From Stardock:
Owners of the Crusade expansion pack to Stardock's best-selling space 4X strategy game, Galactic Civilizations III are receiving a major update today.
Dubbed the "Ludicrous" update, the new version replaces the largest sized galaxy option with a new one called "Ludicrous." This option doubles the maximum size over the previous biggest map size ("insane size") and includes a host of quality of life improvements, balance updates, bug fixes, and much more.
"Galactic Civilizations III already supported very large maps," said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock Entertainment. "But among the many improvements that the new Crusade expansion pack brings is a multi-core game AI which allows for much bigger galaxies to play, thanks to the drastically reduced turn-times."
In early May, Stardock released the critically acclaimed (87 metacritic) expansion that introduced citizens, spies, diplomats, privateers, interactive invasions, commanders, the civilization builder, three new civilizations, and much more. Fan response has been tremendous, and Stardock has channeled that into this update, which is filled with not just bigger map sizes, but dozens of important improvements across the game.
"The best way to describe Galactic Civilizations III: Crusade is that it is the answer to the mid-to-late game grind that 4X strategy games have struggled with for years," said Wardell. "With Crusade, we answer this with both features such as the new citizen system that allows players to execute powerful actions late game, as well as taking full advantage of the new, 64-bit, multi-core custom game engine that was made exclusively for creating space 4X games."
To that end, Crusade includes the first core-neutral AI engine for the genre.
"What core-neutral AI means is that the game will use all the CPU cores you have no matter how few or how many are on your PC," said Wardell. "We found that a large percentage of our players have at least 4 CPU cores, and many have 6 or more. This meant we could, literally, cut down turn times by a factor of 8 to 12, depending on the CPU. This matters because anyone who plays these types of games knows that the late game can slow to a halt. It also allowed us to develop a substantially more intelligent series of computer opponents and create a more life-like background simulation that the players tap into."
Galactic Civilizations III: Crusade has quickly become popular with YouTube streamers, partially because of its combination of fast turn times and the Civilization Builder.
"YouTube has become an unexpected phenomenon for Crusade," said Wardell. "Because players can design their own ships and civilizations and share them via Steam workshop, streamers can literally set up games where they are playing against a random mix of their favorite Sci-Fi races. The fast turn times means that the streamers don't see their playthroughs bog down in the late game and it makes for a really good Let's Play viewing experience."
Galactic Civilizations III: Crusade is available as a package for only $39.98 (or $19.99 if you already have Galactic Civilizations III).
Website: www.galciv3.com/store .
