Galactic Civilizations IV News

The Drath are an ancient species in the Galactic Civilizations universe, and alongside the Altarians, a long hated rival, they evolved on the planet of Altaria a long, long time ago. Strange rumours and whispered legends amongst both the Altarians and the Drath hint that Altaria may have once been known by another name, but if the lore-masters of each race know more, they’re not letting on.


Unceremoniously exiled from their homeworld in millennia past by a strength far beyond theirs, the Drath have long brewed a powerful concoction of cunning and resentment: two skills vital to survival in a hostile universe, if harnessed in the correct way.

With access to the Ancient trait, like the Altarians and the Iconians, the Drath Freehold also have access to the Elemental Fabricator and the Tower of Procipinee, and for details of those two special Improvements, check out last weeks developer journal focusing on the Iconian Refuge.


But the Drath have another unique Improvement too, the Arms Expo, a base for the import and export of the Drath’s most lucrative trade resource: weapons of war.

The Drath Freehold make a good profit from Trade Routes when trading with civilizations at war, but now this powerful Civilization Achievement assists this goal even further: the +1 Diplomacy Bonus goes some way to offset the penalties incurred when convincing other civilizations to declare war on one another. Furthermore when employed as part of a wider effort to support relations with existing trade partners, this extra diplomatic ability reduces the likelihood of the Drath being on the receiving end of a declaration of war themselves.

But that’s not all! This is a powerful Wealth Improvement that not only grants a large +25% to the Core World’s Gross Income, but also boasts an impressive Adjacency Bonus: +3% per level to both Gross Income and to Research.

You’ve got a choice here: do you powerhouse your generation of credits or stack up your Research efforts instead? Fortunately, this incredibly useful Improvement will provide a centrepiece for either of these extremes, or a healthy mix of the two, ensuring your precious tiles on Dratha are always well utilised.


The Tales of Centauron DLC adds a homeworld Event that kicks in soon after the game’s start, as always presenting the Drath with a choice between three new homeworld Improvements.


First up is the Eldars' Council Chamber, where the very oldest Drath lecture the younger spawn on the deepest affairs of the ancients, alone granting a modest +1% to Research but also adding a hefty+3 Level to Research to all qualifying adjacent Districts and Improvements. A lucky placement can grant the Drath a huge Research bonus once it is fully developed to best take advantage of the arcane ramblings of these wizened old dragons.


Next up is the Warrior Training Grounds. Sometimes, even a shadowy collection of sneaky warmongering lizards need to get their claws dirty, and so once more the Drath Freehold turn to the wisdom of their long, dark past. The Warrior Training Grounds instil young Drath Soldiers with the martial history of their people and increasingly… draconian training regimes that grant Dratha a massive +20% to Soldiering, and a further +3 Level to Military Adjacency Level Bonus.

If you’re planning on a very war-focused playthrough, or you’ve got someone big and scary breathing down your neck in the early game, this might be a great choice to propel the Drath Freehold into the top tier of all military civilizations in the game.


When the younger, less educated Drath shut their ears to the lectures of their elders and refuse the honourable teachings of their ancient war philosophers, the temptation to indulge in extra-societal activities can take hold. Choosing to place the Dragon Mythos Preserve brings these wayward elements back into line by instilling in them the pride of their illustrious past, reducing Crime by 50% and granting a +1 Military Adjacency Level Bonus too.

With these new tools at their disposal, the Drath Freehold can be now be played in many new ways, whether that’s emphasising their traditionally Tall, secret trade-empire style, building them to be more militarily active or propelling them forwards technologically for a more Research oriented approach to victory.

Those sappy, do-gooding Altarians will never know what hit them, and a return to the ancient world of Elemental seems all but assured!

The history of the Galactic Civilizations universe is replete with tragedy, and the desperate Iconians are no exception. After spending their lives in service to a Precursor race known as the Arnor and creating themselves synthetic servants called the Yor to further their aims, an Arnor splinter faction called the Dread Lords gave the Yor sentience and set them on the Iconians in an epic act of spite, driving them off their beautiful homeworld of Iconia.

As the events of Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova unfold, the sorry Iconians find themselves on the modest world of New Iconia. Armed with little more than an inclination towards scientific endeavors and a deep and lasting mistrust of anybody not of their own race, the Iconians strive to reclaim themselves an empire in and amongst the turmoil unfolding around them.

This week, we’re going to take a quick look at some of the tools the Iconians have access to at the start of the game, with a note that, as always, the Homeworld Event content requires the optional “Tales of Centauron” DLC.


Like the Altarian Republic, with whom the Iconians share the “Ancient” Civilization Trait, our suspicious friends gain immediate access to the Elemental Fabricator. With a cheeky nod to a previous popular Stardock title, I think, this adds an immediate +5 Manufacturing to the Core World it is built upon. This is likely to be New Iconia at the start of the game, unless you’re particularly patient, with plans for an epic-scale industrial planet later in your empire’s development. With +1 Manufacturing and +1 Military to any adjacent assets, it could form a solid centerpiece for such a development.


The Tower of Procipinee boosts the Influence output of the Core World it is located upon by +10%, but better still, doubles the Intelligence of all Citizens located there. With a +2 Research Adjacency Level Bonus and added to the Iconian’s Civilization Trait “Clever”, when carefully placed it will greatly advance their civilization’s overall research efforts. The Iconians might find it hard making friends, but they’ll have the technological advantage in any given conflict!


With the “Tales of Centauron” DLC added, the Iconians will get a homeworld Event pop up somewhere between turn 2 and turn 9. We’re familiar with these now, so let’s take a look at the choices on offer.


First up is Ancient Archive. Nothing fancy here, this repository of precursor-era knowledge gives a flat out +3 Research boost, and +1 Research to adjacent tile Districts and Improvements, and is designed to slingshot the research-oriented Iconians into a higher level of technological advancement even earlier than their rivals. This could be a wise-choice when playing the Iconians in classic style, powerhousing Research above all other things and hoping to overpower your rivals with the most advanced weaponry in the universe.


Next we have the Bio-Digital Fusion Centre that gives the world+20% Growth and nicely plugs into your Research network with a +3 Research boost to adjacent Districts and Improvements. This might be a good choice on a map with more space for the Iconians to expand, or if you’re planning on an early war and want lots of Soldiers to crush your enemies with!


Finally, we have the Galactic Diplomacy Hub. The Iconians tend to rely on deception over diplomacy, but this provides an option to play nicer with your neighbours, a strong choice if hemmed in early. In cases like this, your only option is a taller playstyle focusing on trade and diplomacy, keeping most of your rivals sweet but with a mind to single out a weaker neighbor and take their worlds with the support of your new-found friends.


The Ancient trait allows the Iconians access to the Civilization Policy called “Heritage Protection”, giving New Iconia (and only that one homeworld) a 100% Influence Growth bonus. With this, the Iconians can pretend to be the Altarians and push their dubious cultural benefits out into the galaxy around them.

Rapid expansion of Influence takes territory fast, but can be a double-edged sword when those borders start pushing in on someone a lot stronger and scarier than you are. Fortunately, the “Paranoid” Civilization Ability means the Iconians fight very well when protected by their own cultural borders; knowing when to push your borders out, and when not to, is a key component of any strong Iconian player’s bag of tricks.

The Iconians traditionally liked to turtle up and outpace their rivals with superior technology, but with these extra tools, they’ve got the option of playing more diplomatically or physically expanding a lot faster too.

Let’s hope they make it back to Iconia itself, where their malevolent progeny await them…

[h2]The Stability and Enhancement Update[/h2]

Full Changelog Here

We're excited to share with you the details of our latest update, v2.31. While this update doesn't introduce new features, it focuses on enhancing your gameplay experience through a series of important bug fixes, stability improvements, and performance tweaks.

• Ship movement in battles has been improved for a more immersive experience.
  
• Improved Multiplayer stability and performance.
  
• Various crashes have been addressed to enhance game stability.
  

[h2]Battles:[/h2]

• Movement of fighters has been refined to reduce rubber-banding effects.
  
• An issue with "Predictive Targeting" range bonuses not showing in tooltips has been fixed, ensuring accuracy in the Battle Viewer.
  
• The "Armor Progress" bar has been removed from the HUD for a cleaner look.
  

[h2]Events:[/h2]

• Fixed a bug where choosing "decide later" for an event wouldn't allow you to make a selection at a later time.
  
• Corrected tooltip data for the "Exotic Alien Lazy Genius Fever" and "Divine Intervention" events for clarity.
  
• Portraits for factions spawned by events are now properly displayed in the Diplomacy Screen.
  

[h2]Miscellaneous:[/h2]

• Adjustments have been made to allow changing Victory conditions mid-game.
  
• Issues causing stuck turns due to teleporting ships or missing anomalies have been resolved.
  
• Capturing an opponent's shipyard now correctly ejects their ships to a valid tile.
  
• Various other gameplay tweaks and fixes have been implemented to improve your experience.
  

[h2]Multiplayer Enhancements:[/h2]

• We've significantly improved Multiplayer stability and performance. Fixes have been implemented for re-watching battles, reducing auto-explore lag, and resolving turn-timer issues, ensuring a smoother multiplayer experience.
  
• Setup buttons no longer shift around when starting a multiplayer game after exiting another, making for a more consistent and user-friendly interface.
  

[h2]Missions:[/h2]
The CTRL+N shortcut to re-roll the game map is now disabled during missions to preserve the integrity and challenge of each mission.

[h2]Graphics and UI Enhancements:[/h2]

• Added point lights to Starbases and Terror Stars for a more visually appealing experience.
  
• Addressed missing graphics and rendering issues, such as the red squares in the Invasion screen.
  
• The UI has seen several improvements, including updated icons, resolved clipping issues, and adjustments to ensure information is displayed correctly and clearly.
  

[h2]Text Updates:[/h2]

• Language updates for Russian, French, and Chinese.
  
• Various text corrections and updates, including tooltips and references, have been made for accuracy and clarity.
  

[h2]DLC Note:[/h2]
For Tales of Centauron DLC players, you no longer need to be online to complete the Korath mission.


We hope these updates improve your Galactic Civilizations IV experience. As always, we're grateful for your feedback and support.

Please note that while we've aimed to address a wide range of issues with this update, we're always working on further improvements. If you encounter any problems or have suggestions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. Thank you for being a part of the Galactic Civilizations IV community!

In the previous episode of this short series covering the races of the Centauron sector, we covered the cautious and wary Torians, an unfortunate aquatic race that were once enslaved and turned into a tasty food source by today’s featured Galactic Civilization, the oppressive and malevolent Drengin Empire!

Today, we’re going to take a look at some of the unique tools that the Drengin bring to bear in their attempts to subjugate those around them! As one of the oldest Civilizations in the galaxy, the Drengin have had millennia to perfect their various… resource extraction methods, shall we say, and they make an incredibly fun playthrough for those of you that enjoy bringing the jackboot down on the weaker species around you!


The Drengin are warlike, duplicitous and capable. These three attributes make them an extremely dangerous force in the galaxy, and unlike their maniacal relatives the Korath Clan, they prefer to take prisoners in the wars they wage on civilizations unfortunate enough to lie within striking range.


The Drengin Empire is built on the backs of the poor slaves taken in raids on their neighbors, and from their own people too. Every Drengin Core World will have access to the Prison Labor Camp Improvement, which not only grants a solid Manufacturing adjacency bonus to attached assets, but also provides a further +15% Manufacturing to the Core World for each Prisoner on the planet, at the expense of some added Pollution. The final Manufacturing bonus from a well stocked camp can be very large.

Citizens in the Drengin Empire often suffer substantial Approval penalties, particularly those living on captured worlds, and throwing them into these camps can be a great way to raise the planet’s overall Approval while setting those malcontents to work in your factories too.


The Pain Amplifier is a nasty device that gives your scientists a nasty jolt every time they stop working, which increases the world’s Research output by 25%, in addition to its adjacency bonuses assisting other Research Districts and Improvements.


As with the other Centauron sector civilizations, The Tales of Centauron DLC adds a new homeworld Event that triggers a few turns into a playthrough, and the Drengin Empire’s options here are somewhat different to the Event options available to the other Civilizations.


The first option peppers the planet with three Enforced Labor Camps: individually these offer a small Manufacturing boost of +1 each. +3 Manufacturing goes a long way at the start of the game, especially when modified by all the other percentage bonuses from your various other Districts, Improvements and Citizens. Better still, each of these grants an adjacency bonus to Wealth generating assets, giving the Drengin some options in developing a stronger economy earlier in the game than before.


The second option is a brutally simple one: the Drengin now have access to the Energy Weapons Amplifier ship component, a powerful, long range Beam Attack that requires Durantium and a Frigate to house it on. It is large and somewhat less accurate than other Beam weapons but generally outclasses anything fielded by their rivals until the Neutrino Emitter is researched, allowing the Drengin to rush research Space War Tactics for the Frigate hull component, and win an early war with ease.


Last but not least comes the Terror Surveillance Network, which adds a whopping +2 bonus to Drengi’s Control output, for a total of +3 Control per turn. Used in tandem with the Drengin’s “Singular Purpose” Civilization Policy, the Drengin Control output of +4 per turn allows youto make extensive use of Executive Orders to rapidly push the Drengin Empire in whatever direction you want.


For example, the Impress Citizens Executive Order, at a 50 Control Cost, instantly spawns both a Colony Ship and a Constructor. It has a rapid cooldown of only 6 turns and with the larger Control pool that the Drengin Empire start the game with, can be used to rapidly expand their empire in the early game.

Now add this to the possible +4 Control per turn available with the Terror Surveillance Network and Singular Purpose: this rushed colonial and economic expansion can be repeated every ten turns, and could be a devastatingly strong strategy if the Drengin have plenty of room to expand unimpeded.

Speaking of Executive Orders, the Drengin have some other interesting options available.


Pillage the weak extorts 400 credits from your own cowed populace. The Drengin and other subjugated Citizens are used to such treatment, so the Approval penalty for doing so is relatively small.


So you’re now the proud owner of all these new Core Worlds you’ve rushed out with Impress Citizens? Well, for 30 Control points you can quickly erect essential infrastructure on them with +100 Stored Goods, usually enough to build some Manufacturing infrastructure or other another urgent asset in a single turn. With a fairly rapid Cooldown of 10 turns, this is a great way to convert Control points into industrial and military assets.


The Drengin have a whole host of thematic Civilization Policies to choose from too.

Notably, they can reduce their overall Maintenance or sell off alien slaves for a big profit to increase overall wealth generation, both at the expense of reduced diplomacy. These are powerful bonuses, but the Diplomatic Bonus -1 from each really plays into the idea that the Drengin’s horrific practices are incredibly effective, but make them very unpopular with those around them.

While the Drengin are warlike, they also have the tools to build a mighty industrial empire and reach for some of the non-conquest victory conditions too. Don’t feel pressured into playing them as a map-painting civilization if that ain’t your jam, because although they like slaves, your own population can provide plenty of those and so you’ll be free to pick and choose your wars as you like.

You might even find some friends to trade with… just try not to eat them all first.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In the vast expanse of the cosmos, the survival of a civilization hinges on its economic prowess and industrial strength. Today, we delve into the remarkable journey of the Shrimp Syndicate, a faction that has risen from the ashes of ecological disaster to become a beacon of economic success in the galaxy.

I've had the unique opportunity to witness their story unfold, and I'm here to share with you how this civilization has navigated the treacherous waters of Galactic Economics.

[h2]The Rise of the Shrimp Syndicate[/h2]
Imagine a water-world, Coralis, teeming with life, only to be brought to the brink of extinction by a catastrophic ecological crisis. From this world emerged the Shrimp Syndicate, an offshoot of the Manti species, known for their resilience and exceptional craftsmanship. Despite their traumatic past, they've managed to stabilize their food supply and are now looking to the stars, armed with newly acquired Hyperdrive technology.

The Shrimp Syndicate's leader, Waverider, is acutely aware of the delicate balance between industrial growth and environmental preservation. Their traumatic history with ecological damage has ingrained a deep fear and respect for their planet's wellbeing. As they embark on their quest for galactic expansion, they face a dilemma: how to increase their industrial output for exploration and defense while maintaining their world's pristine condition.

[h2]Balancing Growth and Sustainability[/h2]
Coralis is a planet where every citizen contributes to its growth, but the specter of pollution looms large. A mere 7% pollution rate is already causing a significant dip in the population's growth and happiness. Waverider's decree is clear: multiply and prosper, but not at the cost of the planet's health. The Shrimp Syndicate must find a way to develop their industrial capabilities without sullying their sacred spawning pools.

[h2]The Challenge of Limited Industry[/h2]
The Shrimp Syndicate's approach to industry is a lesson in resourcefulness and strategic planning. By harnessing the natural resources of Coralis and carefully arranging their assets, they've managed to create a limited yet efficient industrial base. Probes are sent out into the galaxy in search of mineral-rich worlds and asteroids to bolster their industry without overburdening their homeworld.

[h2]Encounters with the Drengin Empire and Beyond[/h2]
As the Shrimp Syndicate extends its reach into the galaxy, it encounters the Drengin Empire, a civilization with a reputation for malevolence. The Syndicate must tread carefully, as their limited military presence makes them vulnerable to conquest. Waverider's strategy is to seek out more amicable neighbors for trade and technological exchange, hoping to fortify their position against potential threats.

[h2]Diplomacy and Trade: The Path to Prosperity[/h2]
The Shrimp Syndicate's exploratory efforts lead them to the Torians, another aquatic civilization, and the Terran Alliance, known for their diplomatic prowess. These encounters open up new avenues for trade, providing the Syndicate with the economic boost needed to support their burgeoning military force. As trade routes flourish, so does the Syndicate's influence and ability to fund their defense against the encroaching Drengin Empire.

[h2]The Art of Manufacturing and Research[/h2]
The Shrimp Syndicate's success is a testament to their understanding of the intricate relationship between Planetary Input and Output. By maximizing their Manufacturing and Research outputs, they've managed to accelerate their technological advancements and ship production, preparing them for the inevitable conflict with the Drengin Empire.

[h2]The Brink of War[/h2]
As tensions with the Drengin Empire escalate, the Shrimp Syndicate finds itself on the precipice of war. Waverider's leadership and the Syndicate's economic strategies have positioned them to face this challenge head-on. Their commitment to eco-friendly industrial practices and shrewd resource management has set the stage for a showdown that could determine the fate of their civilization.

[h2]The Fate of the Shrimp Syndicate[/h2]
The galaxy watches with bated breath as the Shrimp Syndicate confronts its adversaries. Will their dedication to ecological integrity and economic acumen be enough to safeguard their future? As a gaming journalist, I'm captivated by their story and eagerly anticipate the outcome of their galactic endeavors.


[h2]Play as the Shrimp Syndicate:[/h2]
For those intrigued by the Shrimp Syndicate's journey, you can experience their struggle for survival and prosperity firsthand. Check out the links provided below to access this Civilization in the Steam workshop. The game settings required to recreate this scenario are also included.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3156660470

Here are the game options to play the Shrimp Syndicate with similar settings to the tutorial video:

• Galaxy Difficulty: Normal
  
• Game Pacing: Normal
  
• Research Rate: Normal
  
• Minor Races: Common
  
• Hostile Entities: Rare
  
• Civilization Proximity: Not too close
  
• Galaxy Size: Medium
  
• Number of Sectors: Singular
  
• Star Frequency: Common
  
• Habitable Planets: Common
  
• Extreme Planets: Occasional
  
• Resources: Occasional
  
• Advanced Settings to taste, in the original video I played with Tech Brokering disabled.
  

Please note that because the game version is changing quite rapidly, we have not included the original save file as it would lack game features from the most recent version of the game. Instead, you're welcome to recreate the game and play it from your own perspective, and bring the Shrimps to victory against the other civilizations in the sector.