General Feedback

There should be an easily accessible PDF file listing the differences between GC III and GC IV

I bought into the Alpha but Id like an In depth doc.

Galactic Civilizations IV - Gameplay (galciv4.com)

I had something similar happen it was one of the few core worlds I found and was so happy and before I got a ship there it was taken. I was playing gigantic with 7 total players and found one by turn 30.

And option to make everyone start in their own sector would really really be appreciated if there were if enough sectors and a low enough AI count so that you could an unrushed exploration phase if a player wanted to have that.

individual colonies didn’t seem to matter as much in three but the loss of a close core world seemed substantial to me.

I had 5 AI on the biggest map and ran into the first one on turn 10.

Ran into the second one by turn 15.

I usually like more populated games, but not THAT close

Yeah I saw that and was hoping for something ...more like checklists or 2 columns of thing,

one for III and one for IV ...heck maybe even one for II.

Of course that might just be my Obsessive Compulsive disorder too 

Version 0.40.186553 Colony nameplates are a bit large and tend to hide things underneath them (including other colonizable planets)

Oh no, I'm right there with ya!  There will be checklists when we get closer.

Another thing I have noticed is that the selection of which techs I get seems a bit... limited.  Most of the techs I see seem to be economic or governmental in nature, with only a smattering of military stuff, unless you reroll, and I don't think the AI knows how to reroll.

My present game is on turn 147.  I have the first two subspace techs and am cheerfully exploring other sectors, while refusing to share said techs.  I am playing in an Immense galaxy, with only 4 AI (two of which are in my home sector, the others are in their own sectors).

I am currently exploring my third empty sector. One has been swept of all non-heavily guarded anomalies and is being colonized and the second is currently being swept of anomalies.

Also I have noticed that the AIs are only building starbases to exploit Ascension Crystals, not for anything else.

All of this was in 0.40.186553, just downloaded the test version, so I will get working on that one.

What is the difference between regular and test version?

When you downloaded GC4, you got two versions, one is labeled, "test version"

According to DerekPaxton, the main one is the "stable" version (stable being a relative term in alpha) and test being where they deploy the latest changes straight out of development.

That's close to how my game is going. Pretty much the same scenario except I have 10 random opponents in an immense galaxy and 4 of them are in my starting sector. I'm making friends with everyone in my sector hoping we can present a united front against the rest of the galaxy.

For an alpha build this game is proving to be a lot of fun to play. I haven't had a "just one more turn" feeling like this for a long time. I can't wait to see what else this game has to offer as it is more fully developed.   

Has anyone built a small or medium ship yet?

I have the techs but it wont show any small / medium hull ships in the build list...

Overall feedback

The sector system works spectacularly well, so big kudos for that one. It feels like islands in civ games - the thrill of exploring a new island vs just bland homogenous land mass. Easily the best part about galciv4.

I find the economy system really hard to understand and optimise for. Building planet upgrades takes forever, and feels like it adds such a marginal gain right now. I think this could use some more work. In theory I like it, but in practice it feels like it needs something more. 

It would be great if citizens had their own special powers (a bit like leaders)

I really like the colony vs major planet system, its great, but as someone else said, it has one huge downside - I spent most of my game spamming colony ships. Not fun at all. Maybe one way to fix this is to let you colonise an entire system at once with a special colony ship available in midgame.

The new races are great

The new tech selection system is a bit annoying. I like it in practice, but I think it needs to provide some balanced options. I didnt get presented with a single military tech option on first roll for a 10-20 techs in a row... not great when the Yor are threatening me and telling me how puny my navy is...

I like the new random events, but you need to add a lot more - the same ones keep coming up over and over. I think you probably need 200-300 minimum. Add more quests too!

I got small hulls but never medium hulls yet and I am near turn 500.

Quoting adamb1011, reply 12

Has anyone built a small or medium ship yet?

I have the techs but it wont show any small / medium hull ships in the build list...

There are no predefined small or medium ships in the game yet. To build one you have to use the ship designer, and down at the bottom of the list of designs, to the right of the button that says "Use Design" there's a "+" icon that lets you design a new ship from scratch. You have to use that for hulls larger than tiny at this point in the alpha.

That's the random draw system of the techs for you. I didn't get medium hulls until around turn 450.

The First impressions sadly bad away from the Grafic (Moviebattles not avaible -so im nothing say to it)

1.the random Tech Research is a Very terrible bad idea for a Strategical Game, planless in Space ...4 thumbs down for it         give it Themes like Schipbuilding-Weapontech-Colonization-SocialTech-Agrotech

2.Ship designer and not seeing what the Modules have for Tonnage costs =planless in the shipbuilder =try and Error.

Im hope its only a Problem in the early acess and not a basic Feature.

3.the Planet Building is a more little Tricky as before im thinking.

4.the Spawn of enemys in the EA is a bad Joke and with 1-3 a Pain.

Quoting elperdido, reply 17

The First impressions sadly bad away from the Grafic (Moviebattles not avaible -so im nothing say to it)

1.the random Tech Research is a Very terrible bad idea for a Strategical Game, planless in Space ...4 thumbs down for it         give it Themes like Schipbuilding-Weapontech-Colonization-SocialTech-Agrotech

2.Ship designer and not seeing what the Modules have for Tonnage costs =planless in the shipbuilder =try and Error.

Im hope its only a Problem in the early acess and not a basic Feature.

3.the Planet Building is a more little Tricky as before im thinking.

4.the Spawn of enemys in the EA is a bad Joke and with 1-3 a Pain.

I like the research system but I think the player should have the ability to add weight to certain tech branches on the random rolls. The ship designer definitely still needs some work but I think it will be fine. I like the planet building system better in this version than in GalCiv 3. I have trouble keeping up with food though.

I agree on point 4 for sure. AI spawning is horrible. Always an opponent or two spawning right next to you and it's almost impossible to get a whole system to yourself in the starting sector. The AI will even settle bad class 1 colonies that are within your sphere of influence, and if you try to spam colonies too fast you run out of food quickly.

The Rescue Colony ship for Mormont Citizen or recover Xeloxi captain did not spawn a colony ship when selected that.
Also a leader said it had 11 diligence and then when I brought him it changed too 9 not sure why.

ForgottenSlayer, check the leader's card, some have small circles that represent abilities.  When you mouse over them they tell you what they do.  It may have one that gives it -2 Diligence.

He does not have that trait but I will be more mindful of their traits when recruiting. 

Also I encountered a major problem the Onyx traded me all their planets for open borders which as traders just seems like a poor deal.

Xeloxi did the same thing. Seems like they only place importance on their home worlds.

We were only at cordial relations. 

" the Onyx traded me all their planets for open borders which as traders just seems like a poor deal.

Xeloxi did the same thing. "

Maybe they just got fed up with playing the game as it stands?

Hi i have been playing this game for 2 days 15 hrs on and off and i am enjoying it so far even as an early access test, so I am expecting to hit a few bugs but something strange happened i had taken a couple of screen shots i then found that i could use the console cheat and  that gave me access to the research so now i could get back into doing what i love and that is designing star ships as i have been doing for Gal Civ 3 all was going well .....but after loading the game to play on the  24/06  i now cannot open the console or take screenshots have tried uninstall and reinstall changed the key to open console nothing has worked.....has anyone had this happen or is there a reason as to why they have stopped working.....