Show HN: Playing LongTurn FreeCiv with Friends

A self-hosted Freeciv 3.2.3 multiplayer server designed for longturn games (23-hour turns), running on Fly.io with email notifications, a live status page, and an AI-generated newspaper.

An active 16-player game is running on this codebase right now. Check out the status page to see live rankings, turn countdowns, history charts, diplomacy tracking, and the AI-generated wartime newspaper.

Longturn is a style of Freeciv multiplayer where each turn lasts ~23 hours instead of minutes. Players log in once a day, make their moves, click "Turn Done", and go about their lives. When all players have ended their turn (or the timer runs out), the next turn begins.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Fly.io Container                                │
│                                                 │
│ entrypoint.sh                                   │
│ ├── busybox crond (status page refresh)         │
│ └── start.sh                                    │
│     ├── freeciv-server (port 5556)              │
│     ├── busybox httpd (port 8080 → 80/443)      │
│     ├── FIFO command writer                     │
│     ├── Turn change watcher                     │
│     ├── Auto-saver (every 5 min)                │
│     └── Turn reminder checker                   │
│                                                 │
│ /data/saves (persistent volume)                 │
│ ├── lt-game-*.sav.gz (save files)               │
│ ├── freeciv.sqlite (player auth DB)             │
│ ├── status.json (live game state)               │
│ ├── history.json (per-turn stats)               │
│ ├── attendance.json (missed turns)              │
│ ├── diplomacy.json (relationships)              │
│ └── gazette.json (AI newspaper)                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The server communicates via a FIFO pipe (/tmp/server-input) — scripts send commands to the running Freeciv server by writing to this pipe.

Key Components

• Orchestration: start.sh handles the Freeciv server lifecycle, auto-saves, and turn timer preservation across restarts.
• Status Monitoring: generate_status_json.sh extracts game state into JSON every 5 minutes, powering a client-side dashboard with Chart.js.
• Notifications: turn_notify.sh and turn_reminder.sh use AWS SES to keep players engaged and informed of deadlines.
• AI Integration: generate_gazette.sh calls OpenAI to generate era-appropriate wartime news based on in-game events.

Deployment

Deployment is handled via flyctl with a persistent volume for saves. Player management is simplified through manage_players.sh, which handles SQLite database entries and automated welcome emails. Mid-game state can be adjusted by editing the plaintext save files directly, providing high flexibility for game administrators.