Exclusive: Galactic Civilization II Q&A Feature

Galactic Civilizations is a space based strategy game in which you are in control of humanity's destiny.

It is a growing brand that is building much excitement with strategy fans who want a deeper and much more involved gamer. After the release of the first game along with a database disc the sequel is now well into development. Along with new races and plenty of new and exciting new ideas much is expected. Derek dela Fuente spoke with personnel at Stardock to find out more.

TVG: Can you firstly tell us a little about Stardock, how many make up the team, your core expertise and possibly vision?

Stardock has two groups within it. The first group creates our Windows enhancement software such as Object Desktop and runs WinCustomize.com.

The second group is made up of the game teams. We currently have one full team of 8 people and are building up towards a second team so that we can do two titles at the same time.

TVG: For those not au-fait with the Galactic Civilizations brand, what would you say it epitomizes best within its genre? Tell us about some of the exiting elements on offer!

What makes Galactic Civilizations special is that it is a strategy game that is on a grand scale. Youâ??re not just controlling your military units, you are controlling a vast interstellar empire. The player is in charge of their economy, their industry, their diplomacy with other players, and even defining what kind of culture that their civilization is evolving into.

We then wrap all that into a very tight set of features that lets them really be involved with the success/failure of their civilization without it being a micro-management nightmare.

TVG: It must have been a long building progress from GC to GCII, what are some of the new features that youâ??ve worked on that you are really excited about? What was the most â??askedâ?? request from you massive fan base from GC1?

The new one has a ton of new features. There are 4 features that really stand out:

1) Ship design. Players donâ??t just get pre-packaged ships to build, instead they design their own ships and weâ??ve done a lot there so that players have lot of control of not just what their ships can do but how they look.

2) Planet Management. This time around each planet is truly unique. The player has a lot more control over the destiny of each world in their empire.

3) Fleets. Players now can build fleets of ships and send them into battle.

4) 3D engine. This really is a catch-all for tons of additional features such as a new game map, zoom in and out of the game world, much better graphics and effects, and so forth.

TVG: Please tell us about a couple of the first tasks the player will have to undertake and basic premise on offer?

In the game you start out as the leader of a given space-faring civilizations (the humans or one of a near dozen or so alien civilizations). You start in a race to colonize and claim your piece of the galaxy. From there, players must fight/negotiate their place in the known universe through political, economic or military might.

TVG: What types of technologies and professions can a player use in Galactic Civilizations II?

The technologies revolve around trying to improve your civilization in very concrete ways. So you have technologies that make your ships travel faster, technologies that give them better weapons and defenses, technologies that improve your economy, and technologies that change and enhance your civilizationâ??s culture.

TVG: What would your comments be to the fact that what is on offer is a serious hard core game which is some cases is to the detriment of visual quality? (Perhaps you can comment about the engine you are using?)

We have developed a new 3D engine specifically for this game that allows us to have a fantastic visual experience as well as letting it appeal more to hard core players. For instance, players can zoom out with their mouse wheel and the game world morphs into a tactical map with the units made more iconic. So hard core players can play it zoomed out at a galactic level. Other players can zoom in so far that they can see individual cities on the planets and the bridges of their star ships.

TVG: Can you tell the readers about the backdrop story to the game and the race on offer and how does this sit in terms of timeline from the original game?

Sure. The game includes a dynamic campaign in addition to the traditional â??sand boxâ?? mode. The campaign walks them through the back story of the game.

In Galactic Civilizations I, the reckless humans invented hyper drive, a technology that allows ships to travel great distances quickly. As a result, the major galactic powers raced to claim their part of the galaxy. The story followed that concept.

In Galactic Civilizations II, the Drengin Empire and Arcean Empire have become the major powers of the galaxy and a war is brewing between them. Each of the other galactic powers finds themselves having to side up with one civilization or the other.

Unfortunately for all, as the war rages on, they start uncovering elements of a long gone civilization known as the Precursors. The other civilizations will thus discover that there are worse things in the universe than each other.

TVG: How big is the game is terms of size and can you expand a little on the planets and the way things have changed this aspect from the previous title?

The galaxy sizes will remain pretty much the same. You can play a small game with only a few planets or you can play in a gigantic galaxy that may have thousands of planets. So it has a pretty broad range in what kind of game you might play. Small games can be finished in an hour or two. Gigantic games can take place over months.

TVG: You are already talking about Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords for late 2005. Can you tell us some facts already about your basic ideas on how you will build and extend the brand?

We look at Galactic Civilizations as a franchise. We hope to have Galactic Civilizations II completed in late 2005. After that, we plan to keep updating it and release expansion packs that add more features to it based on requests from players.

TVG: What inspires the team and do you play other Space games like Egosoftâ??s X2!?

Iâ??m not familiar with X2. But we draw our inspiration from all kinds of games that have been out there. Thereâ??s Civilization, Master of Orion, Ascendancy and board games like Twilight Imperium. These are all games that have pieces of things that we think make for a great interstellar 4X title.

TVG: Is Stardock creating other titles and if so what? Can we expect some interesting news from you?

We released The Political Machine (www.politicalmachine.com) last summer. We also launched TotalGaming.net this past summer as an expanded version of our Drengin.net concept. TotalGaming.net allows users to purchase games and download them electronically with a minimum of fuss. All our games are on there, plus the games published by companies such as Take 2, Strategy First, Ubi Soft and others.