I have to pop in here.

A mistake. Not everyone plays their game while online. I always play in Offline Mode disconnected from Steam. I cannot be the only one. CA made the same error with their TW game and produced the rightly rubbish Rome 2. One could say it`s how they interpreted the Steam stats, but I`'ll bet they relied too much on them.

Seriously, guys, just make a poll. Or do one as well as your Steam stats, if you must. Go to the people, not the bloody program.

p.s. I have 16 gig of ram, though i realise I`m probably in the minority. And no, I will not put my details on Steam. but I will in a normal poll set up here.

all in galciv 3\data\games.

Mapsetupdefs.xml allows you to change the modifiers applied to the base. If you have enough stars and dead worlds, but want to increase the number of habitables without adding more stars/resources/asteroids etc, you'd change the numbers in here.

Mapsizedefs.xml allow you to alter the Base (which seems to be the constant used for most map features) and to change the maximum number of habitable planets allowed.

You'll want to change maximum habitables to some really high number and then mostly focus on fiddling with modifiers in the setup defs, imo.

WpKelly, 

In steam go to the gal civ game and select options.

go to browse files...

Hover your mouse over the GCIII exe, it shoudl say 1.0.2.4 (I think this is the latest).

We have a poll. It's the Steam data.

Unless you're suggesting that a disporportionate percentage of people who play offline also play the largest maps.

Look, just change the XML if you want bigger maps than what we provide. 

I've said what I mean to say on this topic.  

Well then I'm on par then. I just didn't understand that the game was designed such that once I hit the turn button I can't do anything until the AI is finished doing whatever it is doing. My thinking on the design or I guess past recollection of Gal Civ long ago was that the AI was cooking while you do your thing and then when you hit turn it executes its moves that it just spent time thinking about and turns were much quicker 2-3 seconds.

For me I would think if you have shit tons of RAM which I do, and plenty of cpu cores, that the game would play like a champ on even the largest galaxies. Maybe I just need to update.

Well then I'm on par then. I just didn't understand that the game was designed such that once I hit the turn button I can't do anything until the AI is finished doing whatever it is doing. My thinking on the design or I guess past recollection of Gal Civ long ago was that the AI was cooking while you do your thing and then when you hit turn it executes its moves that it just spent time thinking about and turns were much quicker 2-3 seconds.

i could be very wrong but my understanding is that most software does not take advantage of more then one core. Seems its rather difficult to write code to use all the different cores at once. So for games especially the Ghz of your processor will usually mean a lot more then how many cores it has. Or so ive heard! Im sure others can expand on this.

On the other hand, I do appreciate the fact that Frogboy and Stardock pay attention to all of their users, not just the <1% vocal minority posters on this forum.  (and I count myself as one of the <1% )  It shows that they are a business, not a hobby.  It is one of the reasons I can be confident they will be around for a long time supporting and growing this game.  I also dislike the judgement implied in "the lowest of our players".  Last I looked, they were people, too, paying customer people.

As to the posters complaining they might have to learn modding...  No, you do not have to learn modding.  You just have to learn to ask some modder nicely to do it.  If it is really important to the community, it will happen.  I've seen it work that way plenty of times.  I have been playing with mods for years and have yet to write one line of code.  All it takes is friendliness and patience.

In your My games folder you need to find the "Gal Civ 3/Mods folder.

Create a "New Folder" inside of the mod folder. Name it anything you like.

Then create those 5 additional folders i listed inside of that "New folder" you just made. I really dont KNOW for sure if you need them but the instructions from SD says you do.

Then just place the 2 xml files inside of the "Game" folder you just created.

You want to only edit files that you place in this mod folder and not the original game files.

Also, when editing if I set the Base to something like 6000, the MaxHabitablePlanets should be lower than 6000 correct? It wouldn't make sense in my head to have more habitable planets than the base number of total planets.

Im not sure tbh. Do we know if the base refers to planets or to stars? Anyway ive played around a lot with the numbers there and it only takes a moment to make changed and start a new game to see what your tweaks to the numbers do.

GalCiv 3 well use all the cores you have be it 2,4,6,ect, ect, ect, !

Both Froggy and Paul have said this.!

That actually sounds like it makes the map interesting.

I'm personally not a fan of when "the vast reaches of empty space" is cluttered with tons of objects.  Kind of makes it ... awkward.

Here's the problem:  Lack of choice.  What makes the game interesting for you might not make it so for others.   That's part of the whole reason to have different map settings in the first place.  Rare and Uncommon is for players exactly like you who don't want the map cluttered with tons of objects.  Abundant is for people who like to play with more and more toys.  And then it's possible to mix and match settings for those who have particular tastes.

Forcing so-called empty maps on people who don't want them can... well, lead to interesting discussions like this one.

I fully understand SD's stance on this and why/where they are coming from, even if I personally disagree.  Thankfully it appears that we are well on our way to finding out just what needs to be modded and where to get this back to what we were used to. I'd prefer it if I didn't have to do so, if only for Metaverse reasons, but c'est la vie.

Maybe this will be revisited as people get stronger and stronger machines.

Joy.  

*makes note to modify just acquired 1.01 XMLs*

Thanks.  I'll muck about with these post-devstream.