FREECIV(6)                       Games Manual                       FREECIV(6)

NAME
       freeciv - The Freeciv game (overview)

SYNOPSIS
       freeciv-gtk3.22|freeciv-gtk4|freeciv-sdl2|freeciv-sdl3|freeciv-qt|freeciv-[various...]
       [ options... ]
       freeciv-server [ options... ]

DESCRIPTION
       Freeciv is a free turn-based multiplayer strategy game, in which each
       player becomes the leader of a civilization, fighting to obtain the
       ultimate goal: To become the greatest civilization.

       Players of Civilization II(R) by Microprose(R) should feel at home,
       since one aim of Freeciv is to have compatible rules.

       Freeciv is maintained by an international team of coders and
       enthusiasts, and is easily one of the most fun and addictive network
       games out there!

       Freeciv is designed to be played either over a network or on one
       machine.  There can be a single human player, or multiple human player
       in different locations on different kinds of computers.  Freeciv can
       operate artificial intelligence (AI) players as desired, to fill out
       the game.

       Human players run a freeciv-client(6) program to join a game. There are
       several different Freeciv client programs to choose between. The
       Freeciv client can be thought of as a thin window onto the server's
       information and activity.

       The terrain, rules, and activity of the game are held by a running
       freeciv-server(6) program. In a single-player game, the player's client
       program starts up its own local server program behind the scenes. In a
       multi-player game, someone starts the server first, then players
       connect to that server. The server runs the AI players.  The server
       enforces the game rules, even if a cleverly-modified client program
       tries to cheat.

       The Freeciv game is translated into many different languages.
       Generally, the Freeciv client follows the conventions of the computer
       it runs on to determine which language it should use when presenting
       the game to the player.

       The Freeciv game offers many ways to tweak how games are set up, and to
       create completely different looks and game play.  When starting the
       Freeciv server, you can adjust many parameters of the game map, rules,
       and models which drive the game.  You can set the number and difficulty
       level of the AI players.  You can set the size of the map and the kind
       of terrain.  You can also choose among various rule sets and scenarios,
       which can lead to very different kinds of games.  When running a
       Freeciv client, you can choose among tilesets and soundsets, to adjust
       how games look and sound.

       The Freeciv community offers even more scenarios, rulesets, tilesets,
       and soundsets.  A freeciv-modpack(6) utility lets you locate and
       download this additional content.

       There are Freeciv "metaservers" which catalogue Freeciv servers seeking
       to attract players. One is operated by the Freeciv project. When
       starting a Freeciv client, you may have it contact a metaserver to find
       games to join.  When starting a Freeciv server, you may have it publish
       its presence with a metaserver.

BUGS
       Please report bugs to the Freeciv bug tracker,
       "https://redmine.freeciv.org/projects/freeciv" .

MORE INFO
       There is a great deal more information at the Freeciv homepage,
       ""https://www.freeciv.org/"" .  Updates and new info are first posted
       there.  A Client Manual, a Server Manual, and a wiki on many topics,
       are published there.  There is a user forum linked to from there.

       Freeciv installers include a number of documentation files with the
       game.  See the FILES section for the location.  They make interesting
       reading -- especially after you have played for a while, when you are
       beginning to wonder how you can do more, and why the AI players can do
       so much.

FILES
       bin/freeciv-*, bin/freeciv-server, bin/freeciv-mp-*
              These are the executable programs. There are several client
              programs, a server program, several modpack programs, and some
              other Freeciv developer utilities.

       share/doc/freeciv/README.*
              These are documentation files describing how the game and some
              of the included rulesets operate, in detail.

AUTHORS
       The Freeciv Team <"freeciv-dev at freelists.org">.

       This manpage was originally drafted by Jim DeLaHunt <http://jdlh.com/>.
       It was based on the freeciv-client and freeciv-server pages by Florian
       Ernst <florian_ernst AT gmx.net> and Ben Bettin <bwbettin AT
       gmail.com>.  Feel free to use it as you wish.

SEE ALSO
       freeciv-client(6) freeciv-server(6) freeciv-modpack(6)
       freeciv-ruledit(6) freeciv-ruleup(6) freeciv-manual(6)
       freeciv-gtk3.22(6) freeciv-gtk4(6) freeciv-qt(6) freeciv-sdl2(6)
       freeciv-sdl3(6) freeciv-mp-cli(6) freeciv-mp-gtk3(6) freeciv-mp-gtk4(6)
       freeciv-mp-qt(6) and the Client Manual and the Server Manual on the
       Freeciv website.

                                 May 11th 2021                      FREECIV(6)