I'm surprised by the negativity here....looks like I'm in the minority, I think Gal Civ III is a big step up from Gal Civ II
I find GV3 way more fun and easier to get into. I had GV2 Ulitimate edition for I think at least 2 years, but never played more than 20 hours. Just didn't feel it was that engaging in some ways. For me the GV3 interface and UI is much improved and this made a huge difference for me.
I'm not going to fault GV3 for lacking some things as expect they'll come in the 'expansion' packs. Just sort of the nature of the beast. Though I do hope they bring the tax rate back, and ship XP back, and some other minor things that hopefully were not streamlined out of the game.
As for the AI, it seems pretty good, but haven't played enough to really judge. I know my major opponent in my current and first challenging level game just building fabricators over and over again, so that doesn't bode well. But I imagine the AI will be excellent further down the road.
The balance is also a bit off,it seems way easier to stay in the green now, and looks like they may oversimplified.
After my first match I'm putting the game away for probably at least a year or two while it gets worked on and expanded. Not going to shame Stardock for this way of releasing a game piece meal though, it is just par for the course now a days. But like a lot of strategy games, I recommend you play the game about 2 years after it comes out, you'll just have a better and more complete product by then.
short version: Never got into Gal Civ 2 that much even though I love strategy and Moo2 is an alltime favorite. Gal Civ 3 -- for whatever reason, honestly not really sure -- I find way more fun, engaging and the UI a light year ahead from GC2 .