PC Gamer's First Preview of Galactic Civilizations III

from GalCiv3 Forums

PC Gamer has put up the first preview of Galactic Civilizations III and talks with Lead Designer Paul Boyer about the game.

"Many of the familiar races from the game, such as the Krynn Consulate and the Iconian Refuge, will return alongside new races. The Iridium Corporation, for instance, was always part of the series’ lore but never a playable race. Boyer notes that “they are essentially ultra-capitalists, like if Apple was a race that was going to take over the universe”.

Other tweaks include revamping the UI, building a better tutorial system (including a tutorial campaign), and finetuning the AI, all within the confines of a brand-new game engine, referred to internally as Kumquat 2. Also new is the fact that Galactic Civilizations III will only run on 64-bit systems."

Read the full preview at PC Gamer here.

 

209,425 views 80 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

 

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My face after seeing this;

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I'm setting myself up for disappointment, but I hope the visuals are as good as this or better in the final release!

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I like the cleaner UI

Curtains - Customize Windows with additional styles
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Left, up corner Black Hole ?

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

OMG>... WANT GAME NOW!!!

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

That screenshot... It looks so similar to the one released for Galciv2 when it was being made... or one of the expansions...!

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

That maps looks awesome. That Dreadnaught belongs to "Race: Support Ship". :p And is huuuuuuuuge. Some people may not enjoy the "Laser/Missile/Mass" system... at least until we get to know more about its tweaks for this sequel.

Vulcan? Do we get Space Elves too? :D

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

theres a lot of interesting info in that screenshot a colony list that shows whats being built as well as having the buildings color coded

orange military buildings

blue science

green culture

red ships

Quoting G_Kar, reply 3

Left, up corner Black Hole ?

looks like some kind of range barrier around it as well (if you get any closer than this you wont be able to escape?)

looking at the info panel any idea what that icon next to happiness represents looks like an hourglass?

considering "ideology"'s prominent placement near research diplomacy and shipyard this implies that it will be central to the game

the mini map

the galaxy appears to not be uniform sector sizes unless that is simply unexplored area

although the map as a whole looks kind of like the one from the media page but larger and with the planets renamed

and im not sure why but that alien has a really friendly and trusting face

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

The Iridium Corporation, for instance, was always part of the series’ lore but never a playable race. Boyer notes that “they are essentially ultra-capitalists, like if Apple was a race that was going to take over the universe”.

So, what makes them different from the Korx then? <_<

In any case, I like the new UI. It looks pretty good. Everything is clear, and easily accessible on first sight. However, I will retain final judgment until after I tested it.

The Ideology mechanic also sounds quit interesting. When Frogboy mentioned it, I imagined something like the Social Engineering mechanic from SMAX, but this could be even better.

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

someone get a bucket ... there is an inexplicable lake of nerd-drool forming around my desk ... this seems to happen mysteriously everytime there is a bit more news on galciv III ...

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I also am wondering how the Iridium Corporation is different from the Korx...

That aside, the map picture is drawing most of my attention. It appears to contain a nebula in the bottom right as well.

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 8



So, what makes them different from the Korx then?

 

I always imagined the Korx as a mean/nastier version of the Ferengi. 

Korx: "You would like to buy my mother."

Human: "Ehm, no thanks."

Korx: "It wasn't a question, you are buying my mother or your mother gets it"

This Iridium corporation looks like it's going to be version that tries to sell you stuff you don't need by convincing you you need them more than anything else in the galaxy.

Reply #12 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 8


The Iridium Corporation, for instance, was always part of the series’ lore but never a playable race. Boyer notes that “they are essentially ultra-capitalists, like if Apple was a race that was going to take over the universe”.

So, what makes them different from the Korx then?

In any case, I like the new UI. It looks pretty good. Everything is clear, and easily accessible on first sight. However, I will retain final judgment until after I tested it.

The Ideology mechanic also sounds quit interesting. When Frogboy mentioned it, I imagined something like the Social Engineering mechanic from SMAX, but this could be even better.

I always thought of the Korx as being like the Ferengi while Iridium Corp. is more like Buy and Large from Wall-E.

Reply #13 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Oh one other thing about the aliens, as cool as they look in still shots, they are fully animated.  They look just insane when on the view screen.

Reply #14 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 13

Oh one other thing about the aliens, as cool as they look in still shots, they are fully animated.  They look just insane when on the view screen.

 

You lucky bastard.

 

I envy you so

Reply #15 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Nice!!!  I like the hex based grid, and it looks very SC3.  I like it, a lot!!!

Reply #16 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Some more new goodies have been added here: https://www.galciv3.com/founders

Reply #17 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 12
more like Buy and Large from Wall-E.

I'm not familiar with that one. :S

Reply #18 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 17


I'm not familiar with that one.

"Profit is all that matters; keep the people consuming our products no matter what."

BnL in a nutshell; basically a soulless megacorporation devoted to profit, without the explicit evil. Best called opportunistic, they'd be called "neutral" in GCII

Reply #19 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting ParagonRenegade, reply 18
"Profit is all that matters; keep the people consuming our products no matter what."

BnL in a nutshell; basically a soulless megacorporation devoted to profit, without the explicit evil. Best called opportunistic, they'd be called "neutral" in GCII

So, they are like Morgan Industries from SMAX?

Quoting Frogboy, reply 16

Some more new goodies have been added here: https://www.galciv3.com/founders

The Iridium Corp. has the same race logo as the Krynn Consulate in GalCiv 2. Interesting.

Reply #20 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 16

Some more new goodies have been added here: https://www.galciv3.com/founders[/quote]

none of the images in there are working for me on an iPad. They're coming up as walls of text for some reason. 

Reply #21 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Tridus, reply 20


Quoting Frogboy, reply 16
Some more new goodies have been added here: https://www.galciv3.com/founders

none of the images in there are working for me on an iPad. They're coming up as walls of text for some reason. 

Two of them are screenshots of the Alien representative of the Iridium corp (The alien portrait in the article) Harondin Gaul in separate diplomacy screens; one in the United Planets chamber telling you a few facts, and one in the diplomacy screen itself, where the guy playing is trading something to him.

The third is a Yor staring into your soul,

Reply #22 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 19
The Iridium Corp. has the same race logo as the Krynn Consulate in GalCiv 2. Interesting.


Just a place holder, they will have there own logo. 

Quoting ParagonRenegade, reply 1
I'm setting myself up for disappointment, but I hope the visuals are as good as this or better in the final release!
 

You can count on that, but I'm going to bet on them being even better.

Reply #23 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Gaunathor, reply 19
Ferengi
Quoting Gaunathor, reply 19


Quoting ParagonRenegade, reply 18"Profit is all that matters; keep the people consuming our products no matter what."

BnL in a nutshell; basically a soulless megacorporation devoted to profit, without the explicit evil. Best called opportunistic, they'd be called "neutral" in GCII

So, they are like Morgan Industries from SMAX?


Quoting Frogboy, reply 16
Some more new goodies have been added here: https://www.galciv3.com/founders

The Iridium Corp. has the same race logo as the Krynn Consulate in GalCiv 2. Interesting.

The "Ferengi" are from the Star Trek TV series "The Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine". They went into some depth on the ideology of the Frenegi in Deep Space Nine with a good bit of the divergence between individuals, particularly between Quark and his nephew.

Reply #24 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

My Lord, this looks awesome. Love the screenshots, and the way ideologies seems too work. Sounds like a very clever version of the culture to ideas system in Civ5, adapted to the ethical events system in GalCiv2. We get points towards a certain ideology after what choices we make, then we can spend them on the kind of ideology we lean to, choosing between different new traits and abilities within that ideology group? Sounds very clever and fun indeed, if it works something like that :)

 

Clever indeed chaps!

Reply #25 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

looks awesome :)

I know this is a little off topic, but why do I keep getting a persistent prompt from pcgamer.com for my windows security login user/pass? Ive tried to google it but no help; im using IE 11 browser and no matter how many times I click cancel the prompt reappears and wont let me do anything except close my browser from task manager. I had to switch to my phone using safari (which did have the prompt but I could cancel it once and continue) to even read the entire article.