Longturn
From Freeciv
Longturn, is a way to enjoy Freeciv with lots of players, it takes alot longer, from about 2 months to up to 6 months, to play a game, but you can play it just a little bit every day. At the moment (Nov. 2007) the ninth longturn game at longturn.org is being played by 30 players, and the tenth longturn game has just started. There's also an experimental server with currently 18 players, on which new settings and features are tried out. If you want to start a new longturn game you can register at the longturn community website, and ask if someone is intersted in starting a new game.[edit] Game rules
Because longturn game are played for such long time periods, the game rules have changed alot to make the games faster (about 2 or 3 months instead of a year) and to speed up the early phase of the game (which would otherwise be boring with just one turn per day). Nearly all changes to server settings are the result of votings, all members of the Longturn community have the right to propose rule changes and vote on them. Currently, there are 12 Longturn servers and 1 experimental server.
Some major changes are:
- All units have 3 times their normal movement points
[edit] Projects
Within the Longturn Freeciv community several projects are in process, to add features that are needed for playing in longturn mode or to enhance the gameplay. When finished the features are playtested on the experimental LTeX server:
- Adding players during the game
- A dynamic map
- Server messages for offline players
- Diplomacy with offline players
- A working CMA
- Communication with players that aren't online
- Making drawings on the maps to convey concepts of borders, attack paths etc.
- Fine grained diplomacy options
Adding players during the game A mechanism has been developped that allows players to be added to a running game without a server restart. They are added as barbarians, with some start units and technologies. The amount and kind of units and technologies is calculated with a formula which ensures that new players become equally advanced and strong as existing players. The patch is fully operational.
Dynamic map To enhance longturn gameplay a mechanism is under development which turns the Freeciv map into a dynamic, always changing landscape. Terrain types of map tiles are changed each turn according to a formula. Eventually the dynamic map feature will allow longturn games to become neverending, as the changing map keeps opening up the game. A first rough version of this feature is ready, and is being tested and further developped.


