New Alien Civilizations bring their own ship styles, unique race traits, diplomatic quirks, AI personalities, and more!

Check out the overview trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bPuLHeKZhk

The Star Control Heroes DLC pack introduces four major new civilizations to Galactic Civilizations III. All of the new alien factions come equipped with a unique leader, ship, music, and traits that make each civilization look and play differently from the existing major civilizations.

Play as or against the Tywom, the lovable, needy slugs, or as the kind (but surprisingly aggressive!) aquatic Mu'Kay. You can also play as the naive-but- deceptively powerful Mowlings with their god-like protector, "Jeff," or the recently liberated and mysterious Trandals.

Get the Heroes of Star Control: Origins DLC today for 10% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/954810

Galactic Civilizations III is the most popular space-based turn based strategy of all time. Your civilization has just achieved faster-than-light travel and the galaxy awaits you. But you are not alone and must deal with alien civilizations through diplomacy, trade, cultural hegemony, or military conquest either against the computer or against friends online.



The Tywom - Hello, best friends!
These yellow slug-like aliens would like a hug. They’re slimy, and you don’t want to give them one, but still - it’s all they really want. The Tywom want to be friends with everyone, which makes them great diplomats, and their constant desire for approval gives them a bonus for any other factions who happen to love them.



The Mu'Kay - Greetings, Federation members!
Founders of the Federation for Allied Species, the Mu’Kay are intelligent cephalopods who live entirely in aquatic environments. Their natural intelligence makes them excellent researchers, and their polite (if occasionally condescending) manner lends itself well to diplomacy. Unless you’re a fish. Then prepare to be eaten.



The Mowlings - All hail the mighty Jeff!
The Mowlings are small, bear-like creatures who worship a mysterious deity they call Jeff. Frankly, they’re a little lost without him, so they spend their time finding new ways to worship him. The Mowlings get a special Temple of Jeff improvement (one per planet) that grants bonuses to influence and approval, and in return Jeff orbits their planets protectively.



The Free Trandals - Cast off the shackles of the Overmind!
The Free Trandals are the escaped faction of a race that has been enslaved by a malevolent AI known only as Overmind, who uses their bodies to advance its own nefarious purposes. Now, the Free Trandals work to free their brethren and rebuild their lost culture with what little they have left. Possessing a surprising capability (and healthy paranoia) for advanced technology, the Free Trandals are far from helpless both on and off the battlefield. Their warrior instincts may be long buried, but their ships, while few in number, are enormously effective against silicon and synthetic based life forms.


Additional Features in Heroes of Star Control: Origins

• Dozens of new ship parts inspired by Star Control: Origins for building and modifying your own ships
  
• Several new music tracks from Star Control: Origins
  
• New faction traits
  
• New ship designs, colors, and styles

In addition to the release of the new DLC, v3.1 is also available today. This update adds some important AI and quality of life changes, as well as the ability for players to design their own color palettes for custom factions. With v3.1, players will be able to adjust the color scheme for the UI, maps, and ships as well. Full changelog here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/226860/discussions/1/1752358461524097202/

Happy Fall, everyone!

The Galactic Civilizations III team has been working on some updates and adjustments to the core edition that they’re excited to share with you… in the form of a poem. You can thank Kael for this one.

Features

• Added a new racial trait, Aeroponics which allows that race to build a special low yield farm on any terrain with the Xeno Adaptation technology (requires Crusade).

Fixes

• When you willingly start a campaign,
  A fleet may be spawned without name,
  If you click on that fleet - the result, bittersweet,
  Will engender a crash in our game.
  
• Fixed the Trial by Fire achievement.
  
• Fixed the Perseverance so it can now correctly colonize extreme worlds even if the player doesn't have the tech.
  
• Fixed an issue scavenging a trade ship where it wouldn't have a home port anymore.
  
• Fixed an end turn crash (thanks for all the reproducible saves!).

The story of Galactic Civilizations has been around for 24 years - can you believe that?
Yeah, neither can we. Let's reflect!

GalCiv - the first commercial game for IBM's OS/2.
Years ahead of its time, the game took full advantage of 32-bit memory addressing, multi-threading, and high-res graphics.

GalCiv II released for OS/2 in 1996.
Expanding on the success of GalCiv, it added larger maps, new starships, and updated graphics supporting 16.8 million colors.

GalCiv for released Windows.
The "just one more turn" feeling of gameplay found a much larger user base through digital download and traditional retail channels.

GalCiv II released for Windows.
It included the first ever ship builder & released 2 expansions devoted to the mystery of the Dread Lords, a cliffhanger, a decade in the making.

Galactic Civilizations III released.
The latest iteration of the largest space-strategy sandbox games of all time received praise from critics and is still receiving updates today.

When our CEO Brad created Galactic Civilizations from his dorm room at Western Michigan University, he had no idea that it would lay the groundwork for Stardock growing into what it is today. He was just looking for a pay to pay the bills while he went to school - he didn't expect to launch his own gaming company!

Although Stardock has made many other titles throughout the years, everything comes back to Galactic Civilizations, the thing that started it all. Let's take a look at some side-by-side screenshots and see how the game has grown and evolved.

Let's start with one of the most beloved (ok, not beloved, but definitely most recognizable!) races, the Drengin.

Brad wrote a blog post awhile back showing the progression of the Drengin race throughout the years, but let's just take a quick look at a "then" and "now" photo of Lord Kona:


Lord Kona has aged since his GalCiv I days! Must be all the pressure of guiding his people while overthrowing enemy empires and eating their leaders.

All of the classic GalCiv races have seen some upgrading throughout the years.
Take a look back at the old image below of the racial selection screen and see how far they've come:


GalCiv I << The Yor >> GalCiv III


GalCiv I << The Altarian >> GalCiv III


GalCiv I << The Arcean >> GalCiv III


GalCiv I << The Torian >> GalCiv III

Stardock has always been supportive of modding so we found a way to include tools for our players right in the game itself.

Original GalCiv may have had the map, scenario, and campaign editors, but GalCiv II pioneered
the ship builder feature. This of course made its way into its successor, GalCiv III. We're constantly in awe of our community's creations using this tool!


The Ship Builder from GalCiv II vs the Ship Builder from GalCiv III

UI, trade screens, research screens, and so much more have seen a lot of refining over the years. With every game, expansion, and DLC that we release, we've learned what our players need and have done our best to give it to them. Below are a few more screenshots of GalCiv I, II, and III.


GalCiv I Map vs GalCiv III Map


GalCiv I Research Robot vs GalCiv III Research Robot


GalCiv I Senate and Elections vs GalCiv III Senate and Elections


Thanks for celebrating 24 years of Galactic Civilizations with us!
To keep up with what Stardock's doing, follow us on Facebook or Twitter, and join us on Twitch every Tuesday at 4pm ET!

https://youtu.be/2YvGrQjR0NE

Galactic Civilizations III is one of the largest strategy sandboxes ever made. Start with a single world and expand across the galaxy through diplomacy, trade, cultural hegemony, or military conquest in this single-player or multiplayer 4X strategy game. Send spies to infiltrate enemy civilizations, encounter mysterious anomalies and events across space, let your citizens help lead your civilization into a golden age, and so much more.

Choose your government, lead your civilization through terrible crises, and earn the trust and faith of your people in the newest expansion, Galactic Civilizations III: Intrigue!

The free v3.0 update brings support for Intrigue’s new features while providing a richer
experience with the same unrivaled scale. View the details below.


Rule with a gentle touch - or, with an iron fist
Choose from 20 available government styles and set your civilization on a path to greatness. Each style of governing has advantages and disadvantages. You can rule democratically, but you’ll need to make sure to keep the favor of your people so you don’t lose the next election. You can also adopt an Owner Aristocracy to enslave your working class, or choose an Interstellar Plutocracy and allow your corporations to rule, and then the opinions of your people don’t matter! Of course, there’s the potential for civil unrest, but you can handle that - right?



Choose your own adventure
Special events that have certain triggers throughout the course of gameplay can pop up and throw a wrench into your plans for your civilization. These events, called "Crises," are navigated through a series of choices that you make. You might have to quell a group of violent revolutionaries, or rally your forces against a massive space creature lurking at the fringes of your empire. How you decide to handle each situation will affect what events, options, opportunities, and rewards become available to you.



Put your colonies on a path to self-sufficiency
As your empire grows, worlds on the outskirts will want to become independent.These subject-states will do as they're told without you having to lift a finger. By granting these worlds a status of commonwealth, they will be converted into an ally with a favorable disposition and will be inclined to implement your requests on the galactic scene, as well as provide a substantial stipend back to your home civilization.



There's always a good deal at the market
Well, maybe not always, but that’s what they’ll tell you, anyway. Sell Durantium before extensive mining drives down the price, or pay a premium to get some Elerium to construct that new prototype flagship you’ve been wanting. How steep the price gets depends entirely on how much is (or isn’t) available, so buy and sell with care!



In space, there is no biased reporting - that's because we've hired a robot to handle it
Check the news to monitor who's allying with who, who's declared war on each other, and many other activities that are going on across the galaxy. Keeping up with current events and galactic happenings is the best way to stay one step ahead of your opponents.



Be prepared for anything
From famine to protests, you’ll face new events that challenge your leadership and test your people. Certain governments and crises will award you with brand new ships that can’t be obtained through any other means. Your choices determine your path and what rewards and penalties you’ll have to deal with, so choose wisely.

• Taxes - You can now set your tax rate on the govern screen. Increasing it will decrease your civilization's morale, but it will provide more income for things like war or infrastructure.
  
• New Tutorial - The game is now more accessible for newer players! v3.0 features a brand new tutorial and a re-worked user experience, while still retaining the depth that Galactic Civilizations III is known for.
  
• Tourism - Planets and starbases generate influence that will grow over time and capture a percentage of travelers that pass through the player’s area of control.
  
• Farming - All planets will come with arable tiles where farms can be built in order to generate food. Food will help to grow the population, which in turn will increase production.
  
• Extreme Worlds - The frequency of extreme worlds has been substantially increased. Certain species can now colonize particular worlds without tech - for example, carbon-based lifeforms can settle on a corrosive planet, but synthetic life can't.

To learn more about all of the new improvements in v3.0, view the full changelog here.








Get the newest expansion, Intrigue, today!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/747060

Uh, captain? We have an incoming transmission from the Yor.

They say they want to explain to us why they're superior to humans and other "fleshy" beings.

Should I patch them through?

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/487890/

Uh, captain? We have an incoming transmission from the Yor.

They say they want to explain to us why they're superior to humans and other "fleshy" beings.

Should I patch them through?

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/487890/