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Galactic Civilizations games have had ship building in them for almost 20 years.  And ever since, people have used it to create all kinds of amazing designs from robots to their favorite Sci-Fi ships.

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Ship designer from Galactic Civilizations II

With Galactic Civilizations III, players were able to share their designs with millions of other players via Steam Workshop.  Suddenly, players could download and play with almost any type of ship imaginable.

As much as players loved being able to design and share their ship designs, there was one thing they kept requesting over and over: the ability to assign ship designs to a Civilization and have them use it.  This way, if they wanted to create a race of giant robots, they could.  Or if they wanted to play their favorite sci-fi race (or play against it) they could.

In Galactic Civilizations III: Crusade their wish is fulfilled!

Civilization Builder

First, video. Paul Boyer and I sat down with the Civ Builder the other day. I wanted to show off the laser space sharks and aquatic race we built. Check out this exclusive video to see what we created.

Now, let's walk through the new Civilization Builder, screen by screen. From the main menu there is a new button - Civilization Builder.

 

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The Civ Builder exists outside the game.

 

Once inside, the player is greeted with a series of screens that lets them configure a completely new civilization.  With the Steam Workshop, you can download new logos, alien portraits, alien backgrounds, alien images, etc. 

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Players can put together a completely new alien race using assets shared by other users.

Once you have decided what your alien civilization looks like, you can move on to what their strengths and weaknesses are.

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The trait screen lets you assign the civilization various strengths and weaknesses. Many of these abilities give them unique gameplay features.

 

From there, you can decide what their ships will look like.

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Ship Visual Style

There are dozens of different color combos you can play with, along with a host of different textures and materials.  You can give your ship style a gritty, beat up look or a...well, completely outrageous look.

Once you finish deciding what visual style your ships will have, you can move on to assigning ship designs to each class of ship.

 

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Here you can assign a ship design to all of the auto-generated ships which is what the AI will use as well.

Here, you control every default ship in the game.  In the above example, I have assigned my colony ship to be a giant robot fish because...of course!

But let's say you don't like the choices we provide (and yes, we're going to include giant robot fish).  You can click a button and go onto Steam and browse the tens of thousands of ship designs that have been made by players already.

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Fans have created virtually every kind of ship you can imagine. 

Picking a cool ship design, it is instantly in the game.  The GalCiv ship designer is essentially a giant set of blocks that you can use to create anything. For the past two years, players have been busy making lots of ships.

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Downloaded ship design is mixed with the color and materials chosen earlier.

This is then repeated for each of the ship categories in the game. 

Next up, players will want to give their civilization some personality.

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Personality Editor

On the Personality screen, players can decide how the AI will use this player.  They can also set up what the AI will say in various common scenarios.  If that's not enough, the player can directly access that civilization's XML file to go crazy with how they will react in different situations.

Once you are done, you can save your Civilization and even upload it to Steam (if you use other people's designs, we ask that you get their permission).  Once uploaded to Steam, other players can download the entire civilization, ships and all, in a single click and play as that civilization or play against them.

 

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My Fish Civilization in game. They're hungry!

 

Galactic Civilizations III: Crusade will be released in Spring of 2017 on Steam and GOG.   You can follow it on Steam by going to its Steam page.

Let us know what you think in the comments below!


Comments (Page 1)
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on Feb 09, 2017

Cool! I want I want... So, we get this tomorrow, right?

 

EDIT:  This is assuming that we're using the Chinese calendar (or Celtic traditions) where Spring has already started around Feb.4th and will end on May 5th or so...

on Feb 09, 2017

Probably the best idea I heard for this was making your own tech tree in the custom civ builder. I also wouldn't mind when you select a portrait if you could have the option to select from a list of features to change how it looks like most recent games I have seen. I'e. Star trek

on Feb 09, 2017

Avatar137

Cool! I want I want... So, we get this tomorrow, right?

The Thalans already it and have travelled back in time to provide THEIR feedback.  

 

 

on Feb 09, 2017

Ooooooh, very nice Really looking forward to this. Finally we can get rid of all those vanilla ships (no offense, 'fcourse )

 

Does it also allow tho change mercenary ships that have some kind of special ability (like scouts immune to pirates, effects to planets etc.)?

on Feb 09, 2017

In the fleet selection, can you change the class name and description?

Any plans to finally make the ship designer accessible from the main menu as well or accessible through the civ builder?

on Feb 09, 2017

Looks cool, can't wait.

Didn't show any custom tech trees.

Is there a built in tree editor or do you still have to create your own and then select it?

on Feb 09, 2017

What you do is a step into the right direction, but how can you leave out a custom tech tree??? It works the same way like the other tools: You make a set of the neccessary tech tiles and then you give attitudes to them and let the players choose whether it shall be a syntethic, a economic or a military orientated tech direction. You already do that with the specialisations, which is a good step. But even if it has not more function, the people dream of setting it up by themselves. Or not?

 

Of course, lets be happy with the existing tech trees until then. It is just missing a lot in the shape of having 'uniqueness' in the own faction, even though its just a small touch. You know what I mean?

Edit: Just what the post above started to mention, either

on Feb 09, 2017

RE: racial traits, I can't wait to see how Carbon-based and Silicon-based work. Or synthetic and cybernetic. Should be interesting since you have to be one of the four... (well, carbon, silicon, or cybernetic).

And, given the number of girlie-picture factions on Steam, maybe one of the options should be "Silicone..."

on Feb 09, 2017

Hey Paul and Brad,

Really looking forward to Crusade! Spring 2017 starts March 20...any chance we'll get to enjoy it at 12:01 am that day?  

Also really enjoyed watching the YouTube video today.  I miss these.  Twitch is okay but I'm never available to watch them.  Haven't been too many YouTube videos of late but I suppose everyone at Stardock has been busy designing, iterating, and creating.  Truly enjoy your hard work!

on Feb 09, 2017

I hope there will be some way to include custom home systems, preferably with custom star and planet files...

on Feb 09, 2017

I find "carbon based" a bit confusing. Aren't most species in Galciv carbon based? Now it seems weird not to include it on almost every faction I make.

on Feb 09, 2017

Is there any chance we will be able to see how the custom tech trees work?

on Feb 10, 2017

Creating my own tech trees from the custom faction would be nice.

on Feb 10, 2017

Facilitate

Hey Paul and Brad,

Really looking forward to Crusade! Spring 2017 starts March 20...any chance we'll get to enjoy it at 12:01 am that day?  

Also really enjoyed watching the YouTube video today.  I miss these.  Twitch is okay but I'm never available to watch them.  Haven't been too many YouTube videos of late but I suppose everyone at Stardock has been busy designing, iterating, and creating.  Truly enjoy your hard work!

I believe founders get beta access.

on Feb 10, 2017

I like this, but what needs to be added is this:

 

Allow folks to select/de-select what races can appear at random from the races they have.   Even allow the standard races to be de-selected.

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