First of all I'm a big fan of 4x games, which is reason why I bought galciv2 in the first place. I own this game since it was released in europe and I played it quite often. In the meantime I had many galactic conquests and I must say I'm growing more an more malcontent with galciv2.
I only like playing these games on large maps.. I can't stand playing 4x games on small or medium maps that I can finish inbetween supper and bedtime.
And this is exactly the one thing galciv2 can't offer: Good games on huge/gigantic maps with lots of planets. The game is challenging at beginning, until you become the most powerful civ. From this point on NO opponent will ever declare war on you anymore nor will it try anything at all to stop you from winning. From this point on I would be forced to build tons of Transports in order to conquer all enemy races-thats an extremely time intensive and utterly boring task on Huge/Gigantic maps. And it doesn't matter what game difficulty you play on, from easy to suicidial, once you're over the initial "hump" you won the game. I waited quite a long time for some improvement here, but nothin.
I don't know what it needs to change this. I promoted Tactical combat in a other thread but i don't believe that's necessary nor a key element at all to offer an all time challenge. The only reason I still stick to this game is because I highly respect the developers openness and commitment to galciv2 and the potential I see in this game.
Sorry stardock, at the end I'm only a customer of a video game who wants to have some fun from the product he bought, and Galciv2 just can't offer that, at least not fore my gaming style.
Whatever, something must be done to keep the game interesting from the beginning to the end of a game.