ANNOUNCE: openciv-0.8; multiplayer civilization
Steven Reiz
time to let my own version of multiplayer civilization see the light of
day. It is by no means finished, but it is (should be) playable already.
Also, it only runs on UNIX/X Windows for now.
Since this is a first beta release, I'd very much appreciate your comments,
even if you've just tried installing it and failed.
I've appended the README below.
Before I forget, it's available at http://www.aie.nl:80/~sreiz/files/openciv/
(download to file with shift-left mousebutton in most browsers)
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This is a distribution of OpenCiv, version 0.8.
OpenCiv is a multiplayer game that is quite similar to
Microprose Civilization.
Brought to you by:
Steven Reiz (sr...@aie.nl)
Please send any problems/questions/bug-reports to sr...@aie.nl,
preferably with the word 'openciv' in the subject line.
See the file INSTALL for installation instructions.
About OpenCiv:
- It only runs on UNIX and X-Windows, connecting players over TCP/IP.
- It's implemented in Python, an interpreted language, extended with Tk,
the graphical toolkit of Tcl/Tk. Users of OpenCiv will first have to
install Tcl/Tk and Python, both of which are publicly available.
- It is distributed with source code, under the GNU Public License,
aka copylefted, for free.
- To use the client, players will need two files from the original (DOS?)
Civilization, sp257.pic and ter257.pic. Those files are considered
copyrighted by Microprose and are not included in this distribution.
- No documentation of Civilization is included, and there is no
online help (yet) either, no Civilopedia, no advisers. I expect people
who are attracted to OpenCiv to be hard-core players who know all that
by heart. Civ novices would probably first have to buy Microprose
Civilization, to get a manual, the two needed pic files, and some
practice playing time against the computer.
- It allows an arbitrary number of civilizations, and an arbitrary
number of players per civilization, so players can work in teams.
Players can enter and leave the game while it's running. The map can be
any size.
- Currently, the game is playable, but not really finished yet.
Wonders, unhappiness and computer (AI) players aren't implemented yet.
Neither are the special actions of diplomats and caravans.
There will undoubtedly be bugs.
- I intend to add what's missing, compared to Microprose Civilization.
Then I plan to add a lot of improvements, most of which will be optional.
Specifically I'm thinking of more AI to support human players, stronger
AI players, perhaps experiments with adding new units/improvements/wonders.
Players are encouraged to contribute ideas and, even better, code.
Distribution Conditions
OpenCiv is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, version 2.
OpenCiv is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with OpenCiv; see the file COPYING. If not, write to
the Free Software Foundation, 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
--
## Steven Reiz, AI Engineering, Amsterdam, sr...@aie.nl ##
## <URL:http://www.aie.nl/~sreiz> ##
## We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there ##
## that needs to be done. -- A.M. Turing (1950) ##