Hey guys, devs!

This is my first time on the forum! Happy to be here! Here is my first feedback of GCIII. Alpha (Yet without any patches considered, so sorry if I list something that has already been fixed. I'm aware that this is just the beginning, but still want to give some feedback for the longer term developments too.)

 First of all, the Alpha is awesome! I really like it, even if it is just an Alpha! Great job! It is well playable, and even fun in a sense that it is very cute along with its currents limitations and that you can laugh at some features or working mechanics striking you as a first impression - in a really positive sense! (LOLd much) GalCiv games were always in my top favorites, I grew up on them! It is the best TBS for me! Just saying, because it would seem that I'm complaining too much due to the bugs.

 So, my very first advice is the most important as it is currently the largest fun breaker in the game! Please replace the yellow wrench icons asap with unique ones for each major factor. You don’t have to find a unique one for all of them (obviously the more the better), but the same icons are really confusing - some needs no icon at all. Most people are visual (and GC is a visual game) and for them (us) it is easier to make memory associations between icons and factors/traits, and not just forcibly reading everything in textual form (improves ease of play, and enjoy ability).

 General thoughts:
I think a lot of features in GC II. TotA were already awesome, and GC III. should not lack most of them, as the latter is intended to be even better than the previous one! So, in the long run improvement process, please bring back as much as you can! For example: random anomaly regeneration on the map (no final depletion), status texts under ships (Guard, Sentry, Explore etc.), (more text overall on the map - stars?), setting ship launch directions from a planet - strategically this one is very important!

 Space bugs:
1. When a battle occurs, the prompt window comes up, but only with a Done button. The battle happens either way. Yes or No button should be added. (Maybe there is one the at first time, but they should be there always).
2. The enemy seems not using their newly built ships! Colony ships are moving, but almost always scouts and constructors are just stacked up into fleets when they are ejected and stuck there. (I always had a scout staying there watching over this - mostly occurred with Iridium). They are not even fleeing of my incoming 'lost defenders' so they are sitting ducks.
3. As far as I tried to look for it, it is impossible to destroy your own starbases manually! - This is a huge turn off! Especially if you misplaced one. Also the gap between starbases in my opinion is too big. 2-3 tiles would be just enough. (In TotA there was no gap at all.) Constructors should have a smaller red area indicator too, to tell that no other starbase could be placed on those tiles in the future (allows more strategic placements).
4. In case of re-loads, Stars are returning into grey icons on discovered but not seen areas.
5. Planet quality numbers on map are not showing the reality, as when they are colonized. There is at least a +1/-1 difference, rarely 2 also. I should not have an Earth ranging from level 9 to 12 (meaning that it reads 9 when it has 11 tiles, or even when it indicates 12 but I only have 9-10 tiles in reality). And no, it is not about the yellow tiles - the whole stuff is too random.
6. I think you can make linear up-down direction ship movement. Just as with the nebulas, it would subtract 2 movements. (Very unrealistic compared to a GC quality.) The track lines would still be zigzagged but the ship wouldn’t turn that much, or just in so minor angle, that it can't be seen. 1 degree left, 1 degree right, etc. (only to associate the object to a tile, if any disturbing occurs.)
7. Please bring back planet Moons and Rings. Saturn is so sad! Even if it just a visual thing. Space is not without them!

Interface bugs:

1. The minimap screen is transparent to texts lying on the map and they are blinking out at scrollings. Also clicking on the minimap is often not realized so it won't jump to the clicked place (transparency).
2. The planet list on the side-screen sometimes show incorrect datas (Ex.: 80% of my planets read 0.0b population, and also similar others.)
3. The Ideology tree seems messed up. I'm not sure if it is intentional, but you can't select which "tech" to learn in a row, so it will just unlock the next one in order, even if you clicked on the other. Also, if you have points for 2 tree's tech, it will automatically enable one on another branch (Ex.: You want one on the Pragmatic second row, but it unlocks the first Malevolent). The click-ings on the screen between point icons and the tech boxes are not clear, incongruent, hard to follow what happens when, if you want to unlock something.
4. Is it intentional not to have a Skip/Find button next to the Turn one? Click-scrolling through still available/waiting ships separately were nice.

Planet Management Screen:

1. I see how well the Improvements are grouped together by their types, but it would be so nice to have type icons too (Influence, Research, Pop. etc.) before the mini-building icons.
2. Overall, the floating info-boxes of the Improvements should be filled with icons too: Its type on the top, what it gives, prior to the adjacency bonuses, and at their received level bonuses. (Visual recognition is always superior.)
3. From the viewpoint of GC II. Players, the Tile Bonus Icons are really switched up. It is uncomfortable to re-learn the Icons' meanings. New ones for the new bonus types would be awesome. I really like the concept of mixed bonuses, but there is only a few good combo possibility as there is no transition between most types. While Research and Influence has so much love, Tourism and Manufacturing has significantly less (only economic (no-land) and military bonus is missing). Level differences also for the latter ones would be even better (like GC II's 100, 300%).

4. The point system for Res., Manuf., Mil., was easily comprehensible, you could count them, and see how awesome your 150-200 stacked total points were. With percent values, you can only grasp how cool you are by the number of Factories or Laboratories present (next to each other). This concept is not necessary worse, when you will have a summary table. But the point is, that it is harder to grasp the differences what a % value brings (GCII: points for Factory, percent for Power Plants). It would seem that having a Power Plant on a tile bonus is a huge kick, while it is not always the case. So in conclusion it would be nice to get informed on the floating info-boxes (way before any placement) what a +1 level means for a building (+1 lvl means 10% for a Factory, +5 points for a Starport, 5% for Res. Coord. Center etc.)
5. Some buildings - especially mixed with the Ideology originated ones - are seem to be the same, or almost the same in what they offer. This is beneficial only, if these buildings were given even more variety of adjacency bonus combinations, so you will not just build many of one type, but the others too, if the bonus combos are more favored in that situation. - Currently there is not enough transitions for these similar Improvements.
6. It can be very confusing that bonuses and info-boxes are using synonyms for the same factors! (Cultural production and Influence bonus - the same? Wealth improvement and Economic bonus - also the same?) Not just because of language reasons, but for more of a certainty. This way a Tourism Income could be treated as suitable for an Economic bonus, right? Not everyone has native English language, neither me, but the point is, sometimes the simpler the better! Please use 1 term for 1 term, instead of 3.
(This also applies for the Research fun-texts too, where the fun fails on being able to understand the right meaning of the sentences because they are lacking commas or divisions. A 3 line sentence might sound better as 3 individual sentences. In GC II. these were so lovely and funny! No hardcore English grammar is always necessary!)

7. The worst thing really comes now (The second greatest fun breaker) Please make it as it was in TotA! There are 2 strategies. You calculate everything (even future coming Improvements) prior to building anything on a planet, or if you mess something up on the placements, you have to destroy many buildings to switch them up or replace them. Long story short, please make every normal Improvement upgradeable to ANY other, by selecting the tile on them (now automatically jumps to an empty one if you want to build). Please sign 'One Per Planet' too, so you know that they has to be destroyed to be placed again (not to lose it by an upgrade).
8. In the future of GC III. some planet tile sorting algorithm will really be needed to implement! I mean this. (If done in conjunction with the actual visual planet surface, the more godlike the game is!) I know it is just random now, because it is an Alpha yet. The reason being is that planet quality now matters less than the arrangement of tiles and their associated bonuses. So a level 6 planet can be way more better than a 8-9, if the tiles are in one group there for instance and a 10 can be so bad if all the tiles are alone. Overall planet quality is raised, that’s cool, keep this. But also make a tendency that lower planets (Ex.: 4-8) are having MUCH MORE likely grouped / lined tile orders together (or hell, even guaranteed!). This makes now the difference between a usable and unusable planet. Groups wins all.
9. Taking into consideration all of that is above, I think it is an appropriate time to mention that now it should be the right of the player to select the place of the colony capital right after the planet screen pops up - but in a way that you can check out the tiles, only then confirm a final place (not automatically covering bonuses). No cancel until it is placed. And also for home planet!

The other parts of the game are quite good, or even better! I won't whine about what is missing - it is an Alpha. I only wanted to highlight the parts that are already in function to work better!

Future hopes:

1. The real weakness of the latest GCs were still the Invasion screen. It was just a numbers game. Now alone, that is not very bad, but you could make it a lot more interactive. That would be a real evolution! (Where pixel soldiers and tanks threw rockets were also better than just flashing flags!) It was always harder for a defending planet, than it was for attackers, which needs some love too. (Yes, I know, in Alpha you have a godlike army which conquers a planet no matter what.) My suggestion is that you could manage those numbers in several steps! Taken into consideration the texture field (lands) of the planets and the given buildings, you could place your army at a tile position of choice, from where they attack, and even divide those numbers into groups! (Ex.: An army of 1000ppl and two more armies of 500ppl from different directions of the total 2000 attackers/ defenders). You could also apply the tidal waves, meteor showers, and others on which step and where you want (on what projects to destroy/armies). So even if it would not be real time, it could be pre-set in terms of several attack steps, one after the other, like the movements of ships during turn changes. - That would kick backside! The possible varieties would be limitless! And still it is just a numbers game, that is fun as hell! (Not close as hard as a ship battle screen!)

2. I hope the game will feature moving and rotating parts (or mini flashing lights!), also for the starbases, and that they will be finally a bargain on the trade screen. The AI did not give any starbase, even for my everything - their value based on installed module numbers.

3. Terror Stars - omg!

4. Very important stuff! Colonizing events should occur 80-90% of times, and please fix the ideology considerations that were in CG II. It was totally unrealistic that good always suffers a loss, and evil has benefits. It was so easy to just go for evil and get all the gain. This should be now mixed, where a good (helping) deed could get a real gain, while an evil move would bring serious drawbacks! It can also be done, that you have to pay for some events to get a good gain (helping out / solving troubles can be costly, but has its benefits called gratitude). And so, an evil move of stealing something or forcing out something (from native populists) that can backfire on you (riots), can bring more damages than gains. We all can see the point. All of this should be situation dependent, whether a good or an evil decision is beneficial.

5. Some of the original, core civilizations may be extinct in the story, but should not be left out from the normal playing, as not were the Korx or Drath… just as Torians, Arceans. As always, limitations are no better for a game, only more options are. At some point GC III. should contain everything that II. does, in my opinion.

I don’t know how this seems to you now, but I admire your work really much, I'm fan of your progression, so keep up the great job guys!!! I'm really hungry for every bit of news you bring into GalCiv, so I will be looking forward to them!

I wish you a lot of success and benefits with this game!