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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!

60,413 views 139 replies
Reply #76 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Maybe it's just me, but I think $9 seems like a bit of sticker shock to some. Again, maybe I'm way off here - but it seems like the feeling is "for $9, content must be greater than x" - whereas, I think, if you priced it at $5, and as long as there were at least 2 dozen or so new features, no one would complain or balk at the price.

I'd like to throw my hat in the ring as saying what everyone else has said: I'd pay $9 for a decent amount of content (and I love the idea of maybe special ships, like Star Trek ships/Star Wars/ etc). But I think you might have more response at $5.

-m.
Reply #77 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
dogfish...$9 for a large Dominos with one topping...
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #78 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
RE: Pizza. Little Ceasar's "hot and ready" - $5 for large pepperoni anytime.
You know you're in Michigan when the "Big 3" doesn't just mean the automakers. It also means Pizza Hut, Little Ceasar's and Hungry Howies.

Now back to the game....

If the ship pack had quit a bit of content including new hulls and maybe some new core ships then I'm all over $9 or just 1 tgn.net token. I refuse to buy the Oblivion add-ons as they are just not worth it. Not by a long shot.

Can't wait for 1.1. By then I may be ready to take a break from Oblivion and dive right back in to GC2! Now will I ever go back to Civ 4.....
Reply #79 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Your point is being made from someone who knows very little about Stardock. They are NOT greedy like any of those companies you are comparing her to.

They will and have put out free bonus material as they have with galciv1 and galciv2 has some bonus material now. . These statements like yours has no place at all here. If your unhappy with galciv2 I suggest not playing it anymore and move on. Your thoughts and concerns simply are not wanted here. Mainly because they are so inaccurate aligning stardock with any other company is silly. Stardock is a one of a kind company no one produces games better or distribute them better for that matter.


Im going to assume your talking to me because you dont otherwise specify who the hell your ranting about and im the above post.

1) Grow up
2) Grow up
3) Grow up

I especially like the part where you say "your thoughts and concerns are not wanted here" well done, do you know anyone at stardock personally, no you dont. They are around to make money, thats their purpose, they are a firm, firms make money its what they do, you know 'evil' capitalist's and all that. Somehow you got the impression i dislike Stardock, ive listened and read a lot of the things Brad Wardel has had to say (which i think hes covered almost every topic on everything in the entire universe because he wont shutup j/k) and it is knowledgable, informed and well thought out stuff, especially about the software industry but nowhere in it did he say "we dont like to make money".

I almost feel like ive insulted your religion or something here. Which usually warrants an over the top reaction. The other option being that you didnt understand the core of my arguement because its bigger than just any one company. So im going to have to classify you as some 14 yr old with a blind fanatacism towards the game developers which created a game that you love and play solid for a good 2 weeks, gets bored of and then never plays again nor comments on anything regarding it.

Edit: I Just read through above what you had to say again, being pretty harsh stuff, and i feel it warrants a further response on my behalf.

(edited by Moderator) Don't use foul language, explain your points and agree to disagree in a normal way please!!!
Reply #80 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nah, nah, nah. Don't start into a flame war.

Personal attacks and flaming don't help you anything in a discussion. He may be a fanboy, but that doesn't warrant swearing. Ne?

So, let's all make a group hugging.

No, not you Lord Kona. *argh*

*sound of broken ribs and limbs*
Reply #81 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Without reading anyones comments. I will say NO to selling shippacks. I'll pay for the game(which is awesome bty), I'll pay for an expansion, But I will not pay for basically custom content. The fanbase can and will do a great job creating ships and other free content. I feel you companys time would be more wisely spent on creating patches, additions( like telling the AI to get off your property without going to war) and expansions.

I
Reply #82 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I am a bit surprised that you'd even entertain the thought of charging for an art booster pack.
Really this is just something I would NOT pay for. Just some custom designed hulls? With a little effort I could do the same on my own for nothing but my time.
Gee maybe I could make some neat looking ship designs in the ship creator and start uploading them to a web site.
I could charge anyone that wanted to download them a nickel or even a dime! WOW! I'd get rich quick!

In all seriousness, hasn't the lameness of the Oblivion paid "official" content updates sunk in? The idea of charging for an art addition alone just makes no sense to me. Save art additions alone for a proper expansion pack with good content editions, that are worth the money.

Perhaps I (and others here) have taken your idea out of context, but it just reeks of "milking the cash cow" as they say.
What concerns me more is the likely fact that any "booster" packs would just get rolled up in to an expansion anyways, causing people that paid for the boosters to pay AGAIN for the same stuff.
Reply #83 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Will be nice if the ship pack will contain ships for each race.
Reply #84 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I wouldn't feel very happy buying a 'Ship Pack' for $9 (But, I'd probably end up buying it anyway, because I do love the game so).

I'm not really into senarios (didn't really enjoy Dreadlords that much).

I guess I'm one of the people who wouldn't mind seeing multiplayer (even if it were just a 'full' implementation of Hot Seat).
Reply #85 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Use a seperate subforum for beta testing.


Already exist was used during the pre-launch of the game.
Reply #86 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I support the ship pack IF:

- Ship styles uniques for all races
- More jewelry

Yep. That's precisely what we'd do.

It would be stuff for every race. And it would be quite a bit.

Here's an example of what our team has done for IconPackager to get an idea of the level of content we'd be talking about:

https://www.stardock.com/products/themes/apogee/

People buy IconPackager for $14.95 which lets them change their Windows desktop icons (IconPackager is VERY popular, we sell almost as many copies a year of that as we will probably sell direct in GalCiv 2).  Then users can but these premium icon packages.

I don't really have much of an opinion about the horse armor in oblivion. But I don't think the issue that some people had was that they were selling content. I think it was a combination of announcing it before they released a patch and secondly that it was just one item.  We're talking dozens of components here.

Something roughly like an additional hull for each size for each ship style plus a bunch of new jewelry.  So we're talking about a lot of stuff. 

 

Reply #87 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I support the ship pack IF:

- Ship styles uniques for all races
- More jewelry

Yep. That's precisely what we'd do.

It would be stuff for every race. And it would be quite a bit.


That does sound fairer, and im sure deciding a final price can be dealt with later as long as its within reason.

Moving on, it would be nice to see some variation on the them of ship jewelry. I dont know if this is feasable now if at all, when only willing to devote a certain number of expertise to the add-on. Is to have a number of animated jewery pieces, for example a radar dish or the likes you could pop on top of a terran battleship that will whizz round every now and then. Rather than just adding more of the same, something different to further open up the ship optimization feature. It might make the add-on that much more attractive as well.

Reply #88 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ok, I did not read all the responses, but I wanted to suggest that for the 1.2 fora, make a seperate Beta section. That should help.

As for the $9 ship pack, I think it is a bit steep, but I can't even afford the $40 base price atm. At <$35 I can fit it into my budget, otherwise I have to wait a few months. (other expenses you know...)
Otherwise I would have purchased by now instead of endlessly playing the demo

The Schu
Reply #89 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If you get the forums to be even a decent as a phpBB, I'll buy that ship pack from you. Gimme bling!
Keep on it!
Reply #90 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I really don't undrestand the gripe about charging $9 for a ship pack. Ok, if you can do it for free yourself...do so and don't buy it but people saying this $9 is too high or somehow adds to corporate greed...give me a break. Do you think artists work for free? At some point consumers have to take give a little back to the provider/consumer relationship. The main reason any company is in business is to generate an income by selling it's products. This is no different. I also don't think providing the ship pack is doing anything to prevent future game content add-ons etc. - They are not mutually exclusive.
Reply #91 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hmm... that amount of content looks much better. Let's make it one new hull type per size and per race plus animated "blings" and we're set.

(I've got l33t bartering skills. )

-------------


The one concern I (and probably lot's of other people) have about the way Bethesda is doing it is not only the way they've done it (your right with that, that announcing such things before a patch was really a bad way to do it) but also that it could lead to the situation were important parts of games are left out of the release versions just to be sold seperately afterwards. (Not that I would think that Stardock ever would do that. But I suspect the evil minions of EA and MS ) You know, the situation before the end boss where a pop-up comes up and tells you the only way to win is to buy the "Sword of ultimate desctruction and customer nepping" for only 9.99$ à piece. I really hate it when that happens.

But I'll wait now and look before I pass my final judgement (which probably nobody cares about anyway. )
Reply #92 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If it has a lot of high quality content that is not bullied by fear of infringing on other corporations' copyrights (being afraid of being sued because it looks somewhat like the USS enterprise or something) then i would definitly buy it.
Reply #93 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would be interested in a Ship pack, and I wouldn't find $9 to be out of line. My only concern, like others, is that this content would be part of an expansion pack down the line. I'd pay nine bucks, but not twice.
Reply #94 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
My only concern, like others, is that this content would be part of an expansion pack down the line. I'd pay nine bucks, but not twice.



It should be part of an expansion not a seperate leech of money.
Reply #95 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
How long do you plan to keep people working on GC2 for? Personally, I think there still are a lot of minor tweaks, the sort that could be implemented in 1-2 hours. Are you planning to do all of those?
Reply #96 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It should be part of an expansion not a seperate leech of money.


There's no reason that we can't have our cake and eat it too here. I would glady throw down $9 for additional content that would be only available in this download.

And I see no reason why Stardock couldn't include even more new designs in an expansion 6 months to a year down the road.

As long as this addon is both optional and exclusive, i'm all for it.
Reply #97 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I agree that $9 for a ship pack is expensive. I'd advise spending only $1-$2/user on it and bundle it with the expansion.

Keep it simple - one expansion.
Reply #98 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
$1 to $2 ??? Good grief...who will create them...some 10 year old in a 3rd world sweatshop somewhere? It would not be worth their time or effort at that price. You get what you pay for.
Reply #99 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, $1 * 100,000 users is $100,000, a reasonable budget.

That is, assuming all the buyers of GC2 buy the expansion.
Reply #100 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i'd be willing to pay more than $9 for that.

maybe you could add alternative designs for functional components tied to the different races (so that drengin hull types would have their own engines, etc). maybe even new hull types so each race is unique. maybe that's a little ambitious.

if i had all the time in the world, my opinion might be different. i might be more willing to teach myself to design my own components. but instead i work for a living so i can pay other people to do things like that.

personally, i think you should keep it separate from an expansion or anything like that. that way, if someone doesn't care about the art, they don't have to spend money on it. and any expansion with "actual content" would be less expensive as well. it has the same logic as what i read on your multiplayer stance: it'll be a separate release (if it happens), so that the people who don't want it don't have to pay for it.