Galactic Civilizations III v3.9 (released 8/27)

Hello,

We are happy to be releasing GC3 v3.9. We've included community inspired balance changes, made significant improvements to performance, and updated how the zone of control works. We're also launching the "Villians of Star Control" DLC which includes new playable races, traits, and ships. Read below for details.

Features

"Villians of Star Control" DLC  

The Villains of StarControl have invaded! New playable races, traits, and ships. Read about it here:

https://www.galciv3.com/article/496599/available-now-villains-of-star-control-origins-for-galactic-civilizations-i

Modder Inspired Balance update 

Special thanks to Horemvore, Old Spider, and the modding community. Brad/Draginol reviewed his mods to evaluate whether some of those ideas should make them into the game. We love seeing players that are passionate about the game and it's great to see their work making the game better for everyone.

Zone of Control update

No more fog of war in your empire.  All territory in your Zone of Control now is always visible.  This helps you keep an eye on what other factions are doing in your backyard.  

Performance

We've made a substantial improvement in performance.  This boost is especially noticeable in the shipyard screen and in late-game turn times.  

Change Log

Balance

  • PlayerStartSpacingWideMod changed from 1.0 to 0.33
  • PlayerStartSpacingNarrowMod changed from 0.50 to 0.175
  • Basic Life Support range bonus increased from 0.25 to 0.30
  • Large hull ship maint increased from 3 to 5
  • Huge hull ship maint increased from 3 to 7
  • Cultural treaties now benefit both sides
  • Military Alliance treaties now benefit both sides
  • Planets rebel a bit slower than before.
  • AI values supply ships more when it's not at war.
  • Surrender change: Surrendering players now destroy their worlds upon surrendering unless they are surrendering to a particular player in which case they will transfer their homeworld (and only their homeworld) to that player. This reduces the late game sudden explosion in micro-management of worlds the player may have no interest in. AI also destroys its ships.
  • All territory in a player's ZOC is always visible. No fog of war (in your borders).
  • New starbase module: "Ascension Gate Study." Allows the player to get a lot more out of the Ascension Gates.

Fixes

  • Shipyard won't rebuild the list of ships unless there's been a change to the resources the player has. This dramatically improves late-game shipyards screen performance.
  • Improved turn times, especially late game.  
  • Fixed issue where disabling a DLC via command line would not have the grayed out portraits show up.
  • Fixed some pixelation on the Campaign screen.
  • Adjusted list container on the custom faction screen to avoid clipping of the Abilities list on lower resolutions.
  • Fixed typos and grammar errors
  • Added typos and grammar errors
  • Shorten names that were too long
  • Fixed colony list in Civilization screen showing the incorrect manufacturing stat in the column labeled for social manufacturing.
  • Fixed several places in the UI that were showing incomplete or inaccurate stat breakdown tooltips for manufacturing because of missing tooltip data.
  • Got rid of leftover debug UI graphics in the Promotion Stats tooltip (seen in the commander unit promotion screen).
  • Fixed too-skinny approval field in the main map planet tooltip if the colony had 100% approval.
  • Fixed a crash whenever an AI player surrendered over their stuff to another player.
  • Changed description of Silicon-Based life to reflect that their cities were changed to use Promethion instead of Durantium.

UI

  • Reworked the way that the "Max Manufacturing" stat is shown in the stat breakdown tooltip. It now also displays the social and military manufacturing stats and their breakdowns, including the slider values when Crusade isn't enabled.
  • In Crusade mode, "base research" or "base manufacturing" or "base income" are now displayed as Raw Production, to accurately reflect where that number is coming from (as opposed to being some calculated value from sliders and such in non-Crusade).
  • In non-Crusade mode, fixed bug in the spending breakdown at the bottom of the manufacturing, research, and income stat breakdown tooltips where it showed player-wide raw production or slider values instead of colony-specific ones.
  • Moved "Collect Gameplay Data" option to it's position to prevent the spinner option from taking its place.
  • Various flavor text changes to abilities, components, technologies, improvements to make them more clear.

AI

  • AI values hypergates much more.
  • AI evaluates foreign influence before determining whether a planet should be colonized.

Crusade and Beyond

  • Recently conquered planets are now immune to culture flip for 15 turns.
  • Planets that have been culturally flipped have a 15 turn morale penalty.
  • Planets now receive a default planetary defense bonus and a resistance bonus.
  • Default colony ship loading population reduced from 2 to 1.
  • Population used for filling colony ships increased from a radius of 6 to 10.
  • AI ship design evaluation decreased from 20 turns to 10 turns.
  • UpgradeDiscountFactor increased from 0.5 to 0.9.
  • Bonuses to players playing at easier levels changed from a % to a flat.
  • Civilization capital sensor range increased from 12 to 16.

Intrigue Only

  • Patriot government ship loses a Railgun and a Harpoon to make it a bit less powerful.

Retribution Only

  • Echoing Heartstone Artifact power reduced from 10,000 to 1,000.
  • Tech Inflation increased from 2% to 2.5%.
  • Starting Taxation increased from 25% to 33%.
  • Galactic News earlier turn increased from turn 10 to turn 15.
  • Galactic News cooldown increased from 12 to 20 turns.
  • Colony Limit Max Penalty increased from 6 to 10.
  • Default starting money increased from 3,000 credits to 5,000 credits.
600,103 views 108 replies
Reply #1 Top

Hi,

-> "All territory in a player's ZOC is always visible. No fog of war (in your borders)"

Nice as an option for casual players and where expect this and come from more "action" oriented games (stellaris as example)

But for an game with sensor ranges as game element an bad move and step in the casual direction ....

An better idea (additional to the point to make it optional..) would be implement functional patrol routes to make ships with build as patrol ships in mind,to fly betwen the points and give so an better oversight and immersion.

Reply #2 Top

Overall I think these are good solid changes.

 

What exactly does this mean?

"Colony Limit Max Penalty increased from 6 to 10"

Reply #3 Top

Sound like I won't have to build network of sensor boats along my border, pretty useful.

Reply #4 Top

Quoting Gauntlet03, reply 2

Overall I think these are good solid changes.

What exactly does this mean?

"Colony Limit Max Penalty increased from 6 to 10"

Its the approval penalty you get for having more than the ideal amount of colonies for your government type.

+1 Loading…
Reply #5 Top

There are some nice changes here.  I recognized some of them from Horemvore's mods and some of them from my mods.  Some of our mods are similar because we think alike in some areas.  I use only 2 of his UCP mods because I prefer my way of doing things.  However, I use some of his changes in my mods, and he uses one of my mods.  I originally did the player spacing mod and gave him permission to use it because so many players were complaining about races starting so close together.

When Retribution was released I noticed a tendency for the races to sometimes be closer together that before, so I have been experimenting with new values.  I haven't decided which are best, but I'm currently using these:

    <PlayerStartSpacingWideMod>0.26</PlayerStartSpacingWideMod>
    <PlayerStartSpacingNarrowMod>0.13</PlayerStartSpacingNarrowMod>

 

AI evaluates foreign influence before determining whether a planet should be colonized.

I hope it's not a simple evaluation, such as "if foreign influence exists, don't settle".  I had a game in a 2.8 opt-in version where the Altarians settled a planet in the middle my influence where I didn't have any planets.  They have strong influence, and it didn't take too long for their influence to push mine out of the way and begin causing me problems.  I hope that situation can still happen with this update.


Fixed typos and grammar errors

This is good.


Added typos and grammar errors

This is not good.

My mods include some that correct some of the many spelling, grammar, punctuation and factual errors as well as some that have confusing text.  If you are interested, I can make these available.  There are still many other "typos".  I don't update these mods very often because I just don't feel like it.  I can't seem to gain ground.:P  


I'm going to have to review a lot of my mods to see what I need to update before using this, so I'd better get to it.

Reply #6 Top

I am the same, do things MY way :)

And I also have to compare a lot of files, all thou its funny to see same changes as I did (and probably others), like tech cost, colony pop ect.

By the number of changes it could be called 3.9 :)

Reply #7 Top

There are additional changes not listed here including massive perf improvements to the shipyard screen and the turn times late game a much (not slightly) shorter.

Reply #8 Top

Quoting R-TEAM, reply 1

Hi,

-> "All territory in a player's ZOC is always visible. No fog of war (in your borders)"

Nice as an option for casual players and where expect this and come from more "action" oriented games (stellaris as example)

But for an game with sensor ranges as game element an bad move and step in the casual direction ....

An better idea (additional to the point to make it optional..) would be implement functional patrol routes to make ships with build as patrol ships in mind,to fly betwen the points and give so an better oversight and immersion.

I'm wondering if this change will void the usage of sensor power on colony and starbase. Even with Precusor improvement that increase sensor power by 64, it still expand your sensor range by around 8-12 tiles. Still, a good change. Now I just wish Sentry mode only alert when enemy ship come into range and not every ship.

Reply #9 Top

Quoting karlfranz-pl, reply 3

Sound like I won't have to build network of sensor boats along my border, pretty useful.

Agreed.

So far it's running well on my current 3.8 game, although I expect that I won't see most of the changes until I start a new game.  The visibility in my ZOC is working as advertised.

Reply #10 Top

"Added a new starbase module: Ascenion Gate Study. Allows player to get a lot more out of the ascension gates."

I was comparing my StarbaseModuleDefs (crusade version) to new one it but it appears this module is not there,  and I don't see it in tech tree, where it should be? I did find entries in StarbaseModuleText (edit, funny thing, I cant find it again)

 

"Added an option to enable / disable factions for random faction (on by default)"

Appears to be working fine but in selection screen next button (Show faction in multiplayer was it?) does not work and text is not displayed. I have 2560x1440 screen so there is plenty of space for it.

 

  • Recently conquered planets are now immune to culture flip for 15 turns.
  • Planets that have been culturally flipped have a 15 turn morale penalty.

I think you added it only to Crusade GalCiv3GlobalDefs not to Retribution Version

 

Quoting FreedomFighterEx, reply 8

I'm wondering if this change will void the usage of sensor power on colony and starbase. Even with Precusor improvement that increase sensor power by 64, it still expand your sensor range by around 8-12 tiles. Still, a good change. Now I just wish Sentry mode only alert when enemy ship come into range and not every ship.

 

I was thinking same thing, right now sentry mode is annoying to use.

 

And now sensor are basicly only useful on attack ships that are meant to go somewhere. Defensive ones won't need them. Most starbases wont need them.

 

Isn't there Spider citizen that won't be very useful right now?

Reply #11 Top

Not having to build sensor ships coupled with rapid strike forces will make the game a lot less dangerous. Allows you to free up ships for other things and does give your more incentive to push your boarders out as far as possible. Not sure how I feel on this.

 

I really like the colony radius increase for colony ships nothing like not having to move the shipyard 3 hexes because of some damn astroids that didn’t spawn durantium.

Reply #12 Top

Quoting ForgottenSlayer, reply 11

Not having to build sensor ships coupled with rapid strike forces will make the game a lot less dangerous. Allows you to free up ships for other things and does give your more incentive to push your boarders out as far as possible. Not sure how I feel on this.

 

My sensor ships were so dirt cheep that this is irrelevant, not needing them will only cut on micromanagement.

 

Now that I think more about it, does this change affect AI in any way?

Reply #13 Top

Probably not and I guess it really also depends on map size I needed a lot of sensor ships and had a semi powerful ship yard pump them out. This change does bring it inline with Civ and AoW. It will definitely reduce micromanagement having a 50 ship sensor wall was obnoxious. Now one rapid strike force will be able to protect a wide area of space.

Reply #14 Top

Generally I think this is good idea. I have some concerns but first I must see how it works in practice.

Reply #15 Top

There is a problem in the Choose Civilization screen.  This is on a 1920 x 1080 monitor with the same game resolution.  When the UI Size is Normal, the screen looks like this:

The red box is where "Show Faction in Multiplayer" is missing.  Also, the button doesn't change when I click on it.  It is the same when I set the UI Size to Medium.  The game won't allow me to choose a UI Size of Large with this resolution.

When I changed the UI Size to Small, everything was correct.

Reply #16 Top

Quoting Derek, reply 4

Its the approval penalty you get for having more than the ideal amount of colonies for your government type.

 

Thanks!

Reply #17 Top

UI suggestion - Planet management window.

 

What about sorting improvements by TYPE Ie, Power Plants, Agriculture, Culture, "Wonders", Economic, military etc? None of the current options really do this. This could be achieved without any elaborate coding changes, by simply re-naming all existing planet improvements so they sort organically by what type, or class they are. If spacing is an issue, 3 letter prefix tags would work best for simplicity. When I look at improvements in the list, they could be made to sort organically by TYPE, using default NAME, but only IF, the current naming scheme, were overhauled.

 

Examples

MIL - Xxxx

Econ - Xxxxx

Ag - Xxxxxx

Cul - XXXXX

PWR - Xxxxx

Reply #18 Top

Quoting Derek, reply 4


Quoting Gauntlet03,

What exactly does this mean?

"Colony Limit Max Penalty increased from 6 to 10"


Its the approval penalty you get for having more than the ideal amount of colonies for your government type.

Does this perchance appear as "Unrest" in the Approval flyover?  There really needs to be something to explain where it comes from.

 

 

Reply #19 Top

Quoting karlfranz-pl, reply 12

Now that I think more about it, does this change affect AI in any way?

A critical question.  Will AI see every intrusion? No sneaking around any more?

 

Reply #20 Top

Tech "Recovery" gives mining +1 (!!!) instead of 0.1

This extremely boring bug in one of earliest techs was fixed some time ago but now it did turn back. So even if I self impose a rule not to research it/not to exploit it, the AI wont know a difference and will sell those resources right and left. How boring.

Reply #21 Top

Quoting Triple_Crown, reply 20

Tech "Recovery" gives mining +1 (!!!) instead of 0.1

This extremely boring bug in one of earliest techs was fixed some time ago but now it did turn back. So even if I self impose a rule not to research it/not to exploit it, the AI wont know a difference and will sell those resources right and left. How boring.

 

I partially agree. Considering by default mining modules give 0.1 (I modded it to 0.2) this tech bonus should be 0,2 max.  But I disagree with second part, this is not a big deal or boring.

And compared with resource bonus with increased difficulty this is almost irrelevant.

 

TY Lord Snarky for providing resources for troops used in annihilation of Racoons and Space Dragons.

Reply #22 Top

BUG:  In Milky Way campaign 3.8.1 the Shipyard build times in the list is incorrect.  E.g. GarbageScow-PU shows a build time of 3 weeks in the list, but when you schedule a build the actual time is 10 weeks.

The incorrect times are proportional between ships.  E.g. if the GarbageScow showed low, then the Destroyer would show correspondingly low.  The errors are neither reliably high nor low, but may be influenced by the previous Shipyard viewed.

 

Reply #23 Top

Quoting DMF, reply 18

Does this perchance appear as "Unrest" in (IIRC) the Raw Production flyover? There really needs to be a flyover to explain where it comes from.

No, it shows up separately (in the Approval tooltip) as "Too many Colonies". Unrest is, I believe, related to taxation levels and distance from the capitol. At least I know reducing tax rates lowers it and raising them raises it.

Reply #24 Top

Quoting Publius, reply 23

Unrest is, I believe, related to taxation levels

Thanks Publius.  I edited my message to point to the right thing.  Now I'll test it.  I doubted that SD would nerf the tax affect on morale, but didn't see how it worked.  In the old days you could set your tax rate by Morale.  Now you can't.

Fortunately my Tourism income is so massive that I can just ignore the rest of the economy.


Good to see you again, btw.  (I changed my avatar.  I used to look like Jack Elam.  Now I'm half duck.)  🦆 🦆 🦆  I see you're still old and hairy.

 

Reply #25 Top

Quoting DMF, reply 24

Good to see you again, btw. (I changed my avatar. I used to look like Jack Elam. Now I'm half duck.)

I thought you seemed familiar! Good to see you again too.

Quoting DMF, reply 24

I see you're still old and hairy.

And bald. :D