Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar schedule announced

Expanding the expansion, open beta, new release date and more!

from GalCiv2 Forums

We have decided to expand the expansion pack! What does that mean? We're adding a lot of major new features to it. It won't quite be a sequel but it will certainly be a lot more than your average expansion pack.

As you guys gave us suggestions and new ideas we realized that we didn't want to have to wait until some future sequel to add in those features.  So we're going to push the release date of the expansion pack to around the 1-year anniversary of the release of Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords. But for players who want to start playing it before Christmas, we're going to have a public beta program that anyone who pre-orders the expansion pack will be option to download and play.

Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar, was originally designed to add new units, new maps, a new story-based campaign, user-created civilization opponents, an epic generator, espionage agents, asteroid fields, new treaties, unique planet environments, and much more.  However, after going through the list of suggested features Stardock decided to expand on the already impressive feature set.

New features beyond the original concept now include a stream-lined technology tree, Mega Events, super-abilities that are unique to each civilization, a visual make-over, more advanced opponent design features, and a lot more.  We hope you like the results!

The war may be over, but the conquest has just begun...

More information can be found at https://www.galciv2.com/darkavatar.

42,367 views 69 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Excellent news. I assume the price will remain unchanged?

Anyway, just let us know when to start testing.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Two words; Freakin' Awesome!!!!!!
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Cool...this will definitely be worth the wait...'cause you guys rock!!
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I totally above of your choice! Pre-orders get to play a beta of the expansion in 2006 and report bugs (improving stability for the 2007 release) and we get an expanded expansion pack!
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Does the public beta apply to only people who pre order from now onwards, or can those of us who have already pre-order also download the beta?
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If we handle it the same as we did with GC2's beta, it'll run in phases. Each time a new phase of testing begins, everyone who has preordered before that point gets access to that phase. If you preorder after a phase beings, you have to wait for the next one.

Can't say whether that's what we're going to do now, but that's how it worked in the past.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
all i can say now is drool! um when in november 8) might have to cancel my medieval total war 2 order !
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
How long will the process be? If it's gonna take more than 2 months then I may have to go through some trouble to preorder it now...
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hmm, I need to call my boss and tell him I won't be getting much work done this fall... Too many games I want to play coming out!
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Nice, very much worth the wait. Brad you and your team do great work!

Just curious, did the hero/leader feature go to the back burn or is it gone for now? I thought I saw it on the Dark Avatar list when the expansion was first announced way back, but no longer see it up as a major item.
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
QUESTION: If you install a Beta, can you just install the full version over the top when its done, or will it involve uninstalling and reinstalling everything?
Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Great, the mega events and special abilities for individual races, thumbs up.  

Tech tree streamlining, erm..., when I hear the word streamline, that usually means losing stuff. I hope we r not going to lose techs.

But still, sounds great, can't wait to playtest it.  
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
ppplleeaassee include an economy system change
(seperate spending sliders for production / research, then a split slider for military / social so that you can use all the labs and all the factories you did build at the same time, it makes no sense at all that lab scientist should stop working when you increase the factory output)
i dont really care for other features ...
Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
ANOTHER QUESTION: Will the new title screen be optional too (for those who like the spinning planet)? Civ 4: Warlords ruined the feel of the game. I want my spinning Earth and African music back.
Reply #16 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Cool. I'd rather have better than sooner.

I'm totally addicted to EVE online anyway at the moment. So the expansion pack should arrive just about the right time for me to wean myself off it ;o)
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Preorder Beta in Nov? I'll have to find someway to preorder this month then

Tech tree streamlining, erm..., when I hear the word streamline, that usually means losing stuff. I hope we r not going to lose techs.


The Starbase Fortification Tree could be one tree we could easily lose. It should just be part of the individual Weapon/Defenses techs anyway.

Regardless... I'm hoping "streamline and more interesting" mean that they might add some more "sci-fi'y" techs... like Medical Research, Power Generation research, Cloaking research... that kind of stuff. (Not to mention while they are all missing from GalCiv 2... they are present in GalCiv 1...).

ANOTHER QUESTION: Will the new title screen be optional too (for those who like the spinning planet)? Civ 4: Warlords ruined the feel of the game. I want my spinning Earth and African music back.
Well, you could already change it with modding, so... even if there isn't an offical way to do it, you could easily just change it with a mod.
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I like the idea of being able to design what my opponent's ships look like. The "vanilla" opponents' ships leave a little to be desired (no offense meant). I for example, created an entire Starfleet set and an entire Klingon set of ships (using Kryo's most excellent hull mod) and would love to see a battle between the two play out.

I would still love to see heroes enter the game, or at least heroic ships that may have special abilities, upon whose heads enemies would pay a price (e.g., Kirk with Enterprise, or the space battleship Bismarck).
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
One additional suggestion: how about being able to design starbases, using hull parts just like designing ships? You could have that as an option--even not having new parts specific to starbases, but rather the same parts used for ships.
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This is good news. More features are better. Were it not for the fact that it's not ready yet and that I'm trapped in a corner of Canada so uncivilized I have to connect to the internet through a cell phone, I would have been downloading this already.

At the risk of sounding like a total cheapskate, does the free copy of Dark Avatar from the character design contest count as a pre-order, or do I have to spend money for the beta like everyone else?
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This is awesome. MORE new features being added.


I read at Gamespot that a Gold Edition of the game will be out in Feb 07. I guess the question is: Will the expansion pack be in stores next year as well or will the only way to get the expansion be via online from Stardock?

New Screenshots at Gamespot These are awesome!
Reply #22 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What if you have already preordered? How do you get access to the beta download?
Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have to say that the idea of stream-lining the tech tree sounds bad.

Less tech or less tech branches would be a BAD thing.

And "stream-lining" does imply less and not more.

Please do not remove or simplify the tech tree.
Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

What if you have already preordered? How do you get access to the beta download?

 by using SDC when it will be available