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Villains of Star Control: Origins AAR - The Phamyst

Greetings! For this After Action Report I'm going to be playing Galactic Civilizations v3.9 with only the Heroes of Star Control civilizations. I'll be pointing out notable and interesting things as I go along. The Setup I'm going to play as the galaxy's classiest cannibals, the Phamyst. The Phamyst have the Ravenous ability which results in them receiving food after every battle which can be used to build cities. However, this food spoils after 25 turns so use it... [read more]

8/25/2019 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Siege of Centauri Dev Journal: What Makes A Good Tower Defense Game?

We love Tower Defense games at Stardock. We’ve played our fair share, and many have served as inspiration and reference for our work on Siege of Centauri. Before I started on Siege, I went on a Tower Defense binge to analyze and understand what makes for a good Tower Defense game. Here are the pillars that I think are critical to developing a good tower defense game. Variety of Creeps Tower Defense is inherently a repetitive genre, and generally without much narrative punch to ... [read more]

8/23/2019 By GGTheMachine in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

Beta 3 for Siege of Centauri is now available!

Beta 3 is now available for the massive-scale tower defense game Newest update adds scenario workshop, endless mode, and much more Set in the Ashes of the Singularity ™ universe, Siege of Centauri places the player in the role of commander of the defense of Earth's first colony on Proxima Centauri. Beta 3 adds a scenario editor where players can create and share their own missions, and a new endless mode that allows users to see how long they can last against... [read more]

8/22/2019 By Tatiora in Siege of Centauri News

COMING SOON: Villains of Star Control: Origins for Galactic Civilizations III!

The Villains of Star Control: Origins Arrive in a Galaxy Near You on August 27th! Next week, Stardock will be releasing a brand new DLC for Galactic Civilizations III called Villains of Star Control: Origins. The Star Control universe is filled with beings of all shapes and sizes, and now some of them will be coming over as playable races for Galactic Civilizations III! Each race comes with their own unique abilities, ship styles, and theme music. Check out the 4 new playable races c... [read more]

8/20/2019 By Tatiora in GalCiv III News

Villains of Star Control: Origins is coming to Galactic Civilizations III

Last year we released Heroes of Star Control: Origins , and it proved to be so successful that we're following it up with Villains of Star Control: Origins DLC. The DLC arrives on August 27th and comes with 4 new playable races, each with their own unique abilities, ship styles, and theme music. The Star Control: Origins multiverse is filled with beings of all shapes and sizes. Here is a preview of some of the darker species coming over to Galactic Civilizations III. The Measured ... [read more]

8/20/2019 By Frogboy in GalCiv III News

Siege of Centauri Dev Journal: Strategy & Mayhem - Dichotomy of Design

Strategy and mayhem are the core of what makes a tower defense fun to play. Tower defense games need to pose meaningful decisions to the player, but while also containing tension and frenzy. Siege of Centauri went through different iterations internally as we tried to find the perfect mix of strategy and mayhem. Strategy and mayhem aren't inherently at odds with each other, but inevitably will be at times. Each tower defense game has different leanings, but there's always a balance to strike and... [read more]

8/16/2019 By GGTheMachine in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

FREE WEEKEND: Try Galactic Civilizations III on Steam August 15th - 19th!

PLAY FREE ON STEAM THIS WEEKEND ONLY Also save 84% for a limited time!* Build a civilization that will stand the test of time in the largest space-based strategy game ever! Choose from dozens of unique races and make a name for yourself across the galaxy through diplomacy, espionage, technological advances, and more. Galactic Civilizations III is a 4X space strategy game set in the 23rd century. Humans and aliens compete against each other for domination of the galaxy through... [read more]

8/15/2019 By Tatiora in GalCiv III News

GalCiv III AAR 2019: Whispers of a dying empire

The Setup Large map, 12 random civilizations. The Expedition: the backdrop In 2253, the milky way galaxy had settled to roughly this configuration. Blue: Terran Alliance Purple: Yor Red: Drengin Empire Green: Torians Yellow: Arceans Cyan: Altarians With the other major civilizations being located in the vicinity. Back in the year 2178, humans invented hyperdrive which made per-ship faster than travel possible. This technology replace... [read more]

8/14/2019 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Siege of Centauri: Beta 3 Changelog

*** RELEASED 08/22/2019 *** New Features Endless Mode - The onslaught doesn't end. See how long you can last against increasingly more difficult waves. Covey - Five paths lead down from the north toward your colony. Can you defend against them all? Mendel - A huge desert map gives plenty of room to build defenses. And you will need it against a wide variety of attackers. Ulrath - An arctic forest with dispersed resources. It will be hard to defend your Colony, Metal Ref... [read more]

8/12/2019 By DerekPaxton in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

Galactic Civilizations III: Ascension

GalCiv3 has come a long way since release. It has added governments, mercenaries, citizens, thousands of free to download ships and factions to play as and more tools to manage your growing empire. I sat down to play some today with the 3.8 patch and decided to have some fun. One of the new features in 3.8 is the Galactic Ascension Status. So I wanted to play a game where I pursued an Ascension victory. I picked the Altarian's since they get a boost from Precursor Artifacts, I set my universe... [read more]

8/8/2019 By DerekPaxton in GalCiv III Dev Journals

The continued refinement of Galactic Civilizations III

Greetings! Thanks to you guys continuing to buy our DLC we are able to keep developing Galactic Civilizations III with new features and improvements. The last few updates have been focusing heavily on quality of life and the latest version, v3.8 continues that trend. Below are some of features we've recently added that we hope you find useful. Adjust difficulty mid-game Finding yourself doing really well mid game or struggling more than you thought? Under the option... [read more]

8/8/2019 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Galactic Civilizations III v3.8 Ascension Update Available Today!

Galactic Civilizations III v3.8 Update Brings Major UI Changes Set in the 23rd century, Galactic Civilizations III is a 4X space strategy game where humans and aliens compete against each other for domination of the galaxy. v3.8 brings a few exciting changes to this already massive game, which you can read more about below. No more sneaky Ascensions! At the forefront of the update are changes to the Ascension notifications and UI. Each civilization's progress is now displayed on an easy-... [read more]

8/8/2019 By Tatiora in GalCiv III News

Siege of Centauri: Scenario Workshop Sneak Peek

We have a great time designing missions for Siege of Centauri. There is a lot of design work to do to get the pacing right. To much and it's overwhelming, to little and it's boring. One of the lessons I have learned is that even though its fun to have a variety of challenges, large maps, multiple entrances, unpredictable movement, etc, it gets overwhelming very quickly. Unpredictable movement in particular can make someone want to drop kick their monitor when they setup defenses and enemies t... [read more]

8/4/2019 By DerekPaxton in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

Galactic Civilizations Summer 2019

We're putting the touches on v3.8. From here on out, a lot of our effort is going to be on features that improve the game experience, polish and usability. They're not sexy features but they're much needed imo. Starting with 3.6, we began work on improving the modding experience. This is something that's been being further developed in 3.8 and will get more attention after as we try to "unify" the experience further so that people can eventually pass around mods and know the... [read more]

7/31/2019 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Summer of Star Control

It's been an exciting Summer so far for fans of Star Control. Last month we re-released the classic trilogy on Steam, posted a major update to the engine to improve the visuals, and now we are busy working on chapter 3 of the Earth Rising expansion. For those of you who have played the game or will be buying the game in the near future, let's talk about the galactic scene today. Star Control takes place in the not-so-distant future. The stars are real stars, and in Origins they're place... [read more]

7/29/2019 By Frogboy in Star Control Journals

Community Newsletter #6 - 07/26/2019

Heat of Summer Happy Friday! We hope everyone is staying cool during these summer months and drinking copious amounts of H 2 O. All of us here at Stardock have come back from vacation and are working on some exciting new things that are coming your way soon! The Horizon The Turinium Cup 2019 The what: A 1v1 round-robin style tournament for Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation The when: Rounds begin Aug... [read more]

7/26/2019 By SchismNavigator in Stardock Community Newsletter

Siege of Centauri: Plutus

Plutus offers a very defensive position for your colony. Multiple long plateaus provide the perfect place for turrets. But there are multiple locations outside of this defensive ring that you will need to make hard choices about. That Fission Reactor provides valuable energy. There was a Metal Refinery on the map, it was destroyed by the transport dropping scarabs beside it. And an Outpost in a vulnerable position. You don't have to defend them all to win, you only need your colony to su... [read more]

7/18/2019 By DerekPaxton in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

Siege of Centauri: Plutus

Plutus offers a very defensive position for your colony. Multiple long plateaus provide the perfect place for turrets. But there are multiple locations outside of this defensive ring that you will need to make hard choices about. That Fission Reactor provides valuable energy. There was a Metal Refinery on the map, it was destroyed by the transport dropping scarabs beside it. And an Outpost in a vulnerable position. You don't have to defend them all to win, you only need your colony to su... [read more]

7/18/2019 By DerekPaxton in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

Siege of Centauri: Welcome the Hive

We have a long list of new units, towers, upgrades and missions coming for you. But I wanted to talk about one of my favorite enemies that we have been playing with, the Hive . The Hive is a heavy unit with formidable defenses and shields. But what sets it apart is that it produces flying "Wasp" units that take off and head toward your colony. Since they are flying, they ignore the terrain and had directly for you while the Hive follows the path. The most strategically interesting pa... [read more]

7/14/2019 By DerekPaxton in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

Community Newsletter #5 - 06/21/2019

Star Control Settlement, Game Updates and Strategy Guides Have a suggestion for articles or content submissions included in a future edition? Leave it in the comments below or as a direct message on Discord . The Horizon Star Control: Origins v1.4 Update Improves Visuals and Increases Performance v1.4 is here with significant visual improvements, including updated planet visuals, adjustments to creature colors, and improvements to planet terr... [read more]

6/21/2019 By SchismNavigator in Stardock Community Newsletter

Star Control: Origins v1.4 Update Improves Visuals and Increases Performance

Star Control: Origins v1.4 Update Improves Visuals and Increases Performance View the complete changelog below! v1.4 is here with significant visual improvements, including updated planet visuals, adjustments to creature colors, and improvements to planet terrains. Planets are now far more detailed than it was in the game’s previous versions thanks to enhancing terrain textures and lighting. Improvements to the terrain rendering system have also allowed for better frame rat... [read more]

6/20/2019 By Tatiora in Star Control News

Stardock, Paul Reiche to team up on next Star Control game, beekeeping

Stardock, Paul Reiche to Team Up on Next Star Control Game and Beekeeping Dispute settlement paves way for new games, new DLC, and lots of honey Plymouth, MI. - June 11, 2019 - Game Developers Stardock Entertainment, Paul Reiche and Fred Ford have amicably settled the dispute concerning the tangled intellectual property rights that surrounded the 30-year old game franchise. In a statement released by Paul Reiche on their website, Mr. Reiche wrote, "Paul and Fred h... [read more]

6/11/2019 By Tatiora in Star Control News

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation v2.8 Update is here!

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation v2.8 Update Improves Visual Clarity and Brings Extensive Balance Updates We're launching an update today that improves the game's visual quality and balance. By making colors more vibrant and scaling up the size of many units and buildings, we hope to help distinguish and communicate each unit's functionality for new players. We’ve also made additional minor visual tweaks and slightly adjusted the camera angle so it’s less top-down an... [read more]

6/11/2019 By Tatiora in Ashes of the Singularity News

Community Newsletter #4 - 06/07/2019

Defenders Take Up Arms and Space is Getting Crowded As a reminder, if you have any comments or would like to see something included in a future edition, you can leave it in the comments below or as a direct message on Discord . The Horizon Siege of Centauri Beta 2 Culminating from a series of feature updates, changes, and bug fixes, we are excited to announce the release of Beta 2 of Siege of Centauri for all early access owners! ... [read more]

6/7/2019 By SchismNavigator in Stardock Community Newsletter

Beta 2 for Siege of Centauri is now available!

Beta 2 is now available for the massive-scale tower defense game Newest update adds weapon customization, new missions, and new towers Set in the Ashes of the Singularity ™ universe, Siege of Centauri places the player in the role of commander of the defense of Earth's first colony on Proxima Centauri. Beta 2’s new equip screen allows players to customize the towers they bring into every mission, allowing for more meaningful strategic choices. &... [read more]

6/6/2019 By Tatiora in Siege of Centauri News

Community Newsletter #3 - 05/27/2019

A new game and so much more in this third edition of the Stardock Community Newsletter. In this, the third edition of the community newsletter, we have highlights on a new release, game updates and a hot new mod. As a reminder, if you have any comments or would like to see something included in a future edition you can leave it in the comments below or as a direct message on discord . The Horizon The Video Game Machine! We have announced a new g... [read more]

5/27/2019 By SchismNavigator in Stardock Community Newsletter

Galactic Civilizations III v3.7 Anniversary Update Available Today!

Galactic Civilizations III v3.7 Anniversary Update Focuses Exclusively on Fan Requests For a limited time, save 85% on the Core Edition and 70% on the Gold Edition For the game's 4th anniversary, we've focused exclusively on a top-to-bottom series of improvements based on fan requests! These improvements are major quality of life changes that improve the overall experience of Galactic Civilizations III. v3.7 improves ship AI, multiplayer performance, memory use, pat... [read more]

5/14/2019 By Tatiora in GalCiv III News

Community Newsletter #2 - 05/10/2019

Welcome to the second edition of the Stardock Community Newsletter. We have a lot of exciting things to go over, ranging from new game updates and releases, to events, and more. So let's get started with what is new and coming up on the horizon. Everything will wrap up with Respawn, a new section that was not in the first edition, where we get to highlight what has been going on and follow up on anything big. The Horizon Earth Rising Part 2: Return ... [read more]

5/10/2019 By SchismNavigator in Stardock Community Newsletter

Fantasy 4X strategy game, Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes gets major update

Stardock released a major update to its classic fantasy strategy game, Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes today. The new version incorporates many months of fixes, performance optimizations, AI enhancements, balance tweaks and a host of other improvements. "We are really happy to finally be able to get this update out to the fan community," said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock Entertainment. "We've been making improvements to the game for many months and been waiting until it reach... [read more]

5/10/2019 By Frogboy in Elemental News

Stardock Releases Earth Rising - Part 2: Return of the Lexites for Star Control: Origins

Stardock Releases Earth Rising - Part 2: Return of the Lexites for Star Control: Origins Get the Earth Rising Expansion Now Play Part 1: Aftermath & Part 2: Return of the Lexites today! Stardock released Part 2 of its expansion to the new Star Control game today. In it, p layers will finally come face to face with the very beings who inspired the formation of Star Control in the first place -- the Lexites. Earth Rising - Part 2: Return of the Lexites introduc... [read more]

5/8/2019 By Tatiora in Star Control News

Siege of Centauri: Beta Update 5

*** RELEASED 05/16/2019 *** Thank you all for your feedback. We are listening and have made some significant changes to the game based on it. Most notably we redid the entire game progression to be smoother. That requires redoing all the maps so we couldn't release new missions as they wouldn't fit in with the old system. The big change is that we will no longer tie unlocks to score. Instead new towers and orbital abilities will be unlocked by completing missions. This offers us a f... [read more]

5/7/2019 By DerekPaxton in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

Siege of Centauri: Epicurus at Night

Epicurus has already suffered an assault. The colonists set off a bomb that destroyed the invaders, and killed themselves as well. The colony is already on fire when we arrive and won't survive any sort of assault. It's going to be a long night. On the positive side, the colonists rigged energy cells here to explode. Just clicking on them will detonate them and damage all surrounding enemies. And we have long passes leading to the colony that offer a wide variety of places for defen... [read more]

4/30/2019 By DerekPaxton in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

Community Newsletter #1 - 04/26/2019

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the new Stardock Community Newsletter! Today we will be going over some of the things happening in the community including game updates and events being run, as well as sitting down to talk with a crazy active mod maker. This edition is separated into three sections (Horizon, The Forge, Uplink) but future editions shall include an additional section with an update on topics from the previous edition. The Horizon Community news and... [read more]

4/26/2019 By SchismNavigator in Stardock Community Newsletter

Siege of Centauri: The Ravines of Gallehault

We released a new mission today, Gallehault. Gallehault is massive and combines a wide variety of threats, from a wide variety of directions. In Gallehault you will face massive swarms, air assaults, cruisers, healers, face units rushing your colony and waves targeting other sites. Gallehault starts you with two metal refineries and a fission reactor. But it's large map is going to make it difficult to defend all of them (I've never been able to defeat Gallehault with sacrificing at least two... [read more]

4/23/2019 By DerekPaxton in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

Siege of Centauri: Going North

We unlocked a new mission today, Chariah. Chariah is a remote location, cold with winding paths through the mountains. It is the biggest map in the campaign so far (larger ones will come later) and offers long paths with plenty of great points to place defenses (as well as an enemy that is going to ignore those roads entirely, but we will get to that later. We have a Fission Reactor and a Metal Refinery here, on separate paths. And an ideal junction between the paths to place defenses, b... [read more]

4/18/2019 By DerekPaxton in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

Siege of Centauri: Defending Malden

Malden is the third mission of the Siege of Centauri campaign. It is the first mission to feature multiple entrances and a fission reactor that provides radioactives to power our orbital abilities. So right from the start I have to consider where my enemies will be coming from, and how to defend two positions. Mousing over the enemy icon in the wave panel shows me where that enemy will be coming from. In this case, this Reaper swarm is coming from the east. Good, that's nowhere near ... [read more]

4/17/2019 By DerekPaxton in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

Steam Early Access is Now Available for Siege of Centauri!

Earth's first colony is under attack by an unknown enemy Siege of Centauri puts you in command of the defense of Earth's first interstellar colony. Thousands of alien machines are descending on the helpless colony and only you, with your arsenal of fast-deployed orbital defense structures (FODS), can stop them. Early Access starts today on Steam or at www.siegeofcentauri.com for just $9.99 The enemy comes in all shapes and sizes, challenging you to coun... [read more]

4/16/2019 By Tatiora in Siege of Centauri News

Galactic Civilizations III: Retribution Journal #9 - Campaign

The new version of Galactic Civilizations III includes an updated campaign screen that shows the campaigns as part of a timeline. We wanted to help players know where different campaigns take place in the overall story. It's hard to believe that the base GalCiv III campaign, Crusade, actually takes place in the middle of the stories that were released for GalCiv III! Our story so far... During the campaigns of Galactic Civilizations II, the story ends with the human main fleet tele... [read more]

4/15/2019 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Siege of Centauri Arrives for Steam Early Access on April 16th

Battle hordes of enemies in Siege of Centauri a new massive-scale tower defense game Set in the Ashes of the Singularity universe, the player takes on the role of commander of the defense of Earth's first colony on Proxima Centauri. Stardock's new take on the classic genre comes by leveraging its new game engine, first seen in Ashes of the Singularity ™ and more recently in Star Control®: Origins . "With tens of thousands of enemy machines p... [read more]

4/11/2019 By Tatiora in Siege of Centauri News

Siege of Centauri: Stardock's take on tower defense

What is tower defense? Tower defense is a genre of strategy game in which you have ever more daunting enemies trying to attack your base (or simply escape). Your job is to place defenses ("towers") to stop them. Each of your towers has specific strengths and weaknesses. Some are fast firing but do little damage while others fire infrequently but do a lot of damage. There are towers that do area damage and towers that can only target one individual at a time. ... [read more]

4/8/2019 By Frogboy in Siege of Centauri Dev Journals

Stardock Game News