Galactic Civilizations III News

[h2]It's hard to believe that GalCiv III was released nearly five years ago.  We've made a lot of changes since then.[/h2]

Version 4.0 is being designed to bring a ton of new features, we won't go over all the changes here but instead will take you on a bit of a guided tour.

Most of the changes are for users of Retribution which is the latest expansion.  If you don't have that, I highly recommend getting it.

[h3]Turn 1[/h3]
On your first turn you're going to likely notice some subtle but important changes.




First, more food.  There are a lot more fertile tiles in general that you can use either for farming or plow away to build other things.




There is also an Administrative Center that you can have 1 per planet with.  It gives you 2 admin points but it's also useful because it enhances adjacent structures.




There has also been a slight tweak to the costs of planetary improvements (on Retribution).  You also end up with a fuller set of choices. 
 



Not only have asteroid fields been made bigger but Durantium is more common as well.




Technologies have been tweaked so that more administrative points are handed out and a lot more trade routes are handed out.  For instance (Retribution), Xeno Commerce now provides 5 trade routes instead of 2.

[h3]Early game changes[/h3]


Resources like Promethion are somewhat more common as well.




On the other hand, while we've added more asteroids, we've reduced the amount of raw resources mining bases give from 1.0 to 0.50.  As many know, by late game, a disproportionate amount of raw resources ends up coming from the asteroids which was not the intent.  

Instead, because food is so much more common, players will tend to have much larger populations which do provide, over time, more production.




Planets themselves have gotten a bit of a make-over.  More interesting layouts and more interesting cosmetics.

[h3]Even Mars.[/h3]


And this is all in the first 20 turns or so.   We will discuss more as we get closer.

[h3]Highlighted feature[/h3]
A lot of users have asked for the ability to turn OFF the colonies auto-upgrading structures.

[h2]I found a magic planet.[/h2]



It’s not that it is a class 20 planet – it only started as a class 14 and I’ve upgraded it since. It is that it had 6 fertile tiles with 5 of them ready to have something amazing placed in the middle. In this case, Kimberly’s Refuge. Combined with the planet being a fertile world the result is that this one planet produces 34 food.

Of course, having the time to build this up required relative peace to be the norm which is the subject of this dev journal.

[h2]Leave me alone[/h2]
One of the most common questions we get is how do you keep everyone from going to war with you? Can you play the game without having to build up a huge military. The answer is, yes and…maybe.

I’m playing as a benevolent civilization. This means my polar opposite civilizations (malevolent) will be inclined to go to war with me. If I were playing as pragmatic, they would also not like me but they are somewhat less likely to pull the trigger on going to war with a pragmatic civilization versus one that is their opposite.

So what’s the key to getting them to leave me alone?

[h2]Relationship factors[/h2]



Here is the Drengin. The biggest two things helping me with them are the fact we’re trading with them and they are relatively far away.

[h3]Tip #1: Trade with them [/h3]
When I play as a peaceful civ, I am careful to trade as much as I can. You do take a hit due to trading with their enemies but it’s still a big benefit.

Trade helps in so many other areas too. For example, the more you trade, the less easy of a target you are since they really want your money.

[h3]Tip #2: Treaties[/h3]


Make sure you are setting up treaties with them.

[h3]Tip #3: Financial Aid / Tribute[/h3]


You can give tribute to civilizations (give them money) which will make them happy.

[h3]Tip #4: Don’t be an easy target[/h3]
If a bear is chasing after you and your friends, you only need to be faster than the slowest friend. You don’t need a big military to keep from being attacked. But if you are absolutely defenseless then you are inviting conquest.

[h3]Tip #5: Use Diplomats[/h3]


If you have trained any diplomats, you can use them on the powerful civilizations that you want to leave you alone. You don’t need them to love you, you just need them to hate someone else more.

[h3]Tip #6: Build up your diplomatic skills[/h3]
There are certain planetary improvements and technologies that give your civilization more diplomatic points. Your increased skills will cause other civilizations to like you more.

[h3]Tip #7: Spy with Freighters[/h3]
A lot of players will try to keep an eye on what other civilizations are doing by building starbases and sensor ships. But these can sometimes cause other civilizations to consider them trespassers. But freighters don’t have that issue.

Instead, design freighters that have great sensor ranges. Make sure you get an open borders treaty with them.



Hopefully these tips will help you maintain a galactic peace…or at least long enough to either ascend or get a diplomatic victory!

Steam's Winter sale is a perfect time to expand your library for less, making this a great chance to pickup Galactic Civilizations III!

For a limited time, get Galactic Civilizations III for 60% off, or save on any outstanding DLC with the Gold Bundle.

• Galactic Civilizations III for 60% off (includes Galactic Civilizations III, the Mega Events DLC, the Crusade Expansion and the Retribution Expansion)
  
• Galactic Civilizations III Soundtrack for 50% off
  
• Or save more with the Gold Bundle and complete your collection!
  

We are happy to release a patch that improves planet visuals, improves gameplay, and fixes bugs. Read below for details.


Planets

• The planetary map generation system now prefers placing tiles near the equator. The result is fewer, isolated tiles near the poles. Change does not affect the total number of tiles placed.
  
• Improvements to the planetary material system that allows for greater detail and color.
  
• Continent shorelines blend better with the water.
  
• City lights on the dark side of some planets (e.g. earth) get will get to max bright brightness when the population is 15 (was 30).
  
• Jupiter has been told to "stay in its lane" and use its own gradient colors instead of Mars'
  

Gameplay

• Players start with a shipyard. This has been added back because there is now sufficiently tight starting choices that we feel that holding back the shipyard simply creates an unnecessary repetitive starting condition
  
• Retribution: New starting improvement: Industrial Center (one per player). Good way to boost initial manufacturing
  
• Fixed a bug where the AI would sometimes delete a rally point if it found an object in it (as in, its own fleet!).
  
• AI combat ships are more willing to travel through dangerous territory to defend threatened planets.
  
• AI will ignore reinforcing planets that are already defended and not under threat.
  
• AI will focus on its primary enemy more so when targeting ships to attack.
  

Bugs

• Fixed a trade exploit with Hypergates.
  
• Fixed a problem with colonization events that aren't imagined yet.
  
• Updated the Planet window so the Build Queue buttons don't break out of their frame in Normal UI scale
  

We have analyzing gameplay data we receive as well as looking at saved games from players (thanks to all who send them) and incorporating improvements into what is currently versioned at v3.96.

Among the changes are:

• Players will start with a Shipyard already constructed.
  
• A new planetary improvement, Industrial Center (only buildable once) will start for players who have Retribution.
  
• Major visual polish pass on the planets. The planets we had were...ok in 2015 but really needed a refresh.
  
• Support for new planetary traits for modders
  
• Some tweaks to resource placement to make them more spread out and accessible
  

The shipyard being available on turn-1 should help new players and allow the game to "get moving" quicker. We decided to do this due to the recent updates that have made your home planets (especially for Retribution players) have a lot more interesting choices and we didn't feel the shipyard really needed to be one of those choices anymore.

While such a minor change in versioning doesn't imply a major change, the visual update will be pretty apparent immediately.

For users who really like having strange planet types, we are also going to soon be announcing a new DLC (which is how we pay for the continued development of the game) that adds a bunch of new planet types.