Galactic Civilizations IV News

Last week, Frogboy introduced Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova v2.4 update named Populi and gave a very brief overview of its features. Today, I thought I’d expand a little on how it works and showcase a few more examples.

In summary, AlienGPT will now generate the name and description for your Citizens to match the custom civilization details it produces for you. It’ll then select an appropriate Citizen portrait to give a face to your people, with the number of Citizen types expanded to feature species popular within the community. Well, more than one face, as each Citizen type has many new faces added to ensure your various Citizens can be told apart more easily.

Let’s get a quick disclaimer out of the way first: as with the original AlienGPT leader portrait selection system, the Citizen portraits are not generated by AI to a prompt, and are instead picked from our existing pool of pictures pre-made by our in-house artists, using our own extensive library of art created for our games at Stardock over the past thirty years.

First off, Citizens have been moved from the Abilities tab over to the Biology tab where they belong, and we’ve moved the Civ Colors and Planet over to Abilities to make room for them. You can manually select them yourself if you prefer, and you’ll see the list has been expanded to cover many of the most frequent requests we see from the community.

[h2]Here’s a list of the new types:[/h2]

• Feline Fatales: the obligatory cat-girls everybody loves to play with.
  
• Cyborgs: now we’ve got a dedicated humanoid/mechanoid hybrid Citizen.
  
• Space Demons: they come with horns and everything, suitable for all interdimensional escapees.
  
• Space Dwarves: don’t worry, we won’t retcon these guys out of existence at a later date.
  
• Space Elves: no, they didn’t fade away and diminish. They built space ships instead!
  
• Star Frogs: very wise survival experts, remember to keep them well moist.
  
• Humanoids: a generic Citizen to fit your needs when the others don’t.
  
• Lizards: we had a fair number of lizard lookalikes in the Core species but now there’s a generic one for you.
  
• Sentient Plants: now the Baratak aren’t the only intelligent vegetables in the universe.
  
• Vampiric: another popular pick for those of you who want seductive bloodsuckers in your game.
  

All of the above can be manually selected after a standard AlienGPT generation, if you’re not happy with its pick. As usual, you can skip the prompt completely and just select all the info, including the Citizen name and description, yourself as a manual entry.

Frogboy posted some examples up last week but here are a few more for you to check out.



Here’s the Inferno Flora Collective with their unique Citizen type Infernia.



And here are some Infernian Citizens on their homeworld Lavara Prime. Note the Citizen’s name fits the theme of the Civilization.


And here’s one I generated on a livestream the other day. I really like this one, and feel it really shows off the power of AlienGPT. These are the Yor-Tech Exiles, humans who escaped persecution at the hands of the Terrain Alliance after illegally interfacing with Yor Cybernetic technology, forever tainting themselves in the eyes of their former brothers and sisters.


Their Citizens have a nice spread of portraits too.



And here’s how Commander Bradley greets these deviant escapees from his own territory and a reminder that AlienGPT not only generates the Civilization for you, but also many of the communications you’ll receive from the various Core Civilizations too.

If I may be permitted to put aside my Stardock staff-member cap and speak purely as a gamer for a moment, I find this technology incredibly exciting. As Frogboy stated last week, AlienGPT isn’t perfect yet and it can make mistakes, but this really does go a heck of a long way towards immersing the player into their game. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that immersion is the most critical component in keeping you playing long, complex strategy games like GalCiv once the campaign goes over several hundred turns and you’re moving many dozens of units around.

We’ve pulled out all the stops to present a set of interesting Core Civilizations for you to play as, but there’s no substitute for your own imagination, and AlienGPT can help bridge the gap between those of you who love to go all in on hand-crafting your own custom civs, and those who’d love to do that but don’t feel they can for whatever reason. This system can do nearly all of the job for you, some of it, or none at all.

As always, the choice is yours!

Responding to community feedback, the "Populi" update for Galactic Civilizations IV rolls out significant enhancements. Highlights include Custom Citizen Races via AlienGPT for enriched diplomacy, streamlined Citizen Transports for improved population management, UI upgrades for a more intuitive experience, better localization for Korean players, and general balance tweaks and bug fixes to refine gameplay. Please read below for more information.

[h2]Important Changes:[/h2]

• New Custom Citizen Races for AlienGPT: The Create Civilization screen has gotten a major uplift. More space for your description and AlienGPT will pick your citizens, personality, citizen description, and more.
  
• Citizen Transports: Citizen transportation greatly improves players’ ability to balance their Core World populations by allowing them to transport Citizens between Core Worlds.
  
• UI Upgrades: Our AlienGPT UI has been updated to accommodate the new custom Citizen Race feature. Additionally, the Galactic News Network notification panel has been improved to reduce visual clutter.
  
• Improved Localization: The update brings refined localization, particularly for Korean, making the game more immersive for a global audience.
  
• Balance Improvements and Bug Fixes: Another round of balance tweaks and bug resolutions further enhance the overall stability and fairness of gameplay.
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We have listened intently to community feedback and the v2.4 “Populi” update includes our most requested feature for AlienGPT, custom generated Citizen Races, complete with unique names, descriptions, and portraits. These are generated based on a civilization’s specific biological and cultural characteristics, adding depth and personalization to the gameplay. This feature enriches the game's universe with dynamically generated stories and events, making each playthrough uniquely engaging.



Additionally, the update introduces a highly requested feature for Citizen transportation, enabling the instant transfer of Citizens between Core Worlds. This strategic addition not only enhances population management but also opens new avenues for optimizing and expanding your civilization across the galaxy.

• UI Upgrades: Our AlienGPT UI has been updated to accommodate the new custom Citizen Race feature. Additionally, the Galactic News Network notification panel has been improved to reduce visual clutter.
  
• Improved Localization: The update brings refined localization, particularly for Korean, making the game more immersive for a global audience.
  
• Balance Improvements and Bug Fixes: Another round of balance tweaks and bug resolutions further enhance the overall stability and fairness of gameplay.
  

This update, which provides new features for Citizens, aligns with Stardock's commitment to enhancing player experience and accessibility.

[h2]View the full changelog here[/h2]

The Terran Alliance have had a tough time in the Galactic Civilizations universe: with the optimism, and some might say naivety, of a new species discovering they were not alone in the galaxy for the very first time, mankind shared their advanced technology “Hyperdrive” with the Arceans. Those precious plans were stolen by Drengin spies and from there, this advanced technology for rapid space travel was sold, hacked or otherwise disseminated to the other races out across the Centauron sector, and beyond.

On the one hand, this one act of benevolence probably caused more death, destruction and misery than any other before it. On the other, it closed the vast gap between the different species of the galaxy and heralded a race for galactic outreach that spurred each civilization on to ever greater heights.

Unfortunately for the Terrans, they were eventually conquered by the Drengin Empire and retreated back to the surface of Earth, protected by an ancient Precursor device that prevented anything from getting in, or from leaving the planet. After finally pushing the Drengin back and waging a dreadful war of vengeance, they were freed to once again chase their own destiny.


Today we’re going to take a look the Terran Alliance and check out some of the features that differentiate them from the other civilizations in the game. Space 4X games tend to have the human faction as the “vanilla” or baseline faction, and while that’s also true to some extent in GalCiv IV (we want new players that tend to gravitate towards playing a familiar race to learn basics of the game without too many unusual mechanics to get in the way), we’ve tried to add a bit more flavor in for them to make them just as fun to play as the other races.


The Terran Alliance start in the Sol system and have access to two potential colonies early on. Both Mars and Artemis have their own colonization event, so you can pick an early game boost and help shape the direction you want to take the Terran Alliance in.



Mars gives you the choice between an early Leader, +1 Minerals or +1 Technology. The Leader can be useful to staff a government position, saving you paying for one yourself and freeing up valuable Credits for rush-building an early Probe or Colony Ship for faster expansion out into the sector, Minerals will help kickstart your industrial development faster, while Technology is a good choice to hit an early research goal sooner.



The Artemis event gives either +10 Culture Points, to advance you quicker along a desired Ideology to grab an early Ideological Trait. Alternatively pick a +3 Cultural Significance and a +10% Approval bonus for Earth, a solid choice which would gradually increase Influence on Earth, spreading its borders faster and keeping its Citizens working harder and faster.

Finally, the +500 Credits has precisely 500 Credits worth of utility, and can be used in all sorts of ways to get the Terran Alliance off to a strong start. Purchasing a competent Leader, rush building a valuable Improvement, trading for a much needed Tech with a neighboring civilization… you get the idea!

The Terran Alliance start with access to the standard set of Improvements: the Industrial Center and the Capital Mainframe, both working as strong centerpieces for your Manufacturing and Research assets respectively.


We don’t need to cover those as you’ve seen them before, but with the Tales of Centauron DLC the Terrans do get access to a homeworld Event that gives yet another choice of three rather powerful Improvements to be placed onto a random hex on Earth.


First up is the Global Wellness Initiative. In previous developer journals we’ve discussed just how important Approval is in keeping your Manufacturing and Research going, and this handy resource grants a +15% Approval bonus right off the bat, with +5% more for each adjacent Approval boosting District or Improvement and an extra Adjacency Level Bonus of +1 Wealth and Approval to those neighboring tiles too.

The Citizens of Earth are going to be happy to be pushed harder and longer towards whatever goal you have: whether that’s increasing their tax burden for more Credits, or keeping your more ideologically possessed Citizens from causing too much unrest, having a high Approval will help you get the best out of your world.



Your second choice is the Civil Stability Corps, this time granting a more modest, but still significant+5% Approval bonus, but this time with an accompanying -10% to Crime, with that reduction increasing by -5% per level of adjacency scored. Furthermore this Improvement will improve adjacent Manufacturing assets a little, and any Military Improvement a lot.

Crime is one of those statistics that can really hurt if it is piled on, and while more Approval might seem like a better overall statistic to boost as it does somewhat mitigate the worst effects of Crime, there will be times when a big Crime reduction will be more effective. Furthermore, if you decide to build Earth as your main Manufacturing world, the adjacency bonuses are likely to be attractive.

On this topic, I’d suggest that while Approval might initially seem like the better option here since it does mitigate some of the worst effects of Crime when it is very high and is a big help to your Manufacturing and Research output, it does give diminishing returns the more you stack it, and the Global Wellness Initiative does give a very big stack of Approval. If you’re playing like the Drengin and your people are very unhappy, this might be the way to go, but even the smaller boost of +5% from the Civil Stability Corps could be enough to support your playstyle, and then the Crime reduction and extra Manufacturing/Military centre could be a better bet.


Finally, the Human Expansion Council option gifts you an Economic Council Improvement, granting a flat +10 Social Skills per Citizen located on Earth, with an additional +1 Social Skills and a +5% Gross Income per attached qualifying District or Improvement. It’ll also boost adjacent assets by a huge +3 Wealth and +1 Military.

The Terran Alliance are geared towards Individualism and if that’s the route you take, this is a strong option to pick: Social Skills will not only allow you to train very effective Entertainers for higher Approval, but will also the Entrepreneur job once you’ve unlocked the Ideological Trait called Private Property Rights.

This is a nice build if you’re planning on hothousing Growth on Earth to pump out a lot of Citizens. With such high Social Skills, you can train a lot of Entrepreneurs and the Entertainers to keep your high, cramped-in population happy too. Now think of the Credits you’re gonna be generating with all those beautiful, shiny golden Wealth Districts surrounding the Economic Council, and all those high Social Skills Entrepreneurs to make use of them?


And that’s not all. The Terran Alliance have yet another Event that comes early in the game, the New Generation Event, which grants you an option of a new Citizen in a Job: do you pick a Solider, a Scientist or an Entertainer? I guess that could depend greatly on your neighbors, or to support the build you’ve picked with your earlier choices, right?

As you can see, the Terrans get a whole lot of options now when it comes to building Earth and its surrounding Colonies, and that means more ways for you to play them.

If you’ve forgotten about the good ol' Terran Alliance, or never played them before, why not give them another spin and see if you can conquer the galaxy in a new way?

In the last developer journal we took a look at the Drath Freehold, a race of ancient dragon-like creatures forcibly removed from their ancient homeworld of Altaria by the Mithrilar, only to be replaced by another new civilization who became known as the Altarians. These philosophically minded blue skinned humanoids bear an uncanny resemblance to the humans of the Terran Alliance and Terran Resistance, and there’s more to their past than meets the eye!

Like several of the other civilizations we’ve examined in this series, the Altarians have the Ancient Civilization Ability and can therefore access the Tower of Procipinee and the Elemental Fabricator.


We’ve seen those before, see this dev-journal, but let’s have a look at the homeworld Event that comes with the Tales of Centauron DLC and the options that it adds to the Altarians' early game.


The Altarians are one of the most influential and cultured of all the galactic civilizations in the game, and are utterly oppressive when it comes to Culture production. The Temple of Enlightenment powerhouses this playstyle and will gear Altaria up with a +25% Influence Growth and +3 Level to Influence Adjacency Level Bonus too. After some much needed balancing, Influence now requires the player to build for that type of playstyle a lot more, and this gives the Altarians much of their bite back when it comes to pushing for a Influence victory.


The second option from this Event is the Arcane Sanctuary, a rather expensive Improvement in terms of Maintenance but providing a huge +3 boost to Social Skills, Intelligence and Diligence. For those players who like to put their Citizens at the front and centre of their civilization’s growth, and like to keep large population numbers, this could be a very powerful strategy for the Altarians.

Diligence and Intelligence will ensure your empire keeps apace of your most productive and enterprising rivals, while the Social Skills boost keeps them happy too. Altaria is Tropical and already has a lot of Approval boosting tiles, ensuring you can keep a large population happy.

I’m sure a canny player can figure out a way to exploit this Improvement and push their civilization’s Research and Manufacturing levels through the roof!


Finally we have the Council of Sages, which provides a flat +1 Research and a flat +2 Level to Research as an Adjacency Level Bonus. This will provide a strong Research centrepiece when surrounded with like Districts and Improvements, and makes for a strong early-game play to push for the later Research tiers and those sweet high-tech goodies they bestow. If you’re not overpopulating Altaria, instead playing with less Citizens and going for Districts and Improvements for your Research instead, this could be a solid choice.


Finally, within the first few turns the Altarians get access to the Empathic Connection Civilization Policy that comes from their Cultural Trait “Empathy”, granting a +15% Approval bonus for free! Approval is one of the most punishing mechanics in GalCiv IV, and for good reason: push your people too hard, and they’re gonna push back by refusing to work or research for you. Any tool that boosts Approval allows you to push your people harder: more taxes, more colonies, more production.

These new tools help the Altarians in pushing their… unique and rather dangerous culture out into big wide galaxy around them very quickly, overwhelming their unwitting foes, who can only watch their own planets join their enemy one by one! Alternatively, you could take the option of playing somewhat tall, with Altaria as the centre of a thriving cottage industry of culture, economics and manufacturing. Or do they grab an early Research boost, rush for some early military technologies and either defend themselves from a scary neighbour, or take another civilization by force?

The Altarians have the power to claim their place in a hostile galaxy, and the way you do it is up to you!