So do you all like DA?

Its overall a good expansion, lots of fun and I'm pleased I purchased it, but as other will tell you tell you there are some issues that need to be adressed. My biggest peeves are the PQ bug (planets PQ won't increase when you terraform it thus limiting max pop) and the fact that they still haven't made any major improvements to the UP, and defense is kind of screwed. I'm sure that first issue will be adressed soon, not sure about the second.
I love the new super abilities, ability to create my own opponents, and the uninhabitable planets etc. Overall its a great expansion and loads of fun to play.

yea, Cari is looking into the PQ wierdness. Apparently some people are having the bug and some arent having it, which makes it even wierder and more complicated, plus the fact that they never saw the bug in the last beta testing.

Other than the few bugs in there, it really is a cool game You should get Kryo's hull mod if you are familiar with the ship builder because it gives you all the jewlery and more. Although if you aren't familiar with GC2's ship builder, you should probably try it without the mod so you don't get too overwhelmed, but you can jump right in with the mod enabled if you want to

This expansion does what all expansions should do: improve upon the game. I won't go into the hot button new features since there are lists and lists of those. All I can say is if you enjoyed Dread Lords you are doing yourself a favor by pickup up Dark Avatar.

I will point out that there have been a few game play mechanics changed. So some of the old strategies will no longer work. But if you approach the game fresh I think you'll find that these changes are improvements not detractions.

I seriously cannot wait to see what they've got in store for more future improvements. Ok enough typing... back to galactic conquest.

i've noticed saving and reloading seems to allow the game to correct itself. i wonder if that's been reported; i'm going to look for the bug thread for this one.

Yet again, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes... just buy the game. You won't be disappointed.

@dystopic
Hmm... I'll have to try that.

I bought it last week. Still can't download it. I'm disappointed.

There are some good points, but there are also some pretty big problems with it.

which are trying to be fixed. despite the couple of bugs in there, its still fun to play.

I have to say that DA grabbed me in an addicting way that DL never did. It wasn't that DL sucked, I did like it, it was cool, but...it just didn't grab me.

DA has been a cronic problem with me getting to work late I can't seem to put it down.

My experience is totally different. Where as DL made totally hooked and addict the DA was a letdown for me.

I would share 9# optimism but I know that the features Iam longing for are not coming with patches. Well there will always be GC3, Iam alrdy waiting for it

ps. I wonder what the devs are doing, it seems that the PQ bug has been ever since DL first came out. In one patch they nail it only to let it resurface in the next patche. I guess they just dont have enough people working on GC2 to have it throughtly tested before the next patch hits the fan.

DA is an infinitely more complicated beast than the original. The challenge level is way up and the old one note solutions to winning the game have been completely disrupted. Definitely a move in the right direction.

Man are you right about that one! But hey, that's what makes this game so great, right?

Personally I like the Custom Opponents ... I have created all the old Master of Orion races and am enjoying fighting the Klackons once again. Now when I play a game I am playing an awesome game system with that sweet Nostalgia of yester year

Dano

Amen. The colony race is cuckholded after you run out of easily colonizable worlds, and in my experience, I usually end up simultaneously using Influence, Alliance and Conquest. I get so tied up, that I haven't even started to think about trying a Tech win, which was the old standby.

Definitely! One of the best expansion packs I have ever purchased for any game.

I agree, it's hooked me also.

It is the best expansion pack I've ever played without question.

On top of that, it is the only time in 20+ years of PC gaming that I've sent in a bug report and gotten a response from a programmer with the cause and solution.

Great expansion bound to have updates/corrections to any dissapoints or bugs. I *BELIEVE* in stardock

I agree it's pretty nifty. It even motivated me to upgrade my onboard memory
so it will run decently (though I will miss the ships moving along like little
outboard motors - pop, pop, pop *G*). Kind of neat when you crank the speakers up.

Lovin' it.

Got it today. Looks fantastic so far. Definitely worth the money already.

Marcus