Well this is very exciting news! I was wondering if the terror star would be available in the game at any point since I recently bought the Gold Edition and didn't see it in any of the tech tree. Being a purchaser of the first GC game, I noticed a few things missing from GC2/DA when I finally got it.

I really am very happy to see the amount of production put into this game. After playing MOO2 for a decade and seeing so little development in these types of games it was easy to get frustrated knowing there’s technology out there to make a great game but no one was interested. Thank you for developing a true successor to MOO2.

As for the expansion I would love to see new animations of the races in the diplomatic screen. Maybe even animations for when they reject an offer (an image of the Drengen spitting on the view screen comes to mind) or declare war. Something a little more reactive to the player rather then the simple looping head bob that’s currently there. Maybe even a unique death animation for each race when they leave the universe! YEA YEA!!!

I’m terribly excited hearing about the tech trees being race dependant. I really hope you put a lot of depth and development into them and make them very different from each one. That would add so much to the replay ability (and make even more of a headache for AI debugging, YAY!) of the game. It’s very exciting to think about!

I thoroughly enjoy designing ships and sometimes am vexed that there isn’t more conjunctive parts like a simple Y joint for every style. I sincerely hope that you don’t ever stop making more parts for us to play with. There can never be enough!!!

I would like to comment on the screen that reveals a new technology. I think I preferred the look and feel of the one in GC1. To me it felt more techgeeky. I think the music in that one had a lot to do with it. I also preferred the shorter text to read on the right. The screen wide text in GC2/DA seamed a little to big and long to read comfortably. Also going back to GC1 I liked the tech descriptions there a lot better. They were more wordy and scientific which to me adds a lot of interest to the progression of the game. Something about that whole combo works better then in GC2/DA, I know you’ve got to change things to try and improve, I just felt something about the whole feel of that presentation was lost some in the process.

Also could you elaborate on the “And more” part of the sneak peek page please, please, please?   

Oh drat look at what’s happened. I’ve gotten terribly excited and rambled off on the forums! That’s time away from the game! Not good!!!

So to sum up!

Very deep tech trees please!
More animations of the races!
More ship parts to play with!
Tweaking of the technology reveal screen!
More…stuff…yea…more! Just more! Ok? Got that? MORE!!   

Thanks again for developing a great game!!!

Doh! How could I forget about ethnical events?

Ethnical events needlessly punish good players for playing as good. Not every ethnical decision needs to favour evil. There can be ones that benefit good.

Example:

Enviromental Cataclysm

It has recently been determined that current economic policies on [insert planet name] are having a harmful effect on the enviroment. Major corporations are exploiting the enviroment for a quick buck. If things continue to proceed as they are now, we can expect a major enviromental cataclysm before the decade is over. Unfortunately, to fix things this late in the game would cost us a fortune. The question is, is the happiness and well being of our people worth the cost?

-Good: (-1000 BC, +5 morale) How could we be so blind to this crisis? Regardless of the source of these problems, we must not only find ways to save the enviroment, but also find long term solutions that would allow our economy to co-exist with the enviroment instead of exploiting it. It may cost us some money now, but our kids will have a greener tomorrow.

-Neutral: (-100 BC, +1 morale) This is a problem. Oh well, what can one do? Inform the public that we will be setting up contracts to save the planet. Place emphasis on economically practical solutions.

-Evil: (+1000 BC, -10 morale) What? You mean we can exploit the enviroment of [Insert planet name] for profit? I thought that they said that they were working on new ways to make money. I knew that they were holding back. Tell them to get their lazy buts in gear and make me money!

This looks outstanding. I pre-ordered as soon as I got the e-mail. I do have one request: Would it be possible to balance the races better? Specifically, the Iconians are really weak. The unique technologies could be one way to bring them back into the pack. Can't wait to play it

Geez, your email advertising this expansion was so deceptive. I got an email saying

It was $40 for both. $30 + 25 = 55. 40/55 = 73%. Even without the preorder special price, 40/60 = 66.7%. Neither of those are near 50% off. Great business practice.

Notice the word nearly in there. Still, people who play this game tend to be fairly intelligent. Why not just say for a limited time, you will get 33.33333% off Stardock?

Concerning Terror Stars....

One of the major problems in GC1 was that a terror star chould be built, in 1 turn, out of any type of Starbase. This time around, when you start the SB, if you have the right technology one of the options (such as 'Economic', 'Military') would be 'Terror Star'. This way the AI can properly identify the threat before its at their doorstep.

Aother problem is that every Starbase Module is instantly applied, meaning you could STILL make a Terror Star in one turn. There have been several ideas floating around to combat this, but what I beleive we're planning is to implement 'Install Times' to Starbases. Most of the modules will stay the same (instant installation) but some of the more powerful prerequsite modules will take at least a week to install. This way we can set a set number of weeks that a player should have to properly shift their focus and deal with the new threat.

Oh, and if memory serves correctly, in GC1 the AI didn't actually use terror stars   This time they will AND they'll use them with computer-like precision!

What fun!   

Great, first mine gets destroyed by teenagers.. twice!!! And now computers have the pleasure of using it against me.

Somethings wrong in this galaxy...

Will the Terror Stars be fleet compatible? If they are, it will be possible to move them along at higher speeds using 'tug boats' fitted with the new Driver component. Otherwise, if they're not 'fleetable', then it would just be too easy to stop them. At 1 parsec per week, a military starbase fitted with an Interdiction Beam module will be able to completely paralyze a Terror Star until it gets destroyed.

I imagine them to be 20,000 bc wonder-modules that transform your humble military starbase into a 50 logistic-point, 1 pc/wk supernova-inducing space station.

However the AI uses them, a pair of Proton... erm, Photon Torpedos up the exhaust port should do the trick.

If there are only two civs alive, each has only one planet and both of those planets are in the same system, then if one civ blows up the solar system with a Terror Star, who wins?

I would say the above scenario would be almost impossible to happen, but what an interesting complication! Maybe whoever owns the terror star would win? (afterall there are probably many people on the terror star.)

So terror stars will end up being starbases that you would have to pump in a million constructors to eventually produce a terror star? I guess you really couldn't design them then (I thought they would be just like ships).

That wouldn't work. No matter how many starbase modules you use to slow ships, you can't slow anything to speeds slower than 1 parsec per turn.



Don't forget about bigger guns too. These Terrorstars can blow up stars, not puny planets...



BRING IT ON!!!!

This is excellent news and I really like the new features, especially making the races more unique. Should really give incentive to replay using all the different races available. One question on this new direction though: what does this mean for tech trading? Does this mean you can now potentially obtain alien technologies? Hope this wont be exploited so that the player can end up with every technology available in the universe!

"afterall there are probably many people on the terror star."

Hmmm... yeah, I'm sure the crew of the Terror Star could set up a colony somewhere else.

I think you'll only have to send in one constructor, but you'll probably have to research like hell to get the Terror Star technology, pay 20,000 bc to install it, and then wait a week. If the Terror Star retains the modules that it's core starbase had, then in a way, you could design how it functions to some extent, but not it's appearance.

I just hope that the destroyed solar systems leave asteroid clouds behind. That way, when an ally race sends in a Terror Star, I'll send in a military fleet to escort it, and follow it up with fleets of space miners, so that I can go into vulture mode, and loot the remnants of the victim.

Another thing I'd like is if the Terran Alliance retained the existing DA tech tree(with extra branches added for the new ship components and Terror Stars), so that I could start out with them when I get TA, and not get confused with crazy alien names for simple techs.