They will probably be incredibly expensive, require enough tech where you could have practically won a tech victory, they will only be able to move one space a turn, they will have a charge up time, etc.

In fact, trying to win by building terror stars will probably be really, really stupid if you want to finish a game in less than 10 game years. It would probably be far easier to win through conventional conquest, resarch, diplomacy, or influence.

I think terror stars will be meant solely for coolness factor.

A quasi-related question.

Does this release imply that DA is now (or soon will be) finalized? The reason I ask is because I have been resisting downloading DA even though I bought it during the beta period in Nov 2006. I haven't downloaded it because I prefer to use a standalone installer and not have SDC on my system. I know that I'm being a fuddy duddy about SDC but such are the crosses that we bear. Anyway, to cut to the chase, once DA is finalized could we perhaps get a standalone installer?

BTW I am pre-ordering this expansion pack even if it may take me another year before I actually load it.

One question about this new expansion. Once installed will I still be able to play all three versions DL, DA and TA (I assume TA would be the correct abbreviation)?

I'd expect so, and yes.

Kryo, can you find out if planatary invasion animation changes are in the works for the new expansion? If not, I am going to start a friendly petition to Stardock. I know we are all tired of the happy meal boxes and construction vehicles going to war alongisde the atari soldiers.

If Stardock can implement the changes it did to the main screen graphics and have awesome looking ship combat, then I know planetary invasions can be changed.

We plan on updating the planetary invasion screen for Twilight.

Just screen ? And no difference between military and civil ? That really sucks

Well to say the Terror Stars will be so economically draining and tactically unusable would also make them pointless in the game.

I dont need them to be super slow or super expensivve, but a charge up time would be incredibly nice to have, so we could have a last ditch effort to safe an imprortant solar system.

Why not delay the release and take the time to code the difference between civils and military? I think every GalCiv2 gamers want this difference...

Oh and while on the subject, that would be nice if the Population Support on a planet you just invaded could reflect the relation you have with the Civ you just conquered or the invasion method you just used. Correct me if I'm wrong, but right now the Support is 100% after an invasion? That is weird....

WOOT

Great news! I used my nice discount coupon i got yesterday to pre-order the expansion pack It ended up costing me just short of $20! Great savings and here's looking forward to a great expansion.. Cant wait for the betas   

Everything I ever wanted! I just hope you guys have time to implement all this cool stuff.

Agree.



Thats because every single one who lived on this planet is dead. After invation there are only your population left. I mean engineers/scientists/students/housewifes you brought from other planet to fight

I thought that the pop display meant all "able bodied, ready to be used" population. Not ACTUAL (civi) population. Think of it as people in military or civil service. They can be put to any use, and will be if the situation arises. I think the max pop is 100m. For reference, Earth has 6b, and growing. I'm not argueing that 100m is enough or too much, but that number, to me, clearly represents the military/civil/elite/trained population that can be used for government service at will.


If earth was going to start a Mars colony, they wouldn't knock on your and all your neighbor's doors, asking if you wanted to go too. You'd have to volunteer and prove yourself. The population rating is those that have passed. You could argue that more could fight in an invasion defense, but an attacking, space faring race could wipe out the world from orbit, where civi's (shouldn't) have a defense for. Civi caused deaths due to fighting would likely be so small that it couldn't be counted in the scale xurrenly used in game. The average joe can't destoy a tank, I'd expect that not to change. Insurgent fighting would also only happen after the planet had been lost, so maybe an event to simulate rebellion.


That seems like a minor detail, that would be kinda neat, but not close to essential. At best, it would just be an additional, completely fluff, number, in the planet's detail screen, in my opinion at least. There are 1000 features I'd love to see first, and I'd love to see the end of the memory leak problem way before anything so small as that changed.

Why can't I preorder with tokens ?

I think they've mentioned that in the 1.7 patch, anomalies will reappear/regenerate in the game. The wonder you're thinking of is the Galactic Guide Book. Eyes of the Universe gives all of your ships a 10 sensor range.

You can--the TA page is now up on the TGN site; you can preorder with tokens there.

Yeah, Galactic Guide Book. Thanks for correcting me. BTW, does that name come from Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy?

Anomalies regenerate? Ah.. boring. I'd rather have possibility to remove the survey ship. Oh well, i guess i'll have to adapt.

About unique weapons. How weapons can be unique? I mean, in this game, only weapon size, gfx, damage and type are different. Reload speed's same. Projectile/beam speed's same. If weapons had somekinda special abilites like emp (randomly and not always disables something from enemy ship for one turn) or DoT weapons (damage over time) they'd be unique. But maybe that's only a point of view.

Oh yes.. the tournaments. Something that a casual player can never do. One minus point already from me :/(I don't play MV games, i don't boast ever with anything.)

The pre-order price is $24.95. A week ago I got a 25% off coupon from
Stardock. Total price was under $19.

Wow. Can't wait. Looks like I need to plan another vacation in December...

It's hard to know what I think is better. The Metaverse Tournaments immediately come to mind. But the race specific upgrades/weapons/tech trees are probably going to add the most depth in the long run.

Does this mean the leasing and constructor updates are going to wait until the expansion? Not that its a problem either way, I'm just curious.


Not what I expected from Palpatine. Guess you never know some people. Was it all Vader's idea??


Plenty of ways, even with the current system. The easiest would be to make certain stops in the current tree specific to a race. Only Thalans get doom rays, only drengin get psyonic beams, only Korx get Black Hole Eruptor, etc. Another way would be to add new weapons with slightly different stats, that only that race could use. The Thalans lasers are all slightly cheaper, the Drath missles are all slightly smaller, etc.

The description of the new fleet enhancing ship components is also really going to shake up the current endgame combat balance I think, and I can't wait to try it out. Does this mean goodbye to the suicide "missile" huge's used to thin out AI fleets?? Maybe. Could make the AI a lot tougher (assuming they used fleets, which means OFM. It could make no difference if the AI sticks to lots of individual ships).

Anyway, sounds great. While I could try to get this new expansion cheaper with a coupon, why? I think at this point Stardock has more than earned another $30.

However, if this "ends the story of the Dread Lords", does this mean this is the very very end for GCII? No more expansions possible no matter what? Don't get me wrong, it will still go down in history as one of the all time best ever TBS games - but, there is a part of me that would like to hope with strong enough sales we could talk them into a third expansion.

Anyway, can't wait. Keep up the good work.

- Wyndstar

This is really fantastic news. I am rarely this eager to drop $30 on a computer game anymore; how Stardock has supported the GalCiv2 series after release seems to be the exception rather than the rule these days.

Some users have mentioned outstanding issues with DA and lest I be labeled a raving fanboy I have to agree. But I'm not worried about them being addressed -- hell, anybody who went through the MOO3 fiasco should recognize the symptoms of a game on the road to abandonware, and GalCiv2 doesn't exhibit them.

Yay, great news! I'm sorry for my lousy english, but I've got some questions:

- Will there be an official german version (I've heard I-mod Productions is working on a translation right now...)? If so, when will it be released and will there be a pre-order-option, too? If not, can I purchase an english version and translate it into german later on?

- Will the system requirements change a lot for the new engine?

- Today I can't pre-order with Paypal... will there be a possibility to pre-order without a credit card?

Thanks for your great work, Stardock. I can hardly wait for November!
Doceten

So true. And beside, 25% of 25$ is almost nothing. I'll use my 25% on Sins instead (pre-order beta)

I think it has been released already by I-MOD.

Check this thread

Yes, for Dark Avatar it has been already released, but I asked for Twilight of the Arnor.

"I really dont like the Solar System destroyers. Please tell me there will be some sort of balance factor."

Why are people so worried about balance? I've unbalanced Dark Avatar and find it really fun.

I like this argument. Makes sense.