Game Setup

Game Setup

Setting a standard game up in Galactic Civilizations 4: Supernova is a relatively simple process despite the large number of options available, and consists of the following steps:

• In the Main Menu screen, select “New Game”.

• Choose a Core Civilization, or generate a custom Civ, to play as.

• If a Core Civilization is selected, it can be further customized.

• Select game and map settings.

• Select the AI opponents to play against.

• Start the game.

Civilization Selection

Galactic Civilizations IV: Supernova ships with 23 Core Civilizations to play as, and also features a custom Civilization creation system utilizing our AlienGPT system.

Each Civilization has a different combination of Civilization Abilities, Traits, Biology, Citizens, Cultural Focus and other special rules, and the player should carefully examine these before making their choice, as each Civilization will play quite differently, with their own strengths, weaknesses and playstyle.

Civilization Customization

This screen will only display if a Core Civilization was selected.

Here the player can alter the following settings to make changes to the way the Civ will play, to bring greater variation to repeated playthroughs:

• Civilization Abilities.
  
• Cultural Focus.
  
• Biology.
  
• Citizens.
  
• Planet Type.
  
• Homeworld.
  
• Civilization Traits.
  

The following options are purely cosmetic or add flavour to a playthrough:

• Leader Name.
  
• History.
  
• Ship Style.
  
• Leader Portrait and Background.
  
• Map and Ship Colors.
  

Gameplay Settings

Game Settings:

This screen contains many options that alter the difficulty of the game. Along with the Civilization you pick, and the AI opponents, the settings in this screen will influence the kind of playstyle or challenge that the player wishes to experience.

Conquer the Galaxy Your Way:

• Galaxy Difficulty increases the bonuses or penalties each AI civilization receives, such as starting Credits and ship movement range. The AI will not use certain strategies on the Beginner or Easy, and begins to get bonuses on Bright and above.

• Game Pacing modifies Manufacturing speed of Core Worlds and Shipyards: alter this for a faster or slower paced game overall.

• Research Rate determines the amount of Research Points required for each technological advance. Increasing the Research Rate will generally shorten the game, as the higher technologies bring powerful benefits, and decreasing it will allow the player to enjoy each level of technology for longer.

• Encounters

• Minor Races sets the number of Minor Civilizations in play at the start of the game.

• Hostile Entities determines the number of Space Monsters and Pirates that spawn on the map at the start of the game.

• Civilization Proximity determines the distance between each Civilization at the start of the game. This is not a linear distance setting, instead it informs the map generation algorithm as to where to try to place each Civ in play, and the player will need to experiment with it in tandem with the Galaxy Settings to determine their preferred playstyle.

Galaxy Settings:

• Galaxy Size determines the overall size of the game map in tandem with the number of sectors selected.

• Number of Sectors sets the Sector count. For a game map similar to previous Galactic Civilization’s titles, set this to Singular. The higher settings are not linear values, instead informing the map generation algorithm of the rough number of sectors to create, in accordance with the Galaxy Size.

• Star Frequency sets the number of star systems to spawn on the map, which in turn determines the number of planets and asteroids in play.

• Habitable Planets determines how many colonizable planets will spawn at the start of the game. For a sparser game with less Core World/Colony management, set this to a lower setting.

• Extreme Planets will set a number of the colonizable planets to spawn as a type that require advanced technologies to settle on.

• Resources determines the amount of Strategic Resources, such as Durantium and Promethium, on the map at the start of the game.

Note that increasing the overall size and amount of objects in play will increase the load on the computer’s Memory and CPU. For the best play experience, please ensure that the settings you choose fall within the Recommended System values at the bottom left of the screen. It is possible to play with values exceeding these, but the performance of the game could suffer, particularly in the late game when each Civilization is well developed and fielding a lot of fleets.