GalCiv III Dev Journal: April 2020

So we are on the road to v4.0.  It's hard to believe that GalCiv III was released five years ago.  We've made a lot of changes since then.

Version 4.0 is designed to do a lot of different things.  I 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.

Turn 1

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.

Early game changes

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.

Even Mars.

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

Highlighted feature

A lot of users have asked for the ability to turn OFF the colonies auto-upgrading structures.

Coming in v4.0 in May!

145,571 views 21 replies
Reply #1 Top

Nice changes  :congrat:  

Reply #2 Top

These are nice.  I can already tell that I will have to adjust my early strategy in response.  I look forward to determining what I need to do.

I did notice a typo in the tool tip for Administration Center - starbases is spelled starbaess.

Reply #3 Top

Quoting Old-Spider, reply 2

starbaess

Thanks!

Reply #4 Top

Very much looking forward to it!  Thanks!

Reply #5 Top

These look like excellent changes. Please info us that there is administration center included synthetic and silicone based life I am ok with it costing food or durantium or something.

 

 

after playing a bunch of GalCiv 2 In Asia on an underpowered laptop I’m ready to take the murderous machines on a killing binge in 4.0.

Reply #6 Top

These look like good changes to me! Looking forward to giving them a spin. :congrat:  

Reply #7 Top

Some potentially nice changes but nothing major at this time. I would rather be more interested if invasions or space battles will get any improvements.

Reply #8 Top

So awesome ... I've been itching to get back into Galciv3 again ... hopefully all of these awesome changes can stoke some life into the game and get some increased recognition and sales!

 

I look forward to the unannounced feature where the player can choose a "random" civ for themselves ... here's hoping!

Reply #9 Top

Good changes and loving the pretty planet textures!

Reply #10 Top

I would rather local, and global governor over a pregame option. Will still probably push for that. At least this is a pregame option.

Reply #11 Top

Quoting admiralWillyWilber, reply 10

I would rather local, and global governor over a pregame option. Will still probably push for that. At least this is a pregame option.

You should be happy you got an option at all after 5 years.

Reply #12 Top

Excellent. I just upgraded my computer (it was over 10 years old) and am looking forward to playing this game lag free.

Reply #13 Top

Seems interesting and that is some amazingly fast turnaround with autoupgrade option.

With the increase in arable land I wonder if the entire mechanic of arables should go in favor of simple agriculture improvements.

Wasn't it added to prevent food from being too common?

And give planets more individuality, but that can happen more effectively with more special tile diversity and planetary traits.

With population growth becoming the main resistance to colonization instead of administrators, and more in technology and improvements, administrators are seeming obsolete too.

Disclosure - I was never a fan of administrators - they seemed like a solution to the fact GC3 made population and colonization MUCH cheaper than GC2.  Those seem better addressed mechanically, and have been now.

Reply #14 Top

The reason food, became arable resource was because the AI didn't want to build farms. 

The reason for administrators. Was because of compulsive players. 

Reply #15 Top

Thanks! Looking forward for the update. I hope Proton won’t be broken this time

I guess it will be released in May 14, the anniversary day?

Reply #16 Top

Again really excited for this about the resource fixes but I really hope there is a buildable improvement for non carbon based races for administrators.

 

something like the first one cost .6 Of all ship used resources next one is .8 or something. Food won’t work and having it be a flat resource is probably overpowered. So maybe a scaling on is the way to go. 

Reply #17 Top

sorry by the offtopic but: I have a new 43" screen and I am playing the latest galciv3 on it. I really recommend this because you have half the galaxy on it in one single screen. Its better than phenomenal!

I am looking forward to play galciv4 on my new monsterscreen.

btw: is galciv4 in any way totally different to 3? or just a small evolution?

Reply #18 Top

Congrats I have a 23 inch.

Reply #19 Top

I don’t think they have started on 4 yet but I know they have ideas floating around. 

Reply #20 Top

Don't get Galciv 3 (v4.0) mixed up with Galciv4 ... silly people  :) 

Reply #21 Top

The Optin for GC3 v4.0 has been released with Draginol's perf improvements. You can check it out here: https://forums.galciv3.com/forum/1067