Galactic Civilization 3's Early Access Ships Ship Builder

Gal Civ 3 launched into Early Access in late March, but at the time the game was missing much of what made the 4X strategy game special, including diplomacy, colony management and ship building. Stardock are beginning to change that, and yesterday launched an update that added the freeform ship builder to the game. There's a long, 40-minute archive livestream below showing exactly what you can do with it. Here's the important part: you can now have animated parts on your phallic dong-vessels. Maybe it's time to windmill into battle?

There's a brief, introductory part one before the stream went down, but the meat of it takes place in the video below.

Watch live video from Stardock on TwitchTV

What made Galactic Civilizations 2 so exciting was the detail and personality in its universe. Your enemy AIs weren't blank shells trying to defeat you; they each had their own methods, and seemed to act according to the style of their leader as much as what was mathematically most efficient. It similarly gave players plenty of options to express their own personality, letting you defeat your enemies not only with bigger and better ships, but with bigger and better ships broadcasting better television shows.

In other words, Gal Civ 3 is very exciting and looks promising, but it's maybe not the kind of game which condenses down into constituent parts without losing much of what makes it great. Adding a ship builder moves it a step closer towards its own intended victory over your free time.