Good open source/free mac games

[Gafgarion]

the result being that no matter how hard you try to be a pacifist, most games of freeCiv will degenerate into all-out war.

Ethical? Maybe not. Realistic? Yes.

The game is simulating thousands of years in time... Someone is going to pick a fight in that time.

[Dave]

How is freeCiv unethical?

I was actually chatting with one of their devs about this, but apparently the AI in freeCiv is too agressive; the result being that no matter how hard you try to be a pacifist, most games of freeCiv will degenerate into all-out war.

I would perhaps call this poor game design, but it's hardly 'unethical'.

And I think it's much more fun than Civilization IV, where all the AIs are such peaceniks that a war only breaks out if the player forces it.

All the Civilization games are very war-oriented though. Almost all the units available are military units. Most building options and technologies are military oriented. If you play as a pacifist, only the initial expansion phase of the game is very interesting at all.

In most variants of Civilization, even the 'peaceful' ways of winning are often accomplished through war. (Diplomatic victory by orchestrating an international alliance against your biggest rival; space race victory by destroying the industrial capabilities of rivals, and so forth).

Civilization Call To Power was probably the Civilization game that tried hardest to produce options other than war to keep the game interesting, but these options turned out to be silly. (Getting lawyers and sending them over to 'sue' rivals? Ugh...)

I do think a civilization-like game where war is one of many options rather than 50-75% of the game would be cool. One where building and trading are the main focuses, and war is seen as one particularly aggressive option for dealing with a rival -- and one where the typical goal and resolution of the war will be to cut off a rival's trade routes, capture a crucial colony from the enemy, or simply sign a peace treaty after a bloody stalemate -- unlike Civilization where the typical goal and outcome is to eliminate the rival from the game).

David

[DraconicBlessing]

Cave Story - http://www.nakiwo.com/software.htm (Fun 2d game; don't know if they have an english version.)

I have a 100% English copy, so I know it exists. I'm not sure where I got it from, but I'm sure Google would know.

Aeon Genesis

Gideon Zhi is a God.

[Ceri Cat]

UFO:AI is built off Quake 2 and SDL, so in theory building for OSX shouldn't be impossible if you work from the Linux makefiles and aren't afraid to muddle through things, there isn't a mac binary because nobody from the Mac community is interested in helping make one it seems. *shrugs* Lazy so and sos.