Frequently asked questions

GALSOV, short for Galactic Sovereignty, is a turn-based space 4X strategy game about expansion, governance, and survival.

The aim is a galaxy where colonisation, logistics, intelligence, research, economy, and long-term consequences matter.

It is being shaped as a slower, strategic, systems-heavy 4X game. Think decisions, planning, information, supply, colonies, outposts, fleets, and consequences — not reflexes or real-time action.

In plain English: the same starting seed and the same choices should produce the same results.

That matters because outcomes should feel like they came from rules, not moods. It also makes bugs easier to reproduce and fix.

There is an early working build, but it is not a public game yet. The current work is about making the build clearer, more usable, and ready for controlled trusted testing.

No. There is no public download yet.

Testing will start privately and deliberately before anything wider happens.

You can express interest through the Testing page. Access is not automatic and is not guaranteed.

Testing will be private, limited, and staged so feedback stays useful and manageable.

CAT means Closed Alpha Testing. In practice, for Iris, it means a controlled private tester process rather than a public release.

The project plan keeps v0.5 focused on closed-test readiness over the current foundation, while v0.6 remains the future milestone for the first fuller space-operational Alpha loop. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

• What you did.
• What happened.
• What you expected.
• Whether you could reproduce it.
• Screenshots, saves, logs, or system details later if requested.
• What felt clear, confusing, promising, boring, or broken.

Not at the interest stage.

If you are invited to test and a technical issue needs deeper troubleshooting, you may be asked later whether you are comfortable providing a DXDIAG, log, save, screenshot, or similar support file.

No. GALSOV is human-led and AI-assisted.

AI helps with explanation, planning, drafting, coding support, troubleshooting, and organisation. It does not own the project, make final decisions, replace testing, or decide what GALSOV is meant to be.

Because the idea is bigger than one non-professional developer could comfortably structure alone at this pace. AI helps turn ideas into plans, questions, drafts, checks, and working attempts.

The experiment is whether that help can be used honestly without losing human authorship, judgement, or responsibility.

The devlog is the best place for progress notes, problems, decisions, and lessons. The public roadmap shows open project work without exposing private engine code.

The public roadmap lives on GitHub. Use the Roadmap link in the top menu, or the button at the bottom of this page.

Yes, fleet conflict and combat are part of the wider intended game direction.

The current Iris work is not focused on making combat the main playable loop. The future v0.6 Alpha Readiness milestone is where the first fuller space-operational loop is expected to come into focus, including space combat as a true participant. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

GALSOV is being designed as a single-player-first strategy game. Multiplayer is not the current focus.

Opponents, conflict, and wider survival pressure are part of the long-term direction, but NPC empires and diplomacy are not the focus of the current Iris pass.

Modding is a long-term interest, but not part of the current early testing focus. The priority is a stable core ruleset and understandable simulation first.

The current practical build path is Windows PC. Other platforms are not a priority right now.

There is no release date yet.

GALSOV is still early, and public release timing will depend on whether the game becomes stable, understandable, and worth playing.

Possibly later, but not yet. Iris is not a Steam release, Itch release, public demo, or marketing launch. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}

Pricing has not been decided. That conversation only makes sense once there is a game worth selling.

Because a rough build can give the wrong impression if it is released before the basics are clear enough.

Iris is about making the foundation understandable, installable, reportable, and usable by someone other than Tim before wider exposure. :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}