Fall is here, and so is the Steam Autumn Sale! Save up to 75% on our most popular games and software through 11/27. Learn more here.

Star Control: Origins aliens come to Galactic Civilizations III in exciting new DLC
New Alien Civilizations bring their own ship styles, unique race traits, diplomatic quirks, AI personalities, and more!

The Star Control Heroes DLC pack introduces four major new civilizations to Galactic Civilizations III. All of the new alien factions come equipped with a unique leader, ship, music, and traits that make each civilization look and play differently from the existing major civilizations.

Play as or against the Tywom, the lovable, needy slugs, or as the kind (but surprisingly aggressive!) aquatic Mu'Kay. You can also play as the naive-but- deceptively powerful Mowlings with their god-like protector, "Jeff," or the recently liberated and mysterious Trandals.

Galactic Civilizations III is the most popular space-based turn based strategy of all time.  Your civilization has just achieved faster-than-light travel and the galaxy awaits you.  But you are not alone and must deal with alien civilizations through diplomacy, trade, cultural hegemony, or military conquest either against the computer or against friends online. 

MAJOR RACES IN HEROES OF STAR CONTROL: ORIGINS

The Tywom Hello, best friends! These yellow slug-like aliens would like a hug. They’re slimy, and you don’t want to give them one, but still - it’s all they really want. The Tywom want to be friends with everyone, which makes them great diplomats, and their constant desire for approval gives them a bonus for any other factions who happen to love them.

The Mu'Kay Greetings, Federation members! Founders of the Federation for Allied Species, the Mu’Kay are intelligent cephalopods who live entirely in aquatic environments. Their natural intelligence makes them excellent researchers, and their polite (if occasionally condescending) manner lends itself well to diplomacy. Unless you’re a fish. Then prepare to be eaten.

The Mowlings All hail the mighty Jeff! The Mowlings are small, bear-like creatures who worship a mysterious deity they call Jeff. Frankly, they’re a little lost without him, so they spend their time finding new ways to worship him. The Mowlings get a special Temple of Jeff improvement (one per planet) that grants bonuses to influence and approval, and in return Jeff orbits their planets protectively.

The Free Trandals Cast off the shackles of the Overmind! The Free Trandals are the escaped faction of a race that has been enslaved by a malevolent AI known only as Overmind, who uses their bodies to advance its own nefarious purposes. Now, the Free Trandals work to free their brethren and rebuild their lost culture with what little they have left. Possessing a surprising capability (and healthy paranoia) for advanced technology, the Free Trandals are far from helpless both on and off the battlefield. Their warrior instincts may be long buried, but their ships, while few in number, are enormously effective against silicon and synthetic based life forms.

Additional Features in Heroes of Star Control: Origins

• Dozens of new ship parts inspired by Star Control: Origins for building and modifying your own ships
• Several new music tracks from Star Control: Origins
• New faction traits
• New ship designs, colors, and styles

Get Heroes of Star Control: Origins today!

v3.1 is Now Available

In addition to the release of the new DLC, v3.1 is also available today. This update adds some important AI and quality of life changes, as well as the ability for players to design their own color palettes for custom factions. With v3.1, players will be able to adjust the color scheme for the UI, maps, and ships as well.

Official v3.1 Changelog

AI Improvements

• Synthetic races are better at killing you
• Synthetic life forms will not longer try to build farms.  Instead, they'll destroy the arable tiles to make room for something more useful to them.  
• Crusade: AI better at gaining citizens at higher difficulty levels.

Balance

• Fertile tiles are more common.
• Mercenaries: Avatar mercenary antimatter cost increased from 1 to 5.
• Crusade:
  
  • Prolific ability population growth reduced from 0.2 to 0.1 (otherwise it was basically tripling initial population growth).
  • Aururus Arberetum provides a % growth benefit instead of a flat so that a given player (such as an AI player) doesn't gain a disproportionate advantage from having one.
• Intrigue: Changed the "Destroyed Planets" crisis outcomes to be only "mostly destroyed"

Interface

• Custom Colors: Design your own color palettes for custom factions, ships, the UI and maps.  
• Population growth now shows to 2 significant digits.
• Added a button on the title window to force sync the mods.  Use this if you have subbed/unsubbed to ships or civs outside of the game and that content isn't showing up correctly.  
• Crusade: Shows your leader instead of the news robot

Bugs

• Fixed a few MP crashes
• Typo fixes: For extreme colonize, it is Barren, not Desert planet types.
• Base Game only: AI will not try to research Crusade specific techs.  
• Mercenaries: AI no longer tries to "mine" the Bazaar

As the Tywom like to say, HELLO, BEST FRIENDS!

Just playing the start of a new GalCiv III v3.1 game with the Star Control DLC added.  Let's take a look at what we can expect.

The Setup

Players have been asking for a way to customize the colors further than what was possible before and now they can do it.  So if you're into ship designing, you're in for a real treat!

Here is my super tame but very custom color scheme.

  Just starting up my game here with my custom civilization "Little Tiny Frogs".

I soon meet the Tywom, but without a universal translator, there's know way to know what they're saying yet.

The Mu'Kay are very much into "federation" building.   Keep an eye on them.

The cute but dangerous Mowlings are in.  As cuddly as they are, they start with the most powerful starting-unit in the game: Jeff.  Luckily, they are peaceful.

The United Planets.  This is where you can see how the art style of the Star Control aliens got tweaked a bit to fit in better with the GalCiv style.

It doesn't take long for the the ever aggressive Drengin and Yor and Krynn to begin going to war.  Just keep in mind that in Galactic Civilizations, the civilizations try to act rationally and towards their unique traits.  That means: If you add the heroes from Star Control into your game, you will want to mix them up with some baddies.

The Mowlings are not shy about asking for help if they need it.

My spies give me a lookout on the Tywom home world.  Take a close look at their citizens!

Meanwhile, the new ship parts (which are animated) allow the Mu'Kay ships to get a pretty distinctive style.

Speaking of cool ship styles.  The Mowlings may have the best ship design I've seen in the game yet.  They're relatable yet still somewhat alien.

As I stop for the day, my observers spot two fleets of Mu'Kay ships heading towards Drengi.  Don't underestimate the Mu'Kay!

The end of the Drengin Empire...

I think you guys are going to like this.  The changes in v3.1 that are also being released should make this a pretty special update.

This upcoming Monday, Stardock will be releasing a new DLC for its massive space strategy game, Galactic Civilizations III.

The new DLC, Heroes of Star Control: Origins, will introduce 4 new major civilizations to play as complete with their own ship styles, parts, new traits, diplomatic behaviors, and AI for $5.99. 

It'll be available to purchase on Steam, GOG, and of course GalCiv3.com, starting Monday afternoon EST, November 12.

About Galactic Civilizations

Galactic Civilizations is 4X strategy game set in the 23rd century. Having recently acquired faster-than-light travel, players are now in a race to explore and expand their civilization into the galaxy where they will research new technology, build up their planets, fight wars, negotiate treaties, trade goods and determine the destiny of the future of their people. Learn more at www.galciv3.com.

About Star Control: Origins

Star Control is an action adventure game putting the player in command of Earth's most advanced starship with the mission to save Earth.  It is a reboot of the classic Star Control franchise from the 1990s that introduces new species, new challenges and a rich deep universe to explore.  Star Control: Origins was just released and is available at www.starcontrol.com.

Screenshots:

The v1.2 update improves Adventure Studio accessibility, addresses player feedback about the collecting and selling of resources, adds upgrades and special rewards to the Terran Colonization quests, and more. Learn more here.

We've updated so that all of our released
languages are now fully supported!
Enjoy the full range of dialogue and story in Offworld Trading Company
View the complete list of updates in the changelog below

We want everyone to be able to experience and enjoy all of the story, dialogue, and nuances in Offworld Trading Company and all of its DLC. We've updated support for the following languages so that the translations now extend to all aspects of the game:

Simplified Chinese
German
Brazilian Portuguese
Polish
Korean
Spanish
French
Russian

_______________________________________________________________________________________

What is Offworld Trading Company?

Take on the role of entrepreneur and travel to Mars for an economic showdown against
other companies in Offworld Trading Company! Buy out your competition and take control
of the Martian market in a strategy game where money, not military force, is your greatest
weapon. The real-time, player-driven market is the foundation of the game, allowing you to buy
and sell resources and materials - even the food and water that the colonists need to
survive. Build up enough capital and gain access to the lucrative offworld markets so that
you can buy out your rivals and claim the Martian economy for yourself.

Check out Offworld Trading Company on Steam today!

v1.21.24522 Changelog

• Localization has been improved for the following languages:
• French
• German
• Spanish
• Korean
• Polish
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Russian
• Simplified Chinese

Balance

• Elite Pleasure Domes now take the same entertainment share as a standard Pleasure Dome
• Elite Headquarters reverted to use the same amount of steel as other factions

Bug Fixes

• Scientist Nuclear Plants now have the same cost and power production as other factions
• Fixed an issue with the resume button on the Infinite Map Challenge
• Ticker Text now resets correctly

We've updated so that all of our released
languages are now fully supported!
Enjoy the full range of dialogue and story in Offworld Trading Company
View the complete list of updates in the changelog below

We want everyone to be able to experience and enjoy all of the story, dialogue, and nuances in Offworld Trading Company and all of its DLC. We've updated support for the following languages so that the translations now extend to all aspects of the game:

Simplified Chinese
German
Brazilian Portuguese
Polish
Korean
Spanish
French
Russian

_______________________________________________________________________________________

What is Offworld Trading Company?

Take on the role of entrepreneur and travel to Mars for an economic showdown against
other companies in Offworld Trading Company! Buy out your competition and take control
of the Martian market in a strategy game where money, not military force, is your greatest
weapon. The real-time, player-driven market is the foundation of the game, allowing you to buy
and sell resources and materials - even the food and water that the colonists need to
survive. Build up enough capital and gain access to the lucrative offworld markets so that
you can buy out your rivals and claim the Martian economy for yourself.

Check out Offworld Trading Company on Steam today!

v1.21.24522 Changelog

• Localization has been improved for the following languages:
• French
• German
• Spanish
• Korean
• Polish
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Russian
• Simplified Chinese

Balance

• Elite Pleasure Domes now take the same entertainment share as a standard Pleasure Dome
• Elite Headquarters reverted to use the same amount of steel as other factions

Bug Fixes

• Scientist Nuclear Plants now have the same cost and power production as other factions
• Fixed an issue with the resume button on the Infinite Map Challenge
• Ticker Text now resets correctly

Over on the GalCiv III Steam page, I asked players to post their saved games so I could check them out.  And what I've been finding has been amazing and horrifying simultaneously.

Players are able to do things that I wouldn't have thought of.  This is why saved games are so valuable.  Many times I get feedback from players who say "The AI needs to do X" and my answer is, "well of course, it already does that!" But there is some other thing that it has decided needs to be done instead and the trick is to find out why.  That's where save games come in.

IceMania sent me a genius game where he's kicking the AI's butt.

Looking at the stats, the things I'm noticing is how aggressive (and how powerful) the relics are.  Not over-powered just  that he was good at getting them.

Now, let's look at the AI players...

The biggest difference I see is the # of citizens.  Human players tends to be much more aggressive at acquiring citizens than the AI. In this game, the player has acquired 13 citizens by turn 61.

Here is an AI player on the same turn:

Look at that production difference.

Another big area I'm seeing is that top players are extremely good at expanding.  Seeing players with over 10 colonies in 60 turns makes me a bit sad because it means that we still haven't done enough to reward playing tall.

I'll be updating this entry as I go through more saves...

The Star Control universe is yours to shape and control with the free Multiverse DLC! Craft complete adventures, upload and download mods to the Steam Workshop, and more. v1.1 brings overall gameplay improvements, balance updates, and several other graphics and aesthetic changes. Learn more here.

With the FREE Multiverse DLC, your
only limit is your imagination!

The Star Control universe is yours to shape and control with the free Multiverse DLC! Add your own star systems, quests, characters, and much more in Star Control: Origins. You can upload and use other mods as well. Engage with infinite new stories and experiences created by you and other players!

The v1.1 update that accompanies the free DLC adds a new quest, some new character voices, and improves graphics and gameplay. For a full list of v1.1 details, view the changelog at the bottom of the post.

Included with the Multiverse DLC:

Multiverse Play mods you've created, view downloaded mods, and browse the Steam Workshop to download or upload more The Multiverse DLC not only allows you to create new content, but also lets you share it with other people. After you've crafted your new quest, adventure, etc., upload it to Steam Workshop to share with the rest of the world. You can also browse Steam Workshop to see what other cool and interesting content other people have created. As the library of Star Control Multiverse content continues to grow, you'll be able to download and experience infinite new stories and experiences. In addition to the DLC, we're releasing two Stardock-crafted mods. The Bounty Hunter mod adds a new Criminal Archive starbase where the Measured track down the galaxy's most dangerous criminals. You can accept bounties for these criminals, but beware: other bounty hunters may try to collect bounties on you! The Galactic Zoo mod tasks you with capturing various critters around the galaxy for you Tywom clients. You can find both mods in the Steam Workshop!

Create your own quests, stories, and adventures with custom characters, dialogue, and more Want to change the universal gravitational constant to increase the lander's jump? Create an epic quest that spans the galaxy? How about modeling your own planets and star systems? You can make it happen! Use the Ship and Building Crafting screens to add new visuals to your experience. Create crazy and powerful new weapons and aliens for players to encounter. Adventure studio will let you write entirely new stories and quests. Please check out our modding guide for info on accessing Adventure Studio. From game balance all the way to writing new stories, there is very little you can't do with the crafting system.

Ready to wow the Star Control community with your own adventures?
Check out our modding guide here to get started! 

Haven't gotten into Star Control: Origins yet? Click here to go on an epic adventure and
start crafting incredible, ships, and stories today!
Or, add us to your Steam wishlist.

OFFICIAL V1.1 CHANGELOG

Highlights:

• Updated ship components Early game components are cheaper, whereas late game components are more expensive.  Late game components are generally more effective.
• Planet mineral balance We want to reward you for exploring dangerous worlds and less compelled to visit low-value worlds.  
• Visual improvements We've improved the appearance of the leaders, planet props, and the planets.
• Updated Fleet Battles Balance  We've made a fairly substantial improve ship balance in fleet battles.

Important: Due to the scope of these changes, this build may break any local mods that you have.  

Gameplay

• Added new Flee mechanic.  After winning your first round, you can flee the battle.  However, note that the enemy fleet will be fully healed when you fight them again.
• Added a new System Scanner component that highlights planets with "interesting" things.  
• Added mouseover info for planets
• Added mouseover to the "fleet picker" in Fleet battles for ships in your fleet
• Adjusted lander physics to feel more weighty
• Planet mineral balance pass.
• Ship AI changes:
• AI makes better use of wormholes
• Smarter about hunting for wrecks (e.g. powerups)
• Better at evading
• Improvements to how the AI interacts with incoming projectiles
• Improved AI behavior for Tywom turret placement
• Added new unique weapons: Flank Blasters, Rapid Laser Dual & Gauss Cannon
• Distributed new weapons among existing alien ships for better combat variety
• Added new race of minor aliens in the Fang Cluster
• Added new pheromones aliens encounter
• Added tough new alien interactions in 4 systems
• Changed the type of hyperdrive you get from Kzanti in Sirius A so that Star Control accepts it for Colony ships.
• After meeting Wymdoo on Triton, a beacon now points the player towards the training base
• Adding some Captain's Logs to the scared Tywom quest giver NPC.
• Fix for a hitch with the Mukay Ice World prank the Menkmack play on them. All Ice Worlds are despawned when the prank is caught.
• AI now taunts you in Fleet Battles
• Moving the planet Vrooms in Alpha Mensae much further into the system to stop some weird behavior when the player tried to land on it and went into hyperspace instead.
• Moving some planets in Arcturus a little closer to the star, so that players can actually land on them.
• Reduced cost and increased efficiency of lander components
• Increased the cost of powerful nuclear missile variants
• Reduced the selling price of some weapons that can be looted
• Increased the cost of late-game ship components
• Earthship energy regen rate increased from 7 to 9.
• Changed some ships to the human faction to allow healing.
• Default Lander Crew increased from 5 to 6.
• Deflector Mark II reduced from 20% to 15%.
• Reduced cost of overpriced lander components.
• Reduced the selling price of some of the "random" pick-up weapons.
• Fixed some ships having too small RU value.
• Increased cost powerful Nuke variants.
• Overmind Deflector reduced from 25% to 20%.
• Slight nerf to stacking deflectors.
• Planet mineral balance pass. In general, the higher the risk, the higher the reward!
• Minor balance changes to Norast ship and Battlecruiser since you can now heal them.
• The game now despawns mercenaries when you hire the Mercenary Captain.
• Measured/Phamysht/Boscan Transport won't bother the player after winning
• All ships can now be recrewed from Star Control base
• Urlon convoys now use the proper ship in combat.

Audio

• Added new voice for the Freed Trandals
• Fixed streaming settings for new Scryve music
• Adding Earthling Cruiser weapon variations
• Added canister bomb weapon fire variations
• Added Scryve space exploration 1 song.
• Added audio event for planetary investigation

Interface

• Improved remapping of keys and controller inputs
• MP Lobby no longer shows the wrong Fleet after ending a match
• Right-clicking on AI button in fleet battles setup now moves backward through the opponent types.
• Starbase Buy/Sell Panel no longer loses focus sometimes
• Fix the possibility of users being able to select options whilst "are you sure you want to surrender" prompt is up
• Resolved issue with pressing B button on controller causing popup dialogs to cancel but not call any button functions!

Graphics

• Improved some planet buildings and props that weren't set in the ground properly
• Improved appearance for many planet props
• Updated visuals for the bug and worm critters
• Optimized shaders to increase perf. on planets
• Added a configurable frame limiter in the settings file
• Fixed some very pixelated Red Stars in hyperspace
• Updated the Xraki, Greegrox, Trandal and Jeff leader screens visuals
• General animation polish/fixes for the Menkmack and  Mercenary Captain
• Added animation to the Trandal leader background
• Added a bigger explosion when you defeat the final boss
• Compressed planet models textures to save space on disk (and small perf. bonus to boot!)
• Slight performance improvements to stamps.

Foreign Languages

• Added Commander voice over for German and Chinese languages.
• Updated galaxy object names for non-English to improve translation and better match quests.
• Added translations for Portuguese-Brazil and Spanish (Spain).
• Updated translations for German, Russian and Simplified Chinese with lots of fixes/corrections.

Bugs

• In fleet battles, the enemy purple engine trail now matches the player trail's in length and size
• Fleet battles now have space backgrounds in hyperspace
• Pulsar weapon now has a description
• Fixed some transports not giving the right RU bounty when destroyed
• All misc salvageable ships now use the human pilot animation in combat
• Using the Observer cloak ability in MP will no longer cause the ship parts of the affected ship to sometimes have very bad transforms
• Ship acceleration indicator on inventory and starbase screens now use correct value rather
• Fixing some incorrect popup descriptions for Engine rewards
• Autonav to a starbase will not drain your fuel while you're there
• The Tywom will now properly deduct any superfluids from the player.
• Tywom Fuel Rescue guy will no constantly respawn further away when you enter combat (coward!)
• If your Vindicator is full, collecting an item longer deletes it permanently
• The "sell conventionals" button is no longer disabled if you didn't have a common resource in your cargo.
• Fix for the alien who can't be ignored in Alpha Mus.
• Fixing an incongruous movie for a building on Iota Aspis B II.
• Fix escape when using surrender from escape menu in Fleet battle (campaign) causing the game to unpause.
• Fix for various bugs with strange Measured obelisks quests
• Modified marketplace to deal with an issue where you could lose fuel by selecting the same component in the list.
• If your main ship mysteriously disappears, we'll give you a new one
• Urlon ships no longer look huge in hyperspace
• Deleting a ship design will now correctly select the first design in the list afterward.
• Ships are no longer stuck on the edge of the Arcturus system.
• Maelnir trader in Arcturus is no longer stuck inside the star.
• You can longer get stuck running out of fuel during the final fight
• Fix for incorrect Game Over a few days later if you stop the Xraki from destroying Earth after they arrive.
• Removed collision from trees and small rocks because hitting trees wasn't fun
• Fixed a controller hang issue when dismissing auto nav dialogs quickly.
• Adjusted Controller UI dead zone value  as it was overly sensitive.
• Fixed difficulty checking boxes in gameplay tab of options
• Fixes issue with acceleration and recharge being identical in Melee config screen
• Fixes various problems with interacting with a planet after interacting with a ship
• Fixed floating rocks on Beta Wendigo I
• Fixed bad placement of village on Wastear in the Lacaille 8760 system.

Balance changes to Fleet Battles

Tywom

Despite being the first ship players get access to in the Adventure Mode, it’s incredibly powerful and one of the best. The incredibly rapid fire rate of the main gun made it too good at bursting enemy ships down. In particular, the Spawn Turret mechanic could be quite exploitative and anti-fun by encouraging the player to avoid the enemy spawning turrets and never engaging directly. These changes will make the Tywom play more actively and make it feel like more of a starter ship.

• Tywom Bolt cooldown increased from 1.5 to 2.25
• Turret duration reduced from 30 to 15
• Max turrets reduced from 5 to 3
• Points reduced from 12 to 10

Greegrox Swarm

The Greegrox was far too difficult to hit with projectiles due to the tiny Collision box combined with instant direction changing. These changes will make the Greegrox easier to hit.

• Collision box increased from 0.25 to 0.30
• Acceleration reduced from 18 to 12
• Points reduced from 12 to 10

Measured Response

The Measured Response could be very frustrating to play against due to the permanent slows and difficulty to hit due to high acceleration, small hitbox and instant direction changes. It will be easier to hit and its weapons are getting toned down to justify its 7 points cost.

• Red Tape now only temporarily slows instead of permanent slows
• Acceleration reduced from 20 to 14
• Invitation damage reduced from 10 to 8

Terran Cruiser

The Earthling Cruiser was too fragile and too clunky to control. These changes will make the Terran Cruiser stronger and more fun to play

• Health increased from 19 to 24
• Turn rate increased from 75 to 85

Lexite Interceptor

The Lexite Interceptor was far too strong to justify its low 9 point cost.

• Points increased from 9 to 11

Trandals Frigate

The raw power of the Trandal Weapon was too much, especially when combined with its massive mobility allowing it to flank enemy ships or pickup all the salvage easily.

• Laser Ribbon Bola damage per second reduced from 150 to 110

Scryve Probe

Like the Tywom Bolt, the Scout Shot was able to burst targets down far too quickly despite also having the dangerous self-destruct.

• Scout Shot damage reduced from 6 to 5
• Scout shot cooldown increased from 1.5 to 2.25

Note: This is intended to also affect other ships using Scout Shot.

Drenkend Carrier

The Drenkend Carrier was too strong to justify 12 points. The De-energizer Bolt could be quite exploitative due to it’s rapid-fire and low energy cost, which could permanent chain stun targets.

• Points increased from 12 to 16
• De-energizer Bolt energy cost increased from 5 to 10
• De-energizer bolt cooldown increased from 0.4 to 0.8

Xraki Devourer

The Xraki Devourer was too strong at 12 points. The long range and massive energy pool encouraged the ship to avoid the enemy and fly away poking long range black holes, which also were deadly at close range. Lowering the range of the Black Hole projectile will force the Xraki ship to approach the enemy more.

• Points increased from 12 to 14
• Energy cost reduced from 100 to 85
• Black hole duration reduced from 5 to 2.5

Menkmack Negotiator

The Menkmack Negotiator was too weak for 12 points.

• Points cost reduced from 12 to 10

Phamyst Consumer

Invitation was far too spammable at only 10 energy as it practically had no drain on the Phamyst, given the huge range and lack of required aiming it was too powerful.

• Invitation Energy cost increased from 10 to 20

Kzanti Intimidator

The Kzanti ship was frustrating to verse as it was overly nimble and able to knock the enemy away with Repulsor. It will now be slightly less agile and not be able to spam Repulsor on top of planting mines. Especially important as this was one of the first ships the player would encounter in the Adventure Mode.

• Points cost reduced from 13 to 11
• Repulsor energy cost increased from 5 to 10
• Max speed reduced from 6.5 to 6
• Acceleration reduced from 6.75 to 6