I did an update of freeciv. The newest version 2.3.1 is now available in extras-devel.

The game crashes the first time, because it didnt find freeciv-client-rc-2.3. You should also change in options / interface the screen resolution from 640x480 to 800x480 and save the local options.

After this the game should run ver smooth.

Start a new game takes about 5-10 seconds, so please wait.

So, in order to set the difficulty you will have to type "/easy", "/novice" (standard), "/normal" or "/hard".

Also you can alter the size of the map ("/set size 10"), change the number of AI players ("/set aifill 10") and so on.

"/help" brings up a small help page.
Have fun.