4XCIV
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4XCiv Play

The 4X game on top of the real solar system. Survey a hex plot on Mars, build a colony, craft what it needs, design ships that have to shed their own heat, and fly real transfer windows to the next world.

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Colony

Build on surveyed ground

Colonies sit on hex plots laid over real terrain. Survey the land, claim the cells, and place buildings that persist.

  • Survey and claim at ground level. At Jezero Delta, 684 cells surveyed and 189 flagged prime for building.
  • Buildings so far: landing pad, greenhouse dome, tank farms, plant house, commons dome, Luna lantern, Luna landing pad.
  • Mars and the Moon, with terrain coverage extending to parts of Earth.
Greenhouse dome glowing at night on Mars
Jezero Delta, October 4. Landing pad and greenhouse dome on claimed hex plots.
Hex plot grid at ground level
SurveyHex grid
Landing pad and greenhouse
BuildPad · dome
Overhead view of colony plots
ExpandPlots

Crafting

173 items, 15 categories

Harvest ice, mine regolith, refine it, and turn it into the things a colony runs on. Every item has a place in the chain, from raw ore to power equipment.

ITEM CATALOG v0
Items173
Categories15
First recipesHarvest Ice · Mine Regolith
Icon setsBiomass · minerals · power
The 173-item catalog
Item catalog. Development build; layout will change.

Ships & VFX

Ships that have to shed heat

Real spacecraft radiate waste heat or cook. So ours carry radiators: folding vanes of liquid-metal coolant at 1000–1800 °C, a nod to the heat management in MechWarrior 2 and BattleTech.

CCS TractatusRadiators · drive
In-engine. Running lights, folding radiator vanes and a full main-drive cycle. Hover to play.
Four hull designs
Four hulls: Tower, Cannibal Heavy, Spine & Truss, Lance. Cruise, profile and combat views, generated through a Blender-driver pipeline.

Where the look started

Concept art · AI-generated
Concept art: dark ship descending to Mars
Concept art: landed ship on Mars
Concept art: corvette
Concept art: warship

Generated concept renders used to set direction: grounded, "not too crazy sci-fi," early-Starship-inspired. Not in-game assets.

Ship combat

Fights happen in the real system

Combat isn't staged in an arena. It happens where your ship actually is, under real gravity, with real orbits.

  • Correct relative gravity from every body: hold a stable orbit, or crash.
  • Warp up to 86,400x for the cruise, real time for the fight.
  • Weapon VFX for heavy, lance, missile, point-defense laser, PDC, salvo and ship death, in active development.
Asteroid belt art, before and after
Before / after. The battle-phase asteroid belt around Mars, reworked. "Also excellent marketing with the before and after side by side!"

Agentic AI officers

You command. Your officers run it.

Your hands on the wheel are conversations. Officers with real tools execute the work, negotiate, and report back. Progression is not more buildings. It is more trust.

Early game: you approve every weld. Late game: "Chief, run Ganymede. Weekly report. Wake me only for war or breakthroughs."

THESIS.md §2

In designThe officer stack is locked in the canon and partly in development. What is playable today is the colony, crafting, flight and combat loop above.
OFFICER STACK roster v1
Chief Engineerconstruction, power, manufacturing chains
Logistics Officertransit, supply, ΔV planning, fleet ops
Chief Scientistresearch, prospecting, anomalies
Diplomatinter-player negotiation, treaties, market deals
Comptrollerfinance, inventory, contracts, audits
Colony Doctorlife support, population health, crew morale
Security Chiefdefense, intel, pirates and guerrillas
Chief of Stafforchestrates the others, prepares your daily brief

Tool belt: query_inventory · propose_build_order · simulate_power_budget · open_trade_negotiation · dispatch_rover · request_player_decision

CREW ACCESS ONLY

Play is in crew testing.

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