Um December of course, unless the game is not ready. I can enjoy the new features when I have the X-pac, no need to introduce it piece by piece.

january

I'm already on record as wanting a longer public beta. Middle or even late January wouldn't make me regret my pre-order.

Totally agree with many of the above posters. Take your time Stardock, your work is already fantastic, more time can only help to keep it that way.

Well I have a x-mas break from classes, and I was hoping to play the game then. I did pre-order so I do get to play the betas, but still.... kinda sucks. But in the end I can be disgruntled, because the promise of better AI will keep the peace on these boards.

Still, not very satisfied with this delay, since before you must've known you needed more then 2 weeks to test 2-3 races, and even when the beta schedule was released people took notice and posted accordingly on the boards.

Buggy TA over Xmas is still better than no TA over Xmas. Thanks for at least fessing up to the mistake, good to save face. I know you (Stardock) are [successfully] garnering a strong fan following, so many people will likely take this as a insult when in fact it is not. I will not respond to any flames either, since such immaturity does not warrant a response.

(BTW in light of all this, I did vote January, b/c of my first statement).
Take your time, but do get it done, and follow through on your promises

Take all the time you need.. I already prepaid, havin fun with DA.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY

Rather have good beta time and see Stardock release another Blockbuster...


Take all time you need, always an awesome job!!!!!!!!!!!

I could argue both ways, in the long run stardock will have to deside if the costs of dragging the expansion on a month will benifit them finacially or if it will hurt them on other projects. Either way I'm one who would like the best of both worlds and I know that is asking a lot so whatever you choose I'll be happy with. I would just like an updated time line on beta releases and the final release then.

Release it later. I don't care much about the beta or having time to try out the different paths (I can do that after release as well) but to me, enhancing the AI is always the top priority.

Do it right, do it once. That's what I say.

Yes!!! Definitely, lets wait and then we'll have a masterpiece.

I vote January.

Since TA requires DA which requires GC2, you can't really purchase it as a stand alone Christmas gift. More, due to the fact that it is download only, the serial id will surely be linked with the e-mail of the buyer. Unless Stardock store has evolved, I don't think it is possible to have simultaneously an e-mail for the buyer and another for the final user.

So I don't really any advantage for Christmas release. And those who want to get it sooner just need to preorder it (or buy it with TGN token) in order to have a serial ID before the start of the latest beta That is the strength of a public beta

I agree, take your time and release it in Jan. time frame. Also, most
people get gift cards and money for Christmas these days. Now they
can spend that money on a copy of GCII TA

This is not a true pole.

It's a clever anti industrial spy trap by Brad. ie all those who voted for december..



bakka

As long as it won't hurt your sales, spend some more time on it, get the other features, maybe get some more advertising. I'm all for January.

I'd say December simply because any additions that would be made in January can simply be included in a patch.

I dont see why people can't see that this is what would happen.

Do it right...a later release will make for a better all around game...which is what i love about the game so far. The updates just keep getting better and better. I will pre-order and look for the new release in January.

A new editor will be in it:

I've always respected Stardock because they didn't use one of the big publishers like EA or Ubisoft and therfore they kept going with a great game, improving it more major updates than most games I've played, DA is on its seventh I think and that was only released this year.
Anyway the point is that a December release would be exactly like the big publishers, push the game out early and get the boost in sales, especially if it is following a truly great game, who cares what the fans think of it. This is what happened to KotOR II, it was, dissapointing. Money over fans, the wrong way around.

So Stardock release when it is ready and not before.

I voted for a later release. Keep up the hard work, Stardock; it will pay off in January.

I pre-ordered the game on the day it was announced. Take all the time you need to finish it, but keep supplying us with betas so we can help you guys test the cool new features.

However, for Christmas morning I would like to have a terror star

I think it’s a tribute to Stardock and all their hard work that when they say “what do you think now or more time?” that everyone says “take your time” because we know the final product is going to be fantastic and well worth it.

And the editor looks fantastic, cant wait to get my sticky paws on that, good work!

Better game or earlier release? I vote for the former.

I think a December release is better. Instead of a handfull of people testing the game, everyone will get to find bugs ect. When did the game become a download only? I thought on the preorder page you could order a physical and a download copy.

I really think the current beta schedule is too "busy". Take your time until January and make TA even better. Those who have pre-ordered can play and test right now anyway.

Ooops. Well, I should have said: the game can only be acquired at Stardock store and won't be at a retail store. But in any case, the first patchs will be available only through SDC.

I guess there are 3 categories of people interested in TA:

- those who have preordered and can participate in the beta. For those people, changing the release date ins't really a problem since they can play the game as slong as it is available (even as a beta) on SDC

- those who have preordered and can't participate in the beta. If they can't participate in the beta, they will surely have a hard time to patch the game. So it is better to delay the release to ensure that bugs are correctly catched

- those who are waiting the release date to buy it. I guess that people in this group will buy the game if they feel enough confident about the bug status of the game. So it is better to delay the release to ensure that bugs are correctly catched

It is nice to see so much reasonable people here. I was surprised by the results of polls. I still remember the problems with Heroes IV. It was the excellent game at the end, but a lot of people stopped playing it after huge amount of bugs, that were in the game after release. I voted for latest release. I don't really care if the game goes gold in December or March, but I want the game to be good.