APOLYTON'S GUIDE TO ALT. CIVS
 

General Info:

Name	Type	Type of Plays	Release Date	Platform
Manifest Destiny	World Conquering 4x TBS	SP, PBEM, Hotseat	-	Win 9x
Clash of Civs	Whole-History 4x TBS	SP & MP	2004	All! (Java)
Civtarion	Civ/Risk	MP	Q1 2003	Shockwave enabled
Galactic Civilizations	Space 4x TBS	SP	Q1 2003	Windows
Freeciv	Civ type	SP & MP, Persistent	Now, soon and forever!	Most

Gameplay Features:
 

Name	Civs	Max Civs	Victory Conditions	Borders	Stacks/tactical combat	Gov't
Manifest Destiny	Unique	30	player set	yes	Yes/AI controlled	no°
Clash of Civs	Generic	unlimited	player set	yes	Yes/(player input)	yes
Civtarion	Unique	32	Conquest, Time Limit	yes	no/no	?
Galactic Civilizations	Unique	36	player set	yes	No/AI controlled	yes
Freeciv	Generic	32	conquest, space	planned	No	yes

° - "There is no government model in MD, and I have no plans of putting one in. In gameterms, I guess it means your people always do exactly what you tell them to do, and only what you tell them to do. If I had to put a label on it, I guess I'd call it absolute despotism, with no chance of revolt. I'm more interested in players dealing with each other than with them dealing with internal problems in their own civ (i.e. the computer declaring peace for you in a democracy in CivII every turn). In MD, if you want to have a war with your neighbor, you can bloody well have one " Ron Hiler (Manifest Destiny Developer)

Engine Features:
 

Name	Graphics	Map	Tiles	Tile Improvement Model	Customizable units
Manifest Destiny	DirectX	3D Spherical	None	ala Civ2	yes
Clash of Civs	8-bit	Isometric / Cylindrical	Square	ala CtP	yes
Civtarion	jpg/gif Civ 1-alike	Civ-alike	Square	None	No
Galactic Civilizations	DirectX	flexible 2d	Square	ala Civ2	yes
Freeciv	Civ 1 style	normal world style	Square	ala Civ2	?

Developer Notes:
 

Name	Design Goals	Current Version	Language	Help Wanted?
Manifest Destiny	World conquering from Pre-History to Future	Alpha 0.4	C++	Yes (docs)
Clash of Civs	Killer AI, Reduced Micromanagement, More Realism	Demo 7.2	Java	Yes
Civtarion	Easy civilization-clone in the web-browser	0.9	C# & Shockwave	no
Galactic Civilizations	Unmatched replayablity	0.95	C++	N/A
Freeciv	"Make a better civ than civ"	1.11.4	C, C++	Yes (manual)

Quick Look:
 

Name	In-Game
Manifest Destiny
Clash of Civs
Civtarion
Galactic Civilizations
Freeciv	?

Contact Information:
 

Name	official site	email	Discussion
Manifest Destiny	enter	RHiler@RJCyberware.com	join
Clash of Civs	enter	markeverson@comcast.net	join
Civtarion	enter	civtarion@trilobit.no	join
Galactic Civilization	enter	galciv@stardock.com	join
Freeciv	enter	http://www.freeciv.org/mailinglists.html	join