Galactic Civilizations III v2.0 (Released 1/26)

Hello,

We are happy to share our next update which is focused on the new Administrator system and improved Diplomacy.  Please read below for details.

Starbase Administrators

Starbases are under new management. Each Starbase now requires an Administrator to run it.  Your starting number of Administrators is proportional to your galaxy size.  You can also research techs in the government tree to train more Administrators.   As part of this change, we've greatly decreased the minimum distance between Starbases.  

Diplomacy Improvements

We reworked the AI to make it more active and smarter in trading.  Be careful you don't loose your shirt while trading!

Change Log

Administrators 

  • Starbases now require one "Administrator" to build
  • Number of starting Administrators depends on galaxy size
  • Research certain Government Technologies to  increase the number of Administrators
  • Current number of available Administrators can be seen on the resource bar or the starbase list tab.

 Diplomacy 

  • General pass on conversation weights such that the AI will talk more and offer more interesting trades.
  • AI players who dislike you will charge you more in diplomacy
  • Changed diplomacy attitude label from "allied" to "loves (they're not allied)
  • Changed diplomacy attitude from label "war" to "hates" (they're not at war)
  • AI should be better at focusing on a given weapon or defense tech rather than trying to research multiple paths.
  • AIs will heavily weight their relations with other players based on who is at war with whom and why
  • AIs will tend to come to the aid of their friends even if the enemy is more powerful
  • AI now has the capability of explaining in detail why they rejected (or accepted) a trade offer (though will require translation of new strings)
  • AI will use a redlining system of evaluating proposals such that each sub-AI routine will add marks to the proposal with potential veto power. 
  • AI now has the capability of explaining in detail why they rejected (or accepted) a trade offer.
  • By default, the auto-generated military ships will have their categories folded for easier UI navigation.

Balance 

  • Home planet production points base increased from 1 to 10
  • Significantly reduced starbase spacing radius to 2 tiles, allowing you cluster them closer together.
  • AI is substantially better at evaluating what ship to build, when and where
  • Early game improvements made less expensive
  • Late game improvement benefits reduced slightly 
  • Research improvements have been rebalanced.

UI Improvements / Bug Fixes

  • By default, the auto-generated military ships will have their categories folded for easier UI navigation.
  • When a player designs a ship, it will, by default, be added to the favorites
  • Added the currency, morale, population, and turns information to the planet and shipyard window
  • Changed Terran and "space monster" fighters size from small to tiny, matching the sizes for other factions.  This change prevents a crash in the ROT campaign
  • Map Editor: Fixed a problem that prevented the Mini-map Preview from working.
  • Replaced Diplomatic Specialization 3 to be "Efficient Administration" on all trees. (Base Game and Campaigns.)
  • Fixed bad Matter Disruption Cost multiplier that was making Matter Disruption 2.6 times more expensive than it should have been.
  • Changed the width of the asteroid tooltip window and "nearest owned planet" value so that the value can no longer overlap
  • Negative Strategic resources are no longer shown in the trade options when they were negative
  • Updated map lighting settings to decreased ambient light and increased key light to make the ships look less flat.
  • Mercenaries: Ships that you can't afford are greyed out.
  • Reduced base administrators available per map size (get them through tech).
  • Fixed issue where Ancient Kinetic Augmenter had weapon FX even though it is a support module.
  • Removed military ring Starbase range boost now that we have implemented Administrators.
  • Fixed a problem that was causing rebellions in peaceful corners of the galaxy.
140,995 views 50 replies
Reply #1 Top

Wow! Amazing!

 

Ill fire up a game tonight!

 

Thanks Stardock!

Reply #2 Top

Thanks for the update! Just dl-ed it.

Reply #3 Top

We hope you enjoy the update!

Reply #4 Top

Where can a player see how many 'admins' they have during a game? Where is that information in the UI?

Reply #5 Top

Quoting Larsenex, reply 4

Where can a player see how many 'admins' they have during a game? Where is that information in the UI?

Two places:

  • Upper right corner of the screen in the resource bar (just to the left of your money)
  • On the starbase list tab 

 

 

 

Reply #6 Top

Just fired it up on gifted and got beat by the dregin which was great. Can you give your thoughts on the observation that you can too easily research most of the tech tree on the slowest speed, meaning research proceeds too quickly thus taking away the strategy behind picking techs carefully, and what you plan on doing to spice up the endgame? I noticed that the AI is now more likely to aid their friends. Are AI able to band together near the end if one player is growing too powerful?

Reply #7 Top

Tilyas, 

 

This  has been mentioned quite a bit. I think they are making some passes on how fast research is being done and what stacks with what. i also think research is going to slow down drastically with the release of Crusade which has features to tie Research, Economy and admin all together. 

Reply #8 Top

I apologize if I was unaware. I don't frequent the forums as much as I did. Can you link me to the posts which address my concers?

Reply #9 Top

Patch is great, no issues or crashes. On an insane map with abundant planets and 'occasional' resources/relics' we have 80 admin. While my game is new at this point I think that number is too high. Maybe 50 and then add more via the Gov lines. Also as has been noted Research is fast. I have 'normal' research pace but Slow game pace and it feels ok, but some may think its too fast. 

Reply #10 Top

Wow, was too busy yesterday with work to notice that this had been released. Only 17+mb? Wow, I was expecting this patch to be a lot bigger for some reason... maybe I was thinking of Crusades? Anyway, time to start a new game tonight!

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Reply #11 Top

Quoting Larsenex, reply 7

Tilyas, 

 

This  has been mentioned quite a bit. I think they are making some passes on how fast research is being done and what stacks with what. i also think research is going to slow down drastically with the release of Crusade which has features to tie Research, Economy and admin all together. 

 

By the way, was there mention of endgame challenges to prevent snowballing? Also, I agree that administrators are plentiful enough to not need to tech for more. Reducing them a but might force more strategic thinking.

Reply #12 Top

There is currently nothing in place that prevents snowballing. 

Reply #13 Top

Quoting Larsenex, reply 12

There is currently nothing in place that prevents snowballing. 

 

Ok. I think we're going back and forth about something I may not have made clear. I know there is nothing CURRENTLY. I'm asking with regards for the future since endgame gets easier as I described in my original post. Thanks for the replies though.

 

Patch runs stable btw. Happy with that.

Reply #14 Top

Opt-in 2.0 runs nicely, very fluid and stable. I did not experience the "stuck" problem so far (which I found could be bypassed, but still was annoying) - dunno if it was explicitly fixed or if some changes just made it disappear somehow.

 

 

 

 

Reply #15 Top

Great to read that the patch is working well for most so far. Out of curiosity, has that annoying little issue of not being able to select a project to "build" when buildings are qued up and you then go to select Economics or Military, for example? Thanks. Can't wait to try this out tonight!

Reply #16 Top

Quoting Avatar137, reply 15

Out of curiosity, has that annoying little issue of not being able to select a project to "build" when buildings are qued up and you then go to select Economics or Military, for example?

It is not fixed.

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Reply #17 Top

Quoting Old-Spider, reply 16
It is not fixed.

 

Thanks for the answer. :(

Reply #18 Top

I'm not sure what to make of the new AI behaviour in regard to trades  - they seem to request trades a tad too often, but most important, the offers are sometimes totally inacceptable, and sometimes a real bargain....

Reply #19 Top

Opt-in updated (1/23)

  • Restored maps sizes back to 1.9 values.  The change wasn't intentional.
  • Changed the width of the asteroid tooltip window and "nearest owned planet" value so that the value can no longer overlap
  • Negative Strategic resources are no longer shown in the trade options when they were negative
  • Building a starbase with a constructor that had more than one construction module will no longer expel the excess constructor module next to the starbase, instead of stationing it at the starbase.
  • Updated map lighting settings to decreased ambient light and increased key light to make the ships look less flat.
  • Mercenaries: Ships that you can't afford are greyed out.
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Reply #20 Top

Yea I was wondering about the map changes. Thank you for reverting them back. 

Reply #21 Top

I'm using the 2.0 opt in, but I see no reference to administrators anywhere.  Not near the resource list or anywhere else...

Reply #22 Top

Nice changes :)

BTW, as it mentions starbases and constructors that have several modules -- it seems building a shipyard with a constructor having more than one constructor module makes you lose those above no.1

Reply #23 Top

Quoting charon2112, reply 21

I'm using the 2.0 opt in, but I see no reference to administrators anywhere.  Not near the resource list or anywhere else...

 

It's the number above your resources tab like thulium etc

Reply #24 Top

Quoting charon2112, reply 21

I'm using the 2.0 opt in, but I see no reference to administrators anywhere.  Not near the resource list or anywhere else...

Did you start a new game?  The new system doesn't apply to old games.  Also, sometimes you need to restart steam after switching to the opt-in for it it download correctly.  

Reply #25 Top

Quoting pshaw, reply 24


Quoting charon2112,

I'm using the 2.0 opt in, but I see no reference to administrators anywhere.  Not near the resource list or anywhere else...



Did you start a new game?  The new system doesn't apply to old games.  Also, sometimes you need to restart steam after switching to the opt-in for it it download correctly.  

 

I'll try these things after work.  Thanks!