Longturn

LT6 players — Wanna play with lots of human players?

The Longturn game is, in a nutshell, a Freeciv game where the turns are about 24 hours each, so one logs in once per day to do their turn. This format allows for more players to play at once, more time to strategize, more time to coordinate with other players, and less rushing to get things done, which can occur in a standard multi-player Freeciv game. It takes a lot longer to play a game--about 2 to 6 months--but you can play it just a little bit every day. At the moment (Dec. 2009) the sixteenth longturn game (LTXVI) at longturn.org is being played by 26 players, and the seventeenth (LTXVII) is about to begin with a full thirty.

Currently, there are 12 Longturn servers and 1 experimental server.

Regular and Experimental Games

There are, generally speaking, two kinds of Longturn games running—regular and experimental. The Regular games are just that. The Experimental game, called LTex for short, is for testing new rules changes before putting them in the regular games.

In the LTex game, new players may always join as long as there are fewer than 30 players playing. A new player gains a certain amount of units and technologies by a piece of added code unique to the Experimental game. Since new players can always join, a LTex game only ends when the players agree to it. Playing the Experimental game is a good way to get your feet wet while waiting for a Regular game to start.

How to Join a Game

There are probably several Longturn games running right now, simultaneously. There may also be one in “pre-game”, awaiting enough players to join before it starts. Regular games in progress cannot accept new players, but a Regular game in pre-game and the Experimental game can accept new players as long as they are not full (30 players). To join a game, create an account on the longturn website, login, go to the game's page and click on the SIGN UP button. The game will start when enough players have joined, around 15-30. Watch the game's page for announcements from the administrator to see when the game will start.

Types of Freeciv Longturn Games

This section details the three different types of Longturn games, differentiated by whether they are Free-For-All or Team games, and by the Diplomacy setting. The Longturn webmaster determines what type of game the next Longturn game will be, FFA or Team (usually alternating) and, if it's an FFA game, poll voting determines the Diplomacy setting.

I. Free-For-All w/ Diplomacy
Players are not grouped into teams at the start of the game. Diplomacy is enabled, so players can make alliances with each other.

A group of players can win by either:

agreeing that all remaining players share victory, excluding players that have surrendered
winning the space race (if that option is enabled; only one player wins in this case)

II. Free-For-All w/o Diplomacy
Players are not grouped into teams at the start of the game. Diplomacy is disabled. You can create diplomats and spies and send them against enemy units and cities. However, you cannot negotiate pacts such as cease-fire, peace and alliance, so all nations are, in theory, at war with each other throughout the game. You also cannot trade technologies, gold, units or cities. Players often simply make alliances outside the game however and “trade” techs by stealing from each other.

Only one player can win, by either:

conquering all other nations
convincing all other players to surrender
winning the space race (if that option is enabled)
a pre-determined method upon reaching the game end date (if an end date has been set)

III. Team Game
Players are grouped into teams at the start of the game and try to achieve a team victory. Teams are usually anywhere from 2-6 players. Diplomacy is usually enabled for this type of game.

A Team of players can win by either:

conquering all other nations
convincing all other players to surrender
winning the space race (if that option is enabled)

Current (more or less) Longturn Game Rules

Longturn games have acquired their own rules compared to default Freeciv games, as a result of player voting. All players of a certain game can propose rule changes to that game before it starts. Some polls also affect the way the Longturn games are handled as a whole. These are "site polls" as opposed to "game polls". Below are listed the server settings and changes to the default Freeciv rules. These rules are from the 16th Longturn game, LTXVI, a Type I game. To get the rules for the latest game running, use this list as a starting point, then check longturn.org and consult the pages for the games which have run since to see any changes.

Turns & Victory

The game is autosaved every turn. (saveturns=1)
A turn lasts 23 hours. (timeout=82800)
Turns can end early if every player clicks "Turn Done", including disconnected players.(turnblock=1, fixedlength=0)
The space race is disabled. (spacerace=0)

Map & Terrain

The map is a rectangular grid that wraps N-S and E-W. (topology=3)
The whole map is temperate. There are no poles. (alltemperate=1, separatepoles=0)
The map is 20,000 tiles square, and 40% land. (size=20, landmass=40)
There are no huts or barbarians. (huts=0, barbarians=0)
10% of terrain squares will have special resources. (specials=100)
Movement cost for difficult terrain has been doubled. For example, mountains cost 6 move, but plains still cost 1.

Cities & Government

Cities must be placed at least 4 squares apart. (citymindist=4)
Cities must rapture for 3 turns before they start to grow. (rapturedelay=3)
The build cost of Marco Polo's Embassy has been increased from 200 to 500.
Revolutions last 2 turns. (revolen=2)

Units

Starting units are four Settlers, two Workers, and two Explorers. (startunits ccccwwxx)
Units start within a 3-square radius. (dispersion=3)
Units in a fortress regain 50% HP per turn (25% default).
All units have had their movement speed tripled. This also means Worker/Settler activities go faster.
All units have had their vision doubled. A unit that can normally only see adjacent squares can now see 2 squares out (1 diagonally). A unit that can normally see 2 squares out can now see 4 squares out (3 diagonally).
Veterans get a movement bonus of 1 point (square) per veteran level.
Workers and Engineers can become veterans by performing useful work.
New unit: Migrants. Build cost 15 shields, 1 population; upkeep 1 shield, 1 food; just like Settlers, but cannot found new cities.
Caravans and Freight have been disabled.

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is enabled, but players cannot meet for diplomacy unless both? have an embassy. (diplomacy=0, contactturns=0)
Diplomats and Spies have a base chance of success of 50% (the default is 80%). (diplchance=50)

Extra Patches
These have been hard-coded and are not part of the normal options. If you play a home game using the Longturn settings, comment these out unless you are willing to self-compile the code with the added patches included.

A unit must wait at least 10 hours before it can move on the next turn. (moverefilltime=36000)
Player city trading is disabled. (citytrading=0)
Some instances of Teleporting, the practice of moving a unit instantly from one city to another, have been disabled. (Not certain exactly which. When you disband a city, the resulting migrant/settler still teleports to the nearest city.)
Borders are fogged, ie. you cannot see enemy borders change if you cannot see those squares.
Tired Attack is enabled (disabled in base code, contradicting help files).

Projects

Within the Longturn Freeciv community several projects are in progress to add features needed for the Longturn game or to enhance gameplay. When finished, the features are playtested on the experimental LTeX server:

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

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.