Rulesets

Freeciv Server is an engine that allows creating and playing multiple uniquely different games. Each game has a uniquely different set of programmed rules.

A ruleset specifies the set of rules for a particular game. The ruleset describes the complete behaviour of the game. The freeciv server processes the ruleset to determine the attributes of units, cities, buildings, inventions, wonders and much more. There is one main rules file holding a bunch of common rules and a collection of references to more specific rules files.

Rulesets[]

These are the rulesets as packaged in the official release.

Civ1[]

The Civ1 ruleset emulates Civilization I behavior.

Civ2[]

The Civ2 ruleset emulates Civilization II behavior.

Civ2civ3[]

The Civ2civ3 ruleset's main purpose is a much simpler game similar to civ3, using the civ2 combat system. Cutting disadvantages from less optimal play makes it easier for beginners. Features that were strategically exploited for advantage are removed, such as rapture growth, trade routes, and the advantages of advanced governments. The result is a simpler linear development, and a slower game. With less advantage in later governments to balance out their bulb cost, timing and choice in government becomes relaxed and of much less strategic concern. Terrain complexity is smoothed: Hill cities get 2/2/0, making hills the obvious choice for most cities—this reduces exploiting advantage from optimal city placement and is beginner-friendly in edging game balance more toward defense. The removal of rapture eliminates strategic complexity in exploiting advantage from optimally managed trade ratios, while also diminishing the functional advantages that can be exploited from buildings and wonders affecting trade, luxury, and happiness. All the new rules are intended so AI can play with them.

Classic[]

The Classic ruleset is the traditional standard Freeciv ruleset, and default for single player games.

Experimental[]

The Experimental ruleset tries to use the new features available in Freeciv that are not yet in use in default rulesets. It is based on the classic ruleset. If the changes in this ruleset result in a working game (especially with regard to the AI) they could be included in the default ruleset for next major release.

Multiplayer[]

The Multiplayer ruleset rectifies game balance issues encountered in the Classic ruleset. Multiplayer rules were intended to be the most 'standard' or 'classic' ruleset possible while still resolving known issues. The changes were meant to balance games that had much larger numbers of players. It is based on the 'Rewonder' ruleset designed by Madeline Book for Freeciv 2.1.

Sandbox[]

The Sandbox ruleset is for playing with game engine features, and is not assured to maintain savegame compatibility between even bugfix releases. It is currenly based on Civ2civ3. It is useful for ruleset developers to experiment with new ruleset mechanics.

Alien World[]

The Alien World ruleset exhibits the capabilities of the Freeciv Server for creating games completely different from the classic type of game. The link tells more about it.

More Rulesets[]

The rulesets above ship with the official downloadable Freeciv software. Many players may like to engage in massive multiplayer online games. These additional multiplayer rulesets are available for single- and multi- player formats, by visiting Freeciv-web and playing Freeciv in the browser:

Multiplayer+[]

The Multiplayer+ ruleset further rectifies bugs, exploits, and imbalances, as vetted from years of play in the Multiplayer ruleset. It is essentially a fixed Multiplayer ruleset that is the same in almost all other respects. This ruleset is currently only available on the multiplayer gaming community Freeciv-web. There, it is accessible by the console command line /rules mpplus

Multiplayer II Evolution[]

The Multiplayer II Evolution rulesets started with Multiplayer+ as their basis. They strive to keep familiarity, mechanics, look-and-feel, and the general character of the "ancestral tree" of Civ II ⸙ Classic ⸙ Multiplayer ⸙ Multiplayer+. MP2 rulesets are much more ambitious in introducing major upgrades, features, and improvements to modernize the game, selectively implementing modern features from the 4X genre. As such, the MP2 rulesets are currently the preferred way to play within the Multiplayer branches of Freeciv. MP2 is currently only available on the multiplayer gaming community Freeciv-web.

Multiplayer II Evolution is an evolving ruleset that gets development releases with new features. If one is familiar with classic Freeciv or Multiplayer I, one can start with Multiplayer 2.1 "Avant-garde" and find not many changes to learn. Or, one can be more ambitious and go straight to learning the latest release with all the new features, rules, and upgrades.

Multiplayer II Avant-Garde is the 2.1 release of multiplayer rules, accessible with /rules mp2-ag
Multiplayer II Brava is the 2.2 release of multiplayer rules, accessible with /rules mp2-brava
Multiplayer II Caravel is the 2.3 release of multiplayer rules, accessible with /rules mp2-caravel
Multiplayer II Dragoon is the 2.4 release of multiplayer rules, accessible with /rules mp2-dragoon
Multiplayer II Elephant is the 2.5 release of multiplayer rules, accessible with /rules mp2-elephant
Future releases of Multiplayer II can be recognized by each release having a moniker using alphabetical A,B,C order.

Anatomy of a Ruleset[]

Ruleset files define the rules of the game within the hard-coded framework:

Buildings.ruleset[]

Improvements, Wonders, Small Wonders, and Special buildings like Coinage are defined here. See Editing Buildings for more information.

Cities.ruleset[]

City properties are defined here. See Editing Cities for more information.

Effects.ruleset[]

Game effects are defined here and its included sub-file, ai_effects.ruleset. See Editing Effects for more information.

Game.ruleset[]

Various general game rules, action enablers, and first 32 default player colors are defined here. See Editing Game for more information.

Governments.ruleset[]

Governments are defined here. See Editing Governments for more information.

Nations.ruleset[]

Nations are defined here. The list of included nations, nation groups, and nation sets in the included nationlist.ruleset are defined here. See Editing Nations for more information.

Styles.ruleset[]

Civilization Styles are defined here. See Editing Styles for more information.

Techs.ruleset[]

Advances and Technology Flags are defined here. See Editing Techs for more information.

Terrain.ruleset[]

Terrain, Special Resources, Roads, and other Extras are defined here. See Editing Terrain for more information.

Units.ruleset[]

Unit Classes, Unit Class Flags, Unit Flags, and Units are defined here. See Editing Units for more information.

LUA File[]

Script.lua and the included default.lua can have events defined within them. See Event Scripting for more information.

Serv File[]

Serv Files contain server commands, especially the rulesetdir that tells the server to load a ruleset's directory. The name.serv file for a given ruleset name are stored in a directory found in the FREECIV_DATA_PATH together with a name sub-directory containing all *.ruleset files and script.lua as listed above.