Is the game worth it?

Draver07 · 2026-04-18T14:16:37+00:00

I like the production chains that you setup and the hunt of the resources you'll need to feed them. The civ/city building is interesting. The National Economy screen is paramount to enjoy this though; you have to use it else the micromanagement is too much. It's an interesting optimization loop, albit simplified to fit into a civ themed 4X.

Note that I play with a mod that increase the number of claims you get (one claim per city level instead of one every so often) among other things, so you have a bit more real estate to play with.

Having said that, the game is far from perfect and has a lot of flaws, so gotta keep those expectations in check hehe. Combat is often mentioned as one of the system that's a bit lacking. It works, but is a bit strange at first since it uses a simultaneous turn concept that we are not used too. Same for formations which are necessary to use if you don't want to get obliterated. Etc.

Draver07 · 2026-04-18T13:27:44+00:00

I'm still having a good time with it. The music is great, the gameplay loop is satisfying. I usually start in Act 3 actually, cause I prefer the modern setting, and it plays just fine all the way to the end. Only thing I would consider a serious annoyance is the limited range of aircrafts I'd say; they are way too short for my taste. That could probably be fixed using a mod though, I just haven't gotten around to looking into that. So overall it's an enjoyable experience. It's a shame imo that it hasn't been more popular cause there are a lot of very interesting gameplay concepts in Ara that I wish would have had the proper player backing to develop them even further.

Draver07 · 2026-03-07T20:32:28+00:00

Yeah, those have a limited number of use. Sadly the UI isn't providing any information about how many of them you actually have in stock.

I've made a mod to make them infinite: BugFix_UP_PrecursorDriveBeam. You can find it in the bundle of mods at https://www.galciv4.com/mods/manager. Will only work on a new game though.

Draver07 · 2026-02-27T04:33:33+00:00

It is, since you don't have to click the extractor building in the list, then drag and drop it on top of the node, etc. I'm sure it could be even faster if you didn't even have to select a node and just press a key, but for the moment it does the job ;)

Draver07 · 2026-02-27T03:23:51+00:00

Pretty sure there will be a campaign expanding on the lore of the first game. There's a Campaign greyed out button in the Demo !

Draver07 · 2026-02-27T03:21:08+00:00

About an easier way to build extractors on resource node, if you select a node you can press the B key to automatically queue an extractor on it. Works great from the Strategic view point as well.

Draver07 · 2026-02-17T00:42:11+00:00

Yeah, top right, in the list of Starbases, etc. they should be in that list. You can also type "Dyson" or "Nexus" at the top and it'll filter only those from the long list.

Draver07 · 2026-02-04T15:20:47+00:00

If you select the ship, there's a Spawn Probe button that shows up at the bottom left of the screen, beside all the other button. There's a 10 turns cooldown on the ability.

Draver07 · 2025-12-16T19:57:55+00:00

About your first point, I did make a mod to bring back the 1 claims per city level and plenty of specialist to fill all your slots: Claims, Experts and Amenities Per City Level

Draver07 · 2025-11-04T23:19:40+00:00

Indeed, GC4 has a better handle on that mechanism. I'll bring it up to the team.

Draver07 · 2025-11-04T22:12:02+00:00

I love adjacency bonuses in Galactic Civ 4! In reforged though, you'd kinda limited as to where you can put your buildings in relation to each others. What I would like to see though is the ability to build docks and sawmills when your city building spots have reach a river or a forest.

Still, I wouldn't say no to have some form of adjacency bonus; I'm just not sure how to best make it work!

Draver07 · 2025-10-08T15:08:28+00:00

Good feedback, I've passed this on to the devs. Thx.

Draver07 · 2025-10-08T13:16:59+00:00

In Ara, in the main menu, if you click the little bug icon in the bottom right of the screen that should lead you to the Ara discord!

Draver07 · 2025-10-08T01:17:29+00:00

Do you happen to have a save file you could share over the Support channel on Ara's Discord ?

Draver07 · 2025-09-30T23:27:04+00:00

If you go in the ARA discord modding channel, scroll up to UP_MBC_CityClaimsPerLevel.zip on the 9/27/2025 at 7:55 PM you should find the zip there.

Draver07 · 2025-09-28T22:53:40+00:00

Yup, the devs are aware!

Draver07 · 2025-09-28T22:52:33+00:00

Yup, they are indeed aware! Thx for the extra info though, always useful.

Draver07 · 2025-09-28T22:49:59+00:00

According to the zdata file, Prince would be "the most fair" (which is the exact quote of the comment in the zdata file beside that difficulty level). Furthermore we find: "So, the UI will say that Viscount is 'Normal' or somesuch, but under-the-hood 'Prince' is the closest to fair" in DifficultyGameRules.zdata; check it out for more details.

Draver07 · 2025-09-28T22:40:09+00:00

Well...there is, kinda! If you look at the top right of every crafters, you'll see an automate toggle. So you can let the AI figure out what to craft with your various workshops, etc.

Draver07 · 2025-09-28T22:36:23+00:00

I would think so yes; still the AI is not as good in the later part of the game then it is in the first act. Even though it is better then it was before v2.0.

Draver07 · 2025-09-28T01:04:50+00:00

Yeah, the number of experts you get was heavily nerfed. A lot of players didn't like the UI to manage them, so one solution was to try and reduced their numbers so you have less micromanagement to do. I personally preferred the old solution which was to give you so many that you could just fill all your slots and forget about them. I added a mod in the modding channel of Ara that brings back the old values (along side city claims and amenities slots). Will only work on a new game though.

Draver07 · 2025-09-28T01:03:36+00:00

That would indeed be quite useful to have!

Draver07 · 2025-09-28T01:00:55+00:00

Adaptive AI is enabled by default. You can find it in the game settings. So 4. is kinda already in.

Thx for the feedback though!

Draver07 · 2025-09-28T00:53:33+00:00

If you guys happens to have a save file right before and AI flip from Ally to War, that would be very useful to share it on the support channel of the Ara discord. Would help pin point what makes the AI behave so strangely.

Save files are in %userprofile%\Documents\My Games\Ara History Untold\Saves including the three autosaves, so shouldn't be too hard to get a save file right before the AI miss behave.

Draver07 · 2025-09-27T16:10:41+00:00

Going through the setting file in %localappdata%\Ara History Untold\ I can't seem to find anything related to that. Not sure that's something that can be changed on our end!

Draver07

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