Brilliant game! I discovered GalCivII recently. I updated DA to 1.7 beta 1 a couple of days ago. I love the new features and I've had no problems (except lack of sleep).
My relatively fast PC is not internet connected. I've been archiving the game files on my parents' PC (that has my stardock account) and burning them onto several CDs to get them to my PC! There were several horrible moments when I first tried installing the game when I thought the game could only be installed on a PC with an internet connection. I had to sneak in to my parents' house at 1 am and stealthily email the serial codes, but was pleasantly surprised at how quick the activation codes came back (within a few minutes).
I have a question about installing the game. I'll explain what I did first. I put the sdc files in the stardock backup folder on my PC and ran stardock. I restored the archives (I think I did GCII, DA, heightmaps, movies, tutorials and multimedia in that order - but I guess the order doesn't matter?). For 1.7 beta I downloaded all 6 archives again - I downloaded GCII beta (1.50[b].102) and DA beta (1.70[b].003). I also downloaded the other 4 archives too because their 'updated' date had changed (in line with the GCII and DA betas'). I restored the GCII beta on my PC, then the DA beta. Then when I was about to do the heightmaps I realised that the archive was the same version as my previously installed one - same goes for the other archives - so I didn't restore them.
DA says 1.70 beta 1 on the main screen. DL still says 1.50 (not beta), yet on stardock central it says:
Galactic Civilizations II [Beta] 1.50[b].102 13/6/07
Tutorials 1.0.018 19/6/07
Movies 1.0.017 19/6/07
Multimedia 1.0.045 19/6/07
Dark Avatar (Expansion Pack) 1.61.090 19/6/07
Heightmaps 1.59.014 19/6/07
Questions:
(1) Does it matter in which order the archives are restored?
(2) To update to 1.7 beta, obviously the DA 1.7 beta needs to be installed, does the GC II 1.5 beta need to be installed also? Or is this the same as the previous one?
(3) The heightmaps, tutorials, movies and multimedia archives have a later 'updated' date, but the version number is the same as the pre-1.7 archives. Do they need to be installed? Or are they the same as pre-1.7?
(4) Does it matter that in the games' main menu my DL is 1.50 and DA is 1.70[b], yet in stardock central it says: DL is 1.50[b] and DA is 1.61? (I'm quite sure that my DA is actually 1.7 because of the new features, but stardock central does not reflect this).
Thank you for listening if you have got this far! The game runs brilliantly, but I'd like to be sure I have the correct versions.
Thanks,
Nick