Galactic Civilizations 3 update improves AI and slashes load times

Galactic Civilizations 3, the sprawling 4X space strategy game, is more than two years old but it's still getting regular updates. In the summer it got an expansion, Crusade, with a new campaign, and in September the UI and economy improvements from Crusade were integrated into the base game. A new update out this week improves the AI, slashes load times, and fixes a host of annoying crashes during the end game and multiplayer matches.

The AI changes are probably the most meaningful: computer-controlled opponents will now engage in what developer Stardock calls "procedural planet building". Essentially, the AI will look at the state of the galaxy and its empire and then prioritise what to build on its planets. If it's running low on food then it will focus on farm improvements, for example.

The Triumph of the Fans update, as the name suggests, also adds a lot of fan-requested features, such as making planetary improvements more destructible and adding the ability to toggle between turn number and date.

The developer has also changed the way the game manages data, which has sped up load times and eliminated conflicts with certain anti-virus programmes. It has also fixed crashes that were happening during both the endgame and multiplayer. Players were apparently getting desynced at turn 200 in multiplayer, which sounds like it would be infuriating, and that thankfully won't happen any more. Basically, if you were plagued by performance problems, now might be a good time to strap back in.

You can view the full change log here. Fans of the game: what else would you like to see tweaked?

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.