Hi there! One aspect of GalCiv II I really loved was the cultural warfare. Quite the passive-aggressive way of gaining territory and making your allies (and cold warriors) sweat without firing a hot.

Part of the reason I love the Cultural Diffusion mod for Civilization V; which is so similar to GalCiv2's mechanic. Culture spread faster along rivers, plains and roads; but are stopped by forests, deserts, rivers, hills and mountains. Suddenly, road placement have a very important peacetime use beside just connecting your cities for income.

I was hoping GalCiv3's cultural power would also be influenced by map features. Things like trade routes would speed your culture while nebulas and black holes would stop it. Obviously, it's a bit more complex to imagine how culture spread through space as opposed to through a territory, but It'd like to see a more map-dependent spread of culture than GalCiv2's more basic cultural warfare, which was only dependent on planets and starbases.