forum.freeciv.org

I have roughly 4-5 people who want to re-live our Civ glory days and give this game a go. We all live throughout the country. Can someone give me an idea about how to best set up a private multiplayer game? We don't want it to be public.

You mean technical setup? Check which of you has the best computer, he runs the server, everybody else connects to the server. Make sure he saves the game occasionally.

From IRC conversations, the most difficult bit for most people seems to be getting the Freeciv server listening port visible on the Internet (due to NAT etc). It might make sense for whoever is the most network-savvy to host the server (so that they can set up port-forwarding or whatever is necessary). Freeciv doesn't give you any help in sorting out NAT traversal, I'm afraid.

The FAQ touches on these topics, although it can't do them justice.

You may want to set up authentication (passwords). (The Windows installers include the SQLite support needed for the simplest setup.) Or you could just rely on no-one finding your private server, but beware of gatecrashers.

I will confess that talk of setting up a server or network goes straight over my head. There isn't just a straightforward way to play a private multiplayer game if we all get online or if we all have the game?

You can always try without doing any network setup hoping that your network connection is such that it just works. One of you need to run the server, though (even in single-player game the server is required, but it's automatically run by the client, and can be used by that local client only). It's basically just a matter of running freeciv-server executable. The others need the server IP address and port to connect to, especially since you want to keep the game private and not published to the metaserver. https://www.whatismyip.com/ may help in getting the IP address, and freeciv default port is 5556.

Thanks everyone for the help, but I don't know how to run a server nor have I played this game before. play.freeciv looks different than tutorials I saw on YouTube where you could start a Multiplayer game and then impose a password to keep the game private. I want to play the game with my friends and family. I know many of you are veterans and I am obviously a noob but I am in need of really simple, rudementary advice here.

Oh, sorry. You were talking about web version of the game (one you can play on your browser from play.freeciv.org) and not the desktop program. That caused the confusion. I'm moving this thread to freeciv-web forum.

No, I am sure the fault is mine for not explaining well. I want to play like we did back in the early 00's with Civ 2 where we all just had fun in a private game. Can I protect my game with a password? How do I start a private multiplayer game?

NateDogPack12 wrote:No, I am sure the fault is mine for not explaining well. I want to play like we did back in the early 00's with Civ 2 where we all just had fun in a private game. Can I protect my game with a password? How do I start a private multiplayer game?

Hello NateDogPack12,

1. Go to https://play.freeciv.org/.
2. Click on the multiplayer button.
3. Find an available game server and click on the Play. The other players can also join the same game.
4. Enter any name (or create an account) and click Join game.
5. Game settings -> Password, if you want the game to be private.
6. Wait for the other players to join, then all players click "Start game".
7. Have fun!

AndreasR wrote:

NateDogPack12 wrote:No, I am sure the fault is mine for not explaining well. I want to play like we did back in the early 00's with Civ 2 where we all just had fun in a private game. Can I protect my game with a password? How do I start a private multiplayer game?

Hello NateDogPack12,

1. Go to https://play.freeciv.org/.
2. Click on the multiplayer button.
3. Find an available game server and click on the Play. The other players can also join the same game.
4. Enter any name (or create an account) and click Join game.
5. Game settings -> Password, if you want the game to be private.
6. Wait for the other players to join, then all players click "Start game".
7. Have fun!

Thank you so much for the reply. I appreciate you.