Frogboy Frogboy

Ten Galactic Civilizations III changes coming in early 2019

▼

Ten Galactic Civilizations III changes coming in early 2019

from GalCiv3 Forums

If you guys thought that GalCiv III: Crusade was...ahem...a "game changer" you're going to (we hope) really like what we have planned for the Winter 2019 expansion we're working on.  We'll be announcing it relatively soon so I won't spoil it here.

Here, however, are our general objectives we want to accomplish:

  1. Fewer clicks with the UI to get things done.
  2. Making really big maps more enjoyable to play on.  It's one of our strongest features and they're annoying (IMO).
  3. Bringing back beloved alien species.
  4. Pacing.   There is a lot of...emptiness between turns 25 to 75 which is a turn off for many new players and really needs to be addressed.
  5. Multiplayer.  While few people play it multiplayer,  we think some of our other changes will make the game a lot more skill based.
  6. AI.   If you got 3.2 you probably noticed a substantial AI improvement.  But we have other improvements in the works.  I really want to write up a full on doc on the challenges of AI. Nearly every suggestion we get from players on AI is something the AI already does.  The AI does "all the things" but because it doesn't "cheat" (contrary to what some people say) it does not always have the information that players think it has and makes poor choices.
  7. More strategic choices.  What I mean by this is that there are certain strategies that are just plain "better" for winning.  Rather than nerfing those paths, we are implementing new, equally powerful paths towards success.  This is harder than it may sound because we have to code the AI to effectively use these paths.
  8. Tech tree overhaul.  This will only be in the expansion because if it were put into the base game a lot of people would get upset I suspect.  There are a lot of new techs but most of the "specialist" techs are being removed.  Why? They're just not very interesting.  A 10% bump in something is enough enough to justify the clickity click click of the tech.  Every tech should have meat to it.   
  9. Visual pass.  We have a lot of good graphics in GalCiv III.  And we have some terrible, terrible graphics.  Our procedurally generated planets might have looked good in 2012 when they were being developed but...oye.  They hurt my eyes.
  10. Fleet battle viewer updates.  First, we are hiring game developers.  Send us your resume.  We have a lot of projects at Stardock and a lot of the time, we can't put engineers on something simply because there are no people free.  The fleet battles area of the game is something we really do want to improve but we can't because of lack of developers free to work on it.

Let me know what you think!

Happy New Year!

446,406 views 63 replies
Reply #51 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Wow, I was fairly certain this game was dead from the way they were talking about it 6 months ago. Bad Steam reviews, lack of time/rsrcs to work on things, wanting to remove the tile grid entirely in GalCiv4, etc. This is unexpected and pleasantly surprising.

I'm not going to bother weighing in on anything else this early on b/c I don't see any point, but since Frogboy specifically mentioned Multiplayer in his post (again, I'm shocked, but in a good way!), I'll just repeat... *yet again*... My request for a very minor feature that would mean a ton to my Multiplayer group: Ability to let AI players be RANDOM RACES when starting a Multiplayer game. Single-player has always been able to do this. Every other even remotely similar game supports this in MP, from launch. It should take an hour to implement imo, yet nothing's been done in over 2 years despite repeated requests and a promising dev response... sigh.

Reply #52 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I dont think locking a player into one ideology is good. If you really are pragmatic ..you want to optionally select from all three categories at times..the pragmatic choice is not always pragmatic

the ideology points given for buildings should be increased. they take a long time to build and to only get one point every ten turns is negligable

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #53 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I cannot reiterate this > 

  • Making really big maps more enjoyable to play on.  It's one of our strongest features and they're annoying (IMO)

This is the ONLY 4x game with maps this size. Using a mod in Civ VI Yanmp comes close but nothing like Stardock. I know all of use have  preferred play styles but truly I feel there is nothing more entertaining than settling down to a Gal Civ game on an insane map and really spending 4 hours exploring. FOUR HOURS! Its a glorious time and for me enjoyable time sink. I think if more players could use it the might. I may even build another system with 64 gigs of ram just because I know Stardock may make a new 4x game!

+1 Loading…
Reply #54 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting jabberjaws, reply 52

I dont think locking a player into one ideology is good. If you really are pragmatic ..you want to optionally select from all three categories at times..the pragmatic choice is not always pragmatic

 

I agree. I find my self going all over the ideology trees as needed.

It cost more but with large maps it helps to make nice slow games.

Reply #55 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Makes a mockery of the whole idea of Ideology, though.

I mean, the Soviet Union didn't flip-flop between Communism and Capitalism at a whim. Nor the United States. They stuck their respective choice.

And if it is Pragmatic to not stick to one Ideology, should that even be called an Ideology?

Ideology: a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.

Simply chance the name to Options/Choices and be done with it.

 

Reply #56 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Yet.. as with anything gameplay/ruleset related, it all sums up into a big RNG factor that must add variations in our (preferred!) strategic plans. Thus, even these Ideology concepts can still twist or break an otherwise lame pattern of static progress where the path to Winning is always pre-determined.

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." (The Shining)

Reply #57 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I thought it was Pragmatic to pick the best x for situation x and the best y for situation y.

+1 Loading…
Reply #58 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting ForesterGC, reply 57

I thought it was Pragmatic to pick the best x for situation x and the best y for situation y.

EXACTLY

Quoting mrblondini, reply 55

I mean, the Soviet Union didn't flip-flop between Communism and Capitalism at a whim. Nor the United States. They stuck their respective choice.

And the USA ? seriously ? switches at a whim to whatever keeps the ruling class on top.... we have quite a combination of elements for Capitalism.

China which is Communist has elements of Capitalism , there is no "pure" form of government . neither should there be since FLEXIBILITY is the  way to get the best results, not a rigid unbending strategy.

ancient Chinese proverb say " tree that does not bend in wind will break "

Reply #59 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Larsenex, reply 53

I cannot reiterate this > 

    • Making really big maps more enjoyable to play on.  It's one of our strongest features and they're annoying (IMO)

This is the ONLY 4x game with maps this size. Using a mod in Civ VI Yanmp comes close but nothing like Stardock. I know all of use have  preferred play styles but truly I feel there is nothing more entertaining than settling down to a Gal Civ game on an insane map and really spending 4 hours exploring. FOUR HOURS! Its a glorious time and for me enjoyable time sink. I think if more players could use it the might. I may even build another system with 64 gigs of ram just because I know Stardock may make a new 4x game!

I will very strongly second this. I love giant maps. My very favorite individual playthrough of GalCiv came back in the first Windows version when I had such a large map and so many things going on I had to keep paper logs of what went where, since I was fighting on three fronts at once. I even was using a paper system to put in ship requests! It sounds like work but it really was amazingly immersive.

Reply #60 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

    1. Fleet battle viewer updates.  First, we are hiring game developers.  Send us your resume.  We have a lot of projects at Stardock and a lot of the time, we can't put engineers on something simply because there are no people free.  The fleet battles area of the game is something we really do want to improve but we can't because of lack of developers free to work on it.

So I cant help but ask, any interest in software engineers that aren't game developers? I guessing you dont have the budget to hire a non-game dev. Either way I'd be happy to do an strictly informational chat. Perhaps its possible that it would help you offload some tasks from your other developers to free them up to work on some of these tasks.

Reply #61 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting charlando, reply 60

So I cant help but ask, any interest in software engineers that aren't game developers? I guessing you dont have the budget to hire a non-game dev. Either way I'd be happy to do an strictly informational chat. Perhaps its possible that it would help you offload some tasks from your other developers to free them up to work on some of these tasks.

Actually yes.  We are hiring people for our software business.  .NET, C++, etc. :)