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Random News: April 2006

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Random News: April 2006

Status Report

from GalCiv2 Forums

I don't know how many people here read the Journals section but that's where we put up most of our day to day development stuff.  Though by "We" I mean the entire GalCiv II team though it seems like I'm the only one with enough free time to blog about it (under my Draginol account from JoeUser.com).

Next week we put out 1.1. We've been releasing beta builds like crazy since the end of last month.  Future updates won't be quite so extravagant. We just wanted to make sure people knew how serious we were about adding user-requested features even after release.

More reviews have been coming in. We've been very pleased with most of them.  The G4 XPlay review was a real shocker. 5 out of 5. I've never seen a game get a 5 out of 5 on there so we were pretty jazzed about that.  Our friends at NeoTechGaming had a nice review up of the game as well.  Computer Games Magazine gave us a 4.5 out of 5.  The CGW review should be out soon too, they aren't currently doing ratings though so we'll just use this made up quote of editor in chief Jeff Green "6 out of 5, greatest achievement in human history." ;)

Meanwhile, our developers have been coding away on these updates. But what about the art team? Most of them are on Society. But what about our other artists? One idea we've been toying around with is a "Ship Pack".  Basically a bunch of hulls and components for ships that would allow people to create a bunch of new ships that we would sell for $9 or something.  We'd be curious on people's thoughts on that.  Art is expensive and we'd rather do it as a one time thing as opposed to a bunch of smaller groups at $2 or something each.

After next week, the team will start working on 1.2.  We have a list already of tweaks and additions.  We probably won't have a long public beta test of it like we did with 1.1. New users come to our forums, see a ton of "crash" reports and think "Oh man, this game must be buggy" not realizing they're reading beta reports.

Speaking of forums, we realize that our forums are like the devil. We are looking at a redesign soon. But we are listening to people's ideas.  Our forum system works across all our sites and allows for a lot of customization - which we'll be using to make it easier and faster to use in the coming weeks).

That's all for now. !FROGCARE!

60,432 views 139 replies
Reply #26 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would happily pay for a pack like that, although I would have to examine the content to see if its worth $9. I have no problem paying for something if its worth it and good quality though.

New ship designs... yummy.
Reply #27 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would buy a ship pack .
As for the content of the ship pack, I know you won't let us down.
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #28 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I forgot to mention that I would prefer a larger pack over several smaller ones. If its more efficient for you (and cheaper for us) thats a good thing, and it'll save hassle if you need to reinstall.

I would also prefer to pay for official content, than user designs (even though many are awesome).
Reply #29 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm not sure if I like the idea. Won't it cause compability problems with ship designs? Right now, the door is open for people to share their awesome ship designs on the net. I don't want to design what my own ships look like, because I lack the time and possibly the talent to design really cool looking ones. I'd much rather download ships others have made. But if there are extra ship packs, design using the packs will not necessarily be compatible with my Galciv2. Which is a bad thing, because I really don't feel like using 9$ just for this.
Reply #30 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Beside a lot of bling, I would only considering buying a ship-pack if it contained a bunch of new ship-modules (and equivalent tech research) :

- carrier module
- command module (armada-possibility: doubles or triples regular fleet size)
- defense modules (like on the starbase, but then extending defenses of the fleet the ship is in)
- offensive fleet modules (like on the starbases)
Reply #31 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Give every race unique hulls, and at least 5 at every level (which the races under AI use would of course use), and then we're hitting the value for money stage.

Once we're past that, a music pack would be something which would attract my attention. Something with a bit more omph! to it. The menu music is nice, but then it all gets a bit bland after that.
Reply #32 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Brad yes your forums are Evil

And the main site is too, atleast for FireFox users. Iam logged in but everytime I come to the site again firefox pops up the window "pls enter your password" to auto fill username & password. No other site does this, well thats a minor annoyance. I would probably buy ship pack if it came out, seeing how good support you give customers it´s only fair that we support SD. Keep it up

Forgot to mention about the ship pack. What I desperately need is new cockpit modules for my ships. I dont do huge ships with ship builder, couple wings etc and thats it. But what I really would like to see is more cockpits, there simply aren´t any at the moment. Except one huge one, the one you can build B5 kinda ships I guess
Reply #33 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The only thing I really really want is hulls for the rest of the races- and that shouldn't cost anything.

As for Firefox and these forums, Firefox crashes a lot for me when I try to highlight text on these forums.
Reply #35 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Keep that ship pack idea for the expansion.

Selling bits of art for your game leads people to think you just want to get money from them.
Plus, since the game, according to you, is so easily moddable, we will soon see very very good mods, that will perhaps be as good as your ship packs ; people will start to think that you consider them as milk cows, like every other game editor out there. (This is what is happening for Bethesda : most mods are better than the ones they are releasing... Heck, modders even patch the game, while the developers are occupied developing stupid horse armor to get one more dollar from their favorite milk cows).
I was so upset when i saw Bethesda selling a horse armor for 2$... When i buy a game i buy a full product, and i shouldnt have to invest money in it after my initial purchase... What is next? Purchasable patches? AI packs for 5$?
Really, i hate this ship pack idea... You should include it in the expansion, or distribitute it for free on SDC. Or dont do it.

Gal Civ 2 sold very well, every customer trusted you ; dont ruin this trust.
Reply #36 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would purchase a ship pack for $9. To say that price point is high is laughable (that's the price of a pizza people). Considering all of the enhancements you guys do for free, I have faith that the content of such an art pack would be reasonable and as someone mentioned, it's optional and I assume would list the contents of the pack so I can decide if I want to purchase then. I say go for it!
Reply #37 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Count me in at $9 or so. Mirroring what others have said i would be happy to pay that amount as long as there were plenty of extras for that price. From my point of view i would like to see race logo parts made avail for the ships. Maybe use a part that draws its content from the race logo selection.

DG
Reply #38 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Once we're past that, a music pack would be something which would attract my attention. Something with a bit more omph! to it. The menu music is nice, but then it all gets a bit bland after that.

I second that!

First to your Journal, I really enjoy reading it and being informed about your progesses in such a highclass manner makes this game much more worth to me.

Artwork is expensive, that's right and I really would love to see improvements there. While I like the main map, I really find the planetary extensions (buildings) look cheap and they aren't easy to identify, they should be more unique.

The battleviewer is really annoying. I watched just a few battles and it's absolutely boring. I also dislike planetary invasion a lot, the animation looks ... well, you know!

What I don`t like about the idea of a ship pack you have to pay for is that such things tend to divide the communtity. There are already some nice shipdesigns out there which are marked as "using collectors edition jewelery". While I had luck because it seems all versions sold in germany through Paradox include the collectors edition stuff, I really feel sorry for those of us standing beside.

So what I would like to see until the first expansion pack comes out, give us the chance to subscribe (maybe up to 5$/month) as GalCiv2 supporter and use that money to pay some artists enhancing the animations, the battleview (choreography) and create new hulls and jewelerey. Maybe you (the coders) could also have a few weeks of holiday in the Caribbean, you deserve it.

Give subscribers access to new artwork instantly and release it to the whole community when it's completely done for free. I think you have a strong community of fans and it should not be too hard to find enough supporters.

Nevertheless, I think I would purchase a ship pack, but not because it is very important to me, more to support your excellent work and to keep you in the state to improve this game further.

Apology my poor english, unfortunately I'm no native speaker.
Reply #39 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Looking forward to 1.1. I would be willing to purchase an art pack for more hulls and such and like the idea of a one time fee with lots of new hulls etc to choose from. I would prefer that to 2 dollar or should I say $1.89 charges that just keep plinking away and not really deliver anything of note. Keep up the good work folks, you guys have made a fan for life.
Reply #40 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm a little divided on the matter of a ship pack. Mostly it's Oblivions fault with that crappy idea of payable content (horse armor - bah), generally speaking I don't like the direction this could take in the long run. Pay for every extra tiny bit even if I already shelled out good money for the game itself? No way...

I'd rather include the ship pack in an 20$ expansion instead of just releasing eye-candy for money... And I agree that at first every race should have its own hull designs!
Reply #41 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Lets see, ship combat video sold me on GC2, ship building and ship building bling (SB Squared) keeps me coming back to play it over and over again. I like the bling on the MV. But is suck as an artist.

So bring it on!

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large
Reply #42 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I like the idea of a ship pack but it would have to contain enough stuff to justify charging for it.

Having a few innovations contained in it would help like a colour swatch so I could change the colour of my ships and the individual components (I want a multi-coloured Rainbow Ship of Love!!!!! ) and definatly individual hulls and components for all races.
Reply #43 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm with Ugrok on this. Very poor idea, and it would make me feel differently about the company that until now, I have championed big-time (which has resulted in quite a few extra sales for you guys).

This whole concept of releasing bits of things for a small fee, plus the new trend towrads "episodic gaming", are really poor ideas that will only be a lose for the end user after a fashion. What it implies is that a company doesn't have their act together to have this stuff ready to stand on its own as a full release, so we'll give you bits later for a fraction of the price. But in both cases the price seems to be too much for what you get.

Color me spoiled, but I much prefer the current model - release content like this for free (such as the extra maps and map packs for games like the Quake and Unreal series) or hold off and release it in an expansion pack. The slippery slope of nickel and diming the customer with bits of content is a poor idea.

I came to Stardock because of how you care enough to actively support your games after release, without copy-protection. Please don't step in the other direction by treating us as lemmings who will fork over cash just because we are fans. Yes, we have the right to not buy it. But if enough customers are into the idea, we'll start to see all kinds of stuff available for a fee that that until recently, was a given that it comes with the purchase of the game. In the final analysis I think this will drive people away from our hobby, which is the last thing the lagging computer gaming industry needs right now.

-HM
Reply #44 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
New users come to our forums, see a ton of "crash" reports and think "Oh man, this game must be buggy" not realizing they're reading beta reports.


solving that could be done like this :
-make a specific sub-forum with a specific NDA(or agreement) for every people that want to subscribe (free subscribtion)
-this sub-forum is restricted to subscribed people & allows to do a semi-public beta test for users that would want to subscribe

-a forum maintenance guy would move all threads about beta problems to this specific forum in case a user makes an error

-and finally you'll need to deal with delivering beta updates only to subscribers

OR
-just make a sub-forum that won't display all its threads anywhere else and move all beta content there
Reply #45 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
RE: Forums, Glad to hear. I would never "rag" you for your forums, but you understand users do judge them based on others we have used.


Re: Ship pack. For the love of god, explain why art is expensive. I'm not going to accept that assertion without a decent rationale. At the bottom line, if there's enough stuff to "justify" the price. Count me in, I'll probably buy it.
Reply #46 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I agree with Hollow man. Although some users might pay for it, the majority of players aren't quite as hardcore as the people who post on your forums. It would be better to save the extra artwork for the expansion.
Reply #47 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Given how much I love this game, sold. Provided, as mentioned a million times already, that it has a decent amount of content.
Reply #48 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The price of pizza is $9? Where? It's $20.00 for a large where I am. And that $9 is the equivilant of three gallons of gasoline. I'd get more use out of a shippack for a longer time than the amount of time it would take me to drive 80 miles with the $9 I would have purchased for gas.

Thank you for uyour updates. They are very much appreciated and very rare for a developer who needs to always look at the bottom line.
Reply #49 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'd be interested in a ship pack, too. As long as it contained a good amount of content, sign me up.
Reply #50 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Thanks PieBrain. And think about it: $9, and it isn't even really actual content. It's just some pretty stuff, much like the much hated horse armor for Oblivion. I really think that you have to release significant content or else the very websites that helped BRING you customers (because they loved you for the no copy protection) will blast you, resulting in poor PR. The proof is so recent with the horse armor fiasco. I couldn't go to a gaming website (Blue, the Shack) or a review site without reading about it. And I can't believe in this case that even bad publicity was good publicity.

Please: gather it together with more stuff and release in an expansion.

-HM