What I find fascinating about this project is it’s longevity. It was started in 1995, a year before Civ II came out. I remember playing it in 2000. And here it is still going. Development is pretty active and there is even a 3D mode.
I used to play for several weeks on the same game with people across different countries. Although the game is (was?) missing a way to send a message to notify players it’s time to play their turn, it’s not difficult to write a small python script to parse the log and send an email.<p><a href="https://github.com/dareg/jouer_a_freeciv/blob/master/atoidejouer.py" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/dareg/jouer_a_freeciv/blob/master/atoidej...</a>
Also check out FreeCol, the open-source clone of Colonization: <a href="https://www.freecol.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.freecol.org/</a>
Freeciv is great, but Unciv is the more interesting one to me. Excellent OSS mobile implementation of Civ V. I've burned many evenings away on my phone. The GUI is a bit strange in some spots, but otherwise it's a very nice civ game.
It's a shame there aren't more games with free engines and paid assets. Even Stallman approves of this model[1]:<p><pre><code> We don't take the position that artistic or entertainment works must be free, but if you want to make one free, we recommend the Free Art License.
</code></pre>
[1] <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#OtherWorks" rel="nofollow">https://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#OtherWorks</a>
I tried playing it a few years ago, along with a similar offering. I couldn't really figure out how to get started, and what buttons to press. So I lost interest quickly.
I remember the last time I tried (nearly 20 years ago) I couldn't figure out how to play it in single player mode. It was asking for a server or something like that. Can I just click and play some meaningful single-player already?
While it may not have the shine and polish of Sid Meier’s Civilization 6, at least FreeCiv doesn’t force glitchy unwanted advertise-- er, launcher updates that break the game years after release:<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/nkdh4d/follow_up_to_the_2k_launcher_issue_thing/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/nkdh4d/follow_up_to_th...</a><p>Truly can’t describe how aggravating it is to have Civ 6, my after-work happy place, effectively torn from my hands years after purchase by some MBA manager and bargain-bin programmer. Bypassing the launcher only sort-of works on my PC. Can’t roll back to an earlier version because Steam. At least we’ll always have FreeCiv.
Also see Unciv[1] which is based on Civ5. It works on Android and desktop environments and is very actively maintained and improved. Freeciv is based on Civ1/2.<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/yairm210/Unciv" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/yairm210/Unciv</a>
Open-source should have speed up the evolution of new ideas and yet more often than not it's just keeping old proprietary software barely alive or duplicating it.