You know the phrase, “Space is big”.  Today, let’s walk through just how big space really is, and how its scale fits into the Star Control multiverse.

Star Control: Origins takes place in a sector that is 120 by 120 light years.  This is a staggeringly big area, but it is nothing compared to even our local super-cluster.

Let’s zoom out. Way…way out, and we get to Lanikea:

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Remember when you bought a game at the store, took it home, devoured the user manual the first evening, and then played a game that you would slowly master?  Those were the days.

Today, games are much more sophisticated and today's gamers want to see their games evolve and improve based on their feedback.  That brings us to this walk-through of Galactic Civilizations III v3.

For the purposes of this walk-through, I will be using v3.0 with all expansions installed.  Your experience will differ some depending on what you have installed, but assuming you have the Gold Edition, you should be set.

Chapter 1: Setting up your game

1. Galactic Civilizations is a sandbox game.  That means each game is different.  We include a series of campaigns, but other than the tutorial, we recommend choosing "new game" first.
2. For your first game, choose the Terran Alliance.  Each alien civilization plays somewhat differently, but presuming you're human, the Terrans are probably the most relatable.
3. For galaxy size, stay with MEDIUM or less for your first few games. Medium requires a system with 4GB of memory.  Memory is the price we pay to avoid having "space lanes".
4. For everything else, keep to the default, and into the game you go.

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The core game loop of Star Control: Origins is pretty damn fun so far (I think anyway).  But what we think will help it stand out is the sheer depth of the universe you are playing in.

There are no rails in this game.  There is an overall story arch with many many side-stories in the universe to go to.  And there are many different paths you can take.  You don't have to be, for instance, the good guy. 

Having many different ways to explore the universe means you need to have a very powerful application for writers to create adventures that can easily interact with each other and be done in a way where the writer is focusing on their craft and not worrying about how the underlying engine works.  

More to come. Stay tuned!

The species that are - in essence, talking meat - receive a great deal of attention, despite being an objectively inferior form of life. Today I will attempt to communicate to you humans the advantages of synthetic life.

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Check out a brand new Star Control preview trailer

We’ve got less than half a year left before Star Control: Origins is set to release.  So much is happening!

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Greetings!

We are interested in including fan designs into Star Control: Origins for use in the game as various travelers.

The universe is vast and while players will be going on missions at the request of Star Control command, they will also be frequently running into other travelers across hyperspace or in solar systems.

If you would like to participate, add a comment in here with a picture of  your ship, a description of how you'd imagine it used, and a link to download a ZIP file to it which should include a readme.txt file in it to tell us how you'd like to be listed in the credits.

To find your ship design, go to your my games\star control\designs folder and you'll see your ship design.

Example:

Corasean Conquistaor

<proposed back story>

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/m50g91yl6dg4aew/Corasean_Conquistador_D1D32BF462794527A15D9AB2FB502E56.zip?dl=0

We have previously discussed the perils of running a galactic civilization.  People living hundreds of light years away from their home world will have relatively little interest in the political intrigues of the capital.  That’s where the government types come in.

What is the best type of government for your civilization? There is no right answer.

Let’s work through a scenario and how it might play out.  The star Procyon is 11 light years away from Earth. 

Procyon A is 11 light years from Earth.

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The situation is desperate.

The Terran Alliance is slowly losing the war to the Drengin Empire.

Is Earth doomed?

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Intrigue is the third expansion for Stardock's massive-scale space strategy game, Galactic Civilizations III. This expansion changes the game in significant ways to extend playability and introduce new dynamics, adding politics, governments, civilization crises, the GNN, elections, and the Galactic Market to the game. 

We're also updating the base game to version 3.0 with the release of Intrigue; you'll see we've called out areas where changes are made in v3.0.

This will walk you through the far-reaching changes to gameplay that Intrigue introduces - some subtle, some more obvious.

What's new with Intrigue?

• Governments. Determines what your civilization can and can't do, as well as provides bonuses, special ships, etc.
• Galactic Elections. Puts limitations on democratically elected governments.
• Cabinets. Provides advisors who can give you additional bonuses and capabilities.
• Events. Lots of new ideological events
• The Galactic Market. Buy and sell resources on the open market.
• Crises. Civilization-wide quests that look at the state of the galaxy and your government, then force you to make some tough choices.
• The Galactic News Network. AI driven news to help players know where they stand in the universe.
• Commonwealths. Empire getting too big? Create baby civilizations that are allied with you, pay you money, and add to your influence without any of the headaches of directly running them.

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Everyone loves a good start.

Every game of Galactic Civilizations is different.  The original tagline was: “Never the same game twice.”  It isn’t that the game is randomized as much as it is that each game is designed to be carefully imbalanced in a way that tries to push the player into avoiding well-worn strategies.

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