I was pretty excited to see todays announcement!

Despite playing Galciv3 for about 700 hours, it got me thinking about why I wouldn't rank it my favourite 4x

Probably my favourite 4x game ever was alpha centauri. While there were a huge number of things that made that game great, especially given how dated it is, I think the real key to its success was the attention to detail on the lore. Every tech had a cutscene and detailed description. The races and personalities were so well crafted. The attention to detail was unbelievable, and still better than any game I've seen since. The entire sandbox game followed an overall narrative in a way space 4x games never really have since. 

Galciv3 had basically none of it. I would love to see that change in Galciv4 - i know there is an interesting backstory to the game, but its not really featured at all in the general gameplay. Its not that expensive, and its the last 10% of polish that makes all the difference. 

Other key things

1) Please keep the ship builder, and allow us to import! I think I would have played only 100 or 200 hours without it. Even if the ship builder evolves dramatically, surely an import tool can be made...

2) Space is an empty place, but it doesn't *need* to be that way in game. Galciv3 did a decent job of this compared to other space 4x games, but I think you should double down.

3) The new sector / planetary management system sounds great

4) Please rip off stellaris etc and allow for multi-race empires. It adds a total extra dimension to the gameplay. For example, having an Iridium economic advisor makes a lot more sense than Altarian