=========================================================================== Freeciv Nation Rulesets and Flags =========================================================================== This file describes the contents of the nation files. This is intended as developer reference, and for people wanting to create/compile alternative nation files for Freeciv. A nation consists of a nation file in the rulesets and a flag in the tilesets. The contents of this file is based on this page from the Freeciv wiki: http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/Nations ---------------------------------------------------------------------- How to add a Nation: -------------------- To add a nation of your own, you should look at the following files: data/nation/<nationname>.ruleset This is the new nation, which you will have to create. It may help to copy one of the other nation files over and edit it. See below for a style guide for nation files. - The <nationname> bit is to be replaced with the nations name (duh). Please don't use whitespaces and special characters. Underlines are ok though. - The name should be the same as the name of the nation inside the ruleset file. - The file must be encoded in UTF-8. data/default/nations.ruleset This lists all nation files. Add your nation (data/nation/<nationname>.ruleset) to this list. data/flags/* This is the flags directory. You will have to add a flag-file (see below) for your nation to work (see below). data/scenario/* You can add starting position for your nation on a scenario map. Before a nation can be included in the main distribution, the following files will also have to be edited. Unless you know what you're doing you shouldn't need to worry about this. data/nation/Makefile.am Another list of nation files - add your nation (<nationname>.ruleset) to this list. data/flags/Makefile.am Another list of flag files - add your flag to this list. translations/nations/POTFILES.in Here is yet another list of nations files; again add your nation (data/nation/<nationname>.ruleset) to it. Nations part of the "core" group go to tranlations/freeciv/POTFILES.in instead. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- How to add a Flag: ------------------ Overview ======== Please note that Freeciv no longer uses XPM files. PNG is the preferred form for graphics, and flags should be made exclusively in SVG. A new nation needs a new flag. As of Freeciv 2.1 all flags are stored in SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format. Sodipodi and Inkscape are two good SVG editors. If you are creating a real-world nation you can probably find a Free or public domain flag that can be used. One good place to look is the Open Clip Art Library (OCAL). Remember that any flags we add must be licenced under the GPL and should be attributed to their original author, so make a note of where you found the flag, what its licence is, and who made it. We also welcome improvements to existing flags. Most of our existing flags come from the Sodipodi clipart collection, and some of them are less than perfect. One common problem is that the colors are wrong. If you fix a flag for a real nation be sure to cite your source so we can be sure it's accurate. Good sources for nation flag data are Wikipedia or Flags Of The World. If you want to improve an imaginary flag, this is also welcome. We recommend you first contact the original author of the flag (see the flags/credits file) to discuss your ideas for changes. Flag Guidelines =============== Here are a few guidelines for flags: - Flags should be rectangles, since an outline is added to them automatically. - Flags often come in multiple aspect ratios. A 3:2 ratio looks best for Freeciv and currently every flag has this ratio. For a flag that is "supposed" to be 2:1 or 4:3, you can often find a 3:2 version as well. Flag Specifics ============== To add a flag you'll have to edit the following files: data/flags/<flagname>.svg Here is the SVG flag image. This is not used directly by Freeciv but is rendered into PNG files (at various resolutions for different tilesets). The SVG file is not used in Freeciv 2.0 but all the other steps for adding flags are the same. - The <flagname> should either be the name of the country that represents the flag, or the common name for the actual flag. When in doubt, use the same name as the name of the nation. data/flags/<flagname>.png data/flags/<flagname>-shield.png These are the flag images that are used by Freeciv. They are rendered from the SVG file. Once this file has been created it can be used with older versions of Freeciv as well. To run the conversion program you will need to install Inkscape, ImageMagick, and (optionally) pngquant. Once these are installed change to the data/flags directory and run ./convert_png <nationname>.svg. data/misc/flags.spec This file has a reference to the flag PNG graphic. The "tag" here must match the flag tag you put in the nation ruleset file (usually f.<flagname>) and the "file" should point to the PNG image at flags/<flagname>.png. data/misc/shields.spec Just like flags.spec, this file must include a reference to the flag PNG graphic. The only difference is that the file should point to the "shield" graphic, flags/<flagname>-shield.png. Changes to the .spec files can be submitted as a patch (created using diff -ruN). Even though the *.spec files may need to be changed, please include them in the diff -- this should be easier for you, and it provides a convenient place for us to grab the sprite name. See the section on How to Contribute in the Freeciv wiki for more instructions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents and Style: ------------------- What nations can be added to Freeciv? ===================================== A nation in Freeciv should preferrably be a current independent country or a historical kingdom or realm. A nation that is currently governed by or the part of a greater political entity, or in other ways lacks complete independence could in most cases be made a Freeciv nation as well, but must never be listed as _modern_ (see 'Nation grouping' below.) Copyrighted content may not be added unless full permission is granted by the holder of the copyright. This rule effectively disallows the inclusion of nations based on most literary works. Nation grouping =============== Freeciv supports a classification of nations in an unlimited number of groups and every nation should be assigned to at least one. We currently have Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern, Modern, African, American, Asian, European, Oceanian and Imaginary groups. Modern nations are existing and politically independent countries; a nation listed as ancient, medieval or early modern should have had an independent dynasty or state in ancient (until 500 AD), medieval (500 - 1500) or early modern (1500 - 1800) times respectively. Finally, an imaginary nation is - as the name suggests - a product of someone's imagination. Nation naming ============= The default name of the nation should be the name of the people, country, or empire in English adjective form. For example, the nation of ancient Babylon is called "Babylonian" in Freeciv. The plural form should be standard English as well. For example, plural for the Polish nation is "Poles" in Freeciv. Use only English ascii for nation names. Conflicting nations =================== To specify one or more nations that the AI shouldn't pick for the same game, use this syntax: conflicts_with="<nationname>", "<nationname>", ... You only have to specify this in the nation you're adding, since it works in both directions. Reasons for conflicting nations could be either that they represent the same people in different eras (ex: Roman - Italian) or that the two nations have too similar flags that they are easily mixed up in the game (ex: Russian - Serbian.) Civil war nations ================= Specify one or more civil war nations. When a player's capital is captured, that player might suffer a civil war where his or her nation is divided and a new player created. The nation for this new player is selected from one of the civil war nations specified in the ruleset. A civil war nation should be linguistically, geographically and/or historically related to the current nation. A linguistic relation is especially important, since city names after a nation run out of their own city names, are selected from the civil war nations' city lists. Legend ====== A legend is required in a nation ruleset. The legend can be a summarized history of the nation, or just a piece of trivia. Only English ascii can be used in legends. Leaders ======= A leader should be a historically notable political leader of the nation. Two living persons per nation are permitted - one of each sex. An ideal leader list should contain between five and ten names. Leaders should be written in native orthography, e.g. "Karl XII" instead of "Charles XII" for the Swedish king. Use the person's full name to avoid ambiguity. Monarchs should be marked with the appropriate succession number, using Roman numerals in standard English style (not German e.g. "Otto II."; Hungarian e.g. "IV. Béla"; Danish e.g. "Valdemar 4." etc.) Freeciv support any Unicode character, but please keep to Latin letters. When transcribing from a non-Latin writing system, be consistent about the system of transcribation you are using. Also, try to avoid unnecessarily technical and/or heavily accented systems of transcription. For consistency and readability, put only one leader per line. Feel free to provide a hint of the leader's identity or a brief background in a comment beside any leader: This information might be used in-game at a later stage. Leader titles for each government type (including Despotism and Anarchy) may be specified in a separate tag. Only ASCII letters may be used in leader titles. If the male and female titles are identical in English, give the latter the ?female: qualifier. Use a unique title for each government. Ruler titles should be in English, though exceptions are made for non English titles as long as they are understood outside of their own language regions and commonly used in non-academic contexts. Titles from the default ruleset may not be used. Flag ==== You should provide a unique flag for your nation. Using a flag that is already used by another nation in the game is not acceptable. An alternative flag does not have to be specified. City style ========== A nation must specify a default city style. The available city styles depends on the tileset used. Practically every tileset have four city styles: "European", "Classical" (Graeco-Roman style), "Asian" (Pagoda style) and "Tropical" (African or Polynesian style). In Amplio tileset, "Babylonian" and "Celtic" are also available. If the tileset used by a client does not support a particular city style, a fallback style is used. Selecting a style for your nation is not that strict. Just try to keep it somewhat "realistic." Cities ====== As for the list of city names, you should make a clear decision about the type of the nation you add. An _ancient_ or _medieval_ nation may list any city that it at some point controlled. However if your nation is listed as _modern_, it's city list must be restricted to cities within the country's current borders. The reason for this is, we don't want Freeciv to be used as a political vehicle for discussions about borders or independence of particular nations. Another reason is to avoid overlapping with other nations in the game. A city should appear in its native form, rather than Anglicized or Graeco-Roman forms. For example, the Danish capital is "København" rather than "Copenhagen"; and the ancient Persian capital is "Parsa" rather than "Persepolis." City names support any Unicode character, but please keep to Latin letters. When transcribing from a non-Latin writing system, be consistent about the system of transcribation you are using. Also, try to avoid unnecessarily technical or heavily accented systems of transcribation. The ordering of cities should take both chronology of founding and overall historical importance into consideration. Note that a city earlier in the list has a higher chance of being chosen than later cities. Natural city names ================== Freeciv supports "natural" geographic placements of cities. Cities can be labeled as matching or not matching a particular type of terrain, which will make them more (or less) likely to show up as the "default" name. The exact format of the list entry is "<cityname> (<label>, <label>, ...)" where the cityname is just the name for the city (note that it may not contain quotes or parenthesis), and each "label" matches (case-insensitive) a terrain type for the city (or "river"), with a preceeding ! to negate it. The terrain list is optional, of course, so the entry can just contain the cityname if desired. A city name labeled as matching a terrain type will match a particular map location if that map location is on or adjacent to a tile of the named terrain type; in the case of the "river" label (which is a special case) only the map location itself is considered. A complex example: "Wilmington (ocean, river, swamp, forest, !hills, !mountains, !desert)" will cause the city of Wilmington to match ocean, river, swamp, and forest tiles while rejecting hills, mountains, and deserts. Although this degree of detail is probably unnecessary to achieve the desired effect, the system is designed to degrade smoothly so it should work just fine. (A note on scale: it might be tempting to label London as !ocean, i.e. not adjacent to an ocean. However, on a reasonably-sized Freeciv world map, London will be adjacent to the ocean; labeling it !ocean will tend to give bad results. This is a limitation of the system, and should be taken into account when labelling cities.) At this point, it is useful to put one city per line, only. Finally, don't forget to leave a blank line feed in the end of your nation ruleset. Update information ================== The information about the changes in the definition of a nation between different versions of Freeciv is kept in the wiki at http://www.freeciv.org/ as part of the ruleset differences. The URLs below list the differences between the freeciv versions from 2.3.x to the current version: http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/How_to_update_a_ruleset_from_2.2_to_2.3 The description of a nation file can be found at: http://www.freeciv.org/wiki/Nations
