This game, mulitplayer, and single player.

from GalCiv2 Forums
When I first saw this game on the self in Best Buy I thought wow, this is awesome. I've been trying to find a good space game, something I can play with my friends and has a good single player experience. The ablilty to capture planets and construct my own ships from the hull up were features of the perfect game. Well I got home and opened it up and NO MULTIPLAYER. Well I was shocked, I mean what games doesn't have multiplayer in these days? And it was turn based to boot, not that was bad, I wanted a turn based game, but I didn't know there was any turned based game made that didn't have the hot seat option. Well I jump online as fast as possible and get on the website and I'm looking for the reason my fleets aren't crushing someone. I read that they left out multiplayer because they wanted to focus on the single player aspect of the game. Ok but it would take a novice programer to have a basic multiplayer hotseat only a day or two, if that long to add it. This means that the game's makers are stupid or lazy. I did see the poll that says people arn't interested in a multiplayer option, but as someone noted those who see the game has no multiplayer arn't going to hang around to take polls, so the poll is misleading and stopping the player community from getting what they want. I play a lot of games and so do my friends and family. They thought this game was incredable until they learned no multiplayer. You lost about 20 something sales right there. Not to mention with no mulitplayer I doubt I wil buy the expansion and neithor will all those who didn't buy the game because of the lack of a multiplayer feature. Your losing tons of sales because you couldn't be bothered to wait 2 more days to launch the game.
I didn't get on here to rant about Dread Lords, I got on here to try and knock some sense into Stardock, which will most likely not be around for long with its marketing plan. Anyway back to the game. Ok I say so they focused on the single player, I mean its got be be good right? Wrong. Not that the game its self is bad but the campaign should have been a lot better. I love the ship construction feature, the UI, the graphics, the space battles, the land battles, the planet system, the random crap, the AI, I love pretty much the entire game engine and the idea. But the campaign was a huge letdown. Why? There was almost no cutscenes, a game like this should have tons of cutscenes. Second there was having to research the same techs every mission. Are humans incapable of remembering anything? Or do we have to start from scratch every few years? And then there are the missions, invade some planets. If that was my goal I'd play customs games. I want plot driven battle, interesting adventures, etc. Not invade the planet again after researhing the same tech tree again. For someone that cutout multiplayer for single player it has the worst single player of any game I've played. If players stop with the camp half way through to play custom missions then your campaign needs a rewrite.
What Stardock has in Dread Lords is the chance to make a game that shows us that the turn based gameing genre is not dead. To show us the games like Age of Wonders II was not the last of its kind. By the way if you need a base for your mulitplayer look at this game because this is the way it should be done. Stardock needs to pull its socks up and get to work, launch a patch that gives us pvp, give us in the expansion a gripping campaign with tons of cutscenes and make it non-linear for the love of your customer base. You got a game that could make you tons of money and give your company a chance at lasting 5 years, otherwise someone will buy you out and does Galactic Civilizations III right.
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I dunno, dude... the game seems to be selling pretty well as it is.

Civilization III didn't ship with multiplayer. That was saved for a later expansion pack. And that franchise did OK, last I checked.

I don't think slapping a hotseat feature in is as easy as you think.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Compared to what? Empire Earth II outsold it, Rise of NAtions II outsold it, Star Trek Armada II outsold it, Age of Wonders II outsold it, Elder Scrolls IV outsold it, World od Warcraft outsold it. Face it almost everything outsold it. When Wal-Mart, Target, EB Games have stopped selling it, it must not be doing well.
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
and this multiplayer thing for GalCiv2 is a dead horse that has been beaten for a while.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Its not just the multiplayer but the substandard single player. Besides the reason we keep beating the dead horse is so many of us want muliplayer.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Did you hear that Stardock? You are doomed.

DOOMED!

Unless you make this into a MP-game. Then you will obviously sell billions of copies.
/sarcasm


PS. I want MP too but I doubt stupid rants will help.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Its not just the multiplayer but the substandard single player.




As compared to...?
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

make it non-linear for the love of your customer base

Why are you sure that the campaign is linear? you can fail some missions and keep playing the campaign.

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Please, someone save us from multiplayer fanboys.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It's almost to the point where I wish MP would be added just so that they'd SHUT UP.

I mean, jeez, it's SO easy and SO simple to write MP...
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, the strength of the single player campaign is in the sandbox games. That is where the game shines.

As for the mulitplayer question, that has been beaten to death in many other topics.

As for sales, Gal Civ II sold very well considering everything.

And if your gonna write a long rant, please break it up into several paragraphs instead of just 2.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Are you a programmer? Have you ever tried to code anything? NOTHING in coding, especially trying to add something new like a multiplayer system, has EVER taken merely a couple days.

So shut up. You aren't getting multiplayer with this game. That is just a plain fact you have to live with. Stardock is not going to just disappear or go under in a few weeks. They've been around for years already and they have a successful game franchise in Galactic Civilizations now.

Also, for someone to buy the company\game\rights to the game, Brad needs to be willing to sell them. And he's held onto the game\universe for a long time now.
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
if an average game takes 5-8hrs...
it would take 10-16hrs with 2 people...
If you have that much free time then get a job. Make some money. And buy a multiplayer game.

Also you should probably do some RESEARCH INTO WHAT YORU BUYING! your own fault.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have CivIV and I never played it online. The reason being that I like my games to be long and go a certain way. Thats usually impossible in an online arena since it would be very hard to get the same people everyday to sit down and play with you. I'm more into empire building with real diplomacy then zerg rushing and pre-determined teams of 4vs4 or whatever which is usually what goes into multiplayer.

Compared to what? Empire Earth II outsold it, Rise of NAtions II outsold it, Star Trek Armada II outsold it, Age of Wonders II outsold it, Elder Scrolls IV outsold it, World od Warcraft outsold it. Face it almost everything outsold it. When Wal-Mart, Target, EB Games have stopped selling it, it must not be doing well.


Each of those titles probably had a much higher production budget then Stardock had for this game. Also lets not forget those were all sold through other publishers, Galciv2 is selling very well online and all the profits go directly to Stardock which means it's probably making a decent profit margin over the title (similar to how microsoft lost mony on the X-box even though it sold more then the gamecube yet nintendo came out with a profit).

If you are going to rant about multiplayer it would be better to divide your thoughts into paragraphs oh and not be so insulting and with such pompous attitude, kinda makes you seem slightly immature(Especially when you threaten people's jobs on thier own website in a forum where most likely fans of Galciv2 frequent). It sounds to me you bought this game for all the wrong reasons (multiplayer and single player storyline). I went into this game as being a nice sandbox game with challenging AI that I can play against for an hour or two everyday then save and then play it again when I have the time. Also theres an old saying in the free market
"Buyer Beware"
Do your own research of games before buying, as a consumer you have the power to check out any product on the market especially with the internet.
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Compared to what? Empire Earth II outsold it, Rise of NAtions II outsold it, Star Trek Armada II outsold it, Age of Wonders II outsold it, Elder Scrolls IV outsold it, World od Warcraft outsold it. Face it almost everything outsold it. When Wal-Mart, Target, EB Games have stopped selling it, it must not be doing well.

You privy to their sales figures? I know that some of the games you listed did not outsell GalCiv II.  It's been one of the top selling PC games of 2006 incidentally according to NRB and retail charts which are publicly published.  .

We're pretty happy with the success of Galactic Civilizations II.  It has sold very well, received very good reviews and continues to be a strong seller. 

I like multiplayer too but it's always a matter of where to put resources. We have to put our time into features that will have the best return on investment.

 

Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Out of interest, roughly how many has GC2 sold?
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well over 100k copies in the first few months.
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well I got home and opened it up and NO MULTIPLAYER. Well I was shocked,


You shouldn't be. Nowhere on the box does the game even mention multiplayer. Games that do have it always at least mention it, even if only as a single bullet point or in the system requirements.

Ok but it would take a novice programer to have a basic multiplayer hotseat only a day or two, if that long to add it. This means that the game's makers are stupid or lazy.


These statements are not only patently false, but insulting to the devs. And offending the devs doesn't exaclty improve your persuasiveness.

Your losing tons of sales because you couldn't be bothered to wait 2 more days to launch the game.


Sales of GC2 have been more than satisfactory. In fact, in the first week and a half it shipped more than GC1's lifetime figures. And by the way--GC has never had multiplayer, and yet is still going strong after more than twelve years (the original game just barely predates MOO1; GC2 is actually the fourth or fifth GC game). Also, a poll of more than 1500 players held two months after release showed that 96% of them *would* recommend the game to others, as it was at that time. And the patches issued since then have only made it better.

But the campaign was a huge letdown. Why? There was almost no cutscenes, a game like this should have tons of cutscenes.


The campaign is not the main feature of the game at all, just a vehicle for telling the universe's background story. Given the expenses involved with adding cutscenes (art is NOT cheap), combined with the fact that the campaign is really only a side-feature, means that it's simply not going to happen.

and make it non-linear for the love of your customer base.


As noted by others, it is. Of course, I wouldn't expect you to know that since you apparently never read the box (IIRC, it says the campaign is non-linear on the box).

You got a game that could make you tons of money and give your company a chance at lasting 5 years


Considering that the game already has been far more profitable than was expected, and Stardock was not even depending on it to begin with (games are a *very* small part of our business, and the company would be happily humming along still had GC2 not sold a single copy), I think we can safely dismiss this line of argument.


Summary: I'm sorry that you're disappointed with the game, but more than half of your argument doesn't hold water for the simple fact that you didn't even read the box when you bought it (and the other half is a combination of unfounded accusations, uninformed complaints, and dead-horse beating).
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
now, that's what I call "a reply"!
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Too bad Brad found the thread and stole some of my thunder while I was putting it together
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm sort of curious, with the "success" of GC2 is it becoming a serious part of your revenue where it is much higher on the priority list rather than just something you do for the love of the genre?
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well over 100k copies in the first few months.


Is that all? Hey man, can I buy you a sammich or something? Are you eating OK?


*chuckles*

Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I'm sort of curious, with the "success" of GC2 is it becoming a serious part of your revenue where it is much higher on the priority list rather than just something you do for the love of the genre?

It's hard to say. GalCiv II has done very well but games are still less than half our revenue and there won't be any new major Stardock games for a bit other than GalCiv II related stuff.

I just like making games.

Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I just like making games.


Please continue, Frogboy, u do a very good job.

Just for the record in the UK, 2 main gaming outlets r Gamestation and Game, both still stock GC2 at 29.99 pounds ($50'ish dollars?), it still sells each week and gets re-stocked on a regular basis.

Like a lot of turn based strategy games it will continue to sell for a long time, when a game of less depth has run out of steam after a couple of months.

Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Haaaaaaa!!! What A .......Not Gonna Say It LoL..... Being Nice READ THE BOX Before Ya Buy Next Time !!!! Roflmao.. Nice Come Backs Ohh & Not Everyone Likes MP's Dealing With Stupid Pepole Really Gets Annoying Lets Play Sum More

Cyas In The Great Dark !!!!!!!!!