I'll admit it, I downloaded Galactic Civ 2 illegally originally. I loved it though, and Stardock didn't give me a hard time, so I bought it. I've been VERY satisfied, and I plan to buy Dark Avatar one of these days. (Since it seems to be more than worth it, and Stardock has already gained my trust.)

Good support, good design, trust, love, and hard work has made Stardock among my favorite companies recently, ratcheting them up to near-Blizzard levels. (And they've been going downhill with their World of Warcraft crap anyway.) Keep it up guys, you're the very example of what gaming companies are meant to be, and I salute you.

Will the MV games I started in the last patch work if I post them now with this patch, or do I have to start new MV games all together?

Uh, no. Stardock actually features a quite annoying copy protection system. If you want to update, you have to use Stardock Central, which back in the GalCiv 1 days, really trashed my computer. Maybe it's been fixed, but I really don't feel like playing Russian Roulette with my computer just to play a game.

The whole internet activation thing isn't exactly consumer friendly, either (since it takes away our right to sell our copy of the game if we choose), although I don't mind that nearly as much as being forced to use Stardock Central (since I really don't sell my games).

I just installed the new patch, and now the game that I had been playing crashes when I attempt to reload its last save. Grrrrr.

Trancejeremy. I think you might have a point, No protection debate revolves around updates, you can get all the recent updates off of p2p or newsgroups,
the question I would like to ask is, What information does Stardock acquire from us when it activates "Stardock Central" on our computers.
I would hope none , other than essential stardock files, If so, why worry.
Have you ever worried about windows updates?

Ok, i digress, My original copy of dread lords doesn't work anymore, my cd1 is corrupt, The copy I get from stardock Central, needs their files on my computer, whereas my copy resides on Cd,

I wouldn't expect Stardock to send me a replacement, so i downloaded one myself,

my problem lies with the metaverse, I hope that the ppl that sent the copy to the newsgroups wont fk with their copy. with this in mind, ill probably not use it

Further proof that lack of copy protection does not hurt sales but can actually boost them. Stardock was slow to come out with a playable demo for GalCiv2 DL so many gamers used the 1.0 release to judge the game. Most liked it and purchased the game to receive the excellent updates from Stardock and to support a great company!

No, it features an "annoying" registration system for updates. There's nothing you could call "copy protection" involved.

This is the first time I've ever had any problems with games spanning updates. Mind you, I don't always upgrade immediately (I'm still finishing up a DL game on my laptop before I install DA on it, for instance); but the fact that this update was specifically designed to fix problems with Metaverse games ensured that I would download it promptly.