Game setup

If you start FreeCol without command line options, the game will first open a dialog that allows you to start a new game, to open a saved game, to open the map editor, to set various options, and to quit.

If you decide to start a new game, you will be presented with another dialog, which enables you to start a single-player game, to retrieve a list of servers from meta.freecol.org, to join a multi-player game, or to start a new multi-player game.

If you start a single-player game, you must decide on the number of European players (1-8) and whether to allow additional nations (which were not available in the original game) and whether to allow national advantages to be selectable (in the original game, national advantages were fixed). Of course, if you wish to have more than four European players, you must also enable additional nations, since the original game only made four European nations available.

If you choose to retrieve a list of running games from the metaserver, your computer will attempt to establish a connection to meta.freecol.org, port $3540$. You will be presented with a list of games, from which you can select one to connect to. Please note that the list will frequently be empty, since not that many public multi-player games are being run.

If you wish to join a multi-player game, you must enter the IP address of a server that is running a FreeCol game as well as the port it is running on. The default port is $3541$.

If you wish to start a multi-player game, then the IP address of the server will be that of your computer, but you must still select a port to run the server on. Again, the default port is $3541$. You must also decide whether you want to run a public server or a private server. By default, you start a private game, which means that the game will not be available on the metaserver. Furthermore, you must decide on the number of European players (see above), and whether to use national advantages. A multi-player game may be more balanced if you do not use them, so that all players start with the same units and abilities.

FreeCol is a client-server game. The game server takes care of the game logic, and the client provides the graphical user interface. One or several clients can connect to the game server via the network. In the case of a single-player game, all other players are handled by the game server. At the moment, however, your client uses a network connection even if the server is running on the same computer.

This means that you can only run FreeCol if you have the necessary privileges to bind an unprivileged port. If you use a personal firewall that blocks the port you wish to use, you will need to configure your firewall accordingly. If you wish to retrieve a list of games from the metaserver, you also need to configure your firewall to permit connections to that server, port $3540$. In order to connect to a server, your client also needs to bind a port. Which port depends on the operating system you use.

If you are running a public game server, then your firewall must also permit the clients to connect to the port of the game server.