If I don't have a serial number for my *sigh* Russian version of GC2 and I get the US version of the expansion, will it be compatible? AND, will my new (and legally acquired serial number) allow me to get future updates for the game?

Altarians being conquered doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to be exterminated. The Arceans and Torians were conquered as well in the original campaign. The Torians also had their homeworld demolished by massive orbital bombardment.

There has been some complaints in the past that none of the leaders (except the Thalans ) were female which is probably why SD took the opportunity to include a new female leader. The fact that the Altarians has a functional resistance IMO lessens the chance of them being wiped out but is ultimately no proof either way.

Excalidan:

Meklar- that is not a bug, it is by design. Either way some have found it somehow annoying, I just click the turn button one extra time.

Funny that Stardock has said that it's on their buglist then.

ignuss- I've heard that extra turn called many things, but you're right, it's on the bug list. Somehow I recall it being called a feature to prevent cheese. Thanks for the correction

Like other features of the game that I would prefer to be different, I don't worry about this one. So what if the game is just a tad harder if I lose a little production between items? If I can't win in spite of that issue I try to figure something else out. Just like the cheesy tactics so many people use, I would consider this one item that isn't worth adding to my repetoire. If skipping these things makes the game harder, so much the better. I play for the challenge, not just the win.

All right, I had a long, thought out response that included a little story about my roleplayed game as a peacekeeper-type civilization whilst all victory conditions were disabled, and how I never tried to conquer, just...peacekeep and help maintain a galactic balance of power.

But that got eaten due to an error. So...uhm...I'm not retyping all of that. ;

Jonathan the reason you are in the tiny minority is that most people don't micro management, frankly I think they should kill micro management as well, it would make it so I could make the jump to suicidal without wasting my time doing exactly what you do.

Multiplayer would vastly extend the life span of this game. People just drool over tactical combat.

I think it sounds good and i am going to Pre-Order this one for sure.

See, I think optimal play in anything is work, since there's always something you can adjust to be better, something you can enhance, move, position, etc. to improve your chances just one little half percentage point more. I play games to have fun, and I do only as much micromanagement as is fun. I don't worry about the little details that could be optimal. But we're all different, I guess. Some people become novel writers, some become accountants.

Frankly I don't think the expansion adds enough to the game to be worth $30. Most of the changes are relatively small/simple modifications that won't drastically make the game more fun. If they were planning on adding to the tech tree, or perhaps renaming/reworking some of the techs to not be so linear and so useless at times (Laser 1-5) I might consider it some more.

From what they've said about espionage it doesn't seem like they've beefed it up enough to be worthwhile. So what if I can spend money to decrease my enemies production in some tile? I could use that same money to be building an army instead. I think making spying more like it is in many other games (where you actually have to train the spies and you pay a small upkeep cost for them rather then just paying a sum of money every turn and being able to choose whether they should steal research/sabotage/root out enemy spies in your empire) would be more of a step in the right direction.

And as for asteroids, it would be nice if Brad got a little more specific about this. Right now it seems like an unneccesary addition to the game. What people want, and have asked for repeatedly, is the ability to use the multitude of class 0 planets that exist. If you could mine/terraform those, it would be a worthwhile addition, but simply adding a few asteroids which offer yet another means for the player to obtain a bonus to his colonies doesn't seem very worthwhile.

I think if you guys at Stardock want people to take this expansion seriously, you need to add some serious improvements to the game and not these small perfunctory things which are seem designed to lure die-hard fans of the game to funnel you another #25-$30.

Lucian:
Dude, if I wanted to be an accountant, GC2 in its current state would be my dream game!

Apologies to everyone else for sort of hijacking the thread. I didn"t mean to, I swear!

The picture about the resistance oh my... that really got my attention I'm going to pre-order it as soon as I can.

I would think $20 is a good price for an expansion pack. $29.99 is like buying another stand alone game. I might pay that much for a Collector's edition expansion pack.