Recent Articles In GalCiv IV Dev Journals » Page 2
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What is Galactic Civilizations?GalCiv is a 4X turn-based strategy game series where players lead civilizations, expanding and conquering the galaxy. What is a 4X game?In 4X games, players explore space, expand empires, manage resources, and strategize in battles for galactic dominance. So this is the 4th GalCiv game, then?Technically, it’s the 7th as there were 3 versions on IBM’s OS/2 operating system in the 1990s. GalCiv is the oldest, continually developed space 4X serie...
In the year 2245, the Terran Alliance and their coalition had emerged victorious in a battle against the Drengin Empire, thanks to the recovery of a mysterious Precursor weapon. The Thalans, an advanced civilization that claimed to be from a nightmare future where humans were responsible for the destruction of the entire Milky Way galaxy, persuaded the humans to send the Precursor weapon back into the void of the pocket dimension it had been previously sent to. Shortly after, the Thalan Empir...
As you know, in GalCiv IV core worlds are the backbone of your civilization.  But not all planets are created equal. This is communicated in two ways: First, by the raw planetary inputs (minerals, tech, food, wealth, culture) and Second, by the types of tiles that the planet has on it. Unfortunately, in GalCiv IV, the two don't reflect on each other.  They're disconnected.  What I mean is that you could have a planet with a high tech raw resource input and have no tiles t...
One of the things this Winter we're doing is updating the graphics of GalCiv IV in lots of various ways.  One upcoming update to GalCiv IV will be a revision to all the planetary improvements. For example: [New research building]   With 4K and 1440p becoming more common we really needed to up the game. We will also be updating some of the minor races.   So for instance, remember this guy? Pretty grotesque. He's being updated with this guy: ...
So this Spring will mark the one year anniversary of the release of Galactic Civilizations IV.  And we have some really big plans for it.  We've been working hard on a major revamp of the entire game. Here are some of the areas we are making big changes: Totally new combat system. Beam vs. Kinetic vs. Missile as a rock paper scissors mechanic against shields, armor and point defense is going away.  Instead, various types of weapons will have their own pros and cons in ar...
November 3, 2022 by DerekPaxton on kael
Every Turn Counts I've provided a save from the very first turn of a Survival mode game. I was able to get 55 turns. Can you get further? To try it out here is the save: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18RWubDhiDutHC96M-BrOyyY7f5NWyf8P/view?usp=share_link Note #1: This is a multiplayer save (so we can try Survival mode) so it needs to go in your ..\Documents\My Games\GalCiv4\MPSaves\ directory. It also needs to be loaded as "Restore Session" on the Multiplayer screen. Note #2: T...
September 1, 2022 by DerekPaxton on kael
Update 1.05 added Survival Mode to Multiplayer. In Survival mode, all the AIs are locked in permanent war with the human players and allied with each other. They also receive bonuses that increase over time. The AI will win, the question is, how long will you last? Or in a MP game, which human will last the longest? But you don't need other humans to play MP in GC4, so I setup a Survival mode game to play all by myself.     My settings are all fairly typical, one large ...
August 4, 2022 by DerekPaxton on kael
This has already been a bloody game. The map is fairly packed and my neighbors (the Torians and the Festron) spread quickly. Usually, I would try to convince one of them to join me in a war against the other. But I'm playing the Arceans and we have access to some great commander warships, and I'm not interested in sharing. Instead, I pick the weakest of the two (the Festron) and attack at full force, hoping the Torians stay out of it. I set my policies to wage war. Trade routes ...
June 9, 2022 by DerekPaxton on kael
  Today I decided to play a game as the Xeloxi. They are a tough civilization to play - so much so that I almost put a warning on them (as well as a few other civilizations) stating that they weren't a good selection for first-time players. They certainly run a difficulty level harder than the Terran Alliance. I've always loved the Xeloxi's style and the concept of a crime-based civilization. Every Xeloxi citizen is a criminal, meaning that high crime is just a consequence of play...
With Galactic Civilizations IV now generally available it’s time to talk about…THE FUTURE. First, we’re really glad you guys seem to like the game.  Releasing a game, especially one where people have been working on for years, is, as you can imagine, very stressful.  This is doubly true when the game tries out so many new things. Below is a very tentative roadmap of what we expect to release and in what order.  This is all subject to change based on feedba...
By the year 2232, the malevolent Drengin Empire reigned supreme over this area of space.  The once mighty Arcean Empire, that had long kept the Drengin Empire in check, was utterly defeated and their world left in ruin. The home world of the Torian Confederation was occupied with great cruelty.  Even the rising Altarian Republic was brought low and forced to sign an armistice and took on a role known as the Altarian Resistance. Earth was left untouched thanks to a Precursor technolo...
It’s hard to narrow down what screenshots help show off Galactic Civilizations IV the best.  Below I’m going to post some of my favorites, but we’d love to read your opinions and what screenshots you might think better represent the game to strategy gamers. This will come as no surprise to those of you who have been playing the series, but it has always mattered a lot to me that Earth is in the game. Because of that, it makes it really easy to compare how far the se...
You wanted it. We’re giving it to you.  The Battle viewer. Beta 2 of Galactic Civilizations IV brings back the Battle Viewer and a new After Action Report.  It’s pretty basic for Beta 2 and we plant to add a lot more to it. Today, I’m going to talk about what is already in it and what we plan to add. The viewer and the after action report There are really two elements here that players tend to want to see: Their ships in action to see how different desi...
**NEWEST WALKTHROUGH HERE**IntroductionIf you’re coming from Galactic Civilizations III, you’re in for a treat. And if you have never played a Galactic Civilizations game before, then know this: this game is specifically designed to answer to the question, “I want to play a space 4X game, what game should I start with?” Read on to learn what this game is all about, who made it, and why we made it. A little about the teamThe highest rated space strategy game of ...