THIS PAGE IS INCOMPLETE, UNDER CONSTRUCTION, AND NOT CONSIDERED ACCURATE UNTIL THIS HEADER MESSAGE HAS BEEN REMOVED. Discussion should happen on the talk page.
This chart helps show user-interface feature comparisons between Freeciv clients. This can help users choose their preferred clients, and hopefully motivate client developers to integrate missing features from other clients.
| Legend: | |
|---|---|
| ★ | Superior, fully implemented feature; one click or keypress; superior visual display. |
| ✓ | Implemented: Some features missing; may require many clicks, presses, or menu operations. |
| ✗ | Present but inferior; minimal implementation, many features missing; difficult to see or use well. |
| Absent. Not implemented. |
List of Freeciv Client Features, Compatibility, Functionality
| Feature | GTK | SDL | QT | FCW | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stable Version / Features / Compatibility | 2.6x | 2.6 | 2.6x | 3.09 | Binaries of GTK, SDL QT clients not available for all versions. 3.0 pre-stable/release versions available for some. |
| NeverProtect/NeverBlock compatibility | ★ | Fixes (un)reachability bugs/exploits/inadequacies | |||
| Fixed Airlift capacity flaw, compatibility | ✓ | Airlift capacity can take values between 1 and ∞ | |||
| Combat rounds compatibility | ★ | Can implement combat_rounds and properly report results and update display | |||
| Can access multiplayer web games | ★ |
| |||
| Can access non-web remote servers | ★ | ★ | ★ | ||
| General | |||||
| Overall elegance/simplicity of UI | ✗+ | ✗- | ✓ | ★ | Number of clicks/presses needed for interaction. Ease of learning |
| Translation to languages other than English | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Native: not all translations are 100% complete / Web: on independent domains only, only Chinese translations | |
| Map links in chat/messages | ✓ | ? | ✓+ | ★ | Focus links to cities, units, and tiles on the map in chat/messages. ★=one-click and additional features ✓=link provided |
| External-to-internal links | ✓ | Paste in-game reference links outside the game (tiles, units, cities, etc.) | |||
| Extended/improved graphics included for most popular tileset | ★ | Amplio2 graphics upgraded with new release by professional artists | |||
| Extended/improved sound effects included | ★ | ||||
| Speech for incoming messages | ✓ | ||||
| Graphically enriched reporting text | ★ | ||||
| Performance, speed | ★ | ✓ | ★ | ✓ | |
| Crash frequency / bugs / glitches | ✓ | ✗+ | ✗+ | ✓ | Frequency of crash/glitch situations in a loose MBTF / severity of known specific triggers. Crash-and-exit-without-save incidents = ✗+ crash without save-and-exit. Note: Crashes may vary depending on OS. Do not assume your OS will have same issues. |
| City Features | |||||
| Highlight cities that have a building | ★ | ★=advanced functionality to select cities with X and not Y, etc. | |||
| Select cities that have a building | ★ | ||||
| Mass-buy | ★ | buy in multiple cities at once | |||
| Mass-change | ★ | change production in multiple cities at once | |||
| Real-time display of improvements in City List | ★ | see all buildings present/absent/unavailable right from the city list | |||
| Secondary sort | ★ | ||||
| Next/Prev. City hotkey | ✓+ | Peruse cities with single keystroke | |||
| City sub-tab hotkeys | ★ | Ability to switch main/production sub-tab, etc. | |||
| City Governor | ✓+ | ✓+ | ✓+ | ★ | ★=advanced macros and features: copy/paste, set once, set all, re-arrange, store, etc. |
| City tile output on map | ✓+ | ✓ | ✓+ | ★ | ★=hotkey + able to display values higher than 9 |
| One-click macro: cycle all Specialists | ★ | Change all specialists of one type with one click | |||
| Specialist control pane | ★ | Ability to specify specialist type without cycling | |||
| Production Choice Filtering | ✗ | ✗ | ★ | ★=one-click filter production choices for unreachable targets, units only, improvements only | |
| One-key Exits | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ★ | Ease of exiting dialog/window/ tab ★=always works from everywhere |
| City outlines on map | ✓ | ✓ | ✓- | ||
| City colors on main map | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Accessible through a keyboard shortcut | |
| City buy shortcut | ★ | One click/keystroke to buy in city from main mapview | |||
| Cities List Display | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ★ | Empire list of all cities and ability to trigger actions from this list. |
| City List: Current→Future State (Happy) | ★ | City list displays past/current/future state together: celebration at former TC AND upcoming TC | |||
| City View: Current→Future State (Happy) | ★ | City view displays past/current/future state together: celebration at former TC AND upcoming TC | |||
| City List column-sort | ✓ | ✓ | ★ | ||
| Production images in city list | ★ | ★ | Allows quick viewing of empire production | ||
| City label options | ★ | ✓+ | ★ | ★ | Customize city labels on map: stats/info/remove/etc. |
| Gold per shield costs | ★ | Can see g/s costs from city list with ability to sort and do mass-automatic purchases | |||
| Trade routes show on map | ✓ | ✓ | ✓- | ✓+ stats ★=selection filters (city, nation, foreign, revenue, etc. | |
| Airlift counters on map | ★ | ★=one-key, source/dest info together | |||
| Airlift counter in cities | ★ | ||||
| Interior Improvements View | ✗- | ★ | ✗- | ✓+ | Immediate visibility and checking of improvements |
| Interior Units View | ★ | ★ | ✗- | ★ | |
| City Happiness Causes | ✓+ | ✗ | ✓ | ||
| City Selection Filters | ★ | ☆ | ☆=uses Super Panel functionality instead | ||
| Paste composite Worklists | ✓ | (✓) | (✓)=effectuated through Empire tab | ||
| Economy tab | ✓ | ✓+ | Detailed view of city expenses in Economy or Empire tab | ||
| Detailed surplus info | ✓+ | ? | ✓ | ★ | |
| National Production | ✗ | ★ | Easily view/edit national production worklists across all cities | ||
| National Buildings | ✗ | ★ | Easily view which cities have which buildings across whole nation | ||
| Building Upkeep | ✓- | ★ | Easily view building upkeep across all cities | ||
| City defense/deployment | ★ | Quickly view defensibility of all cities in one view | |||
| Support for tunable build slots conditions and rules | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ★ | Allowing multiple units per turn to be built |
| Properly fixed cheat exploits in city disorder and starvation mechanics | ✓+ | see design log | |||
| Support for upkeep relief from wonders and buildings on a city-specific resolution scale | ✓ | ||||
| Map | |||||
| Mouse can move/drag the map | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ★ | Standard intuitive use of mouse to move the map around. ✗=multi-press keyboard substitute |
| Zoom Level | ✗ | ★ | ★ | ★-one key | |
| Map grid | ✓+ | ✓ | ✓+ | ✓+ | |
| Mini-map functionality | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ★ | See, click, drag, resize, or close mini-map to get more screen space. |
| Incoming/outgoing messages from mapview | ✗- | ✓ | ✓+ | ✓+ | Ease of receiving/viewing/seeing/hearing just-in-time alerts/messages. |
| Rich border drawing features | ★ | Accurate national color, multiple national colors, flags, animated movement, etc. | |||
| Unit Panel Functionality from map view | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ★ | Select/de-select/view info on selected units |
| Rewind Focus to last position | ✓- | Return map view to last focus location | |||
| Can quickly see/change taxes from map | ✗ | ✓ | ✓+ | ||
| Pollution highlighting | ★ | so as to never miss it, especially in city centre | |||
| Orders buttons for Units | ✓ | ✓- | ★ | Quick, easily discerned orders buttons for units: (1) ALL orders available; (2) Colour contrast+Icon differentiation compliant with modern UX standards | |
| Rich goto lines | ✓+ | ✓+ | ✓+ | See where units end turns for multi-turn GOTO | |
| Goto waypoints | ? | ? | ? | ||
| Supports all map topologies | ✓+ | ✓ | ✓+ | Client can support WRAPY torus worlds and hexagonal tiles | |
| Show tile outputs >9 | ✓+ | e.g., gold + super highways, wine/river/colossus+s.h., etc. | |||
| Tilesets | ★ | ★ | ★ | ☆ | ☆=enhanced default only; others require recompilation ★=supports non-default; lacks enhanced default (requires installation) |
| National territory view | ★ | Map mode to show national territories with filled-in territorial colors.★=one-click/hotkey | |||
| Map compass | ✓+ | ||||
| Balance Alignment of Resource Distribution (BARD) for fair resource distribution | |||||
| Units | |||||
| Support for Special Unit Attacks | ✓+ | Alternative types of engagement with special tactical features | |||
| Support for Special Unit Defense | ✓+ | ||||
| Fine balance on rounds, moves spent, bonuses, attack while fortified, etc., for bombard and combat | ★ | ||||
| Support for granular fine tuning of combat strength, bonuses, and mechanics | ✓- | ✓- | ✓- | ★ | |
| Ability to capture commercial cargo back to the home city of the unit capturing | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | |
| Support for iPillage | ✓- | ✓- | ✓- | ★ | ★=can optionally select pillage type, accessible info on the action |
| Support for industrial commerce units | ✓+ | ||||
| Active and Passive Move Rates | ✓+ | Actively vs passively using transport infra, for balance/realism/tactics | |||
| Max. Attacks per turn balance dynamics | ✓+ | ||||
| Vigil, user-controlled/specified autoattack conditions | ★ | ||||
| Visible cargo in the proper contexts | ★ | e.g., wagons and trawlers towing damaged ships | |||
| Deep Dive for submarines | ✓ | ||||
| Effects, mechanics, and features to balance and enrich formerly inferior naval combat system | ✓+ | ||||
| Enhanced nuclear effects, nuclear iPillage | ✓+ | ||||
| Nuke resistant units and bases | ✓+ | ||||
| Diplomatic odds reporting transparency | ★ | ||||
| Unit move point bar | ★ | Optional move point bar display for units | |||
| One-click unit deselect | ★ | De-select individual units from a group, with one click | |||
| Multiple Unit Selection and Orders | ✓+ | ✗ | ★ | Overall ability and ease of selecting multiple units and giving simultaneous commands to them | |
| One-Click select all units on tile | ✗ | ★ | |||
| One-Click add units to selection | ✓ | ★ | |||
| Rewind Focus | ★ | go back to last focused unit | |||
| Smart Loading | ★ | ability to select which transport a unit loads onto, scoop cargo with transports, selectively transfer cargo, etc. | |||
| Smart Quiet | ★ | intelligent demotion of fortify/sentry/no orders to instantly quiet units with the best available option | |||
| Variable disbanding conditions | ✓+ | Loss of units from home city conquest is variable and strategic | |||
| Lost units report their city location | ★ | ||||
| Killed unit stacks give rich reporting | ★ | ||||
| Fine tuning on stack kill and stack escape mechanics, bonuses, behaviors, features | ✓+ | ||||
| Cargo Transfer | ★ | transfer cargo unit from one transport to another on same tile | |||
| Support food bonuses on wild animals | ✓ | ||||
| Issuing orders to multiple units/stacks | ✓ | ? | ✓ | ★ | |
| Mass parallel unit movement | ★ | multiple selected units can be given command to simultaneously move in parallel cursor direction together | |||
| Support for hideouts | ★ | ||||
| Selecting/de-selectings units in unit panel | ✗ | ✓ | ★ | ||
| Focus-lock on active unit | ★ | ||||
| Select all of same type functionality | ★ | ✓ | ★ | ★ | |
| Select all of different type functionality | ★ | ||||
| Select all on same continent/sea | ★ | ✓ | ★ | ★ | |
| Unit cargo status | ✓- | ✓- | ★ | Graphic display of units clearly shows cargo status and quick click/hover info access on transporter unit | |
| Accurate unit stat infobars | ✗- | ✗- | ✗- | ★ | Colors and percentages in unit infobars accurately depict remaining hitpoints and movepoints |
| Advanced Unit Selection Filters | ★ | ✓ | e.g., select only Sentry units, units with full moves, units of type or not-type, etc. | ||
| Hover unit upgrade costs | ✓+ | can quickly see unit upgrade cost helptext | |||
| Delayed GOTO | ✓+ | ✓- | |||
| Units Tabs | ✓ | ✓+ | ✗ | ★ | Views on units, upkeep, geographic deployment, etc. |
| Diplomacy | |||||
| Meetings | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | Initiating meetings, responding to meetings, seeing incoming offers |
| Extended Peace, Trade, Embassy functionality | ★ | Compatibility with extended diplomacy options re: contactturns/embassy/cease-fire/tech/gold trade. | |||
| Intel: basic info | ✓ | ? | ★ | ★ | Gold, taxes, capital, ... |
| Intel: diplomatic status | ✓ | ? | ★ | ★ | For foreign nations |
| Intel: shares vision with | ? | ✓ | ✓ | ★=also sortable from Nations list | |
| Intel: wonders | ★ | Full realization of functional spec: reporting all wonder intel the server gives to the client. | |||
| Intel: techs | ✓ | ? | ✓+ | ★ | Techs that you don't know, techs that they don't know ★=also shows techs you have that they don't have |
| Smarter balanced diplomacy | ✓+ | Fixes on exploits/impossibilities/imbalances in diplomatic mechanics and systems | |||
| Renew pacts before expiration | ★ | ||||
| Excuse casus belli | ★ | ||||
| More and enhanced casus belli triggers and dynamics | ✓ | ||||
| Configurable ceasefire and armistice length | ★ | ||||
| Diplomatic Relations Map | ✓+ | ||||
| Nations List | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Pact/contact state | ✓- | ? | ✓- | ★ | Full info on pacts and contact ability at a glance |
| Shared vision info | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ | ||
| Jump to Nation on Map | ✓ | ||||
| Quick Message from Nations List | ✓ | ||||
| Cease-fire expiration status | ★ | ||||
| Casus belli status, two-way | ★ | ||||
| Research | |||||
| Blueprint mechanics to regulate tech proliferation epidemics | ✓+ | ||||
| Overall scrollable/readable | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓+ | Quickly see requirements, possessed techs, drag or one-click scrolling of screen |
| Setting Current Goal | ★ | ✗ | ★ | ★ | |
| Setting Future Goal | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ★ | |
| Visibility/accessibility of requirements | ★ | ✗-- | ✓ | ✓+ | Ease to view requirements tree, "unlocked" buildings/wonders/units info; bulbs required, help, etc. |
| In-game help | ✓ | ? | ✓ | ✓ |
✓ available ✓+ superior ★=hover, 1-click, or similar |
| Terrain help | ✓ | ? | ✓+ | ✓- | |
| Improvements & wonders help | ✓ | ? | ✓ | ✓+ | |
| Units help | ✓ | ? | ✓+ | ★ | In-game manual, hovertext, other resources |
| User Interface, Misc | |||||
| Game Status Panel | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓+ | Universal view/access of key national stats |
| Number of clicks or presses for frequently performed tasks. | ✗-- | ✗- | ✓+ | ★ | |
| Hotkeys | ✓+ | ✗ | ✓+ | ★ | |
| Extended mouse functionality | ✗ | ✗ | ★ | ||
| Ctrl-click-through | ✓ | Ability to click units in cities as if city isn't there | |||
| Dark Mode | ✓ | ★ | |||
| Climate Reports | ✓ | ||||
| Tax rate adjustment | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ★ | ★=lockable sliders, numeric display of tax rate, high resolution 5% increments |
| Superior tax rate rounding | ✓ | ★=intuitive proportions of taxes instead of wild errors from hamilton rounding | |||
| Superior corruption rounding mathematics and tunable effects | ✓+ | ||||
| Support for partisan-spawning to support multiple unit types instead of partisans only | ★ | ||||
| Variable rapture rates | ✓ | ||||
| Variable building razing odds tied to strategic decisions and circumstances | ✓+ | ||||
| Orders context menus | ★ | ★=configurable, show all legal orders | |||
| Alternate cursor/numpad input | ✗- | ✗- | ★ | cursor support for keyboards without numpad or diagonal arrows | |
| Supports alternates for middle-click | ★ | ||||
| Map Zoom Level | ✗ | ★ | ★ | quickly alter map zoom level | |
| Extended demographics | ✓ | proper reporting on production levels, more data rows, etc. | |||
| Auto-attack | ✓ | ✗ | ★ | ★ | ★=append attack or diplomatic order to end of movement order |
| Join city accesses Governor | ★ | instead of making an entertainer | |||
| Map Editor | ★ | ★ | |||
| Delayed Go To / Actions | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Waypoints | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Connect with... | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ★ | Connect roads or irrigation along a GOTO path, skipping illegal tiles, allowing user path selection, intelligently selecting from irrigation, farmland, cultivation; irrigating after cultivating; intelligently selecting multiple road-types based on legality and move-speed, and displaying GOTO lines with color-coding for activity type. Ability to select Canals as connect-type with intelligent selection between multiple legal canal types. |
| Trade Planning | ✓ | ||||
| Rally point | ✓ | ★ | ★=append action to arrival, set temporary/constant, one-click removal in city dialog | ||
| Quick Airlift | ✓ | ✗ | ✗=can give airlift to multiple units at once | ||
| Mobile Devices | ✗- | ✗ | ✓ | ||
| Warcalc Functionality | ✓ | ★ | Direct server query for odds and application of bonuses based on exact ruleset coding applied by the server. |
| NOTES | |
|---|---|
| Note 1 | Developmental desktop access to web games has been experimentally achieved (August 2019); currently there is no open source repo with both client and server intercompatibility available. Currently this functionality is not integrated into main branches for FCW server nor main branches/main download links for clients. Follow-up: When above criteria are met, rate each according to the Legend for ease of setup, where ★=one-click instant, ✗=doable but difficult, etc. |
ASSEMBLAGE methodology for this page:
A page of this type can easily degrade into edit-wars or champions of favourite clients disagreeing over subjective grades. Keep in mind this is not the intent of this page.
It is to motivate developers of your favourite client to implement improvements by seeing comparison to what others have done, not "mine is better" warfare. Representing your favourite client as superior could have a negative effect on future features in your favourite client, since its developers will not easily see where it has room for continued improvement!
Grades here are NOT final NOR the product of a single user's opinion. Sorry, this includes you too--and me! Extra perspectives and non-partisan help in fleshing it out is much appreciated and any final version will portray if there are any notable subjective splits in community opinions over grading. But don't be that guy who tries to force your own grade for everyone else to accept, single-handedly.
Any single individual trying to override grades assigned by multiple people who are following a collective process to assemble this page with earnest intent and accuracy, is not welcome. On the other hand, such an individual is welcome to make objective observations in the footer section of this page. Accuracy is the goal, and pointing out mistakes and omissions or alternative opinions and perspectives is appreciated! Rationally objectively presented arguments for why something should be graded higher or lower will work their way into the final product.
If you would like to contribute to this page before the main authors finish, you are welcome to do so. We have a panel of individuals to try to hammer out how to manage subjective disagreements and/or transform them into more objective metrics. Please contact original author to join. FOR NOW, this page is:
- an orphan and is unlinked from any other page
- unofficial and its grades represent nothing at all
- an unfinished draft
- specifically marked as incomplete and inaccurate
These four reasons means there is no need for any kind of upset edit-war over anything in here. Especially try not to correct a grade that was created by multiple people's discussion and assessment, with your own, as if you are single-handedly the Oracle God who overrides this project. But do get involved and make your observations with the others who are involved! We don't bite and will respect good points. YES! You can make observations to help us make it more accurate, and it's appreciated!
While this page is in unfinished original author status, please feel welcome to use as much space in the Discussion Area below to make suggestions, disagreements, observations, arguments, etc. When making a case, please be sure to objectify it with as much objective metrics as possible: actual number of clicks/presses, actual amount of space available for display a specific number of units/buildings/etc., actual number of legal orders which do or do not have active buttons, actual time spent on average finding a unit/button/city/etc. from a long list of others, and so on.