The basic concept behind Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords, according to developer Stardock Systems, is the same as the original –- to build an interstellar civilization. But this time, we looked at feedback from players, reviews, and looked to build a richer gaming experience that would also attract a more mainstream audience.

So what's different about [GalCivII] over the original for the PC? Here's a general rundown of the fundamental differences:

• Ship Design. In GalCiv, players researched technology which gave them access to new ships. In its sequl, players research technology and then use that technology to design their own ship classes. So instead of having a "Battle Cruiser" and a "Dreadnought," players instead come up with their own ideas. The user will also literally be able to visually design much of how their ship looks.

• Unique Planets. In the first title there were 26 different planets. The higher the planet class, the better it was. Simply colonizing the planet automatically gave the player all kinds of benefits. In GalCivII each planet will be unique visually, and while they will still have planet classes (1 through 30), that will determine the amount of usable land on the planet to build on. Players will have to pick and choose what they use their planets for. Moreover, some worlds will be rich in minerals while others may have ruins filled with Precursor technology.

• New Map Systems. In the original the sector map was filled with stars. A player would click on a star and a planet list would be displayed. Then the player would click on the planet to interact with it. In GalCivII the planets are part of the map. That means different players can share the same star system. It also means that player influence is planet based instead of sector based. Moreover, asteroid fields and other interstellar objects can now be placed on the map to be made use of.

• Play as any Race. In GalCiv gamers had to play as the Humans. In its successor title, the player can pick any of the 10 alien races (including Humans) to play as. Each race will have its own unique advantages and disadvantages. On top of that, players will be able to create their own unique races to play in the event that they want a truly custom civilization.

• 3D Engine. In the first title, the game engine was sprite based. This allowed it to run on very low-end graphics cards as long as they had at least a Pentium II 600MHz machine. In the second we use a 3D engine which will deliver vastly superior visuals than the original, the Stardock team says. It also means that players with relatively low-end hardware (Pentium II 400MHz or better) can play as long as they have a decent video card (GeForce 2 or better type card). Moreover, the game's 3D models will automatically scale based on how powerful your video card is. So the graphics will actually get better automatically over the years. [Our] hope is that people will still be playing Galactic Civilizations II many years from now.

• Resolution Independent. Resolution was fixed to 1024x768 in GalCiv but in GalCivII players can run the game at any resolution from 1024x768 on up. Plus the program’s not lame about it, in Stardock's words. The system makes use of the company's DesktopX technology that no other company at the time of this writing employs. What that means is that the user interface and other elements of the game can be expanded seamlessly, even where sprites are used[. O]ther games that have flexible interfaces have to render them on the fly as 3D which limits how complex they can be.

• Fleets. In GalCivII's predecessor players could stack together ships and move them. Stacks of ships will still be present as a convenience, but GalCivII will also have real fleets that will take advantage of multiple ships in combat. Fleet size will be limited by the player's logistic ability. So one of the many technological paths will be focusing on logistics. Big fleets of small ships or a few capital ships in a massive fire fight? Players will have that ability to choose those kinds of strategies.

• Enhanced Combat System. In GalCiv ships had a simple attack and defense value. In GalCivII ships will have three types of attack -– beam weapons, mass drivers, and missile weapons – and three types of defense -– shields, armor, and point defense. Different players and races will focus on various types of weapons and defenses. Stardock offers an example. [S]hields counteract beam weapons but are useless against mass drivers. So now players will have to do a great deal more strategic planning on wars.

• Non-Linear Campaign. GalCiv didn't include a campaign, though the expansion pack, Altarian Prophecy, added one. By contrats GalCivII includes a campaign from the outset and is non-linear. This means players can lose a mission and continue forward in the story, but it will take an alternative route as a result of that loss.

• Better Game Start-Up Options. The first game was always free for all on a random map and Altarian Prophecy provided some additional options. GalCivII will have both random and pre-made maps. Free for all games will still be available, but so will team games and eternal enemy options.

• Top-Notch Artifical Intelligence. GalCiv was known for good computer players, but Stardock holds that its successor will have even better AI.

• More Types of Star Bases. GalCiv had one type of star base. GalCivII will break it up into several different types of star bases with their own improvement trees.

• 'Cleaner' Technology "Tree." The first GalCiv had a fairly complicated technology tree, admits Stardock. GalCivII will have a much more linear technology tree with the focus being on different categories of technology (weapons, propulsion, economics, culture, etc.).