   zone. If you want to allow others to play on your server, allow
   freeciv-server to act as a server on the Internet zone.

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3.3 I can play on my own server, but the metaserver doesn't seem to work.

   If your Metaserver tab turns up an empty list, there might something
   wrong with your setup.

   First, check your Freeciv version. Freeciv clients can only talk to
   servers of the same major version (3.2.x can only talk to 3.2.y), and
   there may simply be no public servers for the version you're running.
   Check out the https://meta.freeciv.org/ web interface
   (which shows servers for all versions) and look at the "version" column.

   If you can view the metaserver page with your web browser, and servers
   are listed, but the client's Metaserver tab still fails to list them,
   you may be behind a non-transparent proxy. See article on proxy
   settings for a detailed explanation.

   Another possibility is that your freeciv build lacks access
   to certificates needed to access https -sites. You can test if that's
   the case by trying to use "http://meta.freeciv.org/metaserver.php"
   as the metaserver URL instead of the default one. You can either give
   the alternative URL by command line parameter
   "-M http://meta.freeciv.org/metaserver.php" for single run,
   or permanently in the client settings.

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3.4 How do I change the metaserver info string?

   Set the metamessage setting. See /explain metamessage.

> set metamessage "Everybody Welcome!"

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3.5 Am I using the latest version? Do I need to upgrade?

   The current stable Freeciv version is 3.2.4. For an overview of
   changes that went into this release, see the NEWS-3.2.4 article.

   The NEWS-#.#.# article is only updated for a new release; updates to
   Git can be reviewed in the online source code browser.

   If you decide to upgrade, see the Download page for source code or
   contributed binaries. If you have a working client, and you don't know
   its version, start it, load a game or scenario, or just start a new
   game, click on Help for the help menu, and on About Freeciv to see the
   version and the client type (GTK3.22, GTK4, QT, SDL2, SDL3, …).

   It's possible that not all precompiled binaries and ports have been
   updated to 3.2.4 yet. If you can contribute, please do! Prepare a
   package and announce it to freeciv-dev@freelists.org.

   Clients and servers of different major versions are generally
   incompatible due to changes in the client/server protocol. You will see
   incompatibilities as a 'mismatched capabilities' error. Different minor
   versions should be compatible, however. For example, 3.2.4 and 3.2.0
   are compatible; 3.1.5 and 3.2.0 are not.

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3.6 "cannot open display :0"

   The Freeciv client is unable to open a window on your local X display.
   Are you running an X server at all? Maybe you need to install and run
   one, or switch to a Freeciv client that doesn't need X; see the
   previous question.

   Under Mac OS X, try starting the Freeciv client from the xterm session
   running under X.

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3.7 HOME directory not set?

   The Freeciv client wants to write a configuration file named
   freeciv-client-rc-3.2 (for Freeciv 3.2.x) in a directory called
   .freeciv in your $HOME directory. On Windows that's %APPDATA%.
   So for instance for Freeciv 3.2 the Windows clients might put
   their common configuration file in
   C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\.freeciv\freeciv-client-rc-3.2.

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3.8 How do I restart a saved game?

   If for some reason you can't use the start-screen interface for loading
   a game, you can load one directly through the client or server command
   line (see Command-line options). You can start a client such as
   freeciv-gtk4, or freeciv-server, with the -f option, for example:
freeciv-server -f freeciv-T0175-Y01250-auto.sav.zst

   Or you can use the /load command inside the server before starting the
   game.

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3.9 The server cannot save games!

   In a local game started from the client, the games will be saved into
   the default Freeciv save directory (typically ~/.freeciv/saves/). If
   you are running the server from the command line, however, any
   savegames will be stored in the current directory. If the autosaves
   server setting is set appropriately, the server will periodically save
   the game automatically (which can take a lot of disk space in some
   cases); the frequency is controlled by the saveturns setting. In any
   case, you should check the ownership, permissions, and disk space/quota
   for the directory or partition you're trying to save to.

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3.10 Where are the save games located by default?

   On Unix like systems, they will be in ~/.freeciv/saves.

   On Windows, they are typically found in a directory like
   C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\.freeciv\saves.

   On MacOS systems, it's "/Users/{username}/.freeciv/saves",
   but the finder won't show you folders that start with ".".
   You can toggle that by entering CMD+Shift+. while in
   a finder window. While the hidden stuff is visible you can
   create an alias to the ".freeciv" folder which will always
   be visible.

   You could change the save games location by setting the
   HOME environment variable, or using the --saves command line
   argument to the server (you would have to run it separately).

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3.11 How do I find out about the available units, improvements, terrain
types, and technologies?

   There is extensive help on this in the Help menu, but only once the
   game has been started - this is because all of these things are
   configurable up to that point. (Some work needs to be done to make this
   more intuitive.)

   The game comes with an interactive tutorial scenario. To run it, select
   Start Scenario Game from the main menu, then load the tutorial
   scenario.

   Outside the Freeciv client, we have some online tutorials in the Docs
   section of the wiki. A graph of the (default) technology tree is
   available on the wiki.

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3.12 I hate isometric view! How do I play with Civilization I style graphics?

   When starting the game, go to More Game Options > Geological > Map
   topology index, and make sure Isometric is not checked.

   The overhead tileset trident is supplied for this topology.

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3.13 What other GUI options do I have for the Freeciv client?

   The look and feel of your GUI is mainly determined by the Freeciv
   client you use.

   The recommended client is the Gtk client. There are a range of
   different Gtk clients for different versions of the Gtk
   library—Gtk3.22/4/etc—but they all support more or less the same feature
   set. If in doubt, pick the Gtk4 client.

   The Qt client is a newer client using the Qt toolkit. It has a more
   immersive interface. It supports most features, with the notable
   exception of the map editor.

   The SDL2- and SDL3-clients provide a more immersive experience, but lag behind
   somewhat in features.

   All of these clients should compile and run on any Unix variant we are
   aware of, not just the ones for which our download section provides
   native installation support.

   Some details of the GUI can be configured from the running client.

   A larger impact is made by the tileset used to display terrain, cities,
   units, etcetera. Freeciv comes with some tilesets for all topologies;
   some more can be acquired with the freeciv-modpack utility.

   We do not distribute commercial Civilization™ game tiles for obvious
   copyright reasons.

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3.14 How do I enable/disable sound support?

   The client can be started without sound by supplying the commandline
   arguments: -P none. The default sound plugin can also be configured in
   the client settings.

   If the client was compiled with sound support, it will be enabled by
   default. (The only sound plugin supported currently is sdl.)

   Further instructions are in ./doc/README.sound in the source tarball.

   If sound does not work, try:
freeciv-gtk4 -d verbose -P <plugin> -S stdsounds

   This will help you get some debug information, which might give a clue
   why the sound does not work.

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3.15 Where can I find more information on the *.ruleset files?

   There is some documentation in the ./doc/ directory, such as
   ./doc/README.effects. The supplied ruleset files also have a minimal
   explanation of what all the fields mean, so classic/buildings.ruleset
   would for instance list the meaning of the fields in the
   buildings.ruleset. Also of interest might be the rulesets page on
   freeciv.org.

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3.16 How can I add additional civilizations to be used locally?

   See README.nations in the documentation directory,
   chapter labeled ''Local Nation files''

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3.17 How can I add additional civilizations in the
     nation/ subdirectory of freeciv installation,
     or add cities to the list for an existing nation?

   See the Nations article or ./doc/README.nations in the source tarball.

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3.18 How can I change the language of my client/server?

   See the Interface Language wiki article.

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3.19 How do I get the latest development code?

   Use Git directly:
    1. Obtain and install Git on your Unix machine. On modern
       distributions it is already there; look for the git command. You
       can get Git from git-scm.com.
    2. Grab the source:

                $ git clone https://github.com/freeciv/freeciv

   Once you're retrieved the source, to update it, cd into the freeciv
   directory and issue git pull.

   Another useful git command is git diff.

   This shows the changes between the version you have on disk and the
   current development code.

   This is development code; it may contain new features, bugs, and
   incompatibilities with older versions.

   See also How to Contribute to Freeciv development.

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3.20 What are the system requirements?

   Memory

   In a typical game the server takes about 30MB of memory and the client
   needs about 200MB. These values may change with larger maps or
   tilesets. For a single player game you need to run both the client and
   the server.

   Processor

   We recommend at least a 200MHz processor. The server is almost entirely
   single-threaded, so more cores will not help. If you find your game
   running too slow, these may be the reasons:

        Too little memory
                Swapping memory pages on disc (virtual memory) is really
                slow. Look at the memory requirements above.

        Large map
                Larger map doesn't necessary mean a more challenging or
                enjoyable game. You may try a smaller map.

        Many AI players
                Again, having more players doesn't necessary mean a more
                challenging or enjoyable game.

        City Governor (CMA)
                This is a really useful client side agent which helps you
                to organize your citizens. However, it consumes many CPU
                cycles.

        Maps and compression
                Creating map images and/or the compression of saved games
                for each turn will slow down new turns. Consider using no
                compression.

   Graphic display

   The GTK client works well on 1024x800 or higher resolutions. On smaller
   screens you may want to enable the Arrange widgets for small displays
   option under Interface tab in local options.

   Network

   A 56Kb modem should be enough to play a typical online game. However,
   many players suggest that a large ping is a big disadvantage. Your ISP
   mustn't block ports 5556 - 5600, because these are the ports which
   typical servers are run on.

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4 Windows

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4.1 How do I use Freeciv under MS Windows?

   Precompiled binaries can be downloaded from www.freeciv.org. The native
   Windows packages come as self-extracting installers.

   Simply download and install one of the .EXE installers (GTK+-3.22, GTK-4,
   SDL2, Qt, or Ruledit). As of freeciv-3.1, there are "win64-10" packages
   that require Windows 10 or later, and "win64" packages that require
   just Windows 8.1 or later. As Qt6 itself requires Windows 10,
   "win64" versions of Qt-client and Ruledit are based on Qt5 and
   only "win64-10" versions are based on Qt6.

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4.2 OK, I've downloaded and installed it, how do I run it?

   If you used one of the self installer versions then there's a program
   group with the name chosen at installation time (for example,
   Freeciv 3.2.4 (GTK4 client).) Just go to click on
   Start→Programs→Freeciv 3.2.4 (GTK4 client)→Freeciv

   That's it! You should be up and running.

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4.3 I've started the Freeciv client, but don't know what to do next?

   The following steps should get you started:
    1. The Freeciv client will pop up and after a second you will be taken
       to the main menu.
    2. If you want to play against other humans (I think they're human
       anyway :-) then click on the Connect to Network Game button in the
       main menu. Then either type in the IP address of the server or
       select the Internet Metaserver tab to play on online public
       servers. Then select an available game and click the Connect
       button. (You may need to click the Update button to get the list of
       servers initially and to update it after a while.)
    3. If you want to play on your local machine against the AI (all other
       players are AI controlled) then click on the Start New Game button.
       Then select your difficulty level and the Total players (it
       includes yourself, so if you wanted to play against four AI
       players, you'd select 5).
    4. Click the Pick Nation button to choose your nation, leader name,
       sex, and national style.
    5. Click the Start button.

   That's it! Enjoy!

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4.4 How do I use a different tileset?

   If the tilesets supplied with Freeciv don't do it for you, some popular
   add-on tilesets are available through the "Freeciv Modpack Installer"
   utility. To install these, just launch the installer from the Start
   menu, and choose the one you want; it should then be automatically
   downloaded and made available for the current user.

   If the tileset you want is not available via the modpack installer,
   you'll have to install it by hand from somewhere.

   Then you have to unpack the tileset into the appropriate place. It's
   best to install it in your user directory. Locate the existing client
   settings file freeciv-client-rc-3.2; see the question HOME directory
   not set? to see where that might be. You want to put the tileset in a
   subdirectory named after the current version (e.g., 3.2\) in the same
   place as the client settings file. Usually, the main tilespec file
   foo.tilespec goes directly under 3.2\, and the rest of the tileset
   files will go in a subdirectory named after the tileset (e.g.,
   3.2\foo).

   You can alternatively unpack the tileset into the same data directory
   as the rest of your Freeciv installation, alongside the supplied
   .tilespec files, but that can lead to trouble with uninstallation or
   upgrades.

   Once the tileset is installed, you should be able to select it in the
   topology-specific tileset dropdowns in the client options. You will
   need to make sure your game uses the appropriate map topology for the
   tileset in the game options.

   You can also pass a command-line argument to the Freeciv client when
   you start it to force use of a specific tileset. This also requires
   that the tileset has been installed in a correct place. Open a Command
   Prompt, find the client executable, and start the client with the
   --tiles tilesetname option. For example for the gtk4 client, you might
   start
freeciv-gtk4 --tiles hexemplio

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4.5 How do I use a different ruleset?

   Again, this is easiest if the ruleset is available through the "Freeciv
   Modpack Installer" utility that's shipped with Freeciv.

   Otherwise, a different ruleset can be used by downloading the ruleset
   and extracting it in the same place as you would a tileset (see
   previous question). Generally, the .ruleset and .lua files go in a
   subdirectory named after the ruleset (for instance ancients\*.ruleset;
   if there is a .serv or .modpack file it generally goes directly
   in the 3.2\ directory.

   Then you need to tell Freeciv to use it. For single-player games, if
   there is a .modpack file, the ruleset should be available to select from
   the drop-down in the client. Otherwise, you can load a ruleset which
   has a foo.serv file with
/read foo

   from the client chatline or server command line before starting the
   game; you can read a ruleset without a .serv file by typing
/rulesetdir ''ruleset directory''

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4.6 I opened a ruleset file in Notepad and it is very hard to read

   The ruleset files (and other configuration files) are stored with UNIX
   line endings which Notepad doesn't handle correctly. Please use an
   alternative editor like WordPad, notepad2, or notepad++ instead.

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5 Mac OS X

   For some earlier versions of MacOS, there are unofficial installer
   packages available, see the Install-MacOSX page on the Freeciv wiki
   for links and more information.
