GalCiv IV Dev Journal #123: The Galactic Roadmap - Fall 2026 Edition
Published on Thursday, September 17, 2026 By
We just finished version 4.1 which itself was a pretty big update with custom maps now working in multiplayer, steam workshop support for custom maps and lots of balance updates.
So what's next? I'll divide this between the free updates and next DLC, Galactic Civilizations IV: Ascension
The free updates, continuing to improve the user experience, performance, balance, and help make the existing DLCs mesh together better and better, is going to focus on these three things:
- New Planet UI.
- New Shipyard UI
- Redesign of Ship Design
New Planet UI
Here is a mockup. What we want is to have a multi-tab UI where the overview screen lets you still do all the main stuff you'd want to do on a given turn but lets users go into the nitty gritty about a particular planet. Mostly informational.
Even the OS/2 version from 1993 had multiple tabs for planets:
With stats and everything. We want to make the planets more immersive. This is largely cosmetic (i.e. we're not looking to add micromanagement to the screen just provide more ways of making better decisions).
New Shipyard
The shipyard would become one of the tabs on the planet. Clicking on a shipyard would take you two it but the goal is to make managing planets and ships more convenient.
Redesign of the Ship Designer
Right now ship design falls into a gap I think between it being too simple for the serious ship makers but also too complicated for users who just want to configure up a ship.
It's the ship designer that is our biggest focus because I think it's one of the most distinctive features of the game.\