And while the blog editorial board (also known as "editorial plank") was in spring hibernation, the People Who Really Do The Work have Done Some Serious Work! The first edition of updated and modernised Freeciv client/server thingy is now out! There are, as always bugs and misfeatures to be resolved, but the software is now functional an usable under the working title Freeciv21.
So far, most of the work has been done "under the hood", rehaul and reorganisation of pieces of code, Lua improvements, stuff regarding "C vs. C++" pissing contest, but some gameplaying changes have already been added. To only name a few, you can now name your units! Have an elite Marines or Paratrooper unit? Call them Navy Seals or SAS. Have a particularly powerful Artillery and are under communist government? Call it Khrushchev's Shoe! There is also sentry range: you can choose how far enemy has to be to wake up your sleeping unit! (If only it worked for the Editorial Plank...) And the WYSiWYG patch!
This, and more technical details, can be seen on the Github project Github page here!
The software is based on for now still experimental Freeciv3.0 and developed from there. To download and test the current Alpha version, when on Github project page, scroll to the bottom and click Assets.