Frogboy Frogboy

Beta 4B available

▼

Beta 4B available

from Stardock Forums
Beta 4B is now available for download via the Drengin Network Component Manager.

4B focuses on these things:

1) Stability.
2) Performance
3) Polish.

In stability, we have, we think, fixed most of the reported crash and hang problems that were reported. The details screen crash though is still there.

In terms of performance, it's even more threaded now. Late in the game where there would be 9 second waits between turns, that time has been dropped to less than 1 second by making the parts that were taking several seconds calculate during the player turn (you'll still wait 9 seconds if you wail on the turn button of course but late in the game we assume you're moving ships and such).

As a result, galaxy sizes have been increased again to now have NEARLY 600 sectors in the gigantic sized galaxy (nearly twice as big as the already substantially increased gigantic size in 4A).

In terms of polish, we have begun translating the game from illiterate engineer to English. Thanks for all the reports. Hopefully you'll find fewer typos.

We have also continued to work on the diplomacy screen. We hope to have "Make Peace With..." in beta 4C.

There are several new United Planets issues and the AI is significantly more intelligent.

A lot of work has gone into tweaking game play to make the game more fun. In fact, there were TWO updates tonight (a final tweak to gameplay was done).

There will be ONE more public beta (4C) which we expect out one week from today. Then it's gamma and at that point the beta will be closed to the general public.

What we want to know:
1) Is it crashing on you at all? I.e. is it stable? If not, please report the crash to us by providing your OS, your hardware info (CPU/mem), the debug.err file and the SmartException log (SE can be found at www.stardock.com/temp/smartexception_galciv.exe).

2) Is it performing well for you? Does the game seem responsive. Obviously if you're playing on a gigantic galaxy on a p3-600mhz system with 128MB it's not going to be very fast. But we do want to make sure that the game is responsive.

3) How about polish? Are there any items in the game that you find particularly glaring? We're not talking features that you would like but rather game play flaws or buglets that really detract from the overall fun of the game?

Let us know. Thanks! Have fun!
1,527 views 55 replies
Reply #51 from Stardock Forums Top
I had the same focus problem. After a few seconds the "done" button became partially visible and I clicked it. The game then returned to normal.
Bob
Reply #52 from Stardock Forums Top
'Magus, that's it. I had 10 routes. (THat opens up the question of why there even *are* techs that will push a player past 10 routes, of course)'

Techs can't do so alone. With all trade techs researched, a good race will have six routes, and an evil race five. I'm not sure how many neutrals can get, but I'd have to guess four, since both good and evil races get routes through alignment techs, and there doesn't seem to be any neutral-aligned techs (or even any way of making them).

UP Issues can add two more routes, and that issue will keep appearing until the player has ten routes. This does open up the possibility, if you research quickly enough, of limiting the AI to eight or nine routes, depending on their alignment, while you have ten available.
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #53 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm not sure what you mean by a "Done" button showing up. Both the events that caused my focus problem have a "choice" you must make before they activate any other buttons. I could never select any of the "choices" on the event screen in the background. I even tried clicking many times all over the general area where the choices must be to activate the button to get out of the event. Nada..
Reply #55 from Stardock Forums Top
r2v-blade,

According to the last we have heard from Stardock the last beta build is scheduled to be available this Friday (Jan 10).

On the left side of this forum you will see a group of five buttons, the center one is labeled "purchase". Press that button and it will lead you through the purchase process. After you have purchased a subscription to the game, or a subscription to the drengin.net, you will receive a confirmation by e-mail that includes instructions for downloading and installing the Drengin Game Manager (DGM) and for registering your subscription number via the DGM. Then, with the DGM up, select "options" from the DGM menu bar and click on "show betas". Once this is done, clicking on the "Games" button on the left side of the DGM screen will show you the games to which you have access. Click on GalCiv and the data for the game will show in the main portion of the DGM screen, along a button to install the game.

Enjoy.