FreeCiv is a free server/client turn-based, multiplayer strategy games where each player becomes the supreme and all-powerful leader of a civilization fighting to obtain the ultimate goal of becoming the greatest civilization on the face of the planet (or to be the ONLY existing civilization left on the planet).
Players of Civilization-II® by Microprose® should notice that FreeCiv playes the same since one aim of FreeCiv is to have compatible rules.
FreeCiv is maintained by an international team of coders, enthusiasts all working in their free time and is one of the most fun and addictive network games out there! (at least one you can get free that is)
FreeCiv Alpha Centauri is FreeCiv, with features incorporated from Sid Meier's Alpha CentauriTM game.
The original OpenVMS port of FreeCiv was done by Roger Tucker working from the most recent stable release.
The FreeCiv Alpha Centauri port, complie/link scripts and documentation was done by Robert Alan Byer from the work Roger Tucker did with the original FreeCiv source.
Currently the "offical stable" release of FreeCiv Alpha Centauri is v1.10.0.
Note: The word "stable" is a long shot here, I couldn't really get a clean compile with the v1.10.0 kit and had to get the lastest CVS snapshot to base the OpenVMS port on.
The OpenVMS port of FreeCiv was done using the Unix CVS snapshot dated 8th August 2000.
The "official" FreeCiv Alpha Centauri v1.10.0 distribution source code site can be found at http://bellatrix.pcl.ox.ac.uk/~stewart/freecivAC-1.10.0.tgz
I would HIGHLY recommend getting the latest CVS snapshot which can be found at http://bellatrix.pcl.ox.ac.uk/~stewart/freecivAC-20000809.tar.gz
The "official" FreeCiv Alpha Centauri for OpenVMS distribution source code can be found at http://www.ourservers.net/public/freecivac/vms_freecivac-20000809.zip
The BEST site for more information on FreeCiv in general along with documentation and hints, tips and tutorials can be found at the FreeCiv web site at http://www.freeciv.org/
There are six mailing lists for FreeCiv that you can subscribe to if you want more up-to-date information. Information on joing these can be found at http://www.freeciv.org/mailinglists.html
If you need help NOW you can try one of the five IRC channels. Information on the IRC servers can he found at http://www.freeciv.org/irc.html
For FreeCiv Alpha Centauri you can visit the FreeCiv Alpha Centauri home page at http://bellatrix.pcl.ox.ac.uk/~stewart/fcindex.html
There are FreeCiv Alpha Centauri mailing lists you can subscribe to if you need more information. These can be found at http://bellatrix.pcl.ox.ac.uk/~stewart/fcindex.html#information
If you detect what you think is a problem, glitch in the main FreeCiv Alpha Centauri code or have any improvements/suggections you can send an e-mail to one of the FreeCiv Alpha Centauri mailing lists. To see a list of the FreeCiv Alpha Centauri mailing lists or for directions on subscribing to one you can check http://bellatrix.pcl.ox.ac.uk/~stewart/fcindex.html#information WWW page.
If you detect a bug in the copile/link scripts, or make some improvements or have any comments on them then feel free to send an e-mail to Robert Alan Byer and I will try to answer any and all questions to the best of my ability.
