Ok, just posting to say i really like Gal civ 3, but then again i liked Civ 2 -Didn`t like Suns as I am a turnbased fan.

Stuff I like:

1. The customisation of your Civ and even opponent Civs. I managed to create my own Civ with me in the picture. I had to learn how to make a transparency, but after that no probs. Looks really great. I also made my own enemy Civ exactly as I wanted, really great when I bump into them ingame. I love all the colour options for your Hud and ships as well. This kind of thing is what makes such games a keeper for me; the ability to make the game how you want. I even figured out how to add my own custom music. Thanks.

2. I love the Benevolent, pragmatic and Mean options (can`t remember name). I like how you`re given 3 choices rp-style ranging from good, neutral and downright wicked. Please add plenty more such rp elements since I love sitting back and making hard decisions for the good of my Civ. This is something Civ5 completely missed the goal on.

3. I like the ship battle scenes a lot, but they need some work (more on that later).

4. I like the raft of AI diplomatic options.

5. I like how an AI might give its last remaining Civs to you (if you`re good to it) to prevent the enemy getting it.

6. Musics great, though I added my personal flavour.

7. Some great clever writing in the screens (like in Tech and choices, etc). They make me chuckle.

Stuff I don`t like or needs fixing:

1. Could we have more animated backgrounds please for character customisation?

2. Could we have some kind of alien speech or sound from rival aliens we meet? They don`t need to sound like any language we know, but let`s hear some gobbledigook from the aliens and some robotic sounds for the Yor (the translater will show us in texts what they`re saying). This would add some immersion.

3. The ship battles have some great potential, but need some serious tweaking:

a, Fix the ship camera. the only really useful one is the top-down right now. the Cinematic camera is all over the place, either focusing on a ship that`s doing nothing or space. the camera should focus on the enemy and friendly in the fiercest part of the battle and allow us to switch between each of our ships by a middle mouse roll.

b, Fix the AI. The AI tactics are too simplified. For instance, if I have some ships and a base station/shipyard under attack from a big enemy, the ships will just rush and die quickly. please give the AI an ability to HOLD BACK with the base station, so it will have the station`s firepower to help back it up in a fight, especially if facing greater odds.

c, Get the Transports to stay BACK as far as they can from the fighting! Sometimes my transports will get caught in a battle, but they don`t stay out of the fight, instead whirling around with the main fighters and often getting themselves killed.

4. Does the vote by the Council to stop fighting wars actually work? I`ve been attacked even when I thought it had been agreed that all fighting should stop. If that`s just a belligerent AI deciding it don`t care then ignore me.

5. More animated screens in general to add a more `alive` feel, please.

p.s.

6. Edit, almost forgot. How about a little more work on ground battles? I`d have love to see some top down or similar view of little mechs attacking ground forces... Or failing that a sound effect of a battle before we see the results screen.

7. Also some kind of indication (sound effect) when we decide to wipe out a planet. Good game anyway, keep up the good work.

Finally, is there a non-Steam option for this game and if not, why not? perhaps you could make it available on GOG, I would buy it again if you did.

Thanks for reading, devs.