Dev Journal
GalCiv IV: Supernova Dev Journal #70 - Cultural Progression
In Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova the beliefs, customs and social dynamics of your civilisation are determined by your Culture, consisting of an amalgamation of eight different in-game Ideologies. These aren’t just there for flavour, they can bestow powerful benefits and abilities for your fledgling empire. Let’s take a look at how Culture and Ideology works together! Each Ideology is comprised of a tree of linked bonuses, known as Ideological Traits, which can be unlocked by sp... [read more]
Dev Journal
GalCiv IV: Supernova Dev Journal #69 - Who's a Bad Influence?
Hello everyone, nice to meet you! I am DraconicDesign, the new Associate Game Designer on Galactic Civilizations IV. Moving forward, I will be making periodic contributions to the GalCiv IV: Supernova Dev Journals. I hope you’ll look forward to hearing more from Battlemode and myself as we continue spotlighting GalCiv's various systems! In Galactic Civilizations IV, Influence is a powerful (and often overlooked) tool in many players’ arsenals. Influence controls the spread of your civilizatio... [read more]
Dev Journal
GalCiv IV: Supernova Dev Journal #68 - Economy Primer
Building a strong economy is a foundational aspect of all 4X games, regardless of your overarching aims in that particular campaign: whether you’re racing for a technological victory by researching the most advanced technologies, or raising an unstoppable military juggernaut to crush your enemies with, “the sinews of war are infinite gold” to quote Cicero. Or, in the case of Galactic Civilization’s IV: Supernova, infinite credits. And even that timeless wisdom doesn’t quite do things justice ... [read more]
Announcements
Digital Unicorn: DBusiness talks Stardock System's history and growth
As a developer of productivity software and video games inPlymouth Township, Stardock Systems Inc. is no longer ‘themost famous company you’ve never heard of. by Ronald Ahrens One day last spring, Brad Wardell found himself in suburban Baltimore for some meetings when he joked about video conferencing being bad for his step count. Wardell, founder, president, and CEO of Stardock Systems Inc. in Plymouth Township, was visiting Oxide Games, a Stardock subsidiary in Timonium, M... [read more]
Dev Journal
GalCiv IV: Supernova: Dev Journal #67 - Plan Your Research
To follow on from our previous developer blogs aimed at onboarding new players into our flagship turn-based space 4X game, Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova, this week I thought we’d have a look at a simple system you can use to select a plan of technological development that will best fit your current game situation. Technology, from a top down perspective, is pretty easy to understand in Space 4X: you generate some kind of research resource, in GalCiv ours is conveniently called Rese... [read more]
Dev Journal
GalCiv IV: Supernova Dev Journal #66 - Grab That Space Junk!
Following on from last week where we gave some advice on game settings to new players coming into Galactic Civilizations IV for the first time, this time around we’re going to examine a crucial 4X game feature that often goes overlooked by new players: the “goodie hut”, or Anomalies , to give them their proper GalCiv name. The 4X gameplay staple mechanic of collectable resources randomly scattered across the map goes way back to the original Sid Meier’s Civilization at least, and is so ingr... [read more]
Dev Journal
GalCiv IV: Supernova Dev Journal #65 - Who to Play First?
Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova has had a large influx of new players in recent months and the game can be a little overwhelming to first time players. We’re going to take a look at a good game setup for a first time player. Before we do though, let’s look at some of the key ingredients that go into shaping a playthrough. There are 23 prebuilt playable factions in the game, that we call the Core Civilizations, and while the AlienGPT custom civilization builder ensures these aren’t your ... [read more]