Stardock’s award-winning turn-based strategy game series gets its biggest release ever
Stardock announced the release of Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova Edition (Supernova) today. Stardock is celebrating its 30-year anniversary this month with the sequel to the game that started the company back in 1993.
“This is, by far, the biggest game release we’ve ever done,” said Brad Wardell, founder and CEO of Stardock who returned to design Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova after handing the reigns to others for Galactic Civilizations III and Galactic Civilizations IV: base game. “We’ve been so fortunate to be able work with our fans to create something that we think strategy game players are going to really appreciate. You can really tell the love and care that we’ve put into this release.”
The game takes place shortly after humanity has discovered faster-than-light travel. Earth has united and the stars await. The player takes on the role of a civilization's leader (Earth or one of the many alien civilizations) to expand their species into the universe and contend with competing civilizations who are doing the same.
Supernova introduces many firsts for PC gaming including AlienGPT, a generative AI technology trained on Stardock’s own art portfolio that allows players to describe their own custom civilization, and generates not just what the civilization looks like, but its background, lore, galactic events and interactions with other civilizations.
Other new features include Terror Stars, a new end game technology that causes enemy stars to go Supernova, a new mission system, an interactive tutorial, new victory paths, a new core neutral AI opponent system, a host of new alien civilizations with their own tech trees to play as or against, an artifact Vault and hundreds of other additions and enhancements.
“Having done a lot of games in early access over the years, we’ve never had a game receive the kind of positive, enthusiastic response this has,” said Wardell. “With the community, we’ve taken a top to bottom look at how strategy games in 2023 should play and made dramatic improvements as a result. In the past couple of years, the ability to collaborate online has really changed, which has fundamentally altered the way we make games, and the end results are clearly on display in Supernova.”
Stardock has also enhanced the modding and multiplayer functionality in Supernova. Cooperative multiplayer has been added and a new integrated modding system lets players upload their own factions, starship designs and more.
Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova Edition Launches October 19
The latest entry in our award-winning space turn-based strategy game, Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova Edition, will launch on October 19, 2023
The release will coincide with Stardock’s 30-year anniversary.
Beginning shortly after humanity has discovered faster-than-light travel, Galactic Civilizations puts the player in the role of leader of a united world looking to expand their civilization into the galaxy. As leader, you must decide what technologies your scientists focus on, what policies your government enacts and what your foreign policy with alien species will be.
“Supernova is, by far, the biggest expansion Stardock has ever made,” said Brad Wardell, founder of Stardock who returned to the design chair for Supernova. “It doesn’t just add a lot of new content but transforms the gameplay in ways not seen in a 4X game before.”
Amongst the new innovations in Supernova is AlienGPT, a technology that allows players to describe their own custom civilization and then uses generative AI to create it. Other new features include the Civilization Vault, Cultural Progression, a story-driven campaign, several new canon alien civilizations, a new starship designer, a new battle system and much more.
Just a launcher update to replace some graphics files.
GalCiv IV: Supernova, Name A Star Contest
As many of you know, the GalCiv III Elite Founders had the ability to name their own star in game. We wanted to extend a similar offer to our beloved fans of GalCiv IV: Supernova Edition through this contest, where up to 100 lucky winners will have their star name added in-game. Immortalizing them forever in Supernova!
Anyone with a Stardock account (new or existing) is eligible to enter a submission. All submissions will be approved by myself and the team at Stardock, and approved contenders will be publicly displayed on the website.
Finally, Stardock staff will vote internally on their favorites as winners to be placed into the game forever.
We look forward to seeing your submissions, what will your immortalize in the stars above? A fun joke, a loved one, a wish, or maybe even yourself?
Submissions end date: 1PM EST, July 19th Winners will be announced: Wednesday, July 26th
Rules/Guidelines:
Must have a Stardock account to submit a name.
Only ONE entry per user. You may change your entry once it has been submitted, but it will need to be re-approved.
Any inappropriate, trademarked, or copyrighted content will result in the entire entry being rejected.
Star names are limited to 30 characters (letters/numbers/spaces), no punctuation or special characters. Star names will be converted to title case in-game (only first letter capitalized).
If more than one instance of the same star name is submitted, the first submitted will remain approved and the second will be rejected.
Now in Early Access - Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova
Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova Edition now available in early access
Early Access adds ChatGPT integration: AlienGPT
https://youtu.be/rA_b-H7xuow
Stardock has released the latest sequel of its award-winning space strategy game series today into early access. Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova sees the player as the ruler of a united home world that has just discovered faster-than-light travel.
Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova continues a 30-year trend of innovation in the series. This latest sequel introduces AI-generated content OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology allowing players to create their own civilizations that uses AI to create the lore, conversation dialogs, quests and more. The game also uses AI, trained on decades of Stardock’s alien art to deliver custom graphics for their custom civilization.
"We are thrilled with the new additions that Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova brings to the genre,” said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock. "The use of cutting-edge AI technology allows players to generate entire civilizations that look and feel unique with just a few lines of text has us particularly excited."
In this space-based strategy game set in the 24th century, players take on the role of a leader of a spacefaring civilization, tasked with exploring and colonizing the known universe. With an array of new features and improvements, Supernova offers an unparalleled 4X strategy experience for players of all skill levels.
“We’ve really focused on making the game more approachable to new players,” said Wardell. “This is the most sophisticated strategy game we’ve ever made, so we have put extra time into UI improvements, tutorials and context-sensitive information.”
Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova focuses heavily on replayability. Players can choose several different galaxy setup options, a different opponent to play against and now with the AI generated events and quests, each game will feel like an epic moment in the history of the galaxy.
New features in Supernova include cultural progression, new combat and planetary invasion systems, galactic sectors, new alien civilizations, AI assisted computer opponents, and the integration of ChatGPT and AI art generation. Additionally, the game boasts a multi-sector map design, planetary sieges, multi-turn battles, a host of new weapon designs, starship classes, Terror Stars that destroy entire star systems, and hundreds of other improvements for enhancing the player's ability to build the ultimate space empire.
Version 4.52 Change Log
Version 4.52 Change Log
Fixes
Typo fixes
Fixed a hang going into the diplomacy screen
Crusade: Fixed the Promethion cost on the Industrial Replicator improvement
Crusade: Fixed the Spice cost on the Dream Conclave improvement
Balance
Retribution: Add a +1% per level research bonus to the Information Processor improvement
Crusade: Reduced the Information Processor base research bonus from 5% to 2%
Switched Silicon Cities to a % level up pop bonus
Switched Synthetic cities to a % level up pop bonus
Galactic Civilizations III v4.52 Fixes Issues and Updates Balance
Greetings, Galactic Civilizations III fans! Our latest update is out of opt-in and is now available for you. See Lord Kona smiling up there? Yeah, he's excited, too.
In v4.52 we focused on fixing a few issues that our users have reported. It was brought to our attention that the Promethion cost in the Industrial Replicator improvement and the spice cost on the Dream Conclave improvement in the Crusade expansion were wrong, so we made sure to correct that. We also fixed a hang that would occur going into the diplomacy screen and an issue during the Altarian Prophecy campaign where dialogue options weren't providing the right amount of ideology points.
We also wanted to address some balance issues with v4.52. To that end, we have introduced a new research bonus to the Information Processor improvement in Retribution. This improvement now provides a +1% per level research bonus, which will make an even more valuable addition to your civilization's assets.
To maintain balance with the Information Processor improvement, we made some changes to it within the Crusade expansion. The bonus provided has been reduced from 5% to 2% to ensure that it synergizes well with our other adjustments. To make it easier to increase your population levels and build more prosperous civilizations, we've switched Silicon Cities and Synthetic cities to a % level up population bonus.
Thanks so much to everyone who tried out the opt-in and shared their feedback with us! Your opinions, bug hunts, and crash reports help us so much to continue making this game the best it can be. See you online!
NOW AVAILABLE: v4.51 Update for Galactic Civilizations III
Greetings, galactic conquerers! Our v4.51 update for Galactic Civilizations III is out of opt-in and fully released today. For full release details, make sure to check the changelog at the bottom of the post.
Thanks so much to everyone who tried out the opt-in and shared their feedback with us! Your opinions, bug hunts, and crash reports help us so much to continue making this game the best it can be. Without further delay, let's talk about what's in v4.51.
This update was largely focused on addressing some balance issues brought up to us by our community. We took a look at the morale bonus granted from colony capitals and recued it from 2 to 1. This change only effects the Crusade expansion; we had already changed it to 1 for Retribution.
Synthetic species - like the Yor - now have access to the City Improvement. Additionally, the AI is less likely to surrender as quickly as it used to and will instead put up a bigger fight when you try to subdue them with whatever your method of choice might be.
One of our key pieces of advice when starting a game of Galactic Civilizations III is to scout early - though it's kind of hard to do that if you don't have a survey ship! Once the community brought it to our attention that the Korath and the Drath were missing this starting vessel, we made sure to get that fix into v4.51.
We were also made aware of some various issues with the Snathi, Map Pack, and Builders Kit DLCs on Epic, so those fixes have also gone into this update.
Thank you for being such a loyal, supportive, and vocal community! Your feedback and participation on Discord and in our forums is invaluable to us.
v4.5 makes some updates that help get your early game moving just a little bit faster. You now start with 2 scouts and all starting worlds have 4 more tiles and additional currency on them. Diplomatic trades have also been tweaked so that you can get a little more bang for your buck – or your Elerium, if credits simply aren’t enticing enough.
We’ve also updated several of the art assets for events so that you can enjoy a fresh new look. Updates to the AI improve game pacing and support further immersion with things like better tax handling, choosing what technology to research, and aborting trades with the player if it determines the trade is truly unreasonable.
Thank you for all your loyal years of dominating the galaxy.
