Are they now?

Anyhow, the devs already stated which of the major races will be in the base game:

Considering that the Drath and Korx have been basically wiped out as civilisations in the campaign this was already not going to happen. You also have to keep in mind, that all the races are going to start out with unique tech trees. That didn't happen in GalCiv 2 until TotA.

Then why are you saying, that they "are nowhere to be found or spoken of"? That's pretty contradictory, don't you think?

The Drath and Korx are gone for good as major races. Same for the Korath. The Arceans and Torians, however, have a good chance to return in an expansion. Why else would they have entries in the databanks? Well, at least the entry for the Arceans hints strongly at it.

And for me, the story and lore is the biggest reason why I love GalCiv so much.

Yes, and it has been known for eight years, that this is going to be the case (at least for the Drath and Korx):

First off I don't care too much that some of the major races won't be back, however, I'm with some of the others, if you're taking away 5 major races, perhaps there could be a few new ones or minor races that have since become a major race?  Personally I always loved the Arceans and the Torians.  I never played the Arceans in Galciv 2, however, I always would attempt to keep them close to trade their technology  The Torians/Thalan's were always the races I used to spawn my custom races with.  Mind you Thalans will be back

Another thing I'm with Darca on, should the game have the possibility of having very very large galaxies why aren't we going to have at least the same amount of major races to choose from, or at minimum have the possibility of promoting a minor race to act like a major race in the sandbox games?  Now I know they are going to have custom races in, however, I don't want to make a dozen custom races if I don't have to.

Okay I'm done complaining now...  Here are my thoughts on how the game will reveal itself...

8 major races (less than Galciv2 TOA sucks!!)

8 minor races (Snathi for sure) (should be more)

maximum 8 major races to start the game (should be more based on all the hype of 64 bit)

Largest galaxy slightly larger than the largest TOA galaxy (may have more sectors but will only feel about as big)

Most other aspects very simular with some obvious improvements and things left out (to be added as DLC's or Expansions)

The data banks aren't info gaunathor, this is about bringing them in the game, the databanks a history and babble. When I said that I want to know were the quote is were a race like the arceans will be back?

The databanks provide, at the moment, information about the races, the story, the history of the game, and the timeline. Yet, they are not information? Makes perfect sense.

As I said, their databanks entry hints at it. I might be wrong though.

Because the devs have neither the time, nor the budget to do this. GalCiv 3 is supposed to come out somewhere between April and June 2015, while the budget is... well, Frogboy doesn't state any numbers, but he does give a comparison:

Well removing races because of the lore doesn't make much sense to me. From a campaign perspective it does, but when I play singleplayer and multiplayer I guess I expect it to be "it's own game", it doesn't have to connect with the game's lore specifically. Maybe I should explain what I mean...

When people play other strategy games, such as Sid Meier's Civilization they get into situations that make no sense from a realism perspective. You'll have a situation where the Aztecs invade and conquer the Japanese, then the Babylonians and Americans see that the Aztecs are too strong so they ally together and start a war against the Aztecs to bring a balance to power.

It doesn't matter that the Aztecs, Americans and Babylonians all lived in completely different time periods and had no contact with each other. It doesn't bother people, even people with a background in history like my dad who's actually a historian. People enjoy the game for what it is and every match is a "new world" with it's own history and events.

So if the devs say the Korx and Arceans are basically wiped out, then fine, don't put them in the campaign. But does that mean that they shouldn't be available to play in normal matches? I don't think so. Just like with the other strategy games the game is telling a new story, with new events in a new galaxy. It's not telling a "historic" story, it's telling an alternative history in which anything can happen.

Likewise, with custom races the official lore is set aside for the sake of making the "random matches" more interesting.

To me every match is it's own match. Trying to make it fit together with the campaign waters things down, imho. I enjoy playing the campaign and "random matches" as two different entities. 

On that front I've also noticed a few other things that have broken immersion for me.

When I start a game of Galactic Civilizations 3 I don't know what's outside of my star-system and barely have hyperdrives, my race is just colonising a second world in their home system and reaching out to the universe beyond... again It's a new story, a new galaxy.

Then I get an anomaly in which I find a ship left over from the Dread Lord Wars. And I'm like, "What? If this is supposed to be connected to the Dread Lord Wars then why, as the Terrans, do I have to recolonize Mars again from scratch and relearn how to make sparrow missiles and ion engines?" It doesn't make any sense. If we're restarting from the beginning of the tech tree, then the whole match should be a "fresh start" and, imho, the races that went extinct in the campaign have just as much of a right to be there.

The ship that I find in the anomaly shouldn't be from an event that will break the game's history. It shouldn't say there's two derelict vessels, one Drengin and one Human that were fighting because I'm playing as the humans and I don't have guns yet and haven't even met the Drengin, let alone fought them. Instead it should just say that there's two ancient vessels from a long forgotten war. It makes the game a lot more cohesive.




So if the races that are either now extinct or lost in obscurity don't make it into the game for launch, I'm fine with that. The devs need to work on the races which are assets for telling the official campaign's story. Likewise with expansion packs they should focus on races and things which have something to do with the story.

With DLC on the other hand, I'd really like to see a line of "Lost Civilizations" releases.

You could have:

Lost Civilization: The Torians
Lost Civilization: The Arceans
Lost Civilization: The Korx
Lost Civilization: The Xendar
etc.


Anyways, that's my opinion.

Of course. As the description for the Elite Founder Edition states, we'll get all future DLC and expansions for free.

I agree 100% with Lord_Silverkey's comments, I also don't think I've ever played a Campaign game throughout the series.  Neither have I ever played Sword of the Stars (1 or 2).

It seems to me that the Iridium race are the new Drath, the Trading race, with a nod to the Ferengi from Star Trek.  It's hard to be original and create something completely new.  I can just see this game being filled with new races based on those encountered in every Sci-Fi Franchise from Farscape back to the original Dr. Who's Daleks, via Star Trek, Babylon-5 and many others, especially if GalCiv's original races are abandoned.

Mind you that will probably happen anyway.

Because they got wiped out in DA but I know what you mean. Perhaps some kind soul with GC2 UE will post the race attributes so you lot can create them as a custom race?   :whisle:

It always bothered me that the Korx were evil.  A trading race should really be neutral, willing to trade with both sides as long as they make money.