Galactic Civilizations III - Stardocks Next 4X Game

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Well since I don't see much talk about this game on the forums I decided to start a new thread on our forum. I'm sure most 4X fans already know of the game by now.

The game is called Galactic Civilizations III, and is available on Steam Early Access.

Link - http://store.steampowered.com/app/226860/
Galactic Civilizations III is the premier space strategy game. The latest installment of one of the highest-rated strategy series of all time, created by the original developers at Stardock, Galactic Civilizations III challenges players to build an empire that dominates the galaxy through conquest, diplomacy, cultural hegemony, or scientific research.

The stars are yours, if you can balance the demands of expansion, exploration, diplomacy, and all-but-inevitable galactic warfare. Careful strategy, not twitch reflexes, lead to victory in this turn-based strategy epic.

Online multiplayer comes to Galactic Civilizations for the first time in Galactic Civilizations III. Conquer the galaxy alongside your friends or battle for supremacy in titanic clashes.
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Stardock has released multiple updates, and a few developer videos.

Link - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUCMPd9b70oNX51guypaYhw

I like what I see and can't wait to play the finished game later this year.:)
 
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It better be good - I bought into the founder's deal. I hope there are lots of expansions for the game!
 
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I still haven't even played GCII yet. I purchased the complete edition during a Steam sale awhile back after seeing lots of people rave about it. Was it really that good?
 
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The "influence" factor was my favorite thing from GC2. You didn't have to go in with lasers blazing to take over a world. If you had a planet (or three) fairly close by that were doing very well economically, an enemy planet that wasn't doing so well would eventually decide that the grass really was far greener and switch to your side. I could win entire games without firing a shot (well - maybe a few shots - but hardly any).

Being able to make any shaped ship is pretty neat but it's purely artistic. That's bad news if you're trying to engineer the ultimate space craft but good news if you're trying to make the ultimate LOOKING space craft (or just trying to copy some other ships).

You also get to customize the races quite a bit - both your own and your enemies.
 
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There's a pretty good topic on the Steam Forums regarding the differences between GS2 and 3.

The AI coming from data mining has me thinking the most. To quote the quote of Frogboy's quote… (or something like that)
One of the biggest changes you'll see in the AI is data mining. Simply put, player ship designs and tactics are going to be stored on the cloud so that the AI can do data mining on it. I don't plan to actually design the ships this time around but instead look at the stats of the global player force and pick from that.

So the top Drengin player won't be the hard coded AI player I put in but more like the top rated human player.
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So it's doing something like Spore and pulling in ship designs from other people playing the game! That will certainly be interesting. I presume they will just get the basic design of what's on the ship instead of how it's shaped so Stardock doesn't have to worry about Disney suing them for using star destroyers and x-wings and the players don't have to worry about being attacked by a horde of penis ships. Including the tactics will be an even bigger change. (So am I really playing a single player game if the game is emulating the tactics of other players??)

The game is half price this weekend. I haven't tried playing in a long time but forum posts indicate that it's still very much in beta so, if you buy now, buy to save money later or buy to help beta test.
 
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JDR13 said:
I still haven't even played GCII yet. I purchased the complete edition during a Steam sale awhile back after seeing lots of people rave about it. Was it really that good?
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No, I don't think it was very good at all.

To me, MoO2 is far superior - even if it's very old. If you haven't played that one, I'd recommend giving it a try :)
 
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I was a big fan of the initial Galciv, I played it quite a bit. While it wasn't anywhere nearly as flavorful as MOO2, it actually had game balance and an AI that could play the game well and give you a real challenge, and that can mean quite a lot.

Galciv 2 wasn't anything special when it was first released. After several expansions though it became a pretty good game.
 
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GalCiv series was the closest thing to MOO2 that we had for a long time (along with Star Trek: Birth of The Federation).

I hope this third game will be up to the expectations.
 
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Stardock announced today the game will be released on May 14th.

Shape Your Galaxy in Stardock's Galactic Civilizations III on May 14

Plymouth, MI – April 22, 2015 – The universe of space strategy games is about to get a lot bigger with the May 14 launch of Galactic Civilizations III on PC. The landmark title from Stardock builds on the studio’s 20+ years of experience, the franchise’s history as one of the highest-rated strategy series of all time, and modern 64-bit computing to deliver an unprecedented 4X experience.

As an absolute ruler in Galactic Civilizations III, the choices you make shape your empire as it inevitably enters into cultural, trade, diplomatic, ideological, and military conflicts with your neighbors. Every empire has multiple paths of victory to pursue. Forging an empire so culturally influential that rival worlds defect to your cause is perfectly viable, so long as you can keep their dropships from landing on your core worlds through literal defenses or soft-power diplomatic maneuvers.

Galactic Civilizations III is the largest and most diverse strategy sandbox to date. Players have dozens of tools at their disposal from diplomatic treaties to resource exchanges, United Planets resolutions to the hundreds of research directions their scientists can pursue, and an effectively infinite number of ways to design and deploy starfleets. Every area of the game – planetary development, starbase construction, inter-faction negotiations, ideology, and much more – presents players with choices that shape their galaxy.

Galactic Civilizations III brings major improvements to the franchise and the genre aside from its triple-A presentation and the sheer size and variety that its 64-bit engine enables. The game is extremely mod-friendly, allowing ambitious modders to add an effectively unlimited amount of content from races to ships to entirely new technology and ideology branches or whatever else they think of. The in-game ship designer puts incredibly powerful tools in every player's hands to create the starships of their dreams - some of the most impressive ships in the game were created by the winners of the Early Access beta ship design contest. Finally, Internet multiplayer makes its first appearance in the franchise, along with fantastically detailed leaderboards and metadata powered by Stardock.net.

Galactic Civilizations III is available now via Steam Early Access at http://store.steampowered.com/app/226860/ for $49.99, and will release on May 14. To learn more, please visit http://www.galciv3.com.
For more on Stardock, go to http://www.stardock.com.
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I found the GC2 combat severily lacking. Also the ship design felt pointless, because it was just eyecandy and nothing else. Othervice I thought it was excellent.

I havent yet bought GC3 because Im not convinced that the battle is any better. Currently playing star drive 2.

Nowadays lots of new 4x space strategy games are released, but most of them disapoint one way or another. My personal favorites are distant worlds and sword of the stars.
 
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GC definitely isn't interested in the tactical combat part of 4X. There's a battle viewer but the real battle is done by the random number generator and the viewer just shows the results. GC concentrates on the strategic level.

The ships are definitely just eye candy. With no tactical level, there can't be a tactical advantage to how your ship is shaped which isn't quite as cool, IMHO, but it does open the game up to much more artistic ships. People are already making some fun ones.
 
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I wonder if there'll be a no DRM version after the way they promoted that about GC2.
I doubt because they seemed to have done a silent about face after promoting the heck out of that fact. I remember Dhruin giving a rare opinion/editorial on GC2 as being the best selling game at Walmart at a time when the rule of thumb was turn based was dead.

Hey Spud, I think there's enough people here interested in the GC franchise that this could be front page worthy. It has been in the past.
 
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It has?? There are some RPG'ish qualities to 4X games (getting a new tech is a little like leveling up, different races have different roles) but... the front page of RPG Watch?
 
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Bought the founders edition back when it was first released.
This game is the next big thing on my "list".
The only thing I did not like about GalCiv2 was the missing multiplayer feature.

And the way they implemented it in GalCiv3 might even make it a much better MP game than all the Firaxis Games.

I just have the impression (from the stream, haven't played quite a while) that it's not quite polished when it releases.
 
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Yeah, that seems to be their way of doing things. GalCiv 2 only scored in the 80's but the expansions scored in the 90's.

I tell ya - starting the game up and hearing that music again really brings the memories back.

Feature complete Beta 6 is on the way - though some things have been left on the cutting room floor.
 
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