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Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor Status Report

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Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor Status Report

Beta this Tuesday

from GalCiv2 Forums

There's going to be a slight delay in the release of the beta of the first expansion pack. Our IT team tells us that some additional testing of Stardock Central's module handling will be needed to make sure all the new directories and such required by Twilight of the Arnor can be done.

But work continues in the meantime and I hope to provide a game play example over the weekend as we flesh out the new tech trees and components and start on the AI updates.

Here are a couple of screenshots from the internal alpha:

 

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Reply #76 from GalCiv2 Forums Top


Frogboy brought up a good point - look at our own history. Some tribes were still hunters and gatherers while others had gunpowder and powerful ships capable of transiting the high seas. Actually, a whole book has tried to explain that situation - essentially why Native Americans were conquered by the technologically superior Europeans and not the other way around. I mean, Native Americans were on North America at least as long as Europeans were on Europe right? Why indeed didn't Native Americans build powerful sailing ships with guns and enslave Europeans? Why didn't African Americans develop powerful technology and Enslave Whites? Could history have been rewritten? Could we be fighting for white rights instead of black rights if African Americans had managed to tame zebras, smith metal swords and guns, and led an assualt on Europe??? A major reason why Europeans developed advanced technology is because they were able to domesticate and use animal power much more so than in other civilizations. Horses are easier to tame than rhinos, lions, and zebras - plain and simple. Tamed armored rhinos would be infintely more dangerous in medevil warfare than tamed armored horse knights...... If only zebras or rhinos could have been tamed....

That book is called "Guns, Germs, and Steel". An excellent book.
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It is indeed an excellent, thought provoking and informative book. I had no idea that the tribes of New Guinea independently invented agriculture. However, thanks to terrain and isolation, they never really did anything *with* it like in the Middle East and China.

I second the recommendation.

Reply #77 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wow... Twilight of the Arnor looks AWESOME. I've pre-ordered it already...

In fact... I must confess to borrowing DL/DA from a friend... which I am already suffering for because no 1.8 patch makes me sad when I read the awesome stuff added in the changelog...

But I am definately going to buy the Gold Edition now. If nothing else, you guys deserve my money for the sheer amount of community-focused-ness (Not a word, but you know what I mean)... I really haven't seen this in any other game... I've seen games that could have been most excellent ruined by lack of support (ETHERLORDS II!), and it's great to see that someone out there cares enough to provide this level of support and response to a game.

Yes, you read that correctly, you guys are awesome enough to convince me to buy the game even though I already have it. StarDock, you really are THAT AWESOME. ^_^

One thing I'm curious about, though, something I've wanted to see in the game: Any chance TotA will allow for ships to dock at Starbases? It can be really hard to defend mining starbases at times when I'm not paying attention to them, and having a module that allows docking ships (and perhaps another that allows fleet managing ships?) would really aid in that respect.

Perhaps even a way for Starbases to build ships (at a slow rate)?
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Reply #79 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
What doesn't make sense to me is why the Drengin never discovered a way to create mini-fusion reactors which is the key to essentially creating a mini stargate or "warp drive" when they had thousands and thousands of years of a headstart over the humans.
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I think the answer is in one of the sample Drengin tech descriptions Frogboy put up. The Drengin and Arceans used magnetic containment for fusion, which takes up a ton of space, and never really looked at fusion reactions started with a laser. The Arcea and Drengi were single nation planets for millenia... but since humanity was far from united, our constant warfare allowed us to develop laser technology well suited for kicking off fusion reactions, which allowed much smaller reactors.

Frogboy's excellent description says it better than I can, though.
Reply #80 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Not the most dire request, but planet textures need to be altered after a spore invasion. Spores kill everything on the planet and it's still all happy and green, what gives?
Reply #81 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Good luck with all the beta people!

I won´t be attending this time as I gamed DA beta so much that I had no energy left to game the full version. Not going to make that mistake again

ps. I anxeously wait for some pics and info about "new" ground combat. Hopefully the ground combat system gets an overhaul too, but this is unlikely.
Reply #82 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The thing is though in a high tech society, one year is a long time let alone thousands of years. To develop fusion, the Drengin scientists had to spend some time inventing and less time fighting, etc.

Can we even begin to imagine thousands of years into the future for our own human race? Of course we always assume we won't be around in a thousand years....
Reply #83 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

The new "for sure" date is Tuesday.


We have the beta ready, just not the delivery system for it.  I apologize for any inconvenience!


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Are we still on for Tuesday? If so, what time will it be available?
Reply #84 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Can we even begin to imagine thousands of years into the future for our own human race?
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sure, it's called science fiction.
Reply #85 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I pre-ordered this expansion back in september and have yet to recieve any kind of key for it. My credit card also has not been charged (is this normal? I never pre-ordered anything from here before) and I want to try out the beta for this expansion. I have the order # for the purchase which was a download only one. It's 11 AM here with no expansion items in stardock (beta versions checked)
Reply #86 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I pre-ordered this expansion back in september and have yet to recieve any kind of key for it. My credit card also has not been charged (is this normal? I never pre-ordered anything from here before)
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Yep, perfectly normal. Once the beta is up on SDC, sales will process and charge all the preorders, and the serial emails will go out.
Reply #87 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yep, perfectly normal. Once the beta is up on SDC, sales will process and charge all the preorders, and the serial emails will go out.
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Any ETA?
Reply #88 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
"When it's done."
Reply #89 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Patience my friends... just play WoW while you are waiting!
Reply #90 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I live in Sweden so it has been Tuesday for 18 hours now. And I need my fix, err I mean game
Reply #91 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Can we even begin to imagine thousands of years into the future for our own human race?


sure, it's called science fiction.
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But could we even possibly begin to predict??

Back in like 1880 people were asked what the big problems would be 100 years from then in 1980. A popular choice was what people were going to do with so many horses. People thought there would be so many horses that manure would just cover everything and stink up the place. They could have never even come close to prediciting the internet, cars, etc. In the 1950s, people thought we would all be in flying cars by now. Boy, were they wrong. In fact the basic method of car propulsion - the gas engine is STILL BEING USED, although there are alternatives now, and much greater efficiency in engine design. However, the concept of the internet and the "cell phone" was just truly outraigious science fiction maybe only possible hundreds of years from 1950.
Reply #92 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That is just a sideeffect of the fact that in the last century the time between inventions and technological breakthroughs has become shorter and shorter. Personally I wouldn't dare make a prediction further than 2025, and even that can be daring.

While we're on the subject of shorter and shorter time periods...

Are we there yet?
Reply #93 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Is this beta out yet? I don't see it on Stardock Central and haven't received any email about it.
Reply #94 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Not yet.
Reply #95 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well, let me cite someone (Tau - Warhammer 40.000): "The patient hunter gets the prey."
Just wait, you (and of cause me, too) will get it soon enough.
Reply #99 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
For DA, there was about 2 hours in between the time SDC showed the beta and when i got an email.....so 15 minutes and counting.....
Reply #100 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
the beta is listed HOWEVER I STILL haven't gotten a serial # in a e-mail so that the purchase icon can change to download. How long did it take for other ppl to get theirs (this is why I would prefer to get the key up-front)