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Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar schedule announced

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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.

42,376 views 69 replies
Reply #51 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This just sucks. I love this game...I'd give you 50 bucks cash to get an expansion...but for it to be download only...without a credit card, that just leaves me high and dry.


You will also be able to mail-order with a check after release, or if you don't mind the higher price, you will be able to just pick up the GC2+DA combo at retail.
Reply #52 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
will dreadlords pop up in a normal game?


I believe Brad mentioned that as one of the possible events in his mega-event journal, yes.

So anyone who has already preordered will have access to the first open beta?

Do people who have preordered prior to the change in release date need to re-preorder?

How can someone confirm their preorder?


Yes, No, and contact [email protected] if you can't remember if you preordered or not, or have questions about it.

But technically speaking, it's not really a preorder once you guys start providing the goods(the beta).


You may get the beta (most likely with a time-limited key only good for that phase as with GC2), but it's not the final version.

Yes I too am wondering...will the price change due to the extra time to create the expansion and all the add'l content being added? Additionally what about us folks who have already preordered? Will we have to pay the difference IF the price goes up?


To my knowledge the price will not change. Considering that one of the reasons we're doing this is so we can bring DA to retail (as a GC2+DA combo), the expected sales at retail should provide plenty of budget for the extension.
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Reply #53 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
No price change.  More features. Same price.
Reply #54 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Good call. Awaiting beta...
Reply #55 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Alright! More features? More Events? More cool things to look play with? Better AI? I can wait. Guess I'd better go pre-order if thats what it takes to beta test Great job Stardock!
Reply #56 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Could someone explain precisely what "streamlining" the tech tree entails? Making it shorter, removing techs, lumping some of the branches together, etc.
Reply #57 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Huh.The details of the game are the same as before the annoucement,apart from mega event.I was expecting heroes or some other big change.
Reply #58 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi,

I like everything in the expansion, but I am concerned about 'streamlining the tech tree'.

I like a big, slow tech tree.

I suspect that if the developers ask people how they feel then many will agree with me. Please could a developer clarify?
Reply #59 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
(Un)fortunately for me, i have been (and will be for a time) too busy to play, so i don't mind the delay. Specially when i read the wonderful reasons for it.   I don't like that the beta starts in november as i'll be busy trying to pass my exams... but i'll jump into it asap.

I like the planned features that we know so far (all of them) and eager to know what else Stardock is keeping secret. Wouldn't mind to pay some extra money if needed but i'm glad that the price won't raise although we'll get more content.   

Now, which would be the best place to tattoo the sentence "I'm a Stardock fanboy"?   
Reply #60 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I LOVE the templates feature idea.

When I play, maybe times my tech advancement didnt happen how I would have hoped, and my normal ship-designs are out of reach.

Due to being short on time, (or just bored with ship design) I all too often grab a default hull and just drop weapons on it in a hurry. I end up with a fleet of similarly-ugly ships.

I might go so far as to say that most of the basic included designs should be turned into templates. Most of them are useless if you're not a firt time player.

Reply #61 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Streamlining the technology tree means that the user interface to it will be improved to display the techs in a more streamlined way.

We need to do this because we're adding a LOT of new technologies and the old "Laser I, Laser II, Laser III" type thing just makes navigation tedious.

So what we plan to replace it with are milestones. Instead of seeing Laser IV you'll see just "Lasers" with several milestones which give you components.  This way, we can add more technologies without the visual interface of the game seeming like it's full of largely redundant technologies. 

Reply #62 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I know I sound grumpy, but would it have been too much to ask to add hotseat multiplayer?
I understand that network multiplayer is a lot of work, but hotseat shouldn´t be that hard to implement. Playing Master of Orion 2 hotseat, I spent uncountable hours with my friends playing that game and I really miss that.
Reply #63 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Streamlining the technology tree means that the user interface to it will be improved to display the techs in a more streamlined way.
We need to do this because we're adding a LOT of new technologies and the old "Laser I, Laser II, Laser III" type thing just makes navigation tedious.
So what we plan to replace it with are milestones. Instead of seeing Laser IV you'll see just "Lasers" with several milestones which give you components. This way, we can add more technologies without the visual interface of the game seeming like it's full of largely redundant technologies.


So that's like saying once you research "lasers" instead of selecting the next "LaserII" you'll do something like "upgrade laser level". And in the tree the next displayed in line would be say, "plasma weapons", not "Laser II". Like another poster said, i like a nice long game. Are you actually eliminating techs? Or just changing the way you access diferent tech levels (like mentioned above)?

For the open betas, Kryo mentioned a timed serial key. Does that mean we'd only be able to play DA for a certain amount of time, then what? No more until the next Beta update? Or is it just that we'd have to upgrade to the newest beta in order to continue playing? Meaning you're not going to leave us with gaps in gameplay time right?

Is the U.P. going to be changed any? I'd love the option to abstain from voting on a given measure.



A payment question: i'm not sure off hand what Credit Card i used to preorder, but what happens if i find out that my credit card expires prior to the new release date? Is there a way to change the credit card on file? Would i need to cancel and re-preorder?
Reply #64 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
For the open betas, Kryo mentioned a timed serial key. Does that mean we'd only be able to play DA for a certain amount of time, then what? No more until the next Beta update? Or is it just that we'd have to upgrade to the newest beta in order to continue playing? Meaning you're not going to leave us with gaps in gameplay time right?


Meaning it's only good until the next phase or release (don't remember if we gave out new serials to everyone after each phase or just the new testers, but in either case it will not allow you to download the final game, AFAIK).

A payment question: i'm not sure off hand what Credit Card i used to preorder, but what happens if i find out that my credit card expires prior to the new release date? Is there a way to change the credit card on file? Would i need to cancel and re-preorder?


Contact [email protected].
Reply #65 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ok since you guys have a few more months to get this done, GIVE US TERROR STARS!!

Please?
Pretty Please??
Reply #66 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ouch, backing off the release date, not mentioning any new "new" features to be added that sound interesting and no mention of including multiplayer in the delayed release just killed my intention to pre-order.
Reply #67 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Any chance that the following might be looked at:

Treaties:

Treaty of Intelligence/Espionage; allows you to trade Intel data between this nation and yours and see through their surveillance network. Then you can see what ships are travelling through their space and what is happening around their planets. Possibility of an espionage bonus against mutual enemies.

United Planets

When receiving galactic prison or Olympics can there be a graphic that replaces one of your factories or something on the planet to show this visually. It would be nice to see these as a special galactic achievement or accomplishment graphic.

Espionage: will there be an opportunity to destroy galactic achievements?

As well any chance that we can customize our soldiers in the race abilities setup? i.e. colour or features?
Reply #68 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ouch, backing off the release date, not mentioning any new "new" features to be added that sound interesting and no mention of including multiplayer in the delayed release just killed my intention to pre-order.


Multiplayer was never intended to be released in the expansion, delays or no.

And there is new features added: Mega-events confirmed, streamlined tech tree, and some currently unknown improvement to "ground forces" was mentioned in the recent IGN article about it.
Reply #69 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
When I first read about Dark Avatar, I was thinking I may not be interested. But, the more I read about it, the more interested I get. When I read a full boxed version was going to be available, I thought, "Hmmm, I may have to buy that". A shiney box with "Galactic Civilizations II" printed across it may be too hard to pass up