Greetings!
I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on where things stand with Galactic Civilizations III.
Internally, the game is fully playable at this stage (except the AI is really stupid at this point as we won’t really get started on that until January).
While this isn’t a promise, we anticipate the Alpha version being made available in late February. Those of you with Founder’s Elite access will receive a Steam code around that time and be able to download it. We expect the beta version (the standard Founder’s Edition) will go out in the Spring.
The Alpha version will be very rough still, as you can imagine. Here’s what it WILL NOT have in it:
In many respects, it’ll be a very different game since it’s a pure war game.
However, the Alpha WILL HAVE:
Now, in the past, we tried to make the betas not fun. However, this time around, we are striving for the alpha to be playable even though it’ll be extremely limited. But we are going to try to treat each phase of the game’s development as a test of the game’s fun. We are not going to treat it as a painful crapfest (which is what we’ve done in the past with our other games).
In other words, the alpha is not designed as a technology preview. The Founders should absolutely post their complaints on game play and fun levels as long as they keep in mind that the other stuff (fleet battles, diplomacy, trade, culture, etc.) are on the way.
Cheers!
Thanks for the update. This is the first alpha-stage game project I have participated in, so it is nice to know what to expect from the early release. I plan to spend a little time on the alpha, report the bugs I encounter, and wait for more features to be released. I don't mind if an early release of a strategy game of this complexity is buggy, unbalanced, and limited in content. Based on my previous experience with Stardock betas, I will enjoy seeing how the game develops.
lol, long countdown ... feeling like my kids now, nervous for Xmas
So excited! I usually start my first game as a conquest anyway. This is not a bad thing for me Come on February!
"Patience, my friend, is a sterling virtue. I wish I had more of it." (Paraphrased from "Pockets" in the movie "Hatari".
It's a final countdown!
...Oh, We're heading for Venus
And it's not on the map...
This is my first Alpha to I think I know what to exqect.
Well it's an alpha so just be mindful that bugs will be plentiful, the game may be incredibly unoptimized, features will likely not exist, the game may crash, the game may not even run on specific hardware platforms, etc.
It is the proverbial "seeing how the sausage is made" and its generally pretty ugly process.
And don't expect performance to be great. All the debug code they will put into it during the Alpha and Beta will slow the game down.
Ironically, performance will probably be really really good. The new engine is a little over an order of magnitude faster than Kumquat (the Elemental engine) which in turn was a lot faster than the Pear engine (GalCiv II). It's a multicore engine so the one thing that will probably go well is perf.
Stability...on the other hand. That remains to be seen.
Wow, Brad. That says even greater things about after you remove all of the debugging code.
Well I hope it at least run on my computer.
I have full confidence in you and your team.
Is this the Nitrous engine, I forgot. Can we name it Loquat instead? It has multiple seeds inside which fits in perfectly with multiple threads
GC3 is using a custom engine designed specifically for it. The Nitrous engine is still in the early stages of development.
now this may seem like a stupid question but I am sure there is at least one other person here in it. I am in the steam family sharing beta and am wondering IF the alpha shows up for other people that I authorized, should I ask them to test the game as well or will the game be flagged so it will not be shared. I cannot wait to play it myself
I would also like to be able to share the Alpha.
What the heck? I've always had fun in Stardock betas. What did I do wrong?I mean, I didn't beta test Elemental, but still!
GalCiv III has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are are sorry about the Dread Lords escaping from a pocket universe (again) and hope that you find shelter somewhere underground while they destroy all life on the surface. We apologise for the inconvenience.
- Check galactic cybernet for a solution and close the program.
- Close the program.
We also need something like "I'm about drop the hammer" instead of "yes", "nuke them from orbit" instead of "no".
Thank you for update, Froggy. i will make a serious endeavor to give quality, specific and appropriate feedback on game play. its not often I get to bitch and its not only OK, but expected... indeed, required. LOL Now that's an unexpected holiday gift!
On the plus side, we might get to hear some "Microsoft Bob" automated voices being used as filler until some real voice acting gets put in. Those are always a hoot!
Great cant wait!! Im super stoked about his!! Time to kick some Cat butts!!
It's even funnier when only parts of the voice acting is in; the voices switch unpredictably between the robot and human.
Why are you expecting any voice acting in the game? I mean, besides the cutscenes, which are not going to be in the alpha anyhow.
The voices told him?
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