Hello everyone! For Welcome to this week's dev journal, I wanted to walk through where we're diving into the exciting process of creating a Custom Civilization in GalCiv IV.
Creating Crafting a custom civilization is an excellent a fantastic way to experiment with different explore diverse playstyles and unique Ability combinations. Whether it's a mashup of you're blending elements from your two favorite civscivilizations, bringing a faction from your favorite beloved sci-fi mediafaction to life, or inventing something wholly entirely original, Custom Civilizations has you coveredcustom civilizations offer endless possibilities.
To get the ball rolling, you can hit started, select "New Game" from the main menu . There you will find Custom Civilization as an option in and choose "Custom Civilization" from the list of available civilizationsoptions. Clicking it This will then bring take you to the civilization creation screen, where the real fun begins.Civilization creation
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The journey starts in the Biology tab, where you can infuse your custom civilization with personality and flair. Here, you can write and adjust details important to the flavor of your Civilization such as its name, the portrait of name your civilization, select a portrait for its leader, and determine the species Species of its citizensCitizens, and more. Each of these entries can be changed to your liking and new images can be added by dropping elements is customizable, and you can even add new images by placing them in the appropriate folder.
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To accelerate streamline this process, GalCiv IV has a special feature called AlienGPT which will automatically populate every entry features AlienGPT, a handy tool that automatically fills in entries based on a short brief description. Any text or settings changed generated by AlienGPT can be tweaked with little effort.Cultural Focus, Species, and Personality are the options with the most gameplay impact within the Biology tab. Cultural Focus raises Cultural Awareness of the chosen ideology which grants discounts for easily adjusted to suit your vision.
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The Biology tab also offers options with significant gameplay impact:
Cultural Focus: Raises cultural awareness of the chosen ideology, offering discounts for cultural Traits within that ideology's tree
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. (Refer to Dev Journal #70)
Species: Each Species boasts unique strengths and weaknesses that can
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dramatically influence your civilization's playstyle
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. (Refer to Dev Journal #64)
Personality: Dictates the behavior of your civilization when controlled by AI.
With the Biology tab filled out, you can then complete, it's time to move to the Abilities tab. Here , where you will have the most control over your civilization's strengths and weaknesses starting with Traits.
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Each Every civilization has a Trait Point "budget" to spend on traits both positive and negative. Most Traits exist on a scale from Very Good to Very Bad. Taking a good trait will cost points whereas taking a bad trait will give you more points to spend. This allows you to carve out niches where your civilization excels and make adjustments to match your playstyle.
All civs have the same trait budget with unique combinations. For example, the Corporate Sector is all about economics and thus has the X and Y traits but is bad at Z.
Similar to Traits are Civilization Abilities. Each civ gets two and abilities are particularly important/consequential.
How do you want your game to look and sound while playing as this civ?
Commander Ships are powerful ships that you assign leaders to and unlock over time.
Hello everyone! For this week's dev journal, I wanted to walk through the process of creating a Custom Civilization.
Creating a custom civilization is a great way to experiment with new playstyles and unique ability combinations.
From Main Menu, New Game, select custom civ
Behold! screen
AlienGPT! A great place to start - generated lore, names, etc. Based on your description.
Adjust to your taste. Add your own pictures
Species for DLC owners. See this journal.
Gameplay-wise, Cultural Focus. Ideology discount. see journal 70
next, the Abilities Tab!
Traits: on a budget
Abilities
What’s your playstyle?
Default civ examples
More visuals/audio
Command Ships: Titles help guide. Match playstyle or cover blindspots
Planet Type. Your homeworld. Match species preference
Fleets Tab!
Style and colors - see Journal 7X
Change individual ships - get more from workshop
save and play!
Soon, games full of custom civsof three Trait Points to allocate to civilization Traits. These Traits can have positive or negative effects, depending on how you distribute the points. Positive Traits cost Trait Points, while negative Traits provide additional points to spend. Bonuses provided by traits will generally be modifiers to various global stats like Income, Research, or Control.
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Next up are Civilization Abilities, which are akin to Traits but with broader, more powerful effects. Unlike Traits, civilizations are limited to two abilities. Selecting the right combination of Traits and abilities is crucial for crafting a civilization that aligns with your playstyle.
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For inspiration, consider existing civilizations like the Corporate Sector. Focused on economics and trade, they maximize the Rich Trait and possess the Traders and Wealthy Abilities, granting bonus trade routes, a wealth of credits, and boosts to gross income and ship range.
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Additionally, you can customize the map, interface, and music themes from this tab, allowing you to tailor your civilization's aesthetic.
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Commander Ships are formidable vessels with unique special abilities that can be game-changers at any stage. Choose a fleet that complements your playstyle or compensates for your weaknesses. Combat-oriented commander ships, for instance, can bolster defenses for pacifist civilizations that might otherwise be vulnerable targets.
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The final settings in the Abilities Tab concern your civilization's Homeworld. When selecting your Homeworld, consider the Species of your Citizens, as different Species thrive on different planets. Aquatic or Mer Species, for example, benefit from an Oceanic Homeworld.
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With that, we proceed to the final step of civilization creation in the Fleets tab!
On the left side of the Fleets tab, you can customize the style, colors, textures, and materials of your civilization's fleets. For a comprehensive list of each default civilization's color-texture-material settings, check out my Journal on the Ship Designer, Dev Journal #71.
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On the right side of the Fleets tab, you can assign different ship templates to each ship class. The same customization applies to your civilization's Starbases, allowing you to mix and match ship and Starbase templates to your heart's content.
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Once everything is set, hit save and embark on your new adventure!
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Before diving into gameplay, consider sharing your creation with the community by uploading your civilization to the Steam Workshop. Our community is full of talented civilization and ship designers whose creations may offer the perfect additions to your next game.
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With each new civilization crafted, the roster of potential avatars and adversaries expands. Soon, your games will be populated with a diverse array of unfamiliar faces, each bringing fresh challenges and opportunities.