NetHack, Freeciv

[mousemaylikecheese]

So, what's your opinion of the two freeware games I really love though I'm not that good at them? (you are allowed, for no particular reason, to pick 3 options!) And if you've never heard of them, maybe you should try them. Freeciv is an FTP download(though I've only played an older version on a Knoppix 4 dvd), and I can't exactly figure out where to get NetHack, although Wikihack may have some suggestions somewhere.

(I would choose answers #17 & 5, though I can't really do the NetHack HJKL navigation, so I play QT NetHack, which allows me to choose a name other than Knoppix and navigate with the arrow keys, as well as having a nice GUI.)

[timtheenchanter]

Hello mousemaylikecheese,

I have absolutely no idea what NetHack or Freeciv are. Care to enlighten me?

Tim the Enchanter

[Ankh]

Are these roleplay type games or something like that?

[mousemaylikecheese]

(BTW, you can call me mouse or Arachne if you want something shorter)
Nethack and Freeciv are totally different games, that I just class together because they're both free and I've been playing them on Knoppix.

Nethack is a "roguelike" game, according to various sources. Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure what that means. What I do know is...
First you choose a name, race (human, elf, dwarf, gnome, orc), role (such as archeologist, wizard, priest, monk, knight, samurai, Valkyrie, and several others), gender, and alignment (lawful/neutral/chaotic--this determines your deity and possibly affects some factors of the game) and then you are put into the dungeons on level one, possibly with a pet, with a message informing you that you are questing for this amulet that this naughty god Moloch stole (or something like that... I tend to disregard the message after having seen it around 60 times or so) and hid somewhere beneath level 24. You have to explore the dungeons to find the staircase down to the next level, and as you do so, you can find gold, fight monsters, search for food (you do have to eat), learn spells by finding and reading spellbooks, talk to the Oracle of Delphi, gain experience in combat and possibly quest for various other artifacts (I've seen articles about things like Excalibur in Wikihack, which is the wiki for NetHack). The things you pick up may also be blessed, uncursed, or cursed. Occasionally you'll get a wish or acquire a scroll for genocide. Put that way, it doesn't sound terribly entertaining, but I think it is .

Another neat thing is the "encyclopedia", which I think is usually accessed by ?, d, n, "characterunknown", where "characterunknown" is whatever thing you want to look up. For example, looking up Ranger, Olok-hai, elves, hobbits, and such brings up respective applicable Tolkien quotes. The Gnome entry has a short quote from CoS, and there is an entry for towel composed of a bit from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy(by the way, according to Wikihack, the towel is not an efficient weapon, wet or dry, regardless of what the entry says).

The game is mostly keyboard controlled, and capital letters generally have different meanings than their lowercase counterparts. I like the action commands, but I'm not a fan of the hjkl movement system (h-right, j-down, k-up, l-left), so I like versions that allow the use of arrow keys as well. I think some options can be set to allow the use of the number-pad for controls. A few examples of controls:

q-quaff (i.e. drink a potion or water from a fountain or sink)
e-eat (eat something--you must be carrying it or standing on the space it occupies)
r-read (read a scroll or spell book)
R-remove (Either it's remove an article of armor, or remove an accessory, such as a ring or amulet, which have special powers. I can't remember, but the message quickly clears up this)
#untrap- Er, well, un-set a trap... commands beginning with a # are called "extended commands" and are accessed by typing # and the first few letters of the command, so as to prevent ambiguity.
a-apply, i.e. grease something using a can of grease, unlock a box with a key, etc.
y-move in a "northwesterly direction", where north is considered the top of the map, or answer yes to a question.
X-explorer mode. I use this a lot, because I'm still on the learning curve, and it allows you to avoid death by saying "No, I don't want to die!" Regardless of this, I still have not beat the game. In addition, each game of NetHack is different!

I personally like QT NetHack for its interface, but I'm trying to get it for Windows, and I'm not having a whole lot of luck. I thought I found it somewhere, but I'm not sure I did (the file looks like it may be for Linux). You may have better luck for your Mac, if I understood you right in the other thread as having a Mac. Look on SorceForge.net if you want to try it out. I've also used Falcon's Eye, which is a 3D-GUI form, but it was slow and didn't like to close in Knoppix unless I escaped the dungeons or used X-Kill.

---

Onto Freeciv...

Freeciv is a civilization game in which you choose a nation to play and compete to either dominate the world and defeat all the other players or beat the other nation(s)'s spaceships to what I believe is Alpha Centauri. You can select various nations, including historical and moderns (and fantasy, in older versions or with a patch, according to a note on the Freeciv wiki page). You get units of various types, such as Settlers, Warriors, and Explorers at first (I know you get settlers and and explorer by default, but warriors are available to build from the beginning of the game--more on that in a moment). The Settlers are the only units that can build cities, which you have to do. Once you have a city, you can begin to produce various items, such as gold, city improvements(which affect the city--they include library, university, palace (default in the capital city, which is the first city you build--I've never tried to build one elsewhere)), units(they do various jobs, such as explore, build new cities, improve the land, connect cities, attack enemy units, scout out enemy cities (diplomat and spy units), etc.), or Wonders--there are plenty more than 7 wonders in this game. All of your options convey various advantages, and it took a while perusing the help file before I even began to have an inkling of what to do. You can also eventually do diplomacy with other players.

Freeciv, too, contains Tolkien references, or did when there were fantasy nations--you can(could) play as Mordor, Elves(my favorite!), Hobbits, or Dunedain.

I'm not real great at it yet, and I'm still on the learning curve. Initially I did almost everything by mouse control, via the menus, but I'm learning that (a little like NetHack) Freeciv is also controllable via keyboard, which could be faster... To move units around you either use the number pad or use the go command by typing g(or is it a capital?) and clicking on the square where you want the unit to go. It may take multiple turns, depending upon how far you command the unit to go, over what terrain the route is, and whether there are roads on the relevant square. You can also command certain units to do things like Sentry, Fortify, Irrigate, or Mine the square they're on.

You can play against AI players, against other people who are connected to the same name, or possibly against yourself or a friend using the same computer(as I just recently figured out how to do) As I said, I'm not that great--I've only beaten myself (Elves vs. Mordor), possibly because my instinct is against the "smallpox" strategy (lots of little cities, rather than maybe a dozen metropolises. ) and I don't like going to war (partially because it's an additional complication, partially because I don't like attacking unless it's absolutely necessary.)

Freeciv is available from www.freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/main_page, where you can also read about it.

[timtheenchanter]

Well, Arachne, I just looked at the freeciv site and noticed that the game is EXACTLY like Sid Meier's Civilization series, but with some modifications. I used to play Civilization III a few years ago, so I guess I'll regale you with tales of my exploits.

Well, maybe not, but I'll tell you what my strategy is. I am a very expansionist and aggressive player, and I prey upon the smaller pacifist nations. At the beginning of the game, I just expand as quickly as possible, making lots of cities until I hit some sort of obstacle, like a neighbouring country.

Once my mad settler expansion comes to an abrupt end, I then train as many offensive units as possible. Once I've got a few, I immediately have them attack my nearest, weakest neighbor. Sometimes I've attacked so quickly that my opponents haven't gotten around to training troops, so I've been lucky enough to take some cities without a fight. However, I just keep making more, and more, and more units until I completely overpower the hapless enemy.

Now, this strategy works (the majority of the time, but it can backfire unpleasantly) because I first ensure that I am bigger than my opponent, and second I can outproduce him/her/it. I don't bother building markets or libraries or anything like that - the only buildings I build are granaries (for faster expansion) and barracks (for better troops). By doing nothing else, I create a huge, unstoppable military mass that steamrolls pretty much everything that gets in the way.

But how does my economy work, then? Well, I just let my enemies go through all of the trouble of making large cities with lots of improvements - then I just take those cities from them! I get money in plunder, plus I steal cities that are generally more valuable and more productive than my own.

So that's my strategy. I just expand until I can't anymore, and then I just pick one person to attack. Once I conquer one person, I pick another target and repeat the process. I simply attack and keep attacking until I conquer the world.

Tim the Enchanter

[Beverly Marie]

Tim-
That's a completely and totally awesome strategy. I too used to play Civ III a couple years ago, but failed miserably, possibly because I never found out a good strategy. Usually I would just watch my brother and my dad play. I should try that sometime, if I can even find the game.

[timtheenchanter]

Hello teuscherchocolate,

I'm glad you like my very blunt strategy, but it has some notable shortcomings, like...

1. It requires victims. Sometimes I've started a game as the only nation on an island - I couldn't expand and there were no people to conquer. Since there weren't any nations to prey upon, I had to play the normal, boring way. By the time I had discovered civilizations on other continents, I found out that I was a tiny, backwards hermit kingdom.

2. It requires weak victims - no, I am not being redundant. It is of utmost importance that you fight an enemy you know you can beat. Once you've absorbed the smaller nations, then you can take on the bigger ones, assuming there are any. Also, it is very awkward if there is another country that has the exact same strategy as you, leading to very long, protracted wars - not fun! Also, also, if the other countries have enough spine, they might team up to get rid of an overly aggressive player. Once, my reputation was so bad that I ended up being at war with the entire world at one point!

3. You sacrifice an awful lot - by concentrating solely on conquest, scientific research and the economy takes the backseat. In order to remain competitive, you have to keep conquering. In simple words, you are in a perpetual state of warfare.

4. I don't know if it works against human players - I have only played Civ III against the computer, since my computer at the time didn't have Internet access. This strategy might not work against human players, who are generally cleverer than the computer.

---

Anyway, my days of Civilization III are over, since I've moved on to greater and better things, like Rome: Total War and Hearts of Iron II, an ancient grand strategy/tactical battle game and a World War II grand strategy simulator, respectively.

Tim the Enchanter

[mousemaylikecheese]

Although I suppose I might just attempt to beat AI player X to Alpha Centauri.
It sounds pretty funny, Hobbits researching Magnetism, Elves building Magellan's Expedition....