A year’s worth of feedback, suggestions and general improvements make their way into Stardock’s massive update
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[previewyoutube="upUTFkZ4J1o;full"][/previewyoutube][p]Stardock Entertainment has released the v3.0 Hyperlane Update of its space strategy title, Galactic Civilizations IV. The update introduces major new features such as Hyperlanes, Fleet Supply, a new Map Generation System, updated AI and hundreds of changes based on player feedback over the past year.
“We’ve been pouring through fan feedback for over a year on how to make GalCiv even better,” said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock Entertainment. “We’ve tried to address everything, and then some, of what players wanted like more strategic options, more interesting map generation options, better AI, better late game performance, user interface improvements and a lot more.”
Some of the major updates include:
Hyperlanes. While Galactic Civilizations has free-form map movement of units, Hyperlanes provide direct lines between distant stars allowing for very fast travel between disconnected sections of a sector.
New Map Generation. The map generation system of the game has been remade and now includes new options when setting up a game.
Fleet supply. To allow for more strategic options during war time, civilizations have a Fleet Supply cap that is increased by technologies and planet improvements to make different starship designs more distinct.
Adaptive AI. At higher difficulty levels, AI can adapt their difficulty if they are losing to ensure a more challenging game. Moreover, at all difficulty levels, the AI has been significantly improved.
Major UI improvements. Dozens of updates, big and small have been made to the user interface of the game to streamline player interaction.
Performance overhaul. Maps have been made bigger and more stars in a map are supported to go along with a year-long effort to optimize the game engine’s performance. This should be particularly noticeable on lower end hardware.
Balance wishlists implemented. Stardock painstakingly reviewed posts on its forums, Steam, Reddit, third-party forums, etc. on balance suggestions, wishlists, etc. and implemented them after careful review.
Visual Updates. The engine received a major update to intelligently anti-alias ship components with each other on a ship to make starships visually look better on screen.
Better Steam Workshop integration. Players can design and share their ships online. Version 3.0 is more responsive, requires fewer steps and generates higher quality screenshots for modders.
DLC updates. All of the released expansions and DLC for Galactic Civilizations have received updates over the past year to provide additional content and features for those who have them.
The award-winninig Galactic Civilizations series is the oldest actively developed space strategy game series starting with its first beta release in 1993 for IBM’s OS/2 operating system.
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