Try Stars in Shadow. It's not a top-shelf game, but it's a good mix that makes it "fun" just to pick up and pay a bit. And it plays faster than most 4X games. The way I can describe it is, "It's an arcadey 4X game, if that can make any sense." Which is just weird, but kind of true.
And that's why I'm happy generally being a goglodyte and playing games years later, when I can get the full experience at once.

The problem is you can buy the game and DLC as it's released, or you can wait until it's a complete package. The difference seems to be paying around $200 or more for it, or just waiting for a sale of the complete package and paying around $20.

I would have no problem with this if they were releasing expansions that added a substantial amount of content to seem as a new game or at least add a substantial amount of new content with the cosmetic additions. A lot of the DLC being pushed now is just cosmetic trash or features that should have been included in the base game for the over-inflated prices they're charging for them upon release.

As long as we keep paying for this, they will continue doing this and it will likely get worse. I admit that I am guilty of buying new releases and getting caught up in buying DLC a little at a time, but I am not doing it anymore. Maybe if enough of the community stop getting nickle and dimed like this and wait for the full release when they stop developing the game, they will stop this practice.

GalCiv3 hasn't been on sale on GOG since June 2017.

And Stardock can't be bothered to offer a sale on the base game and previous DLC for this new release? Despite the near constant sales offered on Steam?

So when is Stardock pulling their games from GOG? Just waiting for their current contract with GOG to conclude?

The DLC-madness continues. Bese game + DLCs = $144,38.

I'm not intrigued.

Worse, none of the DLC has been on sale since Nov 2016 except the soundtrack in the Spring Sale 2017.

And to celebrate this new DLC, daily deal on Steam: base game+crusader+mega events= 12,57 eur

To celebrate the new DLC release here, Crusader DLC 20% off (15,99 eur)

So the same "pack" here, today: 29,99+3,99+15,99 eur= 49,97 eur vs 12,57 eur on Steam...

The same happens with, for instance, Age of Wonders 3. We don't have a package or a big sale here, never. We got gog connect for the base game (as this Galciv 3, also) but 0 offers for the DLC's which we need to buy 3 or 4 times the cost on Steam.

But they continue to release this things here on GOG, and no problem it seems. Meanwhile, there are games without DLC or this kind of disrespect for us all being rejected to enter GOG catalog and who knows why.

Ok, wait for me to buy you a single game or DLC more, Stardock. Thanks, another dev/publisher that seems to think that DRM-free is a privilege and so we need to pay more than Steam users, another dev/publisher i am not buying anymore.

I highly recommend Horizon and Stars in Shadow. Also I enjoyed the new Master of Orion which is the first MOO which I actually enjoyed playing.

I did let's plays on my youtube channel on all three if you want to take a look.
No matter what, I recommend all 3.
Also as someone else mentioned, I recommend the first GalCiv.

Horizon:
https://youtu.be/mrSMNIFV4fE?list=PLtpqh8ebqvxd6FUfWDn5Kj2DHC65ngY2U

Stars in Shadow:
https://youtu.be/ptHu7U1o0EU?list=PLtpqh8ebqvxfeLNFCYkynKwIE18y4pf3q

Master of Orion 2016:
https://youtu.be/VjHYD3lX0Uw?list=PLtpqh8ebqvxcti8hVegPMC8tixHb0msaj

There is another game which is actually my favorite of its type, Star Trek Birth of the Federation. It's 4X in the Star Trek TNG world.
I love it and I do let's plays all the time so I won't link to any specifically.
I also stream it on my twitch channel at least a couple of times every week.
www.twitch.tv/trusteft/
The game is fantastic if you like Star Trek.

Another game, hard to find, is Reach for the Stars.

If you are looking for something even older, then I can always recommend Ascendancy, Reunion, Deuteros (very different take on the genre).


EDIT: spelling

Exactly my thoughts. I will pick it up as soon as they release some sort of "Complete" version.

Thanks everybody! =)

Added to my library GalCiv 1 e 2 in 2015 and don't played till today, just downloaded and tested if they where running ok, guess is easy to await GalCiv 3 Ultimate Edition when 4 is out(this will happen?lol).

No Mac, no Linux - Windows-only?

God bless Paradox ;-)

You all are right regarding the base game and endless DLCs - and if you can wait for an ultimate & complete edition then you will definitely get a much better deal - in a few years, or whenever Stardock is finally running out of ideas for new DLCs and will stop milking their customers for more and more money. But considering some other points maybe you are not completely right - it is just a point of view :-)!

I have bought the game when it came out and already enjoyed it in it's "basic" form (let's not consider a few of the major bugs and the fact that gog.com unfortunately sometimes takes a loooong time to update the game libraries to versions steam customers already have been playing with for quite a while but that's obviously the price we pay for drm free games).

Endless DLCs will over time cost you a lot but if you have played the game at different patch levels and with different DLCs, and then added more and more DLCs you actually were playing (almost) completely different games during the development of the game! The first DLCs just added a few map features, then mercenaries, new races (e. g. Snathi), etc.

After a while they published the Crusade DLC and this really brought some very interesting and (mainly) good changes to the game like resources which now have to be harvested (slower than before) and used up for certain buildings and ship parts - but finally only once for construction and not as long as the ship or building is in service (older game versions used up the required resource as long as the ship or building was in use). They changed some other game mechanics like food and cities on planets too, and some things that were not as appreciated as others.

So if you have kept your install files for all different patches you now have a library (on your hard disk not your gog.com account) with different game versions which are actually quite different games... and if you have played a new game with 400+ turns in 40+ hours because of a new DLC I guess you got good value for your $20,-- considering the cost per hour.

Anyway, whatever you decide, waiting for an ultimate edition or endlessly feeding Stardock and buying the game in small pieces, have fun!

That's the big downside to me -- every time I fire it up, it's been so long between, that it's a completely new game I have to relearn. Or I have to make sure I *don't* patch because my save game would be invalid.

When the game has a steep learning curve like this, I don't want to have to climb it repeatedly.

EDIT: I see it has cloud saves now. Maybe I'll try it again with that there.

Sorry, but I'm about to barf this link all over the most recent news posts because I think this topic deserves more visibility. Given my experiences with GOG during the past year users will be informed after the fact and in a footnote. So go get yourself informed:

Introducing new privacy settings (official "announcement")

You might also want to check your new privacy settings for the upcoming update. Because several users (including myself) had been set to default values that weren't intended - even by GOG.