The artwork is being done by our art team and it is higher in quality than what's currently in the game since they've learned a lot of techniques. If there isn't strong demand for such content, I can put the art team onto Society. The expansion pack will have some new hulls and ship parts but nothing like what a stand alone shipyard expansion would have.

Specifiy what would be included......'''if it is going to be 4 hulls, and 20 pieces.. then it is not worth it....


if it is going to be a whole lot more, then yes....


but you will need to get our input on what kind of stuff we are looking for.. right?

the poll is showing some pretty mixed results, although thats only 117 right now while the previous one had like 900 something votes? maybe it was 500 something votes. so, give it a week or so...

Gal Civ is realtivly new in terms of being on the market. with warcraft this has been out for many years and it has become a extremly not only popular but is able to be on the market when sales are out for most stores.. Stardock needs to be geared towards making the game more efficent and the hulls are not a bad idea but the game still need work and if the idea comes back after a few years on the market with a lot of sales then you can compare with WoW and the big companies of games..

pecifiy what would be included......'''if it is going to be 4 hulls, and 20 pieces.. then it is not worth it.... if it is going to be a whole lot more, then yes.... but you will need to get our input on what kind of stuff we are looking for.. right?

you have a point there, if there is that much, then eh, dunno, but if it has 10 hulls (I think thats an entire racial hull set) and 50 pieces, then thats a good price, although maybe a little low for that many pieces...

How much are we talking about Brad because when you compare it to one of the best selling games of all time it is optimism WoW is an incredible game and the things they update it with are to make it better yes but it is the overall popularity of the game which set is up there were people want the pack...

Dido ,JJ

I WAS going to vote no, but after reading this decided to change the vote into yes. Something like all the races have own hulls would definately make me pay $9, but as has been said if it's a couple of hulls, then probably not.

Gal Civ is realtivly new in terms of being on the market. with warcraft this has been out for many years and it has become a extremly not only popular but is able to be on the market when sales are out for most stores.. Stardock needs to be geared towards making the game more efficent and the hulls are not a bad idea but the game still need work and if the idea comes back after a few years on the market with a lot of sales then you can compare with WoW and the big companies of games..

This really has nothing to do with whether $8 is a lot of money or not. 

The popularity of WoW determines HOW MANY units they sell, not what they sell a thing for.

How much expansion packs cost and how much MMOs cost per month is determined by market forces.

If there isn't sufficient demand for a ship yard mini-expansion that is fine. We're putting out the option here that we would be willing to make such a thing if there's demand.  If there isn't, then those artists would be put onto something in which there is demand.

Players shouldn't feel obligated to buy anything we put out. IF it's something they want, then that's great.  IF most people don't want it, that's great too, we can make other things based on player demand.  But our artists have to be paid just like Blizzard's artists or Bethesda's artists.  We can't just release hundreds of hours of laborous content for free or else there wouldn't be a Stardock for very long.

So just as game developers have to live and die by market forces, so do gamers.  Expansion packs tend to be $30.  Civilization IV: Warlord is $30 and its content revolves around adding new leaders, civilizations, scenarios, and a new unit.  They have determined that is what the market will bear for an expansion with that content. 

Our expansion pack will have a similar level of content (different types of content) and a similar price.  Something that costs 1/3rd as much can be expected to have about 1/3rd as much content.

If enough people say they won't pay X for Y, that is fine.  For instance, if enough people said they wouldn't pay say $30 for a GalCiv II expansion pack then I say good for them. But the option isn't between a $30 expansion and a $20 expansion with the same content. It would be either a $20 expansion with less content or the team put onto a different game or onto one of our other projects.

Whenever you're dealing with al imited resource (like developer/art talent) there is a group that is benefitting from that talent and groups that miss out on it.  Our job is to figure out where the highest demand for that talent currently is and make sure we satisfy our customers.

yea, I understand that there.

also, is something like 10 dollars or so (not sure what the equivalent would be in Euros) going to mean that its something to download or something we buy in stores? Just wondering here Brad.

also, is something like 10 dollars or so (not sure what the equivalent would be in Euros) going to mean that its something to download or something we buy in stores? Just wondering here Brad.

The current plan is for all expansions to be purchased directly from Stardock. 

So just as game developers have to live and die by market forces, so do gamers. Expansion packs tend to be $30. Civilization IV

btw I hope they fix things such as game balace on this game.

but other wise tis a good idea at this point it is too close to say but at least it is not a total requirement for this game but a lot of hull which moders are doing currently not sure if they are in demand keep a look out on your poll and see but you have this down here.. I hope you think about the modders and all there work to expand on the game without your money I mean FREE no payments from stardock and stardock can focus on the game content and bugs a little more along with the AI and other things..

The current plan is for all expansions to be purchased directly from Stardock.

will it only be availible as a download off of stardock??

Would hate to have to have a credit card number for me to purchase this in the U.S.

Its not giving me an option to vote, even though I'm logged in.. but here's my opinion. I would rather have this extra art content coupled with the expansion. If the expansion is $30 instead of $20, so be it.

I don't like buying things over digital distribution. I bought a boxed copy of Galciv, and I bought a boxed copy of HL2 because I don't like the uncertainty of online services. That and I don't have a credit card.

I'm hooked on this game.. have been since it came out. For this reason I will go through the trouble of online distribution to get the expansion if it's not available in stores. But for artwork? probably not. If they were coupled together, I'd get both because its no more trouble and the cost is worth the content.

-Neb

Another Question is if the polls are about level in terms I mean about even in number of people who vote for it does this still mean you will put out this as something to grab off of the site..

voted no

Im over the ship design thing

you can spend hours designing your ships already - but its still the same game

in the end it gameplay that gives longevity

Put it in the expansion. $9 for ship jewelery is too much. If it was a general graphical upgrade, then sure. But there's plenty of jewelry already there, and it's moddable anyway.

ii would pay for it.... except i voted no, and here's why. while i would pay $10 for it, i wouldnt buy directly from stardock. its nothing against them, i love you guys, but i prefer to deal in cold hard cash and not use credit cards, paypal... etc, whatever and buy things electronically. if i can avoid it, i always do, and thats the only thing that would keep me away from it, i just dont like online purchases. but the idea otherwise is good. and if i was cool with buying something online then i would. im just not comfortable with it.

Of course I'd pay $8.95 for this. What's the big deal? So I go to McDonalds one time less this week.
At some point I'd like to see different hulls for all the races, several dozen new pieces of jewelry and the ability to put race emblems on my ships.

if bought directly from stardock, will we get a hard disk copy??? I know I would want one.. no matter what.

Sorry, voted No.
I am a gamer, I buy games that offer me entertainment value that I can interact with on multiple levels. I buy expansions for those games that offer me the same thing in return for the money I spend. I do not buy art packs for games.

Millions of people pay $15 per month to play World of Warcraft. Do they add new content every month? Not only do people pay the $15 per month but they then $40 for add-ons like the Burning Crusade (on top of the $50 for WoW and the $15 per month).

As I see it, that $15/mo is paying largely for things like the online hosting of the game and in-game moderators/gms, which are not costs for a single-player game. That said, part of the reason I don't play MMO's is because I don't like the monthly fees.

For me, unless it's an incredibly huge amount of new graphics that makes $8.95 seem like a bargain, or some unique super cool new stuff (animated components?), I have a hard time justifying the cost, even though $8.95 isn't that much money. Part of it is me thinking that it's just eye-candy with no impact on the game. Part of it is me worrying about the Oblivion Horse Armor/XBox Live Marketplace trend the game industry seems to want to head towards where gamers get nickeled and dimed for content (though the ship pack is nowhere near as bad as those).

Honestly, I'd rather have a $30 expansion pack that includes the ship stuff than a $20 expansion plus an $8.95 ship pack.

If I Could go neutral I would but seeing that I am left with Yes or No I would choose yes don't exactly know why but Brad I think convinced me some of the way..

For free? Someone has to design, model, and texture all that artwork. I am curious as to why you would feel entitled to receive that for free. At this point, any new artwork has to be paid for by someone. The expansion pack will come but that's some months off.

I don't really expect it for free, I just really care about more ship parts and hulls! Whats the point to putting more time into designing cooler looking ships when nobody going to see them in action. Sure I can take a screen shot and then post it a forum, but thats pretty lame. If its going to be a single player game then I need gameplay additions not fluff!

And WoW is a multiplayer game, people are willing to pay big bucks just to be a top dog, its about competition and ego. These concepts are lost or diluted in a single player game like GC2.

leaning 52 to 48 at this point still not sure...
^ ^
Yes No

I voted yes. It's still early on in the game's life, so it's still gonna be awhile before the modding and user content production really get into full swing. A good, professional add-on pack is something that'll help with getting by until then.

However, I do ask that if you're gonna do this, that you do it right--even if it means not adding any new artwork to the existing styles, each race has got to have its own hull style and jewelry.

I like the idea of being able to buy small, cheap, modular expansions/extras like this. You can just choose not to buy the stuff you don't like. And I think the extra stuff will be here sooner with this kind of small modules (vs. a huge, monolithic expansion pack that would take a year to finish if everything would be bundled there).

BTW, I voted yes. Individual ship styles for each race would be nice.