Game Options

Game Options

The Game Options button on the war setup screen opens a panel titled "Game Options" ("Configure campaign options."). Its switches are chosen when you create a war and apply for its whole length. They combine with any difficulty.

The switches

Option	Tooltip	Effect	Default
Hardcore	"Permanent death. No restarts when your commander is annihilated."	The in-game menu offers Abandon War instead of Surrender. Winning on Hardcore earns a distinct badge, even at a tier you have already won	Off
Faction Scaling	"The number of enemy factions is adjusted for the galaxy's size."	Small galaxies have 1 enemy faction, Medium 2, Large 3, and Epic or larger 4. Off gives every galaxy 4	On
System Scaling	"System size determined by distance into the galaxy."	Systems grow with distance from your start, plus one step for every extra co-op player. Off gives every system a random size	On
Easy Systems	"Use smaller, mostly single planet systems."	Systems are built from a smaller set of layouts, most with a single planet	Off
Large Planets	"Encounter large planets and systems much sooner."	Every system is sized as if it were four systems deeper into the galaxy	Off
System Lore	"Display the original pre-release Galactic War lore in the Planetary Intelligence panel."	Around a hundred pre-release system histories appear on enemy systems	Off
Static Tech	"Available Tech in a system never changes."	Each system keeps the first card it was dealt instead of re-dealing every turn (see Tech Cards)	Off
Unique Races	"No enemy faction shares a race with you or another enemy faction until every race in play has been used."	Enemy factions take a different race each until the races run out. Your own race counts as taken. Only shown with GW Server Mods and at least one race mod installed (see Races and Add-ons)	Off

With Shared Systems for Galactic War

The Shared Systems for Galactic War mod replaces the generated systems with real maps, sorted into brackets by how many armies each map holds. Three options then work differently:

• System Scaling serves the smaller brackets to nearer systems, and no map repeats until every eligible map has been used. Off picks a random bracket for every system.
• Easy Systems serves every system from the lowest bracket. It is applied after System Scaling and Large Planets, so it always wins.
• Large Planets moves every system four brackets up.

Galaxy size

Size	Systems	Source
Small	18
Medium	24
Large	36
Epic	54
Uber	78
Vast	108	Bigger Galactic War
Gigantic	144	Bigger Galactic War
Ridiculous	186	Bigger Galactic War
Marathon	234	Bigger Galactic War

The size tooltip warns: "Bigger galaxies will result in more commanders, larger maps, higher CPU and RAM requirements, and will likely pose a greater challenge to complete." Every galaxy also holds four neutral systems, each carrying a piece of lore: The Progenitors, Galactic War, The Commanders, The Machine Liberation Army, The Legion, The Union, Queller, or Bugs.

Seeds

The Seed Value field's tooltip reads, from the next release: "The same seed rebuilds the same galaxy and the same enemies, provided the galaxy size, number of players, faction, difficulty, and game options match and the same mods are installed. Planet names still vary. Leave it alone for a fresh galaxy." The current release's tooltip leaves out the galaxy size and the number of players, but they must match too. A war's seed is shown in its Galactic War Overhaul panel on the galaxy map, so a galaxy worth replaying can be noted down.

Systems

The mod unlocks Galactic War's biggest planetary systems and adds the classic pre-release systems (Helecon, Kehlmor, Kenyatta, Phyrixis, Nevarya, Thrale's Maze, Seven Gates, Hades Playground, and others) alongside the TITANS ones.