Stardock Launches "Tales of the Terran Alliance" DLC for Galactic Civilizations IV, Kicking Off Expansion Pass 2
The first of five new packs in the Expansion Pass 2 is now available, featuring exciting new campaigns, civilizations, and gameplay enhancements for the acclaimed 4X space grand strategy game.
Stardock Entertainment announced that "Tales of the Terran Alliance," the first DLC of Expansion Pass 2 for the acclaimed space 4X strategy game Galactic Civilizations IV, is now available for purchase. This expansion delves into humanity's tumultuous 23rd century, showcasing the formative conflicts that shaped the Terran Alliance into a galactic power. “Tales of the Terran Alliance” is now available for $14.99 USD individually, or as part of Expansion Pass 2 which includes all 5 packs at a discounted price, on Steam, Epic Games Store, and directly from Stardock.
“Tales of the Terran Alliance” takes players deep into Earth's pivotal era of interstellar expansion, exploring the political intrigue, technological breakthroughs, and military conflicts that forged humanity's place among the stars. Players will experience firsthand the events that transformed Earth from a single-world civilization into a formidable galactic presence, starting with the infamous Xendar War, which is included in the DLC as a fully playable civilization.
"This DLC serves as a tribute to our dedicated Galactic Civilizations fans who have long sought a more profound exploration of human lore," said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock Entertainment. "Tales of the Terran Alliance not only introduces new gameplay mechanics but also offers an immersive narrative experience that delves into the essence of humanity amidst a galaxy teeming with ancient and formidable civilizations."
Tales of the Terran Alliance Key Features:
- Play as the Xendar: Experience the civilization that shaped humanity's first interstellar war.
- New Human Technology Tree: A unique tech progression designed specifically for the Terran Alliance.
- Expanded Human Story Events: Encounter new narrative events that explore the origins, politics, and ambitions of humanity’s interstellar expansion.
- New Planetary Improvements, Weapons, and Defenses: Build and equip your worlds and fleets with Human-focused advancements.
- Additional Ship Components: Enhance your ships with new modules tailored to Human strategies.
Expansion Pass 2: Years of Galactic Adventure
"Tales of the Terran Alliance" is just the start. Expansion Pass 2 will feature five significant content releases from now through 2027, each designed to further enrich the expansive universe of Galactic Civilizations IV:
- Tales of the Terran Alliance (December 4, 2025) – Explore humanity's defining era and the rise of the Terran Alliance.
- Federations & Empires (2026) – Formation of governments, elections, agents, and more.
- Ascension (2026) – Uplift minor civilizations, genetically modify your own species, build breeding programs.
- Hegemon (2027) – Client states, United Planets, several new major civilizations uplifted from minor status.
- Underworld (2027) – Navigate the shadowy realm of criminal syndicates and black markets.
Each pack in Expansion Pass 2 will continue to enhance the deep strategic gameplay of Galactic Civilizations IV while introducing new lore, civilizations, mechanics, and content for both veteran players and newcomers alike.
Free v3.1 Update
In conjunction with the release of “Tales of the Terran Alliance” and Expansion Pass 2, Stardock is also launching a free v3.1 update. This update introduces several gameplay enhancements, including Strategic Resource Generation, which allows resources to cluster during map generation for more strategic specializations; upgraded AI behaviors that improve the management of resources, starbase upgrades, and research selections; and enhanced customizable modding capabilities, featuring better hot loading, tech tree branch modifications, and new planet improvement icons.
Purchase Options
Tales of the Terran Alliance: Steam, Epic Games Store, and directly from Stardock.
Expansion Pass 2: Steam, Epic Games Store, and directly from Stardock. Players can also purchase the DLC as part of Expansion Pass 2, which grants access to all five upcoming packs at a discounted price.
Galactic Civilizations IV: On Steam, Epic Games Store, or directly at galciv4.com.
Tales of the Terran Alliance Screenshots
v3.1 Changelog
Key Features
Strategic Resource Generation. Resources clump together during map generation creating more strategic specializations
Upgraded AI behaviors. AI players are smarter at managing resources, upgrading starbases and selecting what to research
Customizable Modding. Modding now has better hot loading, tech tree branch modifications and new planet improvement icons.
January 13th, 2026 Changelog
DLC
Map Generation
Pathfinding
January 12th, 2026 Changelog
AI
Custom Civilizations
Gameplay
Ship Abilities
Tech Tree
Fixed an issue where tech tree category icons would not reset properly when switching between civilizations with different tech trees
Added support for technologies that require specific citizen races as prerequisites
January 6th, 2026 Hot Fix
Pathfinding
Change Log v3.1
Audio
Gameplay
General game pacing updated
Colony Capitals are now placed by default but can be destroyed and moved somewhere else
People that eat other people on planets do so less frequently
Standalone galactic resources: Thulium, Anti-matter, Elerium no longer are dependent on dead planets, black holes, and nebula for their existence
Hyperlanes confer 10% faster speed than before
New Tech: Deepspace Exploration
Can Detect Hyperlanes is now a separate underlying ability than seeing subspace streams
Optimized hyperlane route calculation
Colony Capital: Maintenance 3 BC per turn to 1 BC per turn
Simplified the way awarded improvements get fixed so that they try to show up on a good tile rather than a random one
Fixed bug where capstone techs only lasted 1 turn for the buff effects
New type of Modifier Action: Create Hyperlane to Random Star
AI
AI is much better at upgrading its starbases and selecting starbase modules
AI now can have ships in a dual role; an example is a survey ship can be switched from exploring anomalies to acting as cruisers if they are at war
AI is much better at managing what improvements to build and where
AI is better at choosing what and when to research
AI better at building relic based starbases
AI is better at checking ship designs for system and ship upgrades
AI has improved selection for considering existing colony buildings to avoid redundancy
AI better at colony management
AI will intelligently replace improvements with better ones on its worlds
Fixed issue where the AI was too quick to use its survey shops for military use
Events
Reduced the odds of the first contact event from coming up so that it's not every single game
Reduced frequency of crisis events
Made adjustments to event frequency making some events less frequent
Map Generation
Resources tend to clump together during map generation and repel the others
Stellar phenomenon still does randomly get placed and will still occasionally generate their associated resource but is much less common
Resources are no longer randomly placed across the galaxy meaning that what weapons and defenses one specializes on is based on stellar geography
Planets will frequently spawn more than before
Precursor worlds are spawn more rarely
Star Cluster Size Reductions:
Small clusters: 120 radius to 84 radius (30% smaller)
Medium clusters: 200 radius to 150 radius (25% smaller)
Large clusters: 320 radius to 240 radius (25% smaller)
Huge clusters: No change
Star Density:
Dynamic Sector Scaling:
Ships
Ship Templates (like Transports, Freighters) will show their base component in the ship design screen
Carrier Modules that provide bombers now changed to Bomber Bay Module
List of ships in the shipyard now show the manufacturing cost of the ship
Ship Range Buffs (+4 range added) to these techs:
Deep Space Exploration
Warp Theory
Deep Field Sensors
Ship Range Buff to these techs:
Starbase Modules
Modding
UI & Text
Civilization Setup screen tweaked for better spacing control
Stars stay as a model for longer when zooming out and turn into icons later
Colonies (as opposed to core worlds) no longer show pollution in their tooltips
Executive Order icon resolution increased to support higher resolutions
Things that are missing a resource now have a hotspot that explains what the missing thing is and where it comes from
Capstone techs are now clearly labeled
Starting year for v3.1 moved up to 2329, it previously was 2307
180 new planet improvement icons
Added scroll bars for the Bazaar list Artifacts list since they were cutting off visibility to abilities
Tech
Tech Navigator modified to show more rows of techs
Tech Tree categories can be organized by icon
Tech in the Tech Navigator are closers together
Megastructures
Gameplay
Nexi can be set to be 1 per civilization (which is now on by default but can be modded back)
Subspace Lens Influence per turn reduced from 25 to 5 (upgrades follow suit)
Galactic Resource tourism bonus reduced from 25% to 5% (upgrades follow similar path)
Eclipse Engine Military production reduced from 50% to 20% (upgrades follow suit)
Neoteric Spire random offer discount increased from 0.02 to 0.05
Neoteric Spire Relic benefit increased from 2% to 10 (flat) (upgrades follow suit)
