forum.freeciv.org

I know it's free and therefore there's no reason not to just try it, but what should I expect? 4 and 5 were my main civs, but I do have all of them and try all of them from time to time including playing CIV 1 on a 90's era-Macintosh II that I fixed up. What does FreeCIV offer gameplaywise that's interesting or otherwise different from the official games? Is it just a good free version or does it have it's own feel?

Edited by Geometry Vibes Unblocked 5 minutes ago

You should not expect the presentation, AI polish,Cool Games or streamlined design of the official games. Instead, expect an old-school strategy atmosphere with a lot of depth and flexibility. If you enjoy classic Civ mechanics and experimenting with different rule systems, FreeCiv definitely has its own identity rather than just being a free clone.

Also, I don't know if commercial Civ games have such stable Longturn communities. Or anything resembling Longturn. I know for a fact that I would not be playing it if otherwise.

Communities are good. Back in the glory days of Civ2 there was a great thriving community on the old Apolyton forum - that's where I first got into doing the 1-city challenge. In addition to the Longturn community that Corbeau mentioned there is a (maybe smaller) community here on this forum.

I loved Civ2, thought Civ3 was OK, didn't like Civ4 and loathed Civ5. FreeCiv is more like Civ2 with a bit of Civ3 so I'm happy here. The ability to customize your own rulesets is huge, can't do that with the commercial versions.

Im curious. What didn't you like about civ 4? You say that moddability and community are the biggest factors for you, but civ 4 is the most moddable and has one of, if not the largest community of all the civ games.

It's been so long that I don't remember the details. Most likely I was baby duck imprinted with Civ2 and didn't like that Civ4 was so different. That imprinting also explains why I like FreeCiv - it's a better version of Civ2.

I'm probably too old, but newer Civ games (3 or 4 and onwards) have absolutely no appeal to me. Civ is about complexity and choices, and for that I want to be able to swallow huge chunks of data at the same time. And newer Civs are all about artistic and realistic visuals, while for readability what I need is efficient schematics. This is also why I'm stuck with Trident-like tilesets and can't get on with isometric stuff.