The long-awaited DLC for Galactic Civilizations IV has arrived, bringing with it a plethora of powerful new Megastructures. In this week's dev journal, we're diving deep into one of the expansion's titular Megastructures: The Stellar Nexus.

Stellar Nexuses are colossal, versatile Megastructures constructed around stars. Each Nexus offers incredible bonuses to fleets and colonies across your civilization, tailored to your chosen Nexus Augment.

Unlocking Stellar Nexuses requires the “Megastructure Nexi” technology.

Once researched, your Stellar Architect ships can build Stellar Nexuses around Yellow, Red, Blue, or Purple stars. The color of your Nexus' host star matters as it will dictate the type of bonuses your Stellar Nexus can provide.

Building a base Stellar Nexus demands 50 Gigamass and takes your Architect 12 turns to complete.

Upon completion, you can manage your Stellar Nexus by double-clicking the Nexus or by clicking the “Manage Megastructure” button from the Nexus Context Window.

From the management screen, you can view the effects of the base Stellar Nexus and explore the list of available Nexus Augments. At its base level, the Stellar Nexus provides a not-insubstantial 5% boost to approval, research, and manufacturing for all colonies across your civilization.

In addition to enabling the construction of Stellar Nexuses, the Megastructure Nexi technology unlocks 16 base-level Nexus Augments—four for each star color. The list of Available Augments can be located beneath the Nexus' current effects in the bottom right portion of the Nexus screen.

Even at the base level, Nexus Augments provide substantial bonuses. An upgraded Stellar Nexus can significantly accelerate the development of your empire.

The cost of installing a base-level Nexus Augment is 15 Gigamass and 10 Energy, with the installation process taking 4 turns to complete.

There are 48 total Nexus Augments—12 per star color and 16 per tier. The Augments available to a Stellar Nexus are determined by the color of the star it's built on, with each star focusing on a different kind of bonus.


A unique feature of the Stellar Nexus is the ability to change the installed Augment at any time by choosing an Augment to Retrofit. This process takes the same amount of time as the initial installation, but you'll be refunded the Gigamass cost of the original Augment, ensuring you only sacrifice time, not resources.

Stellar Nexuses are designed to be flexible, adapting to your civilization's evolving needs as the game progresses. For instance, a civilization focused on colonizing new planets might prioritize the additional Food and accelerated Growth from the Flourishing Garden Augment. Conversely, a civilization engaged in warfare might opt for the Twilight Engine to expedite fleet production.

With sufficient Gigamass, players can construct multiple Stellar Nexuses for compounding or synergistic effects. Augments on stars of the same color often complement each other, such as the Subspace Lens and Galactic Gateway Augments on Purple stars, which can significantly boost your civilization’s tourism revenue.

Critically, bonuses from Nexuses can stack, allowing a focused player to construct multiple Nexuses with the same Augment. This can be a compelling strategy with a steep opportunity cost: requiring you to ignore other powerful Augments.

Finally, Stellar Nexuses are crafted to seamlessly fit into your preferred playstyle. Civilizations like the Phalenoids, who leverage Influence, can greatly benefit from the Subspace Lens. Research-focused civilizations like the Yor might favor the Quantum Mirror or Neoteric Spire, while the Mimot, reliant on rapid Growth, would find the additional Population Capacity from the Celestial Garden advantageous.

As you explore the new features of Galactic Civilizations IV: Megastructures, consider the strategic possibilities offered by the Stellar Nexus. Whether you're expanding your empire, bolstering your defenses, or advancing your technological prowess, the Stellar Nexus provides a versatile tool to enhance your civilization's strengths.

We invite you to share your favorite new combinations and strategies with us. How will you leverage the power of the Stellar Nexus to shape your galactic empire? Will you focus on rapid expansion, military dominance, or perhaps a thriving economy? The choice is yours, and we can't wait to see the creative ways you'll use these Megastructures to achieve victory.

Stay tuned for more insights and updates in our future dev journals. Until then, may your civilizations prosper and your stars shine brightly!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2671160/Galactic_Civilizations_IV__Megastructures/

The next technological leap for galactic empires is here. Today, Stardock officially releases Galactic Civilizations IV: Megastructures, bringing new opportunities for players to harness the power of stars and create powerful late-game structures.

“Megastructures brings powerful new late-game options that we think players will really enjoy,” said Brad Wardell, CEO, Stardock Entertainment. “Too often in 4X strategy games, trailing players have their fate set near the end of the game; but with Megastructures we give players the opportunity to turn the tables on those sitting comfortably in first.”

While Megastructures can be beneficial, they will present their own challenges with resource management and political situations to navigate. Savvy players who are able to effectively allocate their materials will be able to harness the full potential of Dyson Spheres, Ringworlds, the Stellar Nexus, and Stellar Gateways to achieve ultimate victory!

The pinnacle of technology, Megastructures are powerful structures capable of tipping the cosmic scales in your favor. Each Megastructure has something unique to offer and your decision on which to build can have drastic implications.

Dyson Spheres are the ultimate energy engines that drive your civilization’s evolution through fueling massive Megastructures that redefine your empire. The color of a Dyson Sphere’s host star dictates its potential Energy Output making Energy-rich white stars a valuable resource.

The Stellar Nexus will be the core of your civilization and can be customized to become a Megastructure with many possible powerful benefits. A Stellar Nexus can be upgraded into a powerful new form by installing a Nexus Augment. These Nexus Augments provide various potent effects based on the color of the Nexus' host star and are divided into three tiers denoting the strength and range of their effects.

Instantly link distant black holes to revolutionize travel. These powerful Megastructures develop new avenues for military maneuvering, rapid expansion, and even extended trade routes. Additionally, civilizations with Stellar Gateways can forge greater alliances with the Open Gateways Treaty which will allow fleets from either faction to utilize their respective Gateways.

Build colossal, Class 39 artificial ring planets to house immense populations and secure your civilization’s future. Much like the Stellar Nexus, Ringworlds are influenced by the color of their host stars and provide different tile bonuses accordingly. By constructing these gigantic habitable rings, you can ensure that your civilization will never run out of planets to inhabit and forever make your mark on the galaxy.

Uncover cosmic secrets with all new quests and events designed to introduce the awesome features of Galactic Civilizations IV’s latest expansion. Discover Ruined Ringworlds and use their ancient technology to make powerful breakthroughs in Megastructure engineering.

• New Improvements: Harness ancient Ringworld technology to create powerful new Improvements to enhance your colonies and outpace the competition.
  
• New Orbitals: Further utilize the technology found in Ruined Ringworlds to extend the reach of your colonies beyond by building new Orbital Improvements. Additionally, the same technology can now be used to upgrade existing Orbital Improvements to create unstoppable colonies and core worlds.
  
• New Ship Components: Build bigger, more powerful ships using cutting-edge technologies inspired by this ancient race of builders.

Each megastructure presents unique benefits and challenges, requiring careful planning and resource management to meet your empire's needs. As your influence grows, rival empires will take notice, leading to new diplomatic interactions, potential alliances, or conflicts. The Megastructures expansion invites players to think bigger and bolder, redefining the scale and scope of their galactic ambitions in Galactic Civilizations IV.

Full Changelog

• Enhanced Galaxy Map Experience: Enjoy a more immersive journey with our revamped Galaxy Maps, designed to deliver captivating layouts and optimize player positioning for strategic gameplay.
  
• Stunning Visual Upgrades: Dive into a breathtaking galaxy view with our enhanced graphics, featuring vibrant nebulas and twinkling stars that bring the cosmos to life.
  
• Balanced Gameplay Enhancements: We've fine-tuned various elements, including technologies, ship ranges, pirate encounters, and the “Invite Leader” Executive Order, ensuring a smoother and more enjoyable gaming experience.
  
• Revitalized Lighting Effects: Explore the game like never before with our comprehensive lighting improvements, which elevate the visual appeal across key areas, creating a more atmospheric and engaging environment.

• Dyson Spheres: These ultimate energy engines drive your civilization's growth, with energy output influenced by their host stars, making energy-rich white stars particularly valuable.
  
• Stellar Nexus: The customizable core of your civilization, the Stellar Nexus can be upgraded with Nexus Augments that provide powerful effects based on its host star's color.
  
• Stellar Gateways: Revolutionize travel by linking distant black holes, enabling rapid military maneuvering and trade. Form alliances through the Open Gateways Treaty to enhance cooperation.
  
• Ringworlds: Construct colossal Class 39 artificial planets to support vast populations and ensure your civilization's legacy. These structures provide tile bonuses influenced by their host stars.

Discover cosmic secrets through quests that unveil Ruined Ringworlds and ancient technologies, allowing you to create powerful Improvements and upgrade Orbital Improvements for extended reach.




Don't miss out on exclusive gameplay and developer insights. Set your reminders and join us for an exciting afternoon!

Megastructures is Stardock’s latest expansion for Galactic Civlizations IV: Supernova and boy is there a lot to cover! I have to keep things brief in these developer journals so today so I’ll be providing an overview of the core features that Megastructures brings to the game, with the intention to further deep dive into its various components later on.

Megastructures adds a new branch to the Engineering Tech tree, with a sequence of new Techs unlocking access to a new resource called Gigamass and all that can be made from it.

Gigamass is harvested from Dead Worlds (those with a Class of 0), by the new Planet Harvester ship.

One crucial point to note: Gigamass is a highly limited resource and once all the Dead Worlds on the map have been harvested, aside from some very small amounts generated through Events, that’s all there is. Gigamass is valuable but the AI may be willing to trade their own stocks if you have something they want in return, but generally speaking, it would be wise to carefully examine your own Gigamass stocks and the costs of each Megastructure (or other feature) when planning what you want to spend it on.

Gigamass isn’t the only new resource added: the enormous Megastructures and a whole host of new Civilization Achievements will require a constant power supply to run, which we’ve simply called Energy.

The maximum value here represents how many Energy points worth of Megastructure and Improvement can be run on a turn-by-turn basis. Exceeding this has maximum has severe consequences, so ensure you have enough Energy before you build Energy-sucking construction projects!

So how do you generate Energy? The first is with the new Solar Farm Improvement.

This requires a small amount of Gigamass to build and provides a small amount of Energy: perhaps best used for powering the other new Civilization Achievements requiring Gigamass to construct, such as this Precious Gem Synthesiser, an example of the new Civilization Achievements added with this expansion.

These might be helpful for civilizations that don’t want or need to build the Megastructures themselves, and to give players some powerful tools and fun tools to help kickstart their campaign a little earlier.

For greater power generation, you’ll need the first of our titular Megastructures: the Dyson Sphere!

First though we need a new type of construction ship to build Megastructures: the Stellar Architect.

Wrapped neatly around a star, the Dyson Sphere is a titanic construction that harnesses enough energy from its host to power your other Megastructure projects. Different star types will generate different levels of power.

Later on, the mighty Stellar Nexus become available for construction too. On their own these provide an impressive boost Civilization-wide boost to Approval, Manufacturing and Research, and this alone is worthy of the Gigamass investment.

That’s just the start though! They can be further extended with Augments, which require further Gigamass and Energy investment, and are available in three tiers, with later tiers unlocked later in the Tech tree. The type of Augments available for each Stellar Nexus is dependent upon the colour of its hosting star.

Above you can see the Cosmic Mirror Augment, which grants a huge 3 Technology to all your Core Worlds and Colonies, which will dramatically improve your overall Research.

For those more war-focused players, the Daybreak Engine provides a huge permanent boost to your Military output, speeding the creation of fleets, and providing every ship with increased Armor Rating and Shield Strength too. This makes smaller ships like Fighters, Bombers and Frigates very dangerous, and is perfect for when you need a lot of deadly ships constructed in a short space of time.

The current Augment can be upgraded for even better performance with later tier unlocks, or they can swapped out for a different Augment type completely whenever you like, although you will pay the Gigamass and Energy upkeep costs for this. Here we see the third tier Eclipse Engine and the improvement it gives to your Military, Armor Rating and Shield Strength. This is powerful stuff!

With the star classification affecting both Energy output for Dyson Spheres, and the kind of Augments available for a Stellar Nexus, and considering Dead Worlds are a source of the most precious resource in the game, there’s now more excitement in the discovery of star systems in the early phase of the game. We encourage you to carefully plan which stars to use for which Megastructures to achieve your goals of galactic domination!

Stellar Gateways are the next Megastructure type and must be constructed on the hexes surrounding a Black Hole.

When paired together, these epic-scale portals allow instantaneous travel from one to another, with the ability to link and unlink Stellar Gateways as needed, in the case that you’ve got an odd number of Gates, or you want to alter the destination of one of them.

The final Megastructure is the mighty Ringworld, the culmination of all the research you’ve put into these technological marvels. A gigantic ring is constructed to circle a star, with the inner edge made available for colonisation and the construction of many planetary Districts and Improvements.

This creates a perfect artificial Core World large enough to house many Citizens. It provides the very best tiles with space enough to construct your dream world. Fill it with factories, credit generating districts or farms, or build something even more exotic and specialised. Your imagination is the limit, and this Megastructure is perfect for Civilizations looking to peacefully expand the size of their empire in the mid and late game.

There are also some very powerful Ship Components for players to spend their precious Gigamass on too, and it may be that a war-like Civilizations such as the Korath Clan might prefer to direct this precious resource into their most favoured pastime instead of messing around with all that Megastructure stuff.

As you’d expect from a GalCiv expansion, Megastructures adds new in-game Events too.

This is just a very quick overview of the main features of Megastructures, and I hope this gives you some ideas for incorporating them into your playstyle!

Cheers!

Hey everyone! For this week’s Dev Journal, I’ve compiled a collection of handy tips and tricks to help you get your civilization rolling in the early game of Galactic Civilizations IV.

Galactic Civilizations IV is a complex strategy game that demands careful planning and strategic foresight. The early game sets the foundation for your civilization's success, and understanding the nuances of the game's mechanics can provide a significant advantage. This guide compiles a few essential tips and tricks to help you navigate the early stages of your journey to galactic dominance.


On Turn 1, leveraging Executive Orders can set a powerful precedent for your civilization's growth.

The free Colony ship provided by Draft Colonists is well worth any losses to Research or Manufacturing caused by the -2% Approval effect. An early colony within your Homeworld’s solar system will add Research, Wealth, or Manufacturing to your Homeworld’s Inputs with minimal Supply Attrition. An extra 2-3 Manufacturing or Research can slash Improvement build times and research turn lengths in the early game.

Telescope Takeover is another powerful Executive Order useful for scouting for high-class planets. Yellow stars often harbor these valuable planets, making them prime targets for early expansion.

Your Homeworld’s Capital City is a critical Improvement. One way to get ahead of the competition is by placing it on Turn 1. When the game starts, your Homeworld will have the Colonial Leadership Council in its queue which normally prevents other Improvements from being built. However, Capital Cities are unique in that they can be placed down immediately, bypassing the queue entirely.

Successfully constructing your Captial City on Turn 1 will net your civilization a host of benefits, including bonuses to Research, Manufacturing, Income, and Culture Points per Turn.

When the Colonial Leadership Council is completed on Turn 2, you gain access to the Leader screen where you can manage your civilization’s Leaders. Recruiting and assigning these Leaders to Minister positions can make a huge difference in the early game. Prioritize recruiting three Leaders: one with high Intelligence, one with high Social Skills, and one with high Diligence. These Leaders can then be assigned as Ministers for significant bonuses:

1. The Minister of Exploration increases the Moves of all your ships by 1.
   
2. The Minister of Technology unlocks an additional Random Discounted Tech slot.
   
3. The Minister of Colonization provides bonus Approval that translates to increased Research and Manufacturing across your civilization.

Choosing a Minister of Technology is particularly important as having one increases the odds that powerful technologies will receive discounted Research costs.

Focus your research efforts on Colonial Policies to gain early boosts with Policies like Coerced Colonization.

The 100% Growth can be invaluable and well worth the hit to Approval as the Planetary Outputs of your Core Worlds (Manufacturing, Research, Income) increase significantly with each additional Citizen.

Additionally, gaining a Cultural Trait early on can make a huge difference. Each civilization starts with a large discount for Traits in one ideology, but don’t be afraid to grab one or two Traits from other trees if the bonuses are appealing.

For Terran Players, the Individualism Trait “Independence” will be the cheapest option - granting a free Flag Ship useful for surveying more Anomalies than would normally be possible with just the starting Flag Ship “Discovery.” However, you may want to wait a few turns longer to save up for the Egalitarian Trait “Fairness” which provides three free Colony ships and can greatly accelerate early-game expansion.

Terran players may also want to prioritize colonizing Artemis as doing so triggers a colonization event that offers Culture Points as a reward.

Not all high-yield colonies need to become Core Worlds. Instead, use them to support your main planets. A not-too-distant colony can double a Core World’s Inputs with little to no Supply Attrition.

Setting a lower Tax Rate with the Tax Rate slider can allow you to boost Approval, thus increasing both Research and Manufacturing. Income lost by lower tax rates can be offset by Anomaly Events that can often yield substantial Credits.

Be cautious when specializing Citizens as Workers to avoid hindering early Research progress as Workers provide bonus Manufacturing but generate no Research. On the flip side, try to retain any scientists acquired, as their bonuses to Research can be substantial, and they are harder to come by.

Orbital Improvements are a powerful tool for getting your Core Worlds online faster. The Recruiting Station, specifically, is a cheap, Credits-only Orbital that provides a huge boost to Growth as early as turn 1.

After researching Universal Translator, Durantium can be purchased from the Bazaar for additional Orbital Improvements like the Colonization Center for additional Growth or the Atmospheric Cleanser for reduced Pollution.

Research Planetology and invest in Housing Districts, which provide 1 Adjacency Bonuses and increase Population Capacity. Housing Districts are extremely useful for improving a planet’s efficiency by raising the power of all surrounding Improvements and making space for more Citizens.

A highly populated Homeworld can be instrumental in kickstarting the development of other Core Worlds as Citizens of one world can be transported to another.

Additionally, one effective strategy for accelerating the development of new Core Worlds is to send Supply Ships. Supply Ships provide a resource called “Stored Goods” to any Core World they arrive at, which acts as bonus Manufacturing points that can reduce the amount of turns it takes to construct Improvements to just one.

New Core Worlds can use these Stored Goods to build Shipyards of their own, allowing them to construct more Supply Ships to further accelerate their development.

These strategies should help you establish a robust foundation for your civilization in Galactic Civilizations IV. Each decision in the early game can have far-reaching consequences, making it essential to plan carefully and adapt to the dynamic galactic landscape. By implementing these tips, you're well-equipped to lead your civilization to greatness.

I’d love to hear about other tips and techniques you employ when starting a new game! Feel free to share your strategies and experiences and I’ll see you again in my next Dev Journal.

In this week’s developer blog for Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova it’s time to examine the endless hordes that make up the Mimot Brotherhood, without a doubt the Civilization with the most impressive ability to “go forth and multiply” in all of GalCiv.

When it comes to 4X games, eXpand is often one of the most important of the X’s in terms of winning a campaign: territory gained in the early game often translates directly into industrial output, and industrial output extending the reach of your military power projection, whether to take territory to win or defend yourself from the predations of others while you achieve some other, non-violent victory condition.

Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova is a somewhat more complex affair because unlike most classic 4X games, the taller style of play can be viable owing to the unique Core World and Colony dynamic, which allows players to remain competitive with less managed worlds on some maps. That said, unless you’re really hemmed in by dangerous opponents from the start of the game, achieving a strong start with plenty of Core Worlds or Colonies will usually be a better idea than staying small, and there is no other Core Civilization quite like the Mimot Brotherhood for achieving this super-wide style of play.

Why? Because the Mimot have two very powerful Civilization Abilities that work in tandem to supercharge their expansion efforts.

Fertile grows Citizens at a rapid rate and provides access to a couple of extra techs that help boost Citizen production.

With Proliferation, the Mimot can send those Citizens out to settle new worlds twice as fast as any other non-prolific Civilization, as the “buy one, get one free” ship feature also affects Colony Ships, Constructors and other non-combat vessels. The Civilization Trait Fast 1 ensures their ships get where they’re going before their rivals, while Productive 1 gives the Mimot a big boost to Manufacturing to build everything faster too.

This pairing ensures the Mimot have many more options in reaching valuable colonies and strategic resources.

Given enough space to breathe, the Mimot Brotherhood can claim new worlds, strategic resources and other map features at an alarming rate. A good player who knows how to expand well will end up with a truly huge territory if not checked by another player in some way, and this makes the Mimot an incredibly fun Civilization to play as if, like me, you really enjoy the colony management aspect of the game and love watching a large empire grow.

There is a downside to all this rapid growth: the Mimot tend to run low on Food pretty quickly, and much of your Core Worlds' real-estate will be dedicated to housing and feeding your Citizens. The Mimot themselves aren’t the best Citizens and that Food consumption doesn’t get you much: your average fuzzball is kinda cute and entertaining, but he doesn’t know much about anything and rarely lifts a finger to get anything done either.

However, once you research Genetic Architecture, they’ll start pulling their weight properly and then you’ll be pretty glad you built homes for them all, as your Citizen-based industrial bonuses shoot through the roof.

The Civilization Policy Genetic Manipulation can help, and they have access to some unique Improvements that can help their stats too.

Mimot Citizens make unattractive immigrants to alien Civilizations: their incredible Growth rate coupled with low statistics feels like a bad deal, although slow growing Civilizations might benefit from their rapid reproduction rate, just to get some more hands on deck. Just know that unless you’ve also got access to Statistic boosters, those Mimot aren’t going to be too effective for building a strong economy.

Another problem the Mimot will run into is other players: their borders can expand quickly and border friction is a major cause of war declarations. Fortunately their Civilization Trait Likeable 2 gives them a huge 3 Diplomacy boost, which is the main reason they’re not constantly at war with every other nation they bump into.

Proliferation helps out if war does break out: sure, your battleships are smaller and less durable than their rivals, but you get two for every one you pay the Military points for. What the Mimot lose in individual combat strength, ship by ship, they more than make up for with the ability to literally be in two places at once, and the strategic options that this tactical agility grants them cannot be understated. And in combat, you get twice the firepower!


One time I remember invading the Mimot Brotherhood when playing as the Yor Singularity, only to be horrified to see just how many fleets began to pour over our border a few turns later. Sure, they’re not particularly strong fleets, but they just throw so many of them at you!

So, the Mimot are a strong option if you enjoy managing a wider, more populated Civilization, with lots of Citizens on lots of Core Worlds, with lots of border friction to deal with and lots of ships to throw at your enemies when they inevitably tire of your shenanigans.

Let us know if you enjoy this faction, and share your strategies!

Hello everyone! For this week’s Dev Journal, we are going to take a look at the exciting and often overlooked Galactic Challenges of GalCiv IV.

Galactic Challenges are special Quests that players can start at any time once certain prerequisite conditions have been met. Each Challenge provides optional side objectives that players can attempt to complete for Prestige and other powerful rewards.

Each Challenge is unique, and the associated rewards can help accelerate players towards victory! Galactic Challenges are particularly useful for gathering Prestige - a resource that is usually difficult to acquire.

Galactic Challenges are accessed by clicking the trophy icon in the center of the main screen hotbar. Players will not have access to this screen until after the Cultural Influence technology has been researched. Once unlocked, players will be able to open the Galactic Challenges screen where they can see the current list of available Challenges.

Each Challenge has a description, a stated reward, and a series of objectives. With this information, players can choose which Challenges they want to undertake.

The Challenge “Against the Tide,” for example, describes a crisis where all other Civilizations declare war on the player. The reward for surviving a total of 88 Months/Turns is a large sum of 70 Prestige.

While preparing for this Dev Journal, I opted to skip the “Against the Tide” Challenge as my military strength was lacking. Instead, I decided to start both “The Orb of Draginol” and the “Hall of Unity” Challenges as I felt my civilization was equipped to complete their objectives.

This brings me to another point: multiple Challenges can be taken simultaneously. Just be mindful of the risks associated and choose your challenges wisely; some Challenges are more dangerous than others.

The initial selection of available Challenges will be limited. More Challenges become available as players progress through the game and unlock various technologies.

For your convenience, I’ve compiled a handy chart to help you see the prerequisites for each Challenge:

Once underway, progress for each Challenge is tracked via a Quest Display in the upper left-hand corner of the main screen beneath the current Research.

This will help you keep track of any ongoing Challenges and their various objectives.

Progress can also be tracked within the Galactic Challenges screen which will update as objectives and challenges are complete and new Challenges become available.

As mentioned earlier, Galactic Challenges are an excellent source of Prestige.

Prestige is an important resource that directly contributes to achieving a Prestige Victory.

To quote the Galactapedia, “Prestige is a measure of a civilization’s status. A civilization with a high enough Prestige will win the game through domination in several areas.”

A Prestige Victory will usually be achieved when a player’s civilization advances militarily, economically, and technologically without engaging in conquest or cultural battles.

Galactic Challenges allow players to more actively pursue this victory condition by earning large amounts of Prestige outside of standard progression.

I’ve done my best to avoid sharing specifics when discussing Galactic Challenges in this Dev Journal as there are some surprises best saved for players who’ve not yet attempted these trials.

In conclusion, Galactic Challenges are more than just side quests; they're your ticket to shaking up the game and gaining an edge over your rivals. So, be bold, play smart, and remember—whatever you do, don’t catch Penultipox!

View Full Changelog

We’re excited to announce the release of Galactic Civilizations IV v2.91 which brings a host of improvements and refinements that will make your journey through the cosmos even more enjoyable.

Gameplay Improvements: Enjoy smoother gameplay with fixes to various quests, including the “Cosmic Containment” evolution and the frequency of the “Orb of Draginol” and “Retribution” quests. We’ve also made adjustments to ensure that the effects of the “Precursor Heir” are felt globally.

Visual Enhancements: We’ve updated all remaining icons to align with the Galactic Civilizations IV aesthetic, ensuring a cohesive and polished look throughout the game.

Text and UI Refinements: We’ve polished descriptions and tooltips for better clarity, corrected minor text errors, and improved the user interface for a more intuitive experience. Expect smoother camera transitions and enhanced visibility of important stats on the Shipyard Screen.

In my previous developer blog #78, I gave a quick overview of the dreaded Cosmic Contaminant and their aggressive “all against the galaxy” playstyle. This week we’re going to examine a Core Civilization with a contrasting playstyle that can favor a defensive posture with the occasional military excursion to secure a needed Strategic Resource.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to introduce you to the Luxar Dominion!

The Luxar are a civilization made up of Citizens with the Crystalline Phenotype, who need no Food but will reproduce very slowly until significant amounts of Promethium are stockpiled. To make up for this, they have fairly high Statistics compared to your average humanoid, with high Diligence, Intelligence and Resolve ensuring you get more out of your Citizens than most other Civilizations.

These high performance Citizens, along with the Phenotype description above, implies one particular playstyle for the Luxar Dominion: accumulate as much Promethion as possible, avoiding spending it as much as possible to build your Growth rate, and then maximizing Housing and Approval boosting assets onto your planets. Your Citizens will become a powerful economy in their own right towards the end of the game, ensuring your smaller empire remains competitive towards the end of the game: your low Growth rate means less colonization, and you are likely to be quite small compared to your neighbors for a while.

One of the downsides to being the small fish in a pond full of sharks like the Drengin Empire, Korath Clan, Cosmic Contaminant and Yor Singularity, is that you’ll attract early wars, and you’ll be playing either very diplomatically, or very defensively as a consequence of that. This is where the Luxar’s Civilization Abilities can help.

The large combat bonuses granted by Paranoid only apply to fleet battles within the borders of your own Influence but when stacked with a well upgraded Military Starbase and a (hopefully) technologically advanced fleet of warships, the Luxar become extremely difficult to beat when defending their own territory.

The Luxar Dominion’s Civilization Traits further emphasize this defensive nature, with Courageous granting a large Planetary Defense bonus, with Gentle actually reducing their ability to counter-invade the worlds of other Civilizations.

This is their one trade-off, as they also get some pretty nice economic boosters with Rich, Clever and Militant boosting Credit production, Research and starting Control respectively.

Furthermore, to bolster their offensive and defensive strategic capabilities, the Telepathy ability grants access to two active use Executive Orders, both of which are really fun because they give you options in the form of an Event.

Pandemonium is a multi-purpose offensive play with several options when targeting an enemy planet: reducing Planetary Defense mean Invasions will resolve faster, perhaps supporting a lightning fast offensive to take a planet before enemy fleets can arrive to defend.

Reducing Influence and Approval suppresses the Citizens on the planet and slows the growth of cultural borders, Manufacturing, Military and Research. Playing this on an important Core World, such as Earth as shown in the screenshot below, could have a dramatic effect on the enemy’s economic and cultural output.

The third option applies a more direct penalty to Manufacturing and Research: this may or may not end up being a more severe penalty than the Approval reduction, depending on who you’re targeting and their relative Planetary Outputs and Approval rate.

Serenity targets one of your own worlds, with the options to dramatically improve Growth, Approval or Influence and Tourism, depending on your needs at that time. This flexibility can cover a lot of potential issues you’ll come up with in the early game, with the last option to boost Influence generation and Tourism being particularly effective in the late game once you’re territory is a lot larger.

The Luxar’s unique Growth mechanic of requiring Promethium stockpiles is an interesting challenge to overcome. Promethium may or may not be in abundance on your game map, and if not, it’s likely to be one of the prime factors driving you to territorial expansion and war. Of course, you can trade for it, but this is expensive, and securing your own Promethium mining operations is going to be very important.

This isn’t to say that the Luxar cannot play a taller game, with less Core Worlds and Citizens, as they do get better performance out of the population (see screenshot above for a better than average Citizen) they do have working the assets on their Core Worlds.

However, increasing that Growth rate will usually be of prime interest to a Luxar Dominion player as the Statistic boost they get is not overwhelmingly strong. While your Citizens will be better than average, they’re not superhuman… or supercrystal, whatever.

The Luxar Dominion’s preferred Ideology is Collectivism, which grants access to some very useful supporting Ideological Traits.

Unification grants a decent Influence boost in the early game, helping expand their borders out a bit faster to counter their slower colonization efforts. It can be tempting to grab both Shared Belief and Consensus to fully leverage the power of Citizens with the Collectivism Ideology and dramatically improve planetary outputs (through increased Approval) as a result. Unified Coordination and Mass Mobilization are war focused Traits and increase both wartime Manufacturing rates and the maximum size of your fleets.

Whatever Core Worlds attached to Colonies will be more productive with either Interdependence or Solidarity, while the capstone Trait Hive Mind will further improve your Citizens, and grant access to a powerful endgame Tech to help close the game with too.

So the Luxar’s game, if you decide to play to their strengths, is one of careful expansion to take the Promethium and other Strategic Resources they need, without over-extending, safe in the knowledge that what you do hold is very defensible and reasonably productive.

They’re not the Mimot or Torians, and cannot usually take huge amounts of territory in the early game, which means you’re naturally playing a somewhat “taller” game than many of your rivals, at least until a good quantity of Promethium is sat safely in your stockpiles.

But overall, this is a strong, stable civilization that can make a lot of space for themselves in the midgame by concentrating their forces onto prone neighbors weakened with their psychic abilities, and then maneuver themselves into a winning position as the game draws to a close through the power of their collective Citizen economy.

So, take the psychic crystal guys for a ride and see if you can win a race for galactic supremacy with them!