S1Genocide feels that Dark Avatar is more like a mod than an expansion:
| Dark Avatar is looking more like a Mod then an expansion pack.
No Multiplayer
No Tactical Combat
No Planetary Bombardment
No New Governments
No New political Partys
No Terror Stars
Only one new race and your removing (Killing them off) 1 or 2?
Why should we get this expansion again?
The only things good in it are Planetary Enviroments & Spying.
You guys really need to get on the ball and add some better things to the expansion. I told you guys I wanted a Civ3 PTW type Expansion. This is a Mod not an expansion.
And as it is right now I'm not buying it.
What the Expansion should have been:
Multiplayer
Tactical Combat
4 New Evil Governments
4 New Evil political Partys
(At Least) 4 New Races while keeping all of the originals.
Terror Stars
Planetary Enviroments
New Spy System
New Civ3 type diplomacy options. (what would you trade for....)
|
We all have our opinions of what an expansion is but I think Dark Avatar is pretty far from a mod. A mod is something a third party could create.
Let me give my own biased two cents on how this:
Most expansion packs simply add more content. Civ IV's expansion added new maps, scenarios, units, and races.
Our expansion does the same thing -- new races, maps, scenarios, and units (ship pieces).
But we are also changing the game play in a pretty radical way that I think will make the game a LOT more fun. For example -- Planet environments. This changes the game in pretty significant ways. First off, the entire colonization phase never truly ends because you can't colonize half the worlds right away. You have to research expensive techs that are unrelated to get to them.
Secondly, the asteroid fields create terrain and opportunities for exploitation that simply aren't in the game presently.
Thirdly, the custom opponents is something that I think users will really like. Now you can put together your own races to play against, decide what they're like and play them. From a longevity point of view, this is a big deal.
Fourth, the Espionage units are a BIIIG deal. These units add an entirely new option for players to try to win the game. The ability to spend money to cripple your opponents gives players a new tool. Right now, you basically can conquer them with ships or buy their love or try to influence them. In Dark Avatar, your agents can nulify infrastructure, cripple economies, destroy morale. You can bring someone down from within.
The new diplomatic treaties give players more options to build relations with particular players and try to create more alliances within the game.
The AARs (after action reports) people seem to love and now anyone can partiicipate to a degree with the Epic generator creating unique stories of their games.
So I can't see how anyone could argue this is like a "mod". I'd argue that Dark Avatar is an expansion + half-sequel rolled into one.
