Freeciv-web has many good improvements compared to the old desktop version of Freeciv:
- Freeciv-web can be played using any browser, so it is available on many platforms, such as iPhone, Chromebooks, Android and any device which supports HTML5. It doesn't require admin-access to install software to play.
- Freeciv-web has support for 3D graphics using WebGL and the Three.js 3D engine. The Three.js 3D engine is not available on the desktop version, because it doesn't support WebGL.
- Freeciv-web supports Play-by-Email, hotseat multiplayer and LongTurn games with up to 300 players. The desktop version doesn't today. Play-by-Email requires running on a server which is configured and programmed for sending out e-mails.
- There are more players who prefers to play Freeciv-web in their browsers than the desktop version of Freeciv, when comparing any statistics that I've found, for example the number of downloads of the desktop version vs. the number of players on Freeciv-web.
Playing Freeciv-web is free for anyone. It doesn't require a forced Google account as Wuzzy incorrectly stated in this thread. Only LongTurn-Web games require a verified Google account, and the only reason for that is that is because we had problems with some players cheating in LongTurn games by playing with multiple accounts, and requiring a verified Google account solved the problem with cheating-by-multi-accounting.
So I hope you will give
Freeciv-web another try!
Andreas
(Developer of Freeciv-web)