Expansion Pack Plans Solidify

Reading it now! More complex space battles sure are welcome Maybe formations? Some new eye candy for land battles would be welcome too. New espionage sounds solid too. Not too big fan of campaing but getting to play as Drengi sure sounds neat

Almost forgot, those asteroid platforms look terrific!!

Ahaha! I have read it befor you posted about it! i'm uber! (sorry just loged off from WoW) Anyway, great sneak peak, I'm really excited about the astroid fields the new espionage system and the "diffrent planets for doffrent races" thing. I would really like to see more refined combat (space and ground) in the essence of fighters and carriers and building ground forces (and the ability to "preprograne" your forces woth tactics and such. All in all, i'm really looking toward it, when will it be out?

Damnit, the expansion won't be sold at retail?

I hope we can download it without stardock central.

YES!!! Asteroid fields! It also sounds really good that colonizing planets will be different depending on race and planet-type! Two questions: When can I download it? What will this expansion pack cost me?

when we order this online, will we at least be sent a cd? I would really appreciate it, all it has to be is a cd in a little cd folder, no box required.

When will the expansion be available in the UK?? Would it be necassary to download from stardock central?is it ever going to be available in UK retail??

The computer players employ a whole set of different general strategies to win. Imagine, if you will, a typical multiplayer game. There are lots of different strategies that players will employ to try to win. The choices we'll give to players will let them pick from a number of different strategies, or a randomized strategy.

This one sounds very very interesting, I hope this really makes the AI play utterly differently, I would love to see an AI play that focused mosted on economic development and ignoring military techs and ships until necessary...

Or one, that focused on building big rich colony worlds and drown you with $$$$ Maybe combined with an influence based strategy

or one that went straight for xeno ethics , either good/evil or netural and played according...

I wonder how broad these strategies would be, and whether we could mod them...

I'm really happy to hear about the customizable AI. I was afraid there wasn't enough reaction in the thread where you proposed it, but it will be great. Imagine trying to win a cultural victory in a galaxy where every other civ is trying to win a cultural victory. Imagine the prodigious Drengin AI turning its focus to industry. Imagine role-playing scenarios as you create small meek civilizations to protect from warmonger AIs. So Stardock never did think of putting weapons on a cargo hull. From the development of Magic: the Gathering, I'm not surprised. The smartest people don't have the collective brainpower and creativity of thousands of gamers. The designers of Magic have a Banned List announcement and website where they admit their mistakes and try to fix things up with the community. New ship parts! I am excited.

what is release date?

Actually, For GCIII I suggest using the Reach For The Stars system. Each race had different tolerance for planets' atmosphere, heat, and terrain type. So for one race this junkyard of a planet would be nearly worthless, but for another, it'll be a paradise! Imagine the possibilities: should I bother to colonize this dump or should I just colonize the next planet that my race could flourish on? Should I colonize it just to deny it from other races and let them grovel and beg me to give to them in exchange for everything I want?

There should even be some planets that will be uninhabitable at all for some races, but fully or even a bit inhabitable for others. That could be really great. And each race could even be able to gain extra stuff from certain types of terrain types and planets. Like, for example - an aquatic race could gain happiness and breeding bonus in water-worlds. What do you think?

Oh, and ofcourse, there MUST be orbital bombardment in GCIII. Simply a MUST. Let it take awhile to level a planet, so it will not unbalance the gameplay (unless you use some REALLY heavy-duty weapons and fleets, in which case you could level a planet in a turn or two).

Is there going to be additional techs to research in the expansion?