To start with this post isn't meant to be a dig, it's just a suggestion which I hope can help the devs develop this game in a way which attracts the largest userbase. Visually Galactic Civilisations for me has always lacked a certain finesse and style, I know this isn't considered the most important thing in a 4x strategy and I actually played Galciv2 despite the shortcomings graphically. I even recommended it to my friends who gave it a try but stopped playing because they couldn't get over the primitive graphic style. I tried to persuade them that it had great depth of gameplay but unfortunately it wasn't enough.
Currently there has been a big resurgence in 4x strategy gaming which I'm incredibly happy about. Certain games which I'm not going to mention here have appeared with beautifully realised GUI's and ingame graphics which take advantage of modern hardware. All I'm asking is for the graphic designers of Galciv3 to have a look and see where the innovations have been made and learn from them.
It would be a shame for people to pass up this great game just because of first impressions, I want this game to succeed because all well made 4x strategy games should be made accessible to everyone. Hopefully it'll make people reconsider playing alot of the brainless dross that currently exists out there.