Galactic Civilizations III News

Galactic Civilizations III v3.2 takes faction personality traits into account, improves game AI, and more





We're launching a version update today that increases the effects of a civilization's personality traits on diplomacy, conversations, and what ships to build. The Intrigue AI has also hired an accountant to better manage its taxes, and we've made a few adjustments to the Heroes of Star Control: Origins DLC. More details on the changes are below!






Base Game

• Stars are placed a slightly further apart than before in order to make each system independent from others.
  
• AI more aggressive at sending out constructors to build starbases
  
• Personality traits are given much greater consideration when deciding what topics the civilization wants to discuss.
  
• Personality traits are now given much greater consideration for deciding what types of ships to build when at peace.
  
• Personality traits are now given much greater consideration when deciding what kinds of treaties and offers to give to the player.
  

Crusade

• Diplomacy ability bonus to relations reduced from 2 to 1.
  

Intrigue

• AI manages its tax rate more effectively.
  
• Changed default # of colonies before a government is allowed from 3 to 2.
  

Heroes of Star Control

• If you don't own the either the Mercenaries or Intrigue expansion packs, you can now still get Jeff
  
• Jeff is already perfect and shuns your attempts to "upgrade" him
  
• Added custom Starbases for Mukay, Tywom, and Free Trandals (Mowlings starbases are unchanged)
  

Owners, the v3.2 update is ready and waiting for you in your Steam client.
Don't forget to pick up the Intrigue Expansion and Heroes of Star Control: Origins DLC!

New Alien Civilizations bring their own ship styles, unique race traits, diplomatic quirks, AI personalities, and more!

Check out the overview trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bPuLHeKZhk

The Star Control Heroes DLC pack introduces four major new civilizations to Galactic Civilizations III. All of the new alien factions come equipped with a unique leader, ship, music, and traits that make each civilization look and play differently from the existing major civilizations.

Play as or against the Tywom, the lovable, needy slugs, or as the kind (but surprisingly aggressive!) aquatic Mu'Kay. You can also play as the naive-but- deceptively powerful Mowlings with their god-like protector, "Jeff," or the recently liberated and mysterious Trandals.

Get the Heroes of Star Control: Origins DLC today for 10% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/954810

Galactic Civilizations III is the most popular space-based turn based strategy of all time. Your civilization has just achieved faster-than-light travel and the galaxy awaits you. But you are not alone and must deal with alien civilizations through diplomacy, trade, cultural hegemony, or military conquest either against the computer or against friends online.



The Tywom - Hello, best friends!
These yellow slug-like aliens would like a hug. They’re slimy, and you don’t want to give them one, but still - it’s all they really want. The Tywom want to be friends with everyone, which makes them great diplomats, and their constant desire for approval gives them a bonus for any other factions who happen to love them.


The Mu'Kay - Greetings, Federation members!
Founders of the Federation for Allied Species, the Mu’Kay are intelligent cephalopods who live entirely in aquatic environments. Their natural intelligence makes them excellent researchers, and their polite (if occasionally condescending) manner lends itself well to diplomacy. Unless you’re a fish. Then prepare to be eaten.


The Mowlings - All hail the mighty Jeff!
The Mowlings are small, bear-like creatures who worship a mysterious deity they call Jeff. Frankly, they’re a little lost without him, so they spend their time finding new ways to worship him. The Mowlings get a special Temple of Jeff improvement (one per planet) that grants bonuses to influence and approval, and in return Jeff orbits their planets protectively.


The Free Trandals - Cast off the shackles of the Overmind!
The Free Trandals are the escaped faction of a race that has been enslaved by a malevolent AI known only as Overmind, who uses their bodies to advance its own nefarious purposes. Now, the Free Trandals work to free their brethren and rebuild their lost culture with what little they have left. Possessing a surprising capability (and healthy paranoia) for advanced technology, the Free Trandals are far from helpless both on and off the battlefield. Their warrior instincts may be long buried, but their ships, while few in number, are enormously effective against silicon and synthetic based life forms.


Additional Features in Heroes of Star Control: Origins

• Dozens of new ship parts inspired by Star Control: Origins for building and modifying your own ships
  
• Several new music tracks from Star Control: Origins
  
• New faction traits
  
• New ship designs, colors, and styles
  

In addition to the release of the new DLC, v3.1 is also available today. This update adds some important AI and quality of life changes, as well as the ability for players to design their own color palettes for custom factions. With v3.1, players will be able to adjust the color scheme for the UI, maps, and ships as well. Full changelog here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/226860/discussions/1/1752358461524097202/

Today's Deal: Save 87% on Galactic Civilizations III Gold!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Wednesday at 10AM Pacific Time

Happy Fall, everyone!

The Galactic Civilizations III team has been working on some updates and adjustments to the core edition that they’re excited to share with you… in the form of a poem. You can thank Kael for this one.

Features

• Added a new racial trait, Aeroponics which allows that race to build a special low yield farm on any terrain with the Xeno Adaptation technology (requires Crusade).

Fixes

• When you willingly start a campaign,
  A fleet may be spawned without name,
  If you click on that fleet - the result, bittersweet,
  Will engender a crash in our game.
  
• Fixed the Trial by Fire achievement.
  
• Fixed the Perseverance so it can now correctly colonize extreme worlds even if the player doesn't have the tech.
  
• Fixed an issue scavenging a trade ship where it wouldn't have a home port anymore.
  
• Fixed an end turn crash (thanks for all the reproducible saves!).
  

The story of Galactic Civilizations has been around for 24 years - can you believe that?
Yeah, neither can we. Let's reflect!

GalCiv - the first commercial game for IBM's OS/2.
Years ahead of its time, the game took full advantage of 32-bit memory addressing, multi-threading, and high-res graphics.

GalCiv II released for OS/2 in 1996.
Expanding on the success of GalCiv, it added larger maps, new starships, and updated graphics supporting 16.8 million colors.

GalCiv for released Windows.
The "just one more turn" feeling of gameplay found a much larger user base through digital download and traditional retail channels.

GalCiv II released for Windows.
It included the first ever ship builder & released 2 expansions devoted to the mystery of the Dread Lords, a cliffhanger, a decade in the making.

Galactic Civilizations III released.
The latest iteration of the largest space-strategy sandbox games of all time received praise from critics and is still receiving updates today.

When our CEO Brad created Galactic Civilizations from his dorm room at Western Michigan University, he had no idea that it would lay the groundwork for Stardock growing into what it is today. He was just looking for a pay to pay the bills while he went to school - he didn't expect to launch his own gaming company!

Although Stardock has made many other titles throughout the years, everything comes back to Galactic Civilizations, the thing that started it all. Let's take a look at some side-by-side screenshots and see how the game has grown and evolved.

Let's start with one of the most beloved (ok, not beloved, but definitely most recognizable!) races, the Drengin.

Brad wrote a blog post awhile back showing the progression of the Drengin race throughout the years, but let's just take a quick look at a "then" and "now" photo of Lord Kona:

Lord Kona has aged since his GalCiv I days! Must be all the pressure of guiding his people while overthrowing enemy empires and eating their leaders.

All of the classic GalCiv races have seen some upgrading throughout the years.
Take a look back at the old image below of the racial selection screen and see how far they've come:


GalCiv I << The Yor >> GalCiv III


GalCiv I << The Altarian >> GalCiv III


GalCiv I << The Arcean >> GalCiv III


GalCiv I << The Torian >> GalCiv III

Stardock has always been supportive of modding so we found a way to include tools for our players right in the game itself.

Original GalCiv may have had the map, scenario, and campaign editors, but GalCiv II pioneered
the ship builder feature. This of course made its way into its successor, GalCiv III. We're constantly in awe of our community's creations using this tool!

The Ship Builder from GalCiv II vs the Ship Builder from GalCiv III

UI, trade screens, research screens, and so much more have seen a lot of refining over the years. With every game, expansion, and DLC that we release, we've learned what our players need and have done our best to give it to them. Below are a few more screenshots of GalCiv I, II, and III.

GalCiv I Map vs GalCiv III Map

GalCiv I Research Robot vs GalCiv III Research Robot

GalCiv I Senate and Elections vs GalCiv III Senate and Elections


Thanks for celebrating 24 years of Galactic Civilizations with us!
To keep up with what Stardock's doing, follow us on Facebook or Twitter, and join us on Twitch every Tuesday at 4pm ET!