Beta 3 nears..

from GalCiv2 Forums

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords beta 3 is nearly ready to go out to beta testers.  We are tentatively planning on releasing it a week from this Tuesday (Aug 30).  Shortly after that time, users who have pre-ordered GalCiv II but have not previously had access to betas will be enabled to download the beta.  But after September 1, new pre-orders will return to having to wait until beta 4 (late October).

The GalCiv.com site will begin moving towards its final state as well as work on the Metaverse begins taking shape and the site interaction will be much greater than it was in the first GalCiv.  We will be hand selecting a few active beta testers to take a sneak peek at beta 3A which will be out in September.

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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Great news, I have been playing the game without problems, except couple bugs, like after so many years of playing the game just crashes. That is after 3 or more hours of playing. Also if you decide to restart a game (go back to main screen and create a new game, the game also crashes. And the last bug is if I choose to create my own race (the almost invisible guy on the screen) the game also chrashes, those are the only bugs I have found in the last release, everything else works perfect. Pitty we can't build starbases yet...
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well needless to say, much has changed since the June beta.   For beta 3 will have all new crashes!
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I love new crashes!!!!
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
do you think any textures will be in beta 3?
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
We will be hand selecting a few active beta testers to take a sneak peek at beta 3A which will be out in September.


I'm wondering what exactly that is.

do you think any textures will be in beta 3?


Think I saw somthing awhile back which said that we won't get ship model textures until the very end to give us something to look forward to when the game ships.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Concerning Textures, we're working on getting 3 out of the final 5 styles of ship completed and into Beta 3, textures and all. 

We also got some cool specular lighting into the rendering system, so ships in general look 100x better IMO.

Can't wait to see what you guys have to say about the improvements! 

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Boogie... care to toss us a teaser screenshot? Something to whet our appetites?
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Concerning Textures, we're working on getting 3 out of the final 5 styles of ship completed and into Beta 3, textures and all.
We also got some cool specular lighting into the rendering system, so ships in general look 100x better IMO.
Can't wait to see what you guys have to say about the improvements!


ooooo......ahhhhhh........damn it tuesday cant come fast enough!
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hm... loved GalCiv I and Antares , just ordered GalCiv II to see the Beta

The changes as it was described are all positive ones, hope new UI will not ruine everything (that I will see very very soon )
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wohoo! I'm really looking forward to this. As far as i've understood GalCiv2 is going to be one of the very few games that truly support widescreen without any stretching and stuff. Much appreciated . I'm sure beta 3 will blow me away on my new shiny 23" LCD 30. August is too far away.....
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Here's a little teaser of one of the ships. I designed this so your tastes may vary from mine.

Reply #13 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think my knees just gave out. The rendering looks better than I was allowing myself to hope for!

I'm liking the underslung weapons inside the rings. I take it that's one of the new human hulls, it looks the business.
Reply #14 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

This is the design I've been using for my small fighters reciently.  It's just the ring structure with a wing structure atached to the inside, placed around a tiny hull in an 'X' formation, but I think it's pretty cool.

A few more days and you guys will be able to show off your creations too

Reply #15 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It's really quite staggering how different these textured ships look to the untextured models in Beta2. I'm grinning like an idiot at the possibilities.
Reply #17 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Oh, Oh my heart is about to crashLink

This is my version of the ship with the ring
Reply #18 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
And this is another attempt to other of the beatiful ships created here for GalcivIII Link
Reply #19 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Those look great!
Reply #20 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Great screenshots! I have to admit I have not played GC2 that much yet, I tried to help find a few bugs but others had beat me to it. I look forward to this update where I will be able to find a few bugs as the game finally becomes more complex.
Reply #21 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Also we are now into balancing stages. We can give useful feedback on actual gameplay now.
Reply #24 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You can't download the beta yet.  Beta 3 is expected to be released on Tuesday.  Later in the week, it will be made available to those who have pre-ordered.

Regarding the cool textures, we'll probaby have them turned off for this beta to narrow down potential compatibility issues.  Once we're sure that the game's pretty compatible with just the specular lighting (which beta 1 didn't have) then we can turn on the textures.  The ships look pretty cool even without textures btw. Specular lighting goes a long way.

Reply #25 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Wow those textures add a whole new dimension to the game. Looks really great.

Looking forward to Beta3, even without those textures. Lots of new possibilities to test out.