Galactic Civilizations III Announced

Just saw this posted up on Game Informer. The official page has sligthly more information though: Stardock Announces Galactic Civilization III

They haven't released much details yet aside from a short trailer that shows a human commander talking to a Thalan about how humanity is supposed to bring about the end of the galaxy, despite the Drengin occupying everyone after the ending of the previous game. Gameplay-wise they haven't said anything solid except stating that they plan to bring back and deepen the ship customization and confirming a multiplayer mode (HELL YES!!!).

Oh, and it's already up for pre-order on their official site, if you're interested.

Maybe it's because humans (at least 1 of them) are actually the creator of Dread Lords? Or something?

Not possible. The Dread Lords are the same species as the Arnor, who are basically this game's version of the "Powerful Precursors" trope. The difference is they decided to rebel and made their own faction, which was dedicated to wiping out all lifeforms who could possibly compete against them. Also, it was the Drengin who ultimately unleashed the Dreadlords, not Humanity, so insofar our race hasn't done anything too atrocious or worrisome in the series yet.

Hmm... I want this, but I'm on Linux. On the other hand, Stardock says they're "looking into" other platforms (as in Mac and Linux, not consoles). If they announce a Linux port, I will throw money at them until things happen.

A crusade you say, why not a Jihad I say.

The spice must flow!

Also darn time traveling insectiods always raining on the hurt train. So hexes, heres hoping they spice up the ground combat. The whole you get one or two options that don't totally screw over the planet's habitual rating really sucked.

The ground warfare in Gal-Civ was never that well thought out to begin with. For one, it was strongly implied that the only effective way to conquer an enemy planet was through total genocide since the requirement for you to conquer an enemy planet was to reduce it's population to 0, and then have your troops become the new populace.

@Sgt Ricko: actually, it is...one human got into pocket dimension and time travel shenanigan...end up becoming a Mithrilar and...well, yeah. Yes he seems to create both Arnor and Dread Lords...which makes sense why the Thalan is trying to stop the humans...good reading...that guy is also the reason why Altarians are so damn much like humans...he create Altarians in his image (or: human)

...hell, it seems the details for that are also in the wiki...

edited 16th Oct '13 10:15:48 AM by onyhow

Any word on if they're going to try anything new in the gameplay?

They've said that they will try to expand the diplomacy and random events, as well as try to find ways to make each galaxy you spawn unique in some way, but there's no exact details about any of it so far.

I'd like them to move away from the rock paper scissors thing the first game had It was... inelegant, and honestly, would end up making me spend WAY to much time in the ship editor. "Oh, laser's aren't effective, computer research/stole/traded shield tech. Well, time to go draft a ship that uses less lasers" "Oh, they got a few fleet who are vulnerable to missiles, to the editor!"

I mean, I like ships, but ... meh. the way weapons worked in Gal Civ 2 got annoying.

Honestly the biggest thing they need to do is find a way to get rid of all the micromanagement in the late game (this is a problem that plagues all fourecks games, except perhaps for the original Master of Orion). Apart from that, multi-party diplomacy would be pretty sweet.

Well HELLLOOOOO, lookie at what just popped up on Steam!!!

Yep, the Alpha for Galactic Civilizations III has gone live, and it looks quite true to the original!

Do keep in mind, though... it's still in an Alpha Release state. The current customer reviews are stating that while the core gameplay is present, tons of stuff, dialogue, techs and options are missing, so much to the point that it feels like the early version of Gal Civ II.

Furthermore, the asking price for purchase is at $99.99. WAY too expensive for my tastes, even as a major fan of the series. The high price tag is because Stardock is throwing in the typical collectors edition goodies, a unique forum badge, the ability to name some of the solar systems and offering all future DLC packages for free as well, so in theory this is actually a pretty fair deal. Doubly so when you consider the exceptional quality that the expansions Twilight of the Arnor and Dark Avatar had compared to the crappy DLC packages companies tend to offer today, meaning that you'll definitely get more than your time's worth outta this sucker in the long run.

(Trying not to say anything due to embargo on beta.)

By telling us you're in the beta, you've already broken embargo, so you might as well go all the way.

Please?

It's a couple of weeks late, but Gal Civ III was released. And insofar both the playerbase and reviewers are liking it.

Strategy Informer - 9.0

Gamespot - 8

Game Informer - 8.75

It doesn't bring anything revolutionary to the genre and basically does what the Twilight of the Arnor expansion did for Gal Civ II, but much of it has been refined. Custom races are still in, and this time you can customize the tech tree itself for said custom races. The United Planets has also been made more significant, because now it's possible for the player to influence the laws or restrictions passed. Also, if your computer and OS is up to the task you can make galactic maps so huge that up to 120 AI players can be included. And yes, you can create these maps for multiplayer matches, though you'd better make sure to have a dedicated set of friends on hand cause it won't be over in a weekend.

There is one issue at least with Gal Civ 3 custom races. As an artificial race when you take the trait that forces you to spend production to make pop instead of growing normally, you can take all the growth and food penalties to get advantages in other places. And I like the production for pop because you have absolute control on the population of your worlds so you can build only the population that fits your Morale quota.