<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><rss xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" version="2.0"><channel><title>GalCiv II Forums » RSS Feed » GalCiv Journals Posts</title><link>https://feeds.feedburner.com/Stardock/GalCiv2/forum/164</link><copyright>© 2006 - 2026 Stardock Corporation. All rights reserved.</copyright><description>Recent Posts In GalCiv Journals</description><language>en-us</language><pubDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:05:47 AM -0400</pubDate><lastBuildDate>Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:05:47 AM -0400</lastBuildDate><docs>http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html</docs><generator>Stardock Rss Generator v1.0</generator><managingEditor>info@stardock.com</managingEditor><webMaster>kwilas@stardock.com</webMaster><item><author>Draginol</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/104908</comments><description><![CDATA[ The Galactic Civilizations Experience: Quick Start Guide... This guide is designed to give brand new players a quick introduction into how they can get going in the game without being crushed.   Journal Entry: Starting up the game…   Alright, I’ve got the box home. Now, if I can just get the top off, why do they make these things so that it’s nearly impossible to get the top cover of the box off without wrecking the box itself?&nbsp; You know, the little plastic thingy at the top. I don't h...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/104908</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/104908</link><pubDate>Tue, 26 Aug 2014 7:22:14 PM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2014-08-26T19:22:14-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>Galactic Civilizations II: Beginner's Strategy Guide</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/427738</comments><description><![CDATA[   The Milky Way Galaxy of the 23rd century is a brutal place.    The malevolent Drengin Empire and their allies, the Yor reign supreme.&#160; Earth and its allies have been defeated and in most cases, occupied by Drengin shock troops.&#160; Earth itself remains free, protected behind an energy shield put in place by DL Bradley, commander of the Terran fleet just before they vanished.&#160; Though protected, it is surrounded by an armada of Drengin ships.    The ancient Precursors are gone f...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/427738</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/427738</link><pubDate>Wed, 23 Oct 2013 1:39:31 AM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2013-10-23T01:39:31-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>The galaxy after Twilight of the Arnor</title></item><item><author>Draginol</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/88762</comments><description><![CDATA[   Back in 1992 I was in college and was writing a computer game called Galactic Civilizations for IBM's OS/2 operating system.&nbsp; I hung out on Usenet's comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic and almost like a collaborative design team, the users on that news group, where I was (and still am) a regular put together the features for this game.  I had started a little company called Stardock Systems in order to help pay for school and this game was being done under that umbrella.&nbsp; IBM was very...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/88762</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/88762</link><pubDate>Sun, 23 Jun 2013 4:07:14 PM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2013-06-23T16:07:14-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>Galactic Civilizations is not Master of Orion</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/371547</comments><description><![CDATA[If there is a Galactic Civilizations III someday, it’s going to have to deal with a lot of issues in its game universe.    If we look at the story of Galactic Civilizations as a 5 chapter (so far) novel you’d have:     Chapter I: Galactic Civilizations:  The humans develop Hyperdrive and its technology spread to the other 5 major space-faring civilizations (the Drengin, Arceans, Yor, Altarians, and Torians).     Chapter II: The Altarian Prophecy:  Shows us that long ago, there were other r...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/371547</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/371547</link><pubDate>Wed, 15 May 2013 1:22:37 AM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2013-05-15T01:22:37-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>Galactic Civilizations story so far and the fate of the Yor</title></item><item><author>Draginol</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/170121</comments><description><![CDATA[&nbsp;    In the beginning they were one race. And they really are still one race. But the seeds for the discord between the two factions of the Arnor came in their creation.&nbsp; One group of the Arnor were created with the ability to perceive time. Their creator considered them superior in believing that the perception of time passing is a key to self-awareness and thus full sentience.&nbsp; The other group was created without a sense of time perception. It was thought that this group would e...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/170121</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/170121</link><pubDate>Fri, 10 May 2013 6:03:01 AM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2013-05-10T06:03:01-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>The Arnor vs. The Dread Lords</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/331367</comments><description><![CDATA[I'm setting up a game today to play on this day after Thanksgiving. Here are screenshots from the game (I'll be updating this over the course of the day):             Large galaxy with no tech brokering (a tech I trade to someone else can't be traded by that civilization to someone else).    I want to have few stars but those stars should have lots of good planets.    &#160;            I set up a custom player.    &#160;            Gave my custom player their own techs, abilitie...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/331367</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/331367</link><pubDate>Sat, 08 Sep 2012 5:27:16 PM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2012-09-08T17:27:16-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>Screenshots of Galactic Civilizations II: v2</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/311121</comments><description><![CDATA[Far be it for me to invite scorn and ridicule on our hard work in the form of Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor but let's face it, GalCiv has long since stopped being any sort of traditional &quot;product&quot;.&#160; We love working on it. If I didn't work at Stardock, I'd be modding it in my spare time.&#160; But I do work at Stardock so that means I still get to mod it in my spare time but I have the source code.    That said, in this post can you list the 5 things you would ...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/311121</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/311121</link><pubDate>Mon, 28 May 2012 6:55:27 PM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2012-05-28T18:55:27-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>Please slam my game</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/374871</comments><description><![CDATA[Galactic Civilizations II still sells amazingly well. Both at retail and digitally.    As a token of thanks, I was thinking of working on an update in my spare time after I turn in the book manuscript next month. Are there any  small  updates you guys would like to see in there? Mind you, it would be just be me. On a couple of cold weekends doing this.  ]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/374871</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/374871</link><pubDate>Thu, 17 Nov 2011 2:51:07 PM -0500</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2011-11-17T14:51:07-05:00</pubDateParsed><title>Small GalCiv II updates?</title></item><item><author>Draginol</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/310173</comments><description><![CDATA[        Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor    Info Guide    By Brad Wardell     Designer and AI Developer   &#160;                                        Title: Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor                 Description:                  Expansion pack to the award-winning PC strategy game, Galactic Civilizations II                Requires:                  Galactic Civilizations II: Gold Edition or Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords + Galactic Civili...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/310173</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/310173</link><pubDate>Fri, 28 Oct 2011 9:01:52 AM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2011-10-28T09:01:52-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor Info Guide</title></item><item><author>Draginol</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/400073</comments><description><![CDATA[So I’m on a sabbatical which was planned a long while ago.&#160; Basically, it’s an opportunity for me to get back to my roots.    One of the things I’m working on during sabbatical is GalCiv II (Twilight of the Arnor).&#160; It’ll be lots of little tweaks and improvements (AI, gameplay, balance, bug fixing).&#160; But this is the kind of thing I enjoy but can only justify on vacation.    It seems like for the last couple of years my role has been less CEO and more fire fighter anyway. While...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/400073</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/400073</link><pubDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2011 9:47:45 AM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2011-07-23T09:47:45-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>GalCiv II coding</title></item><item><author>Draginol</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/400168</comments><description><![CDATA[Fire-Watch pointed out that I’ll need to get a virtual image of Windows XP going in order to program GalCiv.&#160; Otherwise, I’d have to take some people off of Elemental to migrate the GalCiv II project to Visual Studio 2005 or 2008.    Right now, I’m on a bit of a sabbatical to get back to focusing on tech. So installing a virtual PC image (or VM Ware) is kind of cool.&#160; I’ll let you guys know how it goes as I’m doing it.  ]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/400168</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/400168</link><pubDate>Tue, 24 May 2011 8:37:06 PM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2011-05-24T20:37:06-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>Virtual Programming</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/342838</comments><description><![CDATA[Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition is now at retail.&#160; This version combines the original release with the 2 expansion packs into a single integrated game.            The code-based is the latest version if Twilight of the Arnor but the content is the entire saga put together.    &#160;       &#160;  Ultimate Edition takes the full game and presents it in its 3 acts.    Act I: Dread Lords where the galactic civil war puts the humans from Earth and their friends up against...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/342838</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/342838</link><pubDate>Sun, 06 Feb 2011 1:30:31 PM -0500</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2011-02-06T13:30:31-05:00</pubDateParsed><title>A quick tour of Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition</title></item><item><author>Draginol</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/322138</comments><description><![CDATA[The good news is that there will be a Galactic Civilizations III.&#160; The bad news is that it won't be out this decade.    Galactic Civilizations II v2.0 is currently in development but it's free for all players of the expansion packs.&#160; But that will serve as the code basis for any further GalCiv II updates.    Right now, the team is working on the &quot;unnamed fantasy strategy game&quot; sometimes called &quot;not-MOM&quot; (not Master of Magic).&#160; It's a totally new graphics en...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/322138</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/322138</link><pubDate>Thu, 19 Aug 2010 4:09:49 AM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2010-08-19T04:09:49-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>The future of Galactic Civilizations</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/340296</comments><description><![CDATA[        I was pleased to visit GameStop and see Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition smack dab in the middle of the “What’s hot” shelf.    I have to say, ultimate edition came out pretty well with the original and the 2 expansions integrated together as a single entity.    Meanwhile, even though  Elemental ,  Demigod , and  Sins  have gotten a lot of attention lately, there’s a new update of GalCiv II in the works.  ]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/340296</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/340296</link><pubDate>Mon, 17 May 2010 5:54:08 PM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2010-05-17T17:54:08-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition at retail</title></item><item><author>Draginol</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/303512</comments><description><![CDATA[Recently there has been a lot of talk about how piracy affects PC gaming. And if you listen to game developers, it apparently is a foregone conclusion - if a high quality PC game doesn't sell as many copies as it should, it must be because of piracy.  Now, I don't like piracy at all. It really bugs me when I see my game up on some torrent site just on the principle of the matter. And piracy certainly does cost sales.&nbsp; But arguing that piracy is the primary factor in lower sales of well ma...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/303512</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/303512</link><pubDate>Sun, 07 Mar 2010 3:21:33 PM -0500</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2010-03-07T15:21:33-05:00</pubDateParsed><title>Piracy &amp; PC Gaming</title></item><item><author>CariElf</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/331809</comments><description><![CDATA[EDIT: EU users should now be able to download the update for 2.02.&nbsp;  All of the tweaks were done by Brad over Thanksgiving weekend, since he can't help but start tweaking stuff while he's playing.&nbsp;  &nbsp;&nbsp; So you have an additional reason to be thankful this year!  + TWEAK: Ethical alignment becomes increasingly a source of tension as the game goes on in terms of diplomatic relations  + TWEAK: Altarian AI more sensitive about falling behind in military hardware tech.  + T...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/331809</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/331809</link><pubDate>Sun, 27 Dec 2009 5:41:32 PM -0500</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2009-12-27T17:41:32-05:00</pubDateParsed><title>Change log for 2.02</title></item><item><author>ScottTykoski</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/324375</comments><description><![CDATA[For the last few months the team has been toiling away on THREE seperate projects...Political Machine 2008, the unannounced fantasy strategy title, and GalCiv 2.0. And for those months we've kept players in the dark about 2.0...mostly because of the frantic, nose-to-the-grindstone pace we've maintained.  But now it's time....time to finally start talking about what will hopefully be the ultimate update to our little GC2 series    For those that don't know, GalCivII 2.0 is the final major upd...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/324375</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/324375</link><pubDate>Mon, 21 Dec 2009 7:58:02 PM -0500</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2009-12-21T19:58:02-05:00</pubDateParsed><title>GCII 2.0 - The Planetary Governors</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/355924</comments><description><![CDATA[What? You thought because we released Demigod and are working on Elemental we’d forget our beloved GalCiv players?&#160; GalCiv II is barely 3 years old.     So specifically, what’s in the pipeline?    In the next week or two (depending on marketing scheduling) we have a new build of GalCiv II coming along (no particular order):         Fixed bug where creating a new planetary governor when another was already assigned to a planet would cause the planet to not be able to access it's govern...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/355924</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/355924</link><pubDate>Thu, 15 Oct 2009 6:35:33 PM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2009-10-15T18:35:33-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>Ah, back to Galactic Civilizations love</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/326576</comments><description><![CDATA[I got a good game of GalCiv II v2.0 in over the weekend.&#160; Here are 10 things the game still needs.    &#160;         The trade routes need to increase more over time than they currently do.       Tourism should be worth still more than it does currently.       AI needs to be better about researching space mining techs.       AI needs more variance in what it researches.       AI needs to focus more on miniaturization techs.       Integrity fields should cost the same as reinforced hull ...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/326576</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/326576</link><pubDate>Sat, 11 Jul 2009 1:06:28 PM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2009-07-11T13:06:28-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>10 things GalCiv II 2.0 needs still</title></item><item><author>Draginol</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/171695</comments><description><![CDATA[Warning: Spoilers below.  The Thalan have the most unique technology tree in the game because they come from the future.&nbsp; Here are some of their unique technologies:  &nbsp;   Hyperion Domination (Evil Only)   Hyperion Domination incorporates a number of various tweaks to ship design that results in a 10% bonus to ship hit points.&nbsp; Unfortunately, the work to do this is very dangerous. Luckily, the steady supply of slaves abducted across the galaxy to work on these special ship ...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/171695</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/171695</link><pubDate>Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:17:10 AM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2009-06-20T12:17:10</pubDateParsed><title>Thalan and their technologies</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/351129</comments><description><![CDATA[        Finally upgraded our network here at Stardock. w00t!  ]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/351129</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/351129</link><pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2009 6:59:53 AM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2009-05-14T06:59:53-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>I&amp;rsquo;m finally cool!</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/302494</comments><description><![CDATA[At the end of the day, the people who "do stuff" will always have the advantage over the people who "don't do stuff".&nbsp; Pirates are slowly motivating ever increasing levels of DRM and in time, I hate to say it, DRM is going to win.&nbsp; That's because the people motivated to make the DRM work (the people who do stuff) greatly outnumber the motivation of the people who don't do stuff.&nbsp;  One can easily picture a future in 5 years in which the telecoms, the PC makers, the OS makers, and...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/302494</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/302494</link><pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2009 11:36:07 AM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2009-05-05T12:36:07</pubDateParsed><title>PC game piracy hurts us all</title></item><item><author>mormegil</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/308348</comments><description><![CDATA[        Part 1, Lessons learned.    Around three years ago I was just getting my feet wet in the world of 3D modeling; we were working our buts off building the new 3D engine that became Galactic Civilization II, and I hoping to get in on making the ships. However as the newest artist on the team, I was mostly playing catch-up, I spent the bulk of my time on the UI, and stole a little time here and there to learn basic box modeling and texturing.  &nbsp;       The team was only 6 of us, 2 Co...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/308348</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/308348</link><pubDate>Mon, 06 Apr 2009 8:34:16 AM -0400</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2009-04-06T08:34:16-04:00</pubDateParsed><title>Retexturing Galactic Civilizations II - Twilight of the Arnor.</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/331945</comments><description><![CDATA[Okay, last time to test out the improved AI I did a death match between the major AI personalities and I.    I learned that the Terran Alliance AI is too meek at pursuing weapons based tech early on so that will need to be looked at.    I still lose, however because the Thalan rush researched to large scale building and I was too slow to keep up.      http://frogboy.impulsedriven.com/article/331922/AI_vs_Human_Death_Match_Game_1     This time, I'm going to be a lot more aggressive.    ...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/331945</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/331945</link><pubDate>Thu, 26 Feb 2009 7:20:22 PM -0500</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2009-02-26T19:20:22-05:00</pubDateParsed><title>Human vs. AI Death Match: Game 2</title></item><item><author>Frogboy</author><comments>https://forums.galciv2.com/107492</comments><description><![CDATA[ A friend of mine at a big game studio once told me to be wary of giving users the impression that your design is open to heavy modification by user feedback.   Because in the end, you'll never satisfy everyone and it'll put people in the mode of thinking about game flaws that they might not have given much thought of otherwise -- and then suddenly those flaws bug them.  It akin to peer reviews in offices. For awhile, it was popular to have peers review each other. But then it was discovered...]]></description><guid isPermaLink="True">https://forums.galciv2.com/107492</guid><link>https://forums.galciv2.com/107492</link><pubDate>Mon, 09 Feb 2009 4:07:14 AM -0500</pubDate><pubDateParsed>2009-02-09T04:07:14-05:00</pubDateParsed><title>Implementing feedback</title></item></channel></rss>