How to Play Galactic Civilization 3. Galactic Civilizations III Review

Galactic Civilizations III was released on May 14, 2015, developed and published by Stardock Entertainment. GalCiv 3 is a turn-based 4X strategy (global strategy) in a space setting, with an emphasis on planetary management, the construction of starbases, and the ability to create your own ships. The ship designer module allows the player to create (or recreate) almost any visual ship design. The game, like its predecessors, shies away from any form of tactical combat, but the player's role in fleet building has been greatly improved.

Overall, the game is similar to its progenitor Galactic Civilizations 2. Many systems have been greatly improved, and the game has been enhanced with some new features that tie into the old systems. The game is visually stunning and rich in detail. And finally, the GalCiv series allows the player to play with friends in a new online multiplayer mode.

However, none of this means that the game doesn't have its flaws. Some minor issues do have some impact on gameplay, and many of the predecessor's weak subsystems either remain the same or feel like a step back if they weren't completely removed. For some, the similarities to the previous game may make it feel too easy to play, with the feeling that GalCiv 3 hasn't moved forward enough. It's understandable why a more conservative approach was taken, but there are areas where Stardock could have been more daring in its design.

Appearance and settings

The first thing you notice is that the game is stunning. Comparable to AAA games in terms of visuals. Although the video clips are not voice-acted everywhere, the leader screens in the diplomatic system are on the same level of performance as Civilization V (although there is no voice-over). In addition, on all settings, the graphics are much better, at first it may seem like a simple HD remaster of GalCiv 2, but this is only due to the familiar style. Launch GalCiv 2 first, play, launch GalCiv 3, and then go back to part 2 and you will see how many visual improvements there are. The music is similar in theme to the previous game.

But here there is a small problem that can be noticed. While there isn't much done externally to make the player aware that they are playing a sequel, if you start GalCiv 3 with the previous game in mind, the graphics will appear similar and everything will feel like the same thing, just with minor changes. This may have been Stardock's goal, the previous game was great, but there may still be those who find sales of the two too sluggish, and those who are tired of the second part will not be able to rekindle their passion for the game so soon.

Fortunately, the options have started new game are as good as ever, and this is one aspect where there is nothing really to improve other than adding even more game options for more large maps(assuming your PC can handle them, only the PC's capabilities limit the size of the cards). You can customize many parameters for yourself. The density of stars, planets, the appearance of inhabited and extreme worlds, the speed of the game and the technological level, the frequency of meetings of the Galactic Council, and active victory conditions. You can also customize your own race.

Races

The game provides the opportunity to play as 8 races, 7 of them from the previous game and one new, playing the role of hyper-capitalists, although they have a more pragmatic rather than ruthless approach compared to the race they replaced.

This is one of the most customizable races I've seen. You can choose any of the presented graphic backgrounds, and the player can also upload his own. Select a leader image (you can also upload it), every aspect of the texts can be changed, and the player gets the opportunity to freely distribute his bonus points according to perks. You can also choose two unique qualities that provide good bonuses, and even customize the personality traits of the race when it is under AI control. You can also choose which set of ships to use, and your colors and textures, as well as which tech trees you have access to.

The game supports modding well, even allowing for some unique factions if the player is willing to dive into modding. Even without mods, the player is given a lot of choice when creating factions for themselves or for the AI. While none of the possible options will make any race "fancy", the various options provide a good level of customization.

Campaign

GalCiv 3 has a game campaign and a tutorial (which is a prelude to the campaign). Overall, these missions are basically a scripted version of a sandbox. While they tend to have unique settings and conditions, one defining example is the first mission, where the player gains access to a human vessel outfitted with advanced technology. It gives the player a nearly indestructible fireteam.

The story begins with the aftermath of the events of the last expansion for GalCiv 2. To be honest, there is not much to tell about the company. The gameplay is interesting and gives you a little more insight into the story and setting, and it doesn't stray too far from the grand strategy experience. However, the plot of stars from the sky is lacking. This is not bad, it's just that the game is more interesting from a setting point of view. Overall, the campaign is short and can be completed quickly in three scenarios. It's still an optional game mode, which is nice, although at the end of the day, the sandbox mode is the meat of the game and what players will be playing most of the time.

Universe

For those unfamiliar with the GalCiv franchise, the game focuses on planetary management and space exploration. The player can explore any hexagon of space (the game map is now based on a hexagonal grid) that is within range of their ships. The implemented movement system makes exploration more similar to Civilization than most space-based 4X strategy games (global strategy games). However, unlike GalCiv 2, the game has much more "topography". Nebulae and asteroids interfere with sensors, shields and the ability to move freely. There are also black holes that create a kind of impassable terrain. However, these features serve as objects of interest in resource discovery.

These resources can be mined through mining starbases or archaeological stations, and can provide strategic resources that unlock special modules and ship parts or relics that provide overall bonuses to your empire. You may also come across Ascension Crystals, these are special relics associated with one of the victory conditions.

Players will also come across space debris, which can be inspected by ships equipped with special modules. Garbage gives small boosts, and sometimes even free ships. And of course in space you will find stars that can have up to 5 planets; they are the main goal of expansion in the game.

There are random events in the game, some of which lead back to choosing an ideology. These events have three responses that determine the player's civilization. Will this choice be benevolent, pragmatic, or malicious? Either option generates points that unlock a specific ideology, which can provide powerful perks and effects. Colonizing new planets outside of your home system will also force you to make this choice.

Ideology: Bad, Good or just Pragmatic

Ideology returns in GalCiv 3, and this time it's not limited to just simple options that give bonuses and penalties. While the player will still develop diplomacy influence, ideologies will now also grant perks, which the player selects from a grid of available stats. The system is straightforward, when you have enough points, you can get any available perk (privilege). They are all valued equally, but within that line the perks must be purchased in order. The Next Purchase will require more points, but the cost increases for other branches, so creating a “multi-class” is more difficult, but still possible.

These perks tend to vary in usefulness, but this is mostly due to circumstance. Receiving an additional global bonus for a potential colony or creating a colony may be less useful if your empire is large enough, but can become a real find, if you were backed into a corner.

Overall, the system is interesting and a good addition to the game. These perks tend to be different from the typical passive bonuses you get from the tech tree (although some are similar). Unlocking buildings are generally very useful and they generate their own ideology points, useful for accelerating ideology growth. Other perks that simultaneously strengthen the player with unique powerful effects.

Examples: One characteristic can transform your homeworld to a super militarized fortress (malevolent), or will allow you to never suffer from moral problems (benign). Another trait can give your worlds immunity to planetary cultural upheaval (male), while another can cause all planets and bases in your sphere of influence to undergo immediate upheaval (benign). There are also traits that punish those who try to go to war with you, improving your diplomacy, and giving the chance that all other races not allied with you will come to your home world and declare war on the culprit (this last line is an example of the second strong point of pragmatism ).

Different ideologies naturally benefit different playstyles. Goodwill promotes strong science and culture, with stimulating morality. Malevolence favors production, extraction of raw materials, wealth and military prowess. While pragmatic civilizations, masters in building starbases and efficient shipyards, have bonuses in diplomacy and trade. This is somewhat similar to the social policies, virtues, or civics we see in other 4X games. The introduction of this system into the space 4X subgenre is quite useful.

Empire management

Before we get into the details of each system, it should be said that the game tries to give control of your empire easily accessible from the main screen. There is a quick list of ships and a list of planets, along with a list of starbases and shipyards. The list of bases, like the list of planets, has all the proper filters, although the sorting is locked in the position from new to old.

The guilty party is here, the list of ships. First of all, it doesn't look like you can see the full list anywhere in any of the submenus. Secondly, the list of ships, like the list of planets, has a locked order and lists individual ships. Considering that even on a normal-sized map, a player can have over 200 ships by the end of the game, the list's problems are obvious. There is no filter and no sorting. This can be easily corrected by grouping the list into different flotillas or vessels that are not guarding planets. In its current form, the ship list becomes almost useless by the middle of the game.

Another area that needs improvement is the fleet manager. Although the fleet manager for ships located on the same cell of the field has functionality for creating a fleet, there is no simple system for exchanging ships between flotillas, only merging and splitting flotillas works. Also, having a fleet manager isn't immediately obvious, it's a small button that appears when you have multiple stacks on the same hex tile, new players and even some veterans can easily miss it.

On the positive side, the massive command system returns, allowing multiple commands to be issued from things like "ships of a certain type upgrade to" or "ships heading to this point go there" to "shipyards producing this produce that instead." The player can set rally locations and assign them individual shipyards; shipyards can also send their ships to stations or planets. The interface for this is convenient and intuitive. The player can also see active trade routes from the control menu and cut them off, as well as set the global economic distribution.

Empire building

This is one of the most important aspects in GalCiv: colony management. The gameplay has not changed from the second game, where you have a space limited by sectors (hexagonal tiles) and build improvements on it. Fortunately, buildings that can only be built a few times, one building per planet, one per faction, or one per entire game, are clearly marked this time around.

Terraforming is the process of unlocking additional tiles, which raises the quality level of the planet. So, this may disappoint those who prefer the idea of ​​turning an ice world into a jungle planet. Export resources are displayed on planets, provide empire-wide bonuses, and can be sold to other races when concluding diplomatic deals.

A new mechanic added to the game is that buildings have neighborhood bonuses and tiles with nature bonuses have their own neighborhood bonuses. They tend to increase the levels of some buildings. Many buildings, which can be built once per planet or per faction, give many building types some of the highest adjacency bonuses. Combined with special tiles and their neighborhood bonuses, the player will have to juggle them to maximize the productivity of their planets.

Overall, the system forces the player to think. What tiles can you unlock with terraforming? To try to maximize the useful output from the special tiles, or to ignore them and do what the player needs? With global planetary bonuses, this choice has become even more critical. It has become a mini-game of sorts, requiring you to figure out how to maximize the productivity of all your planets to meet the needs of your empire.

Another change compared to the previous part of the game is that each planet only has a social queue. The military industrial complex is processed in shipyards, which are also ship constructors and can produce planetary social queues. Part of the planet's production can be sent to a plant, which can have up to 5 sponsors (planets) tied to it. The shipyard, however, loses some of the production it gains if it is located too far from its sponsor. This helps strengthen military production and is now easier to manage since you will have fewer production lines compared to if each planet built its own ships.

Economy

However, the correct output of a planet depends on the distribution of its economy. Basically, the number of people working in one of three areas: science, industry and wealth. Naturally, by improving your buildings on the planet, you significantly improve the corresponding products.

Gone are the tax and expense sliders, now all three options are on the wealth wheel. The player chooses between three fields, but this time they are organized into a wheel, where the relationships between wealth, science and industry have a direct relationship. This system is much easier to use than the old system, now all three settings are in one widget. Additionally, and more importantly, they can be set individually for each planet without any penalty.

Military Industrial Complex is still a separate slider, but now acts as a percentage of the shipyard's total output. If an order has not been transferred to the shipyard or the shipyard is turned off, the production line is not idle, but is fully redirected to social production. The slider can also be adjusted independently for each planet.

Planetary morale is now entirely dependent on structures or traits. It should be noted that the game has a more robust hint system, so knowing what's what makes it easier to figure out what you need. It's easier to know what causes low morale, and easier to figure out what the player will need to do to raise it. The player will need to maneuver between increasing the morale of the colony, increasing the maximum population level, or producing buildings that increase the output of the colony.

For those unfamiliar with GalCiv, you have the ability to construct buildings that "produce" culture. This expands your borders and in turn counters the expansion of other empires' borders. If you produce enough culture, you can convince planets within the cultural influence zone to join your empire. This is due to one of the victory conditions and can be seen as a way to peacefully conquer the galaxy.

Overall, the economy system is intuitive, transparent and easy to use and manage. The player has complete autonomy in the settings of each planet individually without any punishment. These are all significant improvements, but the system as a whole is familiar and it may seem like no changes have been made. After all, the economic system still uses the same basic model; it has only been improved, becoming more intuitive, clearer and simpler.

Filling the vacuum with starbases

Another important pillar of the franchise is starbases, and this was the case even before strategic resources were added to the game. So, the player will need to rush to get the best planets, you also need to make sure that you have collected enough strategic resources and relics. The player has the tools to gain the other faction's starbases if necessary (diplomacy and some ideologies can help you with this). Overall, starbases serve as a further improvement for your planets and your empire as a whole.

Star bases can be assigned a specialty: military station - can be used to increase the combat effectiveness of neighboring ships; the mining station collects strategic resources; cultural station - increases the level of diplomacy and cultural output of your empire; or economic station - improves many of the qualities of your nearby planets, such as morality, wealth, productivity and science. Rare strategic resources are used in unique ship components and special buildings. Relics and Ascension Crystals are collected at archaeological stations, they can be added to any of the previous stations. You can also outfit your star stations with more weapons and defenses, turning them into battle stations.

All this is done with the help of constructors, which can be built in shipyards. Improved tooling has been implemented to manage it. In the new system, any starbase can request an unoccupied constructor. If the designer is not available, it will be commissioned at the nearest shipyard. It will be a basic constructor, cheap and quick to build, but if it's far away it will take you a while to get to your destination.

Starbase has a lot of modules available, and I mean A LOT. Updating all your databases will require a lot of effort and time. The new button for requesting an idle line and a clear interface make managing the development of databases much less painful.

Development and Technology

The technology tree in GalCiv 3 is pretty straight forward. The game has 4 separate technology trees, each divided into several linear branches. Each tree focuses on one area, such as military or colony growth. Each branch focuses on a specific area, the science and construction branch or the knowledge production branch or in another tree, the energy weapons branch or the missile weapons branch. It should be noted that they do not have interconnectedness and there is no cross-linking as you have seen in other games.

The advantage for the player is that it is easier to choose his path; The downside is that this can lead to strange situations where you have a super high tech civilization in manufacturing and science, but you can't even build a basic corvette. Players will have to juggle their technology choices and make sure they don't fall behind in the right area. Another positive side for the player is that he can easily avoid technologies that are currently useless to him.

A new addition to the technology tree, technology specialization. These are technologies where you have to make a choice between three options, and these technologies are usually simple bonuses or improvements to things like trade routes. They are also exclusive, when you research one option, you will not be able to get others. You can still buy them, but it must be done after the fact; a premature purchase will be deemed as having researched them yourself, preventing you from researching what you actually wanted.

There is also a mechanic for technological eras; it prevents you from researching technologies from the next era until you have unlocked enough technologies from previous centuries. This limiter may seem artificial, but without any cross-requirements on the tech tree, it is practically mandatory so that the player can make somewhat reasonable progress in various tech areas. This also helps prevent the player from falling behind too much in other areas. Even with this mechanic, the player can skip entire branches if they want.

Overall, the research system works, but it seems too straightforward. The system of related technologies seen in other games can be frustrating at times, but it helps create a sense of progression, you see some kind of scientific story telling the tech tree. The method used in GalCiv 3 feels like going to a tech store with a shopping cart. It's the sci-fi equivalent of being able to research a bomber without ever researching gunpowder and the internal combustion engine, and that's with the tech Era mechanics implemented.

The game has unique tech trees for many of the races, and while many of the buildings are repeated, each race has tons of unique buildings that have different sets of bonuses. This helps in creating a sense of uniqueness for each race in comparison to the technology descriptions of other races obtained after completing research.

... Policy?

There are some criticisms that aren't entirely related to the tech tree. This is government policy and technology. The game has no concept of political parties or government outside of simple passive upgrades the player receives from exploration. Instead of political parties, nowadays, there are specialized technologies. While it can be argued that the system was never complete in GalCiv 2, it now feels like a step back where it should have gone forward.

Diplomacy

The franchise has always been about more than just warmongering, diplomacy has always been an important feature of the series. Diplomacy works and the AI ​​(artificial intelligence) acts logically, and the interface makes it easy to know where your relationships are and why they are changing in certain ways. This makes things more predictable, but that doesn't mean there won't be some surprises, just that they will be meaningful ones based on diplomatic relations. For many 4X players, a transparent diplomacy system is a good thing.

As mentioned earlier, the game has improved its visuals and it really shines here. The interface is very detailed and visually rich, and efforts have been made to make the interface as immersive as possible. The player can also get detailed information about each race, current power levels, and see which of their current relationships are improving and which are deteriorating. The interface also includes the ability to view active treaties, current Council authority, and current Council resolutions.

The player can trade almost anything, from planets and star bases to ships and equipment. The game also has contract mechanics that help build relationships and gain mutual benefits. The player can also form an alliance that can help win the game. You can also prevent diplomatic spam by setting a time delay before reinstating the possibility of signing other agreements after one has already been accepted. The AI ​​can also contact the player with its suggestions, requests, or even give gifts.

However, there are some shortcomings in the system. At this point, alliances don't do much other than maintain positive relationships. You are not obliged to come to the aid of your allies, you will not be drawn into their wars, and you will not even receive any additional benefits beyond the usual treaties. Another disadvantage is that there is no way to reject a gift. It may seem strange to need this, but when the gift is a technology specialization that you have not yet researched, and you may have wanted to choose something else, and now you will not be able to research what you needed. This creates an oddity where the player is put under pressure to research certain specializations faster than they can be gifted.

Overall, the system is exactly what one would expect from a quality global strategy. Nothing new has been invented, but in general (with the exception of the two shortcomings listed above) the system works.

Space UN

The Galactic Council is back, and this time it has a slightly larger role than before. Board members will vote for the chairman, who can then choose which proposals to put to a vote. Some diplomatic Technologies give the player a larger list of offers (technologies are useful if you are the chairman). A vote is then taken, and if successful, the effect is applied to all members. The player (and AI) can leave the council at any time or do so during voting (but before seeing the results). When a race decides to challenge the council, the vote is automatically vetoed and the aggressive race leaves the council. This makes "disobeying advice" a pretty powerful measure since it also blocks the current proposal.

The proposals for voting are varied, but only if you have the necessary technologies researched; if you don’t, the list will be meager. Also, for those hoping for some kind of diplomatic victory based on the Galactic Council, you're out of luck, there isn't one. It simply influences ideology, for example the Pragmatics do not have a clear victory condition counted towards them, unlike the Malevolent and the Benevolent, who have more than one victory condition aimed at them.

Making our own Ships

GalCiv 2 has always had a good ship designer, at least from an artistic standpoint. The system itself has always been simple, three types of attack and three types of defense, where each type of defense is designed to combat one type of attack. Although some changes have now been made, the defense is no longer "impenetrable". Defenses now wear down from constant attacks, so the shield will disappear over time, allowing lasers to damage ships. So resisting enemy attack isn't the only thing you have to consider, you have to make sure your ships can destroy the enemy before your own defenses are overwhelmed. At its core, this is a very simple improvement to the system.

The game also now introduces many new parameters for your ships. Some of these are weapon range, tactical speed, accuracy, and ship roles that determine target priority. The fleet also has many new modules with a wide range of improvements to basic and new parameters. Including hull repairs, directional sensors, jammers, and even fighters. Yes, GalCiv 3 now has carrier ships. With these new changes, there are many different options for designing your ships to serve multiple roles in combat.

Ship roles serve to determine behavior in combat, by setting defense priority or attack priority. Escorts will try to protect the main ships and stop landing ships, while interceptors will try to destroy enemy attack ships before they become a threat. If a player wants to maximize the effectiveness of their own ship classes, they must remember that the enemy also uses these roles. The system, based on the modules installed on ships, automatically assigns roles to them. However, the player can manually change the role if they need to behave differently.

Visually, ships are now much more diverse between races and the system gives the player many tools to design the appearance of their ships. With more diverse models and parts for each race, custom designs can be as truly unique as the player's imagination allows. The mechanics of the constructor itself are quite easy to use, but there will be some unpleasant moments when trying to pick up a certain part attached to a certain point. Many useful tools have been added such as quick invert switch, part reflection, it helps in creating a symmetrical design.

Players who love the "personal design" or "costume editor" in other games will love this builder too. For players who take a utilitarian point of view when designing ships, significant improvements have been made over previous games with the addition of new modules and features, but overall it is still the same basic concept. Despite the new modules and more esoteric systems (such as the gravity beam, etc.), the game did not present us with tactical combat.

Space battles

GalCiv has never had tactical combat, and it was never the goal to create one. However, the game made attempts to improve military science. This can be seen in many of the features described previously, ship roles and new subsystems such as fighters and repair modules, and parameters such as tactical speed and accuracy. Armor is no longer static as it was in the past. Your ship's defenses weaken as they take damage, and the concept of invulnerable ships is gone.

All this means is that there are a lot of numbers under the hood of automated battles in GalCiv 3, and a lot of data needs to be crunched to determine the end results. For those who want a little more entertainment, the game has battle visualizations. It's just a visual representation of all these numbers put together. Long-range weapons will fire first, while fast interceptors fly quickly near enemy lines. Spectator mode can help you understand why your ships can't crush enemies into dust, and give you a visual clue as to what enemy ships are capable of.

Some of the battles can look visually stunning, even cinematic-quality, but the camera controls are confusing and the automatic camera has the directorial flair of a binary machine (obviously). I'm not saying the system is as bad as I make it sound, but it does take time to get used to a handheld camera and I didn't spend much time on it, so you'll see epic battles right it was difficult for me. Also, since the fights are mostly for show, they are not unique and quickly become boring as many of them will produce similar results.

Ships are organized into fleets determined by technology. Limiting the maximum number of units in a fleet may not be a popular method for some players, but this limitation is a necessary evil. Although a fleet has a limited number of ships, a player can place more than one fleet on the same field grid. Given the function of ship roles, and that some ships have bonuses for the entire fleet, the player needs to build proper fleets, and not just create deathballs with a few support ships.

The reason why a fleet cap is necessary is because the spectator mode in battle has limitations, and in other games it has been seen that the lack of a fleet cap results in errors or severe lags. This is also seen in games without a fleet cap, where the results of automatic battles are calculated strangely quickly, usually in favor of numbers without reference to anything else. So the Cap serves a good purpose.

Conquering new worlds

In this area, the game took a step back. Many of the developments implemented in GalCiv 2 were removed, it feels like instead of solving problems with the system, it was simply simplified to the limit, the whole system became less complex. While GalCiv has never focused on ground invasions, this is where any improvements would be beneficial. Instead, we are treated to something that resembles the basics of GalCiv 2.

Various invasion tactics are now specialized technologies. The defender can build defensive structures, which will tip the scales in favor of their planets, and the attacker can create transports that will simply scoop up the population like colonizer ships. Technology can help with combat value for both defender and attacker. A pop-up screen will tell you the chance of success and the likely damage to the planet. Special technologies cost money. Select an option and get the result. There isn't even a visual representation of the conflict like there was in previous games.

Not to be overly harsh, but this is the second most boring and uninspiring planetary invasion system I've seen in a game. This would have been forgivable if the second game hadn't implemented that "better" thing. In any case, taking over planets culturally is more interesting.

Way to victory

The game has several victory conditions, all of which can be individually disabled in the game settings and even during the game. Naturally, conquest is the first condition for victory, there is also scientific (researching better technologies, and then building the ascension gate), cultural (repainting most of the map in your color, you don’t even need to capture planets, you just need to influence them and hold it for a certain number of turns), alliance (be allied with all the other major factions), and ascension (control most of the ascension crystals and collect the number of points required for ascension, these points can be collected even before you get most of the crystals).

While some victory conditions feel difficult to achieve, the variety of choices provides the player (or AI) with the opportunity to achieve one of the conditions before the game drags on too long. This doesn't completely solve the problems that arise in the later stages of the game when the game drags on, but it helps a little. It is also good to see in the game that non-militaristic ways of achieving victory, for example cultural and technological victories can be easily achieved without war. Even climbing can be done.

Overall the game stays true to its ideas by offering different paths to victory rather than being limited to just war game, and judging by the overall quality of ground invasions, the different victory conditions are not at all unnecessary.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and the polish of the game

Overall, at the time of review, most of the oddities had been ironed out (the original release was not without problems, but not dramatically so). But I must say that there are still a few questions about the overall polish of the game. One of these questions is about the “Treaty Research” technology, which gives a diplomatic option for slavery. Someone misnamed it and the deal comes with a production bonus, so it's safe to assume it's technology. Since this technology is available to everyone, it means that anyone, regardless of race or ideology, can trade slaves...

There are also strange relationships between the buildings. There are galactic wonders that upgrade unique planetary structures, the wonders themselves are unlocked using technologies that are researched much earlier than the construction technologies of the buildings they upgrade, it is very strange to have the ability to research an upgrade before it is even functional. Something doesn't add up. These errors are very few and I may have listed most of them, but they are quickly calculated as errors in the general technological line with options that, as a rule, are crucial for the player.

The game seems smooth for the most part, but there are some memory issues. There are a lot of lags in the game, if you play for a long time, it can even lead to a system crash. Also, at least on my machine, it takes a while for the OS to clear memory before it starts working normally after closing the game. This is a memory leak that happens even on small cards. Despite the memory leak issues, there were only a few system crashes.

AI is good. He knows how to play the game and can bring the heat to higher difficulty levels, as even the lowest difficulty level can catch lesser players off guard. experienced player. It should be noted that higher difficulty AIs tend to receive "economic" bonuses, which makes the AI ​​more challenging since when the difficulty is adjusted, the game reaches "full intelligence" quite quickly. These bonuses are direct and do not change the rules of the AI ​​game, except for one thing. Once you reach higher difficulty modes, the AI ​​will be more omniscient, particularly in knowing the locations of planets, making the colonization push an additional important step for the player. This will require the player to quickly capture planets, the AI ​​will scout and have a good line of sight so the AI ​​can't be sneaked up on. To put it mildly, this places the highest demands on the player, such a game will challenge even experienced players.

Final verdict

I'm fully aware that making a sequel is a difficult task. Change too much and you risk losing your core audience, and with every change you risk splitting the fan community. It's too easy to make a set of changes that can lead to players being dissatisfied with the final product. Also, when the previous game was recognized as great game and classics, making any changes is even more risky. I also think that innovation is overrated, and used too often to justify radical new ideas that are simply bad, and that are worn out by having to grow over time when it seems like nothing new can be invented. I also understand Stardock's desire to not tinker too much with a pre-made recipe.

I do not deny the improvements the game has made in all directions, in each of its aspects. The economy is cleaner, more responsive and better modeled. The ship designer is more robust, opens up more creativity, and gives the player more options in creating their own fleets. Visualizing battles has its epic moments and designing your fleets will make more sense this time around. I've never been bothered by the lack of tactical combat, because even in 4X games where the tactical combat part is not the main value of the game, I usually run the automatic calculation of the battle outcome anyway (when I want tactical battles, I go play full-fledged ones RTS or tactical TBS).

This is not to say that there are no improvements, but they are not enough for a sequel. New concepts, new elements and changes to systems that make the game mechanics more interesting are needed. GalCiv 2 was a good game but not perfect, there are a lot of things in the franchise that could have been improved but none of those possible things were either improved enough (advice) or were removed (political party mechanics and espionage) or simplified ( planetary invasion). Although the addition of ideology is a clear advantage, it is not enough to regard the game as a real step forward. GalCiv 3 is like a prank, the game seems to be about to take a step forward, raised its foot to take a step, but did not take it.

I would recommend the game for those who have never played GalCiv 2 but would like to play, for those who love GalCiv 2 and still play it and don't mind buying a game that takes a small step back but improves the overall quality across the board directions. For those who really enjoyed GalCiv 2 but are tired of it, new part It won't help rekindle your passion, as the game may feel too familiar and doesn't change enough to make it feel like a fresh gaming experience. Naturally, anyone who was not happy with the second part is unlikely to be happy with the third.

The end result is a decent and solid game, and would have been considered outstanding if GalCiv 2 had never existed. While the games must be judged on their own merits, if the merits apply to the entire franchise, then it is fair to compare the game to its immediate predecessor. From this angle, Galactic Civilizations III is quite decent game, but not good enough to achieve perfection. Stardock will need to push the envelope if they want to make another game that becomes a classic.

Galactic Civilizations 3 Review (PC)	Site rating:

Stunning visualization with music and short videos Sophisticated planetary management, perfect planetary micro management A robust ship designer that allows the player to realize their own visual designs The ideology mechanics are a nice addition to the space subgenre of this grand strategy. A resilient AI capable of engaging in diplomacy at a good level. A familiar game for those who love GalCiv 2, with significant improvements.

Perhaps too familiar and may quickly become outdated May not live to see the sequel If you don't like GalCiv2, then GalCiv3 won't change anything Some elements that should have been improved have not moved forward enough. Ground combat feels like a step back from the previous game.

7.5 from the editor

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23.09.2015

Civilization 3

• Publisher: Infogrames (closed)
• Publisher in Russia: 1C
• Developer: Firaxis Games
• Website: Official site
• Game engine: -
• Genre: Strategy
• Game mode: Single mode
• Spreading: -

System requirements:

• Windows 95/98/2000/NT
• 300 MHz Intel Pentium
• 128 MB
• DirectX® 8.0a compatible and supports 1024 x 768 monitor resolution
• 2 GB

About the game

The game offers very advanced gameplay, both in terms of the game itself and in terms of software. Sid Meier’s Civilization III, add-ons Civilization III: Play the World and Civilization III: Conquests - in one edition, entirely in Russian.
Dreaming of world domination? All in your hands! Play a delicate diplomatic game, prove your superiority by force of arms, organize a worldwide cultural revolution, send a spaceship to Alpha Centauri - choose your path to conquer the world.

The game has 6 difficulty levels (although even on the easiest difficulty not everyone will be able to resist artificial intelligence), 3 climates (dry, temperate, humid), 3 temperatures (cold, warm, hot), longevity of the earth (affects the amount of resources). Also, when creating a map, you can choose the size of the map (from small to huge) and the terrain (from small islands up to one large continent).

Game plot

As in previous versions of the game, Civilization III simulates the entire history of mankind - from the birth of civilization to the present and the future. As in previous games in the series, Civilization III the player will have to build his own empire, competing with competitive computer-controlled civilizations, from prehistoric times to the present. The power of civilization is based on the development of cities, which can produce military units, city improvements and wonders of the world. For the full development of the civilization entrusted to him, the player must balance between scientific progress, building up military power, replenishing the treasury, developing infrastructure and culture, diplomatic contacts and trade with other civilizations.

The game starts with you having a worker and a settler. With the help of a settler, you found a city - your capital. After this, the race between civilizations begins. You will study various technologies: from writing to nuclear weapons, build more cities than your rivals, exchange technologies, build various wonders of the world: the Great Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Hanging Gardens, the Colossus and much more.

Game Features

Sid Meier's Civilization III
Great opportunities: develop diplomacy, enter into profitable alliances, build trade relations, manage resources, use the unique advantages of your civilization.
Military Reform: Build and realize your nation's military capabilities with an advanced warfare system.
Cultural Revolution: Expand the borders of the state, spreading cultural influence - conquer the planet peacefully.

Civilization III Expansion: Play the World
Supports multiplayer games over the Internet, over a local network, and also on one computer; eight new nations; unprecedented wonders of the world, new technologies and combat units.

Civilization III Expansion:Conquests
Nine original story campaigns; seven new nations; new types of government, including feudalism and imperialism; two additional difficulty levels for the most experienced rulers and much more.

Victory Conditions

Specifics Civilization III is the alternative, multivariate ways of winning in the game. Some of them come from previous versions of the game (for example, in the original Civilization Sid Meier had three ways to win: by conquest, in the space race, according to the historiographer). Victory methods can be enabled, changed or disabled in the settings before starting the game. In the addon Conquests The ability to view the score status screen (victory status) has been added, which clearly represents how much the victory conditions have been met by the player and his closest opponent. In addition, Play the World and Conquests added in addition to standard mode The game has several accelerated game types (regicide, mass regicide, victory by miracles, capture of the princess, control of victory points), as well as a number of specific scenarios with unique victory conditions. In general, there are six basic victory conditions:

• Space Race - civilization enters the space race when work on the small wonder of the world, the Apollo Program, is completed.
• Conquest - a straightforward solution involving the conquest of the entire world through the forceful elimination of other civilizations.
• Domination - to win by dominance, it is necessary to simultaneously control 66% (2/3) of the entire surface within its cultural borders.
• Cultural victory - To achieve a cultural victory, two conditions must be met: you have a city with a cultural value of at least 20,000 culture points, and the entire civilization must gain a number of culture units, depending on the size of the map.
• Diplomacy - Gaining an advantage requires subtle diplomatic skills from the player to help maintain a good international reputation and friendly relations with all civilizations.
• Historiographer - displays the relative averages of the score, power and culture of a given civilization over a certain period of time.

Main differences from Civilization II

Introduced cultural boundaries and culture points. Now the original territory of the city is not 21 cells, but 9. In a situation where the border of another state comes close to the city, the number of cells can be reduced to one. It is necessary to expand the boundaries of the city by increasing culture. Every turn, culture points are added. They are produced by entertainment buildings (affecting the mood of citizens), scientific centers and wonders of the world. As the city's culture rises and its borders expand, further expansion becomes increasingly difficult. The construction of cities on the territory of another state within its cultural borders is possible, but will lead to war with that state. Now it is possible, with sufficient development of culture, to push the border back to the enemy and even annex his cities without a fight. This led to new types of victories - Cultural and Dominant.

Resources have appeared. If earlier resources were just bonuses on the territory, then in the third part they acquired much more higher value. Thus, without the possession of saltpeter it is impossible to build early firearms units, without oil - tanks, and without aluminum and uranium - atomic bombs. The emergence of resources introduced new rules of war. For example, by taking away uranium and oil, you will deprive the enemy of the ability to produce the most important units in the game.

Trade has changed. Caravans were cancelled. Now there is no way to specialize cities. To trade with other countries, you need roads or ports (later airports) on both sides. To distribute resources between your cities, they also need to be united by a trade network.

The diplomacy window has changed. Now you can immediately see who is with whom and in what relationship. Agreements are reached through open dialogue. The right column contains everything that you offer for bargaining, and the left column contains everything that you want to receive from the other side. If the conditions are acceptable, then the contract is concluded.

1. Civilization 3: Conquests introduced new wonders of the world (in particular, for the first time in the game all Seven Wonders of the World are present); Wonders of the World can now produce units;
2. The Civilization III: Conquests addon made many corrections to the game itself, for example, bombers can now sink ships and completely destroy ground units.
3. Civilization III: Conquests contains a revised version of the multiplayer mode with the following game options: via the Internet; via local network (LAN); by email (E-mail); replacing each other on the same computer (hot seat).
4. Civilization III: Conquests - the second addon to computer game Civilization III, released late 2003.
5. The diplomacy window has changed. Now you can immediately see who is with whom and in what relationship. Agreements are reached through open dialogue. The right column contains everything that you offer for bargaining, and the left column contains everything that you want to receive from the other side. If the conditions are acceptable, then the contract is concluded.
6. Trade has changed. Caravans were cancelled. Now there is no way to specialize cities. To trade with other countries, you need roads or ports (later airports) on both sides. To distribute resources between your cities, they also need to be united by a trade network.
7. Resources have appeared. If earlier resources were just bonuses on the territory, then in the third part they acquired much greater importance. Thus, without the possession of saltpeter it is impossible to build early firearms units, without oil - tanks, and without aluminum and uranium - atomic bombs.
8. Now the original territory of the city is not 21 cells, but 9. In a situation where the border of another state comes close to the city, the number of cells can be reduced to one. It is necessary to expand the boundaries of the city by increasing culture.
9. There are 39 Wonders of the World in the game.
10. In most cases, minor miracles require not only a certain technological level (technology that allows you to create a miracle), but also execution additional conditions. For example, to create the Pentagon it is necessary to have no less than three armies, and to create SDI - no less than five air defense batteries in cities.
11. In all games in the Civilization series, there are Great Wonders of the World, the creation of which can be completed only once during the entire game and only by one civilization, and starting from Civilization III there are also local (Small) wonders, available to each civilization that has achieved a certain technology. A minor miracle can be built once in one city by each civilization, that is, it plays an intermediate role between a major miracle and a regular building.
12. Each civilization has 2 unique features out of 6 possible (in Conquests 8).
13. Civilization III: Conquests also adds 8 new civilizations to the game - Mayans, Incas, Netherlands, Portugal, Byzantium, Hittites, Sumerians (Austrians, disabled by default). The total number is 31 (32) civilizations.
14. Initially, 16 countries (peoples) are available in the game Sid Meier’s Civilization III - America, Aztecs, Iroquois, England, Germany, France, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Zulus, India, China, Japan, Russia.
15. The game has 6 options for achieving victory.
16. There are 3 types of rockets in the game.
17. There are 4 types of artillery in the game.
18. The game has 5 types of aircraft and 1 helicopter.
19. There are 4 types of military transport ships in the game.
20. There are 9 types of ships in the game (including 2 submarines).
21. There are 18 types of ground military units in the game.
22. The game has 16 types of unique military units for civilizations.
23. One of the six paths to complete victory in Sid Meier's Civilization III is through culture.
24. In Sid Meier's Civilization III, there are also “instant” ways to obtain scientific technologies. 1 - By agreement from other civilizations - purchase of technology, exchange, receipt as payment for concluding a military alliance. 2 — The civilization that first discovered Philosophy is awarded another technology for free. 3 - The people who built the Wonder of the World - the Great Library, receive all the technologies that were discovered by at least two other civilizations known to them. Further, it continues to receive technology under the same conditions until its civilization discovers Education. 4 - The civilization that built the Great Wonder of the World - the Theory of Evolution - is awarded two technologies. 5 - Scientific civilizations (Babylon, Germany, Greece, Persia and Russia) receive one technology at the beginning of each era. * With the discovery of Espionage and the construction of the Intelligence Service, it becomes possible to conduct a spy mission “Steal Technology” against any civilization. Rarely used. Any spy mission requires funding. Success is not guaranteed. A spy sent into civilization (on whose introduction funds were also spent) is exposed to additional risk. In case of failure of a spy mission and the simultaneous discovery and destruction of a spy, the attitude of this civilization towards you worsens.
25. Each civilization enters the game already having two scientific technologies.
26. Sid Meier's Civilization III has a developed tree of 82 scientific technologies, divided into four eras - Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Industrial Age (from about the second half of the 18th century) and Modernity.
27. As in previous versions of the game, Civilization III simulates the entire history of mankind - from the birth of civilization to the present and the future
28. The game comes in three versions: the original Civilization III, the add-on Civilization III: Play the World and the second add-on Civilization III: Conquests. The last two options are often sold as add-ons (that is, they require the original Civilization III to be pre-installed).
29. Although the game bears the name of Sid Meier, unlike its predecessors, its design was developed by Jeff Bridge and Soren Johnson.

There was a nice, clear sky last night. When I looked up at it, I did have to wonder if, above me, an alien race was attempting to culture flip Earth so that they could use the planet as a staging post for a massive invasion into the territory of a group of sentient robots who have nothing but hatred for organic life.

When my dog ​​finished his business, we went back inside so I could continue playing, the source of my paranoia.

Stardock’s latest turn-based space 4X game has removed any romantic notions of space from my mind. It’s all industrial giants clashing with corrupt zealots, giant single-minded armadas launching warheads at each other, economic wars and planetary invasions. Space is exhausting, but running a vast galactic empire is absolutely worth the effort.

The fundamentals of Galactic Civilizations haven’t changed. If you were to summarize the first few turns in both II and III, you’d have two nearly identical descriptions.

You send your scout and survey ship out to explore the galaxy, searching for life, anomalies and resources. Then you send out your first colony ship, avoiding the second inhabitable planet in your solar system (it’s always terrible), and probably start building another colony ship so you can snatch up choice worlds quickly. With that done, you choose what you’re going to research and start building on your homeworld, probably a manufacturing or research facility, which you’ll rush buy.

That’s really just the first turn - there’s a lot to do - but the following turns share just as many similarities.

It’s in the details where the extra Roman numeral is earned. These actions, researching, constructing, are now richer in meaningful decisions, allowing would-be space emperors to more finely tune their galactic empire.

Research, for instance, is still full of branching paths complete with fanciful sci-fi and more grounded, speculative technologies and race-specific research, but there’s now an extra layer of choice. Many research projects offer a greater degree of specialization by making galactic dictators choose between multiple bonuses. A research project related to ship hulls might be split up into specializations that beef up the hulls or lower manufacturing costs, and how you’re developing your empire will determine which bonus is the best fit.

The race-specific tech trees already conferred a lot of personality and variety to Galactic Civilizations’ tech tree, so this extra layer does threaten to over-complicate an already excellent system. The new tech tree ladles on all these extra decisions right from the get go, meaning that you absolutely need to have an idea of ​​the direction your empire is going in extremely early on. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s too much. It certainly forces players to appreciate that the game requires a lot of forward thinking, but it is very daunting.

Before you even start hoovering up planets across the galaxy, before you even load up a map, there are a multitude of agonizing choices to make. How big do you want to make the galaxy, and what shape will it take? How often do you want to bump into pirates and minor races? Who will you share the galaxy with? How quickly do you want the game to move along? There’s even the terrain of space to consider, the nebulas, black holes and resource rich moons and asteroids. Stardock’s lavished the game setup screen with so many options that you have more control over the galaxy than in any previous Galactic Civilizations installation, and it’s only really outdone by Distant Worlds.

The “insane” galaxy size is, perhaps, going to be Galactic Civilizations III’s claim to fame. While the smallest galaxy size, “tiny,” can be mastered in a couple of hours and barely has room for one proper space empire, the largest galaxies will take weeks, possibly months, to play through. While you can play with any number of races, the most gargantuan of galaxies are really designed to contain a lot of different species. If you want to play a game with 100 races, then you’ll probably want to do it in an insane galaxy.

To get a sense of the scale, here’s where I started off with my Drengin empire in an insane spiral galaxy:

And here’s the camera zoomed all the way out:

That covers maybe 1/6th of the whole map. Each red dot is a sun that could potentially host habitable planets. If you were to only play with Stardock’s eight official races, then you could play for days and never even meet them.

It’s an endurance game, playing on an insane galaxy, testing your patience and you explore the galaxy at a painfully slow pace. And it doesn’t feel like empires were meant to spread out as far as these massive maps allow them to. There are approval penalties that punish empires for growing too large, and the se penalties don’t appear to scale with the size of the map.

A smaller galaxy ensures that you’ll make contact with other races quickly, and it’s the interactions with aliens that drive Galactic Civilizations III.

Gal Civ 3 starts off with eight races. That’s less than its predecessor - though a flexible in-game race designer and mod support means that the actual number of races can be much, much greater. Even so, the standard races cover all the bases. You’ve got the Altarians, a bunch of very pleasant, blue humanoids, famed for their culture and benevolence, and on the other end of the spectrum are the Drengin, a race of militaristic conquerors whose empire is built on the backs of slaves. In between are expansionist zealots, masters of trade, robots and even insects from the future.

Stardock's races are blessed with a rich history and distinct personalities. When controlled by the AI, they act as you would expect them to given the lore surrounding them and their in-game description, and they are generally consistent. That doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of being devious or surprising, though. The peaceful Altarians can become the aggressor in a war, if pushed, and I’ve seen the Drengin attempt to conquer a planet through the force of their influence rather than an armada.

The game is a race, a marathon, with the finish line being a variety of victory types: conquest, influence, research, time limit and ascension, where your race transforms into higher beings if you collect a bunch of crystals. So even if you're not throwing your weight around with a huge fleet of capital ships bristling with the most advanced mass drivers, you're always competing, and the galaxy is always hostile, even if all the aliens are smiling and making deals with you.

Choosing a victory goal is something that should be done early on, as it informs how you develop your empire, but that focus on the end goal doesn’t prove to be limiting.

As the Terrans, I attempted to win the galaxy over with my incredible charm and cultured ways. Peacefully. I built influence-generating buildings on my worlds, constructed starbases with culture modules and researched tech that made my empire lovely and appealing. The game ended in a galaxy-wide war and trillions dead.

My attempts to win over the populations of other worlds had not gone ignored by the other empires, two of which promptly declared war. In an effort to defend Earth and my colonies, I had to rapidly build up defensive fleets and research new, deadly weapons. The war dragged on until I was finally able to start fielding capital ships. I destroyed my enemies, and I eventually found myself with considerably more influence than before thanks to the new worlds I'd conquered. My vastly expanded empire was able to more effectively spread Terran culture, and it wasn’t long before I won the game with an influence victory. Thanks, war.

While aggression can take many forms in Galactic Civilizations III, from trade competition to tech races, war will inevitably flare up, and that means you’ll need fleets. Each race comes with a small array of pre-designed ships that cover the different weapon types and ship classes, and it’s perfectly possible to win a war by just relying on them. It’s just that it’s nowhere near as satisfying as building your own ships and sending them out to burn the galaxy.

The ship designer is an incredible tool, allowing for the customization of both the ship’s appearance and its weapons, engines, defensive modules and support features like cargo holds for colonists, soldiers and trade goods. Every component can be resized, duplicated, repositioned and, if you fancy, made to spin.

Here’s a ship I made in beta:

And here’s an Altarian ship I made when I wasn’t being puerile:

Big ships with big guns and troop transports full of burly space marines are great, but they’re useless if the enemy can counter them. A fleet specializing in lasers and protected by defensive shields won’t fare well against an opposing sporting fleeting mass drivers and heavy armour. It’s the rock, paper, scissors formula, but with the added complexity of worrying about mass and miniaturisation. An empire focused on miniaturization and reducing the mass of its components can, simply put, throw more stuff onto ships. They might have inferior weapons, but they have more of them.

Wars feel appropriately tense, and aggression is tempered by a need to protect so many assets. The loss of a world can herald an economic collapse if war as already strained it. Empires are littered with customisable starbases, too, and they are big targets. They mine resources, spread influence, protect borders and improve trade - they are absolutely necessary and the destruction of one can really harm an empire.

Ship-building facilities are now off world rather than being bound to worlds, which is a small change with a significant impact. There’s a benefit, since various worlds can now sponsor a single shipyard, but they can also being targets, floating out there in space. Losing a shipyard is obviously devastating in the middle of a war, and they don’t have their own defenses.

A quirk that’s been carried over from Galactic Civilizations II can unfortunately put a bit of a dampner on conquest. AI empires, when faced with defeat, can just give up completely and offer all of their worlds up to another faction. In one game, this happened to me twice in a row, so all these worlds I was about to conquer suddenly ended up in the hands of another empire. It rendered the war pointless, because even though I’d ​​won, all I had really done was empower another potential enemy.

What made it so frustrating is that, at no point, did either of those empires attempt to make peace with me first. It’s not a problem if they are down to their last world, but sometimes it happens when most of their empire is intact. A tweak to make it less likely for a big empire to give up so easily would nip this in the bud.

The thing is, I rarely want to completely wipe out an empire. I usually like to settle things after I’ve grabbed a few worlds. There’s a meaty diplomacy system to play around with, where a long list of treaties and alliances can be brokered, gifts can be given, tithes can be demanded, and resources can be traded. The empires can also gather and pass bills in a galactic parliament, where they can attempt to exert them will across the entire galaxy and, if they are in charge, even decide what bills to put up for a vote. It’s a popularity contest, and one that pays significant dividends like the ability to redistribute the wealth of rich empires or end wars with a vote.

How an empire reacts to a diplomatic offer depends on a lot of factors. Empires that share borders might feel a bit threatened by each other, they won’t be too pleased if influence starbases are being used to culture flip one of their world and they might think another empire’s a bit rubbish if they have a weak military. All of these factors are clearly displayed on the diplomacy screen. The UI and tooltips have come along the way since Galactic Civilizations II.

Another serious factor that plays into how empires view each other is ideology. There are three ideologies in Galactic Civilizations III: benevolent, pragmatic and malevolent, and empires generally won’t be too on keen aliens who don’t share their ideology - though it’s not a dealbreaker.

Random events, which are guaranteed to pop up when a new world is colonized and can also crop up at any time, result in points being earned toward a specific ideology. It’s where you can do a bit of empire roleplaying. An event offers up three choices, each one representing a specific ideology and offering unique bonuses and trade offs. A newly-colonized world might host a strange alien artefact that kills people but also could be valuable to the empire’s scientists. A benevolent leader would, of course, destroy the artifact, perhaps leading to an approval boost, while a malevolent one would be unlikely to care how many people die, as long as the research rewards are reaped.

Ideology points can then be spent on handy bonuses. One of the first rewards that you can unlock in the pragmatic ideology immediately gives you three constructors, which can be used to build starbases and shipyards. In the benevolent ideology, you can get a free, fully-loaded colony ship instead. Either of those options are a huge boon for a growing empire, but choosing one doesn’t lock out the other. It will be harder to reach the highest tier bonuses, but the option to dabble in multiple ideologies is there.

I get a bit lost in Galactic Civilizations III. Not the type of lost where you wander aimlessly, a clueless shambles, but the type of lost where you’re exploring and you just forget what you were meant to be doing. So much can happen in a single turn, and a tiny tweak to the circular economic slider - it's split between wealth, manufacturing and research - can have a dramatic impact, making the difference between going bust and getting back in the black, or researching a desperately needed technology now, or in four more turns when it will be too late.

So I fiddle and change and tweak everything. A turn can take an hour when I’m adjusting the weapons on my latest ship or going through each planet and moving the economic slider on each individual world before even moving a fleet or giving my worlds new build orders. I bounce from menu to menu, immersing myself in the governance of my burgeoning galactic empire.

I'm worried that, after years of playing its predecessor and all of its expansions, I would be too familiar with Galactic Civilizations III. I'm worried that I'd get a bit tired of it too quickly. This hasn’t been remotely the case. I’m hooked in the same way I was with the last game, and not because it’s remained the same, but because it’s managed to strike that balance between the comfortingly familiar and the refreshingly new.

Space bases are a serious factor in the development of civilization.

War is not necessarily waged with the goal of conquering someone. A trade war may be fought to reduce income, it may be short-lived and effective. There may be a political war going on. Maybe you just want to grab one tasty system on the sly...

One way or another, war is not a cheap pleasure. First, the decision still must pass through the Senate. Secondly, be prepared for enemy rear raids and the need to protect all your planets with at least one ship. For what? Because it is possible to land troops on an unprotected planet, and only on it, and capture it. Troops, by the way, can be landed in many ways, which determine the degree of damage inflicted on the planet itself, the structures on it, as well as the effectiveness of the landing itself. I prefer the “propaganda” method. It is not cheap - 2000 - but it allows you to lure away the dissatisfied part of the population of the enemy planet. If your influence in the sector is strong enough, this can be a considerable part, and it will not just surrender, but will fight for you.

In war you will have to use both tactical and strategic skills. In tactics, be prepared for complex formations and maneuvers - remember, your ships can fly over each other, but your opponents cannot fly over yours. That is, ships with high defense must be exposed to attacks, and ships with low defense but high attack must be attacked and then run away under cover. By the way, ships can be combined into fleets, but this is only effective from the point of view of movement control - they still fight alone.

This is interesting: Don't expect tactical battles that are common in space strategies. There are no ship battles - the one who is stronger and/or luckier will win, and you will not influence this, at least during the battle. Everything is simple and concise: this one shot - that one died. Or vice versa.

From a strategic point of view, the most important issue of war is logistics. You can destroy the defenses of the enemy planet with a swift raid, and then wait a few more turns for slow transports with landing forces, praying that they arrive before your opponent’s reinforcements. These transports must be built - and one planet cannot build more than one of them per turn, no matter how much you want - and there must be enough population to load them. In addition, they will need to be covered with something. Somehow it will be necessary to protect the newly captured planets. And you will also have to catch enemy ships in your rear...

Experience tells me: The increase in a ship's defense due to being in planetary orbit is quite large. However, it is better for attacking ships to use hit-and-run tactics, and to defend planets with slow defense machines

By the way, if your goal is just to capture the sector, there is no need to start a war for this. It is enough to extend your influence over him. If you don't have planets in it, space bases can do it. However, take care of their defense. Remember - the AI ​​knows most of the dirty tricks you can think of, provided it has a high enough intelligence of course.

Events

The merchant ship has arrived. You can start counting your profits.

Of particular interest to the game are events that do not depend (or little depend) on the player’s actions.

Firstly, often when colonizing planets you have to make a choice between “good and loss” and “evil and gain”. “Evil” races thus benefit from such decisions, but some technologies are not available to them, and “good” races do not like them (and “evil” ones are indifferent and will easily finish them off if it benefits them). So in my opinion, “evil” pays poorly. However - not for everyone.

Important events are the decisions of the Galactic Council. They can really make a big difference, so think carefully about what you're voting for.

Sometimes - quite rarely - "events without warning" occur. For example, in some part of the galaxy a rather powerful creature appears, destroying everything in its path (and you will be informed about this during the turn when it appears). And fight him...

However, there are also events with a warning, and long before. True, somehow incomprehensible. Let’s say, it suddenly seemed to everyone that something bad would happen on such and such a planet... it would be better to leave it, this planet, the Senate decides... I didn’t leave it, I just moved the fleet closer. After a few turns, a new extremely aggressive race with extremely powerful ships formed there, and with very great difficulty I managed to contain its expansion... while already controlling more than 60% of the galaxy!

The fun thing about these events is that they keep you on the edge of your seat until the end of the game. Something can always happen that you have to urgently deal with - and not casually, but with the necessary attention.

There is another important tension factor in Galactic Civilizations. The fact is that, as I already mentioned, it is possible to win different ways- and while you are developing one, someone can come close to winning in another way.

Winning strategy

Merchant ships are the first victims of wars. This one was very unlucky.

You can win the game in one of four possible ways.

Political, technological, social (cultural), military.

They are truly alternative. This means that while you are walking alone, someone else can pass by and come first. However, in addition to this, players are awarded “victory points”, which are the same regardless of the method. This allows you to compare multiple players even if they won in different ways. So, despite the lack of multiplayer, there is some competition in the game. Moreover, it is carefully planned. After winning, you are asked to indicate your e-mail and send the results to the developers, and the best ones are already published on the site. To be honest, after looking at them, I didn’t send mine yet. I'd better practice a little more...

Political victory. The description says: " If you and your alien allies are able to conquer all opposition you win.“That is, if you, together with your allies, are obviously stronger than your opponents, you win. It sounds simple, but achieving this is not so easy. To do this, you need to establish good relations with several strong races at once - and the paths of strong races easily intersect...

Technological method. Everything is very simple. You need to research a certain technology - Final Frontier. Look at the technology tree... find it... and now see what is needed for it... Yes, it’s not very simple. But it's an honor!

Social (cultural) way. To win this way, you need to achieve dominance in 7/8 sectors, and maintain it for approximately the next 2 years. The developers plan to change this value to 9/10x in version 1.1. In my opinion, one of the most accessible ways.

Military way. It's simple. It's enough to kill everyone. So in the final screensaver they will say - “ they're all dead". In my opinion, it’s quite difficult - a global war requires a strong economy, and with it other methods are closer... but not for everyone.

It is important: With high intelligence, the AI ​​plays intelligently and monitors how close you are to winning. Remember this.

In this company it seems to be “for the senior” - it has been pleasing players for a good dozen years and is distinguished by healthy conservatism... that’s why it manages to make big bucks on those bumps that it itself has dug up.

Union of colony and metropolis

It is based on traditional 4X strategy mechanics. Before us is a galaxy - tight, like a spider's jar, or, on the contrary, gigantic, where the first contact with its neighbors will happen almost by the hundredth turn.

The riches of the galaxy must be developed. The planets are waiting for an expedition with colonists, resources - a mining station. A research shuttle will be sent to rare anomalies, and if pirates get to the bottom of it, they will receive a dreadnought in the neck.

Raise the camera higher, and the beautiful turn-based space strategy will turn into a war of icons. A convenient war, you should note.

Actually, extensive development ends here. The medium-sized galaxy will soon be divided, and it will be the turn of the intensive development, which is given less attention in other similar strategies.

Each planet is a set of construction sites. Sometimes they give bonuses like +25% to research. Therefore, we will build Silicon Valley here. How? Using clusters. Neither in the training nor during the game is a single piece of advice given on organizing clusters, but this path is the most profitable.

The idea is simple: buildings related to the same industry and located nearby increase the benefits of each other. This turns construction into an engineering task, made more complex by special cells that give a significant advantage in a particular industry, and the shape of the continents, forcing you to squirm like a snake. The new hexagonal standard, which is not so significant on the global map, reveals its potential when built on land.

A double science cluster and a single production cluster is a good result! Separately, all these buildings would be much less useful.

Ideology does not limit choice that much. The villains have perks for industry, and for trade, and even - in a perverted form - for diplomacy.

Therefore, a standard cluster is a “flower” of a powerful special building, such as a reactor, and six “petals” on which, for example, factories will be located. The difference in the final income is so great that unsuccessful development is worse than orbital bombardment. However, not all sectors of the planet become accessible immediately after landing, so you will have to plan development not only in advance, but also almost blindly. Some technologies will allow you to win a couple of sectors near the sea and glaciers, but you shouldn’t count on them alone. You should rely on yourself.

Never before in Galactic Civilizations planetary development was not so complex and exciting: almost like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. If you don’t collect them, then the drendjins will be collected on the ruins of your empire.

I'll drink the battleship away, but I won't disgrace the fleet

Like her ancestors, Galactic Civilizations 3 there is a system of ideology. She was deprived of semi-automaticity and allowed to choose her own advantages. Adepts of generosity know how to conquer not by force, but by influence, and receive various peaceful enhancements. Pragmatists get improvements in trade and construction (including bases), and at the same time the benefits of neutrality: for example, depriving your rivals of the opportunity to declare war on you or an automatic attack of all races on your enemy if he tries to land on your homeland. Those who choose the path of villainy, of course, will drown the galaxy in blood and learn to squeeze all the juice out of any of their resources. Very, very useful things, comparable to the ideologies from .

To prevent any infection from daring to occupy your native colonies, you will have to fight, and ideally, be so ready for war that you can avoid it. The creation of ships has changed little since the second part, although several significant features have been added. For example, animation of details - from the simplest rotating rings (let's pretend that this is how we create artificial gravity) to complex chelicerae and moving bodies. Not Besiege, but it's worth some fun.

A few minutes later, this tarantay went to the land of eternal development. The editor replaced it with a standard body of earthlings. Maybe for the better.

But this is all cosmetics. Even a chest with a propeller will tear apart a colorful battleship if equipped correctly. A flexible system of three types of defense and attack helps to divide ships not only by cargo capacity, but also by combat missions. The nimble frigate can be armed with long-range rocket launchers - then we will save on armor, because there is no need for it to go into hell. But a cruiser with kinetic melee weapons without good armor, shields and point protection will quickly die under heavy fire. Lasers are a universal and rather toothless choice, but pay for themselves due to the concentration of fire.

From here the roles emerge: the flagship rushes menacingly forward, an escort guards the flagship, support releases fighters and drones from behind others, and assault ships at full speed break through to key enemy vessels.

Any little thing in the rearguard will most likely die quickly. If they turn out to be fighters from an aircraft carrier, very good; New ones will be built for the next battle.

We are not given control over this, but fortunately or unfortunately, it is difficult to say. Many attempts to introduce tactical combat into 4X monsters have ended in failure, and Galactic Civilizations 3 doesn't take risks. Our task is to properly arm, assemble and assign those to blame, and then admire how our valiant armada dismantles the invasion fleet into orbital debris.

Someone clearly hasn’t forgotten about the wonderful battles from , and now the ships wearily enter turns, rockets smoke and cut through the vacuum, and lasers sparkle like New Year’s fireworks. And the camera is free - although you can turn on the cinematic one if you are too lazy to turn around, or the top view to assess the situation.

Nerd Rights Advocates

Unlikely, but possible: you are too well armed for even the most bloodthirsty neighbor to encroach on your sovereignty. This means it’s time to learn to coexist peacefully, which is a problem for some civilizations.

Stardock tried to customize diplomacy with obvious modifiers. Sid Meier once introduced a similar thing in . That is, the relationship here consists of advantages like “wow, we fought as a couple!” and cons “bring back Pluto, you viper!”

An Afro... an Afro-Earthling has settled in the earthlings' laboratory. One of only two human faces in the entire game. Space is not fantasy Poland!

There is beauty in the drawings; It would seem, adjust the necessary modifiers and rule. In reality, AI finds so many reasons to make complaints that it takes one's breath away. You send a commercial cargo ship to them, and they yell about trespassing. Close borders are a huge disadvantage for you. If you assemble a fleet somewhere in the depths of your federation, you receive a fine for preparing for war (that is, you cannot assemble a defensive fleet at all).

If you manage to study too many technologies, you will immediately be caught trying to achieve a scientific victory and will be slapped with a huge penalty on relations even with those powers to which you have not said a bad word. As a result, by the second half of the game, all the neighbors will look at you with impotent rage. Just because.

Diplomatic relations are clearly shown, but there is a lack of information. So far only two factions are fighting with us - this is just the beginning.

The AI ​​will fight among themselves in an endless series of wars. The surest way to stay on the sidelines is to set the entire galaxy against some Talanians. A couple of thousand credits and expensive technology will win over even the most offended.

With trade, things generally went great: the computer eagerly sells and buys stations, ships and blueprints, and then growls: “We’ll eat and digest!” Because you mine antimatter five cells from someone else’s border. They were kidnapped insidiously, it turns out.

The result is a “march of dissent” the size of the Milky Way. If you were going to conquer them, it doesn't matter. If we are crushed by influence or overtaken technologically, we will also survive. But if you're looking for a diplomatic victory, which means an eternal alliance with everyone in the galaxy... prepare your gold reserves. Bribery still works.

Well, traditionally Galactic Civilizations 3 at the start it was characterized by causing instability. Ship designs were reset, the game crashed to the desktop, and in general it still manages to bring to its knees machines that never had problems with