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No mini-expansions, big full expansion instead this year

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No mini-expansions, big full expansion instead this year

"Sometimes evil wins"

from GalCiv2 Forums

The ship design feature of Galactic Civilizations II has become one of the most popular features in the game. It is far more popular than we had ever expected and gives us a lot of ideas in the future on how to make it even better.  While the coding team has been working on v1.1, v1.2, and soon v1.3, we tried to think of something for the art team to work on. Art, as many people know, is expensive. That is doubly true of art that involved being modeled, textured, rendered, lit, etc.  So the question was posed -- if we put up a mini-expansion for $9, would people buy it? The expansion would have had probably around 2 new hulls per ship style along with a ton of jewelry (10 hulls total I believe plus countless other parts).

While a narrow majority of people wanted it, it would have really required a super majority (i.e. like 75%) to justify the expense involved.  The decision was made to roll ship pieces into the expansion pack which we expect to announce early next month (it won't be out until near the end of this year). We've got the plot down for the campaign and that links does give away a couple of the features in the expansion. There will be more playable civilizations in the expansion pack but two of the existing ones will be destroyed by the end of the campaign and won't be in any future sequel as a major race.  The new poll lets players try to guess one of the 2 major civilizations to be making a final exist in the expansion.

Update: The campaign is NOT the main emphasis of the expansion. There will be a number of significant new features that the expansion will center around.  Moreover, while 2 races will be destroyed during the campaign, they will still exist (along with the 2 new ones) in sandbox mode. In a future sequel (ala a GalCiv 3 some years from now) they would be removed.

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Reply #51 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I am aching to announce what is in the expansion pack because I think people are going to be pretty happy about what we're doing. Most of the features are not going to be the kinds of things people would think of at first.


It's great to hear a dev so excited about their own game plans. For some reason that seems to be a rarity. I read many dev journals/interviews and it seems game development as a "business" seems to overshadow many dev's sense of creativity and fun in their own games.

Since I don't want to create excessive scrolling, in reference to Evil Muppet's post #21 above... I just wanted to say, nice write-up! It was very persuasive. So much-so you changed my mind. "Korx and Terrrans" are now at the top of my "axe list". Your take on the Altarians merging into the Human populace is good, but I'd rather see the opposite. I have a rather cynical RL view of the human populace (I shouldn't watch the news) and would rather see a few humans merged into the Altarian culture as the final hope for the Human Race. When watching sci-fi flicks as a child, I'd always imagined how neat it would be chosen as a "good representative of Earth" to intermingle with an alien race. Although a move to any foreign planet would require a pond with fish, frogs and toads. Errr, where were we? Reality? Oh yea, the expansion...
Reply #52 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The poll has changed a lot since yesterday. How the hell did the Torians overtake the Korx??? As votes are added it should be harder to make the bars move. There must have been a really sudden anti-Torian movement. Have they become the new race to h8 in my absence!? Has someone zerged the poll with multiple accounts? It's a good job the poll won't determine who gets the chop, I quite like the Torians.
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #54 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Boo,.there should have been a ship pack


When the modding integration has been totally completed - maybe you'll get your wish from the excellent modders out there
Reply #55 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
HELLO,
it you build it, they will come.

if you make the mini expansion, most of the people who said they wouldn't buy it actually probably would. especially if it were only ten dollars or less. although, you would need to include a littel more then just jewelry, something such as a couple extra features or improvements to the game, more hulls, and maybe a map editor of some kind.
another good improvement would be to add a couple more features to sandbox mode, like some game modes with alot of minor races, or a game mode where are the hulls and propulsion/engine technologies are researched, sor t of like the accelerated start, and also to allow people to choose what race they are for accelerated start, or battle of the gods, being human can get boring( .