Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2394

Galactic Civilizations III: What's new?

I’ve been working on Galactic Civilizations nearly my entire adult life. I wrote the first one back in college starting back in 1992. I was/am a huge fan of Sid Meier’s Civilization and wanted a game that continued the story of mankind’s expansion into space. What happened after the spaceship took off? Since then, it has evolved massively.

This article outlines how the game has changed over the years. Let’s start out with a simple chart that outlines some of the unique (or ground breaking) features that has helped make the series so popular over the years.

Core/Special features of the Galactic Civilizations series

Helpful Links to the past

GalCiv History
GalCiv OS/2 FAQ (this is why there’s a system named “Anderson” in the game)
GalCiv I vs. GalCiv II

Screenshots

GalCiv I	GalCiv II	GalCiv III (beta 5)

GalCiv I planets were within the stars.	GalCiv II placed planets on the map	GalCiv III places the shipyard on the map

GalCiv I planets were totally abstract	GalCiv II visually displayed improvements	GalCiv III makes improvement placement matter

GalCiv I techs provided new ships, planet improvements	GalCiv II techs added civilization bonuses	GalCiv III techs can do many many different things.

GalCiv I trade screen	GalCiv II trade screen was prettier	GalCiv III trade screen adds lots of new items to trade
n/a
No ship design in GalCiv I	GalCiv II adds ship design	GalCiv III makes ship design determine tactical combat behavior.
n/a
No strategic zoom	First PC game to implement strategic zoom	More sophisticated strategic zoom.
n/a
No combat viewer	GalCiv II added the combat viewer (purely cosmetic).	GalCiv III combat viewer allows players to see how their ship roles and ship components affect combat.
n/a	n/a
		GalCiv III adds ideology, what kind of civilization are you creating?

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Good stuff froggy!

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Brings back memories of how excited I was when I got the Shipyards add-on for GC for OS/2!

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In my point of view, the groundbreaking feature of this version is the automatic ship design/classification in combination with the battle viewer.

PS: There were cloaked ships in the first GalCiv version... what!

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Yes, GC for OS/2 had a cloaking tech you could research and it made cloaked ships available. They were invisible to the enemy until you got close enough.

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This stuff and your replays of the older games (and gc3) is just 24k solid gold. Thanks, Mr. Frogboy! Wonder if I could get a drink from your pond?! Seems like it makes creatures smarter...

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VERY useful and fun to read the table and compare the screens. Thanks for your trouble.

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Bring the cloaked ships back!

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There is a cloaking tech in the tree now but I don't know what it actually does, haven't acquired it yet.

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Should we expect espionage in a future expansion?

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econundrum1

Join Date 04/2007

+36

They did say early in the development that espionage would not be in the base game, because they had something fairly complex in mind which would be better done as an expansion. So yes they have at least suggested it would be in an expansion.

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satoru1

Join Date 07/2008

+75

I do dearly miss OS/2

And BeOS....

And NEXT....

Man I really really really was striking out there on the OS market...

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I see you have listed tile types as "square" and "hex". I am now trying to remember if the main map tiles on GC-OS2 were the same as on GC1 (arranged horizontally). With that in mind, would it be reasonable to call the horizontal ones square and the diagonal ones diamonds? This would make GC-OS2 square, GC1 square, GC2 diamond, and GC3 hex. It is also a good view into how one aspect of the technology of 4X games has progressed over the last two decades.

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jirkaesch

Join Date 08/2008

+11

Will there be political parties and government or ANY sort of internal politics in the final game, Frogboy?

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Ashbery76

Join Date 02/2002

+36

Quoting jirkaesch,

reply 13

Will there be political parties and government or ANY sort of internal politics in the final game, Frogboy?

To be honest I would not really call the old political parties and government as being much in the way of gameplay.If it's added in a DLC it should have a lot more depth to it.

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Quoting jirkaesch,

reply 13

Will there be political parties and government or ANY sort of internal politics in the final game, Frogboy?

I hope they're changed before they come back but I do hope they come back.

If your system of government is Democracy, in the old games, the game should end if you are voted out

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jirkaesch

Join Date 08/2008

+11

Quoting Ashbery76,

reply 14

I would not really call the old political parties and government

Sure thing. I am hoping Stardock has something more sophisticated in their pockets, like "factions in your kingdom" from CK2 / EU4. I.e. different factions in your empire pursuing different goals and you have to take them into account.

Remember, every great empire had to deal with internal dissent as much as with its external enemies. And I hope grand game like Galciv také this into account

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Quoting jirkaesch,

reply 16

/snip/

Remember, every great empire had to deal with internal dissent as much as with its external enemies. And I hope grand game like Galciv také this into account

As the Germans approached Moscow in 1941, Stalin was more concerned with internal backstabbing than with the Nazis. He always put suspicion of loyalty, etc., top on his list regardless of the circumstances. (If I could remember I would cite the source, but I am too lazy atm). Course he was just a tad paranoid, but just the same. Internal stuff is at least as important as external in any large political entity, I agree.

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2394

Quoting jirkaesch,

reply 13

Will there be political parties and government or ANY sort of internal politics in the final game, Frogboy?

Not in the base game. We have something dramatically more sophisticated in mind.

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Awesome stuff. Although wish we could get to subsequent sections/pages on the history

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Really nice comparison of three versions. Thumbs up! Also, this comparison is a nice introduction to GalCivII folks about the new features in GalCivIII. I just played a battle yesterday and assumed that the battle viewer was all cosmetic --- learned something quick and new by just looking at frogboy's post. Thanks!

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Blaze of Glory

Join Date 04/2006

+27

Quoting Frogboy,

reply 18

Quoting jirkaesch,

reply 13

Will there be political parties and government or ANY sort of internal politics in the final game, Frogboy?

Not in the base game. We have something dramatically more sophisticated in mind.

Always the tease....

My wife said she had something more sophisticated in mind. It cost me several thousand <Kind of joking>

I expect better from you, Brad.

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XWerewolfX

Join Date 02/2006

+31

Brad, didn't you say that there would be specific scientist models for each race, much like the unique one for the humans?

I'd like to see more of that kind of "soul", please.

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I think that so far, some of the best ways to improve immersion and flavour would be to:

- Visually display improvements with some art, displayed on the part of the UI that details the improvement in question;

- Add some kind of politics in future expansions (and if you do, please make it a deep and significant mechanic rather than something bland)

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Frogboy,

I've been playing Galciv series since it first came out, my account can attribute to that and I have been a big Stardock supporter since I've heard of your company in 2003. Would also like to say that my favorite game of all time is the Star Control series since I played the first one on the Genesis and now that it is in Stardock's possession, it is very exciting. Now if you can get the rights to Starflight, man that would be awesome.

Anyways, Question. Why was political parties and election taken out? Not a critique but curious as to how that decision came about and why?

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2394

Anyways, Question. Why was political parties and election taken out? Not a critique but curious as to how that decision came about and why?

We want to do a lot mroe with political parties in the future including a whole cabinet section for the game.

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