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Star Control: Origins - April 2018 Screenshots

Greetings! As Star Control gets closer to release, we want to share with you some screenshots so that you can see how things are progressing. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments. Home solar system Returning home Strange new world In orbit   On surface   Hyperspace   New friends Star Control: Origins – Fleet Battles BETA 2 is available on www.starcontrol.com .  Star Control: Origins arrives later thi... [read more]

4/26/2018 By Frogboy in Star Control Journals

Star Control: Secret Briefing #2 - The Precursors

April 2086 Good afternoon.  Thank you for attending this meeting.  We have been taking your questions via the Google document .  If you will enable your FaceGoog implants to turn to the topic of Precursors from the 2085 lecture we can begin. We will assume you have gone over the classified materials from the recent Emdrive test . As a reminder, the general public has not been brought up to speed on everything that was found on Ceres.  The rumors of the so-called "A... [read more]

4/20/2018 By Frogboy in Star Control Journals

Star Control DEV DIARY #1: Our little corner of the universe

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: Nature video has a fantastic segment outlining just how massi... [read more]

4/16/2018 By Frogboy in Star Control Journals

Ruling the Galaxy Takes a Massive Leap Forward with Galactic Civilizations III: Intrigue and New v3.0

Galactic Politics and Government Have Arrived in Galactic Civilizations III: Intrigue Galactic Civilizations III is one of the largest strategy sandboxes ever made. Start with a single world and expand across the galaxy through diplomacy, trade, cultural hegemony, or military conquest in this single-player or multiplayer 4X strategy game. Send spies to infiltrate enemy civilizations, encounter mysterious anomalies and events across space, let your citizens help lead your ci... [read more]

4/11/2018 By Island Dog in GalCiv III News

Galactic Civilizations III: Walkthrough 2018

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 expe... [read more]

4/10/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Intrigue Journal #5: Tapestry of the machine

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. The days of organic lifeforms are numbered. The wise and benevolent Yor Singularity will have it known that this is not a threat, it is simply a fact of the state of nature. The Yor, as depicted in the OS/2 version of Galactic Civilizations 20+ years ag... [read more]

4/6/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Star Control: April 2018

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! Before I get into this month’s updates, here’s a bunch of answers to questions: What is Star Control? Star Control is a space adventure game where you are the captain of a starship exploring the cosmos, meeting aliens, landing on planets, engaging in battles in space and on land, a... [read more]

4/4/2018 By Frogboy in Star Control Journals

Now Announcing: Galactic Civilizations III: Intrigue Release Date!

We're really excited about the upcoming Intrigue expansion, and we know you are, too! Not only are we sharing the release date today, but we also have a special announcement regarding a stream, a CEO, and a certain  angry  YouTube show host...   - -> Find out the release date and stream details  here ! <- -   _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Intrigue De... [read more]

4/4/2018 By Island Dog in GalCiv III News

Intrigue Journal #4: So you say you want a revolution?

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.&nbsp... [read more]

4/3/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Intrigue Journal #3: The Galactic Market

The situation is desperate. The Terran Alliance is slowly losing the war to the Drengin Empire. Is Earth doomed? Your friends are doing their best to help, but they cannot directly involve themselves. Our friends, the Altarians, give us covert aid. The Drengin Empire's military might is vast. The Drengin have long prepared for this day.  We had hoped that trade and diplomacy would stay their hands.  But after having annihilated the Torians, their bord... [read more]

3/31/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Galactic Civilizations III: Intrigue - An Overview

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 thro... [read more]

3/27/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Galactic Civilizations III v3 Preview: A great start!

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. Most of the benefits of version 3 will be coming to those who already have Crusade because it provides so much to build off on wit... [read more]

3/27/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Star Control: So you want to build a planet?

In preparation for the Game Developer's Conference we wanted to put a polish pass on the planets in Star Control: Origins. There are about 3,000 unique planets that are split into roughly 75 different classes.  Each class of planet has its own challenges, as well as its own mineral deposits that you might want to collect (along with ruins, cities, smugglers, creatures, etc.). Today, I'm going to walk you through how we create our planet classes. Unique, Procedural and Hand-Crafted... [read more]

3/20/2018 By Frogboy in Star Control Journals

Galactic Civilizations III v3 Preview: Strange new worlds

The premise of Galactic Civilizations is that you have united your homeworld and are now ready to send your first colony ship off into space.  What kind of alien worlds do you think we can settle? The reality is, many worlds are not going to be safe for us.  We'll have to live in environmentally sealed enclosures at first.  Not because they are too cold or lack the right atmospheric conditions (though that is an issue), but rather because many worlds will have microbes that... [read more]

3/20/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Offworld Trading Company Journal: Privatization of Space

  Greetings Offworld CEOs! Work continues on Offworld, but we don’t have anything to show off just yet. However, with the recent launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, this seemed a good time to touch on an idea that’s core to Offworld Trading Company: the privatization of space back here on Earth. It’d be pretty difficult to have an open, competitive market on Mars if we didn’t have companies there to do the competing. While we’re still... [read more]

3/15/2018 By Zultar327 in Offworld Dev Journals

How Good Streams Show Trust | Strategy Visions Episode 5

"You need to establish trust with gamers." Some of our community managers and devs discuss what makes a stream good, and then what streamers do to make a stream truly great. Check out Episode 5 of our "Strategy Visions" series here! [read more]

3/15/2018 By Island Dog in Stardock Dev Journals

Intrigue Journal #2 - Taxation without representation

People don't like to be taxed.  They really don't like to be taxed if they don't have a say in it. The principle cause of the American revolution was not taxation in itself, it was that the colonists didn't have a say in who and what was taxed. Now, let's imagine how this would be handled when you are talking light years. To understand how distances work in Galactic Civilizations, we need to understand Hyperspace Projection. I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map! Space..... [read more]

3/13/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

The Power of Video Game Narrative: Lohse “Sing For Me” Analysis

Video games are the ultimate form of entertainment media, encapsulating all other media forms and adding interactivity on top of it. In a video game, you can read lore and dialogue, watch cutscenes, listen to music, have a shared experience, among many other unique ways you can be engaged. In essence, there’s nothing that a book or a movie can do that a video game can’t, and the ability to combine all of these with an interactive narrative can create incredibly powerful experiences. ... [read more]

3/7/2018 By GGTheMachine in Star Control Journals

Intrigue Journal #1: Space-Time is unforgiving

13 minutes, 48 seconds.  That’s how long it took the Curiosity rover’s signal to reach Earth from Mars - and Mars is in our own solar system. Intrigue is the name of the upcoming expansion pack to our best-selling space strategy game, Galactic Civilizations III.  It’s not called “Government” or “Politics”. It’s Intrigue.  13 minutes, 48 seconds between responses for radio signals in our own solar system leaves a lot of time for... [read more]

3/6/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Star Control: Secret Briefing #1 - The Jupiter Trip

Good afternoon.  Below is the captain's log from the recent Jupiter test of the prototype Emdrive MK I.  As a reminder, all information concerning the Emdrive remains classified.  Please return your Aug glasses to the front counter when you have finished this briefing. Captain's Log: March 2, 2086… There are 69 known moons of Jupiter.  Jupiter is the first planet we’re sending Star Control’s prototype ship to visit. Powered by the Darius Robotics... [read more]

3/2/2018 By Frogboy in Star Control Journals

Star Control - The Art of Storytelling

We live in an age where developers actually brag about creating random quests as if that’s a good thing. In an age of gigabytes of memory the challenge isn’t in how many worlds you have, it is how to make those worlds compelling. In Star Control: Origins, there are no random missions.  No episode of Star Trek ever ended with Captain Kirk receiving 14 Dilithium crystals for his troubles.  Star Control is about telling stories in which you are the central character. ... [read more]

2/27/2018 By Frogboy in Star Control Journals

Q+A regarding Star Control and Paul and Fred

Given the ongoing discussion of the legal dispute between Stardock and Paul Reiche and Fred Ford, designers of Star Control I and II, I wanted to take time to make Stardock's position clear and address inaccuracies that have been promoted. As the need arises, I’ll continue to update this post with additional questions and answers. Q: What are the issues in dispute? A:  On the eve of launch of the beta of Star Control: Origins in October 2017, a game Stardock has spen... [read more]

2/22/2018 By DeepSpaceNine in Star Control Journals

Star Control: February 2018 - Of the Lexites

The new Star Control is moving swiftly!  We expect to release Fleet Battles Beta 2 within the next several weeks as most of our work is focused on the adventure game. We have been listening to feedback from the fans and incorporated that feedback into the project. For example, below is a screenshot which shows the updated home solar system: Our home solar system Similarly, the ships themselves have gotten the material system in early.  Originally, this was going to ... [read more]

2/21/2018 By Frogboy in Star Control Journals

Galactic Civilizations III v3 Preview: Farming

How will we feed our billions? In Galactic Civilizations III, we presume that by the time we are colonizing planets, our home world has reached an equilibrium between food production and population.  But let's face it: when we colonize other planets, it'll take many years for those planets to build up sufficient farming infrastructure to produce for the kinds of populations you have on your home world.   Surplus Food Galactic Civilizations III will be treating food ... [read more]

2/20/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Galactic Civilizations III: Map Sizes and Memory

One of the biggest challenges we have faced in developing Galactic Civilizations III has been map sizes and the memory they require. On a number of occasions, we have tried to reduce the the largest map sizes down to improve performance and shrink memory requirements.  And each time we have attempted to do that, we have ended up with a very vocal outcry of anger. But large map sizes come with a significant memory cost to be aware of. Galactic Civilizations, like its inspirati... [read more]

2/14/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Galactic Civilizations III: Let's talk food.

Farming I'm not liking the farming mechanic.  It seemed like a good idea on paper but in practice, it's just tedious and exploitive.  Here's how I'd like to see it work: Some planets would have a Arable land tile including all starting planets.  Building on these tiles produces food. The tech tree would have a path for players who want to get the most out of those resources to get a lot of food.  The arable land resource be destructable -- you can destroy i... [read more]

2/13/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Stronger, smarter, faster - v2.8 for Galactic Civilizations III brings major AI improvements

AI for the massive-scale space strategy game now more human-like thanks to v2.8's  "supreme commander" system update For a complete list of changes, see the changelog at the bottom of the post! Galactic Civilizations III is the largest 4X space strategy sandbox game ever. Set in the 23rd century, you’ll compete against humans and all manner of aliens for galactic domination. Research new technologies, explore the galaxy, and colonize new worlds while engaging in dipl... [read more]

2/8/2018 By Island Dog in GalCiv III News

Secret Missions - our biggest DLC yet - is now available for Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation!

Build new units, conquer challenging scenarios, and engage in massive multiplayer battles on enormous maps in Secret Missions! Support for the DLC and additional fixes and changes available in the free v2.7 update today. See the changelog at the bottom of the post for all of the details. Also available from Steam Exciting new scenarios, new units, and huge maps await you in Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation’s largest DLC yet! Take on the role of a PHC leader... [read more]

2/1/2018 By Island Dog in Ashes of the Singularity News

Strategy Visions Episode 3: Making Fun AI

Designer Callum McCole shares his thoughts on creating AI in games that's fun and challenging. Check out the latest episode in our Strategy Visions series here:   [read more]

1/31/2018 By Island Dog in Stardock Dev Journals

Galactic Civilizations 2018: Drengin Human Wars VIII

Humans vs. Drengin.  AI at NORMAL In September I played (and beat) a genius AI .  Let’s see how well we do now.  This is on the standard game, no CRUSADE. Version 2.8 (not released yet). A good start My first move Having rare earth metals next to Earth’s capital (heh, Siberia in this game) lets me start with a level 4 computer core. This means I get +1 research for the base core plus +4 research for being level 4.&... [read more]

1/28/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

Galactic Civilizations III: Intrigue Expansion Delivers Politics on a Galactic Scale

Now Announcing Galactic Civilizations III: Intrigue! Establish a reign that starts on a single homeworld and expands across the galaxy. Billions of citizens. Thousands of light years. One strong leader: you.     Assemble your cabinet of advisors, choose a form of government, and  earn the trust and faith of your people in Intrigue! Not ready to pre-order?  Add it to your Steam Wishlist .      KEY FEATURES Form your ow... [read more]

1/23/2018 By Island Dog in GalCiv III News

Fight against Mars itself in the new Limited Supply DLC for Offworld Trading Company!

Stock Markets and Rival Businesses Aren't Your Enemies Here In "Limited Supply," your main goal is simple: survive. This was the only objective for the first pioneers from Earth before business on Mars started booming. Play through over a dozen challenging scenarios and  overcome the struggles of settling on Mars by aiding the growing colonies and ensuring their healthy futures. ------ DLC  Features ------ New Scenarios Experience over a... [read more]

1/18/2018 By Island Dog in Offworld News

Limited Supply Dev Journal

Offworld Trading Company has gotten a major patch and a brand new DLC this week, so we’re going to take some time today to break down what we’ve been up to for the past couple of months. Limited Supply Limited Supply is our new DLC, and it breaks Offworld’s rules in a way we haven’t done before. Featuring 17 new singleplayer scenarios, LS will allow players to explore what Mars was like in the early days of colonization. Gone are the free markets that rule Mars... [read more]

1/18/2018 By Zultar327 in Offworld Dev Journals

GALCIV DEV JOURNAL: January 2018

Happy new year! This month marks my one-year anniversary of returning to my beloved Galactic Civilizations as its lead designer.  And since then, we've made a lot of changes much to the joy and angst of many galactic conquerors. Unintended Consequences With the announcement of the third expansion pack to Galactic Civilizations III imminent, this serves as a good time to look at where we stand today. For the past year, I've been going through and weeding out improvements, event... [read more]

1/16/2018 By Frogboy in GalCiv III Dev Journals

GalCiv DEV Journal: You're in for an AI treat

Just in time for Christmas we released version 2.71 which is almost strictly about AI tweaks based on player feedback and saved games.  Now, someone might ask "Why do you need save games to make the AI do [obvious thing]?".  The answer is that with so many different ways of playing the game (both in terms of game setup and in-game strategies) it turns out people play the game very differently from one another.  It's one of the reasons why you have most people who think the... [read more]

12/20/2017 By Draginol in GalCiv III Dev Journals

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