The latest Dev Diary for Galactic Civilizations III is posted, and talks about the recent v1.9 update and a look at what’s coming up.
So I’m back working on Galactic Civilizations while the Ashes of the Singularity modeling gets done (not a lot to do code-wise, it’s all art assets really).
Been mostly working on AI and balance stuff but I think you guys will like what’s been done:
I’ll need to get some translations for some of the new strings. Any Germans and others hanging around who would like to do some quick translation work, let me know. :)
http://www.stardock.net/article/481386/DEV_DIARY_GalCiv_III_v20_preview
It looks like 2.0 is going to be a great update. I really like the ship builder UI change.
Sounds really nice. I would have expected “2.0” to be via an expansion, so surprised to see this was a free update coming out this month!
The way his hands are folded I wouldn’t trust any trades with that guy, best declare war.
Looking forward to 2.0 :-)
Really like the administrator idea.
I think at this point you are two things away from having a fun game I’d really like to play:
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Planetary management needs to change- and here I believe the system you originally intended would be a lot better than what we have now- which is my biggest gripe. Overall I think the economic systems of this game are kinda bogged down and unfun.
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I think there’s too much ship spam, which leads to lots of insignificent curbstomp battles. I’d like to see battles be decisive, but in a way where losing a war doesn’t necessarily mean your planets can be invaded cheaply.
One idea here would be borrowing from Civ 6, and giving planetary defense structures that are built on the planet an intrinsic defense value that will attack anything in the system. This would mean all transports would need a serious escort, and keeping a fleet parked in a system means it would slowly take damage.
The key is discourage tons of weak fleets from being built.
These battles would probably have to be quick battles with planetary strength being one “fleet” and fleets in its ZOC being the other. Planetary invasion techs that are planetbusting could weaken those defenses, but would lower the quality of the planet, and of course make other powers and independents nervous and more likely to gang up against you. Won’t matter in a a mop-up phase, but will when it’s still competitive.
If there’s some complexity in this, it could also make having the right defenses more valuable.
One potential downside is surprise wars to take out survey ships/etc, but I’d just add AI and automation code for noncombat ships to avoid systems with low relations, and maybe autobump those ships out when war is declared.
Brad has started a new GCIII AAR series. It’s a great visual story for the game.
http://www.stardock.com/community/article/481530/Galactic-Civilizations-III-Season-1-Episode-1
As ID mentioned, I started the first of what will become a series of stories based on my games in the Galactic Civilizations III 2.x universe. 2.0 just came out today.
You can read that here:
http://www.stardock.com/community/article/481530/Galactic-Civilizations-III-Season-1-Episode-1
As for GalCiv III 2.0 you can see what’s new on that here:
And lastly…
If you’ve been waiting to move to GalCiv III, now is the time. This weekend, Steam is running a sale on the entire GalCiv III package (all DLC, etc.).
Interesting thing about Steam’s packaging thing, it will automatically calculate a individualized price based on what you already own.
That sounds like a pretty cool feature on Steam.
Saw the patch was ready so patching now, awesome :) Guess I should start a new galaxy instead of reusing my old one.
Yea, the diplomacy improvements will probably be the most obvious change.
Found a tiny bug.
When you end a turn the “uncolonized planets” dropdown-arrow that you press to hide them so as to not clutter your view, switches from “Off” to “on”, but the planets do not appear (or sometimes they do).
Also, it shows you available planets outside your travel range.
I keep meaning to try this out again and I saw everything GalCiv 3 is on sale this weekend. Do any of the DLCs add anything interesting that really improves the game?
Squirrels make any game more interesting. ;)
I passed that along to the team.
My rats will make short work of those filthy Squirrelabominations :)
I saw enough real improvements that game got improved from unfun to fun with the recent changes.
That said, I’m still hoping Crusade moves it to really fun. I feel like 2.0 is about where Fallen Enchantress was funwise, even if GalCiv 3 is a lot stronger game technically.
I’d suggest all of them because I honestly think the whole package is a steal at these prices, but if you’re strapped for cash the following would top my list (I was going to place them in preferred order but each has such good stuff I wouldn’t want to miss out). OK, I will amend that statement and say the most important one to me is Precursor Worlds. For myself, the most fun thing in any 4x game is finding the best location, the best planet to colonize then ramping things up. The problem with GC3 on release was planets full so samey as you could take so many to x point. 40+ planets part way through the game all felt the same. Precursor Worlds gives you a reason outside of goody huts to explore. It’s your ultimate Treasure hunt. Speaking of treasure I wouldn’t want to play without Lost Treasures as it adds so many goodies to the game.
- Precursor Worlds
- Lost Treasures
- Mercenaries
- Revenge of the Snathi
- Mega Events
If you want to focus on campaigns make sure you grab:
- Altarian Prophecy
- Rise of the Terrans
If you want to customize stuff more go for the map and builders kit. I wish I had more creative juice to take full advantage of the ship building art.
Thanks Jpinard, really appreciate the input. Not sure if I want to spend too much money, but will certainly check out Precursor and Lost Treasures.
I really dig Mercenaries, if I were to buy one it would be that one. That or Precursor Worlds.
I came real close to buying the DLC in the package deal since I have the base game. Then I was going to just buy a couple separately. I guess I have a couple more hours to do so.
The thing is I haven’t played since release and just bought Endless Space 2. The Gal Civ 3 2.0 changes sound promising. Has anyone spent a significant amount of time with the 2.0 changes?