Honest opinions, please - is the game worth buying during the current sale?

Influence was game breaking during the beta, it's a bit on the underpowered side at the moment.

There are plans to add a lot, so things are arguably unfinished but imo there aren't any important systems that aren't in game in at least a basic working form.

The AI works, next patch is supposed to improve it's ability to manage planets quite a bit.

I find the game really enjoyable, there are lots of options at map gen to provide diversity as well as different victory types to go for.

It's getting there. It's probably worth grabbing it now while it's 50% off because it's going to be worth owning sooner or later anyway.

With the latest patch, the AI is a lot better then at release and is probably better than in most 4x. The next patch will be largely more AI improvements as well.

Influence was fixed long ago and now you won't be flipping planets unless they are surrounded by other planets of yours or you are actively perusing influence.

The biggest hole in the game is planetary invasion. Right now it is very bare-bones. It is unclear when a more robust system will be coming in to the game, but I don't think it will be soon.

I'd still like to see faction diversity pushed a little further, but it definitely has replay value.

Over-all I think it is the best sci-fi 4x on the market (though there are some big titles on the horizon) and there are plans to support it for a long time yet. If you are fan of the genre I'd certainly pick it up.

There is room for improvement, but the core game good enough now. My guess is with an expansion, and some balance mods to enhance depth, this will be a great game to have for years to come so it's worth it. Just don't expect GC2 awesomeness, yet.

IMO, the game is a Ferrari engine with a Fiat Punto chassis. The AI is getting better.  The AI reacts to your actions, e.g. they upgrade their ship designs to counter yours or gift you units if you are fighting a common enemy. Personally, I find Normal difficult settings quite challenging. This is the Ferrari side. Unfortunately, the UI is bad. E.g. you can't queue Techs. You also have to wait a couple of turns between trade deals with the AI before you can talk to them again, but the game does not tell you until you started a conversion with the Ai. The cumbersome UI is the Fiat Punto side and it is the main reason why I don't play on the lager maps settings. But if you like turn based strategy games, the Steam sale is a good opportunity to get it and the Devs are continuously improving the game. I didn't buy the DLCs yet, because they are a bit pricy, IMO (and they are currently not on sale). 

I got it for the same reason (the sale). I've played a game through to completion (unintentionally), and started another. However, I have not, as of yet, found that special mechanic that leaves me trying over and over to make it work. Faith was this in Civ' V for me, so it may just not be here yet. However, it is still a very solid game. If I were to lodge my most serious complaint, there are just too many things that you do that feel like unnecessary filler. Exploration feels bland, building systems on your planets and researching; everything is functional, but nothing (yet) feels inspired. GalCiv2 felt this way for me until I began to truly understand it. This might be more of the same, but unlike some of my favorite games (Sacrifice by Shiny Entertainment, Fire Emblem Awakening by Intelligent Systems; Dark Souls (series) by From Software), here you might very possibly have to make your own fun a little bit.

I got it. I don't regret doing so. However, YMMV. 

Kamamura_CZ, you might like and be really into it or you might find it a mildly diverting waste of time.  There is a lot of room for refinement, but also considerable options open, eg player mods.  You also have the option, if you're quick, to be able to experiment with and learn about computer software by working on mods yourself.  This last part's not for everyone but as an added value I feel it's worth bringing up, in case you're not so thrilled with playing the "vanilla" flavor as they say.

Based on the events of the last year, I have two new rules.

1) Do not pre-purchase, ever.  Buy the ultimate GOTY edition on sale, for 50% off, plus.  Why?  The bugs are squished as best as they will be, the DLC is all included, I didn't have to struggle with a broken product that left me with a bad taste in my mouth, user mods have had time to be created and polished.

2) Don't pay more than $20 for games.  There's more content out there right now than any one of us could play in an entire lifetime.  I've Foundered, I've Kickstartered, I've Elite Backered, and I've been more pleased with bargain-bin purchases.

yea, very worth it.  SD is kind of the opposite of EA & keeps updating/adding to their games after release.  The last update 1.3 made a bunch of ai improvements , added a pretty cool new race (snathi) & accompanying campaign for it. There has already been a lot of info given about what will be in the next update (1.4)

GCIII is worth $23. I say pick it up.

I have clocked in about 50 hours and these are my answers to your questions.

I can't say that there is anything game breaking at the moment. There was something where the outcome of the battle viewer was different from on the galactic map but that has since then been fixed.

Depends if you think planetary invasion to be a significant part of the game. But that is currently very underdeveloped and all you get is a little screen, telling you the outcome. Pretty terrible if you ask me. 

The AI is passable but not much more. They send focused fleets to take over your colonies and defend their colonies some what, but mostly just dump a bunch of defending ships in orbit. But from time to time they do send suicide fleets at you, which you will destroy over and over again. Also they don't seem to focus as much on logistics (tech which increases the number of ships you can have in battle). Also, anything above normal difficulty level gives significant bonuses to the AI, which inflates them up quite a lot.

Finally I would say the game is enjoyable and big diversity in replays. How big, remains to be seen. I clocked 150 hours in Star Drive 2 before I got bored and hopefully I will do better here as the game does have significantly more depth than Star Drive 2. However, if you play on larger maps, it can get dull from time to time and the UI and GFX are average at best.

   Not worth buying yet, unless you really want it to burn out on it or let it sit on your computer until it gets better.  Currently it is jarringly uneven, mopving between boring, one more turn, and wtf?

   Has been getting better, and will probably be worth buying eventually.   Ask again next time it, and the dlcs, are on sale.

It's worth it for the simple reason that more people buy it the more the modders and developers will work on it.  

In other words, you buying it would benefit me.  Please do it.  

I'm new to galciv, never played any of them before, but I'll give my feedback.  I'm 30 hours into my first game, about to win.

* The learning curve is extremely high.  The tutorial didn't teach me anything, it's useless.  I had to watch at least 5 hours of youtube videos (most ramble on way too long) to figure out what on earth I should be doing.  Too many building options and nowhere to put them is confusing until you learn to terraform.

* I'm about to win my first game, it's too easy.  The AI (all defaults) just isn't aggressive at all.  I should be getting spanked.  I'm on turn 230, still just building up my colonies, and about to win by default.  Nobody ever attacked me, even though I had a small fleet.  I built some ships, declared war, and went to spank the Yor and Drengin, just to get some action.

* This game needs to add the combat from Star Drive II, or Star Trek: Birth of the Federation.

* This game needs the AI from Star Trek: Birth of the Federation.  That game is free now (google it), and IMHO is still the best 4x game out there, by far.  The modding community is still going strong.

I'm thinking of starting a new game, on a smaller map, on harder settings, just to see if I get spanked.

Cheers

So here are the things I like about GalCiv

-  Stardock tends to support their games a really long time and are always trying to refine their product

-  If Stardock has that rare-miss, they tend to go the extra mile to fix that miss (case in point Enchantress)

-  The AI in this game will surrender in the face of certain defeat, sparing you from having to chase down that random start to wipe them out (in my latest game, two of the AI's surrendered to me)

-  Game is very performant inbetween turns (Civ5 and Civ Beyond Earth can drag sometimes between turns)

-  Lots of options to tweak your game

What I don't like about GalCiv 3

-  You can't order ships to retreat in combat.  Once engaged, they're engaged to the death.  The playing out of the battle seems superfulous

-  You can't demand AI to remove their ships/starbases from your ZoC, yet they throw a fit if you do the same to them

-  The peacekeeprs

-  It doesn't full honor your game settings (I had set for no pirates, yet I saw a pirate base.  I set for no minors, yet a minor race appeared)

-  Culture victories are far too easy to achieve

On balance, I'd easily recommend buying, *especially* with it on discount

I have put in almost 1000 hours.

The game is definitely worth getting. Period. It is one of the absolute best space 4x games hands down.

You will not be disappointed.

If you ask me, the game is worth the regular price. Especially when you compare it to the price for other entertainment products. For example: How many times can you visit a cinema for the amount of the money? Compare that to the amount of hours you can play the game for the same price.

As for your questions:

> Is there anything gamebreaking you have to pretend does not exist all the time? (I read influence mechanics...)

No.

> Are there significant parts of the game unfinished/missing?

There are missing things and things that may not be at the optimum, but those are not significant enough to make it unplayable.

> Is the AI at least passable?

More than that.

> Is the game enjoyable to play, is there enough diversity in replays?

Yes. If you like those kind of games. The different game settings and the randomness nature of the maps, give more than enough to explore. Except for the campaigns, I even wouldn't call it "replays" since every map is different.

In my opinion, wait until all bugs are sorted out, updates to ship combat, invasions and AI at least are improved. 

That means waiting forever. In modern, complex software such as this game, there are always bugs, there are always things that could be better and things that could be added. It is impossible to reach a point where GalCiv3 is free of bugs and finished in sense that nothing is left to add or improve.

Given that for every computer program it applies that 1) there's always one more bug and 2) you can always optimize by shaving one more unnecessary machine instruction, then by using induction we can prove that any computer program can be reduced to a single operation that doesn't work.

It's certainly worth it, especially at the sale price.  It's 1/4 what a lot of us paid in the early access period.  I have no regrets paying $100.00 for it and can't imagine having any problem paying $25.00.  I'd do it again.

The game gets better an better as Stardock works out the bugs and adds features.  Most of the new stuff is free, although there are various DLC that might or might not be worth it IMO.  The Snathi DLC is well worth it and are my current favorite faction.

I'm sure you'll find plenty of entertainment if you get it.  The only thing that was game breaking to me was when the game crashed or froze.  Stardock fixed that, so I can't think of anything that's a severe problem any more.

Buy it while it is on a Steam sale.  I am still upset that I missed the Cities Skylines Steam sale and kick myself over and over.  You don't want to do that.

If you only want a polished, very bug free, well balanced full featured game, then wait for the second expansion,  Not meant to sound negative.  If you like 4x, and you liked GC2 and you can over look some warts and expected features yet to come.... its a great game and a lot of fun.  Nothing is truly game breaking despite what you may read and there are really good mods already that .. add factions, balance out some of the issues, improve the AI ... ect.  I would say yes to buy now.   SD is averaging an update/month and the game improves each time.

I thank everyone for their opinions. I read all the answers, went through the forums both here and on Steam, read a few reviews and discussions, watched some gameplay footage and finally decided to buy Dead Man's Draw instead. That's also a Stardock game, but it's ten times cheaper, actually complete, and provides adequate entertainment value.

Once Galciv 3 is in reasonably finished state and for a reasonable total price including all the DLCs, I will probably buy it. Till then, I will go to Master of Orion 2 and Galciv 2 for my space strategy fix.