14 DAY TRIAL // There are four categories of possible research in Galactic Civilizations III, and every time I go to the screen dedicated to them, I am uncertain about the best ways to invest the points that my faction is generating each turn.
I usually start off with a focus on Colonization in order to be able to quickly build up my planets, with an initial emphasis on the tech that will give me better production, which is crucial in the early stages of the new strategy title from Stardock.
But I always worry that this leaves me open to lagging behind in terms of military power, which tends to be a problem when the Altarians colonize worlds all around and then decide to launch a pre-emptive strike that I can not stop in any way.
Galactic Civilizations III, played on Normal difficulty or above, is a video game in which it's impossible to prepare for all contingencies.
Good players will be able to read the state of the universe and to develop a plan that allows them to choose the path that minimizes risk and enhances possible rewards.
But the fact that Artificial Intelligence factions tend to also expand fast and are good at identifying weak spots means that there's at least one moment when one of them could really hurt the player, even if they often choose not to.
Development is about more than just research
Galactic Civilizations III makes research a central gameplay element, even making it easy for warlike cultures to stay close to the research leader by including a trait that offers a free tech when a planet is taken.
Ideologies, however, are equally important when it comes to the evolution of a faction and can grant some very powerful bonuses.
The constructors that Pragmatism offers early on are impressive, but all three choices can deliver some impressive advantages, some of them almost game breaking, if the player heavily invests in them.
Ideology points are mostly derived from choices made when colonizing planets and when other events take place, and it's often easy for players to apply a min-max thinking in order to just extract the biggest possible reward from them.
I would have loved for Stardock to encourage players to choose according to their own moral compass rather than by simply looking at the points they need to reach the next Ideology level.
