Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.

Crusade_Resources

Summer continues.  Unless you're in Australia or New Zealand. But they're not people. Not really.  I mean, they can't feel heat and cold.  So what's been up? The boring job of architecture update.  We've been spending the past month fixing architectural issues that have slowly built up. This shines through in the form of bug fixes.  It's slow, time consuming but important work. 

We are also working on merging the GalCiv III base game and Crusade core together.  The net effect is that late this Summer, there will be a massive update to GalCiv III (v2.5) that will bring some of the elements of Crusade over to it.  This will mostly be seen as a major improvement in balance, stability, AI, diplomacy, memory use and performance. 

The next DLC: The Dread Lords

This Fall we hope to release the Dread Lords DLC.  This will be accompanied by a number of new features into the game itself (which doesn't require anyone to buy the DLC to benefit from). 

2017-03-15_1409

The Dread Lords will bring the backstory of the GalCiv universe up to where GalCiv III started.  This will bring back the Korath.  Because Dread Lords will be combining the events from GalCiv II + Dark Avatar + Twilight there will be some consolidation to keep the gameplay cohesive.

Technical work

I'm happy to report that the latest GalCiv III does work on the Surface Pro 4.  We are working hard to try to reduce the hardware requirements further and increase performance.  That's why you haven't seen a lot of gameplay updates recently.  Making the game run faster and more stable and improve the multiplayer experience (we are close to custom races in multiplayer) is very important.

Multiplayer

Speaking of multiplayer.  While very few people play multiplayer, supporting it has a benefit to single player users.  It forces the engine development to be much more disciplined.  So players end up with a much better experience.  In the long-run, we want to make GalCiv III have not just good multiplayer but so compelling of a multiplayer experience that people will want to play it that way.  This will mean adding some new modes to the game (that will work in single player as well) to allow for much shorter games. 

The next expansion

It's far too early to start talking about the next expansion.  What I can say it that it will focus heavily on politics and government. 

Modding

One area that Stardock is actively hiring for are C# developers.  Doesn't even have to be full-time.  It's more like we will pay for various tools that we can share with the community.  We are going to be releasing a Flavor Text Editor shortly as well as a Mega Event editor.

It may come as a shock but GalCiv III has supported full-blown quests (as in, extremely sophisticated quests and stories and linked events) since 1.0.  However, there is no tool to create them. You current have to edit XML files in a text editor which is very tedious and time consuming. 

Thus, we are looking for:

  • A campaign editor
  • A tech tree editor
  • An event editor
  • A C# map (separate from the game) map editor

and that's just off the top of my head.  These kinds of editors are basically glorified XML editors since the output is just XML.  But imagine what effect it would have if people could create and share their own campaigns and events.

Now, before anyone starts emailing me or PMing me, bare in mind, one of the reasons we haven't done this is because we don't really have time to walk people through the various XML files and their corresponding .XSD files.  So the short answer is, you make the thing, we will be happy to pay for it if we can use it (and you can even make a prototype that just needs polish and we'll pay and pay more for the polish).

Just look at the XML files and the XSD files and you'll see just how powerful the system is.

Next up

So next month, get ready for GalCiv III v2.5!


Comments (Page 1)
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on Aug 16, 2017

Modding

One area that Stardock is actively hiring for are C# developers.  Doesn't even have to be full-time.  It's more like we will pay for various tools that we can share with the community.  We are going to be releasing a Flavor Text Editor shortly as well as a Mega Event editor.

It may come as a shock but GalCiv III has supported full-blown quests (as in, extremely sophisticated quests and stories and linked events) since 1.0.  However, there is no tool to create them. You current have to edit XML files in a text editor which is very tedious and time consuming. 

Thus, we are looking for:

  • A campaign editor
  • A tech tree editor
  • An event editor
  • A C# map (separate from the game) map editor

and that's just off the top of my head.  These kinds of editors are basically glorified XML editors since the output is just XML.  But imagine what effect it would have if people could create and share their own campaigns and events.

Now, before anyone starts emailing me or PMing me, bare in mind, one of the reasons we haven't done this is because we don't really have time to walk people through the various XML files and their corresponding .XSD files.  So the short answer is, you make the thing, we will be happy to pay for it if we can use it (and you can even make a prototype that just needs polish and we'll pay and pay more for the polish).

Just look at the XML files

 

I love it!!

 

 

on Aug 16, 2017

I hope you guys improve the ideology system with the next expansion.  Maybe tie it into influence generation and make it less dependent on colonization events.

Espionage could also use some work, maybe a mission based system like Civilization Beyond Earth had.

I'd also like to see another synthetic race added, maybe a more peaceful and pragmatic one to complement the Yor.

That's my two cents, keep up the good work.

on Aug 17, 2017

 Now a map isn't an XML file, or did I miss something?

And if that's not the case: is there somewhere a reference how a map file is composed?

on Aug 17, 2017

Politics is what the game is missing.It's very internally bland.

on Aug 17, 2017


Thus, we are looking for:
A campaign editor
A tech tree editor
An event editor
A C# map (separate from the game) map editor

 

I have already developed  a tech tree editor (WIP) in c#, its been out for a while on nexus. http://www.nexusmods.com/galacticcivilizations3/mods/80/?

Does this mean I might get paid for further development?  

 

on Aug 18, 2017

Korath?  Spore Ships?  Yay!  Will the DLC be necessary for the Korath, or will they be included in the base game?

(mainly just curious, I'll almost definitely get the DLC)

on Aug 18, 2017

Good priorities! It is also far too early to be excited, but the body was not compliant in this matter! Yarr!

 

Onward, forward, and to the future!

on Aug 19, 2017

It is also far too early to be excited, but the body was not compliant in this matter! Yarr!

You carbon-based life forms are a less advanced species.

 

on Aug 19, 2017

Maybe more race types. Treborblue you should send brad a private message.

Heres an idea maybe around turn 400 have a new database of events for galact council, mega events, colinization events, and anomalies.

Instead of giving me a 15 percent increase on my current, or finishing off my curent tech it would be nice if anomolies had their own tech trees.

It would be nice if precursor random events, and some mercenaries instead of starting out really strong leveled up that way.

I agree the ideology tree that instead of being able to pick all three ideologies if it was based of your average choice instead.

I would like to see where multiple factions could combine their research.

I would like to see the last terriforming option lets you terriform all the tiles. 

More different tech trees.

I would like to download mods off of steam.

Still waiting for a scenario editor like a better version than what they had in two.

on Aug 19, 2017

On behalf of modders, I'd like to see the number of branches on the ideology tree moddable, so that modders can choose 1-6 different branches.   However, I like what Stardock already did, with good-neutral-evil.

I'd love to see mercenaries which give +5 benevolent/pragmatic points per combat.   Not just benevolent.  I've got Steam Achievements to achieve, and this is the way to do it.

 

on Aug 20, 2017

treborblue



Thus, we are looking for:
A campaign editor
A tech tree editor
An event editor
A C# map (separate from the game) map editor



 

I have already developed  a tech tree editor (WIP) in c#, its been out for a while on nexus. http://www.nexusmods.com/galacticcivilizations3/mods/80/?

Does this mean I might get paid for further development?  

 

 

Yes.

on Aug 22, 2017

Frogboy

Quoting treborblue,





Thus, we are looking for:
A campaign editor
A tech tree editor
An event editor
A C# map (separate from the game) map editor



 

I have already developed  a tech tree editor (WIP) in c#, its been out for a while on nexus. http://www.nexusmods.com/galacticcivilizations3/mods/80/?

Does this mean I might get paid for further development?  

 



 

Yes.

 

PM'ed Brad,

I am at you service.

on Aug 24, 2017


The Dread Lords will bring the backstory of the GalCiv universe up to where GalCiv III started.  This will bring back the Korath. 

I don't suppose the Korx and Drath might also show up? The ship styles are already there...

on Aug 24, 2017

Not necessary the Drath, but we do need a new super instigator, that profits from other peoples wars just make him stronger this time military.

on Aug 25, 2017

I would like some nice animated diplo screens for the Drath and Korx. Seemed like a missed opportunity to add in some shipsets for the two races, and not go the full yard for them.

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