If you haven’t checked out the 1.7 betas, you will definitely want to. It makes a ton of improvements to the base game.
I have mixed feelings on GalCiv III. It’s the first GalCiv I didn’t design so I do enjoy being able to see someone else’s take. GalCiv III was designed partially by Jon Shafer (Civ V) and Paul Boyer (who was my second in command on GalCiv II).
It’s interesting to see how different people have different takes. Over in the Towson office, both Jon and Soren Johnson (Civ IV) are there (though Jon just recently moved back here to Michigan). So we’ve had lots of talks on the differences in philosophy between Civ IV and Civ V.
For me, GalCiv was never about being a war game. It’s about building (wait for it) a civilization in space. Whereas GalCiv III is probably a bit more about the war aspects than I’ve traditionally seen in the game.
Post GalCiv III 1.7 (which, like I said, you should definitely check out as it’s has a lot of UI improvement even in beta) we’ll be moving into GalCiv III: Year Two and I’ll be much more involved with the design of what will eventually become GalCiv III: Crusade. Then the debate will be whether that should be a separate product (which I would find confusing) or as an expansion to GalCiv III (even though it will dramatically change the game play).