i am new, observing GalCiv II all the time, ive played GalCiv I.
to be honest, i am quite disappointed, its almost the same way to play like GalCiv one, only with new graphic and maybe some new techs and yes, the ship building, 3D battle, all races playable etc., but only improvements on the surface.
improvements to the depth are rare, the game is very simple and its really close to Civilization and the problem ist, Civilization was great 10 years ago, but compared to other empire building games like e.g. victoria of paradox , its a simple kiddy game.
yes, i am a hardcore gamer, GalCiv II is great for the masses, but i expected the game to be more complex. originally i was waiting for the expansion, but also dark avatar seems to bring only expansion on the surface, so i guess i wont buy Gal Civ II at all and hope Gal Civ III will be really interesting in another 5-10 years.