Galactic Civilizations IV News

Perhaps one of the most terrifying ideas to come out of science fiction is the concept of an artificial lifeform bereft of compassion, basic human morality or sentimental feeling, driven to replicate itself to the ends of the galaxy, and crush or assimilate anything standing in its way.

The Yor Singularity are certainly one of the most unique threats amongst the many cosmic horrors lurking in Galactic Civilizations series, and while they’ve always had their own playstyle to match their theme, recent updates to more broadly diversify some of the older, more established Core Civilizations have been kind to our mechanical friends. Now blessed with new tools to help their early game expansion and with the introduction of more thematic Techs, Improvements and Executive Orders, the Yor are more fun to play than ever.

In this Dev Journal, we’re going to take a quick look at the changes made to the Yor, and how this affects their playstyle and feel in a game of Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova.



Let’s jump into the Yor Singularity’s Mission, “The Soul of the Machine”, a map designed to allow the player to explore their unique playstyle against four quite different civilizations: the greedy Corporate Sector, the diverse and devout Krynn Syndicate, the stubborn and dangerous Terran Resistance and the Yor’s cursed progenitors, the Iconian Refuge.

One of the nice things about the Missions in Supernova is that you can test different strategies and playstyles against the same opponents, on the same map, allowing you to fine tune your perfect approach to dominating the galaxy as that Civilization.


Immediately we see that the Yor have some new Improvements to pick from to build on Iconia, resplendent with its new Barren planet biomes added in v2.2. Firstly, we have the Durantium Scanner, a sensor that not only rolls back the fog of war around the world it is built upon, but also detects Durantium deposits both on the planet and in the system around it. This helps the Yor find the Durantium they need to manufacture new Yor Citizens (remember, they do not reproduce naturally like the other Citizen types). This unique Improvement is set up to increase its sensor-range when Manufacturing Districts and Improvements are placed adjacent to it too.


Note that these randomly placed Durantium deposits give a +2 bonus to adjacent Manufacturing and Military buildings, and this can be a powerful way to kickstart your industry.

The Yor also get access to the Precursor Scanner, another communications device that can further increase the Sensor range on Iconia (or you can place it on a different world if you wish), while revealing Precursor Relics on-planet and in neighboring systems.


Along with starting with two asteroid mining vessels for a quick Mineral Input boost, these two Improvements optionally help set the Yor up for a taller playstyle in the early game, getting a head start on exploration over their rivals, unveiling useful resources and helping them keep tabs on their rivals. Remember that these Improvements are quite expensive to maintain in the early game, so these benefits do come at a small cost.


Note that these two new Sensor Improvements help to compensate for the loss of the Telescope Takeover Executive Order, which has been replaced with something more suited to the Yor Singularities synthetic and mechanical approach to galactic domination. You can see in the screenshot above that on turn 1, they can see way further out into space around them than their rivals can.




Here we can see many of the Techs have been updated to be more thematically suited to the Yor Singularity, and in many cases are not just cosmetic changes, instead giving the Yor access to a whole new unique and evolving playstyle separate from the other civilizations in the game, including upgrades to the Stats of all Yor Citizens. This is a nice change that allows players to really focus on the task of constructing Yor Citizens, knowing that each one is drastically more efficient in producing the resources necessary for galactic conquest.


Civilization Policies have had the same treatment: here’s a couple from the early game, I won’t spoil the rest but there are many, many Policies unique to the Yor (and other Synthetic custom civilizations sharing the Yor’s Civilization Abilities).




And here are some new and powerful Executive Orders for you to spend your Control Points on too. Again, there are many of these and I’ll save the rest for you to find. Manufacture Population is useful when Durantium is scarce on the map, and the Yor can always use new Soldiers later in the game!


The DLC “Tales of Centauron” will add this Event very close to the start of the game, giving the Yor a choice between three very useful Improvements to be added onto Iconia. If you don’t like the location this is created at, simply “destroy” it and then rebuild it elsewhere, although you’ll have to pay for the privilege. This is a mechanic that shakes up the way players will approach District and Improvement layout by providing some powerful bonuses that can also force a rethink of their usual optimal layout patterns. Choose wisely!

There’s more to discover, but this should give you a taste of the changes that we’re starting to integrate into the Core Civilizations. There’s more to do: Stardock love Galactic Civilizations and we’re going to continue improving it until it’s the very best game it can be.

As always, let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Cheers!

I've seen my fair share of strategy games, but few genres offer the depth and complexity of a good 4X title. These games, known for their emphasis on eXploration, eXpansion, eXploitation, and eXtermination, demand a strategic mind and a willingness to immerse oneself in the intricacies of empire-building. However, this complexity can be daunting for newcomers, and even seasoned 4X aficionados may need time to familiarize themselves with a new game's systems.

That's why I'm here to provide a beginner's guide to Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova, breaking down the early game mechanics to help you start your interstellar conquest.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Your Starting System[/h2]
When you first launch Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova, you'll be prompted to select a civilization. For beginners, the Terran Alliance is a solid choice. They're a versatile faction that requires Food and can adapt to various playstyles. Once you've set up your game, you'll find your civilization's homeworld and initial fleet. The galaxy beyond is shrouded in the fog of war, with only the stars visible.

One of the first actions you can take is to use the "Telescope Takeover" Executive Order to reveal parts of the map, potentially uncovering planets ready for colonization. The Terran Alliance starts with three ships: a Probe for scouting, a Flagship for surveying anomalies, and a Colony Ship to establish your first off-world colony, such as Mars, which will contribute resources to your homeworld, Earth.


[h2]Core Worlds[/h2]
Core Worlds are the heart of your empire, each managed by a Governor. You'll directly oversee their development, placing Districts and Improvements to enhance their output. These constructions benefit from adjacency bonuses and terrain types, so strategic placement is key. For example, placing the Capital City on Grassland can boost your population growth.

The Build Queue is where you'll manage your planet's construction projects. Prioritize the Colonial Leadership Council to enable leader recruitment. Then, consider building an Industrial Centre to accelerate manufacturing. Remember, while planning your optimal layout is rewarding, don't get bogged down by perfectionism as you're learning the ropes.

Citizens populate your Core Worlds, and their happiness, measured by Approval, is crucial. Approval affects resource production, so keeping your citizens content is vital for a thriving economy. These resources include Manufacturing, Research, Income, Food, and Influence, all essential for expanding and strengthening your empire.


[h2]Ending the First Turn[/h2]
Before concluding your first turn, set your scientists to work on a new technology. Prioritize Colonial Policies for its benefits to tax and policy setting. The Tech Navigator tool can help you plan your research path across various fields like Engineering and Warfare.

Your shipyard, sponsored by your Core World, can build various ships to expand your reach. Consider constructing additional Probes to scout the galaxy and identify strategic locations and potential rivals.


[h2]Research, Leaders, Events, and Executive Orders[/h2]
With the completion of Colonial Policies, you can now set tax rates and Civilization Policies, balancing bonuses and penalties to shape your empire's development. For instance, Coerced Colonization boosts population growth at the cost of Approval.

Leaders play a crucial role in your government. Assigning the right person to the Minister of Exploration or Minister of Technology can significantly enhance your capabilities. Leaders like Ken Meurt, with high Diligence, are ideal for exploration, while those with high Intelligence, like Marcie Lykkurt, are better suited for technological advancement.

Events present choices that can affect your empire's future, and Executive Orders, such as "Draft Colonists," can provide immediate benefits at a cost. These decisions will shape the narrative of your game and your civilization's trajectory.


[h2]The End of the Beginning[/h2]
As you expand, you'll encounter new planets and civilizations. Researching technologies like the Universal Translator is essential for communication and diplomacy. Your cultural development, guided by Ideological Traits, will unlock bonuses that align with your civilization's values.

Upon colonizing a new planet, assigning a capable Governor can maximize its resource output. Leaders with attributes matching the planet's strengths will ensure efficient development.


In conclusion, Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova offers a rich and complex 4X experience. This guide covers just the beginning of what the game has to offer. For those eager to delve deeper into shipbuilding, warfare, diplomacy, and strategic planning, stay tuned for more detailed explorations of the game's mechanics.

Happy gaming, and may your empire reach the stars!

A common complaint found in the 4X genre among its player-base, old and new, is that eventually their large and expansive empire becomes a chore to manage, with many military units to individually control and too many colonies or cities to build, leading to the player losing their connection with the game as it begins to feel more like work than play.

We still see some complaints about this in our games too, and while we’re not claiming to have solved the issue forever in the GalCiv series, we’ve made some bold strides towards that goal, and I thought I’d point some of these features and tools in the hopes that players make use of them a little more.

Galactic Civilizations IV and its Supernova update made some fairly dramatic changes in an attempt to address this old 4X problem, both in terms of giving the player options to more carefully structure their game, and some nifty tools to help automate some of the more laborious aspects of the game.



In a first for the series, Stardock added the new Sectors as a feature in Galactic Civilization’s IV as a way to break up larger maps into smaller portions: this doesn’t necessarily mean your game is smaller, as adding more sectors can make the game very large, and very long. Instead, it offers a way for the player to compartmentalise and portion off various parts of the game map into more manageable chunks, and good organisation is the key to successful managements. Of course, if you prefer, you can play the game on a single sector map as featured in previous GalCiv games!



Secondly we’ve reduced the overall number of player-managed worlds by separating settled planets into Core Worlds and Colonies. The player is now free to decide whether they want to control more or less of the higher class planets they settle, and the way Colonies attach to Core Worlds to add their Planetary Input values has added a new dimension to the game’s economic simulation in the process.



Leaders can be added to Factions, adding their Statistics to directly boost your economy in various aspects in accordance with the theme of the Faction they’re a member of. This feature was added as a more fun and thematic replacement for the old “economy sliders” that featured in the original Galactic Civilization game. While these did allow the player to directly fine tune where their economic spending was going each turn, it was a little unnecessarily complex and had the potential to encourage micromanagement on a turn-by-turn level. Anybody who played the original Master of Orion game on Impossible difficulty might remember having to resort to this tactic to stand a chance of keeping up with the AI super-boosted economy, and while that was probably ok back in 1994, 4X players expect better these days!

Finally, we’ve added some optional automation tools to the user interface to reduce the need for the player having to manually move or build units each turn. I think it is these tools specifically that players tend to miss when playing the game, so let’s take a look at some of them.

Firstly, Probes and Flagships can be automated to explore on their own. Not exactly a ground-breaking feature in 2023, but it was back in GalCiv1!



Slightly more impressive is the Rally Point system: Rally Points can be created anywhere in space, or attached to Colonies and Starbases. Once created, they can be easily renamed or moved to a new location too. Shipyards can be set to send all constructed vessels to a specific Rally Point, while individual ships and Fleets also have a button on their UI allowing them to auto-navigate to a waypoint too.

These Rally Points are intended to drastically reduce the amount of player clicks and map scrolling required to manually move many ships around each turn, and with some thought, networks of Rally Points can be created to automate the production and movement of ships from the inner sphere of your empire out to reinforce key locations on its frontiers, and can be of particular use during wartime.



And that’s not all: the Automate window in the Civilization screen allows empire-wide quick allocation and reallocation of production targets for Shipyards and Rally Points for Fleets. Shipyards can be filtered by the type of ship they’re building, and then that selection can either be set to build something, or send those newly constructed ships to a different Rally Point instead. Ships can be filtered by type or their destination, and have all their waypoints changed simultaneously. Fleets can be reallocated to a new Rally Point here too.



When utilized, the Rally Point and Automate tools can take help take the pain out of managing a very large 4X empire. They do tend to come into play a bit later in the game, but for those of you that love the idea of ruling over the very largest maps, but don’t love the excessive management that comes with it, they might be what you’re looking for.

Hope you find this helpful!

I hope by now that you’ve all had a chance to check out both the free v2.2 Ethnology update, which brought in a host of new features (including a greatly improved and better looking user-interface) and the first paid content DLC for Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova: Tales of Centauron.

Frogboy and I have detailed the highlights of the v2.2 update in the past three developer journals, so today we’re going to take a quick look at the Return of the Korath mission included with Tales of Centauron. This DLC added dozens of new Events, new ship components, Executive Orders and Improvements for Core Worlds, and to cap it off and tie it all together the DLC comes with a new Mission featuring a heavily upgraded and even more deadly incarnation of the legendary Korath Clan.



Missions tend to utilize a static, predetermined map instead of the procedurally generated ones typical to a normal game of GalCiv. Aside from making a change to the usual proc-gen maps, these can be a nice way for a player to challenge themselves with different playstyles as they’re getting to know a specific Core Civilization, as they can test their progress through the scenario and measure their performance against previous attempts.

To prevent spoilers, I’ll refrain from posting any shots of the Mission’s map, but we can have a quick look at some of the toys that the Korath get to play with.

This new scenario pits the player, as the dreadful Korath Clan, on crusade to purge the sector around them of six rival civilizations who ain’t gonna know what hit ‘em! Purge is one word for what the Korath Clan do best, and extermination is another. That’s right, these Dread Lord-altered former Drengin don’t take no prisoners, literally.

Where the Drengin are the galaxy’s most terrifying slavers, the Korath Clan seek only to eradicate every other species from the galaxy. Hell, they don’t even see them as species, they’re verminous insects fit only for extermination. As a man named BATTLEMODE, of course, I wholeheartedly approve of this approach!



As the Mission starts, we’re treated to a treatise on the philosophy of extermination by the Korath themselves. Once these excuses are out of the way, the player is free begin the mission and approach the single victory condition of “Extermine the other civilizations” in whatever way they see fit.

The Korath play rather differently to the other Civilizations in Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova, in that they’re not only hyper-focused on war, they’re also hell-bent on eradicating everybody around them, and have the tools to do so. v2.2 Ethnology updated many of the Core Civilization’s to include more thematic (and fun) planetary Improvements, Executive Orders and other mechanics, and the Korath Clan were no exception. Here with the DLC’s contents too, we can see a whole new breed of evil to play with!



In the screenshot above we can not only see the new Volcanic planet biomes added in v2.2, but also one of the Korath Clan’s new unique Improvements, the Battle Thrall Arena. These act like the Entertainment District but give a larger Approval bonus and enhance Military-producing Improvements adjacent to them too.



The new Death Camp improvement is a one-time build Manufacturing oriented Civilization Achievement that also instantly spawns a number of Ruined Torians. These poor wretches have had all the spunk kicked out of them, and as a consequence have no capacity to either complain or reproduce. Zero Approval is a really nice feature for a slave, and since their Growth rate is almost zero too, they’re completely unsuitable for colonizing Core Worlds. They make great slaves though, and excellent colonists for Colonies not intended for upgrading to a Core World.



Remember how I told you the Korath take no prisoners? Meet the Spore Ship, the Korath’s preferred method for taking enemy worlds. This evil weapon will capture an enemy planet in a single turn, and completely eradicate any Citizens living there, leaving only your own Soldier who was transported there as a passenger.

As you can see, the Korath Clan are a force to be reckoned with, and their very presence in a sector should be enough to put every other sentient species on high alert.

We hope you enjoy the Return of the Korath mission! As always, let us know what you think of these new features in the comments section below.

Cheers!

In last week’s dev-journal #38, Frogboy touched on an important change to the way Fleets are handled that we’ve implemented in Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova’s v2.2 “Ethnology” update. Today we’re going to take a closer look at the new Fleet Management user-interface.



v2.2 was an update largely driven by player feedback and managing large fleets, often comprising of dozens of individual ships, wasn’t always the smoothest experience, particularly in the late game when a GalCiv game typically features a map full of units to move and fight with.

Although we do provide a set of Automation tools and Rally Points to allow much of the legwork of building and moving fleets to critical location to be automated, there was still some awkwardness in having to individually select and consolidate groups of ships that weren’t intended for an automated destination. For example, if the player broke down a Fleet into individual ships, they then had to individually select them all one by one in order to move them or reconsolidate them elsewhere into smaller groups, and was a laborious task to say the least.

Now we’ve improved the way that ships can be selected, consolidated and moved with a simple drag and select system akin to those used in modern RTS games.


Hold Shift and drag and drop the green box around the ships or fleets you want to grab, leaving them selected and ready for commands.


These ships or fleets can then be moved as a group towards a destination hex.



In the screenshot above, you’ll see the first three ships that could make it to the destination hex this turn, with the final ship, with no remaining Move points left, set to automatically arrive and join the rest next turn.



Next, we’ve added the Fleet Manager screen itself. Here you’ll be able to select a fleet and then more easily add and remove individual ships located the same hex. Essential information is displayed on the right of the screen, including Logistics allowance, the number of ships and any Abilities that member brings along to affect the fleet as a whole.

And that’s not all: the Fleet UI itself is now organised horizontally and shows more information at a glance, while existing data is better organised and easier to parse.



Firstly, the Class and number of each ships in a class is now visible on the Fleet info box as a series of nifty icons, as shown above in this rather large Drengin battlegroup. Fleet composition becomes increasingly more important as the game progresses and the various Galactic Civilizations begin to field ships with more advanced technology, often requiring a Class-based counter, and players shouldn’t have to dig for this information. So, now you don’t have to!



Next, while we’ve kept a ship and fleet’s Combat Rating score for an at-a-glance overview of how well it is likely to perform in combat, we’ve now separated out its Attack and Defense values into separate indicators, the tooltips for which show a detailed breakdown of what individual ships, components and other modifiers are contributing towards those specific values. These are handled slightly differently for ships and fleets respectively, where ships will show components and with fleets showing individual contributing ship values instead. This was a much requested feature, particular from veterans of the series, who felt these two Attack and Defense values should be available without having to dig for it within existing tooltips.

We hope these new features make conducting fleet operations a lot more fun for you all. Let us know what you think in the comments below!