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2. A Reference of the Client Features

2.1 Reference of the Windows

2.1.1 Connect Window

While we already discussed the Connection Dialogue, in section 1.1 above, there some additional facts worth mentioning. The default host name of "localhost" connects only to a server running on your own computer; to join a multiplayer game on another computer you will need to enter its IP address or hostname. The Name field specifies the name by which you identify yourself to the server operator; for an initial connection to a game it may as well be your ordinary name or user name (e.g., "david"), but if you are reconnecting to an existing game it needs to be the the ruler name of the empire ("Caesar").

The Connect button will make the connection to the server. The Metaserver button will open the Metaserver Window.

2.1.2 Metaserver Window

Freeciv Server Selection

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This window, which can be opened by pressing the Metaserver button of the Connect Window, displays the status information of Freeciv servers all over the Internet. By clicking on a server's line you can enter its address and port number into your Connect Window. Press the Update button to request a fresh server list from the metaserver.

2.1.3 Main Window

The main window is described at length in the tutorial, but there are a few elements that were not covered at that time.

<paragraph here: chatline and sending people messages>

<paragraph here: chatline and sending server commands (permissions)>

<paragraph here: viewing options>

2.1.4 City Dialog

The City dialog is covered in detail in the tutorial

2.1.5 The Rates Dialog

Rates Window The rates dialog shows you the current division of your trade into taxes, luxuries, and science. You may use this to adjust your rates, up to the limit allowed by your government type. Use single left clicks either to the left or the right of the scrollbar or grap the scrollbar to move it. Reducing the rate a step increases some other rate a step, and likewise when you increase one rate. You may set the Lock button on any rate which you don't want this automatic adjustment to change.

2.1.7 The Cities Report

Cities Report

This is opened by selecting City Report from the main window's Reports pull-down menu, or by pressing the F1 key. It displays a one-line summary for each of your cities. The "State" field shows whether the morale of your city is "Rapture", "Peace", or "Disorder" (in this example, Mediolanum is in Disorder). The "Workers" field shows a count of the happy, content, and unhappy workers (Mediolanum and Neapolis have unhappy workers, though Neapolis probably has an entertainer). For any cities with specialists, the number of entertainers, scientists, and tax collectors are shown. The "Surplus" field is the surplus counts in food, production, and trade; a glance at this will warn you of cities with negative net food supply. The "Economy" field is the trade division into gold, luxuries, and science; many cities have negative gold because taxes are low. If there are trade routes or pollution, they are shown in other columns. The "Food Stock" column shows the contents and size of the food store. The building or unit under construction is shown last, with its production points already complete, target production points, and "Buy" cost.

The Center button centers the map on the city. The Popup button opens the City Dialog for that city. The Buy button is the same as pressing the Buy button on the selected city's window. The Change button is the same as pressing the Change button on the selected city's window; this means that you see a list of buildings or units, and must select one. The Refresh button requests that the server update the data in the list. The Configure button opens a window to configure this window. It allows you to regulate which of the possible columns are shown, or to what level of conciseness.

Configure City Report

2.1.8 Players Dialog

Players Dialog

The Players window is opened from the main window menu. It shows all of the players in the game by ruler name and empire name; an asterisk beginning a ruler name indicates that it is an AI. Players will show up here even if you have not seen them within the game. If you have an embassy with that race, that column will have an X and the Intelligence and Meet buttons will activate those windows. The State column indicates whether, with regard to the current turn, that player is still moving or is done. Players currently connected by clients have their IP address listed; those not connected show how many turns they have been offline. The "Intelligence" button opens the Intelligence Window. The "Meet" button opens the Meeting Window.

2.1.9 Economy

Economy Dialog This is brought up by selecting Economy from the Reports menu on the main window menu bar. It gives a summary of the empire-wide income and outflow of money. First it lists all of the types of buildings you have built, their count and their maintenance costs. Then it summarizes your tax income from all cities and your total building costs. The "Sell Obsolete" button goes through every city and sells the selected type of building, but only if the building is obsolete (for instance, an ancient Barracks becomes obsolete once you develop Gunpowder) or superseded by a Wonder of the World (as the Pyramids makes your Granaries unnecessary). The "Sell All" button sells all of that type of building, obsolete or not.

2.1.11 Units

Units Dialof This is brought up by selecting Units from the Records pull-down menu on your main window. It lists how many of each type of unit you have, and also highlights with an asterisk which units are obsolete and can thus be upgraded (in the example, the Legion, Musketeers, and Galleon). The "Upgrade" button offers you the chance to upgrade some or all of the selected unit types for a price, if units of those types are present in a city. Upgrading is possible for many units when the ability to make the better unit has been discovered (for instance, Settlers may be upgraded to Engineers once Explosives have been discovered). You might check this to be sure you don't have forgotten and left some of your cities guarded by ancient units in the modern age; for instance, that Legion is a waste of support with Armor units around.

2.1.12 Wonders of the World Report

Wonders Report This shows all of the Wonders of the world including those being built.

2.1.13 Top Five Cities

Traveler's Report This shows the five greatest cities in the world. It's ranked by wonders, then by city size

2.1.14 The Messages Window

The Messages Window Double-clicking on city messages in this window will pop up the city dialog for that city.

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2.1.15 Demographics

Demographics Report This is brought up from the main window menu bar. It lists several empire-wide statistics, and gives you a ranking by which your empire compares with the other empires.

2.1.16 Help Window

Help Window

The help window is selected by choosing any of the entries under the Help pull-down menu on the main window. There is help available in many categories, from units and buildings to concepts such as combat and happiness. Regardless of which category you select, the left edge scrollbar lists all of the help which is available, in all categories. Click on a unit name, building name, form of government, or whatever your interest is, to bring up its help page. The help pages themselves may contain scrolled data, as the example above does (note the scroll bar). Help pages for units and buildings list their critical statistics and technological prerequisites.

The help pages for buildings, units, and civilization advances include a map of the advances required to produce the item. Note that in this example, Transport requires Magnetism, which is displayed in red because you don't have that technology and aren't close enough to have it listed as an option for research; it is 15 research steps away from what you have researched already. Its predecessors are Physics and Iron Working; Physics is at least 13 steps in the future, but Iron Working is only one research step away, and indeed is marked yellow to say that it can be researched right now. The advances Bronze Working and Warrior Code have already been discovered.

You may use this interactively to plan your research. One of the prerequisites for Physics is Navigation; the graph shows that it is 9 steps away, but doesn't show what you need to get to it. A click on the Navigation box redisplays the window to expand its prerequisites. If showing the earlier advances would exceed the space in the window, the later ones are pushed off to the right; to get them back, click again on an intermediate advance (such as Navigation); its prerequisites will disappear, leaving room for those displaced.

Unit Help

2.1.17 Intelligence Report

Intelligence Report This is opened from the Intelligence button on the Players window, but is only available for civilizations for which you have established an embassy (one of the functions of a Diplomat). It shows some useful data about the civilization, mostly about the state of its technology. Note the asterisk with Monotheism; that is an advancement that the other race has and you don't, and might be something you want to bargain for.

2.1.18 Meeting Dialog

Diplomacy Meeting

The Meeting Window comes up from the Meet button of the Players window; recall that this is only available between human players, as the AI players don't do diplomacy. It automatically comes up for both players involved in the meeting, and both will then use his or her window to negotiate a treaty. The left column of the window has buttons with which the window user may offer gifts to the other player; the right column has buttons to request gifts from the other player. The center contains all of the clauses so far offered by either player.

First Clause Negotiation Let's suppose the Romans want to make a few offers and see what happens. Each of the blue buttons is a menu. Caesar might start with the "Maps" menu and select the option to give the entire worldmap as known to him, then select the "Advances" menu, which pops up all of the advances that the Romans have and the English don't; in this case he offers Map Making. The box in the center on both player's windows now shows these two clauses.

Second Clause Negotiation Elizabeth has the chance to examine the Roman generosity and come up with a counter-offer. She could accept the gift as it is by pressing "Accept treaty", but the Romans would probably not accept it as is and would demand changes. They could do so by using their right-side buttons to add clauses offering English assets to Rome. She will make some offers of her own instead, using the Advances and Cities buttons to offer Masonry and Birmingham.

Third Clause Negotiation Caesar can see that the English are overcome with his magnificence, and will try to see how far he can go. Selecting the first line of the treaty clauses and clicking on "Erase clause", the Roman offer of the world map disappears from both player's windows.

Fourth Clause Negotiation Elizabeth could use the right buttons to add clauses of Roman gifts, or could delete clauses from the treaty, or end the meeting entirely. Instead, she clicks on "Accept treaty", which causes the "English view" red thumbs-down symbol to change to a green thumbs-up symbol on both windows.

Diplomacy Mesages Caesar sees an entirely acceptable treaty, and clicks on "Accept treaty" also. The meeting window disappears from the view of both players, and the server will implement the transfers given in the treaty. They will both immediately see in their message lists messages informing them of the changes that took place.

2.1.19 Science

Science Dialog

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Also note the "Help" button. Checking this will give you a help window on any advancement on which you click in the lower list, and also on any advancement you select in the Researching or Goal drop-down boxes.

2.1.20 Global Worklists

Global Worklists A player may use the "Edit worklists" window to create, edit, and delete global worklists. As of version 1.11.4, a player may create up to 16 global worklists. Global worklists are intended to save time managing cities: instead of creating many identical city worklists, the player may create one global worklist and copy it to each city.

2.1.21 Spaceship Dialog

Spaceship Dialog

This shows the spaceship under construction and its statistics. Of particular interest is the success probability.


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