Galactic Civilizations III announced!

[ls612]

There's a new journal up talking about the Drengin ship design with a cool illustration.

Link

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I like how the Drengin ships look like flying spearheads. Kinda summarizes how I play them in Galciv 2 (except I usually get murdered by everyone else).

 

[Island Dog]

I loved the ship designer in GCII, so what they are doing in GCIII is going to be amazing.

 

[apopisde]

about this game I have not yet heard, but it looks interesting. Well hey, space ships, something what i really love.

 

[Island Dog]

The alpha should show up later this month. Do we have any Founders here?

 

[ls612]

The alpha should show up later this month. Do we have any Founders here?

I'm a founder in spirit at least. I've played the heck out of GalCiv II but as a college student I couldn't justify the large expense for a single game right now.

 

[Island Dog]

The first gameplay video is posted, and the alpha for the Founder's Elite is coming on March 27th.


Link to video.

 

[Sonereal]

Looks like they're aiming to improve the UI, which could be sorta...off in GCII. Can't wait to watch the first impression videos when the game comes out.

 

[King Flevance]

I am a founder and have played through about half a game.

The UI is vastly improved. The tech tree has been cleaned up.

One feature I like so far is that the whole good, neutral, evil thing is now very similar to policies or religion in Civ 5. Doing "Benevolent" actions gives you points you can spend in the "benevolence policy" tree. It is rough around the edges right now but a very cool idea with potential.

 

[ls612]

I am a founder and have played through about half a game.

The UI is vastly improved. The tech tree has been cleaned up.

One feature I like so far is that the whole good, neutral, evil thing is now very similar to policies or religion in Civ 5. Doing "Benevolent" actions gives you points you can spend in the "benevolence policy" tree. It is rough around the edges right now but a very cool idea with potential.

Is the game as good as galciv II? I know it is kinda early to ask, but what are your overall impressions of the gameplay?

 

[King Flevance]

Is the game as good as galciv II? I know it is kinda early to ask, but what are your overall impressions of the gameplay?

Well, most of the game is missing as you know. The AI is mentally handicapped heavily - it almost just sits waiting to die and while many features are present in appearance, they are not really "there". Like you can unlock components in the tech tree but there is no shipyard in the game yet so you unlock them in namesake only. It mostly plays like GalCiv2 which I take to basically mean they plan to pick up design "where they left off" with Gal Civ2. The graphics engine has been updated and all animated 3D models look better. (Still in 'Uncanny Valley' but much better)

The way they are reworking the tax spending is better than Gal Civ 2 IMO but it isn't a major improvement. Rather than clicking multiple sliders, its more of a click and drag function on a "golf ball" if that makes sense. The center of the "golf ball" is 33% - 33% - 33% spending in science, growth, and production.

In short, atm it plays like very very basic Gal Civ 2 with an improved UI, less cluttered (although archaic) tech tree. All of the other features, I wouldn't call features yet. I am actually waiting for an update or two before actually posting any feedback as everything that needed to be addressed, got addressed by the community within 24 hours on the forums.

There is no NDA but videos and screenshots seem murky. I love that Stardock is really stressing that this is an alpha and not a "pay to play early" type of deal like the Early Access games that have started to get abused lately from my perspective. The game currently isn't fun. I happen to have benefits for watching them develop it through the alpha- but those benefits certainly won't apply to most people. Right now, you are paying $100 for "not even a game". I also feel it is important to stress that and hope to see at least a 2-3 year development cycle. Right now, it "feels" like Gal CIv 2, which is good. Actually playing the Alpha makes me just want to play Gal Civ 2 again.

EDIT: Oh yeah and they use cell shading on the ship graphics which actually makes it look more awesome than I would have thought. I'll post a pic of one of the ships in a couple hours.

This feedback 'review' hits up almost everything worth talking about so far.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ibt1cbis5tucan/Initial Impression v0.0.1.0.pdf

 

[Adam7Eight]

I loved GalCiv2, but...

$100 for early access?! GTFO.

EDIT: Oh, but you get all future DLCs and expansions. My bad. Yes, just what I want to pay for... something that doesn't and may not ever exist. This is insane. I thought preordering was the bane of the video game industry. No longer. It is now "early access."

 

[scratchthepitch]

The new edition looks promising, but the Steam requirement is a deal breaker, unfortunately.

 

[Quintillus]

I loved GalCiv2, but...

$100 for early access?! GTFO.

EDIT: Oh, but you get all future DLCs and expansions. My bad. Yes, just what I want to pay for... something that doesn't and may not ever exist. This is insane. I thought preordering was the bane of the video game industry. No longer. It is now "early access."

Brad Wardell (the founder of Stardock) explains the Alpha and Beta methodology here. The key part is this:

However, the ALPHA is a very different animal. It sucks. It's not fun. It's ugly. And for that reason, we decided that it made more sense to only share it with those who are looking to be with us for the long haul and thus looking at the long-term.

By the time the BETA hits, the game should suck a lot less and be less ugly.

In other words, the alpha is intentionally not targeted towards the general audience, or even the general Galactic Civilizations audience. The smaller audience created by the high price point is intentional - it means only those who are really interested are likely to buy it, and they won't get tons of early feedback to the effect of "this sucks" or "this isn't fun" from those who buy the game expecting it to be release-quality.

The beta appears to be targeting a $40 price point, a discount from the $50 at launch, so if you want it a bit early but want it to be playable and rather fun, that's your target.