Freeciv

[Pendragon]

The idea behind Longturn Freeciv is very simple: set the turnlength to 86400 seconds (equal to 24 hours), or a number slightly lower or higher, so you get a one turn per day game. Players can log in and out of the server at any time, so they're free to do their daily turn whenever they want. After 5 years of Longturn games most technical difficulties have been solved, so arranging the server isn't a problem anymore.
Longturn has a number of advantages over normal or shortturn Freeciv:

Firstly it makes it possible to play with very high numbers or players (up to 30), because lag is not an issue. The last Longturn games have been played with about 20 to 30 players on huge maps.

Because the game is slowed down players also have plenty of time to think about their strategy, have diplomatic meetings (which can be very complicated!) and micro-manage their cities. Some players are known to calculate the exact effects of their strategy, to reach an optimal playing style So instead of quick games with simple strategies (get frigates, build lots of them, win the game), the game becomes complex and interesting in every time period. While in 'shortturn' diplomacy usually comes down to allying the first player you see and attack the rest, it's elevated to a great complexity in Longturn. Several games have ended in huge world wars involving up to 10 strong players at once.

Another advantage is that while a normal multiplayer Freeciv game has to be finished at once (so you'll have to play many hours the same day), a Longturn game only has to cost 5 minutes each day. This means less players drop out at the end of the game, and you're not limited to playing long games in the weekends.

Because the start of a Longturn game can be a bit boring (the first turns are a bit uneventful), a ruleset has been developed to speed up the game a bit. The idea behind this is that all units have 3 times their normal movement points (a phalanx gets 3 movement points, a knights 6 etc), and 3 times their field of vision. Coupled with some normal Freeciv settings (small foodbox, faster research) this makes the game fast enough to be fun at one turn per day.

Subscription to a Longturn game is free for everyone, but limited to about 30 players. We always get a nice mix of experienced players (some of the best Freeciv players have participated), and new players who use Longturn to slowly learn all aspects of the game. I have personally become a much better player since first playing a Longturn game.

The Longturn game "LT20" is currently running, and a subscription list for LT21 will probably be opened in a few weeks. Also there's an experimental server (LTeX) which accepts new players on a continuing basis (you will be spawned into the ongoing game with an army to match the game situation at that moment).

[LarryN]

The orginal idea were created by McZapkie.

Hear you have website with orginal feauters: http://www.civ.org.pl/freeciv/Slow/slow-eng.php

[Zachron]

Which version are the longturn games being played in? Despite having recenty accquired Civ 4 and deciding that it is the best Civ game yet, I still go through Civ 2 and Freeciv withdrawals. And this Longturn concept, is really intriguing to me. Tell me which version it's being supported by at the moment, and I'll download it. (I uninstalled my last version, because it was running slow and wasn't as stable of a version as I thought it was... yet still it provided me with untold hours worth of amusement and cheer. )

If I signed up, I would stick with it.

[Pendragon]

Nice to hear Zachron We use 2.0.X at the moment, that is I think it works with all 2.0.X versions. I use 2.0.8 myself.

[Pendragon]

update: all Longturn servers are now using Freeciv 2.1