Galactic Civilizations III Alpha Available Now

from JoeUser Forums

The day is here! Our Elite Founders can download the Galactic Civilizations III client through Steam (check your email or Stardock account for your Steam key if you bought directly from Stardock) and get to conquering.

This first playable version of Galactic Civilization III includes:

  • Four of the eight races (Drengin, Terran, Altarian, and the new Iridium)
  • Conquest victory enabled
  • First technological era available for testing
  • New interstellar terrain
  • First glimpse at new Ideology screen
  • The all-new production wheel, replacing previous games’ sliders

Things you won’t find in the alpha (yet):

  • Diplomacy (it’s all war, all the time right now)
  • The full tech tree
  • The in-process revamp of the colony management screen
  • The new combat viewer
  • The ship designer
  • Galactic resources for powering high-end ships
  • A bunch more awesome stuff that isn’t ready to share yet

The primary purpose of this alpha is to incorporate your feedback as early into the development process as possible, so please share your thoughts with us on the forum here or via the Steam community.

As a reminder, GalCiv III is still a long ways off from release and we’re well aware that the alpha is neither balanced nor “fun” in the sense that a finished game should be entertaining to play for hundreds of hours in its own right.

Happy conquering, everyone!

d3 diplo fleetmove

View More!

 

entertainment
38,450 views 21 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

:)

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

:D :grin: B)

Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

When should we have the email?

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Just check your Stardock account for the key.

http://download.stardock.com

 

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Okay, i asked because my account didnt have that but after i refresh it had the key so :D   any idea how to get the steam achievement for this :P I want the victory of AchievementName...AchivementDescription is vague

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Question- will the Alpha be playable offline?  Previous alphas/betas by Stardock were "always online" to put data in before starting.  Does GCIII follow that model?

 

Note: Stardock games out of beta have never been "always online", so no worries there if anyone's about to be upset over "always online" being mentioned.

 

 

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

My key is not showing up?

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

The beginning has started!

 

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Ready to squash some bugs!:banhammer:

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Maybe I'm an idiot, but I can't get Steam to show me GCIII as a download.  I pasted the steam activation key in the "Activate a product on Steam" menu, and it says:

"Product already owned.  This Steam account already owns the product(s) associated with this activation code. Click next to proceed to installation."

There's no "next" button to click, but there is a "Finish" button.  When I click that, the window goes away, but GC3 doesn't show up in my games list.

Edit: Never mind.  I don't know what was different, but I tried again for about the 5th time and it finally worked.  I'm downloading now.

 

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Has anyone actually gotten the software to launch? After the galaxy loading screen, all I see is a transparent white hexagon with menus on the side...GCIII 

Reply #13 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting dgerb34, reply 12

Has anyone actually gotten the software to launch? After the galaxy loading screen, all I see is a transparent white hexagon with menus on the side...Reduced 89%Original 639 x 359 

For that you need to set your main graphics card on, not sure which graphics card you use but I assume you can change it in the control panel (Nvidia or AMD)

Reply #14 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting God_Smith, reply 13


Quoting dgerb34, reply 12
Has anyone actually gotten the software to launch? After the galaxy loading screen, all I see is a transparent white hexagon with menus on the side...Reduced 89%Original 639 x 359 

For that you need to set your main graphics card on, not sure which graphics card you use but I assume you can change it in the control panel (Nvidia or AMD)

This problem may be due to the Intel integrated graphics setup I have in my current machine. Perhaps this is a screen resolution problem? I reviewed the system requirements as stated on Steam and found the only thing I am lacking is a high-resolution display. I have a smaller 14-inch laptop with a maximum 1366 X 768 resolution and the Steam requirement list states the "minimum supported resolution is 1280X800". I will try projecting the game onto my TV to see if that works better. 

 

Reply #15 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I would recommend a dedicated card.

Reply #16 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Hmm, I have a laptop with integrated Intel video on the motherboard, plus a separate NVidia card.  The game had no trouble detecting the NVidia card and starting for me.  Is this an AMD problem only?

Reply #17 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Looks like the screen resolution had nothing to do with my problem pictured above. I will have to see if future updates and fixes make this game usable on my machine. 

Reply #18 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Do just the Elite Founders have access to the Alpha and not the Regular Founders?

Reply #19 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting cbraley, reply 18
Do just the Elite Founders have access to the Alpha and not the Regular Founders?

Founder's Elite have alpha access.  Founder's get beta access when that time comes.

 

Reply #20 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Island, reply 19

Founder's Elite have alpha access.  Founder's get beta access when that time comes.
 

Dang. No spoilers here...

Reply #21 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Huzzah!

 

Download speed was nice and fast, it's a 995MB download over Steam (1.7 installed size).