and I think GalCiv IV Supernova is the best so far. Everything about it is everything I liked about the previous games refined and/or expanded. I love the sector system and the size of the largest maps.

I've only completed two games so far (one prestige win, one prestige loss) and I really like the challenges. It feels like the old mega events but without being dropped on you out of nowhere.

AlienGPT is great for inspiration and outright adding new civs. And I like that the update allows customization of citizens.

I appreciate that the new civs are less humanoid. Civs like The Contaminant, Manti Cluster, The Navigators, Baratak Grove, and Intueri Aggregate add more variety. I don't have anything against humanoid aliens, they're fine, it's just nice to go beyond that.

I like the expansion of the ideology system so there's more than good, pragmatic, and evil. I know there were several more ideologies when Supernova launched, but it looks like when the list was shrunk those were combined with the remaining ones? It's a good system. I also appreciate that none of the current list are explicitly defined as good or evil. That each could be either given circumstance and policy.

I appreciate the added layer of colonies vs core worlds, makes the less habitable worlds more worth colonizing

I also like the way improvement upgrades are handled - one click for every improvement of a single type on that planet.

Explicitly making citizens the population is really great. It reminds me somewhat of how you could assign population in MoO2 to farming, industry, or research, but also a lot better with more character(?) to it I guess? 

I don't remember if GalCiv 3 did this, but I appreciate that once you win or lose, you can continue playing. Abrupt endings, win or loss, can be less fun, esp if you're in the middle of something you'd really like to finish.

I feel like I have more tools to deal with situations in my civ. I had one planet with approval in the 20s for some reason, and it didn't take long to get it above 60, and it didn't feel so desperate as to be a waste of time and resources. It did feel urgent.

The ships you assign leaders to are fun. Most of them being flagships is nice, but also their other abilities are nice flavor. Plus multiple themes for them separate from which ship style you choose for a civ.

I playtested Twilight of the Arnor, which was the earliest point at which each civ got its own tech tree. I seem to recall having issues choosing non-Terran tech trees for custom civs in GC2 as well. I like how the tech trees are influenced by species abilities, making the system more dynamic and less specific to each civ. I don't remember if it was like this in 3 but regardless I'm glad it's here.

I'm still figuring out factions but so far I appreciate them as a way to boost one's civ. 

Leaders in general: Having these roles (Ministers, Diplomats, Governers, Commanders, Factions) adds something fun to the game I think.

Also I really like the series' overall story, and especially the history. I love the very LotR and B5 feel of everything, and the willingness to mix genres a bit with the science fantasy and space opera elements.

I love artifacts from anomalies. I started a thread about having to start a war to peel Luxar off the Thalan homeworld so I could take it. I ended that war in a ceasefire because I could use the artifacts I'd collected to that point to boost my fleets in interesting ways. It wasn't that they were invincible in combat, but that I was better able to handle a war I hadn't been very prepared for. 

Overall I love that you have so many tools and resources while leading a civ. I still love the first two games, but sometimes it felt like there was very little you could do in certain situations simply because there was nothing on hand to address it. Now, you can reassign leaders, set policies, develop your ideologies, use artifacts, and so on.

One thing I kind of wish was available was the ability to change the frequency of precursor artifacts. Right now they're extremely rare no matter what and I'd like to be able to at least choose somewhat less rare than that, maybe like double the frequency. I didn't like them being everywhere in GC3 but this feels pretty far in the other direction. Which is fine, I would just like more options.

I started with the first game in 2003, and played it to death then. It was so good compared to MoO3 even though you could only play Terrans, and most of the systems in the game now didn't even exist yet. It was still a lot of fun. I do admit that maxing out starbases, turning them into terror stars, and using them to culture flip everything was a little, a tad, a tiny bit overpowered, but it was fun, and GalCiv 4 is definitely a worthy successor, even though it is quite different now - you can play any civ, there are so many new ones plus custom civs, you can design ships, the way planet quality works is entirely different, anomalies are so much better. Part of me would love all of the prior campaigns adapted to 4.