Galactic Civilizations IV News

Continuing this series of short guides aimed at helping new players, we’re going to be looking at some of the base resources, and they don’t get much more basic than money. In GalCiv we use the term Credits, which sounds a little bit fancier! In this developer journal, we’ll take a quick look at how Credits are acquired, and a few of the many ways you can spend them.


Credits are rather unique in that they’re both acquired and spent in many more ways than Manufacturing, Food, Control or any of the other in-game resources you’ll come across. Credits are gained by taxation, through Trade Routes, diplomatic exchanges with other players, selling Strategic Resources at the Bazaar and as a consequence of the many varied Events that crop up during the game.

So, how exactly are Credits generated via taxation? Here follows a very brief and simplified rundown, if you want more detail, I’ll point you to the developer blog video I made covering the economy here.


Core Worlds and attached Colonies have a Planetary Input value called Wealth Input, representing the riches on and flowing into the planet. Citizens, Financial Districts and certain Improvements further modify this value, representing combined on-world commercial activities.



Your tax-rate, set at the top level with the one rate affecting your entire Civilization, is then applied to this modified Wealth Input value as a multiplier to become a Core World’s Income.

The sum of your Core World’s Income is shown on the Civilization Overview screen too, where you can see your Civilization’s GDP (summed Income) before it’s modified by tax.

You can also see that you make Credits from the Trade Routes you set up by sending a Freighter from one of your Core Worlds to one owned by your neighbors. You can see the Trade Route UI below, with all the current Trade Routes set up between yourself and your trade partners.


Going back to the Civilization Overview screenshot, you can also see some of the things Credits are spent upon: maintenance for your Ships, Colony Maintenance (stuff you’ve built on your Core Worlds), Starbases and the Credit cost of an Civilization Policies you have set.


Credits can be used for barter in diplomacy, either to acquire other goods or to sweeten a Treaty proposal. Not sure I like this deal much though, those Navigators don’t seem very willing to part with their Credits here.

This is simple stuff: sell whatever you’re willing to part with for Credits when you’re in need of them, and if you’ve got extra Credits to spare, you can buy Techs, Strategic Resources, Diplomatic Capital and other useful things from those that have them.


If you have excess Strategic Resources, you can sell them at the Bazaar in exchange for Credits, which is the preferred barter resource for the aliens who run it. Here they’re offering 83 Credits for each Aurorus Arboretum. Sadly, I don’t have any. Be aware that repeatedly selling the same resource will devalue that stock and reduce the Credits you’ll receive for each unit.


Certain Events, such as finding exotic Artifacts, modules or useful space junk, will give you the option to sell your new acquisition for Credits. This can make Survey a profitable endeavor for much of the game, so don’t neglect those Flag Ships!


With the Credits earned from selling that Armor Module, Lord Kona can rush build a warship he needs. This will cost a lot of Credits but the faster you build your military, the stronger you’ll be. This will also cost some Control, and you’ll take a hit to your Approval too as your Citizens don’t much enjoy being forced to work long overtime, even if they are being paid extra for it.

Building a large treasury of Credits can be handy, as you’ll notice that Credits are used as a shortcut to gaining certain things a lot faster than you’d be able to without that cash injection: quickly gaining Techs through diplomacy, rush building Ships, Districts or Improvements, buying Strategic Resources from the bazaar and more.

Credits are such a ubiquitous resource that I’ve likely missed some of their more subtle uses here, but I hope this has clarified just how you can make and spend them.

Stardock is pleased to announce the release of Galactic Civilizations IV v2.9, titled the 'Starview Update.' This update focuses on enhancing the player experience with a variety of quality-of-life improvements, visual upgrades, and gameplay refinements based on community feedback.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In this substantial update, players can look forward to a range of key changes designed to streamline gameplay and improve immersion. "We’re committed to continuously refining Galactic Civilizations IV based on player input," said Brad Wardell, lead designer of the GalCiv series. "With the Starview Update, we’re not only addressing bugs and balance issues but also enhancing the overall experience to make it even more enjoyable for our players."

[h2]Major Updates: [/h2]

• Revamped Yor Ship Designs: The Yor Singularity ships have received a visual upgrade, while the classic designs remain available as "Classic Yor" for nostalgic players.
  
• Polished Artifacts and Game Events: Various artifact effects and game events have been refined for better balance and consistency, with deprecated technologies removed from the tech tree to streamline research.
  
• UI Enhancements: The Shipyard and Starbase screens now feature dynamic backgrounds showcasing the galaxy, along with a cleaner and more intuitive interface.
  
• Streamlined Civilization Policy Management: The Civilization Policy screen has been redesigned for better organization, introducing a tax slider for more precise economic control and improved access to Rally Points via dedicated hotkeys.
  
• Offline Access for DLC Owners: Players who own any of the DLC for Supernova will no longer need to be online to access that content.
  
• Gameplay Improvements: A significant batch of gameplay updates, including bug fixes, balance changes, and general polish, enhances the overall experience.
  

For a comprehensive list of all changes and improvements in the Galactic Civilizations IV v2.9 “Starview Update” update, see the full changelog here.

Hello everyone! This week, I would like to look at GalCiv IV’s most terrifying weapon: Terror Stars.

Terror Stars are one of the most powerful and difficult-to-acquire objects in all of GalCiv IV: each one can reduce entire star systems to rubble.

In this Dev Journal, I’d like to walk you through how you can unlock them, how they work, and why you might want to utilize the awe-inspiring power of a Terror Star.



[h2]Terror Stars: How Do You Unlock Them?[/h2]
To unlock Terror Stars, players must acquire the “Terror Stars” Cultural Trait via the Nihilism Ideology Tree. “Terror Stars” is the capstone trait of the Nihilism tree which means that players will need to have acquired at least five other Nihilistic Cultural Traits before it can be unlocked.

Cultural Traits like “Terror Stars” are acquired by spending Culture Points. Culture Points can be earned from events and from player’s Capital City improvement which provides 1 Culture Point per turn.

Players can hasten the acquisition of various Cultural Traits by increasing their civilization's Awareness of each ideology. The more Awareness an ideology has, the larger the Ideology Discount for traits in that Ideology’s tree. Awareness can be increased through certain choices in events. To get to “Terror Stars,” players will want to make choices that add points of Nihilism.

Nihilism in particular has the Trait “Moral Relativism” which makes it so all event choices give awareness into every ideology which can greatly accelerate the growth of your Ideology Discount.

If you are planning to play a game with the goal of unlocking Terror Stars, I highly recommend playing as a Civilization with Nihilism as its Cultural Focus such as the Korath or Cosmic Contaminant. A Civilization’s Cultural Focus provides an additional 25 Awareness for that Ideology starting turn one - translating into a 25% discount for Cultural Traits in that tree.



As I said before, Terror Stars are a late-game unlock. In the game I played to gather screenshots for this Dev Journal, it took me until turn 77 to unlock the “Terror Stars” Cultural Trait. Once unlocked, I still needed to research the “Terror Stars” tech which would have taken 50 turns with my research.



Luckily, I was able to quickly ramp up the quality and quantity of Scientists, Research Districts, and Improvements across all of my worlds pretty quickly. When paired with a near-zero tax rate for maximum approval and various Research-boosting Policies, my Research per Turn scaled from around 90 to upwards of 500.

This leap in Research allowed me to unlock the Terror Stars technology on turn 99.



With the Technology researched, I now had the option to build a Terror Star Foundation with Constructor ship.





Before a Terror Star can be fully operational, you will need to complete the remaining four stages of its construction starting with the Terror Star Command. Each stage costs a handful of Credits, some Resources, and a Module to install.















Once complete, you’ll be able to move your Terror Star on the map like you would most ships and fleets. Terror Stars are fairly slow with only 3 Moves per Turn and are somewhat vulnerable. They can be defended by stationing fleets on them or toggling “Guard” from the Terror Star Context Window.

Also important to note is that you are limited to one Terror Star per Sector.





With all of that aside, what exactly can you do with your completed Terror Star?

[h2]Terror Stars: What Do They Do?[/h2]
Terror Stars have what is called a “Terror Star Beam.” To use a Terror Star Beam, you will need to move your Terror Star within range of a Star at which point you will be able to select the Star as the target of the beam.

Once selected, the Terror Star will begin charging - taking three turns before being ready to fire.



At the end of the three turns, you will have a blocking event informing you that your Terror Star is ready to fire. Clicking it will initiate the attack.



After witnessing the destruction of the Star, you will receive a message from any Civilization with Planets destroyed in the blast professing their unending hatred of you. They will declare a war that will not end until either you or they are destroyed.



Closing this message will reveal the aftermath: all planets that once circled that Star have been reduced to Asteroids. Your Terror Star will need three turns to cool down before it can fire again.



[h2]Terror Stars: Why Would I Use One?[/h2]
Terror Stars are the scorched-earth, nuclear option of warfare in Gal Civ IV.

Using one wipes entire planets and star systems off of the map. This can be extremely useful for players experiencing war in the late-game.

Standard conquest and war in Gal Civ IV can steadily increase the workload of the player as they capture more and more enemy planets, assign them governors, manage their shipyards, and defend them against enemies trying for a comeback. A player at war late enough in the game to have unlocked Terror Stars will likely be managing an already vast empire.

By removing entire Star systems from the equation, players can avoid taking on additional responsibilities and simultaneously stifle any opportunity for an enemy player’s resurgence.

All-in-all, Terror Stars are a tool for the most ruthless of conquerors. Even obtaining one requires focus and commitment.

And so, my question for you all today is this:

Will you Defend the galaxy from its most terrifying threat yet? Or will charge forward to rule with an iron fist?

It’s time for a quick teaser of our latest update v2.9, named “The Starview Update” is coming soon for Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova. Alongside a substantial list of the usual bugfixes and balance changes we’ve applied to address issues players have found and reported to us, we’ve continued to add content and improve the overall user experience of playing the game. I won’t cover everything here because the v2.9 update is pretty substantial, so I’m picking out some choice titbits to whet your appetites for its upcoming coming release.

First up, we’ve got another redesigned roster of ships for our very own psychopathic Sentient Droids, the Yor!


The Yor Singularity are a favorite of many GalCiv players including, so I’ve been reliably informed, Frogboy himself, the lead designer behind the GalCiv series. Fans of this malevolent cybernetic monstrosity are in for a treat because their ship models have undergone a rather extensive visual upgrade!


Whenever we update ship models, the designs that are being replaced are still available as an alternative set for players to use alongside these replacements. As usual, the “Classic Yor” set is available for those of you who still love those older ships. This will also increase the range of Synthetic and Cybernetic themed models to include in your custom civilizations too.


What’s more, Starbase and Shipyard UIs have been beautified and tidied!


We’ve removed the graph guidelines lines from behind the Starbase, showing the galaxy behind in all its glory, and it really stands out a lot better now. The Starbase UI has had a redesign to make it cleaner and easier to parse too. These Starbases have never looked so good!


The Shipyard screen has also been upgraded, again showing off your beautiful ship designs against the Starfield backdrop instead of those old grid lines. You’ll even see the occasional ship fly past too!


In line with this update’s theme of raising the overall quality of the game’s general user experience, there’s been a serious pass made over the in-game text and tooltips to replace outdated information and better clarify their meanings. GalCiv is a complex game series even for 4X, and Supernova is no exception to this rule, with many different interlocking game mechanics and systems to consider.

As the game develops, your civilization grows and the amount of fleets you have to manage increases, the use of GalCiv 4’s automation tools and Rally Points can be a serious time and effort saver.

Rally Points aren’t just for automating the process of flying newly built ships out to a distant location: veteran players have come up with many novel and ingenious uses for them. Before this update, accessing the UI for Rally Points required an actively selected Shipyard or ship (and often meant you had to search for one on the map to do so), but now they can be rapidly accessed through their own dedicated hotkey, defaulted to “P”.


Once your Rally Points are set up, you can use the automation tools to direct fleets to and from them. These controls were previously located in the Civilization Policies screen, but we felt it would be more consistent if these automation tools had their dedicated place on the main screen’s toolbar, as you can see below.


The Civilization Policy screen is a lot neater as a result, as you can see. And what’s this at the top left of the screen?


That’s right, the old tax brackets of Low, Medium, High etc has gone, replaced with a slider that allows a much finer gradation of taxation. This is a pretty significant change as it gives you more control over your economic, industrial and research output.


The team have also removed deprecated and unused techs from the tech tree, so they’ll not turn up in your game anymore. Along with the larger changes made to better organize the tech tree over recent patches, we’re hoping that this smooths the process of picking your path through the research tree to get what you need from your civilization as the game develops.

We recognize that it’s essential for players to have quick access to the information they need to make the right decisions, turn by turn, and so this effort should go some way towards ensuring there’s less confusion and more fun in your campaigns.

As I stated previously, as you’d expect there’s a big batch of gameplay updates, including bugfixes, balance changes and general game polish bundled along with this patch. I’m going to pick just one of these, as it’s definitely one I see complaints about all the time on our various socials: the Festron no longer consume Citizens they shouldn’t be able to eat, like beings made out of rock or metal. Practically speaking, this means they can’t eat any Citizen that doesn’t itself consume Food. This kind of fix may seem like small fry, but immersion is really important in a strategy game, and little inconsistencies like that can really take you out of your game. Now your little Festron guys can chow down on those tasty Taurians, Xeloxi, Catgirls and all the rest without magically consuming Yor and Onyx along with them.


Finally, the v2.9 update brings another well requested feature to fix a potentially frustrating situation regarding downloadable content for GalCiv 4: if you own any of the DLC for Supernova, you’ll no longer need to be online to access that content. Not much more to say about this, but thank you for bearing with us as we got this one sorted.

There’s a lot more to this update but that should be enough for now. We hope you enjoy v2.9 and the improvements to Galactic Civilizations IV’s overall user experience.

Cheers!

Hello everyone!

For this week's dev journal, I wanted to further discuss the utility of Gal Civ IV’s Ship Designer.

This time around, I will be focusing on the mechanical benefits of using the Ship Designer and some scenarios where using it may come in handy.

In case you missed it, feel free to check out Dev Journal #71 where I explore some of what’s possible for players looking to create really cool-looking ships. See my design, the ExoDrake, below for a preview of the topic.



Without further ado, let's talk about the Ship Designer.

There are a few reasons why you might want to create custom Ship Designs. These reasons can generally be boiled down to a singular concept: Specialization.

By and large, the ships available to the player by default are designed to be well-rounded and useful in almost every situation. They are a one-size-fits-all solution that can get the job done.

For ships better suited for unique and novel situations, players can turn to the Ship Designer.

By creating new, custom Ship Designs, you can create tools uniquely suited for the challenges at hand. These new designs can allow you to accomplish your objectives with greater efficiency than the standard shipsets would usually allow.



There are two ways to access the Ship Designer: from the Main Menu and from inside a Shipyard.



When accessed from the Main Menu, the Ship Designer will display all available components regardless of prerequisite Techs whereas accessing the Ship Designer mid-game from inside a Shipyard will limit your selection.



This limitation helps ensure that the ships you design don’t contain components outside of what you are currently capable of producing.

This can also help with pacing in subsequent games as your Ship Designs get saved and added to the pool of ships available to the Civilization you created them as.

Designs utilizing components unlocked via early-game techs will be made available during the early-game and designs made with late-game components will appear in the late-game.

The alternative of accessing the Ship Designer via the Main Menu is useful in its own right. A savvy player may concoct their own powerful designs and plan for them to become available ahead of time.

To begin a new design, players have the option of starting from scratch or using an existing Ship Design as a template.

To start from scratch, select the “New Ship Class” button. To work from an existing ship, select your ship of choice and then hit the button with a plus-mark beneath the “New Ship Class” button.



Starting from scratch will reveal more options for Ship Type and using an existing Ship Design will limit these options to the size and type of ship selected (such as combat versus non-combat.)

Players can also choose their ship's Operational Ability and Target Priorities from this screen - assuming they are designing a combat vessel.

These two variables are powerful tools for creating specialized ships.



Once in the designer, players will need to choose a Hull before attaching any components.

Hull Size determines each ship’s Capacity for components - the bigger the ship, the greater the Capacity.

You will be limited to the ship sizes unlocked by certain technologies if accessing the Designer from a Shipyard and/or if you started with an existing ship as a template.

The bigger the Hull, the more late-game the prerequisite technology. Keep in mind that bigger Ship Designs will not be made available during the earlier parts of the game.

Hull Capacities are as follows:

• Tiny = 8
  
• Small = 18
  
• Medium = 32
  
• Large = 60
  
• Huge = 100
  
• Cargo = 20 (for non-combat ships)
  

Hitting the button in the top right will allow you to exit Cosmetic Mode and begin adding new components.



You then see all available components on the left, sorted into five categories:

• Weapons (Beam Weapons, Missile Weapons, Kinetic Weapons, and Exotic Weaponry)
  
• Defenses (Shields, Evasion, Armor, and special defense components)
  
• Drives (Moves)
  
• Support (Hit Point, Sensor Range, Accuracy, and fleet buffing components)
  
• Special (Specialty modules including Flagship, Supply, and Probe Modules)
  

You can see the stats and effects of each component by hovering over them.

One important stat of note is Mass. Attaching components adds Mass to the Equipment Manifest at the bottom of the Ship Designer. The Equipment Manifest is capped by your ship's Capacity, and you will not be allowed to add any component that would exceed Capacity.

Capacity can be increased with certain techs and by larger Hull Sizes as previously discussed.



Components can be attached by selecting one from the panel on the left and placing it onto the ship by clicking an anchor point.



Changes in Mass are previewed in the Equipment Manifest while each component is selected and updated once attached.



The look of each attached component can be adjusted via the control panel in the bottom right-hand corner with translation, rotation, and scaling options alongside more advanced tools like mirroring, hiding, or animation.

For the players looking to preserve the cosmetic aspects of their designs, one trick you can use is to hold ‘Shift’ and ‘Ctrl’ while attaching a new component. What this does is it snaps the component to the root of the Ship Design without an anchor point. Then, with the component selected, you can toggle the ‘Hide Part' option in the bottom right control panel - keeping it invisible and out of the way.



It is also important to keep an eye on the Manufacturing Cost as you add components as some will require specific resources like Elerium, Antimatter, Promethion, or Durantium to be produced. Each additional component will also add to the Construction Costs which determine how long it will take a Shipyard to produce your designs.

Adding too many components can limit your ability to produce these ships.



One way you can utilize the Ship Designer is to create “upgraded” versions of existing ships like, for example:

• Probes and Flagships with Increased Sensor Range
  
• Freighter (Trade ships) or Supply ships with increased Moves
  
• Repair Ships with increased Soldiering for quicker Invasions
  

However, of all the possible ways to use the Ship Designer, you will probably spend the most time (and have the most fun!) designing for combat.

Combat in Gal Civ IV has a rock-paper-scissors-type match-up system with three weapon types and three defense types.



Understanding these categories and their matchups will enable you to design ships tailor-made to dismantle your galactic opponents.

Consider:


Take a look at the Yor Fleet below. By examining their combat stats, we can see they have high Evasion and increased Beam Attack damage.



To counter this fleet, I want to design ships with high Shield (and Hit Points) and powerful Beam Weapons.

While starting a new Ship Design, I’ll choose an Operational Ability to “Defender” to further reduce the strength of their Evasion. I’ll also select “Bombers” as the Targeting Priority to quickly remove the two ships with Missile Weapons from their fleet.



From here, I’ll grab a Fleet Shield for increased Shield, Lasers for Beam Damage and accuracy, Chaff to counter their Missiles, and an Ion Cannon to neutralize their Evasion.



With my design complete, I can save my newly complete “Yor Doomed” Ship Design and begin production on a fleet.



With a fleet of six “Yor Doomed” ships, the Yor fleet that threatened my border didn’t stand a chance.



One last note on accumulating Ship Designs:

As your game progresses, your various Ship Designs will slowly become obsolete as your opponents adapt and technology progresses. When this happens, you have the option to mark them as such and have them removed from your Shipyard’s available projects for the remainder of your game.



The Ship Designer allows you to adapt and respond to the challenges that arise throughout a game. This is a cumulative effect that reaches beyond the end of one game and into the next. Each ship you design gets saved to the ever-increasing roster of available ships, allowing you to respond quickly to every obstacle.

You may even face new challenges should you go toe-to-toe with a Civilization you have previously played as and designed ships for. I’ll be on the lookout for the “Yor Doomed” fleet the next time I play as the Yor.

There are endless possibilities and clever component combinations to discover. I’ve only touched on a few here in this Dev Journal.

And so, I’d like to ask:

• What component combinations have you discovered?
  
• Do you have a favorite Ship Design?
  

Thank you for reading and have fun conquering the galaxy!