Freeciv Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

                 (from http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/FAQ)

   Contents

   1 Gameplay
      1.1 OK, so I installed Freeciv. How do I play?
      1.2 How do I play multiplayer?
      1.3 Where is the chatline you are talking about, how do I
               chat?
      1.4 Why can't I attack another player's units?
      1.5 How do I declare war on another player?
      1.6 How do I do diplomatic meetings?
      1.7 How do I trade money with other players?
      1.8 How can I change the way a Freeciv game is ended?
      1.9 My irrigated grassland produces only 2 food. Is this a
               bug?
      1.10 How do I play against computer players?
      1.11 Can I build up the palace or throne room as in the
               commercial Civilization games?
      1.12 Can I build land over sea/transform ocean to land?
      1.13 Can I change settings or rules to get different types of
               games?
      1.14 How compatible is Freeciv with the commercial
               Civilization games?
      1.15 My opponents seem to be able to play two moves at once!
      1.16 I am far superiour to my opponent but his last city is on
               a 1x1 island so I cannot conquer it, and he won't give up.
               What can I do?
      1.17 Why are the AI players so hard on 'easy'?
      1.18 Why are the AI players so easy on 'hard'?
      1.19 What distinguishes AI players from humans? What do the
               skill levels mean?
      1.20 How do I play on a hexagonal grid?
      1.21 How do I create teams of AI or human players?
      1.22 I want more action.
   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 start the next game?
      3.9 How do I restart a saved game?
      3.10 The server cannot save games!
      3.11 Why are some of the menus in the Freeciv client disabled?
      3.12 How do I find out about the available units,
               improvements, terrain types, and technologies?
      3.13 My diagonal arrow keys do not work on Solaris.
      3.14 Menu items do not work under KDE.
      3.15 Popup windows are sent to the back in KDE and pile up
               there.
      3.16 The client complains it can't read the .civclientrc file.
      3.17 My Freeciv client dumps core when I start it!
      3.18 Freeciv fails to compile due to the Xaw libraries.
      3.19 When compiling Freeciv from source, the no command cannot
               be found.
      3.20 How do I compile Freeciv under Solaris?
      3.21 How do I compile Freeciv under Solaris or FreeBSD?
      3.22 I hate isometric view! How do I play with Civilization I
               style graphics?
      3.23 What other GUI options do I have for the Freeciv client?
      3.24 How do I enable/disable sound support?
      3.25 Where can I find more information on the *.ruleset files?
      3.26 How can I add add additional civilizations in the nation/
               subdirectory, or add cities to the list for an existing
               nation?
      3.27 How do I change the font?
      3.28 I am having problems with accented characters. What
               gives?
      3.29 How can i change the language of my client/server?
      3.30 How do I get the latest development code?
      3.31 How do I disable full screen mode?
      3.32 What are the system requirements ?
         3.32.1 Memory
         3.32.2 Processor
         3.32.3 Graphic display
         3.32.4 Network
   4 Windows
      4.1 How do I use Freeciv under MS Windows ?
      4.2 Retrieving the Native Windows Freeciv
      4.3 OK, I've downloaded and installed it, how do I run it?
      4.4 I've started civclient, but don't know what to do next?
      4.5 Native client: How do I save and restart a saved game?
      4.6 How do I use a different tileset?
      4.7 How do I use a different ruleset?
      4.8 I opened a ruleset file in Notepad and it is very hard to
               read
   5 Mac OS X
      5.1 How do I install the latest version of Freeciv?
      5.2 How do I compile Freeciv myself?
      5.3 How do I install X11?
      5.4 How do I troubleshoot Freeciv crashes?
      5.5 Freeciv crashes because it doesn't find libXinerama
               something?
      5.6 How do I install new tilesets?
      5.7 How do I scroll the map?
      5.8 Freeciv won't start on my machine

-------

1 Gameplay

-------

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

   Freeciv is a client/server system. But in most cases you don't have to
   worry about this; the server is run automatically for you when you
   start a new game. So unless you're using one of the older Freeciv
   client programs all you have to do is run the client. Do this by
   double-clicking on the civclient executable program or by typing
   civclient in a terminal.

   Once the client starts, 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.

   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 Playing.

   You can continue to change the game settings through the Server Options
   menu item in 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 online
   manual available on this site. The manual covers both the client and
   the server, but it may not completely match the version you are
   playing. It is available in several languages and it can be downloaded
   for offline use.

-------

1.2 How do I play multiplayer?

   There are two sorts of multiplayer games to play: local games and
   global games. The below directions are for the gtk client. Other
   clients behave similarly.

   To play a local game, simply start up a new game the way you normally
   would. When you get to the pre-game screen hold on and wait for other
   players to connect. Now your fellow players (on the same LAN) 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 a global game, you do not start the game yourself but connect
   to a server already running on the internet. Choose Connect to Network
   Game and then Internet Metaserver. A list of active servers should come
   up; double-click one to join it.

   You can also choose to directly connect to a specific server, 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. You may want to
   start up the server by hand (with civserver in a terminal or by
   double-clicking on the executable) and connect to it directly from all
   clients. You may also start up the server with the -m command-line
   option, and it will show up on the list of global games (, and show up
   in other people's metaserver list?)).

-------

1.3 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 SDL Freeciv you have to press Tab to access the chatline.

   The chatline can be used for normal chatting or for issuing server
   commands by typing:
/Command

-------

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

   You have to declare war first. F3, Cancel treaty. See below.

   (You start out at war with all players, but you are always offered a
   cease-fire treaty upon first contact which has to be broken before you
   can attack the player's units or cities.)

-------

1.5 How do I declare war on another player?

   Go to the players dialog, select the player, and click the Cancel
   treaty button. This drops you from "cease fire" or "armistice" into
   "war". If you've already signed a permanent treaty with the player you
   may have to do it more than once.

-------

1.6 How do I do diplomatic meetings?

   Open players report. Select a player. Click the Meet button. But
   remember that you have to either have contact with the player or
   embassy established in one of his cities. Before version 2.0 AI players
   couldn't negotiate treaties thus you couldn't meet with them.

-------

1.7 How do I trade money with other players?

   If you want to make a monetary exchange, first enter the amount in the
   gold text box of the two players and then press Enter to insert the
   clause in the treaty.

-------

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

   A standard Freeciv game ends when only one player/team is left alive,
   when a player's spaceship arrives at Alpha Centauri, or when you reach
   the ending year - whichever comes first.

   You can change the default ending year by changing the endyear setting.
   You can do this through the Server Options (see Server options) menu
   choice in the Game menu or by typing into the chatline something like:
/set endyear 3000

   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, you can change the
   spacerace setting - again either through the Server Options dialog or
   through the chatline by:
/set spacerace 0

   You cannot change the conquest victory condition. A player who defeats
   all enemies will always win the game.

-------

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

   No, it isn't. It's a feature. Your government is probably despotism,
   which has a -1 penalty whenever a tile produces more than 2 units of
   food/production/trade. You should change your government (See
   Government) to get rid of this penalty.

-------

1.10 How do I play against computer players?

   See also How do I create teams of AI or human players?

   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 Server Options dialog, or
   do it on the chatline with something like:
/set aifill 30

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

-------

1.11 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.

-------

1.12 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.

-------

1.13 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 show), or
/help <setting>

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

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

   World maps can be created using the CivWorld map editor (available
   separately). It is also possible to edit savefiles from running games:
   save the game and open it with civworld (or with a text editor, if
   you're ambitious).

   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), civ2 (Civilization 2 compatibility mode), and history (more
   historically accurate) rulesets. 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
   2.1 you will be able to choose the ruleset directly through 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.

-------

1.14 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. It is still a stated goal to let Freeciv's game engine be
   100% compatible with Civilization™ I and II, but only as an option.

   This is why Freeciv comes with three game configurations (rulesets):
   the civ1 and civ2 modpacks implement game rules, elements and features
   that bring it as close as possible to Civilization I and Civilization
   II respectively, while the default modpack tries 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.

   Relevant discussions on the freeciv-dev mailing list:
     * in Jan, 1999
     * in Jun, 1999
     * in Apr, 2000

   Little or no work is being done on implementing features from other
   similar games, such as SMAC, CTP or Civilization III. See Mike Jing's
   list of differences and two discussion threads in July, 2002.

   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 always implemented in such a way that the
   "transitional" behaviour remains available as an option.

   See also Projects.

-------

1.15 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.

   In some older versions, bugs in the game engine would sometimes allow
   AI players to move twice in a row against humans. As of Freeciv 2.0
   this should no longer happen.

   In Freeciv 2.1 an alternating movement option will be available, in
   which only one player can move their units at a time.

-------

1.16 I am far superiour to my opponent but his last city is on a 1x1 island so I
cannot conquer it, and he won't give up. What can I do?

   Research amphibious warfare, build a marine, and get him.

-------

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

   You are not expanding fast enough. See a discussion on freeciv-dev.

   Also, for version 2.0 and later, try the 'novice' difficulty level.

   See also a thread from Freeciv Forum.

   Be aware that Freeciv 2.0.0 has a bug that makes the easy AI players as
   good as the hard AIs on expansion. Upgrade to Freeciv 2.0.1 or higher
   version if its your case.

   You can also turn off Fog of War. That way, you will see the attacks of
   the AI. Just type /set fogofwar 0' on the chat line.

-------

1.18 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 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. You can
   use the team command to set teams before the game starts. For AI teams
   you have to create the AI players first using the create command. For
   example
/create ai1
/create ai2
/team ai1 aiteam
/team ai2 aiteam

   Note that "aiteam" is just the name of the team of the AI players. You
   can also form more than one AI teams by using different team names, or
   put some AI players teamed with you.

-------

1.19 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 observe the full
   state of the game, including everything about other players.
   Additionally, Hard AI players can see every game unit even through fog
   of war.

   AI players can change production without penalty and switch governments
   without going through anarchy. Additionally, Hard AI players can set
   their research, tax or luxury to 100% regardless of their governments.

   Other than this, the AI players are not known to cheat.

   Further, the easy AI are less eager to build cities, and at easy and
   normal, the AI 'forget' where huts are and cannot plan attacks against
   enemy units they shouldn't be aware of.

-------

1.20 How do I play on a hexagonal grid?

   In 2.0, it is possible to play with hexagonal instead of rectangular
   tiles. To do this you need to set your topology before the game starts
/set topology 13

   and switch to a hexagonal tileset (isophex is included in 2.0). Note if
   you do it wrong, you may end up playing with a rectangular tileset on a
   "true" hexagonal grid or to play with a hexagonal tileset on a
   rectangular grid - this is probably not what you want.

   If you start a new game the grid (topology) will automatically be set
   to match your tileset. However since you can't change the tileset in
   pre-game this may not be helpful. You can try running the client as
civclient -t isophex

   to set the tileset immediately on startup.

-------

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

   See also How do I play against computer players?.

   In 2.0 teams are not 100% stable, but they are quite playable.
   Unfortunately you have to use the command-line interface (through the
   chatline) to set up teams.

   First of all try the /list command. This will show you all players
   created, including human players and created AI players. AI players
   created through aifill will not show up here (they aren't created until
   the game starts) so you can't assign those players to teams. To assign
   AI players to teams you have to create them first, as in /create ai1 to
   create an AI player named "ai1".

   Now, you're ready to assign players to teams. To do this you use the
   team command. For example, to create two AI players and put them on the
   same team you can do
/create ai1
/create ai2
/team ai1 team1
/team ai2 team1

   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 you start and a typo here (like
   misspelling "team1" as "taem1") will give you the wrong teams.

-------

1.22 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.

   See some techniques to speed up the game. The basic 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 CivWorld.

-------

2 Community

-------

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

   There have been debates on this 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.

-------

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 he
   may wake up later than you. Remind yourself that if you run into him at
   Civilization Anonymous, it's time to change jobs.

-------

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 bugs.freeciv.org.

   Copies of submissions to bugs.freeciv.org are automatically sent to the
   development mailing list, with a ID in the subject; replies that
   preserve the bug ID will be threaded properly in the bug tracking
   system as long as you respect the mail reply-to.

-------

3 Technical Stuff

-------

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

   See Bug Reporting.

-------

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 5555; 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, go to /usr/local/bin/ and run civserver.
   Then type start to begin!
mike@localhost:/usr/local/bin$ ./civserver
This is the server for Freeciv version 2.0.8
You can learn a lot about Freeciv at http://www.freeciv.org/
2: Now accepting new client connections.

> start
Starting game.
2: Loading rulesets

   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
   pubserver, a firewall in your organisation/ISP is probably blocking the
   connection.

-------

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

   We have dedicated gameservers now (pubserver.freeciv.org and
   civ.alkar.net), so if your metaserver button turns up an empty list,
   there's probably something wrong with your setup.

   First, check your Freeciv version. Freeciv 1.9.0 up to and including
   1.14.2 use the old metaserver, 2.0 and higher use the new metaserver;
   if you're mixing versions, you may be getting the wrong list.

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

-------

3.4 How do I change the metaserver info string?

   Use the /metamessage or /metatopic commands. See /help metamessage.

-------

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

   The current stable Freeciv version is 2.0.9. For an overview of changes
   that went into this release, see the NEWS file (see NEWS as well).

   The NEWS-#.#.# file is only updated for a new release; updates to
   Subversion are listed in the freeciv-commits archives (see Mailing
   Lists) and the actual code changes can be reviewed using our online
   source code browser.

   If you decide to upgrade, see the Download page for source code or
   contributed binaries.

   Not all precompiled binaries and ports have been updated to 2.0.9 yet.
   If you can contribute, please do! Prepare a package and announce it to
   freeciv-dev@gna.org.

   Clients and servers of different versions are often incompatible due to
   changes in the client/server protocol. You will see incompatibilities
   as a 'mismatching capabilities' error. For example, 2.0.0 and 2.0.8 are
   compatible; 2.0.0 and 2.1.0 are not.

-------

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 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.

-------

3.7 HOME directory not set?

   The Freeciv client wants to write a configuration file named
   .civclientrc in your $HOME directory. On MS Windows, the $HOME variable
   is not always set. This can be done from the DOS prompt or a .bat file,
   for example:
set home=C:\freeciv

   You can still play if this error message appears, but your client
   options won't be saved.

-------

3.8 How do I start the next game?

   A running civserver can only run a single game. Once the game has been
   started with the /start command, restarting is impossible.

   To start a new game, /quit the server and start a new one, then
   reconnect the client to it. On pubserver.freeciv.org we run additional
   software that restarts servers automatically once nobody is connected
   anymore.

-------

3.9 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 server command line (see
   Command-line_options). You can start civserver with the -f option, for
   example
civserver -f civgame1150.sav

   . Or you can use the /load command inside the server before starting
   the game. Make sure you saved the game manually, because the server
   only autosaves every ten turns per default.

-------

3.10 The server cannot save games!

   In a local game 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 saveturns server variable is set, the server
   will periodically save the game automatically (which can take a lot of
   disk space in some cases). In any case, you should check the ownership,
   permissions, and disk space/quota for the directory or partition you're
   trying to save to.

-------

3.11 Why are some of the menus in the Freeciv client disabled?

   Menus that cannot be used will be disabled. This means some menus are
   disabled during pregame, or unless you select a unit, or if the game
   has ended.

   It's also possible that you're not connected to a game server at all.
   If you start the client it should allow you to create a new game
   automatically (by pressing the Start New Game button). You may also try
   running the server from the command line (as civserver) then connecting
   to it manually with the client (connect to localhost). Use the /start
   command to begin the game once you have connected. The server will now
   load some configuration files that some of the menus depend on.

-------

3.12 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; see also Why are some of the menus in
   the Freeciv client disabled? (Some work needs to be done to make this
   more intuitive.)

   As of version 2.1, the game is shipped with an interactive tutorial. 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. A graph of the (default) technology tree is available on the
   wiki or from David Pfitzner.

-------

3.13 My diagonal arrow keys do not work on Solaris.

   Why exactly, I don't know, but you have to xmodmap a few keys around.
   From my .xinitrc:
xmodmap -e 'keycode 27 = Up' \
        -e 'keycode 31 = Left' \
        -e 'keycode 34 = Down' \
        -e 'keycode 35 = Right' \
        -e 'keycode 76 = Up' \
        -e 'keycode 98 = Left' \
        -e 'keycode 120 = Down' \
        -e 'keycode 100 = Right'

   See also the April, 2000 thread on this subject.

-------

3.14 Menu items do not work under KDE.

   Deactivate NumLock.

-------

3.15 Popup windows are sent to the back in KDE and pile up there.

   When opening popups in the Xaw client activated from other popups, eg.
   the Change production dialog in the city window, the popup that was
   previously open gets sent to the back. After a while the client slows
   down due to the number of open city windows, and they have to be closed
   one by one. The same thing may happen to report windows.

   This problem (PR#866; see maintainer's comment) is specific to the KDE
   window manager. If you know a way around it, please let us know.

-------

3.16 The client complains it can't read the .civclientrc file.

   This is harmless: the file will be created to store your client
   options, as soon as you save them; but it isn't supplied initially.

-------

3.17 My Freeciv client dumps core when I start it!

   Read on if you are using the Xaw client under certain Linux
   distributions or IRIX.

   In all likelihood, the problem is an enhanced version of the Xaw
   library, (Xaw3d, Xaw95,or neXtaw). A Freeciv binary compiled against
   the 'plain' Xaw library will segfault upon startup when used with
   these.

   Remedies:
     * Freeciv can be recompiled to use Xaw3d, if you have it: use

configure --with-xaw3d
     * Make sure the libXaw.so Freeciv is seeing is an unenhanced version
       (by installing the appropriate package, pointing to the right
       version using environment variables, or whatever; details depend on
       platform)
     * If for some reason you can't, but there is a 'plain' libXaw.a
       somewhere: hunt through the Makefiles and change lines which
       contain -lXaw to /usr/X11/lib/libXaw.a, or wherever libXaw.a is
       stored on your machine, then recompile (this was suggested by
       <dva AT uu.gatech.edu>
     * Install GTK+ (if not installed already), compile and use the GTK+
       client instead of the Xaw one.

   This problem used to be documented in the SuSE Linux support database.

   If your SEGV at startup is due to a different problem, please report it
   to the developers' bug reporting system, by sending it to
   bugs@freeciv.org.

-------

3.18 Freeciv fails to compile due to the Xaw libraries.

   As reported with Debian 2.1:
> make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/src/freeciv/client'
> Making all in gui-xaw
> make[3]: Entering directory `/usr/src/freeciv/client/gui-xaw'
> gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I../.. -I. -I./.. -I./../include
> -I../../common -I../../intl  -I/usr/X11R6/include    -g -O2 -Wall -c
> pixcomm.c
> In file included from pixcomm.c:54:
> pixcommp.h:54: X11/Xaw3d/CommandP.h: No such file or directory
> make[3]: *** [pixcomm.o] Error 1
[...]

   This is, again, an Xaw/Xaw3d confusion problem. In this particular
   case, the Debian xaw3dg package is not installed on the system.

   To select plain Xaw or Xaw3d explicitly, use:
./configure --with-xaw [...]
./configure --with-xaw3d [...]

-------

3.19 When compiling Freeciv from source, the no command cannot be found.

   This silly error message, and possibly others, may arise if you
   ./configure --with-included-gettext to use the [internationalization
   multilingual support] library (GNU gettext) distributed with Freeciv,
   but change your mind later. The problem is the creation of a libintl.h
   -> intl/libgettext.h that should be removed upon reconfiguration, but
   isn't. See this question asked on freeciv-dev and the answer given
   there.

   The same error message may arise if you have no gettext on your system
   and forget to use --with-included-gettext.

-------

3.20 How do I compile Freeciv under Solaris?

   Solaris (2.5 and up) has its own version of X in /usr/openwin, its own
   version of make in /usr/ccs/bin/make, and its own compiler (to be
   purchased separately) which, if you have it, is available in
   /opt/SUNWspro/bin. Solaris does not provide the XPM library, which is
   required for the Xaw client; it doesn't provide any of the stuff
   required for imlib, gdk and gtk, either, which is required to build the
   GTK+ client. (This stuff can be compiled however, and is now more
   readily installable with the Ximian GNOME distribution.)

   To confuse matters further, many local systems administrators add MIT X
   (usually, in /usr/X11), GNU make, and the gcc compiler. If you're
   unlucky, the
./configure && make

   procedure will get confused about these different versions of tools.

   However, with some patience, everything can be compiled without
   problems. Details are provided in the Freeciv INSTALL document.

-------

3.21 How do I compile Freeciv under Solaris or FreeBSD?

   On Solaris, FreeBSD, and some other systems, the default make isn't GNU
   make. In order to compile you must either
./configure --disable-cvs-deps --disable-nls

   in order to disable the GNU make specific parts of the Makefile, or
   simply use GNU make.

-------

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

   Start the client as
civclient --tiles trident

   There is also now a client option in the Local Settings menu.

-------

3.23 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 original client is based on the Athena widget set (Xaw), which is
   fast and very widely available, but many users find it old-fashioned.
   The client can also be compiled to use Xaw3d. New features are
   sometimes implemented in the GTK+ 2 version only, but the Xaw one still
   has a speed advantage.

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

   For Amiga and MS Windows, clients exist that use the native windowing
   system rather than X11. They are both in under active maintenance and
   in the main Subversion tree.

   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. A tileset can be specified when the client is started
   up.

   Other tilesets in both categories are separately available from our
   download page.

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

-------

3.24 How do I enable/disable sound support?

   The client can be started without sound by supplying the commandline
   arguments: -P none

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

   Please note that the stdsounds are extracted to data/stdsounds with
   soundspec file data/stdsounds.soundspec. For a system-wide installation
   you can extract that into /usr/local/share/freeciv, such that a
   directory /usr/local/share/freeciv/data/stdsounds will exist.

   You can then start the client as follows:
civclient -P <plugin> -S stdsounds

   If that does not work, try:
civclient -d 3 -P <plugin -S stdsounds

   This will help you get some debug information (e.g. why the sound does
   not work).

-------

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

   There is some documentation in the ./doc/ directory, such as
   ./doc/README.effects. The default ruleset also has a minimal
   explanation of what all the fields mean, so default/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; currently it contains little in the way of documentation
   but you may help change this by contributing some.

-------

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

   See Nations.

-------

3.27 How do I change the font?

   For the GTK+ 1.2 client, you can specify fonts in $HOME/freeciv.rc,
   which can be copied from the freeciv.rc that comes with Freeciv and
   edited with a text editor. Use regular X font names such as displayed
   by a tool like xfontsel.

   For example,
 style "help_text"
{
font = "-*-courier-medium-r-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*"
}

   For the GTK+ 2.0 client, you can specify fonts in
   $HOME/.freeciv.rc-2.0, which can be copied from the freeciv.rc-2.0 that
   comes with Freeciv and edited with a text editor. Use Pango font names
   such as displayed by a tool like then Gnome Font Preferences.

   For example,
style "help_text"
{
font_name = "Monospace 9"
}

   For the Xaw client, you can change the font with X resources. You can
   specify them on the command line with the -xrm command-line option, or
   put them in your .Xdefaults file or the Freeciv app-defaults file.

   To change the main font, try something like:
civclient -- -xrm "Freeciv*.font: 8x16"

   If the font isn't fixed width, some on the dialogs won't look right,
   but they'll still work.

   Note that on Microsoft Windows systems the $HOME environment variable
   usually isn't set by default, so you have to set it. In that case,
   create a directory for Freeciv settings somewhere (an obvious place
   would be
C:\Documents And Settings\(your username goes here)\Application Data

   ), then open a command shell and typing something like:
set HOME="C:\Documents And Settings\(your username goes here)\Application Data"

   If $HOME is already in use by other applications, just use that
   directory.

   Now copy the settings file to it as instructed above (note the . at the
   start of the resulting filename) and change some font settings ((e.g.
   replace Sans with Utopia here and there) and you should notice the
   effect.

   (See also this forum thread.)

-------

3.28 I am having problems with accented characters. What gives?

   The problem is that Freeciv (the server or client) simply cannot
   display the characters properly in the character encoding it is set to
   use. This is particularly a problem in older clients like the XAW
   client and the GTK+ 1.2 client.
     * In the server, this can be fixed by changing your locale to use
       UTF-8. Normally this is done by changing the $LANG environment
       variable (you can see your current $LANG with echo $LANG). A full
       explanation is beyond the scope of this document, but here are a
       few common examples. If your $LANG is empty, try setting it to
       en_US.UTF-8 (for US English). If it is ru_RU.KOI8-R, try setting it
       to ru_RU.UTF-8. Note that the $LANG of the server only affects
       terminal input and output of the server, and will not have any
       effect on client behavior.

     * In the XAW or GTK+ 1.2 client, the problem occurrs for the exact
       same reason as in the server. The solution is the same: change your
       locale to use UTF-8. If this isn't possible you may improve things
       by installing GNU libiconv. GNU's iconv library has better
       transliteration support than the iconv that comes on most unix-like
       systems.

     * There is no fix available for the Win32 (windows native) client.
       However with transliteration there shouldn't be much problem.

     * The GTK+ 2 client should not have any character problems. If you do
       it is probably a font issue.

   (Note: the above applies to Freeciv 2.0 and later. Earlier versions of
   Freeciv had much poorer support for different character sets. You are
   better off upgrading your Freeciv instead of trying to get things to
   work in an older Freeciv.)

-------

3.29 How can i change the language of my client/server?

   On Linux, simply change into your freeciv-directory and type (e.g.)
LANG=en_US civ

   For a server in another language go to freeciv-directory/server and
   type
LANG=de_DE civserver

   On Windows create a simple batch file (e.g. freeciv.bat, in the same
   directory, where you have installed the package) and then run this file
   instead of civclient.exe (do not forget to change the target of all
   shortcuts pointing to this new file). The batch consists of 2 lines:
set LANG=EN
civclient.exe

-------

3.30 How do I get the latest development code?

   A snapshot of the development code is made every day; simply retrieve
   the latest version with your browser. Note: this service is temporarily
   out of order. --Hima 12:18, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

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

   An alternative is to use Subversion (SVN) directly:
    1. Obtain and install SVN on your Unix machine. On modern
       distributions it is already there; look for the svn command. You
       can get SVN from Tigris.
    2. Grab the source:

                $ svn co svn://svn.gna.org/svn/freeciv/trunk freeciv

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

   Another useful svn command is svn diff.

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

   See also How to Contribute to Freeciv development.

   If you'd like to know more about SVN, try here.

-------

3.31 How do I disable full screen mode?

   In the GTK2 client, go to View and select Full Screen. It won't take
   effect until the next time you start the client.

   In the SDL client, open the Options dialogue, select Video options,
   deselect the Fullscreen Mode check box and then select the resolution
   of your choice. The change will take effect immediately.

-------

3.32 What are the system requirements ?

-------

3.32.1 Memory

   In a typical game the server takes about 15MB of memory and the client
   needs about 25MB. These values may change with larger maps or tilesets.
   For a single player game you need to run both the client and the
   server.

-------

3.32.2 Processor

   We recommend at least a 100Mhz processor. 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 our citizens. However, it consumes many CPU cycles.

-------

3.32.3 Graphic display

   The GTK2 client works well on 1024x800 or higher resolutions. On
   smaller screens some dialogs may not fit on the screen.

-------

3.32.4 Network

   A 56Kb modem should be enough to play a typical pubserver game.
   However, many players suggest that a large ping is a big disadvantage.
   Your ISP mustn't block ports 5555 - 5600, because these are the ports
   which pubserver's servers are run on.

-------

4 Windows

-------

4.1 How do I use Freeciv under MS Windows ?

   Precompiled binaries can be downloaded from www.freeciv.org.

   If you want to compile the source code yourself, you will need mingw or
   cygwin.

-------

4.2 Retrieving the Native Windows Freeciv

   The Native Windows packages come as self-extracting installers.

   Simply download and install one of the .EXE installers. There are three
   different packages available, one using the native win32 widget set,
   one using the GTK+ 2.0 toolkit, and one using the SDL libraries. The
   GTK version requires Windows NT, 2000, XP or later.

   Please note: your virus checker may inform you that Freeciv contains a
   Trojan. This is most certainly wrong - read the full explanation before
   posting about it on the forums.

-------

4.3 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-2.1.0.) Just go to click on
   Start→Programs→Freeciv-2.1.0→Freeciv

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

-------

4.4 I've started civclient, 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 the freeciv.org
       server. 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 city style.

   That's it! Enjoy!

-------

4.5 Native client: How do I save and restart a saved game?

   You save the game by clicking the Save Game button at the bottom right
   of the client window.

   To load the saved game, click the Load Game button in step three or
   four above. (The name you saved under will have a .gz added to the end
   of it when you look in the file list.)

-------

4.6 How do I use a different tileset?

   The first thing to do is to download the tileset you want to use from
   Tilesets.

   Then you have to unpack the tileset into the DATA or root directory in
   your Freeciv directory (so if your Freeciv directory is
   C:\FREECIV-2.1.0, then you'd tell WinZip to extract to
   C:\FREECIV-2.1.0\DATA.) Make sure you tell your extraction program to
   extract into the subdirectories in the file.

   Once that's done you can start using the new tileset (FINALLY!) You
   have to pass an argument to CIVCLIENT.EXE so the easiest way to do that
   is to open a Command Prompt (from Start→Programs→Accessories→Command
   Prompt in my case, sometimes called an MS-DOS Window). Change to the
   Freeciv directory (for example, cd \FREECIV-2.1.0) and start the client
   with the -tiles tilesetname option. For example,
CIVCLIENT -tiles freeland

   You should be good to go then!

-------

4.7 How do I use a different ruleset?

   A different ruleset can be used by downloading the ruleset and
   extracting it in the Freeciv root or data directory
   (C:\FREECIV-2.1.0\DATA, for example). This should create a subdirectory
   with the ruleset name (ancients, for example.)

   Then you need to tell the server to use it. This is done by typing
/rulesetdir ''ruleset directory''

   in the chat line of the client before pressing the Start Game button.

-------

4.8 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 WordPad
   or an alternative editor like notepad2 or notepad++ instead.

-------

5 Mac OS X

-------

5.1 How do I install the latest version of Freeciv?

     * See Install-MacOSX.

-------

5.2 How do I compile Freeciv myself?

     * See Install-MacOSX.

-------

5.3 How do I install X11?

   X11 is an application, part of OS X provided by Apple, but not
   installed by default.

   If you have 10.4 "Tiger":
     * Find your Tiger install disc and insert it
     * Open the "Optional installs.mpkg" from the CD
     * Select Applications > X11 in the installer

   If you have 10.3 "Panther":
     * Download the X11User.pkg installer from Apple
     * Open the file and install

   More about Apple's X11

-------

5.4 How do I troubleshoot Freeciv crashes?

   Freeciv writes some information to the system log if crashes. To see
   this, open /Applications/Utilities/Console.app immediately after a
   crash. Freeciv-related stuff should appear in the bottom.

-------

5.5 Freeciv crashes because it doesn't find libXinerama something?

   This bug could appear in 10.3 or incomplete X11 installations. To fix
   it requires either reinstallation of X11 (see above), or some knowledge
   of OS X internals.

   I found this fix: (copied from [1])
    1. Download the Xbin.tgz distro from
       http://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.5.0/binaries/Darwin-ppc-5.x/
    2. Unpack it and locate libXinerama.1.0.dylib in the lib directory
    3. Put libXinerama.1.0.dylib in /usr/X11R6/lib
    4. Symlink libXinerama.1.0.dylib to libXinerama.dylib and to
       libXinerama.1.dylib in that directory

-------

5.6 How do I install new tilesets?

   First, the Linux way works fine on OS X (put tilesets in ~/.freeciv).

   There is also an OSX-specific solution (taken from [2]):
    1. Download your favorite tileset and unpack it.
    2. Right (or ctrl) click on the client executable and select Show
       Package Contents from the context menu.
    3. Go to this directory:
       Contents/Resources/freeciv-x.y.z/share/freeciv
    4. Put the *.tileset file and corresponding folder into this
       directory.
    5. Start the client and the new tileset should show up in the Local
       Options dialoge

-------

5.7 How do I scroll the map?

   To recenter the view, you can right-click either on the overview or the
   large map (the playfield). To right click, hold the command key (apple
   symbol key) while clicking.

-------

5.8 Freeciv won't start on my machine

   There can be many reasons for this. Here are a few tips:
     * You need Apple X11 installed to run the official release. Install
       from your system DVD/CDs (10.4 Tiger) or download and install from
       Apple's developer website (10.3 Panther).

     * Freeciv may not start if you are logged in as Admin. Log in as a
       Standard user and try again.

     * Official releases later than 2.0.3 are built to run on OS X Tiger
       or later and won't start on earlier versions of OS X.

     * The hard drive image you're trying to run Freeciv from has an
       apostrophe (') in its name. Try renaming your hard drive and try
       again. This also applies to any folder in the path to the Freeciv
       Application. A standard install of freeciv is to install it into
       the /Applications/ directory.