There was a Q&A between the community of SpaceSector and Ray Bartos, producer on Galactic Civilizations III. Part 1 is here.
Kordanor, adarax: Regarding multiplayer, will there be simultaneous turns or IGOUGO turns? If there are simultaneous turns, will the orders be executed right within the turn or will they be executed “between” turns? Will there be a special lobby for multiplayer? Meaning, will Steam be required or another platform for that purpose? And, will there be LAN multiplayer?
Ray: Galactic Civilizations III has simultaneous planning (ship design, planetary projects, ship path planning, research and tech tree choices, etc.) and sequential execution (battle, discovering anomalies, colonizing planets, etc.). Currently right now there are no plans for a separate LAN multiplayer; all multiplayer will go through Steam.
Kordanor: On mod support. Will it be easy to apply mods? And, will mods work in multiplayer?
Ray: Modding has always been a big part of Galactic Civilizations’ success. We intentionally data-drive our systems with XML data so that our designers and modders alike can easily modify the game. And of course many players will love the ability to create and share their ship designs, and in Galactic Civilizations III they will have better tools to do this than ever before.