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Can Someone Help Me Learn the Game?

Posted: Wed May 10, 2017 12:44 am
by NoXIILarxene
Greetings, Freeciv folk. I have been trying to get into the game and following the tutorials, but I can only get to a decent balance against Novice AI players, Easy if I get what feels like a good start. I play on 2.5.6 Qt client, but also freeciv-web when needed. Is there anyone out there who would take some time out of a day to teach me how to play the game right? Thank you.

Re: Can Someone Help Me Learn the Game?

Posted: Wed May 10, 2017 8:23 am
by Corbeau
I believe there are some tutorials around. However, what I think MAY be a good way, if you're learning solo, is to actually find Sid Meier's Civ 1 and play with it for a while. It has less techs and units, but you get the idea about what strategy to use, how to move units, how things work etc. Difference between Civ 1 and Civ 2 is only technical, units and techs added, maybe a Government or two, but the main principle is basically identical. And Civ 2 is almost identical to FreeCiv, there may be some tweaks to a few numbers, how some terrains work, but all of that depends more on the ruleset.

The added benefit of Civ 1 is that you can activate help that gives you beginner hints during the game, not sure what you are looking for.

My first strategic tip would be: either go full tech (keeping in mind to keep basic defences active) or go full aggressive. If you go full tech, get Republic ASAP. Also, spread whenever you can, more cities is more money and more bulbs.

Everything else needs to come from knowing and managing the details and that comes from experience.

Re: Can Someone Help Me Learn the Game?

Posted: Wed May 10, 2017 11:14 pm
by accomplishednoob
Did you try these tutorials?

Your explanation does not outline a specific problem so I will try what I consider a would-be-hint, though you may already know them.
1. Read the tutorials and try both large-pox and small-pox strategies, you won't be a better player if you don't understand both.
2. Establish trade-routes as soon as possible, don't waste time especially if you are a large-pox player.
3. Plan your cities, don't pick locations randomly and don't grow your cities aimlessly. Every move in this game must serve a purpose.
4. Understand combat,we should spend in military exactly as required, not more not less.
5. Understand the ways resources can be "transformed" into another type. We do not complain "rats! what this server expects me to do in these deserts and hills it generated for me"; but we understand how to turn shield into food, gold into science, food into science and etc.

I will try to provide more details on 3 and 5, because I feel not much told about it in tutorials:
Planning Cities: don't place them randomly and don't grow them aimlessly. Size matters? Yes, but size is not everything. City-A (size:3) with a good design can be a much productive asset than City-B (size:8) poorly developed. So whenever I lay the settler on the ground and form a new city I will write a note about what it should be in the future. Some examples from my notebook:

Beograd(cap): monarchy(50-0-50) sz=5:(G)FpFpHw{Sci}{Sci} FPT=10/12/6 -->Lab+Bar--> F+0 P+12 G+1 S+18 Inv=230 ROI=5
explanation: Beograd is capital, so curroption is 0 under monarchy. 50-0-50 is tax rate. the final size is going to be 5 (sz=5) and the tiles that will be worked are grassland under the city illustrated with (G), two Forest pheasant (Fp), Hill with wine (Hw) mined, and two specialists/scientists {Sci}. FPT=food-production-trade. note tiles give only 8 shields but since it's a capital under monarchy 50% bonus to production has been included. finally the city is going to have a laboratory and a barracks. the city at it's final stage (size=5) will give no food surplus (F+0), 12 production surplus(P+12), 1 gold surplus (G+1), three gold are generated but two will be used as upkeep, and 18 research bulbs (S+18), 12 generated by scientists and 6 generated out of trade. Investment (inv) and Return On Investment (ROI) are calculated according to personal judgement, which I won't go into details, and finally since ROI is low enough, construction of city will be approved and I will lay the settler. An extremely nice city this is going to become!

Novi Sad(D=6): monarchy(50-0-50) sz=8:(P)GOwOfOO{3xSci} -->Har--> FPT=16/2/8 -->Lab--> F+0 P+2 G+1 S+26 --Tmpl Inv=650 ROI=15
explanation: distant from capital is 6 tiles(D=6), that is: corruption will be 27% and two trade points out of 10 will be lost. tiles are plain (P) under the city, Grassland (G), Ocean with whale (Ow), Ocean with fish (Of), and two ocean tiles(O). 3 scientists. city has a harbour, a temple and a laboratory which consumes 3 gold for upkeep out of total 4 generated. An example of a city mainly designed for research. Will I ever grow it? possible, but not without calculation. ROI is not as good as Beograd, but any investment that pays back in less than 20 turns is good.

This method is highly recommended for small-pox games. After a few updates we usually forget what this city is built for, and how much it should grow. It's also possible that we start to build improvements randomly and waste our time and production capacity for what we don't need. If you can't follow this, at least take a note of your successful cities during your games and try to repeat them in future games.

Transforming Resources: This is not much complex, we are all doing it without noticing it. But doing it with full understanding may prevent unwanted results. How to turn food into science? simple, hire scientists. Have you ever noticed your city is growing beyond what you planned and you are trying to use the food surplus without much hope? it's easy, turn the extra food into science. let the granary fill near the end. then remove a worker and assign a scientist. the granary should go down while you are gaining bulbs. then, before somebody starves, remove the scientist and assign the worker to collect food and repeat the cycle. you have maintained the city size and meanwhile gained some research bulbs out of your granary. If you think about it, there are strange ways that almost any resource can be transformed into another type. Just find these ways and don't complain about your starting position.

Re: Can Someone Help Me Learn the Game?

Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2017 11:16 pm
by ektor
accomplishednoob wrote:Did you try these tutorials?

Your explanation does not outline a specific problem so I will try what I consider a would-be-hint, though you may already know them.
1. Read the tutorials and try both large-pox and small-pox strategies, you won't be a better player if you don't understand both.
2. Establish trade-routes as soon as possible, don't waste time especially if you are a large-pox player.
3. Plan your cities, don't pick locations randomly and don't grow your cities aimlessly. Every move in this game must serve a purpose.
4. Understand combat,we should spend in military exactly as required, not more not less.
5. Understand the ways resources can be "transformed" into another type. We do not complain "rats! what this server expects me to do in these deserts and hills it generated for me"; but we understand how to turn shield into food, gold into science, food into science and etc.
Thanks a lot for all those explanations.
accomplishednoob wrote:Transforming Resources: This is not much complex, we are all doing it without noticing it. But doing it with full understanding may prevent unwanted results. How to turn food into science? simple, hire scientists. Have you ever noticed your city is growing beyond what you planned and you are trying to use the food surplus without much hope? it's easy, turn the extra food into science. let the granary fill near the end. then remove a worker and assign a scientist. the granary should go down while you are gaining bulbs. then, before somebody starves, remove the scientist and assign the worker to collect food and repeat the cycle. you have maintained the city size and meanwhile gained some research bulbs out of your granary. If you think about it, there are strange ways that almost any resource can be transformed into another type. Just find these ways and don't complain about your starting position.
This is really usefull and I now understand better this strategy :)